Asia Leadership Fellow Program
2018 PROGRAM REPORTImagining Plural Asias: How Can We EnrichInterrelationships across Borders?

International House of JapanJapan Foundation

Imagining Plural Asias: How Can We Enrich Interrelationships across Borders?
Published byInternational House of Japan and Japan Foundation
Copyright © 2019
International House of Japan
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Tokyo 106-0032, Japan
Telephone: +81-3-3470-3211
Fax: +81-3-3470-3170
Email: alfp_info@i-house.or.jp
URL: alfpnetwork.net/en/

Contents

ALFP 2018 Fellows ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4
ALFP 2018 Schedule -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8
ALFP 2018 Program Overview ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 103

ALFP 2018 Fellows

Samrat Choudhury (India)
Author / Journalist (Independent)
Mr. Choudhury is an author and journalist. After serving as an editor at mainstream newspapers
in New Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru, he has been engaged in writing a book on theBrahmaputra River, which flows through Tibet in China, northeast India and Bangladesh. He isinterested in such topics as the politics, history and culture of this complex and diverse region
where India, Bangladesh and China meet, as well as of India as a whole. His publications
include short stories, essays and a graphic novella, some of which have been translated into
German, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese. His novel The Urban Jungle (Penguin Books, 2011)
was nominated for the Man Asian Literary Prize. Having studied electrical engineering before,
he is also interested in technology and its impact on society. He divides his time between
Shillong and Kolkata.

Aziz Ali Dad (Pakistan)
Knowledge Management and Communication Specialist, Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP)
Mr. Ali Dad is Knowledge Management and Communications Specialist at the
nongovernmental Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP), engaged in research on theimpact of socio-economic development on politically marginalized regions such as
Gilgit-Baltistan (where he is from) and its neighboring areas and how globalization affects local
culture, traditions, governance structure and people’s identities. He is also a leading writer inthe region and a regular columnist at the major English daily The News. By writing extensively
on philosophical, cultural, political and social issues and presenting research papers at national
and international conferences, he hopes to represent the region of Gilgit-Baltistan. Mr. Ali Dad
received an MSc in Philosophy of Social Sciences from the London School of Economics andPolitical Science (LSE). Recently, he completed the study “Horizons of CPEC in
Gilgit-Baltistan” for AKRSP, which examines the opportunities and challenges theChina-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) may bring to Gilgit-Baltistan.

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Asmin Fransiska (Indonesia)
Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Law, Atma Jaya Catholic University of Indonesia
Dr. Fransiska is the director of the Institute of Research and Community Services and a seniorlecturer in the Faculty of Law at Atma Jaya Catholic University of Indonesia. She has conducted
research on human rights and drug policy focusing on drug law and human rights, health andchildren, democracy and past abuses. She obtained a master’s degree from Northwestern
University, USA, and a Ph.D. from Justus Liebig University, Giessen, Germany. Besides
publishing articles in international academic books and journals, Dr. Fransiska frequently writes
essays for national and international media regarding human rights, the anti-death penalty
movement, the rule of law and drug law. She serves as a coordinator of the Indonesian Coalitionfor Drug Policy Reform while seeking solutions to drug dependence and advocating healthrights. She hopes to learn from other Asian countries’ efforts on human rights issues.

Lydia Lubon (Malaysia)
Documentary Filmmaker and Producer (Independent)
Ms. Lubon is a documentary filmmaker whose 14-year career has seen her engaged ininternational documentary production across Asia. She currently holds the position of Secretary
for the Malaysian Documentary Association and has received multiple film awards, including
Best Documentary for her first film in 2004 and also for her Discovery Channel film Making theCut in 2009. Most recently, she was Executive Producer for Operation Sumatran Rhino, which
was the first Malaysian wildlife documentary to receive a global telecast on National
Geographic Wild. Ms. Lubon works with international TV networks such as Discovery Channel,History Channel, Bio Channel, National Geographic, National Geographic Wild, Fox Sports andAl Jazeera English. Ms. Lubon is of mixed parentage, half-American and half-Iban (Malaysia’slargest indigenous tribe). She was born and raised in Malaysia, spending many months eachyear on the island of Borneo. She is passionate about wildlife and environmental conservation,and uses her films as a platform for raising awareness about social responsibility.

Alongkot Maiduang (Thailand)
Academic Officer, IPST Thailand / Art & Culture Journalist, Judprakai Newspaper
Dr. Maiduang is an academic officer at the Institute for the Promotion of Teaching Science andTechnology (IPST). His works cover all aspects of mathematics education in Thailand, ranging
from developing national curricula, policies and textbooks, and training teachers to conducting
national as well as international assessments. Dr. Maiduang also works as a film critic andwrites commentaries on world cinema, especially Asian films and multi-national productions
under the pen name “kalapapruek” for various media and has won several film criticism awards.
He has visited most major film festivals, such as Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Rotterdam, London,
Hong Kong and Singapore, while serving as a permanent jury member of the International
Association of Theatre Critics (IATC) Thailand to judge awards for outstanding stage
performances in Thailand. Apart from film, he writes reviews on literature, art exhibitions,classical music and stage performances.

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Sawanishi Mikiko (Japan)
Deputy Executive Head, United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF)
Ms. Sawanishi currently serves as Deputy Executive Head of the United Nations Democracy
Fund (UNDEF) based in New York. UNDEF was created in 2005 as a United Nations General
Trust Fund at the Millennium Summit with the objective of promoting democracy at thegrassroots level. Through her work at UNDEF, she has worked with civil society organizations
in almost all Asian countries and contributed to the enhancement of civil society in the localcommunity, especially by enabling participation of all citizens including the most marginalizedand vulnerable populations in decision-making processes. Prior to UNDEF, she worked for UN
agencies, funds and programmes in the fields of development, conflict prevention, combating
infectious diseases and peaceful use of nuclear technology. She has also engaged in projects
relating to the empowerment of women and the promotion of equal participation of all sexes
both in the home and workforce, as well as to educational assistance in developing nations.
Before joining the UN, she worked for the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, Agency
for Cultural Affairs and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation.

Sun Dong (China)Poet / Professor and Deputy Director, Office of International Cooperation and Exchanges,Nanjing University of Finance and Economics
Dr. Sun currently works as a professor of English literature at Nanjing University of Financeand Economics. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at McMaster University in Canada
after earning a Ph.D. in English literature from Nanjing University. Dr. Sun is a literary critic
specializing in poetry and theater studies and a prominent poet. She has authored one
monograph, two poetry books, numerous academic articles and hundreds of poems in various
distinguished journals and newspapers while translating and editing a number of books relatingto poetry. Her poems have also been translated into English, Turkish, Hindi, French andRomanian. Through her work at the Office of International Cooperation and Exchanges,
Nanjing University of Finance and Economics, as well as at the Confucius Institute for Business,
State University of New York as a Chinese director (2013–17), she has developed a passion for
promoting cultural exchange and has collaborated with educational and cultural institutions inother countries.

6Silot Uon (Cambodia)
Career Advisor, SeeChange International Cambodia
Mr. Uon is a career advisor for SeeChange International Cambodia, a nongovernmentalorganization focusing on the empowerment of young people through job training and theimprovement of their mindset. Its vocational training center in particular helps young
individuals get into a more sustainable workplace than they are now by providing theopportunity to study for career advancement and connecting them with partner organizations on
an individual basis. Mr. Uon is also a general manager of Cashew Nut Association Kompong
Thom (CAT), a commercial association operated with the provincial department of commerce,
where he is responsible for training farmers in Kompong Thom as well as for finding newmarkets to sell their products. In addition, Mr. Uon has worked as a translator cum coordinator
for Teachers Across Borders Australia (TAB) since 2006 and helped organize workshops forteachers to improve the quality of teaching and conducted workshops for those in management
and leadership positions in public institutions. In his activities, Mr. Uon places great emphasison the importance of nurturing a mutual respect among people not only in his community butalso in neighboring countries.

*Affiliation and titles are those at the time of participation in the program.

7ALFP 2018 ScheduleSep 10

Orientation/Welcoming Reception

Sep 11Introduction Session
Country Reports 1: Samrat Choudhury and Silot Uon

Sep 12

Country Reports 2: Sun Dong, Asmin Fransiska, and Alongkot Maiduang
Country Reports 3: Aziz Ali Dad, Lydia Lubon, and Sawanishi Mikiko

Sep 14

Discussion-Paper Presentations

Sep 18Core Seminar on South Asia “Structural Transformation in Globalizing India and Asia: An
Agenda for Sustainable, Inclusive and Peaceful Development” by Tanabe Akio (Professor,University of Tokyo)
Prep Session for the Field Trip (Part I)

Sep 19Core Seminar on Northeast Asia “Remembrance and Forgetting of Negative HistoricalMemories” by Ako Tomoko (Associate Professor, University of Tokyo)

Sep 20Prep Session for the Field Trip (Part II)
Core Seminar on Southeast Asia “Challenges to Democracy in Asia: The Rise of Populism
and Moral Politics” by Kusaka Wataru (Associate Professor, Nagoya University)

Sep 21

Film screening of Operation Sumatran Rhino followed by Q&A session

Sep 25–29

Field Trip to Tohoku

Oct 2

Seminar “Stable but Disappointing: The ‘3:2:5’ Voting Structure of the Japanese Elections inthe 2010s” by Oguma Eiji (Professor, Keio University)

Oct 3

Visit to NHK

Oct 5

Film screening of RemittanceOct 6–13

Individual Activities Period

Oct 14

ALFP Lecture Series #1 “Journalism in Asia: Searching for the Truth” by Kunda Dixit (Editorand Publisher, Nepali Times / ALFP 2006 Fellow), Saba Naqvi (Independent Journalist / ALFP
2013 Fellow), and Kong Rithdee (Editor, Bangkok Post / ALFP 2010 Fellow) and discussion
with fellows from other leadership programs in the Asia-PacificOct 15

Visit to the Tessenkai Noh Theatre and seminar on Japanese traditional performing arts andcollaboration with artists from other Asian countries by Shimizu Kanji (Noh Performer)

Oct 16

Visit to Tosetsukai (nursing-care facility) and meeting with Mataki Kyoko (Chairperson,Tosetsukai)

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Oct 17

Seminar “An Anti-Disciplinary Project” by Okahara Kosuke (Photographer)

Oct 19Seminar “Imagining Plural Asias: How Can We Enrich Interrelationships across Borders?” by
Mario Lopez (Associate Professor, Kyoto University)

Oct 23–24

Retreat Session in Kiyosato

Oct 30Asia Pacific Young Leaders Program (APYLP) Joint Session with Asia Society

Oct 31

Public ForumNov 2

Evaluation Session9

2018 Program Overview

Discussion-Paper Presentations
A one-day session was held at the beginning of the program in Tokyo where the Fellows shared theirexpertise, areas of interest and regional and global concerns with several intellectuals based in Japan andalso engaged in dialogue under this year’s ALFP theme “Imagining Plural Asias: How Can We EnrichInterrelationships across Borders?”

Commentators and Moderators:
 Ako Tomoko (Associate Professor, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Tokyo)
 Imata Katsuji (Vice Chairperson, Japan NPO Center / ALFP 2013 Fellow)
 Mizuno Takaaki (Professor, Kanda University of International Studies) Ogawa Reiko (Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, Politics & Economics, Chiba University) Ohashi Masaaki (Professor, University of the Sacred Heart / Trustee, Japan NGO Center forInternational Cooperation (JANIC) / ALFP 1999 Fellow)

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Core Seminars
Three core seminars were conducted on Northeast, Southeast, and South Asia, respectively, in the second
week of the Program, for the Fellows to look at each region as well as the issues shared within and/or
across the region from a broader perspective while sharing visions for the future of Asia.
− Core Seminar on South Asia “Structural Transformation in Globalizing India and Asia: An Agenda for
Sustainable, Inclusive and Peaceful Development” by Tanabe Akio (Professor, University of Tokyo) onSeptember 18− Core Seminar on Northeast Asia “Remembrance and Forgetting of Negative Historical Memories” by

Ako Tomoko (Associate Professor, University of Tokyo) on September 19− Core Seminar on Southeast Asia “Challenges to Democracy in Asia: The Rise of Populism and MoralPolitics” by Kusaka Wataru (Associate Professor, Nagoya University) on September 2011Seminars
In addition to core seminars, the Fellows met a number of Japan-based resource persons, including
intellectuals and leading figures from academia, NGOs and NPOs, in the formal setting of seminars (listedbelow in chronological order).
− Seminar “Stable but Disappointing: The ‘3:2:5’ Voting Structure of the Japanese Elections in the 2010s”
by Oguma Eiji (Professor, Keio University) on October 2− ALFP Lecture Series #1 “Journalism in Asia: Searching for the Truth” by Kunda Dixit (Editor andPublisher, Nepali Times / ALFP 2006 Fellow), Saba Naqvi (Independent Journalist / ALFP 2013
Fellow), and Kong Rithdee (Editor, Bangkok Post / ALFP 2010 Fellow) and discussion with fellows
from other leadership programs in the Asia-Pacific on October 14− Visit to the Tessenkai Noh Theatre and seminar on Japanese traditional performing arts andcollaboration with artists from other Asian countries by Shimizu Kanji (Noh Performer) on October 1512− Seminar “An Anti-Disciplinary Project” by Okahara Kosuke (Photographer) on October 17− Seminar “Imagining Plural Asias: How Can We Enrich Interrelationships across Borders?”
by Mario Lopez (Associate Professor, Kyoto University) on October 19

Other Visits & Sessions− Visit to NHK on October 3
The Fellows met with a senior producer of NHK and also took a guided-tour of the facility, including
studios.

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− Visit to Tosetsukai (nursing-care facility) and meeting with Mataki Kyoko (Chairperson, Tosetsukai)
on October 16

Field Trip to Tohoku (September 25–29)
The Fellows went as a group on a field trip organized around their suggestions and common interests. The
sites visited as well as the topics covered on the trip were:Efforts for Community Revitalization
Seminar on local revitalization in an aging community by Ushida Shunsuke (Co-founder, HabatakuInc.) on September 25Seminar on agriculture in Japan and the Tohoku area in the era of globalization by Tada Katsuhiko(President, Tada Natural Farm) and networking with local farmers and entrepreneurs on September 27

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Environmental Sustainability and Preservation of Culture

Guided nature walk and discussion on the preservation of traditional culture and wildlife conservationand management with matagi (traditional hunters in the Tohoku area) on September 26

Guided tour of an oyster farm by Hatakeyama Makoto (Executive Director, NPO Mori wa Umi noKoibito / oyster farmer) and seminar on a holistic approach to environmental issues by Yokoyama
Katsuhide (Trustee, NPO Mori wa Umi no Koibito) on September 29

Recovery from Natural Disasters
Briefing on “the phone of the wind” by Sasaki Itaru (Founder, Bell Gardia Kujira-yama) and discussion
on loss and memory on September 28

15

Visit to a local cultural facility “Oshacchi” and briefing on the importance of passing on memories ofdisasters on September 28

Meeting with Hirano Kozo (Mayor, Otsuchi Town) and briefing on the local recovery andreconstruction in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami on September 28

Discussion on youth empowerment after disaster with Nam Kyeongwon (school social worker, OtsuchiTown) on September 28

16Seminar on the role of local performing arts in the post-disaster community by Tobai Teruo(Representative, Usuzawa Shishiodori “Deer Dance” Conservation Association) followed by a dance
performance by local people on September 28

Visit to Sendai Mediatheque and seminar on grass-roots, participatory film documentation andarchiving by a curator on September 29

Retreat Session in Kiyosato (October 23–24)
The Fellows went on a one-day trip to Kiyosato where they exchanged ideas and thoughts they had
developed on the ALFP 2018 general theme “Imagining Plural Asias: How Can We EnrichInterrelationships across Borders?” and prepared for the public forum scheduled to be held the followingweek. During the retreat session, the Fellows had the opportunity to attend a guided nature walk.

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Public Forum (October 31)
At the end of the two-month program, a public forum was held at the International House of Japan on
October 31. At the forum, the Fellows presented their thoughts on the current situation of their countries
and the issues they have been working on, along with what they have learned from their exchanges anddialogues in Japan. Both the first and second sessions of the forum were moderated by Professor Mizuno
Takaaki (Professor, Kanda University of International Studies), and each session was followed by a lively
Q&A/discussion session with the audience.

The titles of the Fellows’ presentations delivered in the first session are as follows (in order ofpresentation):
Silot Uon (Cambodia)“Cambodia and the Image of Plural Asias”

Asmin Fransiska (Indonesia)“Indonesian Challenges in the Natural Disaster Context: Mental Health Protection from a HumanRights Perspective”

Lydia Lubon (Malaysia)“Making an Impact through Non-Fiction Film”

Alongkot Maiduang (Thailand)“Moving Images as a Means to Communicate across Borders”

Sawanishi Mikiko (Japan)“The United Nation’s Grassroots Democracy Promotion in Asia: Global, Local and Regional”

Sun Dong (China)“Is There a Way Out?—The Possible Reconciliation between Conflicting Ideas”

Aziz Ali Dad (Pakistan)“The Nation and Marginal Imagination—A Case of Gilgit-Baltistan”

Samrat Choudhury (India)“From Fluidity to Rigidity: Borders, Identities, and the Perils of Postmodern Angst”

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