Category: Asia-Pacific

By Kalinga Seneviratne

BANGKOK (IDN) – On February 4 each year Sri Lanka celebrates the gaining of independence from British colonial rule. 69 years since then, it is appropriate to ask: “what independence?” The country is currently in a real mess brought about by a successful regime change campaign orchestrated by “civil society” groups, which toppled the government of “war-winning” President Mahinda Rajapakse in January 2015.

Today, the country’s foreign minister acts like a colonial era British Viceroy and not as the country’s top diplomat safeguarding the nation’s interests and dignity. The Prime Minister while trying to drum up foreign “investments” acts as if he is willing to sell any part of the country to the highest bidder and the President roams around the island like a colonial-era “gate mudaliyar” attending functions and trying to assure the natives that they are in good hands.

By Stella Paul

KULGAM/KASHMIR, India (IDN) – Travelling along the roads of South Kashmir, you are constantly greeted by pro-liberation and anti-India slogans. They are written on the tar roads, house walls, little signboards hanging from tree branches and even lamp posts.

“Go India Go Back” and “We Want Freedom” read some; others proclaim “Burhan is Alive” or “Burhan Zindabad” – in reference to Burhan Wani, a young militant gunned down by the security forces in July 2016.

But suddenly, the slogans begin to change. Signposts and walls appear adorned with messages like “Welcome” and “Love for All, Hatred for None”. That is when you know you are in a village of the Ahmadiyya community.

By Shastri Ramachandaran

NEW DELHI (IDN-INPS) – As the impeachment trial of South Korean President Park Geun-hye over a corruption scandal began on January 5, international commentators began to ask what will be the political consequences of her exit, and more specifically what it will mean for the deployment of the controversial missile system THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense). ‍

Park’s powers as president were suspended by the National Assembly, which voted on December 9 to impeach her. This followed months of protests by millions of Koreans seeking to oust her for allegedly extorting money and favors from companies in collusion with her confidante, Choi Soon-sil, for the latter’s foundations.

By Shastri Ramachandran*

NEW DELHI (IDN) – Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the first-ever Indian Prime Minister to visit Mongolia. He may also be the last, as Mongolia now wishes that he had never come.

Thereby hangs a sordid tale of how the cookie crumbled in the steppes; how the itinerant dream merchant fed false hopes to a credulous but friendly and trusting people; and, how Mongolia – when squeezed by China to apologise for the Dalai Lama’s visit and promise to never again invite him – learned the hard way that India would neither come to its aid nor deliver on its promises. Beijing made Ulaanbaatar kowtow, and that was a resounding slap on New Delhi’s face.

By Neena Bhandari

SYDNEY (IDN) – Vinka Barunga was born in the Worrara tribe of the Mowanjum Aboriginal community in the remote town of Derby in Western Australia. As a child, she witnessed disease and suicide amongst her people, which made her resolve to one day become a doctor and help break this cycle of suffering. She is one of six, the largest cohort of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) students, to graduate in Medicine/Surgery from the University of Western Australia this year.

Australia has fewer than 300 Aboriginal doctors, but things are gradually changing. Vinka is determined to be the first full time doctor in the town of her birth, situated around 2,400 kilometres north of the state capital Perth in the Kimberley region. It is the gateway to the state’s resource rich north, surrounded by mudflats on three sides, with two distinct seasons.

Analysis by Kalinga Seneviratne

This article is the 13th in a series of joint productions of Lotus News Features and IDN-InDepthNews, flagship of the International Press Syndicate.

BANGKOK (IDN) – With mounting demonstrations in support of Rohingyas in fellow ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) Muslim majority countries Malaysia and Indonesia, Myanmar’s de-facto leader and Foreign Minister Aung San Suu Kyi made an astute move to summon Foreign Ministers of ASEAN for a one-day “retreat” to Yangoon on December 19 to brief them on the situation in Myanmar’s Rakhine State where most Rohingyas live.

By Neelam Prasad

This is the third in a series of features on the South Pacific produced in collaboration with Wansolwara, an independent student newspaper of the University of the South Pacific.

SUVA, Fiji (IDN) – Climatic change disasters are hitting Pacific Island nations at regular intervals in recent years, devastating communities and forcing people to move out to other areas, islands and even far away countries.

As such, there is a strong case for the peoples’ rights to recover from such climatic disasters to be included in the international human rights agenda, argue people and experts from the Pacific.

By Rory Fanning

The writer is a former US Army Ranger who is now a member of Veterans For Peace (VFP) and an activist. He and Mike Hanes, former US Marine and VFP activist, both recently completed a speaking tour in Japan. Titled ‘The Antiwar Tour‘, this article first appeared in the quarterly magazine Jacobin, and is being published by arrangement with VFP.

CHICAGO (IDN) – A vibrant antiwar movement is blooming in Japan right now. Trade unions, civic groups, and an overwhelming number of young people are galvanizing the country around Article 9 of the Japanese constitution – the article that has kept Japan out of war for the last seventy years.

By Ramesh Jaura and Katsuhiro Asagiri

TOKYO (IDN) – To adorn the necks of all women in the world with pearls: this was the “humble ambition” of Kokichi Mikimoto, who died in September 1954 at the age of 96, says Noboru Shibahara, Manager of the Mikimoto Pearl Island, as we stand in front of a bronze statue of the man after whom Japan’s famous island is named.

Mikimoto was fully aware that “in order to realize his ambition, peace and trusted relations among nations have to exist based on democratic principles as advocated by Yukio Ozaki”, adds Shibahara.

Also remembered with his pseudonym ‘Gakudo’, Ozaki served in the House of Representatives of the Japanese Diet for 63 years (1890–1953), and is still revered as the “God of constitutional politics” and the “Father of the Japanese Constitutional Democracy”.

By Ramesh Jaura and Katsuhiro Asagiri

ISE | TOKYO (IDN) – Takako Doi is a warm-hearted, youthful and dynamic woman in her late sixties wedded to the cause of promoting educational and exchange programmes to foster international cooperation and friendship. She is deeply rooted in Japanese culture, and her mind, ears and eyes are open to the global community.

Doi is President of Gakudo Kofu, a not-for-profit organisation (NPO) launched in 2006 and tasked since 2010 with administration of the historic Ozaki Gakudo Memorial House supported by the Ise City, known as the ‘Holy City’ because it hosts Ise Jingu, the Grand Shrine, a Shinto shrine complex centered on two main shrines, Naikū and Gekū, dedicated to the sun goddess Amaterasu. Read in Japanese