OPINION

Photo: Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (left) and Fethullah Gülen. Photo: Hayatin Kendisi Burada/Picasa.

For Erdogan the Failed Coup was A “Gift from God”

Viewpoint by Alon Ben-Meir

Dr. Alon Ben-Meir is a retired professor of international relations at the Center for Global Affairs at New York University (NYU). He taught courses on international negotiation and Middle Eastern studies for over 20 years.

NEW YORK (IDN) — Perhaps nothing has changed Turkey’s domestic and international trajectory since the establishment of the Turkish Republic in 1923 than the failed military coup of July 2016, which gave Erdogan an unprecedented opportunity to satisfy his insatiable lust for power.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 21 July 2022

Photo: Sri Lanka police withdrew the stay-home order issued on July 8. Source: ndtv

The Elephant in the Room: Geopolitics and the 'Great Reset' in Sri Lanka

Viewpoint by Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake*

“But to watch cricket, there has to be a country left for us to watch it in, no?” A fan at the Galle Test Match that ended with an innings victory for Sri Lanka. July 11, 2022.

COLOMBO (IDN) — Spirits were high on July 11 when the Sri Lankan cricket team beat the visiting Aussies by an innings even though the country was in its worst economic crisis ever due to a lack of Dollars to buy fuel caused by an International Sovereign Bond (ISB), debt trap and Staged Default.

: Asia Editor; OPINION; 21 July 2022

Photo: Antan0, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Sri Lanka Faces Uncertain Future Amid Unmitigated 'People Power'

Viewpoint by Alan Keenan

Alan Keenan is Senior Consultant, Sri Lanka, at the International Crisis Group.

LONDON (IDN) — In a stunning display of “people power”, massive crowds overcame large deployments of police and soldiers and other obstacles to storm the official residence and offices of Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in Colombo on July 9, leading the former to flee the country and both to agree to resign.

: Asia Editor; OPINION; 20 July 2022

Photo: King's College, Cambridge. Keynes's grandmother wrote to him saying that, since he was born in Cambridge, people will expect him to be clever. C BY-SA 2.0

Keynesianism Might Help Tackle the Gathering Economic Crisis

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

The writer is the author of “Development Economics” (Pearson Longmans). For 17 years he was a foreign affairs columnist for the International Herald Tribune. See his website for more information: jonathanpowerjournalist.com

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — The most peculiar aspect of the gathering economic crisis so far is that no one has mentioned the three words, John Maynard Keynes.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 19 July 2022

Image Credit: GIZ, Photo by Schmoo Theune.

Can Businesses Fill in The Gaps Left by WHO?

Viewpoint by Christian Jahn

The writer is Executive Director of the Inclusive Business Action Network (iBAN).

BONN (IDN) — In September 1978, the member states of the World Health Organization adopted the Alma-Ata Declaration, officially establishing the goal of ‘health for all’ by the year 2000. The declaration was the first to recognise the need for urgent action to ensure access to primary health care for all people and call for governments to establish strategies for a better, healthier world.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 19 July 2022

Image: File picture of UNHCR where Sri Lanka has been censured many times.

Something Is Rotten in the State of Sri Lanka

Viewpoint by Asoka N.I. Ekanayaka

Prof. Asoka N.I. Ekanayaka is an Emeritus Professor of Community Dentistry and former Dean of the Faculty of Dental Science University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka.

COLOMBO (IDN) — This article is not primarily about the woeful record of the present government. Nor is it about the abomination of governance by a family oligarchy in whose stranglehold a nation groans in every part as if being slowly crushed by the constricting coils of some giant Anaconda.

: Asia Editor; OPINION; 17 July 2022

Photo: PDP National Headquarters, Abuja.

Multi-Religious Nigeria's Ruling Party Picks 2 Muslims as Top Candidates

Viewpoint by Azu Ishiekwene

The writer is the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of LEADERSHIP newspaper based in Abuja, Nigeria.

ABUJA (IDN) — If the flag bearer of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in next year’s presidential election, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, thought a “placeholder” would be a lightning rod and maybe soften the blow of his final decision, he has seen by now that he is mistaken. There is a gathering storm.

Tinubu’s decision on July 12 to choose a fellow Muslim as his running mate has riled many Christians, who make up nearly 49 per cent of the country’s population. They are doubly upset that it took him five weeks after his nomination to decide what they always suspected he would do: pick a Muslim running mate to complete what is now Nigeria’s first Muslim-Muslim ticket in nearly 30 years.

: Africa & ME Editor; OPINION; 16 July 2022

Image: Sri Lanka protestors storming presidential palace. Source: Hurriyet Daily News

Lessons to be Learnt from Sri Lankan Crisis

Viewpoint by Dr Ram Puniyani

This article is the 22nd in a series of joint productions of South Asian Outlook and IDN-InDepthNews, the flagship of the International Press Syndicate. The writer is a former professor of biomedical engineering and former senior medical officer affiliated with the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (now Mumbai) and, meanwhile, a social activist and commentator.

: Asia Editor; OPINION; 15 July 2022

Photo (From Left to Right): Manish Uprety F.R.A.S. and Jainendra Karn

The Challenges for Indo-French Relationship in a Multi-Polar and Fragmented World

Viewpoint by Manish Uprety F.R.A.S. and Jainendra Karn

Manish Uprety F.R.A.S. is an ex-diplomat & ALCAP’s Special Adviser for Asia & Africa and Jainendra Karn is a senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Any views or opinions expressed are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of IDN-InDepth News.

NEW DELHI (IDN) — The current global food crisis brought back memories of the days gone by as a diplomat over a decade or so back which underlined the notion that the quest and security of basic needs is an essential part of international relations and geopolitics.

: Opinion Editor; THE WORLD; South Asia; 13 July 2022

Photo: File photo dated 01 July 1997 shows a Chinese soldier (2nd L) holding the national flag prior to its raising as the British military march at right during the handover ceremony at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, marking the end of 156 years of British colonial rule over the territory. Credit: Paul Lakatos/AFP.

Hong Kong: China Never Expected the British to Capitulate So Easily

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — The British emissary to Hong Kong who seriously misread the situation got recalled to London by fast clipper and reposted as consul-general to Texas.

Charles Elliot became unstuck because, as Queen Victoria put it, "all we wanted might have been obtained if it had not been for the unaccountably strange conduct of Charles Elliot. He tried to obtain the lowest terms from the Chinese."