Safe Democracy Foundation - Safe Democracy

The Philippine education system is marked by high dropout and repetition rates and low overall performance. Under a new definition of functional literacy, the rate could drop to as low as 6 percent. The author contends that the sector is afflicted with a myriad of problems, and although many government programs look promising, he points to governance as being the key.

• Philippine land reform has failed to live up to its promise
  por Joel Adriano

After years of colonial and dictatorial rule in the Philippines, the People Power Revolution of 1986 installed a new government and led to the initiation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). Yet more than twenty years later, poverty remains high in rural areas and income inequality remains a serious problem. The author faults the program’s land to the tiller concept and goes on to argue that access to jobs, and not land ownership, is a better way to reduce rural poverty.

No one disputes the growing weight of the emerging Indian giant in the economic scene and global geopolitics. However, if India is to achieve a more influential position on the international level, it must strengthen its democratic system and be aware of the need to confront inequality and injustice with ambitious long-term policies. It is faced with an imbalance that cannot be resolved by its macroeconomic growth alone, regardless of how spectacular it may be.

• Southeast Asia reduces poverty, but increases inequality
  por Viviana Malvina Sosa

Xulio Rios believes that the majority of the problems that caused the manifestations in Tiananmen Square eighteen years ago are not only still present in China today, but that many of those problems have gotten worse: corruption and power abuses are on the day’s agenda.

• Southeast Asia reduces poverty, but increases inequality
  por Viviana Malvina Sosa
• China-Taiwan: Playing with...the Torch
  por Xulio Ríos

Thousands of Burmese citizens, lead by Buddhist monks, have forced a beastial dictatorship into check. Images of the protests and of their consequent repression have exposed before the international public a detestable regime, and citizens whose struggle for liberty and democracy should be a reference for the modern world.

• From Gen. Pervez Musharraf to Mr. Pervez Musharraf
  por Sohail Mahmood
• Pakistan: General Musharraf’s Election Bid, the Supreme Court Verdict and Public Protests
  por Sohail Mahmood
• Contemporary Political Developments in South Asia
  por Sohail Mahmood

Positive developments in Pakistan include Gen. Musharraf’s decision to step down as chief of the army and promise to lift the state of emergency, as well as the appointment of pro-Western General Kiyani as Musharraf’s successor. Obstacles include attempting to hold fair elections within a country that is plagued by strong corruption at the governmental level. These elections will be a vital part of the transformation to civil rule, which will be a key stepping stone in helping Pakistan come out of its severe political crisis, argues the author.

A decade has passed since the financial crisis in Southeast Asia and it is apparent that the region today has matured much more since then with regard to the economy and stock market. Politically, there have been advances and regressions, while at the regional level there is power in the idea of strengthening ties for more integration. However, it is still necessary to overcome unresolved matters such as democratic consolidation and the equal distribution of wealth.

Soul searching, an atmosphere of toleration and respect and a dialogue among the civilizations (the West and Islam). Mutual respect, justice and equity and the rejection of bigotry and hatred; all basic humans values that the West and Islam have in common. Why then is a dialogue between these two civilizations so hard?