Mahendra Bahadur Ghimire, 77 of Dhankuta 3, Syawle, has been in a dilemma as to whether to start the reconstruction of his house or not. His simple rural house was totally damaged by the 2015 earthquake. He is still waiting for the technicians to come to his residence for a consultation so he can rebuild his house.

Ghimire has been staying in the adjacent cowshed. He has already spent more than two years, along with his five family members, in the cowshed. The cows have been shifted to an open space. He said, "I have been living in this cowshed for more than two years. Still, I am not sure when and how to build my house."

After the earthquake, no one could stay in his house. He got 20 kilograms of rice and Rs. 15,000.00 from the government as a quick relief in the early days. He had nothing to eat at the time so, this was a great help for him. After two years since the earthquake, he got Rs.50, 000.00 (US$500) last month as the first installment under the reconstruction cash grants from NRA.

Built over twenty-six years, his property worth more than six lakh rupees was lost to the quake. He thinks the house that he had earlier would cost no less than one million rupees now. Ghimire, 64, lost his wife recently. With tears in his eyes, he said, "What can I do with that fifty thousand rupees when the market prices of reconstruction materials have gone so high and there is a shortage of construction materials.”

The earthquake victims have been suffering from the attacks of wild animals too. They say they feel insecure from monkeys, snakes, and leopards. They have requested to the government to provide the total relief as soon as possible so that they can rebuild their houses.

Ghimire said, "The government should have given at least Rs.150, 000.00 (US$1500) to initiate the construction of our houses."

Mekh Bahadur Rai of Dhankuta 3 has become an elected local body member of his village ward. He is also an earthquake victim. Even though he is a local representative, he is unable to rebuild his house which was destroyed in the 2015 earthquake. He has been living in a small hut near where his old house was.

He said that there was continuous tremor of the earthquake so he had to stay in another hut in which he is still living with six family members. More than two dozens of houses were destroyed in his locality by that temblor.

As Ghimire did, he secured the first installment Rs.50, 000.00 but he has not been able to start building his new house. Rai said, “What can we do with this little amount? Given the high labor cost, the money is not even enough to clear the debris.”

The earthquake victims of Dhankuta got the first installment of relief after the local elections in the district. They are not aware when they will get the rest of the relief fund.

Dhankuta Municipality has decided that the earthquake victims should not pay for the approval of the design of the new houses. The first meeting of the municipal board decided the earthquake victims should not pay for the approval of their new house designs. In Dhankuta district, 4491 were surveyed and 2796 are in the beneficiaries are on the list. Out of them, 2089 households have already signed the grant agreement and received the first installment.

According to the municipality, there are at least four hundred and fifty houses completely destroyed throughout the district due to the earthquake. The chief of the municipality, Chintan Tamang, said that the amount of the approval will not be taken by the municipality.  For the approval of the design of the houses, the city dwellers have to pay from three thousand rupees to more than six thousand rupees.

After two years of the earthquake, the municipality has signed the agreement with the earthquake victims for the relief funds, when the victims of other districts started to get the second installment.

Dhankuta Municipality will provide 300.000.00 rupees for each damaged house in three installments. The city dwellers have started to receive the first installment as per the agreement. After having the solar power in the new house, the victims will get twenty-five thousand rupees as the fourth or the last installment.

Out of registered names of 4491, 2796 are listed in the beneficiaries list. According to the Dhankuta District Development Coordination Committee, the government will invest 130 million rupees in the first installment of the relief in the district. Out of them, 2089 households have signed the grant agreement and they received the first installment.

The situation of Bhojpur is also bleak. Out of 9242 surveyed, 5749 are listed in the beneficiaries list. Among them, 1754 signed the grant agreement and 1537 have already received the first installment.

In Sankhuwasabha district, 1953 are listed as beneficiaries and out of them, 1583 have signed the grant agreement and 1201 received the first installment. Solukhumbu is one of the badly damaged districts in eastern Nepal with 11979 in the beneficiaries list. Out of 8095 who signed the grant agreement, merely 514 received the first installment.

Shortage of Construction of Materials

Although the import of the construction materials has been rapidly increasing day by day since the 2015 earthquake, there are shortages of the construction materials, including sand, aggregate, brick, cement, and boulder. As a result, the reconstruction process has not continued as per the need of the victims. This picture of eastern Nepal shows that the government has failed to provide cash grants for the private houses.

The victims have been waiting for the proper guidance to reconstruct their houses. In some villages of Dhankuta and Bhojpur, the earthquake victims are still waiting for the technicians to give them instructions to rebuild their house infrastructure. The District Coordination Committee and municipalities of the district are unable to send the technicians in the villages.

Two years have passed since the 2015 earthquake, yet thousands of people remain socially and economically vulnerable, suffering from the manifold effects of the nature-induced disaster in eastern Nepal.

According to the data from the Nepal Reconstruction Authority (NRA) published in September, 765618 quake-affected families have been listed as eligible to receive reconstruction aid. Of them, 640,020 families have since signed the private housing grant agreement with the NRA in various districts.

However, only 609,023 families have received the first installment of the housing grant, merely 78435 families have received the second tranche, and only 7459 families have received the third installment.

Unlike the other parts, thousands of victims have remained homeless and are living in makeshift shelters, struggling to resume activities that would enable them to generate a living in the eastern region.

“While the government has already generated considerable criticism for its slow pace of reconstruction efforts in the hill regions following the earthquake, it is essential for the government to assume a proactive role and make good on its claims for reconstruction,” said Chintan Tamang, newly elected mayor of Dhankuta Municipality.

“Given the present pace of reconstruction, it will take decades for people to move in their own home,” said Tamang. "The municipality is considering providing additional support to those who are living in our areas. We are also discussing with local administration to smoothen the supply of construction materials.”

What obstruction is there in reconstruction?

Two years after the devastating earthquakes that struck Nepal, the country is struggling to bounce back. Nearly 70% of the affected people still live in temporary shelters, and it is common to see damaged houses, temples without roofs, and earthquake debris lying here and there in many eastern cities of the eastern region and Dhankuta is not an exception.

The recovery is painfully slow, and many families who lost their loved ones continue to live in traumatic conditions. Although the two earthquakes that struck on April 26 and May 12, 2015, did not cause a large number of deaths, many houses were damaged in the eastern region.

Although relief and rescue work began swiftly, with local volunteers working with the army and international aid workers in the central and western region, it took a year to feel the damage of eastern Nepal. Even after two years, the recovery effort has slowed to a crawl in Dhankuta and Bhojpur.

As other parts of the region, political bickering, a lack of accountability and poor management of funds have all hampered efforts to rebuild. After two years, the people in the eastern region see the situation is a “failure”.

Following the local elections, many believed that the situation would change. However, the damage caused by more than a decade of political vacuum is huge. The loss of political accountability to local people is one of the key factors of the failure of disaster recovery in Nepal.

In several locations, it is found that unaffected local elites, included in the list of victims, are receiving financial support. Without local democratic leadership, people cannot voice their concerns, mobilize community resources, or scrutinize projects.

Some local leaders have worked with their communities to build infrastructure, small roads, schools, and hospitals. Nevertheless, these individual efforts are no substitute for strong and democratic local government.

The blockade and political wrangling following the promulgation of new constitution disrupted supplies. As a landlocked country, Nepal has historically relied on India for its basic supplies. The blockade led to an almost total paralysis of not only the recovery work but the entire economy.

Given the persistent seismic risks in the Himalayas, there is a need to create a coherent regional structure for disaster recovery. Yet internal tensions appear to have prevented the Nepal government from promoting serious international cooperation.

Import of Reconstruction Materials

Cement import from India has surged exponentially in the last fiscal year, as domestic production was insufficient to fulfill the local demand. Import of cement has doubled in the last fiscal compared to the previous fiscal year, according to the Department of Customs.

As per cement manufacturers, cement plants with their own clinker producing facility have utilized around 70 to 75 percent of their capacity and those that import clinker has utilized 60 percent of their capacity. According to Cement Manufacturers Association of Nepal, of the total 48 cement factories in operation, 14 with their own clinker production plants have cement production capacity of eight million metric tons or around 160 million sacks per annum.

Nepal’s import of iron and steel jumped by a whopping one hundred percent in the last fiscal year.  This is because of the rapid acceleration of construction works across the country. Domestic steel and rod manufacturers have said that this significant surge in import of steel and rod is due to the sudden boom in the construction sector in Nepal.

When the reconstruction phase of damaged infrastructure was started, import of construction materials increased by a large volume. The volume of the last two months of the current fiscal shows that how large the import rate is. The import of cement and clinker was of NRs. 4,24,03,22,000. Among the principal items in reconstruction, the import of iron oxides was 5, 285 kilograms from India and 32, 200 kilogram from China.

The customs officers in the various parts of the country say that the import volumes of these materials have increased after the 2015 earthquake. The customs officer of Mechi Custom Office, Kakarvitta, Jhapa, Ganapati Kadel says that the country is going to be self-dependent in producing cement and other construction materials. "Five years ago, Nepal used to import cement from India but now the import of clinker has become widespread. This shows Nepal has been producing more than before," Kadel said.

The customs office of eastern border point, Kakarvitta has the record of  15 27 95 155 kilograms of clinker import from India in the last fiscal year. In general, the imports of these products are getting higher in other custom points including Birjung and Bhairawa, the import of the same product is half of this quantity in the first two months of the present fiscal year in Kakarbhitta and Biratnagar.

In Shrawan and Bhadra (July and August) of the present fiscal year, the import of clinker is 6 94 42 030  kilogram. In the same way, the import of iron is also the half of the last year's import in the first two months of the present fiscal year.

As many crushers and stone quarries are shut down, there is a scarcity of aggregate and sand. As the floods washed out many brick factories in Terai, there is also a scarcity of bricks in these areas.

Being declared affected by the earthquake in a year, the eastern districts of Bhojpur, Dhankuta, and Snkhuwasabha are seeing their reconstruction happen at a snail's pace as several confusions over the distribution of cash grants, in the absence of the proper mechanism for communication, prevail.

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Earthquake Reconstruction

Short Of Materials

 The demand and supply gap has escalated the prices of construction materials, including the locally available products like sand, brick, stone, and aggregate, forcing the rural poor to face an additional burden. The number of sand quarries and crusher industries has increased. The import of construction materials has drastically gone up.Now, what has led to the increase in price and scarcity?

By A CORRESPONDENT

Keshab Prasad Ghimire, 62, a resident of formerly Gotikhel Village Development Committee, which is now Ward No 3, Gotikhel, of Mahakal Village Municipality, is living in an area where more than two dozen crushers break and grindstones. Ghimire, an earthquake victim, who has started the reconstruction of his house, however, faces the shortage of the construction materials in the market.

“There is a scarcity of cement, sand, aggregate, and brick. Even the minimum daily wages of unskilled labor is Rs.1000.00 to 1200.00.  The cost of 100 cubic foot of sand and aggregate is 10,000.00 and transport cost is between Rs.7000.00-8,000.00. A Thousand bricks cost 2500.00 plus VAT. The price of OPC 53 grade cement is Rs. 950.00,” said Ghimire, whose village is just 40 kilometers south of the capital.

“The prices of the construction materials have increased drastically. I think Rs.300,000.00 will not be enough to purchase half of the materials,” said Ghimire. “If I cannot purchase the local materials like sand, aggregate, and bricks, how can I purchase other products imported from outside the country."

Kale Sarki, who sees over hundreds loaded trucks with sand and aggregate passing through his own municipality towards Kathmandu, had to wait for a week to purchase 50 cubic foot (CFT) of aggregate and sand. Sarki, a resident of Mundan Deupur Municipality, Ward No. 8 of Kavre, paid almost double the price to transport the materials.

“I have already spent Rs.500,000. to purchase the aggregate, brick, sand, cement, iron rods and woods. I have yet to buy a galvanized sheet for the roof,” said Sarki. "For a small three-room house, I expect that I need to spend more than 700,000 rupees."

Even the chief district coordinator of Dolakha District accepts the fact that there are shortages of locally available construction materials.

“As many earthquake victims are in the process of receiving the second installment under the private housing grant, the scarcity of the locally available construction materials is likely to delay the process of reconstruction," said Sagar Acharya, the National Reconstruction Authority’s district coordinator of Dolakha. “After consultations with experts, the government is planning to open three more stone and sand quarries in the district.”

“There Is A Shortage Of Materials”

As earthquake reconstruction is going on, SAGAR ACHARYA, the Unit Head of District Coordination Unit of Dolakha, spoke to NEW SPOTLIGHT on various issues. Excerpts:

What is the state of reconstruction in Dolakha?

The reconstruction is picking up in Dolakha district. I am expanding the settlement in Dolakha. I have been talking with donor agencies, including NGOs and INGOs. Just a few days ago, I talked with Christian Aid to build a model settlement in Alam Pur and Chikha village of Bigu Village Municipality. Christian Aid has agreed to work in these two villages. We have also resettled the displaced from Bosimpa Village. We have decided to resettle them in Panipokhari. We are in the process of redistribution of landowner certificates. Apart from providing masons, we also provide electricians, plumbers, and carpenters.

How do you see the level of coordination?

We have been working in coordination with all the district level institutions, including the newly-elected representatives of the villages and municipalities. We have been holding meetings of the District Coordination unit regularly. We are settling all the problems faced by the people at local level.MOFAL are responsible to provide the money.

What is the state of reconstruction materials?

Frankly speaking, there is a shortage of materials, particularly the locally available materials like stone, wood, sand, and aggregate. There are only two stone quarries, which are supplying materials for local construction. However, these two are unable to supply the materials at the present phase. We have already identified other seven quarries and the District Coordination Committee has agreed to open the tender. Tamakoshi River is the main source of sand and aggregate. However, the stone is available here and there. There are only two crushers run by private sector.

What about other materials?

We don’t have major problems with other materials, including brick, cement, and iron. However, the prices have gone up particularly in iron and cement. We held a meeting with the district level unit of Federation of Chamber and Commerce and Industry about the price escalation. They said the price has increased not at local level.

Last year, we were able to build 15,000 houses. This year we are expecting to complete 25000 to 30000 houses. If materials are available, we will meet the target. Last year there were 2000 masons. Now, we have 4000 trained mason. We need at least 8500 masons. More than 13000 have already secured second installments.

How do you see the role of INGOs and NGOs?

I don’t know about other districts. However, Karyitas Nepal, a local NGO, is building about 1094 houses in two wards of Bigu Village Municipality. It has already completed sixty percent of the work. They will hand over all the houses by 2019. Similarly, Save the Children is in four wards of Chapra Village Municipality. They are building five hundred houses. Save the Children has already completed 400 houses. The Lutheran World Federation is building 350 houses in one ward of Jiri Municipality and one ward Gaurishanker Rural Municipality. The federation has already completed 315 houses. What I have to say is that NGOs and INGOs have been doing a very good work in Dolakha district.

What is the policy of NRA?

If they want to build more houses, we are ready to provide them the villages. We want work in covering a full ward of a particular village. 

The cost of transporting construction materials is very high in Kavreplanchwok.  “With support from the District Administration, we have been making every effort to maintain the supply of construction materials and prices,” said Dhruba Gaida, coordinator of National Reconstruction Authority’s Kavrepalanchwok district coordinator.

The price of all construction materials, brick, cement, steel, Corrugated Galvanized Iron (CGI) sheet, aggregate, wood, and sand has jumped in all the districts from east to west. 

 Along with Lalitpur and Kavre, the construction materials are in short supply all over earthquake-affected districts.

According to an estimate, the construction cost of a standard three-room house, with 431 square feet, is around Rs.608,931. Similarly, a house of two rooms, 313 square feet, costs Rs.537,000.  and small two rooms, 232.88 square feet, cost Rs.412,000.

For three rooms, out the total amount, Rs.235893.000 is required to purchase local materials like brick, aggregate, sand, stone, brick, and wood. The 185.000.000 is for skill and unskilled labors. It means half of the money for the reconstruction of private house circulates in the local market.

Similarly, Rs.188.038 will be of non-local materials, including 53 grade OPC cement, which costs Rs. 68,250 and 12 mm f steel, 10 mm f steel and 7 mm f steel 348 KGs. This will cost about Rs.23,000. The current price of steel is around Rs. 85 to 12 mm and 95 to 4 mm f. per bundle CGI Sheet of 12 feet cost Rs.6500.00 and plain GI Sheet per rim is 350.00.

Demand-supply

According to a study conducted by Practical Action Regional office, titled Supply Chain of Construction Materials in Earthquake Affected Districts and Assessment in Nuwakot and Rasuwa, the change in peoples’ preference of building types following the earthquake increased the demand for construction materials.

 Before the earthquake, more than 80 percent of the buildings were stone masonry in mud mortar. However, inaccessible areas, the majority of houses (52%) are likely to be brick masonry in cement mortar. On the other hand, inaccessible areas, more (79%) are likely to be stone masonry in mud mortar. Corrugated Galvanized Iron (CGI) sheet is the most popular roofing material, irrespective of the areas with 81 percent of households preferring it.

 With the change of building construction, the high price of non-local materials is the primary cause of concern. “On the top of it, the transaction cost is huge. A bag of cement, which costs NPR 630 at the factory in Birgunj, is sold at NPR 890 at rural VDC of Nuwakot. The exorbitant transportation fare is the major contributor to the transaction cost,” said the report.

 The study has shown that there is a demand of 9.78 billion pieces of brick. But the current capacity is 3.08 billion bricks with installed capacity 3.08 bricks. Similarly, CGI sheet's total demand is of 0.30 metric tons, current supply capacity is 0.35 and installed capacity 0.37.

 The total demand of iron is 0.99 million metric tons and current capacity is 0.76 with installed capacity 1.13. The demand for cement is 7.26 million metric ton with installed capacity 6.97 and current capacity 4.20.

 The demand of stone is 21.91 million metric tons and supply is 15.66 million metric tons. The demand of sand is 6.43 million metric tons and supply is 2.28 million metric tons. Similarly, aggregate demand is 2.43 million metric tons and supply is 0.58 million metric tons. The demand of wood is 4.46 metric tons and supply is 2.56 metric tons.

 “Nepal has vast quantities of river boulders and pebbles and sand are mined as construction materials. These are adequate inside the country. I don’t think there is any reason for the short supply,” said professor Dr. Ranjan Kumar Dahal, Engineering Geologist and Geotechnical Engineer.

With the growing demands of iron, cement, CGI and wood, there will be an increase in imports. According to Department of Customs, in the last two months, Nepal imported iron worth of 18.19 billion rupees in the last two months against the import of the worth of iron 16.5 billion rupees same period last year. In the year 2015, Nepal imported 11.73 billion rupees worth of iron in the two months.

The imports of the products like coal, cement, iron ore, zinc and other raw materials have increased. According to the Department of Customs, the imports of steel and iron ore jumped from Rs.70 billion to 93 billion in the past one year. Nepal imported 93.715 billion rupees in the fiscal year 2016.017. Imports will likely double the next year given the last two months of the data. Nepal imported woods worth Rs. 4 billion in the same period.

Nepal imported iron and steel worth of 68.933 billion rupees in 2015/016 and iron and articles of iron and steel worth of 9.119 billion rupees. Nepal imported the wood merely 2.574 billion rupees in the year

According to Nepal Foreign Trade Statistics for Fiscal year 2016/017, Nepal imported Rs.9.973 billion worth of iron or steel articles. Similarly, the cement and raw materials for cement industries continue to increase. Similarly, the import of zinc also increased.

 “The import of iron, wood, and iron-related products and other items used in construction has drastically increased,” said Shova Kanta Paudyal, Deputy Director General of Department of Custom.

 What Went Wrong Then

The government blames crusher industries for having created a market scarcity of local products and industrialists for the short supply of iron and cement. Crusher industries see the government's frequent interventions and rampant shutdown of the industries by local administrations as responsible for the present crisis.

“Despite the increase in the import, we are facing difficulty to meet the demand of the market,” said Kiran Sakha, senior vice president of Nepal Rolling Mill Association. “All 16 rolling mills are operating at their full capacity. As our industry depends on the imported products from third countries, the fluctuation of prices depends upon the dollar strength and the international market price.”

 As most of the crusher owners are either MPs, local political leaders or local industrialists, there is a big nexus of politicians, administrators, and the market players. A field observation shows that this nexus is responsible for creating the scarcity of the locally available construction materials.

With the lack of coordination among the ministries responsible to regulate the crusher industry, the country is facing an unnatural shortage of sand, boulders, and stones.

The Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development, the Ministry of Industries and the Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation are responsible for checking the exploitation of natural resources from rivers, forests and national parks. However, the Ministry of Environment is responsible to devise measures and guidelines to strike a balance between developmental work and environment.

At present, some 700 crusher plants are estimated to be processing construction materials throughout the country.

All these three ministries have their own interests. Forest Ministry officials accuse the DDCs of aiding contractors in mining natural resources without considering the environmental impact as their only concern is revenue from the sand and boulders. For the local level, levies on the trade in the construction materials have been an important source of income.

Crusher Industry Entrepreneurs’ Association has its own argument. In recent months, more than two dozen crusher industries along the BP Highway and Prthivi Highway in Dhading and Lele of Lalitpur were shut.

“Nepal Reconstruction Authority (NRA) has already requested Ministry of Home Affairs to direct local administration to monitor the market.  We are also proposing to hold a meeting with different government ministries, industrialists, including cement industries, as well as iron and steel. NRA has already requested Ministry of Home Affairs to facilitate the supply of local construction materials,” said Yam Lal Bhoosal, spokesperson of NRA.

According to National Reconstruction Housing Guidelines, the Chief District Officer is responsible to coordinate with various local agencies to maintain the supply and prices of construction materials.

In reality, the CDOs rarely summon such meetings. Following the elections of local levels, there is a greater anarchy as some have even imposed additional taxes on the aggregate, sands, and bricks. Some local bodies have shut down the stone quarries and industries.

“We have to pay additional money from the top to bottom. We need to pay money for the top level authorities for the license, for the local villagers, the district administration, and the local police. How can you expect cheaper goods?” said a crusher entrepreneur on condition of anonymity. “Everyone is receiving benefit from our business.”

In Gorkha, Dhading, and Nuwakot, each Municipality and Village Municipality levies Rs.500 on each truck. If a truck passes three Village Municipalities, it has to pay additional Rs.1500  Besides that there is also the cost paid to various state units.

“You cannot blame the industries. It is the district administrations and police responsible for the present state,” said Ram Prasad Bidari, president of Dhading District Crusher Operators Association.

Out of 27 crusher factories of Dhading district, only half of them are operating now, producing sand and aggregates to various sales depots in Kathmandu, Dhading and other areas.

“The scarcity is not created by us but the government has to take full responsibility,” said Purushottam Regmi, general secretary of the Federation of Nepalese Crusher and Mines Entrepreneurs’ Association

He claimed that the policy of government and local level elected representatively is responsible for the present crisis.

 “As Ministry of Population and Environment is yet to announce new guidelines, all the crusher industries are legally operational under an order of July 2015,” said Purushottam Nepal, undersecretary, and head of a legal section of Ministry. "There are huge piles of stocks of sands, aggregate, stones.”

Demands of Material

As per the Post Disaster Need Assessment (PDNA), the government is allocating Rs. 667 billion for reconstruction. It means there is a huge need of materials.

According to NRA, there is the need to reconstruct 750 heritage sites, 8680 school buildings, 1197 health posts and 484 damaged government office.

Since there is a massive reconstruction of irrigation, government offices, public houses, private houses, road, bridges underway, there is a huge demand for construction materials and equipment. The government neither has a specific fiscal policy and trade policy in all this.

 “The present crisis is related to corruption and accountability,” said Padmini Pradhananga, General Secretary at the Transparency International. "Whatever the government says, very few houses have been reconstructed and there has been a shortage of labor and engineers and materials to carry out the reconstruction work."

As Nepal is spending over 667 billion rupees for reconstruction, it will have a greater fiscal impact at national level and local level as well. The government has allocated 135 billion rupees in a budget for the earthquake reconstruction in the current fiscal year against 63 billion in the previous years.

“The government resource allocation for reconstruction has increased phenomenally in the past two years but the rate of expenditure is poor,” said Kishor Maharjan, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Management, and Tribhuvan University. "The current state of expenditure will have significant impacts on fiscal policy and Nepal’s foreign trade.”

According to Asian Development Bank’s economic report, acceleration of post-earthquake reconstruction and other construction activities are some of the key factors leading to an improved output of industrial sector.

Murari Niraula, Member Secretary, Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) Secretariat under Ministry of Finance, said increased demands of construction materials indicate that the reconstruction is accelerating.

However, the question remains as to who will control the uncontrolled price rise and unjustified scarcity of the construction materials. 

19-28 new spotlight earthquake investigation.pdf

This publication has been supported by The Asia Foundation. The contents of this publication reflect the views of the author(s), researcher(s), and contributing editor(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Asia Foundation.