Learning and bonding

By: Luis A. Vélez Pretelt

Hello everyone! I wanted to tell you a little but about some of my experience during the “ASEAN Studies: Globalization, Governance and Security in Southeast Asia” Program which I participated in during the summer.

My main interest in the Program was to learn about the policies that took place in Southeast Asia for its modernization in such a short period of time, resulting, in most cases, in greater development outcomes. Coming from Latin America, my intention was to get a better picture of the type of interventions that can be applied to my own region of interest in hopes of getting same positive outcomes.

This is how everything started, our first day of class. Look how happy we look!

There’s no doubt that this program is a great opportunity to learn about the political, economical, and social development of Malaysia and Indonesia. I just waned to tell you that besides getting the opportunity to listen to local academics, government officials, policy makers, business leaders and NGO activists from both Malaysia and Indonesia, this program also gave me the opportunity to meet and both with incredible people.

These are some of the pictures that show you some of the things we did together.

Multiculturalism in Malaysia

Multiculturalism in Malaysia

By: Luis A. Vélez Pretelt

To know Malaysia is to have the ability to admire an incredible place where the teeming and bustling mix of different races and religions give a special lifestyle of its inhabitants.

Malaysia is a multicultural nation where people are proud to live in a peaceful and tolerant manner despite the great ethnic and religious diversity. They regard themselves as a pluralistic society whose motto is "Unity is strength". More than half of the population is Muslims, followed by Buddhists, Taoists, Christians, Hindus and a small proportion of so-called tribal religions. Malays are the largest community and the vast majority of them profess Islam. The Chinese presence and influence are very important, representing a third of the population. Hindus are about 10%.


This is evident in the architecture, in restaurants and in the many temples there are scattered around the city. Similar to other countries in the region, Malaysia has maintained in recent years, a sustained economic development and political stability that have become a prosperous nation in the region, although not as rich or powerful as Thailand and less than Singapore.

While visiting Kuala Lumpur, we saw that is one of the Asian cities that attract attention by its powerful infrastructure. It has several subway lines, numerous elevated tracks and large buildings of modern design, like the Petronas Towers, which for many years were the highest in the world. 

Multiculturalism in Malaysia can also be evidenced in ethnic neighborhoods in Kuala Lumpur, such as the Chinese and Indian. Also in terms of its gastronomy we were able to find various street streets from various countries of the ethnic groups that make up the nation. For sure Chinese cuisine is dominant and there is also a popular combination of this with Malay ingredients.


My favorite part of the city was Bukit Bintang and the best place to eat is in Jalan Alor. We had the opportunity to go to dinner with Professor Heng and the rest of my colleagues and these are some of the dishes we got. Please do not forget to try the coconut ice cream and remember to put some corn to it, yes, corn!!

By: Luis A. Vélez Pretelt

Learning and having fun! (And having some competition as well)

During our last ‘official” visit in Indonesia, we were invited to Maverick’s Headquarters, a communications consultancy led by a Malaysian businessman, Mr. Ong Hock Chuan, who advises clients on how to do business in Indonesia. And ironically he is one of the best because he has experienced how difficult it is for foreigners to do business in Indonesia. The presentation was very interesting. Mr. Chuan was accompanied by Mr. Endy Bayuni, Senior Editor from Jakarta Post, and they both talked about the importance of media, and more specifically social media, not only in the realm of marketing (when it comes to selling a product) but in politics. This topic gains more importance in the Indonesian context, as many citizens are relying on social media to express their discontent with the political situation in the country and government’s decision in terms of foreign affairs.

At the end of the presentation, Kelly and I were interviewed by some of the staff who asked us about our experience. You can check the home-spun video of our visit to maverick here… Almost famous!

But at Maverick we also had an opportunity to have some fun and get loose a little bit. Some of the staff challenged AU to play a match of foosball. Again Kelly and I rose to the challenge (I’m starting to see a trend here!!!).

We started dominating the match, goal after goal. At some point we were 7-2 and we needed to score 11 to win. I really thought we had this covered but somehow they started scoring and we got pretty anxious. I’m a very competitive person and I know that Kelly is too, so we were committed to take the ‘trophy’ back to AU. 10-10, a tie! Our last chance. It happened so fast; they scored. We were defeated! ☹

So fellow AU student, if you decide to embark on this journey, please go back to Maverick, challenge them to play a foosball match and WIN! Do it for you, and for Kelly and me. Now that I think about it, this competitive feeling might had escalated too quickly. Above all, enjoy this experience. You will learn a lot and you will also have time to have fun (but seriously, don’t forget to beat them!).

By: Luis A. Vélez Pretelt

The State of the Opposition

Towards the end of our time in Malaysia we spent a day visiting representatives from the three political parties which make up to opposition group which has been in turmoil following the last election in 2013. There are three parties which represent very distinct and, sometimes opposing interests within the coalition (called the People's Alliance). The first is PKR or the Social Justice party, which is primarily urban and Malay. The opposition figurehead, Anwar Ibrahim, comes from this party which started as a split from the ruling UMNO party over differences of opinion about greater democratization and the retrenchment of the Bumiputra laws. There were also further differences over the speed and implementation of Hudud (Islamic corporal punishment), which in turn led to the breakdown of the opposition coalition. We met with one of the new faces in the PKR, Nural Izzah Anwar who is presently (arguably) the de-facto opposition leader. She is the daughter of Anwar Ibrahim who is presently in prison on Sodomy charges, which according to many sources may have been a coordinated sting by the ruling party in order to defang the opposition after the elections. While she remained upbeat about eventual change in Malaysia she iterated several time that the government was using its influence in order to destroy the movement in its current form. She pointed out that police officers, who heavily support the ruling party of UMNO get to vote in the district they patrol rather than where they live, and that the government has drawn voting districts in such a way as to allow rural voters to outweigh their urban counterparts. It worth noting that this was at least partially responsible for the defeat of the People's Alliance in the last election; although the coalition won an absolute majority of the popular vote in 2013, it got around a third of the seats. UMNO, which won around 47% of the vote picked up two thirds of the seats.

The second group was the mostly-Chinese DAP, or Democratic Action Party They have a large presence in urban areas and some MPs in Sabah and Sarawak. Because they are a primarily Chinese party they were far more dedicated to a secular Malaysia than any primarily Malay party. The representative we met with included Dr. Ong Kian Ming and Teresa Kok both sitting members of parliament for the DAP. I was surprised to learn that Dr Kian Ming had gone to school with one of my professors, Jie Lu, at Duke. I promised I would get back in touch with him regarding a position at the Penang Institute in the spring, he said it was certainly possible and that the institution does accept foreign applicants. The two representatives were especially concerned about the creeping "arabization" of Islam in Malaysia and that the Chinese community was afraid it would be caught in the race between UMNO and PAS to capture the Muslim vote by enacting strict laws, dress codes, and restrictions on the way non-Malays may practice their faith.

Lastly we met with PAS, the Islamic Party, which is presently undergoing extreme turmoil and is about to fracture into two separate parties. The constituency of PAS is primarily northern, rural, conservative, and staunchly religious. Yet many elites within the party are wary about attempting to implement Hudud before the government has been unseated. The new generation of party leaders is more gung-ho about the implementation of Islamic Law and this has been the cause of a major split in the party, and resulted in many of the older generation of PAS activists deciding to split off after the new leadership wanted to align itself with UMNO on the matter.

The Opposition, it seems, is as deeply divided as the nation itself. The next election, and maybe the future of the country, depends on whether or not the opposition coalition can come together.

Selaymat Hari Rayya

When I arrived in Malaysia for the class I already knew that I would be there during the end of Ramadan. Ramadan is, of course, the time of fasting and penitence in the Islamic faith. Over 60% of Malaysia is made up of practicing Muslims but the religion has an ethnic dimension that isn't present in the middle east. Malays are, by definition, Muslim and the Malay populace is exceptionally pious due to the ethnic dimension of religion in the country. This meant that the ongoing celebrations were a primarily Malay affair, but that said there was still a major presence of the holiday everywhere, Hari Rayya lights were strung across the doorways of the dorm we were staying in, and many restaurants weren't open at all until after sunset. Perhaps one of the funniest moments, which we got to experience every night, was the furtive glances between restaurant patrons waiting to see who was going to be the first to eat. At the last sundown of Ramadan we all went out to a restaurant which served Arabian food, and smoked hookah. The restaurant was directly under to Petronas twin towers and after sundown the fireworks started, leaving us to eat and watch as they went off. One of the members of Sisters in Islam, a group that two of our students had interned for joined us for supper and we had a lively discussion about UMNO, the primary ruling party, and the Bumiputra laws. I ate some lamb and then after dinner wandered around to watch the fireworks from the street stalls, selling sweets and gifts for the holiday season, but if that sounds dull, it wasn't for long. Our guest invited us all to take her car and see the fireworks from the top of Lookout hill, a small mountain which overlooked downtown. Everyone else was much too tired to go out and elected to return to the dorms and listen to music while preparing for classes the next day, but I wasn't tired and wanted to experience my last night in Kuala Lumpur to its fullest. She drove me out past the tool roads and onto a side street heading out of town, at every toll booth we stopped she wished the worker a "Selayamat Hari Rayya" to celebrate the start of the Holiday season which follows Ramadan. We bought a few sodas and a small pack of the local tobacco, I don't normally smoke but today was a special occasion. When we reached the top of the Hill there were people from all walks of life, a Malaysian biker club, families with children, couples, but as far as I could see no foreigners but myself. We turned on the radio and let it play out the open car window. We tried to chat a little, but the fireworks began in earnest around midnight and it felt like we were both locked in a trance. The neon of Kuala Lumpur below mixed with the lights exploding and sparkling above the city. Cheers rang out from the city and sometimes I could make out a word or two in Malay. I finished my soda around 1 AM and sat on the siderail of the mountain. The lights of the city began to go out but the fireworks continued long into the night, within a few minutes most of the city was dark except for the fireworks. I will never forget that moment as long as I live, it was the highlight of the year for me.

President Jokowi and the Hope and Change Campaign

I have always been fascinated with the construction of political campaigns, and the mention of President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's presidential campaign being compared to Barack Obama's campaign was interesting to me. Ima Abdulrahim, executive director of the Indonesian think tank The Habibie Center spoke to us on July 22 at our hotel about Indonesia under the Jokowi administration. (Side note: The Habibie Center focuses on democracy and human rights and was created by former president BJ Habibie and is very well regarded both in the region and beyond. )

According to Ima, during his campaign, the Indonesian progressive community and creative community was extremely excited about Jokowi. His campaign was seen as a "change" campaign as Jokowi was young, not associated with the political cartels, he did not come from a well-connected family, and he promised to attack corruption, which he had done as Governor of Jakarta. Unlike candidates in past elections, he gained a lot of support and people volunteered for the campaign in an unprecedented way. Social media was also a large part of his campaign.

However, since inauguration, expectations have fallen flat and many are disappointed with his performance, despite having made some good policy changes. One of the major problems seems to be his being beholden to the party of Megawati, the PDI-P, who was the one who nominated him as a presidential candidate. In Indonesian politics, a presidential candidate has to be nominated by a party, and seeing his rise to popularity Megawati nominated him as the candidate for her party. Since this party is very much a part of the political cartel system, some of his cabinet appointments seem to be purely to pay lip service to the patronage system, with appointments of ministers who were either known to be very corrupt or simply unqualified. The police chief appointment was especially disappointing, and though Jokowi said he wanted to eradicate corruption, he is considered to have weakened the Corruption Eradication Committee (KPK).

However, there have been some policy changes that have been more happily accepted by his supporters, such as his removal of the fuel subsidies soon after inauguration. This move was fought against by his own party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P). 

Pancasila

Throughout the course we learned about the politics and history of both Malaysia and Indonesia. We covered a lot of fascinating topics, but one that stuck out in my mind is the concept of Pancasila from Indonesia. (That’s pronounced paunch-a-see-ya in case you’re curious). Pancasila is a national philosophy at the heart of the Indonesian constitution.  It is five key principles that protect the rights and freedoms of the Indonesian people. Here is the list in their succinct, English form:

1.     Belief in the one and only God ***

2.     Just and civilized humanity

3.     Unity of Indonesia

4.     Democracy led by the wisdom of deliberations among representatives

5.     Social justice for the whole of the people of Indonesia

“Sure Kelly, that’s nice,” you say, “but what’s with the asterisks?”

That’s actually the best part in my opinion.

Here is the explanation from the embassy’s webpage: “…which means every Indonesian citizen, no matter which religious denomination or faith they follow, should respect each other’s belief for the sake of the harmony and peace of mankind.” Pretty cool, right? In Indonesia it is considered extremely important to have a religion, but the state will not declare one religion because it would almost invariably end in conflict.

This idea is why Pancasila stands out in my mind. I’m not here to tell you that Indonesia is perfect. Besides the fact that I was only recently introduced to the country and, therefore, am in no position to make such a claim; it is clear that Indonesia still faces struggles of its own. And many of these struggles related to questions of religious freedoms. However I find it encouraging that religious consideration is included in the five Pancasila principles. It seems that religion and the “dirty game of politics”, as one of our guest speakers called it, are becoming more and more tied together in some places. The Indonesian understanding that sometimes it’s our differences that make us stronger impressed me.