PETALING JAYA: China continues to grab world headlines and dominate international news for many reasons.
The world’s second-largest economy is now expected to be the biggest in only a few years, with many far-reaching implications to follow.
World-renowned author and academic Dr Martin Jacques will be presenting a fresh look at the new China in a public talk at Menara Star in Petaling Jaya on Thursday, Sept 27 at 2pm.
Dr Odera Outa’s article “DO NOT WRITE OFF AMERICA JUST YET”[Star May 22,2012] is indeed dogmatic and oblivious current development in Asia and Kipling’s warning against British imperial hubris seen relevant to America to-day.
As Paul Kennedy a professor of History at Yale University has observed in Newsweek of February 2003,”the U.S. Military budget will soon be equal to that of all countries in the world combined.” Yet hawkish policy makers in Washington are concerned that the U.S. defense forces are dangerously thin and overstretched. How can both facts be true?
A book by Martin Jacques, “When China Rules the World” provides adequate and sacinet answers to economic rise in Asia. The book is a compelling and thought provocative analysis of global economic trends that defies the common western assumptions that to be fully modern, a nation must become democratic, financially transparent and legally accountable. Jacques argues persuasively that China is on track to take over as the World’s dominant power and that when it does, it will make the rules on its own terms, with little regard for what existed before.
CHINA’S unrelenting growth is continuing to fuel speculation about the implications of its spectacular rise for the rest of the world.
Its irrepressive re-emergence as a major world power shapes and colours private discourses, academic analyses and bilateral and multilateral discussions, whether or not intended originally to discuss China.
It permeates strategic discourses behind closed doors, casual coffeeshop talk and everything in between. The recent Germany-Malaysia Security Forum in Kuala Lumpur, sponsored by Konrad Adenaur Stiftung (KAS) and organised by ISIS Malaysia, was an example.
Germany’s political foundations like the KAS are affiliated with their respective political parties, and with the KAS it is with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s rightwing Christian Democratic Union (CDU).
‘Schools can kill creativity because they do not allow certain topics to be discussed, certain books to be read, certain ideas to be aired.’
EVER since Roby Alampay briefed me about TED –which began in 1984 as a conference on Technology, Entertainment and Design and is now a network of conferences and talks about “ideas worth spreading” – I’ve been hooked and almost every night end my day by clicking on one of the thousands of TEDTalks so that I could go to bed more enlightened, informed, amazed, and even amused.
There are a number of speakers and subject matters I particularly like, and a few that I watch again and again. I have a preference for the funny ones, many of which are informative and inspiring as well. I particularly like two talks of Julia Sweeney (check out her May 2010 remarks on having “The Talk” with her daughter, and her July 2006 remarks on “letting go of God”). I also like the 2006 and 2010 talks of Sir Ken Robinson on creativity and education; in fact I liked them so much I picked up a copy of Sir Ken’s book “Out of Our Minds” and am dying to breeze through it as soon as I finish with Fukuyama’s “Origins of Political Order” and Martin Jacques’ “When China Rules The World”.
Viewed in this perspective, there is a message in the absence of an instant blink-watch when Japan set free the captured Chinese captain of a fishing boat on September 24. He was not formally charged. This can perhaps be treated as a sign of maturity in the enormously complex relationship between Beijing and Tokyo.
However, the statements by the two sides on this event bristled with the tone and tenor of righteous indignation. At the same time, the discernible political mood behind the scenes, a day or two after the captain’s release, was one of trying to prevent a further escalation of tensions. It was too early, at the time of writing, to foresee with certainty how exactly Japan and China ride out this new storm in their increasingly direct and dynamic engagement within the larger framework of inter-state cooperation in East Asia.
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.