In Asia: Weekly Insight and Features from Asia

Ambassador Karl Inderfurth, a Trustee of The Asia Foundation and contributor to America’s Role in Asia: Asian and American Views, summarized his recommendations for a new U.S. administration on how to strengthen the U.S.-India relationship for The Hindu. In the op-ed, he provides a seven-point agenda for the United States, which focuses on strengthening strategic ties, realizing economic potential, pursuing a broader nuclear dialogue, highlighting higher education, supporting India’s United Nations bid, collaborating more in the neighborhood, and promoting a cooperative triangle with China.

After living as an American in the Philippines for 27 years, I’ve grown accustomed to explaining the U.S. electoral system every four years. As a political science Ph.D. whose dissertation was on elections in the United States, I fulfill this duty with pleasure.

Recently, I was in Davao, in the southern island of Mindanao, attending an evening session on the peace process (or, rather, the breakdown of the peace process) between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, when I received a call from Ricky Carandang, a TV host on the ABS-CBN News Channel (ANC), the local cable news network.  He wondered whether I could appear on his show the next morning to serve as a non-partisan commentator on the acceptance speech of Senator Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention.  I hopped on a flight to Manila the next morning, making it into the studio just in time for air.

Read more »

Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej is struggling for his political survival and is increasingly finding himself in a “no win” situation. For the past week, a group of well-organized, anti-government protesters known as the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) has taken over and occupied Government House, Thailand’s equivalent of The White House. The protesters refuse to leave until Samak resigns. Since the occupation, the situation has worsened. On September 2nd, political tension erupted into violent street clashes between pro and anti-government supporters that left one person dead and more than 40 injured. These clashes are believed to have been instigated by members of the pro-government Democratic Alliance against Dictatorship (DAAD). In response, Samak has declared a state of emergency in Bangkok.

Under normal circumstances, protesters taking over Government House would be removed and arrested for their civil disobedience. But these are not normal times in Thailand.

Read more »

Once right-wing factions of the ruling People Power Party (PPP) began busing pro-government supporters into Bangkok under the banner of the Democratic Alliance against Dictatorship (DAAD) to confront the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD), the violence that erupted was predictable. PAD has been protesting against the government of Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej for the past 100 days and has held the ground of the Government House for the past week. They’ve been successful in maintaining a relatively peaceful demonstration, as they have in the past when organizing protests against former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in 2005 and 2006. However, when red-shirted DAAD forces have made an appearance on the streets, the DAAD resorted to confrontation and violence to force its point of view.

Read more »