Today Trends

Author: Liam Gammon, EABER A big question in the wake of Malaysia’s 2018 election was whether the country had embarked upon a transition to democracy after the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition’s first-ever election defeat. Over decades of BN rule Malaysia became a textbook case of so-called competitive authoritarianism — a system where regime opponents are allowed to contest power, but on a playing field hopelessly stacked in favour of the incumbents thanks to their control of the legal system, the press and patronage. When the reformist Pakatan Harapan coalition defeated BN in 2018, it looked like Malaysia might have followed in the footsteps of countries that experienced ‘democratisation through elections’, where upset victories by oppositions gave enough of a shock to the system to kick off democratic rule. But one electoral swallow doesn’t a democratic spring make. Indeed, the 2018–2020 Pakatan government was paralysed from the start by ideological divisions between its progre

Author: Paul Evans, UBC Ottawa has unveiled its long-awaited Indo-Pacific Strategy . Comprehensive statements on regional or global foreign policy are a rarity. This whole of government strategy is the most ambitious effort in a generation to focus attention and resources on the region. The label of ‘Indo-Pacific’ is more than old wine in a new bottle. The earlier Asia Pacific idea was born in era of expansiveness, inclusive multilateralism, open regionalism, engagement with China, cooperative and comprehensive security dreams and the end of a Cold War. The Indo-Pacific era is the product of great power rivalry, securitisation of technology and trade, fragmenting globalisation, strengthened alliances, coalitions of the like-minded, a rules-based international order and an incipient Cold War. The strategy’s commitment of C$2.3 billion (US$1.7 billion) over five years covers 27 different projects. The big ticket items are C$750 million (US$549 million) for infrastructure projects fi

Author: Editorial Board, ANU We have long been inured to think of the Japanese state and society as stable, to the point of being inert. The complacency of this view was unexpectedly shattered on 8 July with the assassination of Shinzo Abe, former prime minister and still then influential political powerbroker, in a hail of bullets on the streets of Nara. This year has been the year of the so-called ‘polycrisis’. War, economic and energy shocks, pandemic, environmental chaos — the sheer scale of the simultaneous upheavals which reverberated across the world has challenged the international system. Japan was no exception to these upheavals, with its own so-called ‘period of crisis’ ( hijoji ) in political, economic and national security affairs. At the beginning of 2022, Japanese politics reflected the uncertainty of the post-Abe era. Despite hailing from the Cold War-era liberal Kochikai faction of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), the Kishida government in practice and in leadi

Author: Aurelia George Mulgan, UNSW Canberra The past year has not been good for Japan, nor for Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s government. Japan has faced a dramatically deteriorating global and regional security environment and a perfect storm of challenges on the home front, including the COVID-19 pandemic, soaring inflation and the ramifications of the assassination of former prime minister Shinzo Abe on 8 July. Kishida initially touted himself as ‘the leader that this era needs’. He began with high approval ratings and a packed policy agenda. But by October, support for his government had plummeted to below 30 per cent with one popular magazine describing the public as ‘increasingly disgusted with Kishida’s lack of leadership’. Previous prime ministers, such as Kishida’s predecessor Yoshihide Suga, resigned with approval ratings this low. As for the Kishida cabinet, the news was equally bad with an approval rate of just 31 per cent in November. This followed a series of mi

Author: Alam Saleh, ANU In an era characterised by the conspicuous rise of China and growing Russian aggression, a new post-West world order is taking shape within international politics. The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) was established to pursue the ‘Asianisation’ of a post-Western and pre-plural world order. China and Russia, in an attempt to undermine US global influence, are seeking to foster cooperation and alliances with strong regional powers. Iran was made a permanent member of the SCO. Iran’s resurgence as a regional power in the Middle East, fomenting since 2003, has been considered a threat to both its neighbours and to US strategic interests in the region. Tehran’s expansionist policies have coincided with rapid military and nuclear strengthening. The country’s leadership is intent on restoring Iran as a key regional power. A strengthened and assertive Iran, positioned in the northeast corner of one of the most geostrategically critical regions in the world,

Authors: Niharika Rustagi and Kaushambi Bagchi, NUS Sexual and reproductive health rights are crucial to women’s bodily autonomy and empowerment. But women from many countries are not guaranteed these fundamental rights. Landmark rulings in several countries have paved the way for access to abortion services, maternal healthcare and assisted reproduction, including in countries with restrictive reproductive rights laws. In India, legal reforms related to reproductive rights have been in progress for some time. In 2021, the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act 1971, which had previously restricted safe and legal abortions to married women, was amended to include unmarried women. On 29 September 2022, the Supreme Court of India passed a judgement that guaranteed all women, regardless of their marital status, the right to undergo abortions up to 24 weeks into their pregnancy up from 21 weeks. For adolescent pregnancies, the judgment states that it is no longer mandatory for a

Author: Igor Rogelja, UCL When the Peljesac Bridge in southern Croatia opened on 26 July 2022, it was the second time a Chinese construction company, the China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC), had built a sizable bridge in Southeast Europe. It was also the second time that Li Keqiang, China’s now-former premier, attended an opening ceremony for a Chinese-constructed bridge in Southeast Europe. While the opening of the Pupin bridge in Belgrade featured hundreds of Chinese flags and a visit by the premier, the 2022 opening of the Peljesac bridge was quite different. During the lavish inauguration of the bridge, Li addressed the crowd via livestream with a speech extolling the friendship and cooperation between China and Croatia. Local media dismissed the talk as long and tedious. No Chinese flags were seen among the Croatian nationalist imagery. One reason these two events were so different is the COVID-19 pandemic. China’s zero-COVID policy has made overseas trips a rarity for C

Author: Angie Ngọc Tran, California State University Vietnam’s long-overdue 6 per cent regional minimum wage increase came into effect on 1 July 2022 after two and a half years of delay due to COVID-19 . The delay shows the neoliberal logic underpinning policy change by a self-proclaimed socialist state. This market-driven logic first appeared in the 2019 Labour Code revision and emboldens the market system while surrendering the role of the government to protect workers’ rights and provide social protection for Vietnamese workers. This so-called minimum wage increase is hollow and does not help to improve workers’ livelihoods in Vietnam. While the decree giving effect to the increase  gave workers a 6 per cent boost — with the highest minimum wage increase in Region 1 (major cities) rising to about US$190 per month or less than US$1 per hour — it eliminated protections for the majority of workers that had been stipulated in a 2019 decree governing similar issues . These losses in

Author: Smruti S Pattanaik, Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses In 2021, India and Bangladesh celebrated fifty years of diplomatic ties. Bangladesh remains an important partner of India in the region, and the last decade has been described as the ‘golden chapter’ of bilateral relations between the two countries. Yet several sources of tensions — such as the sharing of the Teesta river, non-tariff trade barriers and firing at the border due to smuggling — are major stumbling blocks. Given the geographical proximity and history, the relationship with India has always been part of electoral politics in Bangladesh. It is not surprising that Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to India in September 2022 was seen by some as an electoral strategy. Many in Bangladesh believe that India’s support for Hasina in the flawed 2014 and 2018 elections has sustained her term in power. Yet before the 2018 polls, many leaders from the main political opposition, t

South Korea posted a trade deficit of US$3.8 billion in September 2022 — higher than experts predicted in a Reuters poll at the end of September but slightly lower than South Korea’s Customs Services forecast. The latest official data of South Korea shows that the trade deficit reached US$7 billion in November and the cumulative trade deficit has reached US$42.6 billion since the first deficit in April 2022. This is the eighth consecutive month of trade deficits. Neither the number of consecutive months of deficits nor the size of the trade deficit have been seen at this scale since 1997. Two major conclusions can be drawn from looking at South Korean imports and exports. First, the government has implemented a trade strategy towards the Southeast Asian market. Second, trade relations between China and South Korea are undergoing major changes. One reason for the deficits is the increasing value of energy imports . In the first eight months of 2022, South Korea imported US$145 bil