By Simon Tay and Lau Xin Yi For The Business Times The recent Singapore National Day Rally (NDR) will be remembered for its sobering call to act on climate change - a "life and death" matter according to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. This means that beyond...
By Simon Tay and Jessica Wau For The Straits Times Many anticipate a Sino-American "war" and, while the proximate issues are in trade, there is a broader range of contention on issues relating to technology, unfair competition, democracy and the regional and global order. The effects will...
By Nicholas Fang & Aaron Choo For Nikkei Asian Review China's potential military expansion through bases in Southeast Asia has made headlines in recent weeks. A media report that Beijing might be leasing part of Cambodia's well-situated Ream naval base prompted Prime Minister Hun Sen to denounce...
By Simon Tay For The Straits Times Marking the 200th anniversary of Stamford Raffles' landing in Singapore is not only about commemorating long-ago colonial history. The occasion is also opportune to reflect on Singapore's shifting geopolitical realities: How it entered and then exited the British Empire into...
By Simon Tay For The Straits Times As centrist parties falter in Western democracies, Asian countries such as Thailand, Indonesia and India offer lessons on how political systems can bring stability Last month, the world witnessed its two largest democratic votes - in India and across Europe -...
By Simon Tay and Lau Xin Yi All major Singapore banks recently announced that they will stop financing new coal-fired power plants. This is significant in aligning Singapore as a financial hub with the position of many Western financial institutions. But it opens up more questions...
By Simon Tay and Liyana Othman For TODAY Sustainable development requires cooperation and a balance between economic growth and environmental and social protection. Often, however, discussions end up with platitudes and vague agreements. Candid dialogue can instead reveal differences, and this is what happened when Malaysia’s Primary Industries...
By Simon Tay, Wu Huijuan and Aaron Choo For TODAY A Haze Outlook developed by the Singapore Institute of International Affairs (SIIA) has assessed that there is a real, although moderate, risk that severe haze will return in 2019. The prognosis is “amber”; on a scale of red-amber-green....
By Simon Tay For The Business Times He's been described as a liberal reformer, modern Javanese king and skilled pragmatist IN Indonesia's fiercely contested elections, early exit polls show that incumbent Joko Widodo is headed for a clear victory. An official result may take some days, given the...
By Chen Chen Lee and Lau Xin Yi For The Jakarta Post Relations between the European Union and Malaysia and Indonesia hit an obstacle when Malaysia’s Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and Indonesia’s Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan recently threatened to boycott EU’s products if the bloc...