Looks like Prime Minister Najib respects Malaysian sensitivities only when Tony Abbott is induced to look for missing Malaysian airplanes, that Malaysia itself seems uninclined to try and recover. We usually call that “using other people”.
http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2011/mar/29/death-penalty-countries-world
Indonesia did not even make it to the top 10, yet plenty of Australian allies consistently do. The supposed champion of human rights, the USA, even regularly vetoed death penalty moratorium drives at the UN. These are public facts. Yet we don’t see Australian ambassadors recalled from the likes of China, Saudi Arabia, or the US itself. Why should any Southeast Asians – leader or not – listen to Australian tantrums on the subject?
As a Singaporean of non-chinese descent, I have to agree that over here the chinese is pretty discriminative in terms of their mentality.
I used to believe that my culture is inferior and “weak” as compared to the chinese culture after decades of living in Singapore. Not that I couldn’t help it, I was brought up in an education system and environment (tv, newspapers, social interactions) that shaped my mentality that way. That everything about the chinese is excellent and flawless. That they are respected everywhere they go. That they have superb manners as compared to any other non-chinese human being on Earth.
However that all changed after one trip to Australia 2 years ago. That was when I began to see a wider perspective of the world.
It was a military exercise and yes I went with a chinese-majority group to an area somewhere in Queensland Australia. At the end of the military exercise we had our recreational 2 days trip to “wind down” and relax after a fortnight of training. It was this 2 days of recreational trip that totally changed the perceptions that I had held for over 2 decades.
I began to see how the chinese are REALLY viewed and treated outside the confines of this tiny island called “Singapore”. I was browsing around in this surfwear shop, along with my other non-chinese friend. Once in a while i took a glance at the shopkeepers to know where they were should I need to approach them to enquire about the shirts and stuffs. However one peculiar thing i noticed was that those shopkeepers were keeping a close watch on these few groups of chinese males in the shop, eyes staring straight towards them. Minutes passed and I glanced again. Still their eyes were keeping a close watch on those chinese males. Interestingly they were not really bothered by the presence of me and my friend though (being the only 2 non-chinese among the singaporeans in the particular shop at that time).
It was then that i slowly realized that the chinese were viewed with suspicion and hostility in Australia. Shopkeepers kept an eye on them wherever they browsed through the shop, trailing them and some bold ones even told this group of 7 chinese dudes crowding around a shirt on display to stop crowding around and purchase the shirt if they were interested to buy it or just go away from the shop. And mind you, these wasn’t the old baby-boomer generation of white shopkeepers that you would expect to be hostile against chinese people. This was those young white Australians, some I could have sworn they look like they are 18-20. (I mean we were in a street wear and surf fashion kind of shop what would you expect).
Then after that we went to the zoo. I saw with my own eyes how a white elderly male just shove and push over a fellow singaporean (but he’s a chinese) that got in his way.
After all that we were in the bus on the way back to the airport, I was talking to my chinese friend and I ask him stuffs like “so how’s the trip? How do you find Australia so far? Do you think the Aussie girls are attractive?, etc” and the first thing he replied was “never before in my entire life am I so super-conscious of the fact that I am a Chinese” and “now he realizes how it feels like to be a minority and being the odd one out”.
I could mention other incidents here but i just want to keep it short.
The bottom line is yes going out of the country can make you realize how the real world really is and can be a humbling experience to one.
I find it interesting that Australia is expected tread softly so as not to upset the sensibilities of SE Asian countries such as Indonesia.It’s relevant to note that sensibilities aside, Indonesia is in breach of its obligations pursuant to the UN Human Rights Treaty. Indonesia signed up but does not want to be held to account. State sanctioned murder is not acceptable anywhere and tip toeing around this issue to appease Indonesian sensibilities is nonsense.In my view SE Asian sensibilities seem to require not shining a light into the dark places where corruption and breaches of human rights prosper. Of course corrupt governments are sensitive to criticism. That doesn’t mean they should not be criticised. North Korea is extremely sensitive. So too I’m sure is ISIS.
Facts are facts. Corruption throughout the Indonesian justice system is a fact. Army and police involvement in drug distribution is a fact. That Widowo insisted on the mass killings to shore up his domestic situation is a fact.
sometimes there is no intellectually sensitive way to point out the truth.
Indonesia subtle? Hello? Pedro, what’s so subtle about threatening to kill the citizens of Australia, Brazil, UK, France, Spain and the Netherlands while lobbying those same countries to take Indonesia off the FATF blacklist of nations financing terrorism and money laundering? And winning! About as subtle as Buddy Franklin with eyes for the ball only.
Of course, Australia never had any intention of subtlety either, and OSB continued to turn back ii/refugeee boats throughout. The latest was in March.
The skipper, Panjul, was recruited from Wanci by a fellow Bajau smuggler. The smuggler took Panjul, crew and 18 ii by private vehicle from Puncak to Sukabumi from whence the boat departed. A few asylum seekers had paid upfront, others had paid just for the crew. Upon reaching Christmas Isl, they were transferred to a Customs vessel and didn’t set foot ashore. After 4 days, they were taken to the Sukabumi border and placed on their original boat, the skipper given a mobile phone and extra fuel. They ran aground and did a midnight flit, Panjul crew and 4 Iranians escaping while the rest were detained.
Thanks for your expertise on Judaism, Hmmm..as a Jew AND a Singaporean, who’s relatives included Singapore’s First Chief Minister, the Sassoon and Kadoorie business
clans that once owned Singapore, 200 years ago (as well as Hong Kong), I know a bit about Jews in an Asian environment, as I
grew up as one, speaking English, Malay, Indonesian and Mandarin, long before I learned Hebrew, German and Russian. It might be instructive to remember, since few modern-day SE Asians do, that before the Chinese became entrepreneurially influential in Indonesia, Malaya/Malaysia, Singapore, and of course, Hong Kong, Jews were the wealthiest class under British colonial control in three of the four places in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, and even in Dutch-controlled Indonesia, Jews were hardly unknown; the 16th Century grandparents of the founder of the East India Company and Batavia (now Jakarta), Jan Pieterszoon Coen, were Dutch Jews, who’s offspring converted to the predecessor of the Dutch Reformed Church. By the way, there were no pogroms of Jews in East and SE Asia, just pogroms of Chinese, Koreans and SE Asians, by the Japanese (in the 1930s and 1940s) and later pogroms of Chinese, by some Javanese (1965) and many Khmer Rouge-supporting Khmers (1973-1975). Nevertheless, anti-Semitism is hardly less strong in Malaysia, than in France or Belgium, where (today) immigrant and second-generation Chinese-Europeans are NOT discriminated against, and yet Jews are often beaten up.
There is a deeper reason for this self-consciousness of “expat” Chinese: in many Asian (and indeed, African) countries they have a predominant role in trade and the management/transfer of money – a bit like the Jews had in, at least, mediaeval Europe. And like the Jews every so often there were anti-Chinese pogroms in those countries. To this day there are naturalized Chinese families e.g. in Indonesia and the Philippines that use Chinese names that have been adapted to the local vernacular so as not to stick out too much. Some martial arts schools in the kung fu or Shaolin traditions, founded and still run by Chinese masters for generations, profess to be “local” martial arts styles etc. etc., just to deflect suspicion and eventually harassment. Jews behaved similarly in Europe: choosing local names and/or even joining local denominations so as not to “stick out” too much. I once met a young Indonesian, a doctor of biochemistry at a Fortune 100 company who eventually owned up to me that he really was Chinese and that a lot of Indonesians who claim high grades in US study programs are actually of Chinese, not native Indonesian descent. And that in some countries, up to 80% of “the” economy are run by Chinese under various guises, but who sometimes make up only about 4-5% of the population as such (by head count).
President Jokowi now has his 200 pounds of flesh, but Indonesia is none the better for it. Very poor leadership and lack of Rahmah, Islamic charity and forgiveness, has now defined his leadership, unable to escape the shadow of Megawati.
Prime Minister Najib and UMNO lost legitimacy a long time ago. Hardly any Malaysians view their government with any favour, and it is usually those who want to attain political office themselves. Neither BN, the ruling coalition, nor the opposition have any political or economic answers for Malaysia, and the county continues to slide into authoritarian rule, pushed by strident Malay racism and Islamic extremism. This will only get worse in time.
‘It is a mistake to consider that Jokowi’s focus is ‘clearly domestic.’
Correct Ken. The leadership in Jakarta are rational actors who know what they want to achieve, act rationally in a crisis, and act rationally when they bring on a crisis. Widodo is pursuing the National Interest as defined by the Gov of the day, not domestic pantos. Just as with us, politicians tend to conflate their personal and party interests with that of the State – L’Etat c’est moi, and the NI suffers accordingly. The media very seldom calls them out over this.
‘There is little that Australia can do to help realise Jokowi’s dream.’
Here I must disagree with you Ken. Because, we have just helped Widodo enormously in pursuit of his policy. How?
During the height of execution frenzy on 24th Feb, the France based OECD grouping FATF met in Paris to vote on their latest Indonesian country review, assessing Jakarta’s cooperation/lack of such in regard to money laundering and the financing of terrorism. After having placed Indon on the blacklist for two years, they voted to take Jakarta off the list. The FATF has 38 members, including the UK, Spain, France, Brazil, Netherlands and Australia. The vote had to be unanimous for Indonesia to be de-blacklisted. Therefore, while Widodo was threatening to kill our citizens, and the citz of the aforementioned countries, we helped him achieve the pearl in his foreign policy. The vote was worth billions, unlocked investment, reduced country risk etc etc.
We voted to place Jakarta on a secondary watchlist, with more work to do. So, still in the naughty corner but minus dunce cap. When’s the next meeting? June. Where? Brisbane. Where Indonesia is to be the ‘host.’ I’m sure they’d love to be taken off the secondary list too. As I said, it’s worth billions.
We could, of course, embarrass and block their ambitions in June. But we didn’t in February.
It is a mistake to consider that Jokowi’s focus is ‘clearly domestic’. He is certainly ignorant of foreign affairs, but he has travelled overseas a great deal since taking office. The recent commemoration of the 1955 Bandung Conference was all about foreign affairs, even if this carnival also helped his domestic standing.
Jokowi seems obsessed with making Indonesia a great power. This is a foreign policy goal, not a domestic one. It seems that he wants to elbow his way into the company of the leaders of established great powers as a way of proclaiming Indonesia’s own credentials as a potential great power. He was, for example, photographed standing between Xi and Abe at least once at the Bandung Conference celebration. He will soon be seen standing contentedly next to Obama on his first Washington visit.
There is little that Australia can do to help realise Jokowi’s dream. Being photographed next to Abbott wouldn’t bring Jokowi closer to the great power Holy Grail. And, in any case, Abbott probably won’t be available for photo-ops in Jakarta or Canberra for quite some time.
On a minor point, Saudi Arabia indeed recently beheaded one Indonesian but the other victim of Saudi justice was shot.
Steve R: You are quite right. The Australian response to the execution of two Australian heroin smugglers reeks of hypocrisy and double standards, and impresses no one.
Of change there is no doubt, and some of that has to be positive. It is the permissive political climate and economic opening up of the country that enable the irrepressible Burmese seize the opportunities.
Popular activism v reforming govt will see the balance of power shift. Whether it’ll be gradual and step-wise or seismic remains to be seen. Ample reasons to be cheerful whatever the real agenda behind change. There’s everything to play for.
I must concur with Nick Farrelly’s comments on universities in Myanmar. Some time ago I taught in Mandalay in a two week intensive course on international relations organised by the Central European University and supported by the Open Society Foundation. The ‘students’ were academics, many not so young, from Yangon and Mandalay universities. These two universities had decided to open undergaduate courses in political science and IR after a 20 year hiatus, courses to start some six months after our intensive training sessions! In a 25 year career I have never taught such an eager and enthousisatic group of ‘students’: “they knew what they didn’t know” and were eager to be brought up to steam on thinking in these two disciplines. I am sure this enthousiasm has become infectious. Similarly in Yangon one of my former Burmese graduate students in Paris, now doing a PhD in Norway, had, with friends, built on the reading groups that were a space of liberty during the junta period to create the Yangon School of Political Science to offer weekend seminars. Finally my son Vincent – who worked for over a year in a Burmese NGO, Myanmar Egress, also teaching English and social science methodology and organising a groups of young volunteeer teachers – experienced first hand that enthousiasm for acquiring knowledge that motivates many Burmese. Sure the democratic transition is a process that may take a full generation with many ups and downs… but it is difficult to see a vibrant civil society allowing a turning back to the dark days of military dictatorship.
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Australia-Indonesia: the view from Jakarta
Looks like Prime Minister Najib respects Malaysian sensitivities only when Tony Abbott is induced to look for missing Malaysian airplanes, that Malaysia itself seems uninclined to try and recover. We usually call that “using other people”.
Australia-Indonesia: the view from Jakarta
http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2011/mar/29/death-penalty-countries-world
Indonesia did not even make it to the top 10, yet plenty of Australian allies consistently do. The supposed champion of human rights, the USA, even regularly vetoed death penalty moratorium drives at the UN. These are public facts. Yet we don’t see Australian ambassadors recalled from the likes of China, Saudi Arabia, or the US itself. Why should any Southeast Asians – leader or not – listen to Australian tantrums on the subject?
The double captivity of ‘Chinese privilege’
As a Singaporean of non-chinese descent, I have to agree that over here the chinese is pretty discriminative in terms of their mentality.
I used to believe that my culture is inferior and “weak” as compared to the chinese culture after decades of living in Singapore. Not that I couldn’t help it, I was brought up in an education system and environment (tv, newspapers, social interactions) that shaped my mentality that way. That everything about the chinese is excellent and flawless. That they are respected everywhere they go. That they have superb manners as compared to any other non-chinese human being on Earth.
However that all changed after one trip to Australia 2 years ago. That was when I began to see a wider perspective of the world.
It was a military exercise and yes I went with a chinese-majority group to an area somewhere in Queensland Australia. At the end of the military exercise we had our recreational 2 days trip to “wind down” and relax after a fortnight of training. It was this 2 days of recreational trip that totally changed the perceptions that I had held for over 2 decades.
I began to see how the chinese are REALLY viewed and treated outside the confines of this tiny island called “Singapore”. I was browsing around in this surfwear shop, along with my other non-chinese friend. Once in a while i took a glance at the shopkeepers to know where they were should I need to approach them to enquire about the shirts and stuffs. However one peculiar thing i noticed was that those shopkeepers were keeping a close watch on these few groups of chinese males in the shop, eyes staring straight towards them. Minutes passed and I glanced again. Still their eyes were keeping a close watch on those chinese males. Interestingly they were not really bothered by the presence of me and my friend though (being the only 2 non-chinese among the singaporeans in the particular shop at that time).
It was then that i slowly realized that the chinese were viewed with suspicion and hostility in Australia. Shopkeepers kept an eye on them wherever they browsed through the shop, trailing them and some bold ones even told this group of 7 chinese dudes crowding around a shirt on display to stop crowding around and purchase the shirt if they were interested to buy it or just go away from the shop. And mind you, these wasn’t the old baby-boomer generation of white shopkeepers that you would expect to be hostile against chinese people. This was those young white Australians, some I could have sworn they look like they are 18-20. (I mean we were in a street wear and surf fashion kind of shop what would you expect).
Then after that we went to the zoo. I saw with my own eyes how a white elderly male just shove and push over a fellow singaporean (but he’s a chinese) that got in his way.
After all that we were in the bus on the way back to the airport, I was talking to my chinese friend and I ask him stuffs like “so how’s the trip? How do you find Australia so far? Do you think the Aussie girls are attractive?, etc” and the first thing he replied was “never before in my entire life am I so super-conscious of the fact that I am a Chinese” and “now he realizes how it feels like to be a minority and being the odd one out”.
I could mention other incidents here but i just want to keep it short.
The bottom line is yes going out of the country can make you realize how the real world really is and can be a humbling experience to one.
Australia-Indonesia: the view from Jakarta
I find it interesting that Australia is expected tread softly so as not to upset the sensibilities of SE Asian countries such as Indonesia.It’s relevant to note that sensibilities aside, Indonesia is in breach of its obligations pursuant to the UN Human Rights Treaty. Indonesia signed up but does not want to be held to account. State sanctioned murder is not acceptable anywhere and tip toeing around this issue to appease Indonesian sensibilities is nonsense.In my view SE Asian sensibilities seem to require not shining a light into the dark places where corruption and breaches of human rights prosper. Of course corrupt governments are sensitive to criticism. That doesn’t mean they should not be criticised. North Korea is extremely sensitive. So too I’m sure is ISIS.
Facts are facts. Corruption throughout the Indonesian justice system is a fact. Army and police involvement in drug distribution is a fact. That Widowo insisted on the mass killings to shore up his domestic situation is a fact.
sometimes there is no intellectually sensitive way to point out the truth.
Australia-Indonesia: the view from Jakarta
Indonesia subtle? Hello? Pedro, what’s so subtle about threatening to kill the citizens of Australia, Brazil, UK, France, Spain and the Netherlands while lobbying those same countries to take Indonesia off the FATF blacklist of nations financing terrorism and money laundering? And winning! About as subtle as Buddy Franklin with eyes for the ball only.
Of course, Australia never had any intention of subtlety either, and OSB continued to turn back ii/refugeee boats throughout. The latest was in March.
The skipper, Panjul, was recruited from Wanci by a fellow Bajau smuggler. The smuggler took Panjul, crew and 18 ii by private vehicle from Puncak to Sukabumi from whence the boat departed. A few asylum seekers had paid upfront, others had paid just for the crew. Upon reaching Christmas Isl, they were transferred to a Customs vessel and didn’t set foot ashore. After 4 days, they were taken to the Sukabumi border and placed on their original boat, the skipper given a mobile phone and extra fuel. They ran aground and did a midnight flit, Panjul crew and 4 Iranians escaping while the rest were detained.
Watch Buddy in brutal collision:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBXDnTowMfk
Change you can depend on
Inevitable but healthy contradictions and frictions also coming out to the fore like this very public spat between an eminent govt economic advisor and a young journalist. On another level a young repat from Britain who opened an upmarket restaurant in Yangon fighting his corner but after trash-talking the local food scene.
Australia-Indonesia: the view from Jakarta
Looks like Tony Abbot respects Asian sensitivities only when it matters to Tony Abbot.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/11/abbott-australia-wont-give-other-countries-lectures-over-human-rights
Australia-Indonesia: the view from Jakarta
Brilliant!
The double captivity of ‘Chinese privilege’
Maureen,
Thanks for your expertise on Judaism, Hmmm..as a Jew AND a Singaporean, who’s relatives included Singapore’s First Chief Minister, the Sassoon and Kadoorie business
clans that once owned Singapore, 200 years ago (as well as Hong Kong), I know a bit about Jews in an Asian environment, as I
grew up as one, speaking English, Malay, Indonesian and Mandarin, long before I learned Hebrew, German and Russian. It might be instructive to remember, since few modern-day SE Asians do, that before the Chinese became entrepreneurially influential in Indonesia, Malaya/Malaysia, Singapore, and of course, Hong Kong, Jews were the wealthiest class under British colonial control in three of the four places in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, and even in Dutch-controlled Indonesia, Jews were hardly unknown; the 16th Century grandparents of the founder of the East India Company and Batavia (now Jakarta), Jan Pieterszoon Coen, were Dutch Jews, who’s offspring converted to the predecessor of the Dutch Reformed Church. By the way, there were no pogroms of Jews in East and SE Asia, just pogroms of Chinese, Koreans and SE Asians, by the Japanese (in the 1930s and 1940s) and later pogroms of Chinese, by some Javanese (1965) and many Khmer Rouge-supporting Khmers (1973-1975). Nevertheless, anti-Semitism is hardly less strong in Malaysia, than in France or Belgium, where (today) immigrant and second-generation Chinese-Europeans are NOT discriminated against, and yet Jews are often beaten up.
The double captivity of ‘Chinese privilege’
There is a deeper reason for this self-consciousness of “expat” Chinese: in many Asian (and indeed, African) countries they have a predominant role in trade and the management/transfer of money – a bit like the Jews had in, at least, mediaeval Europe. And like the Jews every so often there were anti-Chinese pogroms in those countries. To this day there are naturalized Chinese families e.g. in Indonesia and the Philippines that use Chinese names that have been adapted to the local vernacular so as not to stick out too much. Some martial arts schools in the kung fu or Shaolin traditions, founded and still run by Chinese masters for generations, profess to be “local” martial arts styles etc. etc., just to deflect suspicion and eventually harassment. Jews behaved similarly in Europe: choosing local names and/or even joining local denominations so as not to “stick out” too much. I once met a young Indonesian, a doctor of biochemistry at a Fortune 100 company who eventually owned up to me that he really was Chinese and that a lot of Indonesians who claim high grades in US study programs are actually of Chinese, not native Indonesian descent. And that in some countries, up to 80% of “the” economy are run by Chinese under various guises, but who sometimes make up only about 4-5% of the population as such (by head count).
Change you can depend on
A very appropriate contribution for the Myanmar Times.
The power of redemption
President Jokowi now has his 200 pounds of flesh, but Indonesia is none the better for it. Very poor leadership and lack of Rahmah, Islamic charity and forgiveness, has now defined his leadership, unable to escape the shadow of Megawati.
Najib’s taxing problem: The politics of Malaysia’s GST
Prime Minister Najib and UMNO lost legitimacy a long time ago. Hardly any Malaysians view their government with any favour, and it is usually those who want to attain political office themselves. Neither BN, the ruling coalition, nor the opposition have any political or economic answers for Malaysia, and the county continues to slide into authoritarian rule, pushed by strident Malay racism and Islamic extremism. This will only get worse in time.
The power of redemption
‘It is a mistake to consider that Jokowi’s focus is ‘clearly domestic.’
Correct Ken. The leadership in Jakarta are rational actors who know what they want to achieve, act rationally in a crisis, and act rationally when they bring on a crisis. Widodo is pursuing the National Interest as defined by the Gov of the day, not domestic pantos. Just as with us, politicians tend to conflate their personal and party interests with that of the State – L’Etat c’est moi, and the NI suffers accordingly. The media very seldom calls them out over this.
‘There is little that Australia can do to help realise Jokowi’s dream.’
Here I must disagree with you Ken. Because, we have just helped Widodo enormously in pursuit of his policy. How?
During the height of execution frenzy on 24th Feb, the France based OECD grouping FATF met in Paris to vote on their latest Indonesian country review, assessing Jakarta’s cooperation/lack of such in regard to money laundering and the financing of terrorism. After having placed Indon on the blacklist for two years, they voted to take Jakarta off the list. The FATF has 38 members, including the UK, Spain, France, Brazil, Netherlands and Australia. The vote had to be unanimous for Indonesia to be de-blacklisted. Therefore, while Widodo was threatening to kill our citizens, and the citz of the aforementioned countries, we helped him achieve the pearl in his foreign policy. The vote was worth billions, unlocked investment, reduced country risk etc etc.
We voted to place Jakarta on a secondary watchlist, with more work to do. So, still in the naughty corner but minus dunce cap. When’s the next meeting? June. Where? Brisbane. Where Indonesia is to be the ‘host.’ I’m sure they’d love to be taken off the secondary list too. As I said, it’s worth billions.
We could, of course, embarrass and block their ambitions in June. But we didn’t in February.
Cheers.
The power of redemption
It is a mistake to consider that Jokowi’s focus is ‘clearly domestic’. He is certainly ignorant of foreign affairs, but he has travelled overseas a great deal since taking office. The recent commemoration of the 1955 Bandung Conference was all about foreign affairs, even if this carnival also helped his domestic standing.
Jokowi seems obsessed with making Indonesia a great power. This is a foreign policy goal, not a domestic one. It seems that he wants to elbow his way into the company of the leaders of established great powers as a way of proclaiming Indonesia’s own credentials as a potential great power. He was, for example, photographed standing between Xi and Abe at least once at the Bandung Conference celebration. He will soon be seen standing contentedly next to Obama on his first Washington visit.
There is little that Australia can do to help realise Jokowi’s dream. Being photographed next to Abbott wouldn’t bring Jokowi closer to the great power Holy Grail. And, in any case, Abbott probably won’t be available for photo-ops in Jakarta or Canberra for quite some time.
On a minor point, Saudi Arabia indeed recently beheaded one Indonesian but the other victim of Saudi justice was shot.
Dealing in death: Indonesia’s drug executions
Steve R: You are quite right. The Australian response to the execution of two Australian heroin smugglers reeks of hypocrisy and double standards, and impresses no one.
Prabowo’s game plan
Did Australia bet on the wrong horse?
Dealing in death: Indonesia’s drug executions
So was Brazil being “colonial” to Indonesia in their advocacy for their citizen?
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/30/brazilian-executed-by-indonesia-was-hearing-voices-all-the-time
“‘Am I being executed?’ Brazilian killed by Indonesia unaware until end, says priest”
Priest who counselled Rodrigo Gularte – who has been diagnosed as having paranoid schizophrenia and bipolar disorder – says he tried in vain for
Change you can depend on
Of change there is no doubt, and some of that has to be positive. It is the permissive political climate and economic opening up of the country that enable the irrepressible Burmese seize the opportunities.
Popular activism v reforming govt will see the balance of power shift. Whether it’ll be gradual and step-wise or seismic remains to be seen. Ample reasons to be cheerful whatever the real agenda behind change. There’s everything to play for.
Change you can depend on
I must concur with Nick Farrelly’s comments on universities in Myanmar. Some time ago I taught in Mandalay in a two week intensive course on international relations organised by the Central European University and supported by the Open Society Foundation. The ‘students’ were academics, many not so young, from Yangon and Mandalay universities. These two universities had decided to open undergaduate courses in political science and IR after a 20 year hiatus, courses to start some six months after our intensive training sessions! In a 25 year career I have never taught such an eager and enthousisatic group of ‘students’: “they knew what they didn’t know” and were eager to be brought up to steam on thinking in these two disciplines. I am sure this enthousiasm has become infectious. Similarly in Yangon one of my former Burmese graduate students in Paris, now doing a PhD in Norway, had, with friends, built on the reading groups that were a space of liberty during the junta period to create the Yangon School of Political Science to offer weekend seminars. Finally my son Vincent – who worked for over a year in a Burmese NGO, Myanmar Egress, also teaching English and social science methodology and organising a groups of young volunteeer teachers – experienced first hand that enthousiasm for acquiring knowledge that motivates many Burmese. Sure the democratic transition is a process that may take a full generation with many ups and downs… but it is difficult to see a vibrant civil society allowing a turning back to the dark days of military dictatorship.