EFN Asia 23: More Photos at Jeju Forum

Our panel, the EFN Asia and FNF panel, during the recently concluded Jeju Forum for Peace and Prosperity, May 29-31, 2013, was held in the afternoon of Day 2, May 30. While some panels have mostly if not entirely Korean speakers and facilitator, our panel has speakers and moderator from six countries. Two from Malaysia, Wan Saiful Wan Jan (moderator) of IDEAS and Tricia Yeoh of Institute Rakyat, two from China, Feng Xingyuan and Liu Junning, main speaker from Cambodia, Sam Rainsy. Other discussants were from Vietnam, Pham Chi Lan; from India, Barun Mitra of Liberty Institute, and Choi Byung-Il from S. Korea. I was the Rapporteur, that's seven countries represented.

The audience was big, mostly Korean university students, then other Korean and international participants.

The Resident Representative of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom (FNF) in Korea, Lars Andre Richter, a German, gave a brief opening remarks -- that's eight countries already in our panel, really an international panel. Lars introduced what the FNF and EFN Asia are, their activities to promote freedom and liberty around the world, especially in Asia.

The group photo after the panel. German Ambassador to Korea, Rolf Mafael, gave the closing remarks. In the photo below, he is 5th from left. He was supposed to give a short closing remarks, perhaps 1 or 2 minutes, but he enjoyed listening to the panel and spoke for about five minutes. The audience like his talk because he gave a European, specifically German, perspective on the subject of economic nationalism. See my Rapporteur's Report about the panel.

On our first night at the forum, May 29, we were the last group to leave the dinner table. Before finally leaving the grand ballroom, we had a group photo, below. We were 13 people who travelled from Seoul that afternoon, including two staff of FNF Korea, Sungeun Lim and Ms. Kim, and Pett Jurapaiboon, the Reginal Program Officer of EFN Asia, based in Bangkok. In this photo below, only Sam Rainsy was absent because he went ahead.

On the second night, another dinner at the grand ballroom. The Jeju Forum organizers showed the EFN Asia video on the stage several times, wow. Barun Mitra and Pett Jurapaiboon with me, the EFN video on our background as it was being shown.

The third and farewell dinner, May 31. This was taken by one of the young staff of the Forum, Ms. Summer Kim.

The previous day, Ms. Kim and her two other fellow young staff interviewed me. They have read my previous articles about the Forum, weeks before we attended the event and they said they liked it. They asked me how I came to participate in the forum, I said it was EFN Asia and FNF which brought us to the event. They also asked if I have any comment how the event was organized, I said that everything was running smoothly, I have zero complaint, they and the Forum organizers are very efficient. Ms. Kim also sent this photo, minutes before the video interview.

Once again, thanks to EFN Asia and the FNF for hosting that panel and for bringing me and other panel participants to Seoul and Jeju. It was a great learning experience, as usual.

See also my four other articles about our activities in Korea last week:

Chung ho Kim, Freedom Factory Ltd., May 28, 2013

EFN Asia 20: Liberals Meet Liberals in Seoul, May 29, 2013 

EFN Asia 21: On Think Tank Independence, Jeju Forum, May 31, 2013 

EFN Asia 22: Dealing with Economic Nationalism, Jeju Forum, June 03, 2013