KUALA LUMPUR — In her relationship with Malaysia, be it bilateral or at the regional level, Beijing has always been willing to listen and suggest cooperative endeavours for all-round benefits, said Foreign Minister Datuk Anifah Aman. He said that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak had made a most successful visit to China earlier this year where he was warmly received.
Anifah said a number of new areas for cooperation were also identified which Malaysia was looking forward to jointly pursue. He said during the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis when the West turned its back on East Asia, China did not devalue the Renminbi to ensure countries in trouble did not get deeper in it and proposed swap arrangements for those with balance-of-payments difficulties.
KUALA LUMPUR: Foreign Minister Datuk Anifah Aman believes that there is a small group of people with “ulterior motives” playing up supposedly contentious issues between Malaysia and Indonesia.
In his meeting with his Indonesian counterpart in Jakarta on Thursday, he said they will discuss why a small group of people in Indonesia kept on playing up the Pendet dance issue despite the explanation given by the Discovery Channel to the relevant authorities. Anifah said he was confident that the small group of people who were repeatedly playing up the issue had ulterior motives.
Foreign Minister Datuk Anifah Aman leaves for Jakarta tomorrow for a meeting with his Indonesian counterpart Dr Hassan Wirajuda on Thursday in the wake of anti-Malaysian incidents and media reports there. Anifah also hoped he would get to call on President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono during his brief visit to the Indonesian capital.
“I think it is only proper that we meet and discuss and see how to ease the tension and possibly find out what transpired in Indonesia concerning a couple of issues highlighted in the media in Indonesia and see how best to overcome, tackle or minimise the negative perception by a small section of people there,” he said of his meeting with Hassan.
Racism is a subject that people often seek to avoid, it being deemed too politically embarrassing, any suggestion of its existence often eliciting a response of outraged indignation and immediate denial. Yet it is central to the discourse of most, if not all, societies.
So writes Martin Jacques in his recent book When China Rules the World: the rise of the Middle Kingdom [China] and the end of the Western World. Well, he certainly did not have South Africa uppermost in mind where the topic of racism is far from “politically embarrassing” to raise, but rather a political embarrassment as it is endlessly and gratuitously raised to shroud the real issues. Just take the Caster Semenya and Brandon Huntley hullabaloos for a start, not to mention rugby and nearly every time Julius Malema opens his mouth.
China is rising, and we don’t know what kind of world its ascendancy will bring. This new work by Martin Jacques, former editor of Marxism Today, takes the debate a step forward with an argument about China’s impact, in terms of not only hard power but especially the soft power that emanates from its vast economy. In translation, this book may do extremely well in China, but in the West it is likely to become a reference point in a mainly negative sense.
The predictor of Beijing’s rise and Washington’s decline in less than two decades from now gives his first Asian interview to China Daily
The man who says China is about to rule the world makes his way toward me at an exit of Wudaokou subway station. None of the Chinese people around us enjoying a sunny Saturday morning in this popular student hangout of northwestern Beijing would have any idea who this shaven-headed, slightly quirky figure was or even care.
They might be slightly more intrigued if they knew the man coming into view. Martin Jacques has written a book about them and their future that is already attracting major interest in the West.
Jacques in his sandals may be an unlikely vanguard for 1.3 billion people but nonetheless When China Rules the World, which argues the former Middle Kingdom will take over from the United States as the world’s leading power, is fuelling a huge debate.
Πώς θα είναι ο κόσμος στα μέσα του 21ου αιώνα, αν επιβεβαιωθούν οι προβλέψεις που θέλουν την Κίνα να αναδεικνύεται στη μεγαλύτερη οικονομία παγκοσμίως, έως το 2050; Ο Μάρτιν Ζακ, ακαδημαϊκός και συγγραφέας μιας νέας μελέτης που διερευνά αυτή την προοπτική, λέει ότι είναι καιρός να αρχίσουμε στη Δύση να εξοικειωνόμαστε με την ιδέα ότι ο κόσμος θα μοιάζει όλο και λιγότερο οικείος
Ενα θεμελιώδες σφάλμα εντοπίζει ο Ζακ σε όλες σχεδόν τις αναλύσεις και τις προβλέψεις σχετικά με την αναπόφευκτη ανάδειξη της Κίνας στη μεγαλύτερη παγκόσμια δύναμη: Θεωρούν αυτονόητο ότι η είσοδός στην εποχή της μοντερνικότητας δεν μπορεί παρά να σημαίνει ότι θα «δυτικοποιηθεί». Αυτό αποκλείεται, σύμφωνα με τον Βρετανό ακαδημαϊκό και δημοσιογράφο. Στα 65 του χρόνια σήμερα, ο Ζακ είναι επισκέπτης καθηγητής στο Τμήμα Ασιατικών Μελετών του London School of Economics και αρθρογραφεί τακτικά στον βρετανικό Τύπο. Παραμένει, ωστόσο, περισσότερο γνωστός ως ο πρώην διευθυντής της επιθεώρησης «Marxism Today» -από το 1977 έως το 1991, οπότε και έκλεισε. Στο βιβλίο του με τίτλο «When China Rules the World: The Rise of the Middle Kingdom and the End of the Western World», που κυκλοφόρησε στη Βρετανία στις αρχές του καλοκαιριού και έχει προκαλέσει έντονες -συχνά και αρκετά θερμές- συζητήσεις, ο Ζακ υποστηρίζει ότι η ηγεμονία της Κίνας θα μας φέρει αντιμέτωπους με μια ολότελα νέα πραγματικότητα, η οποία θα διαμορφώνεται από τις πολιτικές και πολιτισμικές παραδόσεις ενός πολιτισμού που μας είναι άγνωστος -ακόμη και αν νομίζουμε το αντίθετο. «Στη Δύση είμαστε εντελώς αδαείς όσον αφορά τους άλλους πολιτισμούς. Νομίζουμε ότι είμαστε κοσμοπολίτες, ενώ στην πραγματικότητα είμαστε εντελώς επαρχιώτες. Φταίει το γεγονός ότι ήμασταν πάντα σε θέση να συνδιαλεγόμαστε με τον υπόλοιπο κόσμο με τους δικούς μας όρους. Αυτό φαίνεται ότι αλλάζει, οπότε θα χρειαστεί να αρχίσουμε να μαθαίνουμε…», λέει.
Although a historic victory for Japan’s Democratic party, Sunday’s election result will mean little in practice
Measured by the yardstick of Japanese politics since 1955, the result of Sunday’s general election is extraordinary. Only once since 1955 have the ruling Liberal Democrats been ousted from office and that was in 1993, when an eight-party coalition took office for a brief and highly unstable period of rule; and even then the Liberal Democrats remained the largest single party. This is quite different. The Democratic party now enjoys a big majority and the Liberal Democrats have suffered a huge electoral defeat.
Read more >