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Greetings from
FNF South Asia |
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Welcome to the second
edition of the FNF South Asia eNewsletter for
2010! |
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The second
newsletter this year marks the end of a transition
phase in the Regional Office South Asia. On July
27, I have taken over my new responsibilities as
Regional Director. I would like to thank my
predecessor, Dr. René Klaff, for his dedication
and hard work. Under his leadership, our work in
the region has evolved into new areas and the
standing of our organization in the region has
been enhanced. The South Asian team wishes him and
his family all the best in his new sphere of work
as Regional Director for Central, East and
Southeast Europe, South Caucasus and Central Asia.
For me and my family, this is a bit of a
homecoming, having worked for the Friedrich
Naumann Stiftung für die Freiheit in New Delhi
from 1994-2001. I look forward to renewing old
friendships and building new partnerships and
friendships in the years to come.
It is certainly an exciting time to be in the
region, which has come a long way since 2001. This
is reflected in the programs that we have
highlighted in this newsletter. We have continued
our work on the issues of Right to Information as
well as police reform, educational reforms,
participatory civic governance and property
rights. Fostering civil society dialogue in
Kashmir is a complex but crucial task that our
partner, Centre for Dialogue and Reconciliation,
has started to tackle in a comprehensive way. We
have also continued to support capacity building
for people who want to get involved in politics
and society, and last but not least, we engaged
the South Asian public in the discourse on liberal
philosophy and values. In this context, the 13th
Dudley Senanayake Memorial Lecture in Sri Lanka
was definitely a highlight of our work. Three
interesting analytical papers from our
colleagues round off this issue of our newsletter.
For now, enjoy the material contained in the
newsletter. For updates and recent news, please
also do visit our homepage at
www.southasia.fnst.org,
and the Foundation's German homepage at
www.freiheit.org.
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- Siegfried Herzog, Regional Director South Asia |
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| FNF News Flash
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Spokesman for Liberal Foreign Policy visits India
Dr.
Rainer Stinner, the Foreign Policy Spokesman of
the Free Democratic Party group in the German
parliament, visited India for a week at the
beginning of August. Visiting Mumbai, Pune and New
Delhi, he met a wide array of people from
government, politics, civil society and business
to learn about recent developments in India as
well as discussing areas of joint concern such as
regional security issues. With Germany being
heavily engaged in Afghanistan, both militarily
and in terms of aid assistance, understanding the
perspective of the region is of key importance.
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Farewell to Dr. René Klaff
Friends and partners of
FNF bid farewell to Dr. René Klaff who left India
in June 2010 to take up his new assignment in
Sofia, Bulgaria, as Regional Director Central,
Southeast and East Europe, Southern Caucasus and
Central Asia. In a selected gathering, the
partners recognized the contributions made by Dr.
Klaff during his almost five-year tenure in India.
At the same time, Siegfried Herzog was cordially
welcomed as the incoming Regional Director South
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FNF Alumni Dr. Lenin Raghuvanshi awarded Wiemar
City Council’s Human Rights Award for 2010
FNF Alumni and ACHA
President, Dr. Lenin Raghuvanshi will be awarded
the Wiemar City Council's Human Rights Award for
2010, on Dec 10, the United Nations International
Day of Human Rights.
As the founder of the People’s Vigilance Committee
on Human Rights (PVCHR), he strove to maintain and
enforce the fundamental rights of vulnerable
groups such as children, women, Dalits and
indigenous minorities. For this purpose, he
documented instances of absence and abuse of human
by such ways as starvation, police torture, child
labor, enlisted the support of local and
international organizations. He has carried on
this work in spite of threats against him and his
family.
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Recent Events |
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The Irony of Civic Governance in Mumbai
“Surely the city has more pressing issues than
renaming of roads!” said Nitai Mehta,
founder Trustee of Praja Foundation. Praja.org
with support of FNF released a White Paper that
highlights the huge gap between civic issues faced
by the citizens of Mumbai and the role of elected
representatives in addressing the same.
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Property Rights: The basis for Freedom and
Autonomy
At the launch of the
International Property Rights Index 2010,
Siegfried Herzog, the incoming Regional Director
South Asia, emphasized that Property Rights formed
the basis for freedom and autonomy. He said that
economic efficiency and social stability could
only be achieved through the implementation of a
robust system of Property Rights.
Read more
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Indian
Liberalism: Philosophy to Policy
Swatantra Party’s Statement
of Policy 1981 ends with following lines from
Gandhi, “I look upon an increase in the power of
the state with greatest fear, although while
apparently doing good by minimizing exploitation,
it does the greatest harm to mankind by destroying
individuality which is at the root of all
progress.” Read
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Chinars’
old leaves are falling
Chinars’ old leaves are
falling. The three generations old conflict of
Kashmir looses its aged foliage. Fresh saplings
are pushing through the disputed soil Finding
common grounds, looking ahead is the need for
conflict resolution. Around 36 participants
including civil society activists, politicians,
legislators, journalists, former government
officials from Azad Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and
refugees settled in Pakistan held…
Read more
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Roadmap to
Freedom
The Road to Freedom is
open! A map is available. We only have to drive
it. The Center for Peace and Development
Initiatives (CPDI) sketched this “Roadmap for the
Implementation of Freedom of Information” together
with stakeholders and civil society on a
stakeholder meeting in Islamabad: With the 18th
amendment the Article 19a of Pakistan’s
Constitution every citizen has the Right to
Information.
Read more
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Youth on the driver seat
“A life changing
experience” posted one out of 320 participants on facebook. “Amazing hours” named it his friend the
Young Leaders Conference 2010 in Karachi.
Expressing the views of many other young men and
women aged 18 to 24 from all over Pakistan a clear
cut can be followed up and seen on the long run:
Just after one week full of energy, experience and
learning, life is not the same like before.
Read more
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Education,
Politics & Freedom
The intellect, nature or bodily
ability of a human being. In its scientific logic,
education is the procedure by which civilization
intentionally convey its accumulated knowledge, skills
and principles from one generation to another. During
the two days seminar on “Education, Politics & Freedom” Asma Kiran Pervez, member of Freedom Gater Pakistan (FGP),
member of Freedom Gater Pakistan (FGP), Homepage
Contribution Report related Seminar on Education,
Politics & Freedom interrelated the three spheres
Education, Politics & Freedom.
Read more
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Children’s
Parliament of Pakistan
The Children’s Parliament
of Pakistan (CPP) is a creative concept in
Pakistan’s democratic culture which is structured
by Society for the Protection of the Rights of the
Child (SPARC) and supported by Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung
für die Freiheit (FNF). CPP provides a platform to
youngsters between 13 to 17 to learn experience
and adopt democratic processes.
Read more
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Conflict and Religion
Conflict literary means disagreement some may call
it a door opener which stands for supposed
antagonism of needs, values and interests.
Conflict in community setting can cause stress,
confrontation and even war. Conflict is a concept
to explain many characteristic of our lives in
religious, social and personal backgrounds.
FreedomGate Pakistan (FGP), the alumni network of
the Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung für die Freiheit (FNF)
examined it deeply during a Seminar in Karachi.
Read more
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High level Moderation
Moderation is a process of arbitration or
mediation. It also has significant character in
society to create essential attentiveness related
every single issue of particular civilization. The
Training of Moderators (TOM) professionalizes
partner organizations of the Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung
für die Freiheit (FNF).
Read more
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Democracy & Crisis of
Democracy
“Democracy is a political
structure of administration carried out either
directly by the people (direct democracy) or by
means of elected representatives of the people
(representative democracy). The expression comes
from the Greek: (dēmokratía) ‘rule of the people’,
which was coined from (dêmos) ‘people’ and (krátos)
‘power’. There is no, collectively established
exact definition of democracy. Equality, freedom
and justice for all have been identified as central
characteristics of democracy since prehistoric
times.” Thus, Jami Chandio, FreedomGater Pakistan (FGP),
goes back to the roots of this ancient and at the
same time most modern form of governance.
Read more
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Liberal Academy for
Political Leadership (LAPL) conducts workshop for
newly elected parliamentarians
FNF partner, the Liberal Academy for Political
Leadership (LAPL) was the first organization that
conducted a workshop for the newly elected Members
of Parliament. The participants comprised of MPs
from the United National Party (UNP) and the
ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) as
well as members of provincial councils.
Read more |
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13th Dudley Senanayake
Memorial Lecture
“The Friedrich Naumann Stiftung für die Freiheit (FNF)
and partner, the Dudley Senanayake Foundation (DSF)
organized the 13th Dudley Senanayake Memorial
Lecture on the 22nd of July 2010. The Lecture was
delivered by Hon. Yashwant Sinha, M.P., former
Minister of Finance and former Minister of
External Affairs of India.
Read more |
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Key Persons' Forum
launches collection of speeches - Sri Lanka
On a recent initiative of the Key Persons’ Forum
the addresses delivered by guest speakers each
given year and were published, since these
addresses are noteworthy for their intellectual
quality. A collection of speeches delivered by the
Guest Speakers of ‘Key Persons’ Forum during 2009
was compiled into a publication. The launching of
the publication took place recently.
Read more |
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Online Conference on
Police Reform
Policing in South Asia has too often conjured up
images of corruption, abuse of power and a wide
gulf between the police and the community that
they are supposed to serve. Nevertheless, “to the
surprise of the police the community do want to
trust them and have a police service that they can
be proud of,” said Robert Miles, a former UK
policeman who is working on community policing in
Bangladesh.
Read more |
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Strengthening the
state of Jammu & Kashmir – FNF supports a civil
society dialogue
The state of Jammu & Kashmir in India has suffered
some of the worst conflict in the world over the
last twenty years. As a way to peacefully help the
people of the state deal with the problems
associated with the conflict, as well as issues of
local governance, FNF supports the work of its
partner, the Centre for Dialogue & Reconciliation
in bringing together civil society participants
from across the state.
Read more |
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Broken ties between
India and Pakistan – The Foundation supports a
civil society dialogue
On the sidelines of the SAARC summit on April 29,
2010 the prime ministers of India and Pakistan met
to discuss how to restart a dialogue process to
build peaceful relations between the two
countries. The Foundation along, with its partner
Centre for Dialogue and Reconciliation (CDR),
supports this fragile process by organising
dialogue forums for influential civil society
actors. Talks between the two nuclear powers broke
off after the catastrophic Mumbai attack in
November 2008 in which 166 people were killed in
India’s commercial capital.
Read more |
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Publications |
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International Property Rights Index (2010)
"The International Property Rights Index (IPRI) is a
comparative study that aims to quantify the
strength of property rights – both physical and
intellectual – and ranks 125 countries
accordingly. These countries form 97% of the
world’s GDP. The report demonstrates the link
between property rights protection and economic
development. The 2010 IPRI serves as a tool for
policy makers, think-tanks, academics, business
leaders and other parties interested in promoting
the protection of property rights and economic
development."
Read
more
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Community Policing
Proceeding of a Consultative Workshop
Consultative workshop on Community Policing was
held in Islamabad in March, 2010. The workshop was
organized by Center for Peace and Development
Initiative (CPDI) in collaboration with The Asia
Foundation (TAF). The workshop was designed to
sharing experiences about Community Policing and
Dispute Resolution by the civil society and
practicing police officers. The purpose was to
come up with policy recommendations for future
shape of policing and local governance laws in the
areas of community policing and community-led
Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR).Read
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Down to Earth (2010)
By Sharad Joshi
India’s quantum jump in agricultural production in 1960s when it
changed from a ‘basket-case’ in food grains into a
net exporter has been a subject of universal
amazement. A good part of the credit goes to the
“green revolution” technology, the scientists who
helped usher it in and the then political
leadership. Green revolution technology meant
higher cost of cultivation. This made the
monsoon-dependent agriculture in India even more
non-viable. Read
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Interesting Readings
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Jammu & Kashmir: Stuck in an Insurgency
By Omair Ahmad
Over twenty civilians have lost their lives since June 2010 in a
series of clashes with the paramilitary and police
deployed in the Indian state of Jammu & Kashmir.
Situated at the core of the conflict between India and
Pakistan, the state has seen a violent insurgency over
the last twenty years costing tens of thousands of
casualties, as well as destroyed the economy and
institutions of self-governance in the state. The
current protests show that although the armed
insurgency might be over a highly securitised state
structure finds it difficult to deal with the demands
of a civilian population.
Read more
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Regional Integration of South Asia
By Subodh Kumar
Regional blocks have been an instrument of capitalizing on
benefits of reduced costs and increased cooperation
for a peaceful and harmonious neighbourhood. Starting
from the late 1970’s the world saw an increase of the
regional groupings especially following the example of
the European Union.
Read
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Governance, Identity and Statehood - India'sBalkanization?
By Manali Shah
Amidst all the cultural, geographical, historical, linguistic
heterogeneity that define democratic India,
balancing competing interests has always proved to
be a formidable challenge. One particular issue
has been of determining state boundaries. India’s
fourth largest state of Andhra Pradesh has been
the battleground for demands of separation of its
sub-region Telangana since the 1940s.
Read more |
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Upcoming Events
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Public Policy Workshop for Journalists, Centre for Civil
Society, Patna, August 2010
Freedom Talk on ‘SMES -the backbone of economy’,
TANSTIA-FNF Service Centre, Chennai, August 2010
Conference on Intra-Kashmir Dialogue Across the
LOC, Centre for Dialogue and Reconciliation,
Srinagar, September 2010
Conference on Media Advocacy, Freedom Gate
Pakistan, Karachi, August end 2010
Workshop on ‘Moderators Training’, Freedom Gate
Pakistan, Islamabad, September 2010
Workshop on “Freedom of Information’, Centre for
Peace and Development Initiative, Karachi, June
2010
Workshop on ‘Moderators Training’ for South
Asians, Friedrich Naumann Foundation, New Delhi,
October 2010
FNF South Asia Regional Meeting, New Delhi,
September 2010 ' |
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