Author: Gregore Lopez, ANU

Mr Anwar Ibrahim, returns to Parliament today (28 August 2008) as Opposition Leader, 10 years after he was sacked as Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister of Malaysia and heir apparent to the ‘throne’ of Dr Mahathir.

In many ways, the sacking of Anwar was probably the single most important event in the process of Malaysia becoming a mature democracy. For once, Malaysians had ‘a shared history’ – a story or a myth that brought Malaysians together.

Prior to Anwar Ibrahim’s sacking this common myth was May 13th – the race riot that was used over and over by the ruling Barisan Nasional (United Front) to blackmail Malaysians into submission. This myth was perpetuated by the successful developmentist state. Credit, no doubt must be given to Barisan Nasional, of which Anwar Ibrahim was part and parcel of for a good 14 years, for delivering on economic growth, peace and stability (read here). Read more…

Author: Tomohiko Satake

Much thinking outside Japan about Japanese foreign policy posture assumes that a cornerstone in mainstream Japanese foreign policy is containment strategies towards China, which deviates from Japan’s traditional China policy. Former Prime Minister Abe and his Cabinet (read Abe and Aso) were indeed proponents of this posture swimming against Japan’s foreign policy tradition, though even he committed early to patching up relations with China.

While Abe and his faction pushed for values-based diplomacy such as democracy (read exclude and surround China), the Fukuda Cabinet’s line once more reflects core Japanese foreign policy thinking more faithfully, anchored in the economic realities and geo-political realities the country faces.

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