Around South Asia & South East Asia [11.23.14]

Indonesia

• An Ethnic Chinese Christian, Breaking Bain Indonesia (New York Times)

The governor of Jakarta, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, center, runs the
capital of the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation.

"Mr. Basuki (popularly known as Ahok), a 48-year-old Protestant whose grandfather was a tin miner from Guangzhou, China, was sworn in Wednesday at the State Palace by President Joko Widodo.None of Jakarta’s previous governors have been Christian or of Chinese ancestry, except for one who served briefly as an appointee half a century ago (like Mr. Basuki, he was both). And despite Indonesia’s history of discrimination — and, at times, savage violence — against ethnic Chinese, Mr. Basuki says he considers neither his faith nor his ethnicity to be a political handicap.
“When people told me ‘the Chinese are a minority,’ my father would say to tell them that we are more patriotic,” Mr. Basuki said in a recent interview. “If one day Indonesia is occupied by a foreign country, my father said he would be in front of the front line to fight for our independence again.”
Mr. Basuki was Jakarta’s deputy governor under Mr. Joko, who was elected president in July. Like Mr. Joko, Mr. Basuki is one of a small but growing group of political upstarts who gained national attention for running clean, effective local governments, in a country where corruption has long been a fact of life."

Bhutanese Refugee Crisis in Nepal

• নেপাল সরকারের কাছে ভুটানি শরণার্থীদের খোলা চিঠি (banglanews 24.com)
• Bhutanese Refugee Crisis in Nepal

We would urge the Governments of both Nepal and Bhutan to make collaborative efforts so that the Bhutanese Refugees can return to their homeland according to International Laws and thereby solve the crisis.