In last week’s In Asia, I examined how the rise of Asia in recent decades has been accompanied by a growth in deadly subnational conflicts (SNCs). These conflicts are occurring across the continent, including in middle-income and otherwise stable states. Democratization has not been a cure. Asia’s subnational conflicts last twice as long as those elsewhere in the world.
The failure to bring an end to Asia’s SNCs is not for want of trying on the part of international aid agencies. Between 2001 and 2010, the international community pumped $5.8 billion into Asia’s subnational conflict areas. (This figures excludes the billions more that arrived in Aceh and Sri Lanka following the Indian Ocean tsunami.) Since 2007, aid to subnational conflict areas has been around $400 million per year.
What impacts has such aid had on prospects for peace? There have of course been successes. International assistance to Aceh, Indonesia, did not alone end the three-decade civil war, or prevent serious post-conflict violence, but it did play a supporting role. Mindanao’s peace process is at an advanced stage and international efforts have helped support this.
Yet in Thailand’s Deep South, violence has risen in intensity in recent months and continues in several of India’s regions and Pakistan. Large-scale subnational conflict in Nepal and Sri Lanka has ended, yet the risk of resumption is real. Aid to Myanmar’s contested states may support nascent peace processes, but there is also the potential for it to do harm.
So why has aid not been more effective in helping to end Asia’s subnational conflicts?
At least three factors have limited the effectiveness of international development agencies in helping to resolve SNCs in Asia (Figure 1).
The government doesn’t want help. Many Asian governments have been reluctant to seriously address their subnational conflicts. Each SNC tends to affect a relatively small amount of territory. Thailand’s Deep South is home to only 3 percent of the national population. Less than 2 percent of Indonesians live in Aceh. SNC areas are usually relatively isolated peripheries. In nations’ capitals, the killing is often too distant to arouse widespread indignation. Governments often find it easier to ignore or contain SNCs than to deal with the complex underlying problems.
Powerful elites within countries, such as those from the armed forces, often favor a continuation of unrest because it can be in their own – or that of their organization’s – interests. Only where there is forceful pressure from outsiders for alternative approaches does change tend to happen. Yet Asia’s middle-income countries, where governments are not dependent on donors for funding, are less susceptible to any such pressure than are weak states.
Other things matter more. Subnational conflicts are usually marginal issues for bilateral relations. Donors may be committed to reducing subnational conflict but these aims usually have to compete with other concerns. In middle-income countries, many donors will be more concerned about ensuring that trade relations or anti-terrorism cooperation remain strong. Strong middle-income governments are often sensitive to foreign involvement in highly sensitive domestic fields. Trying to address SNCs can expend donors’ political capital with government, with potential negative consequences for the rest of their country programs.
The wrong theories and tools. Simplistic theories of change are often applied to donor programming in SNC areas whereby poverty reduction is deemed to be the key to ending conflicts. Nearly 88 percent of aid funds to SNC areas focus on traditional development sectors such as infrastructure, economic development, and service delivery. While development outcomes such as reducing poverty, improving health, and education are certainly important, they are not adequate to end conflicts. Where aid agencies do focus specifically on peacebuilding, the tools they use, and the lenses they employ, are often not fit for purpose. There is generally an over-reliance on generic toolkits and conflict guidance rather than deep local knowledge and many of the assumptions that underlie these approaches have not been fully tested. Many such toolkits were developed based on experiences dealing with national-level civil wars in the fragile states of Sub-Saharan Africa, very different contexts to most of Asia’s SNC areas.
Three ways for aid to play a more supportive role
If aid actors want to be more effective in helping nudge areas entrenched in subnational conflicts toward peace and preventing violence from reoccurring, there is a need for new approaches.
Three things will be key:
Deepening our understanding. Conflict areas are complex. Working out where there are opportunities to have transformational impacts requires in-depth knowledge of who the actors are, what their interest are, and identification of openings when they arise. There are practical implications. Agencies need to be in for the long haul and retain staff to allow them to build up cultural understandings and relationships. Investing in on-going knowledge generation, and processes by which information and ideas shape practice, is vital.
Working politically. Subnational conflicts are ultimately political problems; overcoming them requires political solutions. Changing the approaches of governments to their subnational conflict areas also requires political will and this cannot be externally imposed. If donors and aid agencies are to be effective, they need to think and work politically). This requires investing in relations, and building networks and coalitions with key actors and brokers, in both national capitals and SNC areas.
Developing new approaches. Above all, new ideas and spaces to develop them are needed to develop them. Building up skills in Asian universities and think tanks, and developing regional networks of practitioners and thinkers, could be useful. Donors should think about supporting the establishment of an Asian conflict and peacebuilding institute. The institute could bring together development agencies, civil society, and governments to think through what is distinctive about Asia’s SNCs, what new tools are needed for dealing with conflicts in middle-income and growing states, and to document cases of success and failure. There is a real opportunity for Asia’s economic rise to be accompanied by leadership to find new ways to deal with the region’s subnational conflicts.
Patrick Barron is The Asia Foundation’s Regional Director for Conflict and Development based in Thailand. He can be reached at [email protected]. This piece draws on The Asia Foundation’s “Contested Corners of Asia” study. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and not those of The Asia Foundation.
As The Asia Foundation recently marked its 20th anniversary in Mongolia, Country Representative Meloney Lindberg sat down with Naranjargal Khashkhuu, president and CEO of the Globe International Center and longtime Asia Foundation grantee, to discuss the country’s current media landscape, the media’s role in elections and shaping public opinion, and Mongolia’s right to information law.
Globe International has been at the forefront of the movement toward greater freedom of the press. What is the state of media freedom in Mongolia today?
The Mongolian media has made great strides, partly because in the early and middle 1990s, international donors, including The Asia Foundation, were very active here promoting ideas like public service journalism and freedom of the press. It was a great time for building a free press in Mongolia. But toward the end of the 1990s, politicians started questioning the benefit of a free press. They realized that the media is a very important and powerful tool to reach out to the public, and they started to bribe them and later started their own television channels and newspapers. Now ordinary people can’t really distinguish between paid content and real, professional journalism, and therefore they do not really know what the truth is.
We worked together closely during the last parliamentary elections to ensure that women’s voices were abundant in the election process. What role does the media play in shaping public opinion in Mongolia?
The role of the media in elections is crucial because the media informs and educates the voters, both through journalism and political advertising. So, the media has a dual role. But one of these roles, educating the voter, has become a very low priority for the media. Instead, most media outlets see elections as an opportunity to generate income from campaign advertising, and because Mongolian election law does not really distinguish between professional election coverage and paid advertising, changing this situation will also require improving the legal framework. Of course, media outlets have to generate income, but they must generate it in a more professional way. Mongolia’s government allocates billions of tugriks of public funds to the media, and it’s not transparent how this money is being spent. We recently requested information from the ministries on how the so-called “information and advertising” budget is spent, and we discovered the majority goes to the media. The good news is that now we can get this type of budget allocation information through the Law on the Right to Information, whereas before, it was impossible. But we have to keep pushing.
You were at the forefront of the campaign for Mongolia’s Law on Information Transparency and Right to Information, adopted in June 2011. Can you talk a bit about that campaign?
We spent 10 years trying to get this law passed, starting with an awareness program in 2001. The public and Members of Parliament were not clear on the distinction between freedom of information and media freedom. During the first roundtable at the Government House, where we invited the U.S. Ambassador to talk about freedom of information with 17 members of Parliament, every discussion turned into one about journalism and ethics rather than the concept of freedom of information. We had to change our tactics; we could not give up, because we had many newly elected MPs and we had to start educating them. Finally, in 2011, the Law on Information Transparency and Right to Information was passed. But the government is not promoting the law, and even public officials are unaware of it. We felt we couldn’t wait another 10 years to get the law implemented, so we sent a development proposal to the UN Democracy Fund, which was approved. Now we are working to raise awareness of the Law in 20 soums and eight aimags.
As one of the early grantees of The Asia Foundation, what are some of your recollections of working with us?
My personal relationship with The Asia Foundation started when I was working at Mongolian TV and served as the vice president of the Mongolian Free Democratic Journalists Association, which was a member of the International Organization of Journalists. At Globe International, our very first project together was called Stairwell Democracies, which worked with apartment owners’ associations from 2003 to 2004 to inform citizens of their rights and to educate them on existing laws and rules of construction, which was booming at that time.
Globe International has been an important partner in our new transparency initiative, the Strengthening Transparency and Governance in Mongolia (STAGE) program. What role does Globe International play in that initiative?
Traditionally, we run media campaigns to raise awareness about initiatives, but for this project we wanted to create more innovative ways to raise public awareness, particularly among the youth. We produced lively audio and videos, and targeted the online media, which is more appropriate for the young audience. Globe International will continue its work raising public awareness, particularly through the arts because that is a great tool to change people’s thinking.
As someone on the forefront of fighting corruption in Mongolia, how do you assess the state of corruption in Mongolia today?
People think that corruption is a new phenomenon in Mongolia, but it is actually rooted in Manchurian rule. Sometimes it seems like it’s too late to do anything about corruption and that nobody is fighting. Personally, I think change starts with the family, with the children. Sometimes, though, especially with conflict of interest issues, it is difficult to change the old ways of doing things, especially in Mongolia’s small, close-knit communities. But people say that if you say something 100 times it becomes true; that’s why we have to keep teaching, and after some time, their minds will change. If we don’t continue this fight, we will lose our values.
What have been The Asia Foundation’s main contributions to improving lives and expanding opportunities in Mongolia, and how do you see the Foundation’s role over the next 20 years?
The Asia Foundation was one of the first NGOs to come to Mongolia, and it focused from the beginning on empowering leaders. The Foundation supported many study trips for these leaders, and there are few people among our civil society leaders who haven’t received some assistance from The Asia Foundation. The Foundation played a big role in bringing new ideas to Mongolia and supporting the transition to democracy and human rights, which it continues to do today. I think the Foundation will continue to make a difference because it fulfills a need of Mongolian society.
In March this year, a major milestone passed in the 40-year effort to end hostilities in the Philippines between the national government and Muslim separatist fronts. The government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) signed a Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), 17 months after signing a Framework Agreement. Currently a bill is being drafted to go to the Philippine Congress, which upon passage would be subjected to a plebiscite in areas proposed to be part of a new entity, the Bangsamoro, to replace the current Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
In March this year, a major milestone passed in the 40-year effort to end hostilities in the Philippines between the national government and Muslim separatist fronts. Photo/Karl Grobl
As the drafting is ongoing, controversies have swirled about how the new Bangsamoro would treat non-Islamized indigenous communities – advocates for such communities assert that their core interests are not being accommodated, even though two of the 15 members of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission producing the first draft are indigenes themselves. Central is the issue of ancestral domain (singular) versus ancestral domains (plural).
Negotiations with the MILF that culminated in the CAB were to solve “the Bangsamoro problem.” From 2001, such a solution was taken to have several strands, including that of “Ancestral Domain.” Most well known was the abortive “Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain” that was initialed in 2008 but declared unconstitutional by the Philippine Supreme Court before it could be signed. Given this unhappy result (which was accompanied by an upsurge of violence displacing 750,000 persons), since then ancestral domain has been treated as one element of a more comprehensive approach, culiminating in the exclusive power of the Bangsamoro, according to the Annex on Power-Sharing signed in December 2013 over ancestral domain and natural resources.
At the same time, legal efforts to afford indigenous communities (some 17% of the Philippine population) legal instruments bolstering their security of tenure in ancestral lands (pertaining to individuals) and ancestral domain (for communities) have been gaining ground since the early 1990s. Under the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA) of 1997, Certificates of Ancestral Domain Titles can be issued to indigenous communities, giving them power to manage the natural resources according to their customs and traditions. However, even though there are non-Muslim indigenous people located in the ARMM, IPRA was never operationalized in the region due to its autonomous status. When finally in 2013 a reform-minded ARMM administration wanted to cooperate with the IPRA-mandated National Commission on Indigenous Peoples to finally recognize an ancestral domain claim by Tidurays, the MILF objected in negotiations that this amounted to creating new facts on the ground in the middle of negotiations. Thus, the effort was stillborn.
This is not to say that the concerns of non-Muslims have been absent from the negotiations. Genealogies and tradition tell, after all, of two brothers – one who adopted Islam and one who did not – and both groups have stressed this shared ancestry. There have often been indigenous people on negotiating panels for both sides, and provisions in agreements mention their concerns. The upshot is that the next provision after the exclusive power over ancestral domain and natural resources is (quoted in full):
Protection of the rights of the indigenous peoples in the Bangsamoro in accordance with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and taking into account, in addition to economic and geographical criteria, their individual and communal property rights, cultural integrity, customary beliefs, and historical and community traditions.
Indigenous people’s organizations and their allies, though, point out that what is missing from this is a recognition of their ancestral domains (plural). Immediately, lobbying sprang up both in the media and in Congress, and has found an echo among some members of the legislature. They may have the Bangsamoro Basic Law, currently being drafted for submission to Congress, reword the relevant provisions from the Comprehensive Agreement (perhaps by insisting that IPRA apply to the Bangsamoro). While the drafts of the Basic Law being discussed are still confidential, the MILF has disclosed that one of the points of disagreement is the pluralizing in a government version: substituting “domains” for “domain.”
The MILF has been firm on this matter, regarding those who press the case for recognition of plural ancestral domains as “spoilers” who are diluting the meaning of the Bangsamoro people and the Moro’s ancestral domain. However, many of those advocating this are, in fact, quite sympathetic to the peace process and have been operating for years under a “tri-people” framework trying to promote peace and development in Mindanao by bringing together Muslims, Lumads, and “settlers” (Christians whose family origins are from outside Mindanao).
Thus far the issue has generated more heat than light, and as activity moves from closed-door drafting of agreements and proposed bills to the more public halls of Congress, it behooves both sides to be more precise. For instance, indigenous peoples and their advocates should state precisely what is missing from the provision quoted above that would be included if IPRA was incorporated into the Bangsamoro Basic Law. And how their claim of separate “sub” ancestral domains would not weaken the case for a Bangsamoro identity (recognized in the CAB) and its ancestral domain.
The MILF, for its part, needs to provide reassurances about how fully this provision on the “rights of the indigenous peoples” will be implemented. A concrete example might be an open discussion of how territories of MILF camps and indigenous people’s ancestral domain might overlap, and how IPs “individual and communal property rights” will be respected in such places.
As Patrick Barron will point out on August 13 in part two of his In Asia blog post about subnational conflicts, when talking about why they are often neglected in bilateral relations between countries “Other things matter more. Subnational conflicts are usually marginal issues for bilateral relations.” An unfortunate parallel might be drawn when talking of negotiations between the national government and the Moro minority: some might think that other things matter more than the minority within the minority. That would not be in the spirit of equal rights for all.
Steven Rood is The Asia Foundation’s country representative in the Philippines. From 2009-2013 he observed negotiations between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front as the Foundation’s representative on the International Contact Group. Since 2013 he has been a member of the Third Party Monitoring Team, overseeing the implementation of agreements. He tweets as @StevenRoodPH, and can be reached at [email protected]. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and not those of The Asia Foundation.
On the third day of Eid-ul Fitar last week, two Hindu trader brothers from district Umerkot in Sindh Province were murdered in front of their home. An Ahmadi doctor was murdered in Chiniot in May 2014 while a Hazara Shia community in Quetta was attacked and two brothers were murdered by Lashakr-e-Jhangvi on Eid-ul Fitar in July 2014. The killing of Rashid Rehman, a prominent human rights lawyer in the Punjabi city of Multan on May 8, 2014, who was defending a professor accused of blasphemy, has grave implications for the overall human rights situation in Pakistan.
According to the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies, there were approximately 1,200 sectarian killings in 2013 and more than 80 Christians were killed in a double suicide bombing at a church in Peshawar. These string of attacks on religious minorities as well as a rise in kidnappings have escalated a sense of insecurity in these communities.
Home to 187 million people, Pakistan is divided among many different tribal, linguistic, and sectarian groups. According to the 1998 census, 96.14 percent of the population is Muslim and 3.86 percent are non-Muslim, out of which 1.58 percent are Christian, 1.6 percent Hindu, 0.22 percent Ahmadiyya, 0.2 percent are scheduled castes (a term used to denote lower class status), and 0.07 percent belong to other religions.
In 1940, the historical Pakistan Resolution declared religious nationalism as the unifying force for the foundation of an independent state, setting the groundwork for religious intolerance. The sectarian proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran to promote their respective strategic dominance has had a huge influence on the escalation and de-escalation of religious conflicts in Sunni-majority Pakistan. The religious pragmatism and puritanism in faith effectively backed by Saudi Arabia to promote the radical Wahhabi movement in South Asia played a role in rising religious tensions in Pakistan. The 1979 revolution led by Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran ignited hope for the Shia community to maneuver effectively for greater strategic dominance in the region. The 1981 siege of the parliament house in Islamabad by the Shiite community was a small sign of influence by virtue of their close links with Iran. Soon after the attack, the state attempted to support the formation of Sipah-e-Sahaba, a pro-Sunni organization, in an attempt to weaken the influence of the minority Shia community. Dr. Hassan Askari, a well-known political analyst, rightly pointed out that: “In Pakistan, the state joined societal groups i.e., the Sunni community to promote Islamic orthodoxy and militancy in the 1980s … this caused fragmentation of the society.” This sharpened not only the division between Muslims and non-Muslims but also increased religious-sectarian consciousness that still manifests itself in the violent conflicts we see today.
The 1973 constitution of Pakistan does not allow non-Muslims to hold the highest positions of president, prime minister, or chief justice. Recently there was an increase in the overall seats of the National Assembly to adjust for population increase, but the seats for the non-Muslims remained the same. The mechanism for the allocation of tickets to non-Muslims by the political parties focuses only on the powerful within the “powerless” groups. Thus, the interests and issues of the religious minority groups are not well represented or negotiated within the corridors of power. Socio-economic structural divisions and realities make it impossible for the privileged group within different religious communities to empathize with the majority of the poor population who share their faith. The non-Muslim minority representatives in the national and provincial assemblies are not directly elected by their communities, and as such, may be cut off from the realities on the ground of the religious communities they are supposed to represent. Most religious minority communities neither relate to these representatives, nor trust them to further their agenda.
However, it is important to mention that there are some positive developments in advancing religious rights that are evolving across Pakistani society. Space is opening up gradually in the parliament and society at large to discuss and debate issues that were previously perceived as too controversial. Various public and private institutions are taking up some of the major issues that have caused religious conflicts within communities, including misuse of loud speakers to influence masses of people against certain communities, and availability of hate literature and speech through print and electronic media. The recent virtual anti-terrorism campaign “Awaz Uthe Gi,” (“the voice will rise up”) condemns discrimination and violence based on religious and sectarian grounds. The Supreme Court’s June 19, 2014, judgment is also a positive development calling for the establishment of a National Council for the Rights of Minorities and the setting up of a special task force to protect the places of worship of religious minorities. The judgment also instructs the government to put in place immediate measures for registering criminal cases against desecrators of places of worship and to prepare appropriate and religiously unbiased curricula for use in schools and colleges across the country.
The recent bill passed by the Sindh Assembly to prevent the forced conversion of girls below the age of 18 is also an encouraging step. The decentralization policies, introduced by the 18th Amendment to the 1973 Pakistan Constitution (passed in April 2010), has brought about one of the most significant political shifts in “responsibilities” in Pakistan’s history – thus providing a unique opportunity to redress human rights violations including the rights of minorities.
In 2013, The Asia Foundation established the Rights of Expression, Assembly, Association, and Thought (REAT) network under the Human Rights Fund III program to ensure strategic coordination and relationships among local civil society organizations on issues of religious freedom and freedom of expression. In addition, some of our local partners are members of the Coalition for Rights of Minorities (CRM), which is also actively engaged on addressing issues of religious freedom across the country.
While the sources of religious intolerance are deeply rooted in Pakistan, and these recent spikes in attacks are disturbing, the recent moves by the government and civil society take a step forward in opening up a space for greater protection and participation of the country’s religious minorities.
Farid Alam is The Asia Foundation’s deputy director of Programs in Pakistan and Sofia Noreen leads the Foundation’s Human Rights team there. They can be reached at [email protected] and [email protected]. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the authors and not those of The Asia Foundation.
In Asia editor Alma Freeman recently interviewed Dwi Rubiyanti Kholifah, Indonesia country director for the Asian Muslim Action Network (AMAN), which focuses on the role of women in peace building and inter-faith cooperation. Kholifah was selected as one of the 10 inaugural 2014 Asia Foundation Development Fellows.
After a hotly contested campaign, in July, Indonesians elected former Jakarta governor, Joko Widodo as their new president. What are your thoughts on this election?
Amid uncertain and complex political circumstances across Southeast Asia, the recent election of Indonesia stood out as being free and fair, with a voter turnout of over 70 percent – this in an archipelago with over 17,000 islands and most not easily reached.
I think that Joko Widodo, known as Jokowi, is one of the most distinguished leaders that Indonesia has known. As governor of Jakarta, he created a sense of hope and a space for dialogue and negotiation with the people. For example, he spent countless hours talking to different groups with different interests to resolve the issue of resettling urban poor to new apartments. He led the same inclusive approach when he engaged everyone on the relocation of street vendors from Tanah Abang Market to the nearby Blok G to reduce congestion and help address ongoing crime and safety concerns. The key to his success is that he listens to the concerns of the people and takes this into consideration before coming up with a solution.
These characteristics reflected strongly in his campaign for president. His slogan, “Revolusi Mental” or mental revolution, became a magnet for people from different backgrounds such as farmers, fishermen, youth, women’s groups, professionals, and educators, who believed that the main change needed in Indonesia is the mentality of people. While the “Reformasi” movement that began in 1998 has strengthened institutions of democracy, we are still facing serious problems in bureaucratic reform, rule of law, a culture of violence, and lack of infrastructure.
What impact do you think this will have on development in the country?
I hope that this election and new leadership will bring about bureaucracy reform, where professionals and strong, committed figures are promoted into his cabinet as opposed to always coming from political parties. Such reform would have enormous impact on public services and infrastructure development, transparency and accountability, and strengthening public participation.
My hope is that the vital role that civil societies play in Indonesia becomes more recognized. With Jokowi’s strong leadership and open mindedness, it is very possible that in the future CSOs could become real partners with the government. This could result in the Indonesian government allowing CSOs to engage in state policymaking decisions in a positive way and work together to respond to the global agenda.
We also need stronger rule of law and law enforcement – not only strengthening the commission of corruption eradication (KPK) and other national commissions but also to synchronize international covenant into national regulation and subnational regulation. I believe that Jokowi will take serious action to remove 342 discriminatory laws against women and minorities that exist at the sub-national level as reported by KOMNAS Perempuan. It is also important to take quick response to return the internally displaced Shia and Ahmadiyya communities who were expelled from their village because of their belief. This will help raise awareness among Indonesian people to not discriminate or attack others on the basis of different religions or beliefs. We also hope that women’s rights organizations will have more space to address women’s needs and that they can work more closely with related government ministries.
Indonesia’s constitution in the Muslim-majority country is committed to protecting religious freedom, yet religious intolerance and conflicts between different ethnic and religious groups persists today.
Indonesia is made up of over 17,000 islands with 700 dialects, and reflects diverse ethnicities, cultures, religions, and traditional beliefs. It is not easy to unite them under a single national identity called Bahasa Indonesia and “Bhinneka Tunggal Ika” (“unity in diversity”). According to the 2010 Survey of the National Statistics Body, just over 87 percent of Indonesians are Muslim, followed by Christianity (6.96%), Chatolic (2.9%), Buddhist (0.27%), Hindu (1.69%), Confucianism (0.05%), and other traditional religions (0.13%).
It is unfortunate that not all Indonesians have the same protection to practice their religions. In fact, violations against minority rights are higher now than in the past. For example, there are now 193 internally displaced Shia minorities in Sampang who are still staying at the GOR stadium since the attack in August 2012, which left one person dead and six people injured. In 2011, the same attacker also burned a mosque, school, and some houses belonging to the Shiite leader.
In Aceh, 20 houses of worship located in Singkil district were closed down, accused of “lack of administrative document supports.” Barongsai and Liong (traditional Chinese arts) were banned under Soeharto’s New Order because they were considered a distraction from Ramadan. In 2010, there were 75 cases of discrimination and violation against minorities, of which 50 cases were relate to Ahmadiyya faith minorities. Moreover, for many years, followers of traditional beliefs such as Sunda Wiwitan cannot access public service as consequences of their unwritten religious identity on the national ID card.
As the country representative of AMAN, how do you see religious conflicts and intolerance affecting women?
Minority women have multiple layers of discrimination – as religious and often ethnic minorities and as women. As minorities, they are vulnerable to sexual harassment, intimidation when violence takes place, and their position within internal group is weak, with limited leadership, and confidence, due to the strong influence of patriarchal culture.
AMAN Indonesia takes three strategies; first, to educate women with tolerance and peacebuilding perspectives using Islamic interpretation. Through Women’s School for Peace, AMAN Indonesia has set up regular classes both for majority and minority. Over 600 women have been trained in the program and 30 percent of them have become community activists. We are interested in replicating this model to minority groups like Ahmadiyya group in Tasikmalaya and Lombok. Second, we strengthen the ability of women to adapt and respond to national and local challenges relating to inter-intra faith relationships. We are facilitating the Women’s School for Peace as an organization and have expanded to other cities to spread women’s rights, tolerance, and peace.
Third, through advocacy work, we bring voices to the national level to challenge inconsistencies in regulations, which must follow the constitution and international standards on human rights. We are also creating a space to advocate the Women, Peace and Security Agenda at the international level for the Post-2015 UN Development Agenda and Beijing+20, a UN campaign to celebrate the anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing.
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.
By many metrics, Bangladesh’s development trajectory is a unique success story, especially since the 1990s when democratic rule was reinstated and extensive economic reforms were made. Poverty incidence has fallen from 60 percent to around 30 percent. Gender parity has been achieved in primary and secondary school enrollment.
Alongside the progress in education, health, and gender equity, Bangladesh is also in the midst of a growth takeoff that has reduced poverty and doubled per capita income since 2002. Photo/Conor Ashleigh
The total fertility rate has fallen from 3.4 to 2.3 (slightly above the “replacement level”), infant and maternal mortality rates have fallen by at least half since 1990, and life expectancy has risen by 10 years to 69 (four years more than in India in 2012). Bangladesh is one of the few developing countries that is on target for achieving most of the Millennium Development Goals, and is considerably ahead of target on some indicators.
These are among the fastest improvements in basic living condition ever seen in history, and they took many observers by surprise because Bangladesh’s achievements so far do not exactly fit into the typical pathways of human and social development. The Indian economist Amartya Sen, for example, distinguishes between “income-mediated” and “support-led pathways” to human development. The first is characterized by improvements in social indicators that can be traced back to rapid- and broad-based economic growth (exemplified by Korea), while the second is based on high public spending on welfare programs (as in Sri Lanka’s case). Neither is clearly applicable to Bangladesh. The economic growth rate rose significantly after 1990, but it only reached 6 percent in 2004, and has never exceeded 7 percent. Furthermore, spending on education and healthcare (2.2% and 3.5%, respectively, of GDP in 2012) is below the average for low-income countries.
Thus, although the improvement in Bangladesh’s growth rate since 1990 is impressive, it does not fully explain the country’s extraordinary results with regard to social development. Several other countries in South and Southeast Asia have grown at similar or higher rates than Bangladesh in the last 10 to 15 years, including India, Bhutan, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. Yet, in comparison to these countries, Bangladesh’s social development still stands out.
Development experts have explained this discrepancy by attributing Bangladesh’s social development to the success of innovative, low-cost solutions such as microfinance programs that target women, massive social mobilization campaigns spearheaded by NGOs like BRAC, the success of the labor-intensive, export-based garments industry, and the boost to earnings and human capital provided by labor migration and inward remittances.
Reductions in Poverty and Inequality
Alongside the progress in education, health, and gender equity, Bangladesh is also in the midst of a growth takeoff that has reduced poverty and doubled per capita income (measured at purchasing power parity) since 2002. The Bangladesh government deserves praise for putting in place the essential preconditions that have allowed private sector dynamism to fuel economic growth over the last two decades. Structural reforms in the 1980s and 1990s led to broad macroeconomic stability and low fiscal deficits. This allowed the banking system to cater primarily to private investment needs and caused a significant rise in the investment-to-GDP ratio (currently at 27% of GDP). Successive governments have also had considerable success at keeping inflation at a moderate level. Bangladesh has not managed to attract high levels of foreign direct investment (FDI), but the strong performance of remittance inflows has taken on the role of FDI in bolstering the foreign exchange account and smoothing out fluctuations in GDP due to varying domestic economic conditions.
Persistent poverty is without a doubt an important issue for Bangladesh, but perhaps less so than for many other developing countries. There are fewer class- and ethnicity-based barriers to social mobility than in many other developing countries, and the benefits of economic growth have tended to reach most levels of society, including the very poor. The main stimulus to economic growth in the country has come from labor-intensive garment exports, a vibrant and dynamic private sector, micro-and small-scale enterprises in manufacturing and services, remittances from migrant workers, and rise in the size of middle class. Moreover, estimates for the period from 2000 to 2005 suggest that the process of increasing income inequality that many other developing countries have experienced has actually slowed down or even reversed in Bangladesh.
Road to Middle-Income Status
Bangladesh has earned a reputation in the global market for low-cost, high-quality manufacturing through its garments sector. The impact of this reputation was demonstrated by the fact that the exports of readymade garments from Bangladesh rose by a sharp 19.95 percent year-on-year during the first half of financial year 2013-14, defying various odds like image crisis and political instability prevailing during the period. Due to recent increases in wages in China and India, it is likely that manufacturing in other industries may also shift to Bangladesh in the next few years, including in pharmaceuticals, plastic and ceramic goods, leather goods, shipbuilding, and light machinery (such as bicycles and batteries). An emerging export-based IT sector will also contribute to growth.
Diversification in the country’s export profile may be complemented by increased access to major markets in the region, including India and China. India has already offered duty-free market access to nearly all Bangladeshi products, and China has indicated that it may expand zero-tariff facilities to 95 percent of Bangladeshi goods. The manufacturing and service industries will also be supported by robust growth in domestic demand, which will come about as Bangladesh reaps a “demographic dividend” of increased labor supply, lower dependency ratio, and increased savings. The major challenges seem to be the political stability, predictability of policy environment, competent bureaucracy, and quality of education.
The government and the people of Bangladesh have their eyes fixed on the horizon, working hard to realize the twin dreams of eradicating extreme poverty and achieving middle-income status by 2021. The country’s success in achieving the Millennium Development Goals has shown that this is not only possible, but highly likely.
Syed A. Al-Muti is The Asia Foundation’s associate director for Economic Development Programs based in Bangladesh. He can be reached at [email protected]. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the individual author and not necessarily those of The Asia Foundation.
For the last four years, Mongolia has had one of the fastest growing economies in the world, clocking double-digit growth on the back of a mining boom. The effects of this growth are obvious, especially in the capital, Ulaanbaatar, where cranes dominate the skyline and luxury stores compete for space to attract customers. However, the economic tide seems to be turning, with growth predictions showing a single-digit growth of 9.5 percent according to the ADB, which corresponds to a declining trend starting at a high of 17.5 percent in 2011, dropping to 12.3 percent in 2012 and 11.7 percent in 2013.
For the last four years, Mongolia has had one of the fastest growing economies in the world, clocking double-digit growth on the back of a mining boom. The effects of this growth are obvious, especially in the capital, Ulaanbaatar. Photo/Mathew Pendergast
There are several reasons for Mongolia’s decelerating growth. As an economy fueled by the mining sector, Mongolia has suffered from the global drop in prices of coal and copper, two of its main export products, resulting in a corresponding drop of export revenues by $800 million. Another factor is the drop in foreign direct investment of 54 percent last year due to conflicts over mining agreements and licensing and insecurity of investors over the stability of the regulatory framework.
While the economic downturn presents pressing immediate challenges, one of the main long-term challenges for Mongolia has been to ensure that growth is inclusive. Although Mongolia’s economic growth has helped to reduce poverty by more than 11 percent in recent years (from 38.7% in 2010 to 27.4% in 2012), it is clear that some are benefiting more than others from Mongolia’s mineral wealth. There is a perception among many people of rising inequality in terms of income distribution, but also in terms of access to opportunities such as a good education, a good job, or just to get decent healthcare.
Poverty is higher in the rural areas (35.5%) compared to the urban areas (23.2%), as herders in the countryside struggle to survive as their traditional livelihood dissolves, and there are few job opportunities for young generations. Newly introduced Local Development Funds are meant to promote economic development and improved livelihoods at the local level through the involvement of citizens in decision-making. Nevertheless, urbanization is high with many people leaving the countryside and moving to Ulaanbaatar, home to 60 percent of the population, in the hopes of better economic opportunities. Many of these migrants settle in the outskirts of the ger districts, large unplanned settlements, which lack access to basic services such as water, sanitation, heating, schools, and kindergartens. However, given the lack of qualified skills training, these new residents are faced with fewer opportunities in the formal job sector, including the mining sector, and often find themselves unemployed or forced to work in informal jobs where wages are low. As a result, poverty in Ulaanbaatar stood at 19.8 percent in 2012.
As the economy slows, the question now is what the impact will be on poverty levels and income inequality. High inflation averaging 12.4 percent in 2013 has increased living costs in Ulaanbaatar where prices of food, consumer goods, transport, housing, and services such as electricity have risen significantly. Insulating low-income residents from the worst of the impact of high inflation and enabling their full participation in economic development through greater employment and access to basic public services are essential issues that Mongolia’s government will need to address as part of its efforts to get the economy back on track.
In April, Mongolia’s Prime Minister, Altankhuyag Norov, launched a “100-day action plan” aimed at reviving the economy. The prime minister’s 50-point agenda, which was approved by Parliament in May, promises to boost infrastructure, mining, manufacturing, and the development of small- and medium-sized businesses. Proposed actions include the establishment of free economic zones, improving debt management, and flexible provision of services such as credit and leasing. An economic council has been tasked to monitor the implementation of the agenda and provide recommendations to the Prime Minister on key reforms.
If urbanization trends continue, Ulaanbaatar is likely to grow further in size and economic importance, becoming a key economic actor in its own right. While the prime minister’s plan is an important step toward salvaging the economy in the short-term, long-term economic planning will need to be improved to diversify the economy and ensure the sustainability of growth.
The Asia Foundation is supporting the City Municipality of Ulaanbaatar in its economic development planning as well as in improving urban services in the ger districts in order to ensure socially inclusive growth for all residents. Read more about our work there.
Tirza Theunissen is The Asia Foundation’s deputy country representative in Mongolia. She can be reached at [email protected]. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the individual authors and not necessarily those of The Asia Foundation.
country’s current media landscape, the media’s role in elections and shaping public opinion, and Mongolia’s right to information law.
(AMAN), which focuses on the role of women in peace building and inter-faith cooperation. Kholifah was selected as one of the 10 inaugural 2014 
country’s rapid development and efforts to promote responsible mining to protect its natural resources and environment. Last month, Minister Oyun was 
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 
