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Pension reform a potential powder keg in Vietnam
Vietnam is revising its social insurance law to discourage employees from withdrawing their social insurance premiums early and giving up their pensions. There is concern that the proposed changes...
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Widodo dynasty taking controversial form in Indonesia
JAKARTA – Indonesia’s Constitutional Court has cleared the way for President Joko Widodo’s 36-year-old son, Solo town mayor Gibran Rakabuming, to become the running mate to front-runner Prabowo...
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The youthful rise of dynasty politics in Indonesia
JAKARTA – Some months ago, the word out of presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto’s camp was that he saw a potential team-up with President Joko Widodo’s eldest son as a golden ticket that would...
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Indonesia’s China-powered ‘ecocity’ not so clean or green
I first visited Rempang island in the summer of 2022. Greeting me were lush fields lined with coconut and banana trees, picture-book fishing villages with houses jutting into the water on stilts, and...
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Resistance rising to Widodo’s dynasty dream
JAKARTA – The chief justice of Indonesia’s Constitutional Court has become the target of an investigation over his failure to recuse himself in a recent ruling that paved the legal way for his nephew...
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Why Indonesia chooses autonomy over BRICS
Since 2011, observers have regarded Indonesia as a hot accession candidate should BRICS, a forum of emerging powers with Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa as members, decide to enlarge...
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Myanmar junta stealing from desperate migrant pockets
Tougher times await Myanmar migrant workers in Southeast Asia. Two recent orders issued by Myanmar’s junta State Administration Council (SAC) in September will result in higher costs of moving, living...
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Fog of war: Myanmar’s armed conflict is not a stalemate
Amid the last torrential storms of the 2023 monsoon, the fog of war is thickening over Myanmar. And growing numbers of observers monitoring the country’s unfolding implosion are in danger of getting...
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A tiger economy starts to roar in Vietnam
Amid the Covid-19 pandemic and rising US-China trade tensions, Vietnam leapfrogged South Korea to become the United States’ sixth-largest trade partner by import value in 2022. This jump represents...
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Myanmar junta artillery attack fatally lands on China
One Chinese citizen was killed and several others injured yesterday (November 4) when an artillery shell fired by the Myanmar military apparently missed its intended target and landed on the Chinese...
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Japan-Philippines moving toward US-led trilateral alliance
MANILA – “I am honored to have the opportunity to be the first Japanese Prime Minister to speak here at the Congress of the Philippines, which has a long tradition,” Fumio Kishida said before the...
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Brotherhood Alliance rewriting Myanmar’s war narrative
The stunning Blitzkrieg of Operation 1027 in northern Shan state over the past two weeks will possibly go down as the most pivotal and daring feat of arms in Myanmar’s many decades of civil war. In...
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Defying the US, Anwar bellows support for Hamas
SINGAPORE – Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s vocal support for the Palestinian cause could blow back on Malaysia as the United States tables legislation to sever funding for Hamas and other Palestinian...
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No good options for Myanmar’s mortally wounded regime
If the echoes of World War II have any resonance in 21st century Myanmar then events have not yet reached the point in April 1945 when the delusional commander-in-chief of a defeated German army...
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The Philippines in a lonely fight with China
MANILA – “Are you sure you (Filipinos) want to get into a fight where you will be the battleground?”, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong cautioned at a recent forum in the city-state when asked...
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Philippines becoming a military hub for checking China
MANILA – The annual Kamandag exercises now underway in the Philippines are making a multinational splash with an estimated 2,749 participating troops, including 1,732 from the Philippines, 902 from...
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Myanmar’s military junta in death spiral decline
Myint Swe, the acting president of Myanmar’s military government, has warned that the country “will be split into various parts” after his armed forces suffered huge territorial losses to resistance...
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Marcos doubles down on his double game with China
MANILA – “I do not think anybody wants to go to war,” Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said following his meeting with Chinese paramount leader Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific...
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Is Myanmar’s embattled regime using chemical weapons?
Myanmar’s military is still reeling from the surprise Operation 1027 insurgent attacks in northern Shan state that overran over 140 bases, captured large caches of weapons and raised potent new...
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Rethinking Indonesia’s nickel market dominance
Calling Indonesia “the Saudi Arabia of nickel,” one of the metals underpinning global steel production and ambitions to decarbonize energy and transport systems, would be an insult to Indonesia’s...
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