By Jonathan Power LUND, Sweden | 27 February 2024 (IDN) — In Munich, recently, at the important annual Security Conference, we heard yet again that the West must not allow itself to be penetrated by Huawei’s 5G phone technology (which is cheaper than any Western counterpart). But there was no intelligent response to a former […]
Is Thailand the “Most Unequal Semi-Democratic” State In SE Asia?
By Jan Servaes BANGKOK| 18 February 2024 (IDN) — On January 31, 2024, the Constitutional Court in Bangkok ordered the kingdom’s most popular political party to end its campaign to amend the country’s infamous defamation law – the lèse majesté law or Article 112 of the Criminal Code. Thailand has one of the strictest lèse […]
Asia-Pacific Will Not Achieve SDGs Before 2062, Says a UN Report
By Jutta Wolf BERLIN | 15 February 2024 (IDN) — The UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) has projected a delay until 2062 to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the region, missing the schedule by a staggering 32 years. The world leaders adopted the 17 Goals in 2015 […]
MYANMAR: Three Years After the Coup, Hope Remains
By Jan Servaes BANGKOk | 7 February 2024 (IDN) — Myanmar’s military junta has increasingly carried out unlawful airstrikes killing civilians in its military operations against a coalition of the People Defense Force (PDF) and ethnic armed groups (EAOs), Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on January 30, 2024, on the eve of the anniversary of […]
The Commercialization of Thai Buddhism into a Modern Prosperity Cult
By Jan Servaes BANGKOK | 26 January 2024 (IDN) — General and former Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha opened his royalist shirt during a press conference on May 16, 2016 to reveal the dozen amulets on his chest. He explained that these would give him moral support in negotiations with Russian President Putin. Thus, Thailand’s then […]
Is a “Muscular” India Alienating Neighbours?
Analysis by Kalinga Seneviratne SINGAPORE | 16 January 2024 (IDN) — After returning from a week-long trip to China on January 14, the new Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu told journalists in Male: “We may be small, but that doesn’t give you the licence to bully us”. There was no doubt in anyone’s mind that he […]
North Korea: Short on Food but Arms Aplenty
By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS | 14 January 2024 (IDN) — North Korea, which has long suffered a shortage of food and medicine, has made relatively fast progress in cranking out ballistic missiles and emerging as an arms supplier to one of the world’s major nuclear powers: Russia. A joint statement issued on January 10 by […]
China’s Grassroots Democracy Paves Path to Sustainable Development
By Kalinga Seneviratne HUANGSHI, Hubei Province, China | 12 January 2024 (IDN) — About 30 minutes drive from this city in Hubei Province are villages that are providing a model of village-based grassroots democracy that is paving the path to achieving the sustainable development goals (SDGs), adopted by the United Nations (UN) in 2015, which […]
Taiwan: The Impact of Developing US-China Rivalry
By Jonathan Power LUND, Sweden | 10 January 2024 (IDN) — Is what you see what you’ll get? President Xi Jinping of China is poking the US in the eye again. China, he suggests, is all set to wrest Taiwan back into the “China fold”. Xi appears far more determined than his predecessors to try […]
Beyond Gaza and Ukraine, 10 Humanitarian Crises Demand Urgent Attention
This story was originally published by The New Humanitarian* GENEVA | 8 January 2024 (IDN) — As the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine continue to dominate headlines going into 2024, it’s important to remember the many other crises that are too easily forgotten by the media and neglected by aid donors—often just because of their […]