Category: Asia-Pacific

Viewpoint by James. M. Dorsey James M. Dorsey – a senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, an adjunct senior research fellow at the National University of Singapore’s Middle East Institute and co-director of the University of Wuerzburg’s Institute of Fan Culture – offered this viewpoint to IDN. SINGAPORE (IDN) […]

By Setiawan Liu This article is the 32nd in a series of joint productions of Lotus News Features and IDN-InDepthNews, flagship of the International Press Syndicate. Click here for previous series. BANGKOK (IDN) – An Indonesian tourist found the Buddhist dominated Thailand more comfortable than the Christian majority Netherlands where she had gone a few […]

By Iwu Dwisetyani Utomo CANBERRA (IDN-INPS) – A recent Gender and Reproductive Health Study in Indonesia found a surprisingly high degree of comprehension of sexual harassment among Indonesian students and teachers, but there were some worrying differences across various demographics. The findings suggest the need for more research, education and awareness-raising on sexual harassment in […]

By Kalinga Seneviratne SINGAPORE (IDN) – “I gave leadership to the government that defeated the terrorists that no one thought could ever be defeated. From the moment this government came into power in January 2015, they have been persecuting the members of the armed forces and the intelligence services that ended that war,” said former […]

By Sean Buchanan LONDON (IDN) – South-East Asia is expected to experience a future of many dry years and the hardest hit will be the poor, especially farming communities that rely on regular rainfall for their annual crops and have few resources to fall back on during periods of rain shortfall. This is the prospect […]

By Josephine Latu-Sanft For the eminent American actor and director Dustin Hoffman sunshine and coconut milk are “the two basic items necessary to sustain life”. The German playwright and poet Bertolt Brecht compared love to a coconut “which is good while it is fresh”. In the Pacific, coconut is king, writes Josephine Latu-Sanft. LONDON | […]

By Milan Vaishnav The following are extensive excerpts from the Executive Summary of a study on ‘The BJP in Power: Indian Democracy and Religious Nationalism’ published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.The views represented herein are the authors’ own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees. The […]

By Dr Palitha Kohona The writer, former Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations, and former Foreign Secretary, returned recently from a visit to New Zealand. COLOMBO (IDN) – White extremism and terrorism may appear to be uncoordinated and spontaneous. It certainly lacks the ‘viciousness incarnate’ tag conferred by the media […]

By Reinhard Jacobsen BRUSSELS | APIA, Samoa (ACP-IDN) – Leaders of the Pacific Island Forum, the region’s premier political and economic policy organisation, have repeatedly identified climate change as the single greatest threat to the livelihoods, security and well-being of the peoples of the Pacific. A three-day meeting, concluded on April 3 in Apia, Samoa, […]

By Kalinga Seneviratne This article is the 31st in a series of joint productions of Lotus News Features and IDN-InDepthNews, flagship of the International Press Syndicate. Click here for previous series. SYDNEY (IDN) – After a White Australian of Christian background Brenton Tarrant gunned down 50 Muslims praying at a Christchurch mosque on a Friday, […]