By Oh Ei Sun For Channel NewsAsia Many Malaysians were caught by surprise when Muhyiddin Yassin, a leader who had hitherto taken a backseat to more charismatic and vocal leaders such as long-time Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and anointed successor Anwar Ibrahim, rose to assume the country’s top role...
By Simon Tay and Jessica Wau For The Business Times After many headlines of panic, the response to the Covid-19 outbreak is entering a new phase. One clear marker of this was the special Asean-China foreign ministers meeting convened in haste in Laos to boost cooperation. A second sign...
By Simon Tay and Lau Xin Yi For The Business Times Opportunities to grow the financial sector as well as to respond to climate concerns are being boosted. Recent announcements made by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) at the Singapore FinTech Festival can help create green...
By Simon Tay and Jessica Wau For the East Asia Forum Quarterly Rising US–China tensions go beyond trade issues and involve a broad range of issues, including strategy, security and values. It’s pertinent to also look at the technology choices that ASEAN and others are facing in...
By Chen Chen Lee For Asialink Thailand’s chairmanship of ASEAN this year has been largely marked by its domestic politics. The country held its first general elections since a military coup in 2014, and held its first coronation in seven decades for King Maha Vajiralongkorn. The significance of...
By Simon Tay Despite sceptics – most notably US President Donald Trump – people today are increasingly concerned about climate change and calling for action. Governments are responding, with some 60 world leaders gathered for the climate summit last month (Sept). Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong...
By Nicholas Fang For TODAY The recent renewal of a defence agreement by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and United States President Donald Trump in New York has a number of ramifications. To be sure, the extension of the terms of the Memorandum of Understanding Regarding United States’ Use...
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. Read the full...
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...