Discussing Intellectual Property Reform in China: Li, Yahong, Hong Kong SAR, Fellow, Stanford Program in International Legal Studies

Discussing Capital Markets in China: Wang, Dequan, China, Fellow, Stanford Program in International Legal Studies.

Lin Shu-ya will discuss the Taiwanese government's reserved land policy that is aimed at aiding indigenous people to be self-sufficient and integrate into mainstream society. This policy has been the main government policy for 50 years even though Ms. Lin argues that collective management might be a better option for the indegenous communities, allowing them to collectively manage their traditional territory. Varamon Ramangkura will discuss te impact of recent WTO free-trade versus the environment disputes on industry in Thailand. Ms Ramangkura will show that pressure from the WTO on the Thai government is forcing the closure of local shrimp farms and reducing the sustainability of this industry in Thailand. Shimamura Kazuyuki will analyze the problems of the land use system in Japan. Even after recent reforms in land use, the municipalities enact undemocratic, informal and opaque local ordinances for land use. Mr. Shimamura argues that the reforms must be adopted by the local governments and made fiscally transparent, be based on the needs of the citizens and that there is a necessity to create a legal foundation for broader delegation, particularly regarding the comprehensive planning system at the municipality level.

The past few years of political, economic, and social turbulence in Indonesia have led observers to wonder: "What is Indonesia?" Implicit in this question are others: "What has Indonesia been?" "What is it becoming?" and "What will become of it?"

To explore and debate possible answers, a roundtable has been scheduled for 5 April at the annual convention of the Association for Asian Studies in Washington DC. The six analysts who will speak at the roundtable have prepared brief essays--two or three pages each--that have been posted in easily downloadable form on the Asia/Pacific Research Center's website, at .

The most prominent of these analysts is Goenawan Mohamad, arguably the leading public intellectual in Indonesia today. "An Unfinished World" is his websited response to the question "What is Indonesia?" Those planning to hear Goenawan on 8 April here at Stanford need not have read his essay to understand his talk, which will go beyond his written words, but are welcome to download, print, and read it.

Goenawan Mohamad has for many years championed press freedom in Indonesia. In 1963, under the leftward regime of the country's first president, Sukarno, he signed a cultural manifesto against "socialist realism" in the arts. The manifesto was soon condemned as "counter-revolutionary." In 1964 the regime banned writings by independent-minded intellectuals such as Goenawan. In 1967 he returned from Europe to join a student newspaper that had opposed Sukarno's rule. Seven years later, the paper was banned by Sukarno's successor, Suharto. In the meantime, Goenawan had become chief editor of a weekly newsmagazine, Ekspres, and been fired by its owner for opposing government interference in a union of Indonesian journalists. Goenawan then helped to found a new weekly newsmagazine, Tempo, and became its chief editor. In 1984 Suharto banned the journal for two months because of critical coverage of the country's ruling party. Ten years later, Tempo was banned indefinitely for having criticized one of Suharto's cabinet ministers. The journal soon resurfaced on the Internet, but would not reappear in print until after Suharto's fall in 1998. Since 1999, in Jakarta, Goenawan has managed a community of media, cultural, and political activists dedicated to freedom of thought and expression. Over the course of his career, he has published books of essays and poetry, written a libretto for an opera that premiered in Seattle in 1999, and held visitorships at Harvard and UCLA, among other institutions.

In 1999, 34 journalists were killed while revealing human rights abuses or reporting on civil conflicts. Two of those killed were covering the referendum in East Timor in 1999. Ms. Vidon was evacuated from Indonesia and later returned with the Australian-led UN troops. She will present her photos and discuss her experience of being a journalist in Indonesia during that violent time.

She will present her photos and discuss her experience of being in Indonesia during that violent period.

The success of India's export-oriented software industry is well known. Whether information technology (IT) can contribute to development beyond the obvious income effects generated by software exports depends on how pervasive are IT's impacts on the economy, ranging from improving the efficiency of existing businesses, to enabling new kinds of goods and services. In a developing country such as India, it is of particular interest whether such benefits can reach the poor, and even help in directly reducing the deprivations associated with poverty. Professor Singh's talk and paper will examine two ongoing experiments that aim to provide IT-based services to rural populations in India. Several features distinguish these experiments from others: a combination of public and private efforts, with "nonprofit" organizations acting as catalysts; goals of commercial sustainability, both for the local entrepreneurs and the nonprofits; and an eclectic approach to the services that are sought to be provided. The paper's main contribution is to draw some preliminary lessons from comparing two different approaches in localities that are geographically close and economically similar. While the ultimate goals of the two organizations studied are quite similar, he identifies some important differences in implementation that may have more general implications for the success of such experiments. Nirvikar Singh is currently Director of the Business Management Economics Program at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he is Professor of Economics. He teaches courses on business strategy, technology and innovation, and electronic commerce, as well as graduate microeconomic theory. He has consulted for the World Bank and for high-tech start-ups in Silicon Valley. Professor Singh's current research topics are electronic commerce, business strategy, technology and innovation, governance and economic reform in India, federalism, international water disputes, and economic growth.

Ian Buruma was born in the Netherlands, where he studied Chinese at Leyden University. From 1975 to 1978 he was a research fellow in Japanese cinema at Nihon University College of Arts. He lived in Tokyo until 1980, and worked as a translator, actor, photographer, documentary filmmaker and journalist.

From 1982 to 1986, he was cultural editor for the Far Eastern Economic Review in Hong Kong. During that time he traveled to most parts of Asia. He moved to London in 1990, where he worked for one year as foreign editor for the Spectator. In 1991, he was a fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg in Berlin. In 1990 he spent a year in Washington, D.C. at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, and in 1991 he was the Alistair Horne Fellow at St. Anthony's College, Oxford.

Buruma is a regular contributor to The New York Review of Books, the New York Times Magazine, the New Republic, and other publications in the United States and Europe. He writes a weekly column for The Guardian in London.

Buruma's book The Wages of Guilt analyzes the collective memory of Germany and Japan in the post-war years. Delving into their emotions, thoughts and anger, Buruma tries to uncover how people in both countries dealt with, and are still dealing with, the stigma of being the war aggressors in very different ways.

Join us for a panel discussion of the issues raised in Buruma's book. The panel discussants are Professor's Daniel Okimoto, Shorenstein APARC and Political Science and James Sheehan, History. Professor Thomas Rohlen of Shorenstein APARC will be the moderator.

As 39th President of the United States, Jimmy Carter's significant foreign-policy accomplishments included the Panama Canal treaties; the strategic arms limitation treaty (SALT II) signed with Soviet president Leonid Brezhnev; the Camp David Accords between Israeli premier Menachem Begin and Egyptian president Anwar el-Sadat; and the establishment of full diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China.

A graduate of the United States Naval Academy, Mr. Carter's naval career took him to many parts of the world, including Asia. He rose to the rank of lieutenant, working under Admiral Hyman Rickover in the nuclear submarine program. President Carter's rise to political prominence began when he chaired the Sumter County School Board in his native Georgia. After serving as the first president of the Georgia Planning Association he was elected to the State Senate in 1962, followed by his election as state governor in 1971. He announced his candidacy for the United States presidency in 1974 and won the general election in 1976, thereby completing the most rapid ascent in modern American politics.

In 1982 Mr. Carter became University Distinguished Professor at Emory University in Atlanta. In partnership with the university he also founded The Carter Center, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization actively promoting human rights, international conflict resolution, agriculture advancements in the developing world, and the prevention of disease. President Carter is the author of sixteen books, many now in revised editions, including most recently Talking Peace: A Vision for the Next Generation. President and Mrs. Carter are also regular volunteers for Habitat for Humanity, earning national recognition for an organization dedicated to building affordable housing for the needy.

The Oksenberg Lectures honor the memory of Professor Michel Oksenberg, who was a senior fellow at the Institute for International Studies. A pioneer in the field of Chinese politics, Mike was an important force in shaping American attitudes toward China, and was consistently outspoken about the need for the United States to be more thoughtful and informed in its engagement of Asia.

Professor Oksenberg was a cherished colleague here at the Asia/Pacific Research Center, and a beloved mentor to generations of China scholars. As a tribute to his legacy, the Shorenstein Forum has established The Oksenberg Lectures, to be delivered annually by a distinguished practitioner of America's affairs with Asia.