Author: James Boyers, ANU

On September 5 2007, George W. Bush and John Howard signed a treaty to improve defence cooperation between the United States and Australia. Although signed over two years ago, the treaty has not yet been ratified by the United States or Australian governments. Recent developments within United States Senate indicate that it is likely to obtain Senate approval, and ratification shortly thereafter.

At the time, the treaty reflected the Bush administration’s especially close ties with the Howard government in Australia. Read the rest of this entry »

Author: Peter Yuan Cai, ANU

The Hollywood blockbuster Avatar is breaking box-office records in China and cinemagoers have been treated to a visual feast from the Shangrila-like moon of Pandora. At the same time, the savagery depicted in the film about the demolition of the natives’ home has also resonated with the Chinese. A young literary commentator wrote that ‘For audiences from other places, barbaric eviction is something they simply can’t imagine – it is the sort of thing that could only happen in outer space and China.’

Much like the Na’vi people from Pandora, forcibly evicted Chinese residents have fought back literally, with bows and arrows and Molotov cocktails against camouflaged hired thugs from real estate developers. Read the rest of this entry »

Author: Siaan Ansori and Greg Lopez, ANU

Some 20,000 or so Malaysians met the full force of Prime Minister Najib’s security forces when they demonstrated peacefully on August 1 in Kuala Lumpur against the repressive Internal Security Act (ISA), a draconian law used by the Malaysian Government to quell the Communist insurgents after the Malayan Emergency. By Malaysian standards, this was a mammoth demonstration; not only in size but also in the statement it made, considering the extent to which Mr Najib had gone to stop it. The government’s response to the demonstration casts further doubt on Mr Najib’s commitment to democratic reform.

Since coming into power on April 3, 2009, Mr Najib has portrayed himself as a reformer. He released 13 ISA detainees, including key HINDRAF leaders, and promised that he would amend the ISA. In addition, he also implemented some populist reform measures in the economic sphere. Although these changes raises Mr Najib’s popularity within the electorate, analysts have observed that Najib’s strategy mimics UMNO’s tried and tested formula of quick political wins which are long on form and short on substance.

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Author: Tomohiko Satake, International Relations, ANU

It seems that President Obama’s Prague speech on nuclear disarmament completely suits Japan’s identity as a non-nuclear state. As the only state that has suffered from nuclear bomb blasts, Japan has aimed for the total elimination of nuclear weapons in the post-World War 2 era.

This is why the Japanese Foreign Minister quickly announced Japan’s strong backing for Obama’s initiative and later addressed Japan’s resolve for nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament by announcing ‘11 Benchmarks for Global Nuclear Disarmament’.

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Author: Henry Makeham, ANU

Peking University is, perhaps, China’s top university. Each year, every position in the School of Management and Finance receives approximately 30,000 applicants. If you get the opportunity to study there, like I did, you are studying with some of the most ambitious, intelligent and hard-working students on the planet.

Peking is an establishment that has been at the heart of intellectual, social and political movements in modern Chinese history. It is a great privilege to experience the inner workings of an institution that commands such a powerful place in the modern Chinese psyche.

After a year and a half of mingling with Peking University students and meeting internationals from world-class institutions like Harvard, Yale and Oxford, I came to the sobering conclusion that Australian graduates are grossly underprepared to compete effectively in the globalised Asian job market.

Amongst the thousands of impressions etched in my memory, this is the one that startled me most.

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Author: Greg Lopez, ANU

Najib Tun Razak was sworn in as Malaysia’s sixth Prime Minister on the 3rd of April 2009. He takes over the Prime Ministership of Malaysia at a critical juncture in the history of his party.

Globally speaking, Malaysia is suffering under the worst crisis since the Great Depression. Domestically, Najib’s ruling party, the United Malay National Organisation (UMNO) and the coalition that it leads, Barisan Nasional (BN), are at their lowest ebb, suffering a backlash from citizens fed up with the blatant abuse of power from a regime that has ruled Malaysia since independence.

Najib realises that party reform is critical for his and UMNO’s survival. He watched how Ahmad Badawi turned from ‘party hero’, leading UMNO and BN to a resounding victory in the 11th general election in 2004, into a ‘failed leader’ in the 12th general elections, where the citizens punished him for squandering their mandate and not instituting long-needed reforms. Badawi has been removed.

Najib knows that he will face the same consequences if he does not deliver victory for UMNO. For all its promises of loyalty, and the feudal mentality that pervades it, UMNO is ultimately driven by money and power. Read the rest of this entry »

Author: Amrita Malhi

A recent article by ‘reformed terrorist’, Tawfik Hamid, accuses Muslims worldwide of hypocrisy in their reactions on Palestine.

Hamid’s article implicitly poses one important question: why is Palestine such an important issue for Muslims around the world? Why does it set off protests in Southeast Asia, so far away? During the January Gaza bombing, Islamists closed down Indonesia’s only synagogue, and the Malaysian Muslim Consumers’ Association called for boycotts on a hundred American products in protest.

Far away from the conflict, Southeast Asian Muslims hear about the destruction in mosques, watch it on their screens, and sympathise with the Palestinians. Do these Muslims feel a genuine stake in Gaza? Do their protests, as Hamid insinuates, come from a global Islamic tendency towards hatred, rage and bigotry?

Whatever the case may be, there are more salient reasons. Read the rest of this entry »

Guest Author: Amrita Malhi, ANU

The Malaysian national and state elections on 8 March 2008 surprised all observers.

Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi’s ruling coalition, Barisan Nasional, lost its two-thirds majority in the federal parliament, and a coalition of secular and Islamist opposition parties, Pakatan Rakyat, won five state governments.

The election saw Malaysia’s ethnic voting patterns break down to an unprecedented extent.

Pakatan leader Anwar Ibrahim heralded the result as a ‘New Dawn’ for Malaysian politics. Pakatan’s rise seemed to finally enable the creation of a new politics that could somehow unite both Islamists and liberal cosmopolitans against ethnic and religious political manipulation.

Very quickly however, the possibility of a genuine political challenge to Barisan began to fade.

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Author: Greg Lopez

Can anyone ‘out-devil’ the devil? In Malaysia, Anwar Ibrahim has learnt the hard way that it is impossible to outmanoeuvre Barisan Nasional (BN/National Front), Malaysia’s long-standing regime, using unethical measures. Since 8 March, 2008, BN has been at its weakest when facing the ‘Rakyat’ (citizens) at the electoral ballot but strongest when using dubious practices. The Pakatan Rakyat(PR/Citizens Alliance)-led state government in Perak lasted barely a year, brought down through the use of dubious tactics by BN. This episode must be a lesson for Anwar to desist immediately with the strategy of forming government through defection and return to higher democratic principles. Governments are best formed through elections and not defections.

The story of the Perak power grab is a remarkable one. Two PKR legislators who were charged for corruption in August 2008 – procuring monetary and sexual favours in return for approving a building project – went missing for five days.

Rumour has it that, during those five days pressure was brought on the duo (offered money in addition to having their charges dropped) to defect to BN. This was preceded by the defection of an UMNO legislator to PKR who has since rejoined UMNO. More surprising was the news that a 20 year DAP member and Deputy Speaker of the House also defected.

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Author: Greg Lopez, Crawford School, ANU

Malaysia’s main challenge in 2009 will not be the global financial meltdown. Rather, it will be continued grandstanding between the ruling coalition and, since March 8th 2008, a much stronger opposition. The aftermath of March 8th, 2008 produced a lame duck Prime Minister with a lame duck government. The Prime Minister, Ahmad Badawi, instead of gracefully resigning for leading the United Front (Barisan Nasional) to its worst ever electoral results, stubbornly held on to the party presidency and Prime Ministership of the country.

However, members from within his party (United Malay National Organisation – UMNO) and the United Front were calling for his resignation. Simultaneously, the newly constituted opposition coalition – The Peoples Coalition (Pakatan Rakyat) led by the charismatic Anwar Ibrahim, was threatening to overthrow the ruling government through mass defection.

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Author: Tomohiko Satake, International Relations, ANU

Tobias Harris is one of the few people who understand the reality of Japan’s security situation, without taking an alarmist posture nor being a ‘free-rider’ advocate. I especially agree with his overall message: ‘The security relationship is important, but it cannot be the whole of the US-Japan relationship’.

He argues that the US should ’socialise’ Japan to have greater diplomatic responsibilities on regional issues, especially in dealing with Korean Peninsula, by taking advantage of its long-term relationship with Japan.

What I am concerned about, however, is that he is too pessimistic about Japan’s military involvement in the international security issues in the future. Or, as he puts it, the ‘idea of a global alliance was far-fetched and doomed to fail’.

It is true that Japan came to have a fear of entrapment by US military action because of the war in Afghanistan and Iraq. Yet, as an ally ‘dependent’ on the US, Japan’s fear of abandonment is still much greater than its fear of entrapment. Japan is still likely to try to make its contribution to US-led coalition efforts for global security more efficient so as to maintain good alliance relations with the US, although this will certainly take time. This stems not only from Japan’s fear of abandonment, but also from its ambition to be a global player, both in the region and the world. Read the rest of this entry »

Author: Greg Lopez, Crawford School, ANU

Last year was a watershed in Malaysian politics. After 50 years of comfortably winning elections, the twelfth general elections saw the Barisan Nasional (National Front/BN) caned by the normally docile Malaysian electorate. The BN, a coalition of 14 mostly racially-based parties, commandeered by the United Malay National Organisation (UMNO), still won comfortably but for the first time in its history, lost control of five state governments on the Peninsula and was denied the psychological two-thirds majority in Parliament required to change the constitution when Pakatan Rakyat (The Peoples Coalition), led by Anwar Ibrahim, won 82 out of the 222 parliamentary seats.

Malaysia is often paraded as a model developing economy. By most internationally accepted measures, Malaysia has done well. It is touted as a moderate Muslim majority nation that has successfully managed to address issues related to communist insurgency, Islamic fundamentalism and racial tensions in addition to conventional economic development challenges. Read the rest of this entry »

Author: Xunpeng Shi

Huw Slater’s careful reading of my paper on the future of coal in China is most welcome. It is good to have his attention and contribution on the issues in such detail.

Huw Slater’s argument on CO2 data is more a misunderstanding than an issue of debate. The current data on CO2 is calculated based on a constant coefficient of emissions intensity. This is reasonable as CO2 emissions have been free from any regulation until now and emission intensity is thus decided by chemical and physical characteristics, not by the regulatory environment. My empirical study tries to show the changing pattern of emission intensity.

Thus, the published CO2 data appears adequate for analysis, but his comments on CO2 emissions are a good reminder for me to be clear in my story.

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Author: Huw Slater

The trajectory of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in China has emerged as a critical factor in determining future climate change. In 1997 the Kyoto Protocol was established, committing developed countries to specific GHG reduction targets. The agreement focused on developed countries that were clearly responsible for most GHG emissions to that point. While there continues to be good reason for developed countries to take the lead in reducing GHG emissions, many are suggesting that it is impossible to ignore China’s meteoric rise to the top of the list of the world’s polluters and the effect that it may have on future climate change.

It is widely acknowledged that China’s low level of per-capita emissions and the need for economic development for China’s poor must be taken into consideration with regard to climate change mitigation. It seems inescapable however, that the fate of any global attempt to contain GHG emissions will depend very much on the capacity, and indeed willingness, of China to achieve a level of sustainable development.

It is especially interesting to see what contributions China’s up-and-comers have to make to the climate change debate, and China’s role within it. It is in this context that I discuss a recent paper by Xunpeng Shi, recently presented to the China Update 2008, which asks the question: “Can China’s coal industry be reconciled with the environment?”

The central thesis of Shi’s paper is that, due to a decreasing trend of “pollution emissions” per unit of coal in China, the coal industry can “harmonise with the environment”. This seems to suggest that due to the improving emission intensity of China’s coal industry, there will eventually come a point where its emissions are not damaging to the environment.

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Author: Greg Lopez

The main factor driving Anwar Ibrahim to topple Barisan Nasional (BN/United Front) is his belief that the window of opportunity will cease to exist in the very near future. Malaysia’s short history has demonstrated that BN is very resilient and adept at breaking down any form of opposition – both with carrots and through the use of big sticks.

Other than the social democrats – the Democratic Action Party (DAP), which was formed when Singapore and the Peoples Action Party (PAP) was expelled from Malaysia and the Islamist Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS/Pan Malaysian Islamic Party) – no other party has had the staying power required in the unrewarding and ridiculed role of Opposition. All forms of coalition arrangement have been successfully demolished by the ruling party leaving it as the only legitimate and credible representative of the people.
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