EWC chief says center can
help with Asian crisis

By Pat Omandam
Star-Bulletin

The East-West Center's ties with the Asian community is an asset that can help Washington, D.C., deal with the Asian fiscal crisis, says Charles E. Morrison, an international relations expert and the center's new president.

Morrison said there's a tendency in Washington to focus on a particular solution to the Asian recession, such as support of the recent package of International Monetary Fund proposals.

Instead, Asian countries have a different view of the problem -- which the center can help the U.S. understand.

"One really needs an Asian-American task force, good people who know how to work together to develop ideas about how to approach something like this," Morrison told the Rotary Club of Honolulu yesterday.

"And the question is to get it to the right people at the early stages and identify the problems ahead of time, so people can really be ahead of them," he said.

Morrison, 54, will make his first appearance as president before the center's Board of Governors next week, when he will seek approval of his strategic plan for the 38-year-old institution. Among his goals is a fund-raising campaign to offset cuts in the center's federal budget that was at $12 million last year.

Although the fiscal year for the federal government began Oct. 1, Morrison said the center does not yet have a budget for this year. The U.S. Senate has appropriated $25 million, while the House eliminated its funding. Morrison expects a compromise budget of about $12.5 million.

The basic question asked since Morrison was named president on June 18, and officially took control Aug. 1, is why should a research institution like this be federally supported, and what is its value and national purpose.

Morrison explained the center was created in 1960 as a U.S. strategy in Asia to slow down any in-roads made by Communism by building relationships through education and technology with Asian countries.

The biggest challenge facing the center is addressing how the Asian economic development is affecting the United States, and how it can help, he said.

But to do so, Morrison believes the center's five research programs need to work together as a single unit. Also, the agency must establish more dialogue in the region, through its Jefferson Fellows and other programs. And it must focus on strengthening its image in Washington, D.C.

"We have to learn to get our message out more effectively," he said.

After his lunchtime speech at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, Rotarian Bill Sage asked Morrison whether Asia is addressing the Year 2000 compliance problem. Sage worries the region's power grid systems may falter if its computers are not YK2 compliant, adding more problems.