Bericht einer Reise nach Asien und in die pazifische Region von David Lin

Participants at the Asia Region Triennial Assembly Seoul, Korea, 19-22 April 2005

Takashi, a former Vice-Chairperson of the Excom, is now head of one of Japan's largest Lutheran secondary school http://www.seibou.ac.jp . We were blessed to have the spacious meeting room with the scenic view of cherry blossoms on the campus. We were invited to a performance by the 40-student percussion band and to the school's gymnastic team practice on the weekend. There was more than seeing the young people and their school life. In dinner and lunch chats, we discussed how Japan and Asia communicators could do to be peacemakers, given the extensive violent riots in China and South Korea over Japan history book avoiding the part on Japan's invasion of other Asian countries during World War II and Japanese politicians visiting the Yasukuni Shrine to worship the WWII dead soldiers who invaded China and other southeast Asian countries. We thought that the youth school band could be used to visit schools in China as one way to have breakthrough for peace. Music and youth and transportation combined pointed to peace communication.

We were concerned about the lack of alternative media to address the fear in Japan triggered by the mainline media on the alleged nuclear threat by North Korea. Could media educators help to improve the media education curriculum in Japan's educational system, for example?

The Excom meeting in Saitama inspired me to think more on the Assembly theme "Communicating for Peace and Life". What before me was not a simple journey because I flew to South Korea -- the world stage of division. The glittering lights of the prosperous Seoul city twinkling through my airport coach windows was a timely reminder of the economic gap between South and North Korea.

It was especially a stunning sight for me because I visited Panmunjung, the demilitarised border in North Korea in 1989, and saw with my own eyes what it was like in the North. The sad and oft-worrying news of starvation in the recent years added more concern on the continuous division and tension. The Asia Assembly's statement, renamed as the Seoul Declaration in the final version, can't be too clear, for it points to solid and friendly gesture towards North Korea from the peace perspective.

The election result was a breakthrough too because they achieved the 50-50 gender balance for the first time in at least 15 years. Half of the six-member committee are women and it's a good mixture of the experienced and the new blood. Judy Chan is an ordained Presbyterian minister serving in both radio and print media in Hong Kong www.hkcc.org.hk and she's attended the Assembly since 1999. She was elected as Vice-Chairperson.

Maria "Tetet" N-Lauron, a Roman Catholic, has published many educational materials for IBON www.ibon.org , an advocacy and research NGO in Manila, the Philippines. Like Judy, Tetet first associated with AR-WACC in the Hong Kong Assembly. She was elected as Secretary. Both women attended the WACC International Congress in the Netherlands in 2001.

Hetty Siregar, a Lutheran working in the communication department of the Communion of Churches in Indonesia, was elected as an officer. She is an old hand of AR-WACC, having been active in WACC women in the media awareness workshops and is a core member of Asian Network of Women in Communication (ANWIC).

The new male members are Hindi language expert Dr. John Henry Anand of Hindi Theological Literature Committee in India, who was elected as Chairperson. Mr. Lin Sein, of the Myanmar Council of Churches' Communication Department was elected as an officer. Although Lin attended the Seoul Assembly for the first time, he assisted the video communication man, Hendersen Sen, who retired recently and now live in the U.S.A. Rev. Cheon Young-Cheol, the only re-elected member from the last Committee, was elected as treasurer, a position reflected more on his ability to raise a remarkable fund from the local Korean churches than his outstanding organisation skills and leadership in hosting the Assembly in his home country.

Nothing was more excited than the live webcast www.arwacc.org of the one-and-a-half-day pre-assembly seminar and part of the assembly. This is the first in WACC history. I thought some of the participants would be nervous but it seemed that most of them were quite comfortable in front of three cameras, sometimes four. Young-Cheol, who initiated this new media coverage, has agreed to explore this new opportunity for the WACC International Congress to be held in South Africa in 2008.

After Seoul, my next stop was Bangkok where I met up with Supinya Klangnarong. The hot and humid Bangkok contrasted sharply to the cool and pleasant Seoul. We decided to meet up in dinner to avoid the heat. Our talk covered a wide range of topics, from meditation to book publishing. She gave me an update of her situation and showed me her new book, written in Thai with 108 pages, a compilation of her major articles in local newspapers about her court case, her experience in Europe Social Forum, the Liverpool FC-related advocacy, and the media freedom she's strong passion in. I showed her AR-WACC's Seoul Declaration in which the whole region called for support to her campaign for freer media environment in Thailand. Supinya thought that if someone from WACC global office could attend a court hearing with her it would be a solid sign of international solidarity. http://www.wacc.org.uk/wacc/our_work/thinktank/alerts/supiny a_klangnarong_vs_shin_corporation_blog

Leaving Asia to fly down to the South Pacific was a long journey. The nearly 15-hour flight gave me a chance to reflect on my experience in Seoul and Bangkok. I managed to write down in bullet points the 'big ideas' for WACC Global Office for the coming 10 years. Seoul and Bangkok gave me plenty of inspirations.

When arriving in Fiji, I switched my orientation to the media issues in this island nation which recuperates from the coup in 2000. The Pacific Region decided to hold its triennial assembly in the Cook Islands from 11-17 September, 2005. It will be the first time ever to have the Assembly held in the Cook Islands. Most of its past assemblies were held in Fiji and New Zealand. Governance of regional affairs and leadership was the key to success in developing regional networks. Awareness of development and media issues is critical if the region wants to raise its profile in the international map.

I met up with Rev. Akuila Yabaki in his new office of the Citizens' Constitution Forum (CCF) www.ccf.org.fj on a Saturday morning. I left a message in his answering machine and he rang back saying he could meet me in his office because he was preparing for sermon on Sunday. Even though he is full-time director of CCF, he keeps in touch with the Church through preaching. CCF is active in responding to public issues in Fiji. It has maintained a key voice through Akuila's articles in local newspapers. When I was there, Akuila was screening phone calls speaking on the reconciliation bill being discussed by the government.

I also met with Peni Moore, the creative director of Women's Action for Change (WAC), who has a project supported by WACC. This theatre group advocates for change using drama performance and who boasts to be the island nation's only group that does 'playback', a participatory theatrical skill used by many for therapy and attitude change. One area we talked about was evaluation of drama projects in development. WAC has used the participatory-cum-success story approach to gauge both long and short term effects. Whatever effects one may have seen in evaluations, one is sure that drama has an important role to play in Fiji's reconciliation that was caused by ethnic and religious tensions. And it is appropriate to end this travel log by this affirmation, if not expectation, to do reconciliation by communication.