Articles Lecture Week Three
WHAT DID THE ASEAN DEFENSE CHIEFS MEETING IN SINGAPORE ACHIEVE?
MAIN POINTS South China Sea disputes to terrorism, with Islamic State continuing to pose a challenge to the region despite the end of the siege in the southern Philippine city of Marawi The Chiefs of Defense also touched on other issues such as strengthening the regional architecture around humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR). Air-to-air encounters ASEAN-China Maritime Exercise ACDFIM -boost defense interactions between Southeast Asian states, including the annualization of the ASEAN Defense Ministers Meeting Plus
HOW ASEAN MATTERS IN THE AGE OF TRUMP Hint: This Article very important for you to understand
Trump broke sharply with long-standing traditions in US foreign policy, but Southeast Asia has been one area of relative continuity. Clinton and Bush Administrations Obama s Pivot - Transform what had long been an an ad hoc focus on SE Asia into sustained, high-level engagement. (more) Read this: Sunnylands Summit (The 17-paragraph document listed out these principles, from respect for general norms such as the freedom of navigation and sustainable and inclusive economic development to a shared resolve to address specific issues like terrorism, trafficking in persons and climate change.)
President Trump welcomed the leaders of Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore in Washington In November, he went on 12-day trip to Asia with stops in Vietnam and the Philippines to attend the APEC summit, a US ASEAN summit and the East Asian summit, as well as hold bilateral meetings. But the missing ingredient has been the lack of an economic engagement strategy. What was the highly-visible pullback by Trump?
ASEAN finds itself in an increasingly contested environment, and it grows more divided on key issues. China has sought to divide and conquer ASEAN by putting tremendous pressure on smaller countries like Cambodia and Laos to refrain from forging ASEAN consensus on the South China Sea. Yet ASEAN remains highly relevant for advancing US strategic and diplomatic goals in the region. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said: A stable region requires us all to work together, and that is why we support greater engagement with ASEAN. Because no single bilateral relationship can get us where we want to go."
Malaysia s PM is about to steal an election Gerrymandering - The practice is so unfair that it is illegal in most countries, including Malaysia, where the constitution says that electoral districts must be approximately equal in size. MALAYSIA ELECTION GUIDE Here Media is supine The police and the courts seem more interested in allegations of minor offenses by opposition figures than they are in the blatant bilking of the taxpayer over 1MDB and the open violation of the constitution at the election commission. The latest budget seems intended to buy the loyalty of civil servants, by promising a special bonus to be disbursed just after the likely date of the election. Only one person has been charged in connection with the missing billions: an opposition politician who leaked details of the official investigation Najib Razak
RACE PROBLEMS IN MALAYSIA? Ethnic Malays and other indigenous groups account for about 69 percent of the population, with Chinese making up 23 percent, and ethnic Indians and other the remainder. Affirmative Action: The policy grew out of 1969 race riots and reserves a large share of government contracts for Malay businesses. It remains in effect, even after it was due to expire in 1990. It is just another example of the past decade or so in which UMNO survives on manufacturing fear among Malays towards others, in the hope to consolidate Malay support for United Malays National Organisation. UMNO has also been courting hardliners on the religious right BRAIN DRAIN - A total of 56,576 Malaysians gave up their citizenship between 2006 and 2016 with over 90 percent of them being ethnic-chinese. Calls for meritocracy-based system. Broader consideration: What is a Malaysian?
IS RACISM THAT BAD IN MALAYSIA? Video
So what is going on?
The politics of Fear
What is the Politics of Fear? The term politics of fear denotes when leaders (or candidates for leadership) use fear as a driving or motivating factor for the people, to get them to vote a particular way, allow excesses in spending, or accept policies they might otherwise abhor. It's counting on the fact that presenting people with an alleged threat to their well-being will elicit a powerful emotional response that can override reason and prevent a critical assessment of these policies.
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