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Feature: NGOs performing important work

With its peeling paint and creaky floors, the Asia Foundation in Taiwan (AFIT), a non-government organization (NGO), doesn't look like a diplomatic force to be reckoned with.

But looks are deceiving.

For the past decade, the foundation has been in the business of exercising "soft power," staking out a global niche for Taiwan through cultural or ideological means.

Employing just five staffers in Taipei, the foundation, along with similar local NGOs, carries the weight of the nation on its shoulders. Chief among its goals, the foundation seeks to network with civil institutions abroad to promote the country's interests, said Michael Hsiao (蕭新煌), a board member.

Faced with a lack of funds and a diplomatic stranglehold by China, the foundation has its work cut out for it.

In recent decades, Taiwan has resisted efforts by Beijing to reduce its diplomatic allies. On Aug. 5, Chad became the latest country to switch diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China, leaving Taipei with just 24 diplomatic allies. The country has also been shut out of most global rule-making bodies.

"We don't want to become further isolated," Hsiao said.

"In terms of global economic integration, we're doing okay. However, we need more than just money to get around China's restrictions," Hsiao added, referring to the need for further cultural interaction with Southeast Asia.

In 2003, Hsiao designed a program for the foundation to promote goodwill between Taiwanese and Indonesian Muslim leaders.

Titled the "Southeast Asian Leaders' Network" (SEALEN), the program was launched in 2004, with Hsiao leading five imams from Taiwan to Indonesia to meet religious leaders there.

"That was the first time since World War II that Taiwanese Muslim leaders had visited," Hsiao said.

"Our Austronesian and historical roots mean that we have a lot in common with Southeast Asian cultures," he added.

Azyumardi Azra, president of the Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University in Jakarta, said that Taiwan was a "natural ally" of Southeast Asian nations.

Last September the US-trained academic visited Taipei under the auspices of SEALEN to recruit local students for his school.

Speaking to the Taipei Times at the foundation's headquarters, Azra touted his university as ideal for promoting Islam because a tolerant, moderate version of the religion was taught there, along with Western academic subjects.

"For Taiwanese youth seeking to study Islam abroad, Indonesia is the best choice," Azra said, adding that fundamental Islam in the Middle East made it difficult for Taiwanese to adjust to life there.

Azra also said he had met hundreds of Indonesian migrant workers during his visit to better understand their situation amid what he described as rampant migrant exploitation here.

Indonesia is considering Azra as a future Minister of Education, highlighting the significance of the SEALEN program, said foundation officer Phebie Thum (譚貞潔).

"I told the Ministry of Foreign Affairs [MOFA] that the people who we work with are influential, so why not support us," Thum said.

Hsiao said that by contact with foreign civil institutions, the foundation has gained access to "well-connected people," who can "tell their governments about [Taiwan]."

Calling the maneuvering by NGOs an "overdue trend," Hsiao added that MOFA recognized the importance of NGOs. He cited MOFA's establishment of the NGO Affairs Committee in 2000 to provide financial and other kinds of assistance to NGOs.

"NGOs can do a lot of things when officials from our government aren't allowed to show up," said Huang Kwei-bo (黃奎博), a professor of diplomacy at National Chengchi University.

However, Huang added that government assistance to NGOs wasn't necessarily a good thing.

"Some foreign governments see our NGOs as too political [due to MOFA assistance]. That's what I worry about," Huang said last month.

He claimed that with foreign policy-making dominated by "President Chen Shui-bian's [陳水扁] inner circle," government subsidies to NGOs were never without strings.

"Top-level officials want to see results. They're thinking, `If you get my money, you have to do something [for me],'" the professor said.

The foundation, meanwhile, has worked hard to convince MOFA to bankroll the SEALEN program. It received "barely enough" assistance this year to facilitate visits for a handful of Muslim leaders like Azra, foundation representatives said.

Hsiao said that corporate sponsors weren't interested in funding unprofitable exchange programs.

Contradicting Huang's charge that MOFA "devotes too much" to NGOs, Thum said that soliciting money from the government was like pulling teeth, and that time was running out.

"Last month, China led a Muslim delegation to Indonesia, so we know it's trying to establish the same cultural links [as we are]," Thum said.
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