By David Brown True to an annual rhythm enforced by the typhoon season, China last month pulled its deep-sea drilling rig from Vietnam’s claimed exclusive economic zone (EEZ). Analysts immediately began debating who “won” or “lost,” but in truth, the…
By Nigel Cory Malaysia’s counter-terrorism record is commendable. The country has never had a terrorist attack on its home soil akin to the deadly 2002 Bali bombings in neighboring Indonesia. This success is mostly due to hard work and cooperation…
Who is he? Liow Tiong Lai is president of the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), the main ethnic Chinese party within Malaysia’s ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition. Liow previously served as minister of health from March 2008 to May 2013. Why…
By Nigel Cory Prime Minister Najib Razak deserves credit for his perseverance in pursuing an often difficult political, economic, and social reform agenda, notwithstanding the daunting task of helping Malaysia cope with the loss of its second passenger plane in…
By Nigel Cory The revived proposal to introduce hudud, or Islamic penal code, in Malaysia’s northeastern state of Kelantan by opposition party, Pan Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), has touched off another round of heated debate about the role of religion…
Who is she? Dyana Sofya is a 27-year-old ethnic Malay lawyer who ran as the opposition coalition’s candidate in a parliamentary by-election in Teluk Intan, a town of 60,000 in Perak state in western peninsular Malaysia. She chose to join…
By Kendrick Kuo & Kyle Springer The movement of the Uighur population from their home province of Xinjiang in western China to Central Asia has long been a problem for Beijing. Strict security policies in Xinjiang motivate Uighurs to resettle…
By Ernest Bower & Derwin Pereira Chinese actions in maritime Asia are raising questions about American willingness and ability to act decisively in the region. That ambiguity is bad news for members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN),…
By Scott Bentley Ann Marie Murphy wrote in PacNet in March that recent developments represent a “game changer” in regard to Indonesian policy on the South China Sea. Disagreement has emerged over the significance of a statement by Air Commodore…
By Bill Hayton The search for the missing Malaysian airliner has demonstrated the capabilities gap between China, on one side, and the United States and its allies in the Asia Pacific, on the other, but also China’s increasingly sophisticated public…
