Economics, Politics and Public Policy in East Asia and the Pacific
Author: Ildikó Bellér-Hann, KU
In recent weeks the international media have again been reporting deadly incidents in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of northwest China.
Although not as dramatic as the violence of 5 July 2009, when almost 200 people died in the region’s capital, Urumqi, these latest events continue a pattern which now dates back over two decades. Read more…
Author: Patrick Jory, UQ
When Thailand’s royalist-military junta appointed a panel to draft the new Thai constitution following the September 2006 coup, the idea was to ‘firewall’ the document from any changes the regime’s enemies might try to impose in the future.
One of these firewalls was Article 291, which lays down regulations designed to stymie such attempts. Read more…
Author: Ronojoy Sen, NUS
The Indian National Congress was the biggest loser in the recent Uttar Pradesh (UP) elections — one of five Indian state elections that began last month.
Meanwhile, the Samajwadi Party’s (SP) big win in UP confounded most analysts.
Author: Barry Sautman, HKUST
A wave of about 25 self-immolations in Tibetan areas of China has made the Tibet issue prominent again in global media.
Pro-Tibet independence groups say these successful — or horribly disfiguring — attempts at suicide result from ‘Chinese oppression’, and that the self-immolations have led to an increased security presence in Tibet and more repression of Tibetans. Read more…
Author: Peter Drysdale, Editor, East Asia Forum
There were more than a few surprises in the events that surrounded the Chinese National People’s Congress in Beijing last week.
All of them underline the stark economic and political choices that the new Chinese leadership will face in dealing with the next phase of national development. Read more…
Author: Rajat Kathuria, IMI
The Supreme Court of India sent the country’s telecoms sector a much needed wake-up call on 2 February, annulling 122 licences across nine different companies.
The Court held that the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had severely abused the principles of fairness and transparency in the assignment of these licenses to favour a small number of select operators in January 2008. Read more…
Author: Peter Drysdale, Editor, East Asia Forum
One of the more remarkable and most important features of Asia’s economic success is the way in which trade growth and economic integration have proceeded apace despite what many thought were high political odds.
Yet, once the economies of East Asia committed to open economic policy strategies, economic relationships across the region burgeoned despite an unusual number of troublesome political relationships. Read more…
Author: Justin Li, ICE
Australia has a new foreign minister, Bob Carr, a former premier of New South Wales and a senior figure in Australian Labor politics, after the resignation of former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd from the post in his spectacularly unsuccessful bid to challenge the current prime minister, Julia Gillard.
In an unusual route to the post, Mr Carr is coming from outside federal Australian Parliament to take up a Senate seat by appointment after the resignation of one of Gillard’s supporters, as is the convention for filling mid-term vacancies in the Australian Senate. Read more…
Anjali Monteiro and K.P. Jayasankar, TISS
Censorship in India comes in various forms. There is, of course, the ubiquitous censorship of the state, which censors films and plays before release, bans websites and decides what is in the national interest.
There is also the censorship of the market, which decides what Indians should see and have market access to, and leaves little space for content that is seen as commercially unviable. Read more…
Author: Baogang Guo, Dalton State College
Since 2002, China’s political leaders have attempted to steer political development in a new direction under the governing philosophy of ‘scientific development’.
Underlying this change is the need to tame the wild horse of unrestrained efficiency-based economic growth. Read more…
Author: Ashutosh Varshney, Brown University
In the whole spectrum of India’s political experience, one thing that stands out is the wonder of Indian democracy.
Three aspects of Indian democracy cause theoretical surprise and one that generates concern. Read more…
Authors: Barbara Nelson and Assa Doron, ANU
Indian democracy continues to puzzle many foreign observers. But for most Indians, democracy — however imperfect — is a matter of practice, something they grow up with.
Indian democracy may not be perfect — which democracy is? — but it would be safe to say that debates that raged until at least the 1980s about whether it will survive are now firmly in the rearview mirror. Read more…
Author: Vikram Nehru, Carnegie Endowment
Political and economic reforms and the lifting of international sanctions have set in motion Myanmar’s re-entry into the family of nations.
Already, the release of over 600 political prisoners and other economic and political reforms, including the re-registration of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy for the 1 April by-election, have paved the way for the restoration of diplomatic relations with the US and other Western countries. Read more…
Author: Vikram Nehru, Carnegie Endowment
With elections expected to be held in Malaysia this year, there is reason for concern that tensions could rise in the event of a close result — and a misstep by either side could lead to violence.
National elections have to take place by March 2013, but Prime Minister Najib Razak has indicated that they could likely be sooner. Read more…
Author: Kevin Placek, Melbourne
Having ruled Japan for the better half of a century, it is no surprise that the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has found it difficult to adapt to its role as Japan’s major opposition party.
But with the prospect of further political gridlock, it may be time for the LDP to reconsider its strategy. Read more…