Trump Two is the world’s big story – will he fly high and take the dollar aloft – or crash and fry? Whatever, he’s shading the sun from the right-wing blusterer next door who isn’t doing well after three months. Duncan Graham reports. Prabowo Subianto is a frightening and frightened man. Standing in a jeep Continue reading »
Asia
Australia needs to try and persuade the Trump Administration that no country can expect to dominate our region and the benefits of cooperation. But if, as is likely, Trump refuses to accept a multipolar region then Australia must be prepared to act on its own and seek its security within Asia. Australia’s strategic dilemma For Continue reading »
Fifty years ago, I enjoyed an overnight stay in Hong Kong while on my way from Melbourne to visit the United Kingdom for the first time. Hong Kong was already established as a “tourist and shopping paradise” by then. I remember being somewhat bewildered by the crowds of people everywhere I went. But it was Continue reading »
Australian politicians’ inability to understand the complexity of the Indian diaspora is, in part, fostering division among these migrants, the Guardian Australia claims in analysis published on Sunday (December 8). Writers Ben Doherty and Mostafa Rachwani say the diaspora is deeply divided – which should not surprise any educated person given that India’s Prime Minister Continue reading »
In 2019, I was Australia’s Consul-General in Makassar, and I remember meeting a group of Muslim Australians from western Sydney: they were planning to make a film about the Makassar-Northern Australia relationship. Their leader was Sheikh Wesam Charkawi, a tall, bearded man of middle-age, in haji cap and long white robes. Sheikh Wesam was born Continue reading »
In the wake of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s 6-hour coup, Western pundits have opined that this was an affirmation of South Korean democracy’s robustness and resilience, its institutional maturity and strength. This is like saying after a survivor fights off an assault, that this demonstrates a mature state of legal order. Hardly. It Continue reading »
A non- prejudicial clause can end internal bickering. President Prabowo Subianto’s proposal for a joint development project in the South China Sea (SCS) with China has hit a snag. His foreign Minister, Pak Sugiono, was lynched before a parliamentary Committee on 3 December by lawmakers demanding answers to why Indonesia agreed to the term “overlapping Continue reading »
In Asian media this week: Disaster survivor says she wishes she had died. Plus: Macabre dispute over Pakistan protest deaths; Trump’s new term, crisis time for AUKUS: Martial law becomes South Korea’s democratic moment; Fentanyl America’s problem, says Beijing; Women’s freedom means no going back on population decline This week marks 40 years since the Continue reading »
On November 27, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court announced that he is seeking an arrest warrant against Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the head of Myanmar’s military junta, for his role in the commission of crimes against humanity against his country’s Rohingya minority. This announcement comes at an awkward moment for American politicians of Continue reading »
Even as more than 40 lives were lost last week in the latest resurgence of sectarian violence on Pakistan’s northwestern flank bordering Afghanistan, the nation’s media remained focused primarily on a nationwide “do or die” protest focused on the capital, Islamabad, and organised by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI). The apparent aim is to liberate PTI Continue reading »