As The Asia Foundation recently marked its 20th anniversary in Mongolia, Country Representative Meloney Lindberg sat down with Oyun Sanjasuren, Minister of Environment and Green Development and former Asia Foundation grantee, to discuss the country’s rapid development and efforts to promote responsible mining to protect its natural resources and environment. Last month, Minister Oyun was elected the first president of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA).
Mongolia is one of the world’s fastest growing economies, rich in natural resources. As minister of the environment, what do you see as the challenges and opportunities in managing these great resources?
For hundreds if not thousands of years, Mongolians, who lived as nomadic herders, lived in harmony with nature, and because they were directly dependent on this nature to survive they learned how to protect it, and traditionally to worship nature as well. We have a lot of good traditions that can be used for environmentally friendly development, but the last decades have produced a lot of pollution and environmental degradation. We’re lucky because we are a small population, just under three million, with a large area per capita – the least dense country in the world. We’re lucky there are still large areas that are relatively pristine, but many are subject to the negative impacts of climate change. Pollution and environmental degradation are mostly seen in the cities, especially in the capital. Half of Ulaanbaatar citizens live in ger districts, where there is no running water and no sewage. Meanwhile, outside Ulaanbaatar there are a large number of small-scale mining sites left degraded, and that’s a legacy of those last 20 years. Since 1990, when we transitioned to democracy and a market economy, there have been many challenges. The first priority was to create jobs and incomes, and the environment was overlooked. In the past six or seven years, when the economy has been growing almost continuously, the government decided that we had to turn our economic growth into something more sustainable and environmentally friendly. On the public side, we’ve seen huge support for more environmentally friendly development, because the nomadic herders are pretty much dependent on nature and when they see a lot of land degraded by mining operations there is less and less support for local mining.
We also have to realize that mining is one of our main engines of economic growth and development, whether we like it or not, so rather than trying to avoid mining we have to make mining more responsible. 15 years ago, when commodity prices were low and we were desperate to create jobs, we couldn’t afford this, but now we can afford to demand higher standards. And if your projects aren’t environmentally friendly, we can actually refuse them. Legislation was introduced a few years ago that will gradually ban mining in watershed and forest areas, and areas protected by national parks have been gradually increased. We pledged in the early 1990s that 30 percent of our territory would be turned into protected areas, and now about 17 percent is protected. On the one hand, this is good news; on the other, we have to work on better management of those protected areas.
What are the government’s plans to promote responsible mining and rehabilitation?
Rehabilitation of mining areas is still a major issue, and until 2008 Mongolia didn’t have very good rehabilitation standards. In 2008, new rehabilitation standards were introduced, and now we’re working very hard on introducing new mine-closure and discharge standards. We now have a map of most of the degraded areas that are in need of rehabilitation, which totals about 600 sites. We also introduced an environmental audit that mining companies must go through, and private environmental auditing companies will be helping those mining companies to implement and monitor their environmental action plans. The Environmental Impact Assessment Report is usually submitted to the Ministry, but with just a few staff looking after 3,000 exploration and 1,000 mining licenses, oversight has been poor. So this middle structure of private environmental audit companies will help both mining companies and the government to implement the plan.
You were part of the original group invited to participate in The Asia Foundation’s conference, America’s Role in Asia. What are your recollections as an early Asia Foundation grantee?
In 1999, I was invited along with Mr. Tsagaan to participate in a workshop in Japan on America’s Role in Asia. I had just entered politics, so I found it very interesting and enticing. Mongolia was such an isolated country until 1990, and when the world opened to us there was so much for Mongolians to learn. I also remember an early conference organized by The Asia Foundation in 2002 about economic development and solutions for growth, which featured many excellent speakers. Just preparing and researching for that workshop enlightened me about Mongolia’s development path. I also remember fondly a visit to the Foundation’s San Francisco headquarters in 2003 as an Eisenhower Fellow.
The Asia Foundation is launching a new initiative to identify young Mongolian leaders. What aspects should we consider when moving forward with this new program?
Preparing the new generation of leaders is very important. I benefited from the Eisenhower Fellowship and the Global Leaders of Tomorrow program, which give such a great opportunity to learn new ways of thinking. Our Zorig Foundation has been running a leadership program for about ten years, and we also started a young environmental leadership program that is now in its third year. Later this year we are going to be doing a program for rural youth in 21 aimags. Young people very much appreciate and benefit from these kinds of programs.
As a long-standing Member of Parliament, you’ve been at the forefront of the fight against corruption. What progress has been made?
Good governance and fighting corruption were not priorities when I entered Parliament in 1998. A draft anti-corruption bill was submitted at the end of 1999, and I was one of the co-signers, but because there was no political will it sat in the Parliament until 2004. After a new coalition government was created, anti-corruption legislation was passed in 2006 and an agency was established in 2007. The provision of the Law on Anti-corruption relating to income declarations by high-level officials came into effect in 2007, the right to information law was passed a few years ago, and conflict of interest legislation was passed last year. Legally we have progressed quite a bit since around 2005-2006, which is good news, but fighting corruption is very difficult, and success doesn’t come overnight.
Publisher U Thant Thaw Kaung, head of the Myanmar Book Aid and Preservation Foundation and the mobile library project under the Daw Khin Kyi Foundation, recently visited The Asia Foundation’s headquarters in San Francisco as part of a three-week study tour as the Foundation’s Chang-lin Tien Visiting Fellow. In Asia editor Alma Freeman sat down with Dr. Thant to discuss Myanmar’s vibrant reading culture, the government’s decision to abolish the censorship board, and how he helped keep books and literary life alive in Myanmar during decades of isolation.
At 95 percent, Myanmar’s literacy rate is among the highest in the region, but access to quality books and reading remains a challenge. Why?
The literacy rate is high as a result of a few big campaigns that the government started in 1975 where volunteers and college students went to rural areas across the country promoting the value of reading and books. The government received an award for this campaign from UNESCO, and it has continued until recently. People are able to read in Myanmar. But accessibility to quality books and affordability are our two biggest challenges now. When we began the mobile library we found out that people were eager to borrow a lot of books – they want to read. That’s why the mobile library project under Daw Khin Kyi Foundation, named after the late mother of noble laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, is successful: it goes to people’s homes; they don’t have to go to the library. So far, the library has had 90,000 checkouts and we have 8,000 members. If we can improve accessibility and affordability, our people will read more.
Where does the enthusiasm for reading and education come from?
In the villages and at every corner of the road you will find at least one book-lending shop. People really appreciate the value of education in Myanmar. In fact, in the1930s and ‘40s, students from Southeast Asian countries wanted to attend Yangon University as a first choice, and still today they are proud to say they are alumni from there. The monasteries have also played an enormous role in teaching rural children how to read from a very early age. As such, Myanmar’s education system was historically very strong, but from 1962-1988 and from 1988 to 2010, after the military coup, the country was ruled under a socialistic and military system until the recent political shift. These governments did not give attention to the quality of education.
Moreover, teaching methods have followed a rote learning and memorization style of teaching and learning, rather than on approaches that encouraged critical thinking. The government is trying to introduce a more “student-centric” approach, but that will take some time to change.
This year, The Asia Foundation conducted the first-ever national survey of Myanmar’s public libraries, highlighting strengths and gaps in country’s infrastructure. What stood out for you from the survey findings?
Myanmar has enormous potential in terms of its libraries. There are close to 5,000 active libraries, many of which are in rural areas. They are very much alive and active, and they want to expand their potential. Almost 97 percent of respondents in the survey said that they understand the value and impact of having a library. The most challenging findings are lack of newly published books on a variety of subjects. Moreover, the average budget to purchase books is just $2 per library per month, which is far too low.
Myanmar’s budget for education remains extremely low. What challenges does this present?
This shows that the government is emphasizing defense over health, which accounts for 3 percent, and education, which accounts for just 5.4 percent of the budget (compared to Vietnam which allocates almost 21 percent to education). Myanmar defense’s budget is almost 23 percent of the total budget. There is a big discussion in Parliament about this now, and in January, the government announced that the budget for health and education would increase slightly. By the time the teachers’ salary is paid, which is also very low at only about $100 a month, the education budget is used up. Under the military, the government spent most of the budget on the construction business. In Myanmar, we have 164 universities, but most of the buildings are empty. Many universities were opened across the country to avoid centralization of students in major cities like Yangon and Mandalay, as they were the starting points for riots. While infrastructure development is important, we don’t just need new structures; we need investment in human resource development and the professional capacity of our teachers.
Myanmar is also poor: 26 percent of the population is still living under $1.25 a day. And there’s a severe lack of electricity. Because of poverty, school dropout rate is high: there are 8 million students studying right now from K-12. But there are only 400,000 students in university which means there is an 85 percent dropout rate from kindergarten to high school and only 5 percent reach university-level.
While in New York, you received the prestigious Jeri Laber International Freedom to Publish Award for your leading role in keeping books and literary life alive in Myanmar. Can you talk about how the environment has changed since you began?
In those days, the censorship board could confiscate books at any time if they felt that they were sensitive. According to the law, every single book had to get the approval from the censorship board. The board could require that a word, paragraph, or even a whole page be torn off if they declared it to be too sensitive. For example, even a tiny photograph of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was not allowed. Sometimes, they asked us to use white ink to blot it off. Our books were carefully checked and sometimes we had to withdraw them from the shelves. Many times we even thought of closing down our business.
We had doubts initially in 2010 whether the government would loosen censorship over publications and the media. But they did it step by step, initially lifting the censorship of weekly journals, on health, sports, and education. Two months later, they introduced more categories, including news journals. The government’s recent decision to abolish the censorship board had an enormous impact on the entire publishing industry and we all welcome this. We have donated over 800,000 books to over 800 libraries.
70 percent of Myanmar’s population lives in rural areas, and as you say, paved roads and other basic infrastructure services are still largely missing in these areas, including electricity for libraries, making it difficult for rural communities to benefit from the rapid development experienced by the country’s urban centers.
We are starting to see these big gaps. Most of the 70 percent of rural residents are farmers. Most of the working age groups now work overseas – 2 million are working in Malaysia or Thailand – where they are more highly paid. There is a shortage of manpower even for farming. In order to narrow this gap, we need to create jobs for them so they work at home and don’t migrate. If they aren’t able to get a good education and access healthcare in their own village, they will go. That’s why we are involved in rural libraries because they can play a major role in access to information in rural areas. At present, we are constructing rural libraries and equipping them with books and computers. Moreover, we are offering training opportunities for modern librarianship to public librarians.
While English-language books are sought after in the urban centers, there is a great need for local-language books in rural libraries. To meet this need, we have arranged with our donor to be able to sell 30 percent of our donated English language books so we can buy local books. We hold what we call book buffets twice a year in urban centers where people can buy books at low rate.
While only 2 percent of Myanmar’s population has access to the Internet, mobile penetration is sharply rising. How do you see technology playing a role in improving access to education?
Mobile penetration is now at 10 percent, and could be nearly 50 percent in just one year. The younger generation is leapfrogging straight to smart phones, which are becoming very popular in urban centers. Before 2010, a SIM card cost nearly $5,000; now it’s about a $1.50. At present, we are negotiating with local and international partners such as Beyond Access and Ooredoo to provide internet and computers at public libraries in rural areas. People are can now access a far broader range of topics, such as health, education, and the economy.
The Margaret F. Williams Memorial fellowship in Asian Art, along with Brayton Wilbur, Jr. Memorial Fellowships in Asian Art, supported the participation of eight museum directors from Asia and the U.S. in the second biennial forum. Organized by the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, the discussions focused on ways of making museums more relevant to the dynamic world of today, including approaches to combining traditional and contemporary art in meaningful ways. The long-range goal of the forum is to encourage collaboration among museums to foster greater global awareness of Asian art and culture, its rich diversity and modes of presentation.
Established by the late Asia Foundation President Emeritus Ambassador Haydn Williams, the Margaret F. Williams Memorial Fellows in Asian Art Program honors his late wife, whose interest in Asian art was stimulated by their travels together on Asia Foundation visits to the region. Mrs. Williams was also a founding docent at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, the cooperating partner in implementing the fellowship program.