Blogging the democratic revolution
At the end of May I wrote about Vietnam and the United States bilateral free-trade agreement, paving the way for the United States to approve a bill leading the country’s accession to the WTO later this year. Trade will lead to growth and prosperity; and, eventually, real democracy. Even we fought a war with them so many years ago, Washington and Hanoi are on pretty good terms these days. The latter knows that being friends with the former leads to big benefits in the long run. There are some, however, who don’t want to see that happen. Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez,…
East Timor’s new Prime Minister Jose Ramos-Horta has been sworn in a new cabinet in at a ceremony in Dili. The ceremony marks further progress towards a return to order for the country, which was hit by serious street violence and unrest. Factional fighting erupted three months ago, leaving at least 21 people dead and thousands displaced. President Xanana Gusmao said the swearing in “closed a cycle of profound crisis” that had threatened the nation. “We must now make enormous efforts to bring reconciliation among the East Timorese and to heal the wounds that divide them,” he told ministers. But…
Democratic revolution is spreading across the world, in the greatest news and megatrend story of possibly the century. But for those of us who are already in democratic regimes, we sometimes wonder if there is much more we can do except watch and applaud. There is partisan political activism, of course, but that isn’t for everyone. And we can’t get involved in partisan politics, except maybe to cheer at the sidelines. So how does the free world participate in advancing democracy and beating back tyrants? Well, just look. Today, the West struck a couple of significant blows against tyranny —…
The pro-democracy crowds were huge. Thousands of Hong Kongers carried signs reading ‘I want to vote.’ The democracy goddess was there, too. Former chief secretary, Anson Chan. (The kindly grandmother, not the kid.) Source, all photos: AFP, via Yahoo! Thousands of Hong Kongers marched in the streets to explicitly demand full democracy from Red China on the ninth anniversay of the British handover to the communist giant. Two leaders, Roman Catholic Cardinal Zen and Anson Chan participated for the first time – both are historically cautious, and deeply respected, their views are seen as a bellwether. The turnout – somewhere…
In the past few years, presidential cavorting around has been taken to new heights by Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, his master below in Havana, and his little mini-me, Evo Morales of Bolivia. Big photo ops, goofy costumes, wild radio shows and lots of spectacle seem to be the norm of the day. That said, for good or evil, these events attract attention because the participants all look like they are having fun. President Bush has no doubt noticed this … and has decided to top them. He invited Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi over to the White House and onto…
Malaysia’s Former Deputy Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim Source: The Sydney Morning Herald Democratic revolutionary Anwar Ibrahim of Malaysia is being approached by … well, someone … to apply for the top United Nations post, to succeed UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. I think it’s a great idea! Anwar is a terrific leader whose appeal extends borders and who can talk to all kinds of people. Young men in Indonesia, who might otherwise move over to follow the Islamofascists, drop those stupid ideas when asked about Anwar, whom they really admire. He’s an authentic globalist and a very reasonable Muslim. I remember…
It is not surprising that Sherif Hamdy can write in the Daily Star that China is getting close to beating out the United States in the arena of public relations in the Arab World. I have seen maybe one or two American officials speak Arabic on Al Jazeera or Al Arabiyya regularly, and, according to the Government accountability office (via Foreign Policy Magazine’s blog and Kirk H. Sowell), only about 30% of American diplomatic personel in the Muslim world have proficancy in their host country’s language. At the US embassies in almost every Arabic speaking country I have visited (Algeria,…
U.S.-Japan anti-ballistic missile test in the Pacific Source: Honolulu Star Bulletin OK so the U.S. and Japan don’t have such great soccer teams this year. The trans-Pacific allies seem to do other things better. Like blast incoming nuclear missiles out of the sky. In news that just feels good to wake up to, a U.S.-Japan team near San Diego shot down an incoming medium-range test missile off Kauai in six minutes, 100 miles high, demonstrating to the madman ruling North Korea that his technology and his nuclear threats are obsolete. And that we mean victory. Source: Navy Times We are…
I am sitting here in the crosshairs of a madman out of North Korea. Incredibly, he’s fuelling up a Taepodong missile and getting ready to launch it in my direction. It can reach 9000 miles. And I am on the receiving end. The mighty U.S. military industrial complex has activated its missile defense system a few miles away, up in Vandenberg Air Force base. In the 1980s, nuclear war used to be talked about all the time. Duran Duran used to sing about it. But ultimately, the idea of nuclear menace was an abstraction. Vandenberg was an abstraction, it was…
Oh, to hear how some Americans talk! – the Chinese are a menace, and Latin America is full of different kinds of Mexicans all of whom want something from us before they go communist, same as the Chinese. In fact, probably joining the Chinese! That’s how the world looks to some on the right who don’t look too closely. I’ve seen it on bulletin boards and heard it on talk radio shows and listened to it from friends. It’s all scarily wrong. And fortunately, not the foreign policy of the U.S. Most in that establishment see far more closely what…
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Imprisoned Democratic Revolutionary Of Burma Source: OA Net The Burmese military junta’s 61st birthday present to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was a beefed-up contingency of military troops at her door this morning. Burma’s democracy leader has now spent all of ten years under house arrest, with very few visitors allowed. The Burmese junta fears her popularity, and knows its days are numbered. To read the backstory of this leader, see this site here. In the past, Burma’s democratic revolutionaries have released doves into the air on Suu Kyi’s birthday, so that even if she…
Abu Bakar Bashir, Southeast Asia’s Leading Terror Mullah Source: The Sydney Morning Herald I get a visceral reaction every time I see this guy. I first heard of Abu Bakar Bashir, the leading terror cleric in Southeast Asia, in early 2002 from Sidney Jones, who was then with Human Rights Watch. She knew her stuff on Indonesia and she sounded the alarm loudly about this bastard well before the first Bali bombings in October 2002. She was absolutely adamant about the danger he posed as leader of Jemaah Islamiyah and the sleepiness of the Indonesian government to the threat he…
Front Page, The Bangkok Post, June 9, 2006 Today, millions of Thais turned all of Thailand into a sea of gold and yellow, wearing the colors of the widely loved Thai king, His Royal Highness Bhumibol Adulyadej on the 60th anniversary of his reign. Fishermen vowed to give up fishing endangered fishes in honor of the king. Prisoners were freed. Golden barges made rare sailings. Buddhist monks made blessings. The king addressed his subjects for the first time in 20 years, for he doesn’t say much. And he exhorted them to be kind to one another, a most divine and…
Long overlooked on the world scene, China has been a great destabilizer of several regions of the world by its strategy in seeking to lock up supplies of oil. Sudan. Iran. Venezuela. Ecuador. China is a player in all of these areas and more. China’s efforts to lock up oil may not be as barbaric in means as the Japanese, who went on resource conquests just before World War II but it is the same idea. In any number of ways, it could lead to World War III. It’s no good for anyone. Fausta at Fausta’s blog has an illuminating…
Hong Kongers hold a vigil to remember young people who died at Tiananmen Square in the name of seeking liberty for China. Source: Associated Press, via Yahoo! In Hong Kong, tens of thousands of people – some 44,000 – commemorated the 17th anniversary of the Tienanmen Square massacre in China. Even more bravely, some people in China came out to march in Tiananmen itself to commemorate the anniversary. Their signs were torn up by Beijing cops and they were promptly repressed. This commemoration was for one of the most significant democracy struggles of our times. And based on the growing…
Vietnam is the latest in a string of countries to negotiate a trade pact and open up its markets to U.S. companies: Vietnam and the United States have signed a new trade deal which will open the Southeast Asian country’s markets in virtually every sector. It paves the way for Vietnam to enter the World Trade Organisation this year, 11 years after it began applying. Vietnamese officials want to finish talks with the Geneva-based WTO in July. The new agreement is the latest in a series of business deals and diplomatic steps by Hanoi to integrate its fast-expanding economy into…
East Timor, with less than a million people, is like a small town, with small-town niceness … and small-town small-mindedness. It’s also coming off a 25-year populist guerrilla war for independence, meaning that there are a lot of unemployed soldiers and guerrillas around, without a purpose. The barely-developed half-island won its independence from Indonesia in a 1999 referendum that came about by fluke, when, in an unguarded moment, the loose-tongued, clownish Soeharto successor, BJ Habibie, said that if the Timorese really wanted a referendum, he’d darn well give it to them. It turns out they did. And independence, after decades…
A few days ago, I was blogging about the tombs of Imogiri, near Yogyakarta, in central Java, discussing them as the place I was at onset of Indonesia’s democratic revolution in 1998. Today, those tombs are at the epicenter of the deadly earthquake in Indonesia, centered in Bantul. Hospitals are overflowing and more than 3000 are known dead in the first 12 hours, it will soar much higher. I noted earlier that Indonesia has a lot of eerie coincidences. I just wish this wasn’t one of them. There are people I know there, and I am quite worried. I will…
Ibrahim Gambari is the man behind the scenes in Burma lately. He’s the undersecretary for political affairs over at the UN, and on a recent trip, he was actually allowed to meet with the leaders of the military junta. Even more, he was the first foreign diplomat in a very long time to meet with detained democratic opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Her jail time is supposed to be over on May 27th, at which point she would be thrust back onto the political scene. Will she be let out? Gambari offers us some clues as to what is…
Dear old Gus Dur of Indonesia is the one of the best Muslims I have ever known. He’s a holy man whose life of prayer reflects vividly in the life he leads. He is humble, gentle, kindly and noble. I used to talk to him back in Jakarta, years ago, before he became Indonesia’s first democratically elected president as Abdurrahman Wahid. Gus Dur is his Javanese nickname and he was the leader of the PKB party in the post-Soeharto ruins, and with Amien Rais of the more Islamic-fundamentalist Muhammadiyah/PAN faction, and Megawati Soekarnoputri of the very secular, abangan, ecumenical PDI-P,…
I got a call from Beijing, Red China earlier this week from a friend who lives there. He told me he saw a growing willingness of the people from the outer cities to challenge the authorities. He also saw a growing willingness in the authorities to repress such people. The cops, he said, had it down to an art. He was in downtown Beijing on other business this month when he happened upon a large group of protestors, maybe 100 people, holding banners, passing out fliers and demanding justice for their dead killed in a police massacre last year in…
The New York Times is reporting that the Bush administration is considering holding negotiations for a peace treaty with North Korea. To many, this will be a shock. After years of six-way talks to try to convince them to abandon their nukes, it comes to this. However, if you read Publius, this may not be so surprising. It is part of a new, huge diplomatic effort underway by the Bush administration in collaboration with other regional powers to show certain rogue regimes (i.e. North Korea & Iran) that they do not have to fear invasion. This is actually the next…
As you might have heard, the United States resumed diplomatic relations with Libya, one of the most totalitarian countries in the world. To even begin trying to account for how this matches up to the stated “Bush Doctrine” of promoting democracy, and how it will benefit the people of Libya, boggles the mind. It does go to show, however, that the world is a complex place and the administration isn’t single-mindedly ideological when it comes to foreign policy. The reasons for this move therefore have little consideration for democracy, and everything to do with how the attainment of nuclear weapons…
The Nepal of March, the one of April, and the one of May are unrecognizable parallels of a place trying to make incremental transformations in three months that took the Western world centuries. It is hard to forget that just over a year ago, the country’s King seized absolute power by disbanding the government and ordering the military to put down all opposition to his rule. In April. however, this absolute power proved not so, as people power shook the streets of Kathmandu for three weeks, forcing the King to reinstate parliament and resign to the margins. The political leaders…
I was somewhere outside Yogyakarta on this day eight years ago, within sight of Mount Merapi volcano. One of the greatest democratic revolutions in history was about to erupt but I didn’t know it then. I was at a mysterious Javanese graveyard of tombs outside Yogyakarta, where old and young many of them in traditional Javanese dress of batiks in ancient cinnamon and indigo dyes, alongside boulevards of tombs and walls, a lot of dark palms shading it all, mysteriously gloomy, even as amid the equatorial sun its shade made it all refreshingly cool. The old women, like the men,…