Author: Aurelia George Mulgan, UNSW@ADFA
The Hatoyama government has loudly trumpeted its commitment to cut public works (PW) spending, encapsulated in its manifesto slogan ‘from concrete to people’.
According to the Ministry of Finance (MOF), the 2010 PW budget firstly involves a large-scale reduction in PW spending in line with the ‘from concrete to people’ pledge; secondly it implements expenditure cuts reflecting the Government Revitalisation Unit’s (GRU) budget-screening process; and thirdly, it aims to respond appropriately to local needs with a view to establishing regional sovereignty. Read more…
Author: Andrei Lankov, Kookmin and ANU
So after months of rumours and a couple of false reports, Kim Jong-il finally departed for China. This time his visit produced a palpable irritation in Seoul. Suspicions about Pyongyang’s involvement in the Cheonan disaster are mounting, so some South Korean politicians saw China’s willingness to invite the North Korean leader as a sign of tacit support for Pyongyang’s policy. This led to an outpour of critical statements, which are certain to have no impact on China’s actions, of course.
To start with, China ― in spite of all rhetoric of ‘eternal friendship’ ― is no admirer of Kim Jong-il’s regime and is frequently annoyed by the North Korean antics. Read more…
Author: Glenndale J. Cornelio
Serious change is coursing through the Philippines’ electoral system. On Monday May 10, the Philippines held its first ever automated national elections. This lends credibility to the next president, Noynoy Aquino. The election also involved all executive posts, from the national to the local level, and so was a rare opportunity for the electorate to pursue a fresh start by choosing its leaders well.
At the same time, in support of the incoming 15th Congress, the Secretariat of the House of Representatives has been preparing for the next legislative agenda. Read more…
Author: Andrew Macintosh, ANU
In late April, the Australian Government announced it was shelving its emissions trading scheme – the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) – until at least 2013. The decision sparked howls of protest with many complaining it would increase the cost of meeting Australia’s mitigation targets and slow investment in low-carbon technologies. There was also concern that the demise of the CPRS would be interpreted by other countries as a sign that Australia is stepping back from its mitigation commitments and is no longer interested in contributing to a strong climate outcome.
The CPRS was a far cry from good public policy, being both inefficient and inequitable. Read more…
Author: Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Chulalongkorn University
The red shirt uprising in Bangkok has brought Thailand’s topsy-turvy politics to a critical juncture as brinksmanship and confrontation intensify. Since early 2009, many tens of thousands of red shirts, nominally under the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD) and supportive of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, have agitated and mobilised against the coalition government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva. After rioting in the streets and retreating in disgrace in April 2009, they regrouped and reclaimed their agenda with street protests in Bangkok in March and April 2010, calling for a dissolution of the lower house and new polls to reboot Thailand’s democratic game.
As the reds ramped up their rhetoric and street demonstrations, their demands for a dissolution of the lower house were set against the defiance and resolve of Prime Minister Abhisit and his patrons and allies. Read more…
Author: Narushige Michishita, GRIPS, Tokyo
If North Korea did indeed sink the South Korean frigate Cheonan, it must have had three major objectives in mind.
First, Pyongyang wanted to create a situation where the signing of a peace agreement appears to be a strategically good option for the United States. Historically, whenever North Korea has proposed a peace agreement, it had raised tensions in the Yellow Sea and the demilitarised zone (DMZ). In 1973 North Korean naval vessels started to cross the Northern Limit Line (NLL), the quasi maritime demarcation line. Read more…
Author: Ralph A. Cossa, Pacific Forum CSIS
As it becomes more and more obvious the South Korean Navy corvette Cheonan was sunk on March 26 by a North Korean torpedo, more and more voices are calling for cooler heads to prevail. Except, that is, for those who are calling for a strong, if not massive, military response to what, if confirmed, will be a clear act of aggression which violates the 1953 Armistice and thus invokes the US-ROK security treaty.
I say ‘if confirmed’, as the South Korean government has been very careful not to jump to any official conclusion, as increasingly obvious as it appears to be becoming, without a thorough investigation of the wreckage. Read more…
Author: Chris Urbanski, Boston Consulting Group
The perks of office are vast in the Philippines, where President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has seen her declared personal net worth grow from US$1.5 million in 2001 to US$3.2 million in 2008. This is a yearly increase of almost US$250,000: not bad for someone with a monthly salary of just US$1000. So it is little wonder politicians are prepared to go to extreme lengths to ensure that they are the next in line to serve the nation.
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, for example, won office in 2004 amid widespread allegations that she conspired with the Electoral commissioner, Virgilio Garcilliano, to tamper with results from Mindanao to ensure victory over action star Ferdinand Poe Jr. Read more…
Author: Sourabh Gupta, Samuels International
Seeking to solidify their Global and Strategic Partnership, Prime Ministers Aso and Singh had issued a Joint Declaration on Security Cooperation in October 2008. The landmark document was only the second instance of such bilateral cooperation entered into by Tokyo, aside from its security arrangement with the US. In keeping with the upgraded schedule of ministerial-level consultations envisaged in the Joint Declaration (and its accompanying Action Plan), over the Golden Week holiday period Defence Minister Kitazawa paid a visit to his counterpart in New Delhi.
Topics of discussion included safety of sea lines of communication, anti-piracy cooperation as well as drawing up a timeline of joint exercises to be conducted by the two countries’ navies. Read more…
Author: Christopher Findlay, University of Adelaide
The value of shares in miners in Australia took a hit last week. Companies threatened to relocate. Australia’s sovereign risk is now ‘right up there’ and competitor suppliers ‘are licking their lips’. Last week’s announcement by the Australian government of the 40 per cent Resource Super Profits Tax (RSPT) from mid 2012 which is in addition to company income tax was the stimulus.
The industry says it’s another tax. In fact it offers a more efficient mechanism for collecting part of the scarcity value of mineral resources than the current tax regime. Read more…
Author: Tim Meisburger, The Asia Foundation
In the past, Philippine elections have frequently been marred by allegations of widespread cheating and other electoral malpractice. The most famous (or perhaps infamous) method of cheating is called dagdag/bawas (add-subtract), when votes are subtracted from the opposition candidate and added to a favored candidate, and vice versa.
Concerns over election credibility have been exacerbated by the typically long period between voting and the official announcement of results. Read more…
Author: Peter Drysdale
Last week Indonesia’s talented Finance Minister, Sri Mulyani Indrawati, called it quits to take a top job with the World Bank. Ministers come and go, but Mulyani’s resignation is not just another episode in the revolving door of democratic politics.
Last November we celebrated the promise of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s (SBY’s) second term cabinet. ‘Its composition and quality’, wrote Hal Hill and Chris Manning, ‘provide one of the best indications of the president’s policy priorities, as well as his political strategy. Consistency in economic policy and a clear agenda for policy reform were two stumbling blocks for his previous administration. This time it might be different’, they said. Read more…
Author: Donald K. Emmerson, Stanford University
How does a corrupt government stop corruption? What if that government is democratic, and must cultivate the support of political parties that are themselves corrupt? Is fostering reform in such a political economy the equivalent of trying to make snow in hell?
These questions may be overstated, but the dilemmas they convey are all too real. Witness the storm of concern triggered by the recent resignation of the highest-profile reformist in Indonesia, Sri Mulyani Indrawati, from her linchpin job as minister of finance in a country that was ranked the most corrupt and the most democratic in Southeast Asia in 2009. Read more…
Author: K Kesavapany, ISEAS
As the international centre of economic gravity moves towards East Asia, the challenge for the region is to develop a new architecture commensurate with its growing role in world affairs.
Consider East Asia. There is no doubt that East Asian countries are well-represented in the Group of 20, which is turning into a genuine platform for international economic cooperation. China and India, the two rising Asian giants, are prominent members of the G20. Read more…
Author: Arvind Subramanian, Peterson Institute for International Economics
The wobbly West and the rising rest. That is now the context to all gatherings of the world’s economic policy-makers. The monopoly on power and influence wielded by the hegemon (the United States) and by the other advanced economies is being broken for real and for good. Key decisions will emanate less from conversations amongst a few and more from a wider group. It is difficult to predict whether the theater of real action will be the G20 or some other collectivity. But we can be increasingly sure that the ‘halcyon’ days of the G1 or the G7 are behind us.
This makes for both bad news and good news. Read more…
