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Viewpoint by Jan Servaes*
BRUSSELS (IDN) — A crashed Ferrari, a dead police officer and a fugitive heir to a multibillion-dollar fortune—ten years later, Thailand is no closer to solving one of its most infamous hit-and-run crimes. Red Bull's story, according to the Indian news channel WION (World Is On News), is again "a reminder of how the rich and powerful in Thailand escape the law".
By Ravindra Singh Prasad
SUVA, Fiji (IDN) — It is an ironic fact in Fiji Islands, a multi-ethnic nation of under one million people in the South Pacific, that coups don't work and ultimately lead to constitutional reforms and democratic elections. As Fiji goes to the polls on December 14, the choice is between choosing one former coup leader or another to govern Fiji for the next five years. Both fought the same battle in 2018, and the incumbent won in an election considered free and fair.
Viewpoint by Herbert Wulf
This article was issued by the Toda Peace Institute and is being republished with their permission.
BONN (IDN) — German-Chinese relations are currently being reassessed in Germany. This is the result of a longer development that also took place in the EU. The shock of Germany's dependence on Russian gas, coal and oil supplies has made relations with China particularly sensitive.
By Neville de Silva*
This article was issued by Asian Affairs (London).
LONDON (IDN) — The sense of economic optimism expressed by Sri Lanka’s increasingly despotic president is not shared by the country’s long-suffering people.
Presenting his first budget since assuming office as president after his predecessor fled the country, Ranil Wickremesinghe seemed to see a new dawn on the horizon. Speaking in parliament in mid-November, he saw ‘a glimmer of hope on emerging from the economic abyss’, adding that it was ‘currently visible’.
Viewpoint by Ambassador Palitha Kohona*
BEIJING (IDN) — Sitting in the middle of the Indian Ocean at the southern tip of India, Sri Lanka occupies an enviable strategic position. A blessing that it has successfully leveraged to advantage in the past and a curse that will continue to attract the rapacious attention of global and regional powers seeking to dominate the Indian Ocean region strategically, economically and culturally.
Climate Change, Human Mobility and Peacebuilding Draw the Focus
Viewpoint by Volker Boege
Toda Peace Institute issued this article, and it is being republished with their permission.
BRISBANE, Australia (IDN) — While UN Secretary-General António Guterres in his opening speech at this year’s COP 27 in Sharm El-Sheikh on November 7 stated that humanity is “on the highway to climate hell with our foot on the accelerator”, a workshop held in Wellington, New Zealand, just a few days before, explored the consequences of this hellish trip for the security and peace of communities and countries in the Pacific region.
Viewpoint by Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana
The writer is an Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).
BANGKOK (IDN) — The recent climate talks in Egypt have left us with a sobering reality: The window for maintaining global warming to 1.5 degrees is closing fast and what is on the table currently is insufficient to avert some of the worst potential effects of climate change.
Viewpoint by Jan Servaes
BRUSSELS (IDN) — Since the February 1, 2021 coup, Myanmar's military has committed a variety of atrocities that, according to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, may amount to "crimes against humanity and war crimes".
To consolidate its power against widespread popular resistance, the self-proclaimed State Administration Council (SAC) led by Min Aung Hlaing has killed at least 2,465 people, conducted indiscriminate airstrikes in ethnic areas and razed hundreds of villages. The country has plunged into chaos and teeters on the brink of a failed state.
Viewpoint by M. K. Bhadrakumar*
NEW DELHI (IDN) — The seventeenth G20 Heads of State and Government Summit held in Bali, Indonesia, on November 15–16 stands out as a consequential event from many angles. The international politics is at an inflection point and the transition will not leave unaffected any of the institutions inherited from the past that is drifting away forever.
However, the G20 [or Group of Twenty—comprising 19 most of the world's largest economies, including both industrialised and developing nations and the European Union] can be an exception in bridging time past with time present and time future.
By Kiel Institute for the World Economy
BERLIN | KIEL, Germany (IDN) — China has been exporting aid goods worth around USD 835 million annually since 2017. These material resources are distributed by China primarily according to geopolitical interests and increasingly to Asia and Africa. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 meant that China gained political ground worldwide with medical aid supplies—especially face masks and vaccines. Recently, grain shipments to Africa, in particular, have been on the rise.
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