The NLD government, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, has been struggling to overcome its lack of political and administrative experience, Trevor Wilson reports. It is just over a year since Myanmar’s historic 8 November 2015 democratic election, although only nine months since the National League of Democracy (NLD), led by Aung San Suu Kyi, […]
Myanmar’s democratic anniversary: what is there to celebrate? Read More »
The gift of freedom given by Japanese civic groups to new arrivals from North Korea carries a heavy debt, writes Markus Bell. From 1959 to 1984, some 90,000 Koreans migrated from Japan to North Korea as part of the ‘repatriation movement’. In the last 15 years approximately 300 of these migrants—known as Zainichi—have returned to
‘Poisoned gift’ imperils families of North Korea’s Zainichi returnees Read More »
The Western media have gone from obscuring to exalting Hong Kong separatism, Benjamin Garvey observes. There has been a sudden deluge of Western reporting on Hong Kong separatism over the last six months—and, interestingly, it has been sympathetic. China watchers who rely on mainstream Western media could be forgiven for thinking the Hong Kong Independence
Backflip: Western media suddenly sympathise with Hong Kong separatists Read More »
Bangladesh’s founding ideals are giving way to extremism and terrorism, writes Rajkumar Singh. The emergence of Bangladesh—formerly East Pakistan—as an independent country in December 1971 reinforced the aspirations of many ethnic movements in the region. Since independence, however, the country has experienced successive coups and martial law regimes, and intermittent suspension of its constitution. The
Bangladesh grapples with rising Islamic extremism Read More »
Engulfed by scandal, South Korea’s Park Geun-hye is banking on a change of political style to save her presidency, writes Hyung-A-Kim. More than two weeks after revelations of South Korean president Park Geun-hye’s mismanagement of her presidential power by allowing her friend Choi Soon-sil to exert her influence on Park’s decision-making, the entire Korean nation
Park fights for survival after violation of ‘divine right’ Read More »
Behind the crude populism, President Duterte has an intuitive grasp of what is best for the Philippines, Jonathan Bogais argues. Intellectual and political debate about Rodrigo Duterte since his election as Philippine president in June 2016 has been based on an abundance of bias and a paucity of fact. That Duterte is a populist and
Duterte plays a long game to secure Philippine advantage Read More »
