Posts tagged as:

Current Events

Politics: American Luminaries and U.S. Diplomacy towards Pariah States

August 22, 2009

Guest Post from Dragoman

Earlier this week, the New York Times reported that Senator Jim Webb (D-Va.) had successfully negotiated the release of John Yettaw, the American much maligned for his unwitting involvement in the recent intrigue against Aung San Suu Kyi. Earlier this month, Bill Clinton returned from Pyongyang with the two American journalists whom North [...]

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Politics: Indonesia’s Parliamentary Elections: What’s Next?

May 23, 2009

Guest Post from Dragoman
The official results of Indonesia’s legislative elections were recently announced in Jakarta, indicating that President Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party (PD), with 150 seats out of the total 560, will hold the largest number of seats in the upcoming parliamentary session. Golkar will hold 107 seats, while Megawati’s Indonesian Democratic Party—Struggle (PDI-P), with 95 [...]

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Politics: Indonesia’s Embrace of Democracy and the Future “Asian Values” Debate

May 11, 2009

Guest Post from Dragoman
More than ten years ago, popular agitation in Indonesia, particularly in Jakarta, led to the downfall of post-colonial Southeast Asia’s longest-ruling strongman Soeharto. Since May 1998, Indonesia has moved from soft authoritarianism to being a thriving regional democracy with the experience of three relatively orderly and popularly legitimate general elections. With the [...]

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Politics: The Democratic Party in Singapore

March 29, 2009

I have been reading some articles on the Singapore Democratic Party website, and I have found them quite interesting. In a country that has been run by one part for so long, I rarely read/hear about other opinions (this may or may not have something to do with the way media works in Singapore…). Anyway, [...]

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Current Events: More Shoe Throwing

February 3, 2009

I guess political leaders need to start watching out for shoe throwers…

A 27-year-old man has been charged after a shoe was thrown at Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao during a visit to Cambridge University.
Police said the man, who has not been named, would appear before magistrates in Cambridge on 10 February accused of committing a [...]

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Religion: No Yoga for Malaysian Muslims

November 23, 2008

I have always been frustrated by the strong influence of religion in politics. Last week, I read dozens of articles about the Mormon Church’s involvement with proposition 8. This week, religion over-stepped its bounds in Malaysia. There, a top Islamic organization banned Yoga. This is what the Straights Times quoted:

‘We are of the view that [...]

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Politics: Ok. Let’s Talk About Terrorism in Indonesia

July 10, 2007

In America, there are two things that most people associate with Indonesia: terrorism and natural disasters. Our media has covered the earthquakes, tsunamis, and the terrorist attacks. People think that I am crazy to be living here for the summer, especially when I tell them that I went to Jakarta and a planning a trip [...]

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