Creating an Ecological Balance
Will local balances result in regional and cross-border balances? Will international treaties restore the ecological balance?

Creating Shared Prosperity
What will shared prosperity mean to each nation? Will an economic union or a political union be a good strategy to create shares prosperity?

Resource Person: Tay Kheng Soon, Principal Partner, Akitek Tengara,
Singapore/Malaysia
also found at: http://bbfld8.blogspot.com/2008/10/transcripts-interactive-session-vii_29.html

————————————————
SUMMARY TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS:

11:10 AM 10/29/2008

hiru introduces architect soon is an urban planner. rurbanization – combining rural and urban life.

tks (tay kheng soon): let me begin to discuss my own learning process. i started off as a typical architect with a passion to design and build things. there is a sociological concept to architecture (acht). the way we are educated is divorced from the reality around us. when we design a building we base it on books. we seek aprobation. we tend to model ourselves after the west. asian development in the last 30 years has been to catch up with the west. i call it tomato catch-up.

our lifestyles models, our models of well-being are determined by the models that we emulate.

so my learning process has been one of unlearning. to unlearn what we are inundated with. when china was rich and powerful, everyone followed china. same with india. same with greece.

there is a neuroscience aspect to this. we have two brains actually: the left and the right. the generation before me, every architect can draw in 3 dimension. in my generation, only half can draw. today, none can draw.

why? drawing is the interconnection between the head and the hand. the psychomotor coordination must move to do what the brain imagines. humans drew before they wrote. there is a disconnect.

what has this got to do with urbanism, with architecture? in singapore, everyone lives in high-rise building. children studies show never touch grass until the age of 6. let’s reflect on our own process. 30% of all inputs are visual. 10% are auditory. thus we see more than we hear. the rest involves the body. it takes physical involvement to understand an abstract concept. if the physical body is not involved in the abstract knowledge then conviction is weak. since ideas are fickle, it is easy to forget.

slides are then discussed [also found at blog: put link]

some ideas mentioned while slides are being shown:

- imagine what will happen when the middle class livelihood is possible for all people. the ecosystem will collapse because now there will be a more intense use of resources.

- what happens in the home when the woman succeed? the woman gets beaten up in the first year. after being beaten, in the second year the husband becomes her partner in business.

- modern = industrial. there is an overwhelming belief that to be modern, we have to industrialize, and to industrialize we need cities. we need to rethink this seriously. we can have modernity in a different economic format. modernization is simply the appropriation and deployment of contemporary technology. modernization is a style that is premised on an industrial style. modernity is the culture of autonomy. reason must prevail over piety and power. power cannot determine reason. reason prevails over power. aesthetics is a primary response to form and space, and independent of taste and beauty. morality is not predicated on any faith.

- the three magnets. the town, the country, and the town-country. the town-country has never been done. entopia rather than utopia. entopia means possible place. howard could not succeed given technology at his time. with internet and telecommunications technology, the possibility of town and country being integrated is available today.

- inevitable that all cities will be connected with each other. based on the paradigm that human life is best supported in a city. the “electronic cottage” is now a reality.

- Lee of singapre says: india must “urbanize quickly”. i think he is dead wrong.

- creative city. charles landry.

- richard florida: who’s your city.

- result of global competitiveness: picture showing singaporeans in summer wearing sweaters during summer.

- c. k. prahalad. the fortune at the bottom of the pyramid.

- factor four, doubling wealth, halving resource use. ernst von weizsacker. now the question is how do we appropriate, how do we incorporate technologies that feed right into the base of the pyramid. not all technologies are from the west. prosthetic leg is 100 dollars in india, in the US, it cost 18,000 dollars. the india leg can run, climb, jump. this is an example of

sense comes from the right side of the brain. you must put your body at risk to have sensory experience.

- from industrial modernism to a biological world.

- in hanoi, i met people who are very dedicated to restoring old buildings. young people there are beginning to go into the trade (architecture). the lure of factory jobs is very great.

- 3 questions were answer: national identity (preserving culture). you have given our villagers our option. rather than just factories, they can work with respect. you have offered an alternative lifestyle. in central vietnam, people were asked: if you were offered a job at even just 1/3 of your salary would you go back? YES. because of family, food, and quality of life.

- book: will the ship sinks the sea.

- story on left/right side. an artist name i couldn’t remember. then i read a book about how to remember. i used my thumb and rubbed it on a rough surface. kinistetic input. now i associated the memory with an experience.

- in the rural areas, 6000 support 1 official. today 40,000 support 1 official. in china today, this is the level of corruption. just last week, local officials now passed a law that farmers can now own their land.

- in urban situation, ezio manzini, professor in milan, talks about the problem of human capacity building, whether in countryside or cities. how do people auto-organize themselves? right now our ideology is a talk-down policy. build a model and apply to people. in singapore, decision making is centralized, and have made people incapacitated. you cannot be an administrator, in this day and age, that “looks after people in every possible way.” beware of falling coconuts. as if you cannot see it for yourself. this is an example of the city thinking too much for the individual. this actually kills the thinking of the people. the path to hell is paved with good intentions.

- how can people have a high degree of initiative and entrepreneurship? what is it that i can do that can increase the capacity of other people. the role of a leader is to produce new leadership, not to monopolize it.

- creative communities. democracy has to be redefined. democracy is the right to take responsibility, meaning the authorities must distribute the right to take responsibility. it must not be monopolized.

- if authority is decentralized, social-spatial becomes fully developed as each develops local needs.

- an experiment with 5 year old children to build a dome. when you use a mechanical connector, you make students not think. so we removed the mechanical joints, allowing them to innovate.

- in thailand, there people’s development association (pda). income from resorts are plowed back into humanitarian projects. typical farm children are left in child day care centers, where the guardians only know that they should keep kids quiet. there is no stimulation done. lamplaimat pattana school. i asked pda: how do you inspire the children to want to remain in the village. what kind of education should be given? answer: you must teach the children to learn to appreciate things as they are.

- typical classroom of 20 kids, selected by ballot. the kids make the curriculum. the kids decide to do what they want to learn today. the kind of education we got is to make us COMPLIANT CITIZENS, for our jobs and factories. our education made us useful for our jobs.

- character study. 10 year old made their own plan of the village, given their knowledge of the local village. imagine what they will do at 20 years old.

- the rich and powerful in the rural want to live like those in the cities. so they want to use industrial materials.

- village bank model. different from yunus. yunus charges 30%. in the village bank concept, pda has lowered the admin cost from 30% to 12%. how? you plant 10,000 trees to get 10,000 dollars. village bank has 24 people: 8 old, 8 middle age, 8 young. the teeners will become the future leaders.

- picture of the new asean. i didn’t realize the importance of the ring of fire. with the geothermal potential, like iceland, if we can tap the sumatra, java and philippines volcanos, we can imagine a whole power grid. we will have to rely on a variety.

8.30 am INTERACTIVE SESSION VII:
Developing Strategies for Leadership
Session Led by Hiru Bijlani
also found at: http://bbfld8.blogspot.com/2008/10/transcripts-interactive-session-vii.html.

life is about getting the man/woman right. everything in life is about getting ourselves right. we always think about how to change the world, and what’s wrong with life when all we need to do is change ourselves.

there are various forms of learning:
talking – transactional learning (nothing really retained despite excitement)
seeing
hearing
doing
sharing – transformational learning

hiru goes through the slides. these slides are found on the baba mailing list at http://groups.google.com/group/buildingabetterasia/web/leadership%20ppt.ppt.

successful people have 3 main attributes:
1. are self motivated – habit of the mind.
2. have positive mental attitude. – habit of the mind. focus on sphere of influence (what can i do)
3. goal directed – habit of practice.
-written goals get done. thought goals don’t.

baba4 fellows then break up into groups to discuss their action plans:

maky – capacity building. nfsa (nippon foundation scholars association). i want to create a non-profit. going to small schools in japan doing motivational activities for high school students to go to college level. first goal is self education, which i will start immediately. second goal is transferring of education. i will make a full report of what i learned here to present to my group back in japan. this report to be done within weeks after baba. continue active participation in my scholarship. in 1 or 2 years, i will found an organization/non-profit and do it in japan initially. funds are very important. as baba, i would like to leave a link with my scholarship and contribute to the baba group.

ulzii – capacity building. i work for a training institution. i will work toward citizen’s participation in local leadership.
i will liaison with baba. i will design a training module.

don – governance. efficient administrative system in vietnam. immediate action is speeding up the process of drafting laws related to efficient administration system. with baba, goal is to contribute to all levels. immediate maintenance of connection through blogging, email, etc. replicate baba retreats in vietnam.

binaya – community development. promotion of traditional medicine. conduct study of traditional medicine.

tin – poverty. improved agricultural production system. 3 year program. for the first two months to form a group of farmers.

ju li – security. continue my phd studies in the field of anti-terrorism. pakistan issues – identify why this has happened in pakistan. contact the grassroots, to understand why they suffer from such poverty.

junbo – good governance. research on issues on asian governance, such as poverty reduction, international relations. influence the government on the importance of cooperation.

kamrul – human security. try to fight against corruption and terrorism in bangladesh. get various stakeholders to commit. once in a month he will communicate 1 month.

noaoki – effective education and training program for maritime society. need to collect information on population in each country. make teaching materials related to maritime. and to share this with baba.

marat – regional security in central asia. support this by writing scientific papers to define the real challenges in security. create a new think tank that specilizes in regional security. only 5 central asian countries in order to focus on the current security issues. on baba, i will popularize this program in kazakhstan.

madhu – how asian security as a whole could be promoted. ensuring how human security aspect, and its various challenges, have a commonalities. write research papers and share them with baba.

mathurana – efficient governance. keep every customer coming to my office happy and satisfied. deficiencies in administrative system makes our service very inefficient and makes customers unhappy. write procedures for each item of the administrative procedures, and the execute them accordingly. and share these experience with baba.

erna – human security. how to introduce “responsibility to protect” – by doing peace education to share knowledge and gain a mutual understanding about human security. do advocacy. baba goal: share my research results with baba fellows.

danaa – sustainable development. to develop an interactive training program for mongolian people. informal learning process for normal people to give them hope and to set a lifetime goal. this will take 3 years from now. for baba, join in the baba volunteer corps.

kamei – poverty. globalization and capacity building. share experiences of baba with my students. build confidence and awareness on the need for regional cooperation. encourage my students to write term papers. invite baba fellows to india. write a book on conflict by end of 2009. establish a school by 2015. build network outside baba because world is to big.

ito – form baba vc by december.

sayako – consumer awareness. their responsibility of being a member of economic power. to feel sense of connected to the world. on baba, to convert my blog in english and invite baba members to join.

peng – sustainable development. consumers have their own responsibility to sustaining their own life. i will reduce my own energy consumption. take only 1 shower every day. turn off all unused lights. recommand other young leaders to join the baba.

novri – poverty reduction. understand how to prevent violent conflicts. create an early warning and response system. for baba, join the vc.

sitthattha – human security. in laos there is no equality between men and women.

citra – poverty. develop an informal/formal discussion that will focus on poverty. examples on waste management needs to be promoted. get the youth to spend their time usefully.

these actions plans are signed and will be typed and uploaded to the baba4 mailing list.

Creating Good Governance and Human Security
What are the regional challenges to human dignity? Are the governance mechanisms equipped to bring human security? Will a common security follow from shared prosperity and human security? What do we need to be secure from?
also found at: http://bbfld8.blogspot.com/2008/10/transcripts-interactive-session-vi.html

Resource Person: Harsha Kumara Navaratne
Founder/Chairman, Sewa Lanka Foundation, Sri Lanka

————————————————
SUMMARY TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS:

the society can change in two ways:
destabilizing the establishment. atacking whoever is keeping our rights, money and power. but my mother realized that i was
going on a wrong path. so my mother sent me to the philippines. philippine gov’t killed 20,000 youth. 18,000 were in jail.
after finishing my studies in philipines, it was not correct for me to be part of the violent student movement.

i went back home and joined the peace organization. my life started as a development worker.

when you are young we all think of the easiest ways to change society. the two easy ways: you go join the politics and thru
political power you change society. the other way is: you organize yourself in underground, violent organizations and you
take power forcefully.

in the sri lankan experience, there are few of my friends who have taken to be a politician, the former president of sri
lanka. the first thing she did was she broke all her friends. she asked me to be her general secretary. but i said i was
not joining politics. i promised fr. masterson, a jesuit in the philippines, that i wouldn’t enter politics. that friend of
mine was president for 12 years. under that period the country was the most corrupt, highest number of killings, highest
abductions. she killed innocent tamil civilians, destroyed the environment.

after 14 years we met person to person. we talked 11 hours at the plane. she cried. she told me her mistakes.

sri lanka is in a war for the past 26 years. 60,000 people have lost their lives. 350,000 are in refugee camps.
as a development worker we want to change the situation.

don’t be a politician. in our part of the world, politicians have failed in developing a country.
also don’t turn to violence. in sri lanka, an average of 4-5 people die. there are 1,600 committed suicide bombers.
so violence is not going to be an answer.

so what is the best answer: we have to start from ourselves. we have to change ourselves first.

in the usa, the economy is built on credit cards. they are going not on their needs, but for their greed.

sri lanka, 56% of national assets are in 5% of the population.

thus the present economic system is a problem for our part of the world. as a development worker, i have committed to work
with the communities instead of working at the top level. there are enough people who want to work at the top.

there are very little people who want to go back to the villages.

those of us who can afford to help are not in our part of the world, they are serving other people in other part of the world.

Surin has not forgotten his roots. He always goes back to his village. His mother takes care of 600 students, and she cooks for all 600.

it is very important for us to take care of our values, of our own people.

i am very proud of my daughther, who gave up studying in harvard for her phd course and come back to study with me.
when i asked her why? she said after seeing tsunami, after seeing all the suffering, this is my job right here.

our generation has made a lot of mistakes. our generation has a responsibility to look after those suffering.

in the last 30 years i struggled with my identity. my mother said i should find my identity. my mother said your identity is you.

question and answer:

1. from anupam: is it really politician or other system that’s the cause of what happened in sri lanka?

answer: i am not saying politicians are all bad. i am just relating my experience. i need politicians and i talk to them.
even the best person, when he goes to politics he is finished. he is a brilliant student. he started drinking, then he hid every time i went to see him. he slowly became corrupt and little by little he got eaten up by the system. then he got jailed because of corruption charges.

let’s start finding good politician. let’s build a toolkit for politicians? are there any rules for politicians?

follow up question: in politics, who says what is more important. the position becomes far more important than what is said. what would an alternative system of government look like?

answer: i really like the scandanavian system of doing things. good governance is present. there are good models.
it’s a dilemma to say how this works.

i am only talking about small politics. in my point of view, my perspective. two-third of the world factories: china, india and japan.

at the same time, the biggest poverty is in our part of the world. the figures are scary.

there is no model in the world that will guide us in solving these problems.

shanghai, mumbai, dubai: bye bye.

it is the young leaders that will help sort out these problems. it will be us who will lead this society.

where does fundamentalism and violence come from? it comes from poverty. when they reach limit, they will do anything. when violence becomes a part of your culture, you will think that the only way to answer violence is with violence. when you are all stuck, you cannot come out.

2. tin (myanmar): do you see there are other alternative way to change society? how can we solve poverty?

answer: there are too little people who want to go back to people and work with them, eat with them. if you want to be a politician, go to the villages. learn from the people and how they think. be grounded. learn from others.

3. sayako (japan): what is your opinion of japan as a donor country?

answer: the japanese are the biggest contributor when it comes to the funding of sri lanka.

4. binaya (nepal): what do you have to say about the chain of command in ltt?

answer: i think ltt is one of the best organized group and with a superb chain of command. why? if you don’t listen, you die.

5. madhu (india): what is impeding good governance? is it corruption it has now become unionized corruption.

answer: to tell you the truth, i like the prime minister of india: Dr. Manmohan Singh.

8.30 am INTERACTIVE SESSION V:
A DIALOGUE with Dr Surin Pitsuwan, Secretary General, Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on Building a Better Asia
also found at: http://bbfld8.blogspot.com/2008/10/transcripts-interactive-session-v.html

————————————————
SUMMARY TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS:

9:12 AM 10/28/2008

surin: nice to be back in this baba forum, for the 4th time. very
glad to see mr. ogata with us, to preside over the opening

of the dialogue yesterday. every year i feel younger, being with you
all. hara referred to the asian dialogue group, and to

add that in that forum we produce many leaders of asia. one is
president of indonesia, minister of defense and they have all

left me behind. i am still a secretary.

in asia we have a culture of building relations, in small groups,
personalized, less official and less organized. they are

webs of relationships that grew naturally but could not be sustained
by institutionalization or systems. but not sustained.

baba can must think about this. how to sustain relationships, an
opening that you can rechanrge that system and bring it to

action on issues on occasions that would be helpful for the entire region.

asean was born 41 years ago. but for the last 40 years it has been a
very personalized group of leaders. they met,

discussed, agreed, went home, and went home and forgot everything.
they are a loosely structured organization. but last

year asean decided that we will be a rules-based organization, with
its own legal personality. it will be a compliance

organization, meaning if you are part of asean you will have to comply.

we spent the whole year getting the members to ratify it. because
your signature represents your agreement with its

objectives. good news is that all 10 countries have now ratified the
asean charter through their constitutional processes.
three of the original 5 which founded asean – philippines, thailand,
indonesia. why are they the last ones to approve the

charter? because they are the ones who are the most participatory so
that it took longer for them to discuss the charter.

so the 3 of them are competing among themselves on who will be the
last. they are making an “instrument of ratification” and

when the last instrument is submitted, 30-days after that, the charter
will enter into force.

the three pillars of asean:
asean political and security committee, economic committee (how to
integrate 10 economies, making it one market, making it

one unified market for the production, for the importation and for
investments).

because asean is a collection of loose states, it has been very
accomodating. asean threatens none, and accomodates

everyone. when there is a crisis, one does not know which numbers to
call. in hawaii they knew the tsunami was going to

hit, but they did not know which numbers to call.

in terms of cooperations, asean is a 19th century. in terms of
economic cooperation, it is 21st century.

first is apec, born in 1967. in 1989 after the regional power joined
asean as dialogue partnership, there was a realization

that east asia would need its own group to anchor cooperation.

so asean has given rise to this institution called apec. in apec
there is taiwan and hongkong. members are economies not

governments. this was possible because of asean.

in 1996, the europeans felt that asia was really growing. asia was a
place to do business. thus the asia-europe met here

just 3 days ago.

what i am saying is that asean has been the cornerstone, the
foundation, the fulcrum for power plays in the region. for those

major players who would want to stake their claim, advance their
interests and communicate with others, then they come to the

asean. that’s how the chinese and the japanese can feel warmer. it
is asean that is bringing the eu, europe, usa is

bringing these big powers to asean. asean connects all the players
into the region. now that asean is a chartered

organization, and with all these dynamics that is going on, asean is
playing a critical role.

asean plus 3 agrees that the attention of the world is now on east
asia. they are expected to sustain the world economy, and

its own economy, and that east asia will provide the market and the
demand and keep the production line going around the

world.

the question is can we play this role? are we organized enough? are
we prepared?

through the last 3-4 decades, asean benefited from the international
organizations. the imf, the wb, adb, and the un itself.
in many areas of conflicts the un has come in to help. the world has
created the g7 and g8, japan being the chair. in

washington they are now going to talk about the g20 which is g8+the 20
rising economies.

so we have benefitted from the instutions and the systems of the world.

the other side is that we have also put a lot of pressure on those
organizations, putting a lot of imbalance in those

organizations.

whatever growth we have achieved, the real test for east asia is how
much we can contribute to the reforms re-creation,

re-tooling of those world institutions, which we have in a large way, affected.

we are the only region that is functioning, the rest are down.
are we ready, are we prepared, are we organized enough and do we know
WHAT to contribute?

in the asem, there was full attendance, and the heads of state themselves.

right now we are talking about the financial banking system that is
facilitating trade.

india, china, japan, korea + asean have to make sure that within our
region, we can keep it functioning.

it’s just so happened that asean will be fully chartered by december,
and it’s good timing before the 15 january.

east-asia summit will be convening this december.

the asean global dialogue is now being organized. we want the world
bank to survey the landscape. how many economies are

down, how many are on top of the food crisis, we want to ask wb what
east asia can contribue.

we want to hear from wto, and how this financial tsunami will affect
trade financing. we need each others trade, but we will

have no financing.

we want to hear from adb. what they think asean can do to contribute
to that vision after the financial tsunami.

for the first time talking about the challenges of the global economy
from the perspective of the global personalities

looking at asean’s role in the resolution of this financial crisis.

in the past we were not punching at the right weight. now we have to
be sure that the relationship that we have created.

human security is about refocusing the attention away from state
sovereignty now into the individual security.
the responsibility to protect – meaning if you can’t help your
citizens, then asean has the responsibility to protect. you

canont keep the world out. the world has to come in.

for the first 2 weeks, the world was kept out. death, hunger, illness
was going on inside and no one knew what to do. asean

went in, working around these concepts. i told them these concepts
are in our diplomatic toolbox, and we did. we opened the

place and now the world is able to help.

especially the human dimension of the global community, we have to
share what we have.

question and answer:

1. marat (kazakhstan): on integration issues on asia. how many years
do you think is needed to create such cooperation in

asia: asia cooperation dialogue?

answer of surin: yes any dialogue can come from any leader. the
challenge is how to sustain it. the region is very big but

the problem is that it is very personalized. we created these
dialogues but we cannot institutionalize them with formal

charters and formal sanctions.

is asean becoming an eu? the eu is our inspiration. not our model.
not yet. it gives the inspiration to work together

through cooperation. asia cooperation dialogue is a very loosely
structures group of leaders who meet and want to engage

with each other on some of the issues facing it. but there is no
institution that backs it up. it is good that they meet but

i sense that they are losing steam. it doesn’t have the direction, the
power to move it forward. partly because it is too

big, too diverse. the asian landscape is too massive to have one
organization to drive it. but that remains our dream: that

one asia shall be more coherent and more structured. it has to begin
somewhere. asean is right in the middle.

asem, apec, asean regional forum, and many other forums, the east
asian summit are all drawn into the asean platform.

the largest business space in the world: the east asian summit.

2. anupam: do you see the internet to create a more structured organization?

sg: technology can only facilitate, and not replace human contact.
human energy. all these technologies can only strengthen

this human vision. otherwise all these technology gadgets are going
to be used but there will be no soul, and no spirit.

my youngest son went out with his 4 friends. and all of them were
using their own phones to other people around the world,

and not within themselves.

3. tin of myanmar: do you think that myanmar will sign the asean
charter? do you think asean would need to intervene in

the political processes of myanmar?

sg: whether or not a member can benefit from international
organizations will depend on its internal organization.
these countries have their own guidelines for asean to come in and
help, to survey the damage when crisis hits.

a chunk of the support the activities of the asean is by the world bank.

they told us not to get involved. they have loans, the have not paid.
there are human rights violations.
but people are dying.

how did we go around that?

the wb signed an agreement that asean would do disaster response.
part of this fund, was training, to talk about how to

organize and learn from the field.

one cannot say that myanmar does not benefit. they do but in other ways.
asean tries its best to facilitate.

on non-intervention: it has to be an instrument of international
relations. tom friedman, “the world is flat”, what does

one mean by sovereignty? does one protect only one side of the river?
or is one’s problems, also mine when the sun rises on

my end. the principle of non-intervention cannot be valid because the
world is getting smaller.

absolute sovereignty is a fiction, and we need to work in order to
cooperate so that sovereignty as a concept remains but

sovereignty has to work in conjuction wiht other concepts becuase the
world is flat and getting flatter.

4. novri (indonesis): has asean provided a rule in governing
conflict within two countries?

sg: asean has everything on paper. when it comes to
operationalization, we have it on paper. non-intervention means that

the others should not get involved with conflicts among just two
members. they want only those members to solve those

problems by themselves.

10 years ago i was the one who said that rather than have constructive
engagement, the question was that if we remain on the

principle of non-intervention, we will be affected by each others
problems more than we can solve them.

example: the forest fire in sumatra and kalimantan affected singapore.
and when singapore raised it, indonesia said do not

interfere.

rather than constructive engagement, let’s have flexible engagement.
if the problems serious are serious, and they produce

refugees and they come to my country, i cannot keep quiet.

forest fire, diseases: they happen in a given country but affects all
other countries.

flexible engagement, open-minded engagement, candid engagement is what we need.

before, even asking questions was considered intervening and
interfering. thailand problems has effects on malaysia also.

why? because the northern states of malaysia and southern thailand
are very connected.

in terms of thailand and cambodia, they have decided to exhaust the
bilateral relations and solve their problems.

we have the high council that goes in and helps mediate discussion. i
make personal phone calls to ministers, to heads of

states to express their collective concerns. not to interfere, but to
think of a regional focus. let’s think of solutions

between the two of them.

5. citra (indonesia): where do environment issues fall into the
asean process? what is your vision of environmental

protection in asean.

sg: in bali, there was a the global climate change dialogue. the
asean countries are very committed and sensitive on this

issue. there are problems of governance, but i think it is getting
higher and higher on the agenda.

we have to look at the younger generation to bring the message across.
it is difficult to tell people under poverty in

northeast thailand to think about environment first before planting
rice. haze and smog that used to be the exclusive domain

of singapore, malaysia and southern thailand, are now being moved into
the issue of environment.

environment is a social issue, economic issue, a governance issue, a
sociological issue. how do we structure our society so

that the people feel they belong and they can protect the environment.

it is becoming what we call the existentialist problem – about the
survival of our species as a planet.

when the meteorite hit the earth and extinguished all life forms there
was no moral issue because the source was external.

this time the problem is authored by humans, thus there is a moral
dimension. thus an existentialist problem is now about

the survival of the race.

6. pku student: how does the relationship of asean and the “plus 3″?

it is a very complex and complicated problem but the balance of power
is what asean is about. the fulcrum is what asean is

about.

we achieve transparency. we achieve mutual confidence.

the usa has always been behind this process, providing a stabilizing
presence. concern now is that if the usa pulls back,

because of its own problems, what are the implications? if we dont’
have the usa, what will happen.

arf (asian regional forum) decided that it is their interest to
diffuse the problem. china and japan are now aware that they

need each other more for the future, rather than confronting each
other. nationalism has been tamed. japan realizes that

certain policies and activities, create tension on the region.

fulcrum of power plays is in asean.

there is now a constructive and positive herd instinct – we reacted to
the challenges together. there is a reflexive

reaction deciding that we have to get together and act together. not
run away (herd instinct).

7. madhuchanda (india): can asean regional forum be the starting
point for developing a comprehensive security architecture

for addressing these challenges?

sg: we are working on that. in 1994, when we talk about a defense
white paper, each nation would do it separately. one

member said, but those are our state secrets. another said: for god’s
sake that’s exactly why we need to know that. that’s

why asean is needed. so we know what each other is up to. to learn.
to trust each other. this is supposed to be preventive

diplomacy, conflict resolution. we got stuck into preventive
diplomacy, but we have since moved onto confidence building.
the south china sea code of conduct is an example of this. this our
shipping lanes so if there is conflict in the south china

sea, so conflict here will affect everyone.

integration has a calming effect. now we have to think more carefully.
we have to be more careful on our policies. asean

regional forum is now developing this template.

8. kamei (india): cultural exchange programs are needed for
confidence building. the diversity of cultures is difficult.

this is something asean should focus on. we also need more dialogues
on economic front.

sg: amen to that. we need to create an asean identity, and an asian
identity for all of us. without this we cannot react

and behave and evolve as a regional body. in the us, the asian block
has never behaved as a unit, and we lost our bargaining

power. we always undermined each other. maybe because we are big,
diverse, and not having systems to organize ourselves.

people ask me in my term of 5 years, what do i expect to achieve?

very simple. i would like the word asean to be a household word. what
asean means, what it implies, what it stands for.

for 570 million people to know what asea is, networking is key. the
secretariat is a networked secretariat. you go out and

meet groups, meet people, so you can reach down to their constituencies.

in europe for 50 years they were able to inclucate that sense of being
european alongside their own nationalities. in asean

we have none of that yet.

we found that singapore is the least who knows asean? why because
singapre is already one with the world.
who thinks the most about asean? laos. why? because they are small,
they need asean to help it. laos needs more of asean.

singapore needs less of asean.

9. erna (indonesia): on peace building. what is the role of asean
in this? in the case of east timor, asean had no role.

sg: in 1999 i was the chair of asean. because of the
non-interference principle, and because indoesia is so big, and the

asean members were not ready to be involved, we had to get around it.
the whole world wanted to go into east timor but

indonesia said no.

asean could not do anything because asean members said no.

we agreed that we would go in, not as asean. it was different then. at
that time, asean was not a word that a member would

welcome to their boarders.

everyone was sending troops, but we had no money. we asked the
japanese for $50 million to get the troops there.
and tokyo gave it, but $100 million. but not asean, but as individual
countries from south east asia. asean was not yet a

firm identity until now.

we had no intelligence, we had no transport. the USA ferried the
filipino and thai troops into east timor.

now 5 years later, east timor is now an independent country. and they
want to join asean. but they are not ready. right now

east timor is an observer.

in myanmar, we went in as asean because asean was now a firm identity.

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SUMMARY TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS:

1. pranee (baba academic committee): how did it happen that you have an undergraduate degree in agriculture yet you have decided to take a career in philanthropy, becoming one of the most respected philanthropists in Asia?

mr. ogata: the system of japanese university, at least during my time in school, is very different. i did not study a lot. what i learned in school was not practical and applicable in real life. after graduation, i decided to take a rest and so for 1 year i did nothing, really just thinking about what i wanted to do next. then i got employed with a shipping company but even with this job i still continued helping my aunt in a hospital she owned. the shipping company/association that i worked with was one of those organizations helped by the nippon foundation. this is how i got to know about the nippon foundation.

my ending up as president of the nippon foundation was really a result of a lot of coincidence, all put together.

giving money and receiving money are very different things. when one finds a job that pays you to give money, i think that is a perfect job. it’s not good to change jobs because one is unhappy. one must change jobs when you have found a next job that is more challenging.

2. marat (kazakhstan) – what can you recommend at this point in our careers? how can we be more successful?

mr. ogata: what i can tell you is this. if you do your job very well, and concentrate on solving problems analytically, then success will come.

when i started working with the nippon foundation, i worked directly under sasakawa, the founder. i remember clearly that i vowed to myself that i would never lie to him. when asked, i would always tell him what he could do and what he couldn’t/musn’t do. we always looked at the root of the problem and focused on that. it is important to address the root so that resources are used well.

3. ito (philippines) – how did you balance your family life and your work life?

mr. ogata: when i talk to my family now from the position that i have, i know that they understand. i showed my family the results of my work. my wife used to ask me: which is more important, your work or your family; me or your boss? she used to say: look at that family beside us, the father has time for the children and they go out as a family. and my answer to her was this: the two are incomparable. i love both equally. my family is now proud of me because of what i have achieved.

4. don (vietnam) – what would you like Asia to be in 2020?

mr. ogata: i do not know. the situation is so dynamic. what we must all do is network, and work with each other. we have to find partners with similar goals and collaborate on good project. but our situation is not as bad as the middle east situation. asia is relatively stable, with china at its center.

5. hiru (resource person): what can be done to increase the sense of philanthrophy around the world?

mr. ogata: that is a difficult question. philanthrophy needs funds. and funds are difficult to find. as you know, the nippon foundation exists because of our funds from motorboat racing. as long as that law exists, nippon foundation will exist. in the USA most philanthrophy is done by corporations. i think this is a good model because their fund sources are stable. if more companies are able to do this, this is ideal.

in france for example, the people pay taxes to the government but expect the government to do everything. in this case, it is the government which is the biggest philanthrophy.