Category Archives: east asia

More Religion, Less Science for Indonesian Students

By admin | September 15, 2013

Written for The Diplomat Indonesia has recently pilot tested a new curriculum in over 6,000 schools which instantly drew controversy after it removed science, English, social sciences, and information technology (IT) as separate subjects in favor of Bahasa Indonesia, nationalism and religious studies. The reduction of subject load is meant to give students more time […]

Posted in east asia | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Decree 72: Vietnam’s Confusing Internet Law

By admin | August 31, 2013

written for The Diplomat Vietnam is often accused of being an enemy of media freedom because of its notorious record of jailing dissident bloggers and blocking social networks. Its new Internet decree, which purportedly contains several provisions that ban the sharing of online news stories, could be added to the list of its crimes against […]

Posted in east asia | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Are Myanmar and the Philippines Guilty of Genocide?

By admin | August 20, 2013

Written for The Diplomat It is common for unpopular governments to be accused by their enemies of committing serious human rights violations such as murder and kidnapping, but it is not often that genocide is included in the charge sheet. Even notorious dictators who are assumed to be guilty of committing the most heinous crimes […]

Also posted in nation | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Will ASEAN Countries Move Their Capitals?

By admin | August 15, 2013

Written for The Diplomat If things fall apart and the center cannot hold, will anarchy be unleashed upon the world, as the poet William Butler Yeats famously wrote? Maybe. But there is a less chaotic alternative: Move the center. Several Southeast Asian governments have seriously contemplated the idea of relocating their respective political centers for […]

Posted in east asia | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Bad Neighbors and Evil Foreigners in Southeast Asia

By admin | August 8, 2013

Written for The Diplomat Some say a specter is haunting Southeast Asia today: bad neighbors and evil foreigners. For many people in the region, it was the non-locals who caused the biggest tragedies of the year – deadly haze, communal riots, even the problem of rising unemployment. This fear or hatred of the unknown, real […]

Posted in east asia | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Does Indonesia’s SBY Deserve the World Statesman Award?

By admin | July 22, 2013

Written for The Diplomat The first surprise came when the U.S.-based Appeal of Conscience Foundation (ACF) decided to give Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (aka SBY) the World Statesman Award for promoting religious freedom in his country. The second surprise was when SBY accepted it two weeks ago. For a group guided by the belief […]

Posted in east asia | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Haze Exposes ASEAN Failure

By admin | July 13, 2013

Written for The Diplomat “For what has happened, as President, I say sorry and seek the understanding of our relatives in Singapore and Malaysia.” This was Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono apologizing on national television Monday evening, a week after forest fires in Sumatra caused a thick blanket of smog to descend on Singapore and […]

Posted in east asia | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Singapore Tightens Grip on News Websites

By admin | June 26, 2013

Written for The Diplomat Singapore’s new licensing scheme for news websites has ignited a flurry of criticism from netizens, press freedom advocates, and human rights groups, who have quickly denounced it as a draconian censorship measure. On May 28, the Media Development Authority (MDA) announced that news websites reporting on Singapore that receive at least […]

Posted in east asia | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Blackouts, Politics, Conspiracies

By admin | June 23, 2013

Written for The Diplomat Massive blackouts have hit several Southeast Asian countries in the past month, causing widespread panic, business losses, and even political controversy. On May 8, a sudden outage in five power plants in the Philippines plunged 40 percent of Luzon Island into darkness, including Metropolitan Manila. Meanwhile, on May 21, mysterious lightning […]

Posted in east asia | Tagged | Leave a comment

Thai Politics According to Yingluck Shinawatra

By admin | June 15, 2013

It was the speech everybody had been waiting two years to hear, but few in the international community immediately recognized it. Last month, Thailand Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra traveled to the 7th Ministerial Conference of the Community of Democracies in Mongolia where she discussed the importance of democracy, good governance, and her perspectives on Thailand’s […]

Posted in east asia | Tagged , | Leave a comment