Asia Foundation spurs Asians to help fellow Asians

Harry Bhaskara, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Dec. 26 Indian Ocean tsunami has affected people in different places in different ways. In the United States, it prompted Americans to turn to the Asia Foundation as a halfway house to channel their donations.

Douglas Bereuter, the foundation's president, said here last week that this was so despite the fact that the foundation is not well-known in the United States.

Yet, this shows that the foundation has a strong Asian identity. And although the foundation is not working in the field of humanitarian aid, it did rise to the challenge.

If it is little known in the States, perhaps things are not so different in Indonesia. The name of the foundation may ring a bell for many Indonesians, but only among certain circles, most notably among educationists and parts of the Muslim community.

Last week, when the foundation celebrated the achievements of 50 years' work in Indonesia, it was a modest affair that slipped by quietly.

For many, the foundation is looked upon as an American non- governmental organization. This could not be further from the truth, according to Douglas Ramage, its young and dynamic representative in Jakarta.

"This is an international non-governmental organization that happens to have its headquarters in San Francisco," says Douglas Ramage, the foundation's energetic representative in Jakarta, who is fluent in Indonesian.

Only around 40 percent of its operational budget is from American donors, the rest, he says, is from non-U.S. multinational companies.

The foundation's staff, he says, comprise at least ten nationalities. Ramage's deputy, for example, is an Australian. In addition, the citizens of 17 countries run its offices in the Asia-Pacific operating in 22 countries, including Cambodia, Vietnam, China and Japan.

Indonesia seems to hold an important position as its 60-strong office in Jakarta -- with a sizable number of local experts -- is only equaled by the foundation's headquarters.

Another interesting development in the foundation's leadership is the inclusion of a South Korean. Also of note is the increasing number of companies from Asia, notably South Korea, Taiwan and Japan, who have become the foundation's donors, says Bereuter.

In a sense, this has become an Asian-helping-Asian program with the foundation functioning as a facilitator. And yet, this is not an entirely new concept for the foundation, according to Ramage.

"We sometimes send people from here to other Asian countries or vice versa, because sometimes it is easier for them to learn about certain things from their fellow Asian countries," says Ramage.

Although the general public here is not familiar with the foundation, many ordinary people have benefited from its programs.

"We always look at the needs of a government or people in a given country," says Ramage.

This view is shared by a number of the foundation's donors.

The leader of a Muslim organization, Juniwati Masjchun Sofwan, says she enjoyed working with the foundation.

"They never dictated to us what to do. They asked us what our needs were," says Juniwati, who heads the Korps Perempuan of Majelis Dakwah Islamiah (a Muslim women's corps).

"They did test me in the beginning, so to speak -- about my view of democracy," says Juniwati with a smile. The Korps Perempuan and Asia Foundation work together in the field of civil society in Muslim women's communities.

Early Rahmawati, executive director of the Surabaya-based Association for the Advancement of Small Business, says the foundation has been of great help.

"We work together with the local government to expedite the process of obtaining business licenses for small-scale businesspeople," she said.

The foundation, she says, provides training on aspects related to business licensing for small-scale businesspeople and local government officials.

Zaim Saidi of the Public Interest Research and Advocacy Center (PIRAC) says that the foundation is not as fussy as certain foreign NGOs. Asked if the foundation ever pushes its own agenda, he says: "It is in-between, I would say. They never dictated to us what to do, but our activities have to fall into categories that the foundation has an interest in."

Zaim worked together with the foundation last year to empower consumers.

A book launch during the foundation's anniversary celebration in Jakarta last week, held together with the Lontar Foundation, is another case in point. The book entitled Indonesia in the Soeharto Years: Issues, Incidents and Images is the brainchild of a number of leading Indonesians, including essayist Goenawan Mohamad and photographer Oscar Motulo, says Ramage.

"They have the ideas and we help make them happen," he said.

In its 50th anniversary year, the foundation is awarding eight noted Indonesians for their contributions to democratic reforms in the country. They include Ulil Abshar-Abdalla, Agung Pambudi, Azyumardi Azra, Ibrahim Assegaf, Bivitri Susanti, Rifqi Assegaf, Santoso and Nursyahbani Katjasungkana.

"One of the criteria for winning the award is that the person has created something (in their own field of endeavor)," Ramage said.

Ramage, however, is aware of the charge that the foundation is doing a lot of work on Islam-related issues.

"My answer is, if you want to understand Indonesia, you have to understand Islam," he says.

Complementing Ramage's answer is the view expressed by former grantee Lies Marcoes Natsir, when she says that the foundation always looks at Muslim communities as the forces of civil society.

Th eAsia Foundation is perhaps best known for its book publishing program and books procurement scheme. In the last 30 years it has donated no less than 2.4 million books to various organizations and institutions in Indonesia.

Other areas to which the foundation devotes itself include the improvement of governance and law, economic reform and development, women's empowerment and international relations. For a non-profit organization to survive in a fledgling Indonesia for 50 years, particularly as similar organizations have become less- involved in the region in the last decade or so, has been no easy feat.

"We were once kicked out of the country," says Ramage referring to the 1960s when the foundation had to close its office in Jakarta for seven years, "but we continued our programs, nevertheless, without our physical presence."

Those years were tumultuous ones leading to the fall of Soekarno, who was leaning more and more toward the communists and was hostile to anything from the West. It was in those years that Indonesia withdrew from the United Nations.

Asked what he sees as the biggest challenge ahead for the foundation, Bereuter says, globalization.

"It is especially difficult for those who are less educated to face the impact of globalization," says Bereuter.