Asia-Pacific Archive

DENPASAR, Indonesia — As the roughly 171 million Indonesians eligible to vote get ready to elect their new president, their choice is likely to steer the future trajectory of Indonesia well beyond the next five years. This election is likely to be the last dominated by figures who played a role in the New Order regime, as former dictator Suharto’s tenure from 1965 to 1998 was called. Incumbent President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, 59, heavily favored to gain re-election, will not be allowed to run for a third term should predictions of his victory prove correct. Besides Yudhoyono, only vice-presidential candidate […]

Chinese bloggers and artists, and rights advocates around the globe, are celebrating Beijing’s postponement of a wildly unpopular plan to mandate the inclusion of filtering software in all computers sold in China as of July 1. The decision to postpone the “Green Dam Youth Escort” program — which Chinese officials described as a concerted effort to address pornography on the Internet — followed weeks of massive domestic and international pressure over concerns the software would serve as a vehicle to increase state censorship. The move may also have been in recognition of the fact that computer companies’ needed more time […]

The Spanish National Criminal Court (Audiencia Nacional) said on Tuesday it was scrapping an investigation into a 2002 Israeli Air Force bombing in Gaza that killed a suspected Hamas militant and 14 civilians. The move comes just days after the lower house of the Spanish Parliament voted to limit the scope of a 1985 law that allows judges to investigate crimes against humanity anywhere in the world. Taken together, the developments mark a significant setback for advocates of universal jurisdiction, a legal concept whereby states can claim criminal jurisdiction over persons whose alleged crimes were committed outside the boundaries of […]

Brilliant. I wonder how they’ll tackle sexual harassment.

To critics of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Burma has long served as proof of the organization’s ineffectuality. For decades, the country’s ruling junta has suppressed democracy, oppressed its people, and ignored global calls to observe human rights. ASEAN member nations have previously been reluctant to apply economic sanctions to Burma because of a founding agreement not to intervene in the affairs of fellow members. But with the current trial of democracy advocate and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi drawing widespread international condemnation, ASEAN once again faces a critical test in its quest for legitimacy. The time […]

More progress on cross-Straits relations: Taiwan has opened its markets to mainland Chinese investment. The new rules are in part a testament to the power of Chinese cash reserves (Taiwan’s economy shrank 10 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2009). But they also represent a significant, if pragmatic, step towards Taiwanese President MaYing-Jeou’s goal of closer economic ties, which have to date beenmainly one-way (from Taiwan to China). “Institutional” investment — by which I understand state-sponsored, but I might be mistaken — is limited to 10 percent of stock ownership, while limits on corporate ownership will be decided on […]

In 2006, when Dutch forces occupied Uruzgan province in southern Afghanistan, they expected to wage a traditional counterinsurgency campaign focused on winning the support of the local population. “We’re not here to fight the Taliban. We’re here to make the Taliban irrelevant,” said Dutch commander Hans van Griensven. An Australian reconstruction team subsequently joined the Dutch battlegroup, to help rebuild schools and roads, and to provide vocational training to local workers. Dutch and Australian troops were working at a pair of schools in July 2007 when the Taliban attacked. A suicide bomber blew himself up outside one school in the […]