Model's Death Haunts Malaysia
Published on Oct 28, 2012 by Luke Hunt
The prospects were tantalizing. The Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand (FCCT) knew this and advertised accordingly: “New revelations in the Altantuya murder case — Press conference by Musa Hassan, former national police chief of Malaysia.”The press conference was originally scheduled for Monday but then scrapped all together as Musa gave a brief interview with a Malaysian publication saying he knew nothing about his scheduled press conference, adding he was in Kuala Lumpur and not Bangkok.He also said he had no intention of talking to reporters about the infamous murder of the Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu who had also worked as a translator, adding he was puzzled about the speculation about his activities.Read more in The Diplomat..
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Russia's Checkbook Diplomacy
Published on Sep 17, 2012 by Luke Hunt
Moscow is turning to financially vulnerable South Pacific nations to promote its foreign policy agenda thousands of miles away. Since returning to power as Russia’s president three months ago, Vladimir Putin has lived up to his well-honed reputation as the hard, no-nonsense man of East European politics by bullying his way into the internal affairs of neighbors with fearless abandon.He has served notice that Moscow will challenge the West’s naval dominance of the world’s oceans, moving to shore-up his country’s defenses from the Arctic Circleand its Western flank to its troubled southern borders,breakaway republics and even the South Pacific.Read more in The Diplomat..
Laos Mulls Reforms
Published on Aug 27, 2012 by Luke Hunt
Latter day communist countries still carry the legacies of their past. Somewhat secretive and sensitive to criticism, authorities in one-party states tend to hide at the slightest hint of criticism. It’s a routine in East Asia that is as common in Laos as it has been in Vietnam, China, or even North Korea.But more recently the government of Thongsing Thammavong in Laos has been making some very different noises. His government has lashed-out at the faceless bureaucrats behind the nation’s dilapidated health services, a bungling judiciary, and even the state-controlled press.Read more in The Diplomat..
Propping Up Dictators
Published on Jul 24, 2012 by Luke Hunt
It was all smiles and “brotherly love” as Gambia’s President Yahya Jammeh received full state honors and a 21-gun salute from Taiwanese president Ma Ying-jeouin Taipei late last month.Jammeh, making his ninth trip to this diplomatically isolated island republic 100 miles off China’s southern coast, has called Taiwan “one of the best friends Gambia has ever had.”Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent out a press release calling the impoverished West African nation “an important ally” before writing that “the close partnership and brotherly bonds between the two countries remain strong.”Read more from Cain Nunns in The Diplomat..
Backslide: Burma & Malaysia
Published on Jul 10, 2012 by Luke Hunt
Malaysia and Burma remain poles apart in most aspects of life—religion, ethnicity, and politics—but where they seem more akin in recent times has been in trying to improve relations with the West while introducing much needed reforms at home.Those reforms have been welcomed by the people of both countries and the international community but it remains a difficult process with Malaysia again raising fears of a revival of media oppression and Burma living up to its past with the detention of political activists.Read more in The Diplomat..