Monthly Archives: January 2012

Southeast Asia: The January Spring

By admin | January 29, 2012

It seems that the winds of change have arrived early this year in Southeast Asia, which saw the unprecedented release of more than 600 political prisoners in Burma, the acquittal of Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim over sodomy charges, the start of the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona of the Philippines, and the […]

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Southeast Asia’s Elder Statesmen

By admin | January 18, 2012

Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore, Mahathir Mohamad of Malaysia, King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand, Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei and Juan Ponce Enrile of the Philippines – all have something in commons: they belong to Southeast Asia’s prominent club of senior citizen statesmen. Politicians may be getting younger, but it doesn’t mean the old guard […]

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Youth, Good Governance, Human Development

By admin | January 15, 2012

Speech during the National Congress on Good Governance, UP NCPAG, January 15, 2012. The keywords of my presentation are youth, good governance, and sustainable human development. The thesis is easy to formulate: The youth have a significant role to perform in promoting good governance in the country to achieve sustainable human development. But how do […]

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Political Morality

By admin | January 12, 2012

What’s the proper reaction if confronted with the odious task of manipulating public resources for personal gain? The honorable thing is to immediately reject it and bravely face the consequences. But others condone corruption while some even try to justify it. Then there are bureaucrats like Romulo Neri who simply prefer to ‘moderate the greed’ […]

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Southeast Asia 2011: A Year of Protest

By admin | January 11, 2012

The Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street are localized protests that still made a tremendous impact in the world this year. They were organized in response to place-specific issues, but their appeal and influence were immediately global. Through their marching calls of democratic reforms and economic equality, the protests inspired multitudes of activists in many […]

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