Tweeting about politics

Tweeting about politics:

Indonesian politicians want to raise their public profile but don’t want the criticism

Wayne Palmer

An image circulated on Twitter in support of the Jokowi-Ahok duo Anton Kurniawan

As the first round of the Jakarta gubernatorial elections in July showed, the Twittersphere can sometimes provide a better sense for who is going to win than the nation’s leading pollsters. Prior to polling day, micro bloggers talked about Joko Widodo and Ahok Basuki as frequently as they tweeted about the incumbent Fauzi Bowo and his running mate Nachrowi Ramli. But a sentiment index showed that the Jokowi-Ahok duo came up in conversations that used more positive language than their competitors. In fact, the difference in sentiment was so stark that a politicawave.com observer declared that it was obvious who was going to win well before the election even took place. The quick count only confirmed that prediction.
Using social media to gauge public opinion is certainly the beginning of something quite new in Indonesia. Politicians themselves have been quick to recognise its capacity to spread information and shape public opinion. Some have taken the bull by the horns. Others have steered clear, partly because they are yet to learn how it works, but also because a misplaced word here or there can come back to haunt them. The ease with which the public can openly express their opinions via social media complicates matters for Indonesia’s political elite, many of whom, among other things, have a reputation for the way in which they handle public complaints – ranging from defensiveness to outright petulance. Nonetheless, with all its opportunities and traps, social media has reshaped the playing field in Indonesian political life for those with their sights set on power.

Twitter savvy politicians

Indonesia’s politicians have employed social media, and Twitter in particular, for a wider range of purposes than to simply net more votes. Savvy politicians encourage public servants to use Twitter to disseminate information about government programs but avoid interacting with it themselves. The Minister for Education, Mohammad Nuh, requires the notoriously corrupt Directorate-General for Higher Education to tweet information about foreign-funded scholarships for study overseas. This directive was made to stop those with connections inside the Ministry hearing about opportunities too far in advance or cutting out the competition by not passing on the information to the public at all. The state-owned enterprise that produces electricity – affectionately referred to as the government’s candle company – is also a fan of Twitter, which uses it to warn followers of power outages due to damaged infrastructure. Some of the public utility’s most popular tweets were promises to guarantee a stable flow of electricity in Bali, Java and Aceh during the 2010 World Cup in recognition of the fact that (they and other) Indonesians love their football.
Head of the National Agency for the Placement and Protection of Overseas Indonesian Workers, Mohammad Jumhur Hidayat, also uses Twitter to keep the public informed about his daily activities. More often than not he posts an update about visiting this or that office. But between 2008 and 2010 he tweeted criticisms of the Minister for Manpower, Erman Suparno, for taking away his authority. Hidayat’s messages were read by followers who then re-tweeted them to their subscribers. Twitter complemented Hidayat’s other networks, such as the team of reporters who worked hard to build up his credentials and expose the Ministry’s grim track record on migrant workers. Suparno may have won the battle for control, but, in the eyes of the public, he certainly lost the war for legitimacy in the contest between the two agencies.

Twitter’s victims

Politicians loved the good old days when it was only word-of-mouth and the odd news report that spread details about their misdemeanours have a lot to adjust to. These days, anyone in the right place with a mobile phone and a data connection can be a reporter. And the fact that Twitter and other social media allow users to embed images, voice and video recordings into their micro blogs helps to broadcast the misbehaving politicians’ faux pas far and wide.
It was just another day in the office for the Welfare Minister, Salim Segaf Aljufrie, in 2010 when he ploughed along the dedicated laneway of the TransJakarta Busway between Mampang Prapatan and Buncit Indah en route to the Presidential Palace for a meeting. But, that morning, an annoyed commuter sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic snapped a shot of his car. Only a week had passed since the police announced that only fire engines and other emergency vehicles could enter the bus lane. The commuter tweeted the image to her followers with a tongue-in-cheek message praising the Minister for the fantastic example he was setting for Jakarta’s millions. The post did the rounds of the micro blogging network and within hours Indonesia’s online media had picked the story up. The National Police resisted pressure to investigate, at first claiming that an officer had to witness the infringement. But the very next day a fine was delivered to the Minister’s office and his chauffeur was told to be in court the following day. It was a symbolic act, but one that showed how Twitter could be used to force the government’s hand.
Social media has also put officials who waste public money under the spotlight. Early in 2012 the Indonesian Students Association tailed lawmakers on a shopping spree in Berlin with their families, buying up goods in elite fashion stores. The pictures the students shared through Facebook and Twitter gained traction in Indonesia almost immediately. In places like Jakarta, viewers expressed their disgust at yet more evidence that the people’s so-called representatives used state business overseas as a junket and an opportunity to have an all-expenses paid holiday for the family.
Lawmakers on another such study trip in 2011 to Melbourne were supposed to be studying poverty and welfare. When the Indonesian Students Association asked why Australia was chosen over more comparable countries for the study, the spokesperson avoided providing an answer by promising to continue the conversation after returning to Jakarta. But when asked for an email address, not one of the lawmakers could provide one. A staffer eventually chimed in with a yahoo address, which someone tested and found to be either defunct or fake. The panic and flurry of activity as the lawmakers attempted to salvage the situation by offering their personal contact details was recorded, uploaded to YouTube and broadcast through social media. Indonesian Facebook and Twitter users sighed collectively in disappointment, with one user sarcastically adopting a Ministry of Finance slogan designed to shame the public into paying income tax: ‘In this day and age? What will the world say?’

The Transjakarta Busway lane that the Welfare Minister was photographed driving in illegally Anton Kurniawan

In other cases, politicians who use social media become victims of their own actions. Information and Technology Minister, Titaful Sembiring, was one of the first to seize the opportunity Twitter offered to raise his public profile. After the normal wheeling and dealing for appointments were over, this foresight scored him the techiest portfolio in the President’s cabinet. But he progressively sullied his reputation as Indonesia’s social media sweetheart with policy directions that alienated millions, blocking up to one million websites that he thought contained pornographic content, including Indiana University’s Kinsey Institute’s website about research on sexual health. In another controversy, Titaful tweeted that the American First Lady, Michelle Obama, forced him to shake her hand during President Obama’s first state visit to Indonesia. No one was truly surprised because the Minister has the PKS (the Islamic Prosperous Justice Party) and its voters to thank for his career. But most Indonesians who could see no problem with such a ceremonial duty harnessed the tweet to have their say, leaving Titaful reeling at how Indonesian Twitter users transformed a simple tweet into public criticisms against him.

Social media in mainstream politics

Since the rise of Twitter, political leaders in Indonesia have watched social media besiege public figures over and over again. Major parties like Golkar have announced plans to integrate the technology into future campaign strategies. The President’s own Democratic Party admits that they and their candidates must verse themselves in the language and ways of social media if they want victory. Looking back on their electoral defeat in July, Democratic Party strategists now understand the formidable role Twitter played in organising public opinion against incumbent governor Bowo and his running mate. The experience has left a bad taste in their mouth, with Ramli going as far as to describe Twitter as a battlefield in the war of information. It is here that they planned to invest resources in the lead up to the final round of elections in September. They certainly tried, but public opinion proved hard to shift and the duo was decisively defeated by their more social media savvy opponents.
Social media has made an indelible print on Indonesian political life. Yet the technology remains out of reach for the majority. It is hard to imagine the urban poor in a provincial capital like Pontianak having the resources to have their say on Facebook or Twitter. It is even harder to imagine social media picking up the opinions of people living in areas of West Papua that have no electricity or roads. This harsh reality certainly blunts any claim that observers may make about the degree to which political conversations online represent popular sentiment in Indonesia.
Having said that, though, social media does at least give an indication of what better-off Indonesians think about the current state of affairs. And, though politicians may not be happy about it, the ‘likes’ and tweets of the Indonesian middle class are increasingly having an effect.
Wayne Palmer (wayne.palmer@sydney.edu.au) is a Postgraduate Teaching Fellow in the Department of Indonesian Studies at the University of Sydney.

Inside Indonesia 110: Oct-Dec 2012

The era of convergent media

The era of convergent media:

The integration of mainstream and social media creates a more responsive news cycle

Ross Tapsell

Media convergence makes it easy for Indonesian Facebook users to comment on and share mainstream media articles Adhi Kusumo

Social media is perceived as playing a crucial role in political activism in Indonesia, mostly because of the growing number of Facebook and Twitter users in the country. The latest figures suggest that there are 43 million Facebook users in Indonesia, the second-largest number in any country in the world. The role of social media in distributing information means that devices such as the Blackberry are crucial for political activists, like those who used Facebook to publicise the ‘cicak versus buaya’  storm and the Prita Mulyasari case.  But a key reason why these particular issues became media ‘mega-spectacles’ was because they were taken up by mainstream media.
Mainstream media still plays an important role in distributing activists’ messages to the public, despite the increase in social media usage. On most occasions, activists like to see wide-ranging media coverage of their causes not only because mainstream media reports reach a wider audience, but also because of the authority that they afford certain issues. Mainstream media reports can give the concerns pursued by activists greater legitimacy, particularly if they make news headlines and become the daily news ‘event’.
In Indonesia today, the largely separate realms of social media and mainstream media are fast becoming connected into one large news cycle as a result of two forms of media convergence: the convergence of traditional media and new social media platforms, and the convergence of monopolised media and smaller forms of alternative, grassroots or citizen-directed media. This pattern means social media is now an important part of how ‘events’ become news. It also gives activists greater ability to get their issue into the news cycle via easily accessible social media platforms. But there is also the risk that news distribution through social media will soon be engulfed by the powerful forces who own and control the mainstream media.

Cartelisation and convergence

The mainstream media in Indonesia is owned by a small group of prominent businessmen and politicians. It has been described as a ‘cartel’. Today, twelve media groups control all of the national commercial television shares. These groups also own five of the six newspapers with the highest circulation and all of the four most popular online news media. Increasing cartelisation continued into late 2011 when Indonesia’s biggest online news media site, Detik.com, was purchased for $AU66 million by Chairul Tanjung, the owner of television stations Trans7 and TransTV. These companies also have business interests outside of the media. For example, Globe Media is owned by James Riady, owner and Deputy Chairman of Lippo Group, which is the largest property owner and developer in Indonesia and has business interests in banking, publishing and retail.
A key challenge faced by Indonesia’s media moguls is the uncertainty surrounding the future of media, particularly print media. According to media executive, John Riady (son of businessman James Riady), ‘There is decreasing circulation of newspapers in Indonesia. The future of newspapers is as bleak as it is in the US or Australia. Indonesia is just slow to react, and soon it will be all online and very different. But there will always be a market for news, but in what platform we will see in the future.’ A recent Roy Morgan poll shows that television is the most popular medium for Indonesian audiences with 99 per cent having watched ‘any television station in the past 7 days’ compared with 26 per cent of respondents reading ‘any newspaper in the last 7 days’. But Roy Morgan’s Debnath Guharoy wrote recently in The Jakarta Post that it is the internet is ‘where the action is. Where the innovation is focused. In the not too distant future the reality of convergence will make all moving pictures and sound, whether TV or internet sources, one and the same thing.’
Indonesia has already moved to an era where major media companies no longer specialise solely in print, radio or television. Indonesian media executives like Riady understand that their survival is dependent on their ability to combine traditional news content with content from new media platforms and sites, including social media commentaries and amateur videos captured from mobile phones. While they previously thought Facebook and Twitter were purely for ‘social’ purposes, they now consider these tools to be essential in the dissemination of news and commentaries.
The arrival of new platforms such as the iPad and the iPhone has forced media companies to diversify. Globe Media, for example, was transformed in late 2011 into Berita Satu Media Holdings to ‘better reflect the wide range of news brands it owns across multiple languages, multiple platforms and multiple news cycles’. The company’s media convergence includes broadcast, print, digital, online, social and mobile media, events and an online news portal with live streaming, mobile phone applications and a high-definition television channel that it plans to launch nationwide in late 2012.
Another company, Media Indonesia Group, which along with MetroTV is owned by Surya Paloh, who established his own political party (the National Democrats) after he lost the Golkar Chairmanship to media mogul rival Aburizal Bakrie in 2009. Media Indonesia Group has been particularly innovative in the area of convergent media. Its daily news and monthly magazines are available through iPads and can be purchased through iTunes. News is distributed not only in print, but through photo slideshows, video, audio or even interactive graphics. The newspaper, Media Indonesia, has an e-newspaper and website where readers can share the paper’s news stories through various social media and other links. Media Indonesia Chief Editor Saur Hutabarat explained in 2010 that the company is advocating for more open debate in Indonesian society, fuelled by social media: ‘We are creating public debate. People can give their view on all topics and we give space for that view so they can freely express their thinking. The better way to solve our hidden problems is to try to discuss them in an open and transparent way.’

Increasing public debate

As Hutabarat’s comments suggest, media convergence is more than simply a technological shift. New media platforms are helping push journalism in new directions and have the potential to open the space for public debate on social and political issues. On online news sites, readers can comment directly underneath articles. In the online edition of some newspapers, readers can comment via their Facebook profile. In the past, readers usually commented using an online alias name, for example ‘brandy283’. Now, Facebook profiles normally include a photo and various other information or affiliations. The result is a more ‘accountable’ commentary in the mainstream press, but also an indication that many Indonesians are happy to be more public in their opinions through mainstream news.
The transformation from print media to media convergence has been particularly stark for Kompas, Indonesia’s widest selling newspaper, which has a reputation for being cautious when discussing politics and religion. Although this reputation was founded during the Suharto era, in the post-New Order period many inside Kompas still believed that responsible journalism meant toning down reports on contentious topics such as race or ethnicity. But social and new media platforms are transforming this practice. Kompas Chief Editor, Rikard Bagun, believes that modifications are essential because the Indonesian audience was changing as a result of the introduction of social and new media platforms, noting that ‘We now have a very open society, where everybody is declaring criticism openly – through social media for example’. In response, Kompas is slowly altering its reporting philosophy. Bagun argues: ‘If the media doesn’t speak out about things, it is difficult to solve the issues.’

The kompasiana website allows users to produce content in the form of text, images and video www.kompasiana.com

As part of its reinvention, the Kompas group created kompasiana, a medium somewhere between blogging and citizen journalism, which allows users to produce content in the form of text, images and video. It is promoted in Indonesia as another attempt at media convergence. It incorporates print, internet, television and radio news, online and social media commentary including blogs and microblogs as well as social media sites Facebook and Friendster. In addition, photos can be uploaded through Flickr and twitpic and videos through YouTube. It claims to already have 2.8 million visitors per month.
Through initiatives like kompasiana, views and events discussed on social media that gain enough popular momentum are more likely to be viewed by the mainstream media consumer, providing an avenue for political activists to increase their visibility. However, some political activists fear that the diversity of viewpoints that currently characterises social media could decrease as the ownership ‘cartel’ gains increased control over the social media agenda. In some instances this seems to be occurring. For example, activists who campaigned for greater compensation for those displaced by the Lapindo mudflow on the outskirts of Surabaya could not get their viewpoint published in the Surabaya Post. This was because the daily newspaper was purchased in 2008 by the Bakrie group in 2008, whose subsidiary company, Lapindo-Brantas, was seen as responsible for the mudflow.

A market for free expression

As John Riady said, there will always be a market for news. But it is still unclear how this market will evolve. In the lead up to the 2014 Presidential election, media owners with political ambitions may attempt to control the information placed on their now increasingly convergent media networks. However, the rapid and complex ways in which media convergence is transforming Indonesian news and commentary makes controlling such information more difficult. The more voices and platforms through which people can express opinions and disseminate content, the more difficult it may be for elites to control the agenda.
As events around the world have shown, citizen journalism has found ways to circumvent attempts at censorship and control. Since Reformasi, Indonesians have become used to expressing their opinions online. Should media cartels attempt to hinder freedom of expression through cartelisation and convergence, they may be in for a fight. And in the battle for the Indonesian media market, the convergent media company whose business model allows for the greatest freedom of expression, may end up being the company which makes the most money.
Ross Tapsell (ross.tapsell@anu.edu.au) is a lecturer in the College of Asia and the Pacific at the Australian National University. He researches press freedom in Southeast Asia.

Inside Indonesia 110: Oct-Dec 2012

New social media as a tool for activism

New social media as a tool for activism:

Indonesia is Facebooking, Twittering and blogging, but what effect is this having on campaigns for social justice?

Indonesia is online. The number of Indonesians using the internet increased from two million in 2000 to over 55 million in 2012, the fourth largest number of internet users in Asia (after China, India and Japan).

Thushara Dibley

This phenomenal growth in access to the internet has been supported by a rapidly growing economy as well as the widespread uptake of mobile phone technology. In 2011 a Nielsen report indicated that 48 per cent of Indonesia’s internet users went online via their mobile phones and another 13 per cent used some other type of handheld device.

An activist at a protest in Yogyakarta in March 2012. Does social media replace the megaphone for activists in Indonesia today? Vito Adriono

Indonesian ‘netizens’ have also keenly taken to new social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and the blogosphere. In fact, Indonesians are the fourth biggest users of Facebook and the fifth biggest users of Twitter worldwide. Globally, these sites have received increasing attention as tools for activism. The Arab Spring protests, the Kony 2012 phenomenon and the Occupy Movement are frequently cited as examples of movements facilitated by the internet. But to what extent have these tools been used by activists in Indonesia? Have they taken up online mediums to campaign for change? If so, how successful are their efforts?
This edition provides a snapshot of the multitude of ways that Indonesian activists, politicians and ordinary citizens use new social media as a tool for activism. The contributors to this edition explore the diverse ways that this popular medium is used to affect change, but also question its effectiveness as a means to address issues of social justice.
Ross Tapsell opens this edition with a discussion of how the convergence of mainstream media with social media is creating opportunities for ordinary citizens and activists to direct media attention to issues that are of importance to them. While there is the potential for media convergence to result in the restriction of how social media is used, Tapsell suggests that the widespread use of social media and its growing popularity mean that mainstream news sources in Indonesia are being forced to become more flexible and responsive to their readers’ concerns. On a similar theme, Wayne Palmer paints an optimistic picture of how Twitter is being used by middle-class Indonesians to influence mainstream politics, showing how it has opened channels for ordinary citizens to express their views about politicians. He highlights how Indonesian politicians have been able to take advantage of this tool to increase their public profile but, at the same time, are now more accountable as a result of how the Indonesian public monitor their behaviour online.
The following two articles focus on how activists in particular sectors make use of the online medium to promote their causes. Rebekah Moore explores how grunge band, Navicula, has used the internet to promote its message of social justice. Moore argues that, despite being on the fringe of the music industry, Navicula has been able to successfully use social media and other online tools to spread its message of the importance of environmental justice. In their piece, Rikky Muchammad Fajar and Alexandra Crosby focus on how lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) activists in Indonesia have embraced the online medium as a means to engage in activism. The online space has become one of the key safe spaces for LGBT activism in Indonesia as the legal context makes it increasingly challenging for these activists to campaign for their rights.
The final two articles in the edition take a more critical perspective. Yanuar Nugroho, who is critical of the lack of strategic thought invested into online activism in Indonesia, illustrates how poorly conceived social media campaigns can raise expectations of change that are not matched by results in the off-line world. Finally, Arjuna Dibley analyses the high profile Prita Mulyasari case and what it reveals about the ability of social media activism to lead to legal reform. He argues that the short, catchy messages that social media activists rely on have just not been enough to lead to substantive changes in Indonesia’s legal system.
The articles in this edition show that social media tools have allowed ordinary citizens, activists and artists to engage with political issues in new and creative ways. While the contributors don’t necessarily agree about the extent to which these tools have been successful, this edition makes it clear that the digital age is making its mark on social activism in Indonesia.
Thushara Dibley (thushdibley@gmail.com) is an Honorary Associate of the Department of Indonesian Studies at the University of Sydney and Visiting Researcher at the Program for Arms Control, Disarmament and International Security at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research is about NGOs, peacebuilding and social movements in Southeast Asia.

Inside Indonesia 110: Oct-Dec 2012

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Anthropology and the Lao hydropower industry

Anthropology and the Lao hydropower industry:

Ovesen, Jan (1993). Anthropological Reconnaissance in Central Laos: A Survey of Local Communities in a Hydropower Project Area. Uppsala Research Reports in Cultural Anthropology. No. 13. Stockholm: Department of Cultural Anthropology, Uppsala University.

In the annals of anthropologists working in the Lao development industry, Jan Ovesen’s 1993 study of local communities along the Theun, Hinboun and Gnouang Rivers must be amongst the earliest. Ovesen’s study represented a consultancy, which formed part of the feasibility study for the Theun-Hinboun Hydropower Project (THHP)— amongst the first dam projects in Laos constructed under the Independent Power Producer model. While there are a number of useful ethnographic observations made the study, ultimately I forward that the report is perhaps more valuable as an example of ‘applied anthropology gone astray.’
Ovesen’s study was conducted during the initial planning stages of a series of major development interventions on the Nam Theun-Kadding and Nam Hinboun watersheds in central Laos, which include the Theun-Hinboun Hydropower Project, the Nam Theun 2 project and the recently completed Theun-Hinboun Expansion Project. In this and the next two New Mandala postings, I will explore in more detail how these projects have produced significant socio-ecological changes along the Hinboun River, and how ‘ecological knowledge’ has been produced and applied (or not) in the process.

Ovesen arrived in Laos with two objectives for his study: i) a determination of the cultural groups present in the area of the then proposed Theun-Hinboun hydropower project, ii) an evaluation of whether any of the local groups present in the project area may be disadvantaged by the development and operation of the project.

Theun-Hinboun Watershed (Souce: International Rivers)
First, I note the positive aspects of the study. Ovesen makes a series of interesting ethnographic observations regarding the local communities he visited along the Nam Ngouang, Nam Theun and Nam Hai. His informants reported that on the Nam Hai, crop losses due to flooding might occur every 8 to 10 years, a situation attributed to backwater effects from the main Mekong channel. Lower down the Nam Hinboun, Gordon Claridge (1996) reported that rice paddy crops would be flooded for short periods of time each year, with paddy lost to prolonged flooding in one out of every 4 years. Ovesen’s observations on the agricultural practices of local residents are useful—for example how riverside farmers might continue with conducting upland swidden agriculture even though the opportunities existed for moving into wet rice production (e.g. ownership of buffalo, potentially suitable terrain). Ovesen writes:

…the reality is that competence in paddy cultivation is not something people are born with. In the upper Nam Hai plain, at least, most of the inhabitants are relative newcomers from the Nam Theun area, where paddy cultivation was never part of their traditional cultural knowledge. (p. 21)

This fits with my research experiences lower down the Hinboun, where villagers reported only moving into wet rice in the 1960s, and only after a couple of farmers from Northeast Thailand and southern Laos, with knowledge of wet rice cultivation, married into the village. Ovesen also reported on a hybrid form of wet- rice/ swidden cultivation on the Nam Hai, whereby farmers planted bunded lowland paddy for up to 5 years and then left the fields to fallow for a couple years. “Wet rice” and “swidden” are two ends of a spectrum of agricultural technology, with a range of farmer practices, in places such as the Ngouang-Theun-Hai-Hinboun watersheds, falling in between these poles.
Ovesen’s observations concerning the importance of fishing are of general interest (reported as very important on the Nam Theun and Nam Gnouang, moderately important on the Hinboun and less so on the Nam Hai). And he argues that the importance of forests for village livelihoods can “hardly be overstated” (p. 30). His notes on the ethnic origins of the Lao Kaleung and Tai Khang people of this area of Laos is also of interest— for the Tai Khang, arriving from Vietnam through Sam Neua and Xieng Khouang, with a cultural heartland in Ban Phontan, in present day Bolikhamxai province (p. 26-27).
Unfortunately, Ovesen’s study goes off the rails when it comes to an understanding of upland ecology and hydropower interventions.  I suggest that the problems are linked to three key biases: a) Ovesen’s presumption of a pre-existing socio-ecological crisis of swidden agriculture in the Nam Gnouang/Nam Theun, which is inferred, not demonstrated through evidence; b) an assumption that hydropower development interventions would then effectively help to ameliorate or redress this crisis; c) a lack of attention to the likelihood of new social and ecological externalities created by hydropower development, particularly for downstream areas along the recipient river (the Nam Hai- Hinboun). These biases lead the author into an overly favourable judgment of the Theun-Hinboun inter-basin diversion project, and indeed into making sweeping recommendations for large-scale population resettlement.
Based upon 17 days of local fieldwork, on his third visit to Laos and his first trip to the project area, Ovesen arrives at the conclusion that there a severe ecological crisis was in play on the Nam Theun-Nam Gnouang area, and given this purported crisis, that “…positive measures be taken in connection with the project to induce the greater part of the population of the Nam Theun/Nam Gnouang area to move into the Nam Hai area and take up paddy cultivation” (p. 24). He bases his notion of an ecological crisis upon four points:

• a reported 8 year swidden fallow period in the local villages he visited
• a reported separation of 6 km of villages from some of their upland rice fields
• a reported high rate of population increase
• and the broad notion that swidden would produce on average less rice per hectare than bunded wet rice paddy

There are significant and I would argue quite unwarranted assumptions at work here, which disregards alternate options for improving village livelihoods and the sustainability of the swidden/wet rice/fishing/forest livelihood system without resettlement programmes or the development of the Theun-Hinboun inter-basin hydropower scheme.
Based upon these insights, Ovesen then recommends that local people from the Nam Theun and Nam Gnouang be persuaded to move to another watershed, the Nam Hai plain, through the provision of

• free transportation of disassembled houses and belongings
• appointment of agricultural advisors
• supply of electricity along the Nam Hai
• electrical pumps and pipes for irrigation of the paddy fields

We will revisit these ideas of establishing dry season irrigation in project mitigation and compensation initiatives in my next two postings.
The study concludes with a rather glowing endorsement of the proposed Theun-Hinboun hydropower project. Ovesen writes:

I have been unable to detect any ways in which the project could in the long run adversely affect any of the population groups in the area…The import of such elements will inevitably affect the ‘traditional’ culture of the local population in various ways, but this is not necessarily a bad thing, or something that should be avoided at all costs…. If the aforementioned recommendations are followed, it is my considered opinion, supported by the results of the study, that the project, from an anthropological point of view, may only have positive (direct and indirect) effects on the society and culture of the local population. (p. 73)

Ovesen indicated his hope that the implementation of the Nam Theun ½ project (as the Theun-Hinboun project was known at the time) would mean the cancellation of the Nam Theun 2 project. This did not come to pass. Not only were the Theun-Hinboun (start up in 1998) and Nam Theun 2 (2010) projects both constructed, but the Theun-Hinboun Expansion project (constructed to compensate for the river drawdown effects of NT2) then also flooded the Nam Gnouang valley in 2012,and doubled the inter-basin diversion of water from the Gnouang-Theun-Kidding system into the Hai-Hinboun system.
On the one hand, this report could be considered as an interesting if relatively minor footnote in the history of Lao hydropower development. As an example of applied anthropology, it strikes me as odd, to say the least, that an academic anthropologist with an admittedly limited understanding of local context, could be so willing to endorse such dramatic social and ecological engineering interventions. More seriously perhaps, this study arguably formed part of a discursive process that minimized (in the extreme) the probable ecological outcomes of a major inter-basin diversion hydropower project such as that of Theun-Hinboun Hydropower. The implicit assumption appeared to be that because no actual resettlement was entailed in the first THPC project, therefore there would be no significant social impacts. Because the state of ‘expert’ knowledge was so favourable, no baseline studies were conducted prior to the startup of THPC, and indeed the rhetoric of project supporters was that more water would produce more fish for downstream villagers (FIVAS, 1996).
Struggles over competing interpretations of the social-ecological effects and outcomes of the THPC project, and struggles over the production and legitimacy of ecological knowledge about this watershed, continued in the years after the Ovesen study (e.g. Shoemaker, 1998; IRN, 1999; Shoemaker, 2000). In my next posting, I will highlight a 2007 document, interpreting how the situation on the Nam Hai and Nam Hinboun had changed in the ten years since the start-up of the THPC project, prepared by a hydropower consultant insider ‘gone rogue’.
References
Claridge, Gordon (1996). An Inventory of Wetlands of the Lao PDR. Bangkok: IUCN.
International Rivers Network (1999). An Update on the Environmental and Socio-Economic Impacts of the Nam Theun-Hinboun Hydroelectric Dam and Water Diversion Project in Central Laos. 15-17 August 1999. www.irn.org .
FIVAS (1996).  More water, more fish? http://www.fivas.org/sider/tekst.asp?side=107
Shoemaker, Bruce (2000). Theun-Hinboun Update: A Review of the Theun-Hinboun Power Company’s Mitigation and Compensation Program.  December 2000.
Shoemaker, Bruce (1998). Trouble on the Theun-Hinboun. A Field Report on the Socio-Economic and Environmental Effects of the Nam Theun-Hinboun Hydropower Project in Laos. April, 1998. www.irn.org/programs/mekong/threport.html.

Revenge of the Soccer Moms: Why Are Women Abandoning Obama? - NationalJournal.com

Revenge of the Soccer Moms: Why Are Women Abandoning Obama? - NationalJournal.com

Oct. 20: Calm Day in Forecast, but Volatility Ahead - NYTimes.com

Oct. 20: Calm Day in Forecast, but Volatility Ahead - NYTimes.com

Romney’s Stance on Obama Reprieves Worries Young Immigrants

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Amid the Echoes of an Economic Crash, the Sounds of Greek Society Being Torn

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Cash Flood Allows Fight to the Finish for Electoral Votes

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George McGovern | 1922-2012: George McGovern, a Democratic Presidential Nominee and Liberal Stalwart, Dies at 90

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Jordan disrupts major al-Qaeda terrorist plot - The Washington Post

Jordan disrupts major al-Qaeda terrorist plot - The Washington Post

On Eve of Foreign Debate, Growing Pessimism about Arab Spring Aftermath | Pew Research Center for the People and the Press

On Eve of Foreign Debate, Growing Pessimism about Arab Spring Aftermath | Pew Research Center for the People and the Press

The Fix 60: The most important House races in the country

The Fix 60: The most important House races in the country

Dana Milbank: The tea party is helping Democrats - The Washington Post

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Ahead of final debate, campaigns converge on Florida - The Washington Post

Ahead of final debate, campaigns converge on Florida - The Washington Post

Obama fires up crowd in Virginia with ‘Romnesia’ speech - The Washington Post

Obama fires up crowd in Virginia with ‘Romnesia’ speech - The Washington Post

Turkey and Egypt Look to Team Up Amid Tumult

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President Obama Inoculates Women Against 'Romnesia'

President Obama Inoculates Women Against 'Romnesia':
Flanked by a mosaic of hundreds of female supporters, President Obama delivered his sharpest attack yet on Mitt Romney's record on women's rights during a rally Friday at George Mason University in the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C.

Obama described Romney's recent behavior, which included a (brief) flirtation with renouncing abortion-related legislation and ongoing confusion over his position on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, as symptomatic of a dangerous illness.

"We've got to name this condition that he's going through," Obama said. "I think it's called Romnesia."
He continued: "If you say you're for equal pay for equal work, but you keep refusing to sign a bill that protects equal pay for equal work, you might have Romnesia," Obama said.

The crowd saw where this was going. As he moved on with other examples on abortion, contraception, and taxes, they began chanting the new buzzword before he could even finish his sentence.

"If you say you'll protect a woman's right to choose, but you stand up in a primary debate and say that you'd be delighted to sign a law outlawing that right to choose in all cases: man, you definitely got Romnesia."

The good news: "Obamacare covers preexisting conditions. We can fix you up. We've got a cure. This is a curable disease."

Running up the gender gap, especially with young and single women, is absolutely critical to an Obama win and the campaign has launched an all-out effort since this week's debate to pin Romney down on his most conservative positions. Many progressive women's groups were disappointed that these topics didn't come up in Obama's first meeting with Romney, but the second debate produced an array of memorable quotes and exchanges to build on.

To that end, Obama used every weapon at his disposal. He was introduced by Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards, then bounded onto the stage sporting a bright pink bracelet for breast cancer awareness month. He repeated his now-standard applause line about Romney's use of "binders full of women" to find qualified appointees in Massachusetts, a quote that's taken off among Democrats in a major way. He brought back an old Romney quote from the primaries about getting rid of Roe vs. Wade. On the stage were two bright blue signs, each reading "Women's Health Security."

The "binders full of women" line, and especially the broader answer on pay equity Romney offered, resonated in particular with audience members, many of whom brought it up unprompted in interviews ahead of the speech.

Maureen Schepis of Northern Virginia, said that Romney revealed "how he thinks about women" in the second debate, adding that he seemed to operate in a different "reality" than most people.

"It was weird," Varley said of the binders comment.

Julie McDonald, a new transplant to Fairfax, brought up Romney's discussion of flexible work hours so that one of his female appointees could cook dinner at the end of the day.

"I recognized that if you're going to have women in the workforce, that sometimes they need to be more flexible," Romney said Tuesday night. "My chief of staff, for instance, had two kids that were still in school. She said, I can't be here until 7:00 or 8:00 at night. I need to be able to get home at 5:00 so I can be there for -- making dinner for my kids and being with them when they get home from school. So we said, fine, let's have a flexible schedule so you can have hours that work for you."

McDonald took this to mean Romney wanted women to get home early to cook dinner, and was insulted. She wasn't the only person who noticed that comment and took offense. Nan Johnson, a local retiree who addressed the crowd before Obama took the stage, hit the line hard. "If you're going to have women in the workforce," Johnson said, each word dripping with contempt. "If? Like a woman having a job is some sort of proposition that you debate in the board room."

"I don't think I've ever seen someone so out of touch," she added.

Watch the video:

Gallup vs. the World

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Oct. 18: Obama Gains in Forecast on Resiliency in Swing State Polls

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Obama Judged Winner of Second Debate

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Najib shoots pre-election messengers

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BOOK REVIEW : Tamerlane through Central Asian eyes

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This glimpse into how Central Asia's evolving view of the legendary 14th-century ruler Timur (Tamerlane) highlights how the region's impoverished societies for centuries held up Timur as a symbol of past greatness and promise of future glory. In post-Soviet discourse the cult of Timur was re-launched under Uzbekistan leader Islam Karimov - overlooking that Uzbeks were his sworn enemies. - Dmitry Shlapentokh (Oct 19, '12)

INTERVIEW : Mixing Marx and Indonesia

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Internet freedoms squeezed in Kashmir

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Fighters in Mali destroy more Timbuktu tombs

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Assault on Yemen base blamed on al-Qaeda

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Tunisia clash leaves opposition official dead

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Malala now able to stand, UK doctors say

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Top security official killed in Lebanon blast

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African leaders map strategy to pacify Mali

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S Africa miners return to work amid sackings

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PHILIPPINES: Mobile phone app could help disaster preparedness

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MANILA, 19 October 2012 (IRIN) - The Philippine government has launched a mobile phone application which can provide real-time information on rainfall and flooding to the general public.

BURUNDI: Towards greater food security

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BUJUMBURA, 19 October 2012 (IRIN) - Burundi, despite being potentially self-sufficient in food, has the highest level of hunger of all the 79 countries listed in the 2012 Global Hunger Index, published earlier this month by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Welthungerhilfe, and Concern Worldwide.

EAST AFRICA: Sex workers need help too

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NAIROBI, 19 October 2012 (IRIN) - In humanitarian emergencies impoverished women may turn to sex work as a way of feeding themselves and their families; without the usual health services and given the often low education of those involved, sex is frequently unprotected, exposing them and their clients to sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV

Q&A: Swedish diplomat reflects on visit to refugee camp in Niger

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Number of Somali refugees in eastern Ethiopia swells to 170,000

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ICG Report - Troubled North Caucasus: The Challenges of Integration

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Sam Rainsy Seeks ‘Intervention’

Sam Rainsy Seeks ‘Intervention’:
Exiled opposition leader Sam Rainsy has requested a special “intervention” order from Cambodia’s king and prime minister to allow him to return home to pay his last respects to the country’s former monarch, who passed away earlier this week.

The 63-year-old president of the National Rescue Party (NRP) has sent letters to this effect to King Norodom Sihamoni and Prime Minister Hun Sen as Cambodia plunged into mourning following the death Monday of former King Norodom Sihanouk.

Sam Rainsy could be imprisoned on his return following convictions for various offenses he has said were part of a campaign of political persecution.

"On the occasion of national mourning, as a Cambodian citizen, I think it is important for me to strengthen national reconciliation and unity by helping to resolve Khmer issues according to the [former] King's wishes when he was alive," Sam Rainsy wrote in the letters dated Oct. 17 and distributed by his aides.

"During this mourning occasion, I would like Samdech [Hun Sen] to intervene by showing empathy and allowing me to return to pay my respects to the [former] King in Phnom Penh," he said, using the honorific title for the prime minister.

Speaking by telephone from self-exile in France, Sam Rainsy told RFA’s Khmer service that he would return home as soon as possible to pay his respects to Sihanouk depending on Sihamoni’s response.

“In the two letters, I have asked for the King and Samdech Hun Sen’s interventions to allow me to return to Cambodia to pay my last respect to the former King—I would like to see his face one last time,” the opposition leader said.

The Cambodian government has not responded to his letter.

The government had said previously that Sam Rainsy, who served former King Norodom Sihanouk as a minister of finance for the royalist Funcinpec Party in 1993, will be thrown in jail if he returns to Cambodia.

Call for amnesty

Sam Rainsy faces a total of 11 years in prison. He was sentenced to 10 years in absentia in 2010 for publishing a "false map" of the border with neighboring Vietnam, though the punishment was later reduced to seven years.

He was also handed a two-year sentence for "inciting racial discrimination" and uprooting border markings with Vietnam in a 2009 incident.

Last year, he was given another two-year jail term for accusing Cambodian's foreign minister of having been a member of the brutal Khmer Rouge regime in the late 1970s.

Prince Sisowath Thomico, King Sihanouk’s longtime private secretary and nephew, declined to comment on Sam Rainsy’s request. However, he acknowledged that the exiled politician had been a loyal servant to the former king.

The prince called on the Cambodian government to consider an amnesty for the country’s political prisoners and to allow them to see their former king’s body, flown back to Cambodia on Wednesday from his “second home” in Beijing where he succumbed to a heart attack while undergoing treatment for cancer.

“My personal view during this period of national mourning is that if we truly respect the former King as a promoter of national independence, reconciliation and national unity, all political prisoners should be pardoned,” Prince Thomico said.

Cambodians gather in front of the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh to honor King Norodom Sihanouk, Oct. 17, 2012. Credit: RFA

Honoring a king

While the ineffectual King Sihamoni has wielded little power since taking over from his father in 2004, many Cambodians still revere the country’s monarchy.

Hundreds of thousands of mourners lined the streets to pay respects to Sihanouk when his body was flown home Wednesday and escorted through the capital on a golden float.

Hun Sen has declared a week of mourning and ordered that Sihanouk’s body lie in state at the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh for three months, during which time the public can pay respects before it is cremated according to Buddhist ritual.

Chinese medical experts have been called in to embalm the former king’s body in order to preserve it to enable three months of public viewing beginning Friday.

“Chinese doctors are embalming the body to preserve it for three months. There will be a traditional seven-day funeral,” the prince said.

A national committee has been established to manage the lavish state funeral, he said, with one of its primary responsibilities being to ensure that diplomats, world leaders, and others in mourning will all have a chance to pay their respects.

The prince called on Cambodians to submit their requests to honor the king during the funeral.

Phnom Penh Municipality Police Chief Chhoun Sovann said authorities will seal off roads around the Royal Palace starting Thursday for the duration of the national funeral.

Reported by RFA’s Khmer service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

Second Mekong Dam Awaits Nod

Second Mekong Dam Awaits Nod:
Developers of a second dam proposed on the Mekong River in Laos have completed the design and impact assessment for the project and are awaiting the government green light to proceed with construction, according to an energy official.

The Pak Beng dam, to be located north of Luang Prabang in northwestern Laos’ Oudomxay province, was designed by Chinese developer Datang Overseas Investment Co., Ltd. through a memorandum of understanding between the Lao and Chinese governments signed in August 2007.

Construction on the project is only awaiting a nod from the government, a source from the Lao Ministry of Energy and Mining told RFA’s Lao service, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“It’s a Mekong dam. The design and everything else has been completed,” the source said.

“We’re just waiting for the government’s agreement to proceed.”

The dam will cost U.S. $1.88 billion to complete and generate 1,300 megawatts of energy when operable. The dam is estimated to be online by 2018 if the government allows construction to proceed.

If approved, the dam would be the second project of its kind on the Mekong River in Laos after the controversial Xayaburi dam, for which initial construction work had already begun despite opposition from environmentalists and neighboring nations.

Resource-starved Laos hopes to become the “battery” of Southeast Asia by selling hydroelectric power to its neighbors.

In September, Lao energy minister Soulivong Daravong said that the government would not shelve plans to build the U.S. $3.5 billion Xayaburi dam—the first of 11 proposed dams on the main stream of the Lower Mekong River.

Two months earlier, Lao Foreign Minister Thongloun Sisoulith announced at a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) that the project had been put off pending further studies.

But official media in Laos has said the government would allow developer Ch. Karnchang, a Thai company, to proceed with “scheduled” activities at the construction site, including the resettlement of affected villagers.

The dam has drawn criticism from neighbors Cambodia and Vietnam, which have jointly urged Laos to suspend the project to allow more time for a comprehensive review.

In August, a group of Thai villagers opposed to the dam submitted a lawsuit against five Thai government agencies, saying the government should not have agreed to purchase electricity from the dam without further study.

The project is being financed by a consortium of Thai banks.

The Mekong River Commission (MRC), an intergovernmental body including Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam which manages development along Southeast Asia's main waterway, had also ruled that the dam project should not proceed until further assessment was conducted.

The decision followed an earlier recommendation by an expert study group for a 10-year moratorium on all mainstream Mekong dams due to a need for further research on their potentially catastrophic environmental and socioeconomic impact.

Reported by RFA’s Lao service. Translated by Viengsay Luangkhot. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

IMF Cautions Over Salary Hike

IMF Cautions Over Salary Hike:
The International Monetary Fund cautioned Laos Thursday over providing a salary increase to civil servants in the country, saying the move could dampen higher priority spending.

In a report after annual consultations with the Lao government, the Washington-based IMF said that the country's current account deficit has widened and gross international reserves declined, covering only about two months of projected imports, the lowest level in almost a decade.

It said that while Lao macroeconomic policies have remained generally sound, "low reserve coverage and rapid credit growth amid high lending rates have emerged as sources of vulnerability."

"Although the [financial year] 2013 budget targets a broadly unchanged fiscal stance, the prospect for rapid increases in civil service wages could crowd out higher priority spending going forward," the IMF warned.

The Lao government is introducing a considerable increase to the monthly salary of all state employees beginning this month.

Rising cost of living

The total number of state employees has increased to more than 142,600, accounting for about 2.3 percent of the country's population of about six million, according to a report in the state-run Vientiane Times last month.

It said the government decided to increase the salaries of officials despite the financial challenges due to rising costs of living and inflation in Laos, and the "consequent pressures it puts on state officials."

The government will also grant an allowance to civil servants to cover the cost of electricity, water, and clothing.

The Ministry of Finance has confirmed that it has the capacity to fund the salary increase even though the outlay will be considerable, the Vientiane Times said.

But the IMF on Thursday called for restraint.

It said its executive board of directors "encouraged the authorities to exercise restraint in civil service wage increases which could crowd out higher priority spending."

In June, the National Assembly, the parliament of Laos, approved a budget expenditure increase to cope with the salary increase.

Reported by Parameswaran Ponnudurai.

Laos to Go It Alone

Laos to Go It Alone:
Parliament in Laos has given the go-ahead for the construction of a U.S. $7 billion Lao-China high-speed railway line project despite China's withdrawal from the venture, according to a report.

A Chinese construction company has pulled out of the original 420 kilometer (261 mile) joint venture, but China will provide a loan to implement the project, a report in the state-run Vientiane Times said Thursday.

Approval for the project was made at an extraordinary session of the National Assembly Thursday "after concluding that it is essential for national development at a time when economic integration is viewed as the future of the region," the report said.

"The railway is now set to go ahead without any other direct stakeholders, but will be financed by a loan from China," it said.

"Laos has now decided to assume sole ownership of the project, as it considers that transforming the country from being landlocked to a land link is central to the future of the nation's development."

'Not profitable enough'
The Chinese construction company pulled out of the project "because they felt it would not be profitable enough," the Vientiane Times said.

Leaders from Laos and China are expected to perform a project ground-breaking ceremony during a summit of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) forum on November 5-6.

The rail project will connect the Lao capital Vientiane to the country's Luang Namtha province along the border with China, with the network linked further to a line from Kunming, the capital of China's Yunnan province

Lao Deputy Prime Minister Somsavat Lengsavad reported on the project to the National Assembly, saying the project would attract more foreign investment and boost economic growth.

He said the EXIM Bank of China will provide a loan to cover the cost of construction.

It is not immediately clear how Laos will service its loans for the railway project.

In a report after annual consultations with the Lao government, the Washington-based IMF said on Thursday that the country's current account deficit has widened and gross international reserves declined, covering only about two months of projected imports, the lowest level in almost a decade.

The Fund said that while Lao macroeconomic policies have remained generally sound, "low reserve coverage and rapid credit growth amid high lending rates have emerged as sources of vulnerability."

IMF Executive Board Directors stressed to Laos "the importance of replenishing international reserves, to be supported by tightening macroeconomic policies," among other steps.

In the original rail project agreement signed about two years ago, there were plans for passenger trains to run at speeds of up to 200 kilometers (124 miles) per hour, but the Lao government has decided to reduce this to 160 kilometers (99 miles) per hour for safety reasons, partly due to the route's hilly terrain, Vientiane Times reported.

Goods trains meanwhile will travel at a maximum speed of 120 kilometers (75 miles) per hour, it said.

More than 100 bridges

Considering the mountainous nature of northern Laos, the railway will require 76 tunnels and 154 bridges, including two bridges across the Mekong River, according to the report.

Under a previous agreement signed between China and Laos two years ago, the Lao government was required to compensate villagers and urban dwellers who will need to be relocated from their land to make way for the rail project.

The compensation plan had represented the Lao government’s 30 percent stake in the project.

But residents have expressed doubts about whether they will receive a fair amount of compensation from authorities.
Reported by RFA's Lao service. Written in English by Parameswaran Ponnudurai.

Min Ko Naing: An Artist in Politics

Min Ko Naing: An Artist in Politics:

After spending nearly half his life in prison, the artist keeps working

Min Ko Naing (left) with fellow Burmese political prisoners in 2004. Photo: Burma Democratic Concern. Creative Commons

Everybody in Burma knows Min Ko Naing as a politician who has spent almost 20 of the 50 years of his life in different jails, but he is also a strongly political artist and writer.

1. 
2. In Burma if you want to hear about issues the newspapers can’t talk
   
   about, you should go to a tea shop. Tea houses were where I used to meet
   
   with other activists, writers and artists, as well as where I built
   
   friendships. Within tea houses we talked about Burmese writers, literary
   
   trends we noticed, and, of course, politics. This online space attempts to
   
   emulate the conversations I enjoyed in Rangoon’s tea houses.
3. 
4. Khet Mar is a journalist, novelist, short story
   
   writer, poet, and essayist from Burma. She is the author of one novel,
   
   Wild Snowy Night, as well as several collections of short stories,
   
   essays and poems. Her work has been translated into English and Japanese,
   
   been broadcast on radio, and made into a film. She is a former
   
   writer-in-residence at City of Asylum/Pittsburgh.

The 1988 uprising was a turning point in Burma’s history as well as a turning point for thousands of university students, including Min Ko Naing. During this time, with the help of other student leaders, he re-founded the All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU), an organization that had previously been known for its struggle against British colonial rule. Min Ko Naing took responsibility as a chairman of the group.
Because of what he was doing for democracy and human rights, and doing against the military government, Min Ko Naing was sentenced to 20 years in prison when he was 26 and still a university student. In 2004, after 15 years in prison, he was released for the first time. He was detained again from September 2006 to January 2007 without any reason. He was then arrested again for taking part in peaceful demonstrations just before the Saffron Revolution and sentenced to 65 years in prison.
While he was in jail Min Ko Naing won numerous international awards for his activism. These include the 2009 Gwangju Prize for Human Rights; the 2005 Civil Courage Prize, which he shared with Anna Politkovskaya and Munir Said Thalib; the 2001 Student Peace Prize; the 2000 Homo Homini Award of People In Need; and the 1999 John Humphrey Freedom Award, which he shared with Cynthia Maung of the Mae Tao Clinic.
Although I am close with his father, the artist U Thet Nyunt, Min Ko Naing and I were not friends until his release in 2004. I visited his home often when he was in jail to ask for news about him, talk with his family members, and give them some books to take him, including the journal Moe, which I published at the time. During these visits I repeatedly heard how interested Min Ko Naing was in literature, art, and music from his family. Sometimes I had the chance to read some lyrics he wrote in prison.
We first met at an art exhibition soon after his release in 2004. As soon as he was introduced to me by one of his friends he shook my hand warmly and said: “Ah, Khet Mar! Thank you so much for the books you sent to me. They were very precious to people like me who were in prison for a long time.”
After our first encounter, we often met at literary and political events. As I remember, we talked about what he wanted to do in literature and poetry, and about how he couldn’t publish his writing legally because of who he is. On occasion, I’d see his paintings when I visited his home.
But I haven’t seen Min Ko Naing since 2007 because he was arrested again in the same year that I left Burma. In 2009, the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) published his novel Rearview Mirror. I was tearful and happy when I read his book. I had a deep feeling that he was a real writer for addressing politics in his work, but I was also worried about him because of the political situation at the time, when it was dangerous for a political prisoner’s book to be published abroad.
In January 2011 I got the best present for my birthday. My friends, including Min Ko Naing, who were prisoners of conscience were released as part of a mass presidential pardon. They had all been sentenced to 65 years in prison.
I called Min Ko Naing the day after his release. When I heard him say “Hello?” on the phone I said emotionally, “This is Khet Mar.”
As soon as I finished talking he replied, “Come back home.”
I felt his response like a knife cutting a chunk out of my chest.
The political situation, especially in literature world, changed a little bit after the new government took power in 2010. Min Ko Naing’s book was published in Burma in July, 2012. The day after the book was distributed a filmmaker bought a copy intending to make it into a movie.
In 2012, Min Ko Naing won the Democracy Award from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). I was very happy when I heard that he was coming to the US to accept the award and I thought I would get to see him. But he did not come because, although he got his passport, the former political prisoners who applied for passports with him did not get theirs. This is typical behavior for him.
Min Ko Naing has been working continuously since his release in January 2012. He visited Kachin State where the civil war happened, the conflict areas in western Burma, the delta where people are in trouble because of flooding, and central Burma to educate people about open society. I have heard him speak to people and just hearing his voice make me happy.
Still, I am even happier when I hear him include his poetry or prose within these speeches.
Translation: Khet Mar

Balinese Food: Some Balinese Culinary Treats you have to Try

Balinese Food: Some Balinese Culinary Treats you have to Try:
By: Prima Frambawati

Balinese Nasi Campur (mixed rice) with Ayam Betutu (spiced chicken), By: Gunkarta

Visiting Bali is simply not complete if you don’t explore the Balinese cuisine. The Indonesian stereotype is that Balinese are too busy performing the many daily Hinduistic rituals and traditions to cook. Actually the opposite is true. Food often takes the center stage during ceremonies and celebrations.

Balinese food is known for its spiciness and enthusiastic use of bold flavors. The basa gede is an essential Balinese spice paste that consists of different spices for different dishes. It always incorporates sweet, salty, sour and spicy ingredients. Just like everything else in Bali, it’s all about the balance and harmony between these flavors.

These are some essential Balinese dishes and tips on where to enjoy them:

Lawar Bali is a typical Balinese dish. It comes in a white and a red variant. Both are consist of vegetables, but the white lawar can be vegetarian whereas the red lawar is made with fresh pork blood. There is a special trick in cooking red lawar to make sure that the blood does not smell bad, by using lemongrass and lime extract that is mixed in with the blood and the vegetables. Lawar is usually a side dish which is presented together with main courses like ayam betutu (steamed chicken) or babi guling (roasted suckling pig). 

A white lawar and Babi Guling (roasted suckling pig), By: Saylow Guling

Lawar can be found in many restaurants, especially the local road side eateries. In Kuta, a restaurant named Warung Enak, located in Mataram Street just a block after Legian street, served up a delicious lawar with ayam betutu and side dishes like sambal matah, boiled egg, tum, and jukut.

Sambal matah is very hot. It is made of chopped chili, red onion and lemongrass and is seasoned with salt. While tum is a blend of grated coconut, chicken, and seasoning wrapped in banana leaves. Jukut resembles a vegetable soup. Any kind of vegetable can be used to make jukut, but it’s most commonly made of young jackfruit.

Betutu is basically a mix of spices that is used to cook chicken or duck, the so called bumbu jangkep that includes garlic, turmeric, shallots, ginger, lemongrass, chilies, bay leaves and kaffir lime leaves. The duck is spice-rubbed duck slow-cooked in banana leaves. Like almost any meat in a banana leaf, the best bebek betutu is beautifully tender and the spices pronounced. You can also opt for steamed chicken. There are several styles of doing betutu:

 

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  Klungkung’s betutu chicken is stuffed with cooking-spices.
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  Gianyar’s betutu is cooked with plantain leaf wrapping.
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  Gilimanuk’s betutu is also very popular with its hot and spicy flavors such as garlic, onion, red chili peppers, turmeric, ginger, black pepper, and coconut oil.

Your best bet at finding bebek betutu or ayam betutu is Ubud. Try Kedewatan street for plenty of options. In Kuta, one of the Ayam Betutu Gilimanuk branches will also not disappoint. It takes over 24 hours to cook any betutu, so you are often asked to order in advance!

Babi Guling (roasted suckling pig), By: Lemuel Cantos

Served with crispy skin, By: Rollan Budi

In downtown Denpasar, Warung Chandra serves up another Bali specialty: Babi Guling. Guling refers to the way of cooking, a whole pig(let) is grilled above a fire. After the pig is cleaned, seasoned cassava leaves are put inside the stomach before grilling. The bowels are filled with pork to make sausages. The skin is grilled until crunchy like a cracker.

The roasted pork is served with satay lilit and sambel matah. Satay lilit is made of skewered meat and grated coconut. A small bowl of pork soup with light seasoning completes the feast. You will find babi guling on any festive occasion, but if you can’t wait, try Ibu Oka’s in Ubud, Pak Malen’s in Seminyak or Warung Babi Guling in Sanur.

Siobak in Singaraja, By: Rollan Buddi

Traveling north to Lovina near Singaraja, another pork dish awaits. It is called Siobak. This dish is actually Chinese in origin but with a Balinese spin on it. Singaraja region has the largest Chinese community on Bali, so head over to the north if you want to try this dish.  

Siobak consists of roasted pork belly with a delicious lumpy black sauce. The sauce is what makes this dish, with its wonderful flavor of sweet soya with cinnamon and lots of star anise. Topped with chopped fresh green chili and cucumber pickles, this dish is irresistible. Try it at Sio Bak Cik Kelok in Surapati street in Singaraja.

 

Following Laos’ Tea Caravan Trail

Following Laos’ Tea Caravan Trail:
By: Bernie Rosenbloom

Nam Phae courtesy of the Lao Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism

Nothing but a choppy green ocean of mountains flowed as far as I could see. Our viewpoint, Nam Phae Village in north-western Laos’ Luang Namtha Province, presented an uninterrupted vista stretching to the Golden Triangle and Myanmar. And though the forested sea took our breath away, the 2,094-metre climb to our lookout was easy. We rode in a van.

But isn’t Lao tourism about the great outdoors and helping poor villagers? That endless canopy hid hamlets of some 20 distinct ethnic groups, rivers and streams, waterfalls, caves, and rare wildlife. Women still weaved intricately patterned textiles on looms. Men scoured the jungle for food, medicinal herbs, and bamboo for handicrafts. Surely it takes a multi-day excursion to experience this side of Laos.

Well, yes and no. Yes, Luang Namtha’s Provincial Tourism Department, with support from the Asian Development Bank’s Sustainable Tourism Development Project (STDP) offers more than 20 treks with overnight village stays. All follow a community-based tourism (CBT) model that guarantees locals directly benefit. In fact, residents run the show, acting as custodians of the attractions and trails.

Nam Ha courtesy of the Lao Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism

Responsible Roadside Tourism

So how does my drive along Laos’ paved Route 3 connecting Thailand to China via Bokeo and Luang Namtha Provinces get blacktopped in responsible tourism? By hitting the STDP-developed “Tea Caravan Trail: 10 Highlights in the Northwest Mountains”. A diverse line-up of attractions line The Tea Caravan Trail – Lao Route 3 – which follows an ancient trade route that winds from Bokeo’s Mekong riverside Houei Xai Town through the mountains to Luang Namtha Town and the Route 13 turnoff to Yunnan.

At the trail’s southern end stands Houei Xai’s old French colonial garrison, Fort Carnot. The northernmost highlight, Nam Dee Waterfalls, tumbles down Luang Namtha Town’s outskirts. In between, we followed paths to Bor Kung Nature Park’s springs, wandered to 700-year-old Vat Mahaphot Temple, crept around Nam Eng Cave, and stopped at ethnic villages producing rattan basketry, bamboo paper, and hand-woven clothes. The 180-km drive only took a half-day, but plan on spending time at both ends and along the way to really explore the route.

The Tea Caravan’s 10 Highlights

My objective was to leave the hordes coming to Houei Xai from Thailand and clambering to Luang Prabang-bound boats. I was looking for something new.

Fort Carnot courtesy of the Lao Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism

1. Fort Carnot
Rik Ponne, who oversees STDP-Laos, warned me to walk quickly through the fort’s gate, as refurbishment of colonial France’s 110-year-old garrison was not complete. Still relatively well-preserved, the sentinel overlooks Houei Xai, the Mekong, and Thailand, and the eastern and western quarters remain intact, as do the southern and northern watchtowers. Tunnels in two corners once led to outside bunkers, and rifle racks still hang on the wall in the western barracks, which is being developed into a museum.

2. Nam Chang Handicraft Village
A 15-km drive north landed us at a school where Lanten women were making strong bamboo paper. One group was grinding young bamboo with sako tree leaves into a pulp, while another crew worked at barrels boiling the mix into a paste, which they spread on framed cloth screens, and sun-dried on racks. The village’s paper-makers are experimenting with various natural dyes, as demand in the world market for this coloured product is on the rise.

Don Chai courtesy of the Lao Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism

3. Don Chai Visitor Centre
A further 50 km in the increasingly higher mountains delivered us to Don Chai, the gateway to the Nam Kan National Protected Area and its “Gibbon Experience”. However, I was more interested in the roadside Bokeo Arts and Crafts Centre with its shop selling the Hmong’s embroidered fabric wall hangings, and woven Tai Lue coasters, placemats, tablecloths, curtains, cushion covers, and bedspreads. I bought a pair of rattan-wrapped dried gourds used for carrying drinks.

4. Nam Phae Viewpoint
Blue skies blessed our caravan as we left Bokeo and started climbing through Luang Namtha’s Vieng Phoukha District. We crossed the Ngo and Teun Rivers and reached Ban Nam Phae about 25 minutes after leaving Don Chai. As the Tea Caravan Trail’s highest point, Nam Phae does not disappoint, with a crystal-clear vista of forested mountains to the Golden Triangle and Myanmar. Not without handicrafts, Nam Phae women crochet shoulder bags from a forest vine.

5. Bor Kung Nature Park
Our next stop…Vieng Phoukha Town and the 18-hectare sacred forest behind the district visitor centre with its slate of tours. We followed trails along Shrimp Stream (Bor Kung) and its clear fresh water’s abundance of fish, crabs, and sizeable prawns, before swimming in the nearby spring-fed stone pools. The STDP plans to help transform the visitor centre into a district museum and small market, develop more nature trails with interpretive signs, and set up a campground.

Vat Mahaphot courtesy of the Lao Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism

6. Vat Mahaphot
This nugget near Vieng Phoukha Town took me by surprise. I was expecting an old temple and found the remnants of a 700-year-old civilisation. We inspected the ruins of Vat Mahaphot and the ramparts of a vine-covered city that thrived through the 1700s as an important trading post between China and Siam. Earthen kilns used to make bronze drums (kong bang), now on display at the Luang Prabang Province Museum, also dot the site.

7. Nam Eng Cave
Fifteen minutes after re-entering the van, we parked at Nam Eng Cave (Tham Kao Rao). The elderly caretaker greeted us, led us a few hundred metres to the cavern’s entrance, fired up a generator, and turned on the lights to one of northern Laos’ longest mapped underground labyrinths. Though the passageway is narrow in spots, we easily passed between limestone columns to inspect the inner chambers’ stone-rimmed wet pools with cave pearls. The STDP is planning a restaurant and market at the 30-hectare site.

8. Nam Ha Visitor Centre
Ban Chaleunsouk, some 20 km south of Luang Namtha Town, opens the door to many of the STDP-developed, community-based treks in the Nam Ha National Protected Area. I wasn’t crossing that threshold, but for lazy travellers like me, Ban Chaleunsouk’s Khmu people offer overnight homestays, guided forest walks, and one-day moderate treks to a Khmu and Lanten village with excellent mountain vistas. When completed, the STDP-supported visitor information centre will include a restaurant, covered picnic tables, and a retail market.

Vieng Neua courtesy of the Lao Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism

9. Vieng Neua Cultural Village
Just before reaching Luang Namtha Town, this 250-household ethnic Tai Yuan village houses a large traditional community centre used for weddings, meetings, and other important events and ceremonies. Vieng Neua villagers offered us khai paen, a semi-spicy riverweed snack, but time didn’t allow us to enjoy their music and dance performance and cooking class.

10. Nam Dee Waterfall
We accomplished nine of the 10 highlights in just one day, leaving the Nam Dee falls as part of a private tour of Luang Namtha’s environs, led by Souksan Phakasy, the provincial tourism marketing director. We mounted motor scooters for the quick ride to Ban Nam Dee (Good Water Village), an ethnic Lanten community with a trail that zigzagged across tiny bridges and up stone steps to a rocky flume gushing into a pair of natural swimming pools beneath a picnic pavilion. Then we bought a fish for Souksan’s family lunch, to which he invited me.

The Lao-Asian Development Bank’s Sustainable Tourism Development Project (www.stdplaos.com) supported the research and writing of this story.

Wae Rebo: Flores’ Traditional Manggaraian Houses

Wae Rebo: Flores’ Traditional Manggaraian Houses:
By: Reyhard Matheos

Enchanting Wae Rebo, By: Lara Shati

Have you ever imagined living in a house with more than 6 families? Seems a bit crowded and uncomfortable right? Yet, the traditional Manggaraian houses in Wae Rebo on the island of Flores house up to 20 people, in a spirit of togetherness.

Far away from the hustle and bustle of the city of Eastern Nusa Tenggara, there’s a village with seven traditional cone-shaped houses standing in a half-circle formation. Wae Rebo is a part of Satar Lenda Village located in Manggarai Regency, East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia. This place is something of a tourist hotspot, since it’s the only place which still features mbaru niang, the Traditional Manggaraian House.

Wae Rebo is quite remote and to get there, you need to take a few hurdles. It takes up to six hours by car from Labuan Bajo to Ruteng—the capital of West Manggarai Regency (transportation costs around IDR 60.000/person). From Terminal Mena in Ruteng, you take an oto—traditional passenger truck–to Denge village for seven hours. It’s cheap at only IDR 20.000/person. The Oto is operated twice a week, only on Tuesday and Friday and leaves at 10.00 a.m.

Crossing the Wae Lumba, By: Agustinus Saptono

Denge is the gateway to Wae Rebo. You can collect all information about Wae Rebo, homestays, and local guides in the information center and library of Wae Rebo. From here, another journey will begin by trekking through the dense forest, crossing the small rivers the Wae Lumba, climbing up and down steep hills and finally you will encounter the fascinating mbaru niang in the mountains fog. The trek takes 3/4 hours, but is well worth your time.

The village of Denge (Kombo)

The Architecture of Mbaru Niang

According to the locals, this village has been around for over 100 years. Today, it’s the eighteenth generation who lives there. A man named Empu Maro was touted as the founder and the very first resident of this village. He built seven mbaru niang. The larger one is called niang gendang where all the traditional instruments were kept. The other six are called niang gena.

The roof consists of lontar—palmyra palm leaves—and grass. The inner construction is made of wood. Each house has only one door to enter and four very small windows. It is surprisingly cool inside though the sun shines very brightly and the nights are just as warm.

Beside its shape, the uniqueness of this kind of these houses is its five floors, each floor having its own name and purpose. The first floor is called lutur. It consists of the undivided living room on the front side, the busy and smoky kitchen in the middle, and the bedrooms in the back side. People said that the heat of the burning charcoal in the kitchen strengthens the layers of the roof and makes it last longer. The second floor is called lobo and here their crops were kept. The third floor is lentar and served as storage for the seeds. The fourth floor is called lempa rae, used to store all the reserved food. The top floor is called hekang kode home to the offerings to ancestors.

Vistors are welcome, By: Agustinus Saptono

The inhabitants only sleep on the first floor, but the house can be lived in by six to eight families, which means that one dwelling can house about twenty people. It is based on their philosophy that togetherness is the main essence of their culture. Being well-known as good storytellers, Manggaraians are very welcoming when you visit their village, even though they mostly speak their own native language.

Caci war dance in Ruteng, Flores, By: Rosino

The Perfect Time to Visit Wae Rebo

Wae Rebo is very crowded in November. The villagers celebrate Penti as an expression of being grateful to god for the abundant crops and also to pray for the subsequent harvest. Various cultural rituals and the famous Caci war dance are held during this celebration. Joining the locals and being part of the community at this event will be an unforgettable experience in Wae Rebo.

Help out with the coffee beans, By: Lara Shati

Enjoying the beauty of Wae Rebo costs around  IDR.250.000 including a homestay for two days-one night and three meals. In Wae Rebo it is possible to stay in the new Mbaru Niang, collective shelter for guests (from 165.000/pax if more than 10, to 300.000/pax if alone, meals included, shared toilet).

You can also participate in the coffee production or weaving the Songke, traditional clothes of Manggarai. Experience a sense of togetherness and visit Wae Rebo!