Nearly seven decades after Cambodia gained independence from France, its people are still struggling for the right to determine their future. But today, it is not an outside power that is stealing Cambodians’ autonomy, but their own authoritarian government, led by Hun Sen, the world’s longest-serving prime minister.
Paralysed by seething protesters and intransigent bosses in Beijing, Hong Kong's government lacks the power and experience to end the unprecedented political crisis in the city, analysts say.The semi-autonomous international hub has been riven by increasingly violent protests for more than four months, with demonstrators demanding greater democracy and police accountability as violence spirals on all sides.Yet so far, all the major steps taken by Beijing-backed city leader Carrie Lam hav
The US House of Representatives passed a bill Tuesday sought by pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong that aims to defend civil rights in the semi-autonomous territory, prompting an angry response from China.The Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, which will now move to the Senate before it can become law, has drawn rare bipartisan support in a polarised Congress.The law would end the Hong Kong-US special trading status unless the State Department certifies annually that city authoritie
ESports star Myint was on the cusp of victory when the screens went dark in the Yangon cafe where he competes, costing him thousands of dollars in missed prize-money and denting his reputation. Myanmar's gaming scene is mushrooming, but frequent power cuts are holding players back in the emerging democracy. "Every time a black-out happens, we curse out the electricity corporation - and it happens often," he said.More than 60 percent of people in Myanmar still
Thai-American United States (US) Senator Tammy Duckworth on Friday urged Thais to be patient with the "messy" nature of democracy, during her first official visit to her birthplace Bangkok since she was elected in 2016.Duckworth's comments come two months after 2014 coup leader Prayut Chan-o-cha was reinstalled as Thailand's civilian premier following a highly disputed poll.The US Senator met Prayut on Friday morning, after a press conference where she congratulated Thaila
US President Donald Trump on Sunday warned China that carrying out a Tiananmen Square-style crackdown on Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters would harm trade talks between the two countries."I think it'd be very hard to deal if they do violence, I mean, if it's another Tiananmen Square," Trump told reporters in New Jersey.
“This is no longer an apology, but a threat.” That was what Chaturon Chaisang, a leader of the now-defunct Thai Raksa Chart Party, wrote online in response to a statement Thailand Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha released earlier this week.In a letter released to the media on Monday, Prayut apologised for an ongoing fight among coalition parties to secure key cabinet posts.
On a trip to Ethiopia in the 1990s, I met with Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to try to persuade him to stop jailing journalists. Since Meles’s guerrillas had ousted a repressive Soviet-backed dictatorship a few years before, there had been an explosion of exuberant and sometimes wildly inaccurate little newspapers, many of them attacking Meles.
While vote counting continues for Indonesia’s recently concluded election, reports have come out that incumbent, Joko “Jokowi” Widodo already enjoys a comfortable lead over former general and rival, Prabowo Subianto, at least according to the unofficial results. The official results are only due sometime next month, but a series of so-called "quick counts" by pollsters have shown that Jokowi has managed to garner as much as a 11 percentage points lead over his rival.&nb
Indonesia pulled off a complex yet peaceful election across its vast – and ethnically diverse – island territory this week, cementing its place as a democratic beacon in a sea of authoritarian governments, analysts say.But the world's biggest Muslim-majority nation still faces a spike in militant Islam and myriad other challenges.On Wednesday, the sprawling Southeast Asian archipelago saw as many as 190 million voters cast ballots to elect a new president, parliamentarians and local legi
Tomorrow, Indonesian’s will go to the ballot box. For the first time in the country's history, the president, vice president, and members of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), will be elected on the same day with over 190 million eligible voters. 16 parties will be participating in the elections nationally, with four participating for the first time. This makes the 2019 election the biggest election ever in Indonesia’s history.
A coup leader triumphs as a civilian prime minister, an alliance of parties unite to stop him, or a parliamentary deadlock forces another political crisis – the outcome of Thailand's disputed election remains undecided a week after the poll.So, what next?
