https://www.scmp.com/rss/318809/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Will Malaysia’s new democracy survive? There are good reasons to think so. To be sure, Samuel Huntington would have regarded the country’s transition as a bottom-up mode of “replacement”, which in unleashing high expectations can threaten a new democracy’s health. But in Malaysia, citizens avoided taking it to the streets. They instead declared their preferences at the polling station. Such peaceful transition to democracy is a good sign. The security forces calmly stood by as electoral turnover... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/2149782/dare-hope-more-malaysias-new-democracy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/2149782/dare-hope-more-malaysias-new-democracy?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 10 Jun 2018 02:33:21 +0000 It has happened at last. Enfeebled for years, King Bhumibol of Thailand has passed. He had nearly reached 90. He wasn’t seen much lately, at least in the way that we once remembered him. Mostly sequestered in a royal hospital suite, he was occasionally brought out for anniversaries, though in specially outfitted rigs and propped up in stiffly starched uniforms. And he would gaze yonder, barely seeming to take note. Yet these appearances sufficed for many of his subjects. They took comfort in his... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2028202/what-thailands-king-bhumibol-really-stood?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2028202/what-thailands-king-bhumibol-really-stood?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 15 Oct 2016 08:03:30 +0000 The remarkable thing is that Thai university students got as far they did with their invitation to Joshua Wong. They set up a commemorative forum, scheduled a day of media interviews, and planned addresses on two university campuses. And Wong felt confident enough that he took up the invite, journeying all the way to Bangkok. In his engagements, Wong planned to share his experiences in the umbrella movement – as he had at universities in Taiwan, Japan, Britain, and the United States. But on this... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/2026146/thailands-treatment-joshua-wong-raises-question-are-hongkongers?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/2026146/thailands-treatment-joshua-wong-raises-question-are-hongkongers?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 09 Oct 2016 06:02:30 +0000 Two years ago, Mahathir Mohamad, the former prime minister of Malaysia, visited Hong Kong. At the time, the Umbrella Movement was in full swing. Mahathir had been invited to address a pro-establishment gathering of political figures and business elites at the convention centre in Wan Chai. Few in the audience seemed to know much about Malaysia. But they knew about Mahathir. And in appreciating the managerial fist that he had wielded during his long tenure, they paid high fees to come and take... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2018060/what-handshake-between-mahathir-and-anwar-really-means-malaysia?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2018060/what-handshake-between-mahathir-and-anwar-really-means-malaysia?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 12 Sep 2016 02:02:42 +0000 Military juntas with autocratic agendas do not promise elections to cede power. Instead, they fabricate an appearance of democratic change in order to avoid it. More specifically, by allowing civilian governments to come to the fore, they hope to legitimise their now indirect, but continuing, rule. Read more from This Week in Asia It is in this way Thailand’s recent referendum, and the new draft constitution it endorsed, must be seen. Sure, citizens were free to vote in this referendum. But no... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2002989/why-thailands-junta-feels-it-needs-veneer-legitimacy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2002989/why-thailands-junta-feels-it-needs-veneer-legitimacy?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 13 Aug 2016 02:00:30 +0000 Like others, I first greeted Beijing's framework for Hong Kong's universal suffrage with abhorrence. And I applauded the pan-democrats for refusing even to consider it. No reform is better than bad reform. And this one seemed especially bad. For example, the framework's logic resembles a loathsome royalist ideology in Thailand, wherein subjects are required to "know their place, low and high". Only then, after accepting a steep and intricate social hierarchy of sakdina, can ordinary Thais be... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1772777/beijings-vote-framework-offers-chance-pan-dems-prise-open?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1772777/beijings-vote-framework-offers-chance-pan-dems-prise-open?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 21 Apr 2015 05:35:31 +0000