Asia Calling Forum:

Sharing Experiences about Islam and Democracy

The Asia Calling Forum events that are being held from 13-24 August, 2008, are intended as an opportunity to exchange information and share experiences among Asians. This is something that Asia Calling has been seeking to achieve ever since it began broadcasting five years ago.

Initially a 30 minute radio program KBR68H’s weekly regional current affairs show, Asia Calling, has since doubled in length. Produced in English, Asia Calling is translated into local languages and is today broadcast by 225 radio stations in 10 countries across Asia: Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia, Burma, Nepal, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Timor Leste and Australia. For this we would like to thank our loyal partners in these countries who have made Asia Calling a window on Asia for radio listeners across the region.

This is the second year in which Asia Calling has held a forum of this kind, a live on air debate to which we invite speakers from different countries in Asia. This time we have taken as our topic the relationship between Islam and democracy. How has Islam contributed to the establishment of democracy in Muslim-majority countries? We want to discuss how Islam and the nation state interact in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh and India, as well as in Indonesia.

Media headlines are too easily dominated by hardliners. When bombs explode in Bangladesh, Indonesia or India, and a small group of fundamentalists are behind the violence, we get a biased picture, as if this is the only face of Islam in the country concerned. We rarely hear about the initiatives of Muslims who truly want to see democracy prevail, or about Muslim efforts to give positive contributions to the establishment of a nation state. Their voices are usually muted, easily silenced by the deafening sound of bomb explosions. Yet it is important that their voices are heard. That is why we are hosting this Asia Calling Forum.

Our thanks go to our speakers: Safia Sidiqqi from Afghanistan, Zafar Sobhan from Bangladesh, Ali Asghar Engineer from India, Beena Sarwar from Pakistan, Ahmad Suaedy and Rizal Sukma from Indonesia. We are grateful to all of you for taking time out of your busy schedules to participate in this forum, as well as to write valuable discussion papers. Without your commitment, this forum could not achieve its goals.

For our South Asian speakers we have also arranged a schedule of meetings with various Muslim groups as well as with selected media. We hope that these smaller meetings will increase mutual understanding and offer a chance to exchange experiences about the struggle of Islam and democracy and the formation of a nation state in our respective countries. Our thanks go also to those institutions and media that have allocated time to meet our Asia Calling guests.

This year our Asia Calling Forum has a special addition, in the form of a photo exhibition about women in the media in Afghanistan. A sample of the photographs can be seen at the talk show venue, while the complete exhibition is on show at the Lontar Gallery, Jalan Utan Kayu 68H, from 15-24 August, 2008.

We hope that these events will increase our understanding of societies in Asia, just as Asia Calling seeks to be a window on Asia.

Santoso
Managing Director KBR68H
and Founder of PPMN