Day 2 at the summit

The plenary session this morning facilitated by Steve Chung with Aaron Maniam, Kathleen Reen, Sutapa Amornvivat, and Gen Kanai set the stage for discussing the framework on how best to handle crises whether they are related to international security, the environment, the economy or technology.

A large number of the conference delegates participated in the brain-storming session offering historical as well as geographical perspective and ideas on how more inter-disciplinary work can happen. What are the risks of framing current events in a “crisis” framework which can exacerbate the severity of the problem? On the other hand, it was also pointed out that the Geneva Convention grew out of a crisis.

One of the strands from this discussion and that seemed to gather force during the day was that we can no longer wait for government or single entities to frame the debate or the solutions. Partnerships between the private and citizen sector that dialog with government are necessary. We also need a sustained focus on our priorities so that once the moment of crisis has passed we can still bring in true change.

Jamie Metzl summed up the deliberations saying that it was a crisis of the imagination and that imagination can be replenished both individually and collectively. One thing that I took from the first two hours was that it is imperative to cultivate redundancy. Redundancy being defined as anything that stands beyond the horizon of immediate return. To taking two analogies from Gen and Aaron; imagination is like a spare server on the internet which might one day prevent the global network from going down; it can step in and try to predict a “black swan” only if it has had time to exist and thrive.

The breakout sessions later in the morning addressed some of the ideas that had emerged in the plenary with greater depth and more specific sector focus. Topics ranged from Censorship and Free Speech to Gender Equality.

I joined the section on Creative Leadership run by film maker Nitin Das and novelist and professor Hsu-ming Teo. After discussing the challenges faced by the group we identified several best practices and the best strategies for achieving our goals. The interesting bridge that emerged in our session between artists and entrepreneurs was the emphasis on passion and authenticity.

Lobsang Sangay moderated our first afternoon session with a much needed dose of humor. The discussion on Islam and Multi-cultural Societies began with Zainah Anwar discussing the interpretation of the law and its implications for the status of women and families. The discussion centered on the role of religion in the public sphere. To what extent is the law open to public debate? Delegates from Iran, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Indonesia, and India also brought in the perspectives of their particular countries; it is essential to get the message out that Islam and modernity are compatible: Iran for example has more PhDs than any other country in the Islamic world; the performance in Math of students from madrassas in Bangladesh is higher than that of students from public schools. Jumaatun Azmi shared her personal experience promoting Halal meat and the interest this has generated among non-Muslim communities. She has also taken on the hijab and is now seeing how stereotyping works first hand.

The Asia Society – Bank of America Merrill Lynch Public Service Award was presented to Prisoners Assistance Nepal. Indira Rana Magar who founded the organization floored us all. An absolute firebrand, she spoke about the organization’s work with prisoners and their families. In her words she has got the policemen and the prisoners to dance! In addition to a monetary component the award includes access to Asia 21 fellows who will lend their specific resources and expertise toward PA Nepal. When asked what motivated her and drove her to give so much of herself to the cause Indrani replied I’m not giving them [something], the children are giving me [something] every time they smile.

Raj Bhavsar and Mitchell Pham got us all to get up and shake it and take a few deep breaths. It never ceases to amaze me what just a couple of minutes of returning to one’s body can do!

The final plenary session of the day was moderated by Rashneh Pardiwala, Andrew Chan and Ruth Yeoh. The session began with a discussion on the global leadership framework needed to help address climate change. Though we began by hypothesizing that a global problem needs a global solution the delegate discussion revealed that most of us do believe that individuals can and must be the catalysts for this change beginning in local communities with corporations required to play a large role. The latter can enact rules within the workplace eg Meatless Mondays. The delegates also brought investor and business perspectives. Removing subsidies from other forms of energy and channeling them toward renewable energy, increased taxation on high carbon footprint consumables, and several more drastic measures were tabled as well. Lavanya Rama Iyer elaborated on the measures taken this year to make the Asia 21 Summit Green.

In our final breakout session we brainstormed on public service projects that fellows will take on this coming year.

A special thanks to the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Center for hosting us this evening. We were privileged to see wonderful dance and theater performances, some of which even the Malaysian delegates haven’t seen in decades. The informal discussion around my table revolved around what we will lose if some of these traditional forms disappear altogether.

For some of us from India at Asia 21 the music and the dance movements were hauntingly familiar, at moments close to our own tradition yet infused and transformed by the lilting beauty that in two short days has come to mean Malaysia.

Since a weekend conference with some hundred fifty delegates doesn’t leave enough time to connect with everyone personally we continued our evening at a KL green terrace and karaoke outfit to prolong the day. When I left them after midnight several of my new friends were still belting out Ricky Martin.