‘We do not have a problem with China’: Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim
MELBOURNE: As a “fiercely independent” nation, Malaysia will not be dictated to by anyone over its relations with China or any of its important neighbours, says Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
“While we remain an important friend to the United States, Europe and here in Australia, that should not preclude us from being friendly to one of our important neighbours, specifically China,” the Prime Minister said.
“We are fiercely independent. We do not want to be dictated to by any force.
“If they have problems with China, they should not impose them upon us. We do not have a problem with China,” Anwar said in a joint press conference with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese during his official visit to the country yesterday.
Asked about how Sinophobia manifested itself and its effect on the region, Anwar replied that Malaysia upholds an “open trading policy to encourage investments from foreign countries.”
“They have levied some criticisms against us for giving additional focus to China. Right now, China seems to be the leading investor in Malaysia.
“Cumulatively, it’s still the United States of America,” he added.
On Feb 27, Anwar had decried “China-phobia” among US and Western allies in an interview with the Financial Times in the United States, questioning why Malaysia would “pick a quarrel” with China, its largest trading partner, in response to US criticism of Malaysia’s ties with Beijing.
“Why must I be tied to one interest? I don’t buy into this strong prejudice against China, this China-phobia.”
Calling China an important neighbour, he said Malaysia would give priority to enhancing relations with Beijing in terms of trade, investment and culture.
Anwar, who is in Australia with his wife Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail and several ministers and leaders, will attend two major programmes – the Malaysia-Australia Annual Leaders’ Meeting and the Asean-Australia Special Summit.
Warm welcome: Anwar shaking hands with Albanese at Government House in Melbourne, Victoria. Looking on is Governor of Victoria, Margaret Gardener. — Bernama
On the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Anwar lauded the Syrian government for supporting the call for a ceasefire and enhancing media efforts in Gaza.
“The consensus is in calling for a ceasefire and good humanitarian support, and probably avoiding the contentious issues between Palestine and Israel. At least for now, it is to cease fire and provide humanitarian assistance.”
Albanese also reiterated his call to end civilian suffering through a humanitarian ceasefire, the release of hostages, and a two-state political solution for Palestinians and Israelis to live with security and stability.
On the 10th anniversary of flight MH370, which went missing on March 8, 2014, Anwar said Malaysia would not hesitate to renew the search for the aircraft if there was “compelling evidence.”
“We will be glad to reopen (the search) because I don’t think it’s a technical issue. It is an issue affecting the lives of people, and whatever needs to be done must be done,” he said.
Both Anwar and Albanese also agreed that Malaysia and Australia would like to achieve more growth in trade and economic relations, especially in green energy and education.
“There’s a real potential for further institutional investment from Australia into Malaysia as well, with universities and tertiary education being a real prospect.
“Australia remains an important supplier of LNG to Malaysia. We have so much in common in our economies that is quite complementary,” Albanese said.
He also said Australia was focused on this region despite receiving critical commentary about it sometimes.
“We make no apologies for our focus being on South-East Asia in the Indo-Pacific because this is where our future economic prosperity will be determined.
“We’re living in this region, the fastest-growing region of the world. What that presents is an enormous opportunity for both our nations,” he said.
Anwar replied that Malaysia was committed to facilitating all avenues that both countries could explore – including renewable energy, green technology, digitalisation, food security and education opportunities involving top Australian institutions.
During China’s two sessions, much attention is often paid to the country’s GDP growth target. However, it is crucial to look beyond the numbers and understand the implications of new policies and measures to address economic challenges.
We also hope that the Philippines’ expression of “hope for a peaceful resolution to the maritime disputes with China” is not just a diplomatic rhetoric shifting the blame onto China
Life-long trauma: CIA mind control program victims speak out
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Julie Tanny’s father Charles Tanny Photo: Courtesy of Julie Tanny
Editor’s Note: `
Among the victims of the CIA’s MK Ultra project is the family of Julie Tanny (Tanny), whose father was coercively brainwashed as part of the Montreal Experiments in Canada back in the 1950s. The experiments were funded by the Canadian government and covertly in part by the CIA. She is the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit filed against five defendants – the US government, the Canadian government, the McGill University health center, the Royal Victoria Hospital, and McGill University, as her family was irreparably destroyed by the program. She shared her story with the Global Times (GT) in a recent interview. `
GT: You father underwent brainwashing treatment for three months in 1957 by Dr. Ewen Cameron. Why did he go? `
Tanny: My father had what’s called trigeminal neuralgia, which is a pain in the side of the face that goes into the jaw. Apparently, it’s excruciating because I actually know somebody who has it and just recovered from it. `
They believed at the time that it was psychosomatic. So they sent him to a psychiatrist. My father was very against it, but he did whatever he had to do to get rid of the pain because he just couldn’t function. `
The doctor that he went to see was working with Dr. Cameron on this program in the hospital, which we didn’t know. He put my father into the programs. We don’t know what they wanted to do with him, but we do know that his treatment was different in that my father was not a psychiatric patient. That’s what made him different from all the other ones. `
GT: What “treatment” did he undergo? `
Tanny: What they did was as soon as he was admitted to the hospital, they immediately put him on insulin. My father was not a diabetic. I know that the insulin put him in a coma. It was part of the sleep treatment where they put him to sleep, and after it he was interviewed by the psychiatrist, then they would take clips of some of the things he said and run them on a tape, 24-7 under his pillow. It would be going around nonstop in his head, brainwashing him basically. But what they would do was they would give him shock treatments, but not the regular shock treatments they give today. These are called Page-Russells. It was a machine invented by a Mr. Page and Mr. Russell. It was about 75 times the strength of a regular shock treatment. It was designed to wipe out the brain. And the tape was to replace it with different thoughts. `
I don’t really know what they were trying to do, but I know in my father’s case, they said they had written notes like “this is as far as we can take him” or “we have to put him back in because he still has ties to his former life.” It’s hard to know, but whatever they were trying to do, it wasn’t good. `
GT: How did you know these details? Did your father share what they did to him with you or did you acquire the information through other means? `
Tanny: No. What happened was I was about 5 years old at the time, so I definitely remember what he was like before and what he was like after – it was two different people. My father was very engaged and very hands-on with us. All his free time was spent with his children. And after he came home, he didn’t even know who we were. When we were at my mother’s for dinner in 1978, when it came on the news that Mrs. Orlikow, who was the wife of a member of parliament in Winnipeg, was suing the CIA and we were all sitting around watching the news and my mother turned to my brother and said, go to the hospital and get dad’s records tomorrow. `
And I was like, what are you talking about? Because no one ever told us what happened to my father or why he changed so much. The problem with that was my father had a massive stroke in 1977 and was left unable to communicate. He couldn’t speak, he couldn’t write, he couldn’t read. `
And once I had found out about really what happened to him in 1978, it was too late to have that conversation with him. So it was never talked about. Never. Even after we found out. `
GT: How severely did this affect you and your family? `
Tanny: I think that we started off as a very happy family with the father who was always busy, building a skating rink in the backyard and taking us to the ice rink in the park across the street, and taking us to the amusement park every now and then. `
And all that, everything ended when he came back from the hospital. He came back very angry – physically violent. I asked my brother, what was it like to grow up in our house? And he said empty. `
GT: What prompted your fight for justice? `
Tanny:A lot of things happened to push us to do this. First of all, when my father had his stroke, the doctors couldn’t find a reason; he didn’t have a blood clot or high blood pressure. What happened to him was he had an artery that collapsed. And recent studies or pretty recent studies have shown that these particular shock treatments that my father had create heart attacks and stroke. `
My mother had to work till the day she died to support herself. And when my mother passed away, there was nothing. She was diagnosed with terminal cancer very shortly after my father died. I don’t know what she would have lived on had she lived longer. And I guess it’s also what we should have inherited and didn’t. So there are a lot of factors. `
I know that in 1992, my mother received $100,000 from the federal government, but it cost, we figured out, my mother over $2 million in cash to have helped to take care of my father. `
So what was $100,000? When a temporary short-term head of the CIA read about what had happened, he insisted that the CIA found all the victims and compensated them properly and told them this twice. And the CIA both times admitted that they should and they will, but of course they never did. And then there’s just the justice of it. It’s amazing to me that they’ve never compensated people. They’ve never bothered to look at the damage [such experiment] did to families. `
GT: You and the other victims formed the group Survivors Allies Against Government Abuse in 2017. How many families are involved in the group? `
Tanny: I’ve never counted how many families are members, but I can tell you, as far as family members are concerned, it’s got to be over 500. But there’s also a lot I believe that have not come forward yet, because I’m always meeting more people. `
GT: You are the lead plaintiff in the class action lawsuit. Do you think a class action lawsuit can exert more pressure than individual lawsuits? `
Tanny: Definitely. First of all, I always believe their strength and numbers. But also to do this, there are very few lawyers, if any, who were willing to take on the work for one client. There’s so much work to be done. We were very lucky to get the lawyers that we got. `
GT: What difficulties have you met during the process of executing your lawsuit? `
Tanny: I think the first thing is the government. When Justin Trudeau came into office, one of the first things he did was create these privacy acts so that nobody could get access to any kind of information, so that nobody could sue the government. `
So, when people are trying to find medical records, he makes it very difficult because they found 1 million different ways to deny people records under really ridiculous circumstances. `
Like we know it wasn’t just Dr. Cameron, it was everybody who worked at the hospital – the nurses, all the doctors. So the idea that he would have to be the lead doctor on all these cases is ridiculous. We used to go to McGill University and do research and we found out a lot of information through that research. But once we filed, they hid everything. We would get mountains of files before we filed. And once we filed the lawsuit, you go and you get a file about this thick (1 cm). It’s just their way of protecting themselves, I guess. `
So for me, we’ve had the records for a very long time. I wouldn’t read them, but we had them. But there are a lot of people who have not yet been given that information. It’s difficult for them. `
GT: Are there still such experiments in Canada or the US, as far as you know? `
Tanny:We have a website and we’ve done things. So people have seen what we’re doing. I get so many emails from people who say they’re being experimented on. I guess today there’re different ways of mind control that are a lot more progressive than what they did in the past. It’s hard to know. I wouldn’t be at all surprised. Governments are governments. I don’t think all that much has changed. Our world has become all about power and control. `
So do I think there’s that going on? Sure, but not anything like the primitive way they tried in the 50s. But I do get a lot of emails.
` “They’ve taken away enough from me. I don’t remember my birth name. I am not in contact with my children. It’s a very degrading, devastating reality,” said 72-year-old Maryam Ruhullah, an MK Ultra victim who now lives in Grand Prairie, Texas. `
MK Ultra is the code name of a human experimentation program designed and undertaken by the US and its notorious spy agency the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). It started on April 13, 1953 and lasted for 20 years. `
It was the height of the Cold War, and the US designed covert operation, among which was MK Ultra, aimed at developing tools that could be used against Soviet bloc enemies to control human behavior with drugs and other psychological manipulators. `
Psychedelic drugs, paralytics, and electroshock therapy, all heinous and inhumane techniques, were clandestinely but routinely used on humans. They included citizens from the US and other countries who were unwitting test subjects, an encapsulation of immense human rights violations. `
Many experiments were conducted in Fort Detrick as a key base of operations. Many people died as a result of these experiments. Those who survived had their memories forcibly erased, forgetting their names and having their personalities irrevocably altered, and faced threats to their lives, living in fear for the remainder of their days. More than 40 years on, the physical, mental, emotional, social horrors, and injuries are still with her, Ruhullah told the Global Times. `
US mind control scheme `
The psychosis induction of Ruhullah started when she was 5 or 6 while attending a parade in London. She was then brought to the US where CIA operatives would continuously use a recording played over tape recorder to embed in her mind what they wanted her to become in her own memory. `
“I remember one time I had been given electric shock treatments and was returned to a room. When I regained a little bit of consciousness, I heard one of the hospital staff say something to the effect of: Why do they do this to her? Why are they giving her so many shock treatments?” said Ruhullah. `
Ruhullah believed that what happened to her was political because of her Iranian heritage. She was then relocated, taken away, and lived and was educated in Russia afterward. At 19, she married an American and moved to the US. Seven years later, a member of US law enforcement agency entered her house and told her she had to be put in protective custody. Although she greatly protested, she was forced to go. She was not able to contact her husband or her son who was about 6 years old at that time. It was the second time that she would be an unwilling participant in a mind control program. `
Ruhullah said she has been living somebody else’s lie. `
“You remain physically drained, because there’s something that drains your spirit. You cannot hold a conversation with anyone regarding a situation, because everyone that is allowed in your life goes along with the lie, either out of total indifference and complacency, or because they build an allegiance to the government that they have to continue this lie or something would happen to them.” `
The CIA mind control schemes did not just remain on US soil but were extended to US allied countries including Denmark, Australia, and Canada. `
In December 2021, a Danish documentary titled The Search for Myself was released, leveling claims against the CIA that in the early 1960s it had financially aided experiments on 311 Danish children, a good number of whom were orphans or adopted. The filmmaker, Per Wennick, himself was one of them.
` Wennick told Radio Denmark that as one of the kids forced to participate in the experiment, he had electrodes placed on his arms, legs, and chest around his heart. The children were also subjected to loud and high-pitched sounds, which was “very uncomfortable.” `
According to Australian media reports, the US once took the experiments to Australia in the 1960s that involved Sydney University psychology students. `
What took place in the Danish documentary and Australian media reports was just the tip of the iceberg. Between 1950 and 1964, experiments funded by the Canadian government and covertly in part by the CIA as part of MK Ultra were conducted at the Allan Memorial Institute of McGill University in Canada and were led by Scottish psychiatrist Dr. Ewen Cameron. `
None of the Canadian patients provided consent or knew that they were being used for clandestine research purposes. So far, neither the CIA nor the Canadian government has apologized for either’s role in these experiments which ruined hundreds of families. `
Julie Tanny’s family is one of them. In 1957 when she was 5 years old, her father went to see a doctor as he had trigeminal neuralgia, while the doctor, who worked in cahoots with Dr. Cameron, put him into one of the many brainwashing programs. `
Tanny told the Global Times that her father was put to sleep first, then he was forced to listen to clips of some of the things he had said on a continual 24-hour loop underneath his pillow while he slept as part of the brainwashing process. Then he would be subjected to shock treatments administered using a machine called the Page-Russells, which emitted voltages about 75 times the strength of a regular shock treatment, and the aim was to wipe out his memory. `
Such experiments were administered on Tanny’s father for three months, and he was discharged because he “still has ties to his former life.” He returned home, but the happy family was soon destroyed. `
Photo: VCG `
Typical US democracy style `
Colin A. Ross, a US-based psychiatrist, wrote a book titled The C.I.A. Doctors: Human Rights Violations by American Psychiatrists, after reading a collection of 15,000-page files from the CIA reading room. As a psychiatrist, he believes the CIA mind control programs were very abusive to innate human nature. `
Moreover, Ross calls into question the medical ethics of said CIA doctors. `
“You have to create psychiatric disorder on purpose, which is completely the opposite of the purpose of psychiatry. And the patient, the subject doesn’t give informed consent. They don’t have legal representation. So it completely violates all medical ethics,” said Ross. `
Despite mounting public backlash and condemnation, the CIA is yet to officially apologize for the actions it took during the Cold War and after. The CIA’s mind control projects are still relevant today because they provide a horrific historical narrative of intelligence misconduct in a country that keeps touting human rights and freedom. `
“The problem I have with the United States, while I’m a US citizen, is that they tend to point the finger; accuse other countries around the world of human rights violations, but they don’t take responsibility for their own. So I think it’s hypocritical and it’s all part of geopolitical maneuvering and so on,” said Ross. `
“This is the typical style of US democracy – violating human rights and committing crimes at will and then being forced to acknowledge it decades later,” Aleksandr Kolpakidi, a Russian intelligence historian, told the Global Times. `
Tanny said she gets many emails from people who say they are currently being experimented on, and she believes mind control experiments are still ongoing, albeit not quite as primitive as those performed in the 1950s. `
“I guess today there’re different ways of mind control that are a lot more progressive than what they did in the past. It’s hard to know. I wouldn’t be at all surprised. Governments are governments. I don’t think all that much has changed. Our world has become all about power and control,” said Tanny. `
CIA mind control myth. Graphic: Deng Zijun/GT `
CIA mind control myth. Graphic: Deng Zijun/GT `
Seeking justice `
The CIA MK Ultra program was brought to the public’s attention in 1975, and victims and their families in Canada started to fight for the responsible parties to be brought to justice and be held accountable for the lifelong pain and suffering. `
A 1980 lawsuit which dragged on for eight years made nine Canadians receive only $67,000 each from the US Department of Justice. `
Tanny’s father died in 1992, the same day his wife, Tanny’s mother, received compensation worth $100,000 by the Canadian government. He was among the 77 victims who received such compensation. `
But for Tanny, this was just a drop in the bucket in comparison to the whooping $2 million it took her mother to take care of her father. And her mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer very shortly after the death of her father. `
In 2017, she and other victims formed the group Survivors Allies Against Government Abuse to exert more pressure on the defendants, and she keeps meeting new people who are victims of such mind control programs. Tanny has filed a request for a class-action lawsuit against the US and Canadian governments, the McGill University health center, the McGill University, and the Allan Memorial Institute, hoping this will extend compensation to family members and other victims. `
Tanny told the Global Times that they will be in court against the US government on April 26. `
Ruhullah said that she hopes the world will remember the immense suffering of MK Ultra victims by setting aside a special day. `
“I know after apartheid, they had a reconciliation council. We don’t have anything like that, be it MK Ultra, be it slavery, be it the genocide of the Native Americans, in order for the individuals and the country to heal. There needs to be acknowledgment, there needs to be apologies, there needs to be compensation, and there needs to be a genuine reconciliation,” said Ruhullah.
The Asean secretary-general and leaders of the 15 RCEP member countries with their trade ministers after the pact was signed on 15 Nov 2020. PHOTO: MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION (MCI)
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SAN FRANCISCO (CHINA DAILY/ASIA NEWS NETWORK, REUTERS) – The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement, which will take effect on Saturday (Jan 1), is expected to significantly boost the regional and global economies and offer lessons for international cooperation.
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“The RCEP is a huge, potentially powerful agreement among rich and poor countries that complements each other’s strengths,” Professor Peter Petri, who specialises in international finance at Brandeis University in the United States, told China Daily.
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“For example, it has favourable rules for parts and components trade, and these could help developing members benefit from partnering with more advanced countries, making the region a haven for some of the world’s most efficient supply chains,” he said.
` “If its potential is realised, the RCEP would create larger markets and innovative, affordable products for the world economy,” he added.
` Signed in November last year by 15 Asia-Pacific economies – all 10 member states of Asean, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand – the agreement has created the world’s largest free trade bloc that accounts for about one-third of the global population and gross domestic product.
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It will take effect in 10 member states – Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, China, Japan, Australia and New Zealand – on Jan 1, and for the other five members 60 days after official deposition of ratification, acceptance or approval.
South Korea will see it take effect on Feb 1.
Indonesia’s chief economic minister Airlangga Hartarto said on Friday (Dec 31) that Indonesia, South-east Asia’s largest economy, will likely ratify its RCEP membership in early 2022.
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A parliamentary commission overseeing trade rules had approved the ratification and its endorsement will be brought to a wider parliamentary vote in the first quarter of 2022, he said.
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President Joko Widodo will sign off on the ratification after parliamentary approval, he added.
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According to a recent study by Prof Petri and Prof Michael Plummer, an international economics expert at Johns Hopkins University in the US, the RCEP is estimated to increase world trade by nearly US$500 billion (S$675 billion) annually by 2030 and raise world incomes by US$263 billion annually.
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“There are several aspects of the agreement that will lead to significant economic effects, even if the RCEP is not as ambitious in scope as, say, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership,” Prof Plummer told China Daily.
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“For example, it will create harmonised, cumulative rules of origin for intra-RCEP trade, which should give a significant boost to regional supply chains, at a time when supply chains are facing headwinds,” he said.
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The agreement will lower tariffs on about 90 per cent of traded commodities and reduce some non-tariff barriers to trade in goods and services, according to Prof Plummer.
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“Importantly, it will create a free trade area among the North-east Asian economies of China, Japan and South Korea, giving a particularly strong boost to trade and production in the area of advanced manufacturers,” he added.
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The study by the two economists, published by the East Asian Economic Review, estimates that the RCEP should increase regional incomes by US$245 billion on a permanent basis and create 2.8 million jobs in the region, which Prof Plummer described as “a significant boost”.
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“In addition to its salutary effects on global incomes and trade, the RCEP offers an important boost to opening international markets, with very little negative effects on outside economies in the form of trade diversion,” said Dr Plummer.
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Moreover, the RCEP shows how developed and developing countries can work together to include the interests of countries at all levels of economic development, he said. `
“This could hold some important lessons for the WTO (World Trade Organisation), which reached an impasse at the Doha Development Agenda to a large extent because it was unable to accommodate the interests of developed and developing economies sufficiently,” said Prof Plummer.
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Prof Petri also noted that the RCEP’s success will depend on how well countries with different systems will work together to make the agreement successful.
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“If benefits are widely shared and relations are positive, members will implement the agreement fully and may even expand its scope,” he said. “The RCEP could become a model for cooperation in an unusually diverse economic region.”
The life and times of Captain Francis Light revisited in Penang Chronicles trilogy’s first book Dragon.
Gan’s Dragon, the first volume of Penang Chronicies ,charts Francis Light’s early life in the decades before the settlement of Penang island – Monsoon Books >>
SWASHBUCKLER or swindler, trader or statesman, the mere mention of the name Captain Francis Light in the state of Penang is bound to draw an array of clashing reactions.
Known for establishing the isle as a British settlement back in 1786 under the name Prince of Wales Island, Light has been quietly acknowledged with opening the door to the eventual colonisation of what would later be Malaya.
The first domino, one might call him, or what author Rose Gan describes as “the 18-century trailblazer in the Malay Archipelago”.
In Dragon, the first book of her newly released Penang Chronicles trilogy, Gan traces the life of a young Light, illegitimately born and raised in the town of Woodbridge in Suffolk, East of England.
From his schooling days in Seckford’s School to a premature departure for a life at sea, Gan explores the twists and turns of what Light’s early life could have been in this historical fiction narrative.
Backed by extensive research and a strong fascination of Martinha Rozells, Gan – a British national now based in Kuala Lumpur – weaves a rich tale of a charming, ambitious and, often times, lucky Francis Light.
Beginning from days in the bowels of the HMS Mars, through battles with both storms and men, we are swept along from London to Madras, onward to Junk Ceylon (or present-day Phuket) and eventually, the Straits of Melaka.
With a keen focus on his ingenuity and resourcefulness, Gan meticulously tracks Light’s story to the answer of the question everyone wants to know: Did he indeed trick and cheat the Sultan of Kedah?
Stormy times
Francis Light stepped forth into the world in the mid-18th century.
Born illegitimate but raised as a gentleman, Light’s true parentage remains unclear to this day.
“What we do know is that Mary Light gave him his name and William Negus was his guardian. He was given a very good upbringing and was brought up as a gentleman.
“The problem with Light, however, is that whether or not he was raised a gentleman, he was not born a gentleman. And in the 18th century, your prospects were severely curtailed if you didn’t have a name,” explained Gan in a recent Badan Warisan Malaysia webinar.
A former history and Latin teacher, Gan is married to a Malaysian and has been involved with numerous museums both here and in Indonesia as a guide and editor. She has lived in Malaysia for over 40 years.
She added that upon leaving school at the age of 14 to enlist in the Royal Navy, Light failed to secure even the position of midshipman – the lowest rank of officer.
“He really started at the bottom but he had the dubious good fortune of being in the navy in a time of war. Just as he joined, the Seven Years’ War broke out and he managed to rise through the ranks.
“In times of war, there are many more ships in commission and inevitably, because of the death toll, many more officers are needed.
So, little bit by little bit, he began to climb the ladder,” said Gan.
He became a midshipman and later, a lieutenant alongside James Scott from Scotland who would eventually become a lifelong friend.
After the war, Light’s illegitimacy and lack of recognised origins cropped up again and eventually, both he and Scott left the navy and headed east to seek their fortunes.
There, Light maneuvered through the blooming political and trade crises that were raging across the region from the clash between Siam and Burma to the growing threat of Dutch ships and the powerful presence of the Bugis.
In Dragon, he is joined by real-life historical figures like Governor-general Sir Warren Hastings, Thai national heroine Lady Chan and Sultan Muhammed Jiwa of Kedah when he steers through the conflict-ridden inner circles of Malay royalty and the regional British administration.
Aside from having to learn the local language and customs to lead country ships with diverse crews, there were additional pitfalls to sidestep in this new tropical world.
“There were many other challenges; first of all, he had to learn the routes and the business of trade and the commodities (available).
“He’s going in and out of ports that may be quite dodgy or dangerous and then, there are the literal storms at sea, pirates and tropical diseases. It takes a strong man to survive in that world and survive he does,” said Gan.
Eurasians of Penang
At the very end of the book, the figure who inspired the whole trilogy crops up – the elusive and enchanting Martinha Rozells.
“I discovered Rozells – the glamorous Eurasian who would become Light’s wife – while living in Penang and I became fascinated by the little glimpses of her in historical record. However, everything about her is a question mark; what existed was conflicted and contradictory.
“Much more was known about Light, so, I went down rabbit holes to find out more about him and discovered so much more to his story than what the conventional biographies contain,” said Gan.
Rozells speaks not a word in Dragon but Gan promises much more of her in the upcoming Pearl and Emporium, which make up the remaining books of the series.
“What we do know for sure is that she was a very significant person in Light’s life. She was with him for 23 years and gave him five children who all went on to have significant careers in the British establishment.
“And I think we can see her hand behind some of the decisions that Light makes in later life,” said Gan.
Pearl will centre on Light and Rozells’ early journey, navigating the courts of Siam and Kedah, and explores how far Light will go to raise the British flag on the island of Penang.
Closing off the trilogy, Emporium will be based on life on the isle itself – a paradise on earth and the most bustling port in the Indies.
However, dangers and prejudices lurk and war is coming for the new settlers.
“Some people might perhaps want to ask me: Why have we got to have another book about a white colonial hero? Is it not time to put the past behind us? What I believe, however, is that everything we are today is because of the past.
“So, to try and put it in a box and close the lid is not going to solve the challenges that we have in the present,” she elaborated.
A better path, she continues, would be to acknowledge the past and take whatever lessons it offered.
“Let’s find out more about the past, but in the right way.
“We don’t want to hear the British version of what happened here. Malaysians should be telling their own story as this is a story of Malaysia, as much as it is a story of the colonial past,” she concluded.
By Andrea Filmer
Related:
Francis Light statue in Penang vandalised with red pain
` In short, historically it was the Church that gave the moral blessing for colonisation, slavery and enocide during the Age of Globalisation. The tragedy is that the Doctrine of Discovery is now embodied in US laws.
The entry of the new trilateral defence pact in the asia-pacific region has divided South-East Asian countries and negated the quest for a zone of peace, freedom and neutrality.
AUSTRALIA’S moniker of “deputy sheriff” is back in circulation again with last week’s announcement of the Aukus trilateral military alliance involving the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia.
The agreement, under which the US and the UK would provide Australia the technology to build nuclear-powered submarines for the first time, was declared in a joint virtual press conference by US President Joe Biden, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Australian PM Scott Morrison on Sept 15.
The three Anglo Saxon nations declared that the new deal is meant to protect and defend shared interests in the Indo-pacific amid “regional security concerns which had grown significantly”.
The epithet “deputy sheriff of the US” first gained infamy 22 years ago when then Australian PM John Howard used it in an interview to describe the country’s projected role in regional peacekeeping.
In an interview with The Bulletin magazine, he defined Australia as a medium-sized, economically strong regional power, “acting in a deputy role to the US in maintaining peace”.
He also said Australia had a responsibility within its region to do things “above and beyond”, bringing into play its unique characteristics as a Western country in Asia.
The remarks led to both ridicule at home and diplomatic backlash from regional leaders who rebuked
Australia for taking orders from the United States while being geographically closer to Asia. History repeats itself often, and Australia’s partnership in Aukus has brought the focus back on that lackey image.
Besides drawing indignation from China, which condemned the deal as “extremely irresponsible, narrowminded and severely damaging regional peace”, Aukus – the abbreviation representing the initials of the three countries – has also ruffled feathers within Asean and divided the 10-member grouping.
Based on the reactions over the past few days, two camps have emerged. Malaysia and Indonesia are clearly opposed to it on the grounds that it would unsettle the region. Thailand, a traditional US ally which has a close economic relationship with China, is also of the view that the security pact would undermine stability.
On the opposite side, the Philippines has taken a totally contrary stand. It has declared support, with its foreign minister Teodoro Locsin arguing that Aukus would address the imbalance in the forces available to the Asean member states and that the enhancement of Australia’s military capacity would be beneficial in the long term.
Vietnam, which recently hosted US vice-president Kamala Harris, has not commented on the pact although its spokesperson Le Thi Thu Hang offered this ambiguous response: “All countries strive for the same goal.”
Meanwhile, Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan has stated that the city state is “not unduly anxious” about the new strategic alliance because of its longstanding relationship with the three countries.
The four other countries in the grouping have been largely silent on the issue.
Malaysia was swift and forthright in making its position clear. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob warned that Aukus would spark a nuclear arms race and provoke other powers to act more aggressively in the region, especially in the South China Sea.
In his phone call to Morrison, he also raised the importance of abiding by existing positions on nuclearpowered submarines operating in Malaysia’s waters, including rules under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982 (UNCLOS) and the Southeast Asian Nuclear-weapon-free Zone Treaty (SEANWFZ).
The questions being asked now are: How will China react to Aukus? Will it intensify the arms technology race in the region by increasing military expenditure for its navy or create more missile launch facilities, also known as underground missile silos, for the storage and launching of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMS)?
That is what is being predicted by the hawks in the US military establishment, who have been consistently exaggerating China’s supposed military threat.
Among the talk is that China would boost the number of missile silos to 100 over the next two decades. For the record, the US already has at least 450 such facilities.
It is no secret that China has been building up its navy although it is still a long way from matching the marine power of the United States or the United Kingdom with just two aircraft carriers and a third still under construction. In comparison, the United States has 11 aircraft carriers and the United Kingdom two, but only one has been commissioned.
The US has 72 submarines – all nuclear-powered – compared with China’s 56, out of which only six are nuclear-powered.
With the entry of this newfangled military pact, Asean nations are now caught in a quandary. The quest for a Zone of Peace, Freedom and Neutrality in South-east Asia (Zopfan) declared on Nov 27, 1971, when the world was in the midst of a Cold War between the US and its Western allies and the USSR, looks like a distant dream today.
Zopfan was mainly aimed at preventing the world’s big powers from competing for influence and military prowess in the region.
The concept was inspired by the UN’S principles of respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all states, abstention from threat or use of force, peaceful settlement of international disputes, equal rights and self-determination, and non-interference in the affairs of member states.
But as Dr Laura Southgate, a specialist in South-east Asian regional security and international relations, highlighted in a recent article in The Diplomat, Aukus has clearly exposed Asean’s lack of cohesion.
As she put it, driven by different threat perceptions and geo-strategic interests, it had become very difficult for Asean member nations to speak with one voice, although many states hope to maintain a balance between China and the US and its allies.
Media consultant M. Veera Pandiyan likes this observation by Niccolò Machiavelli: “Wars begin when you will, but they do not end when you please.” The views expressed here are the writer’s own.
MY sister and her husband, both senior citizens, are very cautious about going out.
It’s not just because of Covid-19. It’s because they fear being victims of a hate crime in their country for simply being Chinese. The country? Australia.
Which is ironic because they made the difficult decision to leave Malaysia 30 years ago to give their children a better future in a nation they believed would play fair and recognise talent with no quota system based on race.
But anti-Asian sentiments are making headlines everywhere as the number of attacks on people who look “chinky” rise alarmingly in many Western countries.
A study on police records in 16 of the largest American cities showed hate crimes increased 150% against Asian people in 2020. The latest is the March 16 attack on three Atlanta spas that killed six Asian-American women.
In the UK, hate crimes toward Chinese, East and South-East Asians rose 300% in just the first quarter of 2020. In Vancouver, Canada, the number rose from a mere dozen in 2019 to 142 in 2020, a 717% increase.
And an Australian National University survey of more than 3,000 people found 85% of Asian Australians reported at least one instance of discrimination between January and October last year.
My sister and her husband live in Sydney and being sensible people, they wear their face masks whenever they venture out. That has earned them brushes with white idiots who come up to them and deliberately cough in their faces.
The pandemic, because of its assumed origins in China, has brought out latent, long-simmering resentment, prejudice, even jealousy towards Asians in Western countries.
Asian immigrants, notably the Chinese, because of their capacity for hard work and determination to succeed, created backlashes wherever they landed in droves.
The United States and Australia treated the Chinese badly. Brought in to work on building America’s railroads, they were accused of stealing jobs from the whites. Chinese gold miners in Australia faced the same accusation. Both countries enacted anti-Chinese immigration laws; the US Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the White Australia Policy of 1901 to 1911.
The second half of the 20th century was a better time for Asians in the West with the rise of human and minority rights but racism never completely went away.
Emboldened by former president Donald Trump’s four years of insane leadership, the racists in America wormed their way out of the woodwork to wreak havoc on the country’s race relations, particularly in the treatment of black Americans.
Covid-19 gave them the perfect ammunition to revive old hatred towards Chinese people and fuel resentment against China’s rise as a superpower. Since they can’t tell us apart, all East Asians are attacked.
The hate crimes spurred The Washington Post to look at past episodes of a similar nature. One was the 1900 outbreak of bubonic plague in San Francisco in which the Chinese community was made the scapegoat:
“It is likely that the outbreak began with a ship from Australia, but since the first stateside victim was a Chinese immigrant, the whole community was blamed for it. The episode was a prelude to the racism that has been aimed at Asian Americans during the coronavirus pandemic… Trump frequently called it ‘the China virus, ’ ‘the Wuhan virus, ’ and the ‘Kung Flu’.”
What hit me hard was what theconversation.com had to say:
“Research has found that most Americans assume a person of Asian descent is foreign-born, unless there is some aspect of their appearance that clearly marks them as American – such as being overweight.” (This is hilarious, I must say.)
“Asian Americans of all types experience this perception of being ‘forever foreigners’ in a wide range of ways. Regardless of whether some or all – or none – of these latest assaults on Asian Americans are proved to be hate crimes or not, race plays a historic role.”
“Forever foreigners”. Now doesn’t that make you think of how Malaysian Chinese (and Indians) are forever called pendatang? Indeed, race plays a huge role in our history too, and still does.
It was just last month that HRH Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar felt the need to say that where Johor is concerned, the Chinese are not pendatang but guests invited in by his forefathers dating back to the 16th century to help develop the state.
“They are the ‘Bangsa Johor’ – just like the Malays, Indians and others, who are all Malaysians, ” he was quoted as saying in the interview with Sunday Star (“’The Chinese are not pendatang’”, Feb 21; online at bit.ly/star_chinese).
That was a nice gesture but as Sabahan anthropologist Dr Vilashini Somiah writes in The Evolution of Pendatang on newnaratif.com, the word meaning immigrant, which was originally neutral and without political insinuations, has evolved since the late 1970s to become derogatory and disparaging.
She says the word has been weaponised and “Today, pendatang is used by Malaysian politicians as an exclusionary tool of identity politics” and as a divisive and exclusionary insult by members of the public.
As an example, Dr Somiah recounts the 2010 incident in which a school head called all non-Muslim students “pendatang” and told them to “balik” (return) to their “country”.
That same taunt to go back to China was thrown at Asians in Western countries since the start of the pandemic. We have had none of that in our part of the world.
I did not fear being spat at or coughed on by fellow non-Chinese Malaysians. For once, in a country that is obsessed with race and where every form requires us to state our ethnicity, that did not seem to matter in the fight against the coronavirus.
Malaysians have been fortunate that no major racial riots have taken place since May 13,1969, but the reality is, our race relations have been fraying for decades.
Time and time again, certain politicians have shamelessly alluded to the possibility of another May 13 whenever they felt the need to warn “immigrant” Malaysians not to be too demanding of their rights.
The anxiety my sister feels now in Australia will surely pass and hopefully they remain safe from harm. But this ugly period will not make them regret their decision to emigrate. After all, their sacrifices paid off as their children are doing very well in Sydney.
The most important thing is racism is no longer institutionalised or legitimised in that country.
Australia has laws that make it a crime to discriminate on the basis of age, disability, race and sex in certain areas of public life, including education and employment.
Even that is not seen to be enough after the spate of pandemic-induced racist attacks and there are calls now to “simplify and strengthen Australia’s racial discrimination and vilification processes… to properly protect victims”.
On the other hand, in Malaysia, where it has long been recognised that racial polarisation has increased while racial and religious tolerance has ebbed, the previous short-lived government did plan to table a Religious and Racial Hatred Act to curb the growing number of such cases, particularly on social media.
Back in 2018, the then Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Religion) Mujahid Yusof Rawa said the law was to “ensure that our multi-religious and multiracial society is protected from being insulted and belittled”.
But in August 2020, Perikatan Nasional’s National Unity Minister Datuk Halimah Mohamed Sadique told the Dewan Rakyat that there would be no new law as existing ones are able to look after interracial and religious harmony in the country.
I wish I could believe she’s right but as a born and bred Malaysian of Chinese descent who has no desire to call anywhere else home, I think more can be done.
For one, I would like to see calling someone like me a pendatang forever banished.
The views expressed here are entirely the writer’s own.
The Xinjiang regional government on Tuesday condemned the EU sanctions, calling the lie-based sanctions using the excuse of “human rights” pure interference in China’s internal affairs.
A growing number of Chinese individuals, angry with some Western media outlets’ frequent attacks on China, are standing up to fight against the Western media’s propaganda war that targets China, and especially their baseless smear campaign on China’s COVID-19 response …
The victim families want the trial of these soldiers to take place inside Afghanistan where the crime happened. We are condemning this brutal act of Australian soldiers.
Australian gov’t should apologize to Afghan people:
Australia’s war of words with China over a satirical cartoon that condemned Australian troops’ murder of innocent Afghans is ongoing. As more reports reveal the elite Australian soldiers’ misconduct in Afghanistan, Australia is increasingly embarrassed.
Some of Australia’s allies have engaged in this war of words, and arrogantly talk only about their stance and principles rather than the facts.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on November 18 phoned Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to express his “deepest sorrow.” And one day later, Australian Defence Force Chief Angus Campbell said, “I sincerely and unreservedly apologize” to the people of Afghanistan. However, Morrison refused to accept China’s criticism but vented his anger as if China had groundlessly smeared his country.
The logic behind Morrison’s moves is quite simple: The West can do anything it wants, but non-Westerners are not allowed.
This is the consistent style of Western whites: The West must always be in a superior status and position. With such a mentality, they never accept the idea that other races can enjoy equality. Feeling superior to others, they believe the West must take control of each and every thing, be it the economy or technology.
Morrison didn’t say anything when European and American media outlets reported Australian troops’ misconduct with words like “war crimes” (as the criticism came from the West). But he reacted fiercely when a Chinese diplomat condemned the brutal murder.
In the eyes of some Western elites, adopting a non-Western system and ideology and refusing to be a vassal of the West is the sin of China. Brainwashed by such discourse, many ordinary people in the West would buy Western politicians’ lies about China, even though the COVID-19 has killed hundreds of thousands in the West while vulnerable groups cannot “breathe.”
As a result, any action and word of China is unacceptable to Westerners who have an overwhelming sense of superiority. To them, the West can stigmatize China over the so-called human rights issues with disinformation and accuse China of “genocide,” but China is not even allowed to give its opinion on the viral reports circulating in the West.
After 160 years, the bronze horse head stolen by invading forces when Anglo-French Alliance Forces razed the Old Summer Palace in 1860 finally returned to its home on Tuesday. But many Westerners still believe that China is the semi-colonial and semi-feudal society that they arbitrarily bullied in the 19th century.
As they cannot hold colonies anymore, they attempt to spiritually colonize others with their so-called universal values of democracy and human rights. However, the West’s narrow-minded moralistic tricks cannot last except in deceiving Westerners.
As China rises, more and more developing countries will not accept to be brainwashed by the West anymore. Nor will they stay silent and tolerate the West’s double standards on human rights and other issues.
In the future, more people like Chinese cartoonist Wuheqilin and Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian will stand out to tell the truth to the world and have dialogue with the West on a completely fair and equal status.
The world construct has greatly changed. Whether or not the West will accept it, the belief the West is the center of the world will eventually come to an end.
Until today, Australia still believes China is inferior, not qualified to criticize the superior Aussies. Nothing can better portray the mentality when Australia showed much greater anger toward a Chinese cartoon than the crimes of Australian soldiers in Afghanistan.
Those countries hope that China will resign itself to their provocation and suppression. Otherwise, they would believe that China has become tougher or even a “Wolf Warrior.” Just let them bluff, and let us stay magnanimous.
It is a 100-percent fact that Australian troops brutally killed Afghan civilians. Australia should tell the Afghans and the world how many people its troops have killed and how they will be held accountable for it. What’s happening in the real world is much more brutal, bloody and frightening than what my cartoon shows.
Killing innocent people is trampling on human rights no matter what. But Canberra has the nerve to put itself on the moral high ground of human rights. How arrogant and shameless the Morrison government is!
Take a look at what is happening in the Five Eyes countries. The US and the UK are both among the countries hit hardest by COVID-19, and both have deep domestic conflicts and long-term uncertainties. Canada and Australia, with their small populations and vast land resources, are more like “Western slackers” than the European countries who have strong crisis awareness. They all need to see where their crisis lies and who their real enemies are. Otherwise, they will always have a misconception that China is poisoning them whenever they are not feeling well. How absurd such a logic is!
Taking sides with the US over China has cost Australia valuable diplomatic flexibility. Australia has been smashed between two rocks instead of milking both sides.
Passing the legislation is Australia’s domestic affair and China has no interest to intervene. But if the Australian federal government uses this act to jeopardize China’s interests, China will do everything it can to safeguard its own interests.
The West should take the latest incident as an alarm bell – when they smear other countries with baseless accusations, why can’t other countries criticize the West or make well-intentioned suggestions for their misdeeds?
Amid an escalating war of words around a cartoon depicting atrocities committed by Australian soldiers against Afghan civilians, an Australian who has lived in China for 10 years has something to say: “Today, as an Australian, I feel ashamed. The Australia I left 10 years ago compared to the Australia of today is entirely different.”
Amid a vortex of worsening bilateral ties between Australia and China and tightened immigration policies, complicated by the ravages of pandemic, many Chinese in Australia feel anxious and disappointed in Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s administration.
‘Paper cat’ Australia will learn its lesson Around the announcement of the arbitration tribunal over the South China Sea, Australia was one of the most delirious countries. Canbe…
Malaysia and other partner nations are looking forward to better days ahead after signing the world’s largest trade deal.
THE Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), eagerly awaited by 15 member nations and their 2.2 billion people, was finally signed last Sunday after eight years of negotiations and delays.
This regional free trade agreement has injected hope into the economies of member nations as they struggle to contain the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic.
The biggest trade deal in the world signed on Nov 15 during a virtual summit in Vietnam will, among others, allow participating countries to enjoy major tariff cuts.
Covering 30% of the global economy and global population, the RCEP will broaden and deepen economic linkages across the Asia Pacific region, ease trade in goods and services and facilitate the flow of investments.
The Geneva-based United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) believes that the RCEP could give “a significant boost” to foreign direct investment (FDI) in the region.
“The provisions related to market access and disciplines in trade, services and e-commerce are highly relevant for regional value chains and market-seeking investment,” said the UN body in its special issue on investment trends last Sunday.
With China being a participating nation, others within the bloc will be able to gain easier access to China’s vast market of
1.4 billion people, including its 400-million strong middle-class income group.
And China, being the largest economy in Asia, will find it easier to export its capital to Asean and other RCEP nations after having faced political barriers in its investments in the West in recent years.
The RCEP comprises 10 Asean members (Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, the Philippines and Thailand) and five others in the region – Australia, China, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand.
Indeed, Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s remark after the signing could best summarise the importance and impact of the trade agreement.
He described the signing of the RCEP as a “major step forward for the world at a time when multilateralism is losing ground and global growth is slowing”, according to The Straits Times.
“It signals our collective commitment to maintaining open and connected supply chains, and to promoting freer trade and closer interdependence, especially in the face of Covid-19 when countries are turning inwards and are under protectionist pressures,” he added at the virtual conference hosted by Vietnam.
Premier Li Keqiang of China, which has been suffering from the US-led trade war, said the RCEP “is a victory of multilateralism and free trade” and “it let people choose unity and cooperation in the face of challenges, rather than conflict and confrontation.”
In its analysis, Global Times said: “The conclusion of the RCEP indicates that most Asian countries endorse free trade framework and see it as a landmark step toward achieving closer economic integration in East Asia and South-East Asia.
“The RCEP sends out the message that Asian countries are not willing to blindly follow the US and exclude China from the region’s integration process. A sound and healthy economic community in Asia cannot be achieved without China’s participation.”
For China, the RCEP is the first multilateral free trade agreement it has ever participated in. China already has bilateral trade deals with many RCEP members, and it has been trying to seal an obstacle-filled trilateral pact with Japan and South Korea.
For Malaysia, the cheer is that the RCEP will provide greater access to regional markets and more opportunities for local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to expand into foreign markets, said Senior Minister Datuk Seri Azmin Ali.
The lowering of barriers and streamlining of rules in trade facilitation will boost Malaysia’s trade with RCEP countries and attract foreign firms keen on entering into a more integrated Asean, said the Associated Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Malaysia (ACCCIM).
“This will enhance transparency in trade and investment, as well as facilitate the greater inclusion of Asean’s SMEs in global and regional supply chains,” said ACCCIM president Tan Sri Ter Leong Yap in a statement.
Wanita MCA national chairperson Datuk Heng Seai Kie said the RCEP provides “new hope for Malaysian entrepreneurs and national economic recovery to counter the current pandemic”.
“The RCEP trade deal will help stimulate the economy by integrating the various participating nations in the Asia-Pacific while introducing lowered tariffs, standardised customs rules and procedures and widened market access, especially among countries that don’t have trade deals,” she said in a statement.
Describing the free trade agreement as “an incredibly important agreement in terms of the timing”, Australian Trade Minister Simon Birmingham said: “This agreement signifies that our region is still committed to openness and to trade and that we will use that as a platform and a springboard for recovery in the post-Covid era… Better access for our farmers and businesses means more jobs for Australians overall.”
Birmingham noted that Australian businesses in education, healthcare, accountancy, engineering and legal service industries would benefit most from the deal, which will allow them to open offices in RCEP countries.
Most importantly, the trade pact may facilitate Australia’s exports to China – its largest trading partner – if Australia tones down its two-year long hostility towards Beijing. Canberra’s ongoing spat with Beijing has hurt Australia’s economy deeply.
For Japanese exporters, the agreement means that China and South Korea will gradually eliminate tariffs on sake and shochu, according to Japan Times. The reduction from China’s current 40% tariff on both will fall to zero after 21 years, and South Korea’s 15% tariff on both goods now will be eliminated after 15 years.
The RCEP may help reduce the adverse impact of trade wars waged on any member country in the deal, according to prominent YouTuber Yang Fong.
“Once the RCEP comes into force in two years, the US cannot simply wage trade wars on China and other members. The deal will also bring major changes to supply-chains in China and the region,” said the economic analyst.
While all member nations are excited about RCEP, India left the negotiation table last year.
In November 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the pact would not benefit India’s core interest. Indian dairy farmers, as well as SMEs, are worried of losing out to China in the trade of manufactured goods, and to Australia and New Zealand on dairy products.
But despite this, the RCEP welcomes the return of India once it is ready to join.
To the Western world, the concern is that the world’s largest trade deal has left out the United States.
“Notably, the agreement excludes the US and can potentially allow China to cement its position as a key trade partner for South-East Asia and other countries,” CNBC said in its report.
The US Chamber of Commerce in Washington has expressed concern that the US is being left behind in the world’s largest free-trade bloc, reported Reuters.
However, the absence of US in the RECP could be easily explained. The world’s biggest economy was never a part of the trade pact from the very beginning.
The RCEP’s formation in 2012 is seen as an Asean response to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a US-led free trade agreement that excluded China – the world’s second largest economy and largest trading partner for most Asian countries.
At the beginning, TPP membership included the United States, Malaysia and several Asean countries, Japan, South Korea, Canada, Mexico and Australia.
While setting up the RCEP, Asean invited China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand to be partners in this free trade agreement.
For countries like Malaysia that believe in multi-lateralism, they can gain tremendously from having membership in both US-led TPP and Asean-led RCEP.
However, when Donald Trump became president, he rejected multilateralism and the Trump administration withdrew from the TPP in 2016.
Trump’s “America First” policy and the trade wars he has waged against China and others have also raised doubts about the US’ willingness to trade with Asian countries on mutually beneficial basis.
Without US participation, the West is worried that China will dominate RCEP and expand its influence in the region.
China’s state-linked Global Times is prompt to supply answers and address the concern.
Noting that major US allies (such as Australia, New Zealand and Japan) are part of the RCEP, Global Times said: “China cannot dominate the attitude of these countries or Asean as many major US allies are in the deal.”
In fact, Japan and Australia – which have enjoyed very close ties with the US – are likely to keep a close eye on China in the RCEP, while championing their own interests in the deal.
Global Times added: “If China is the so-called winner this time, then it is a win-win situation for all other RCEP members because these countries have strived for their own benefits during the past eight years of negotiations. All countries can only be winners since they have signed this agreement.”
Beijing: Universities from the Chinese mainland have secured seven of the top 10 positions in the Times Higher Education’s Emerging Economies University Rankings 2020 for the third straight year.
Tsinghua University maintained its position at the top in the listing of institutions from emerging economies.
Peking University was in second place for the second year running.
Zhejiang University and the University of Science and Technology of China remain in third and fourth place, while Shanghai Jiao Tong University climbed from eighth to sixth. Fudan University was listed in seventh place, while Nanjing University was ninth.
Other institutions in the top 10 include Moscow State University (fifth), National Taiwan University (eighth), and The University of Cape Town (10th).
Phil Baty, chief knowledge officer at Times Higher Education, said: “China’s success in our Emerging Economies University Rankings reflects its rapid rise on the world higher education stage. With the Double First Class Initiative driving improvements across participant universities, we expect it to continue to establish itself as a major global player in providing world-class higher education over the coming years.”
The Double First-Class Initiative refers to fostering “world-class universities” and “world-class discipline”. — China Daily/ANN
Point man: Asean has designated Manila its ‘leader’ in dealings with China, but can the moody Duterte, here shown bonding with Xi on a visit to Beijing in 2016, clinch a an agreement from China for the regional association? — AP
NOW that the quartet of Asean-related summits is over for the year, so should the niggling criticisms. At least they should – more important matters are at hand.
Over the week Singapore hosted the 2nd RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership) Summit, the 13th East Asia Summit, the 21st Asean Plus Three Summit, and – not least – the 33rd Asean Summit.
These summits were held because it was time they were, and Singapore hosted them because it was its turn. But criticisms were not far behind.
US President Donald Trump was a no-show, and so was Chinese President Xi Jinping. Vice-President Mike Pence and Prime Minister Li Keqiang attended instead.
Trump was criticised for his absence, which allegedly “left the region wide open” for Xi’s China to make further inroads here. That complaint was limited only by Xi’s own absence.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte was also criticised for not attending an “informal breakfast summit” between Asean and Australian leaders.
His said it was only an informal event, and it was over breakfast which he did not eat.
A casual observer may be forgiven for sensing that there must be more important developments than these scheduled rounds of handshakes and photo opportunities. There are.
One of these begins in two days: Xi’s state visit to the Philippines, following the scheduled 30th Apec Summit in Papua New Guinea.
Duterte had made three visits to China as President, inviting Xi to visit Manila each time. This will be Xi’s first state visit, coming upon the third invitation to him.
There will be handshakes and photo opportunities too, but the substance and symbolism now may be more than the recent multiple summits in Singapore and Papua New Guinea.
The Philippines has been vocal about rival claims to territory in the South China Sea. The previous The region is generally unsettled by China’s recent occupation and construction of islands, with Vietnam remaining most disturbed. Duterte’s critics have also blamed him for being soft on Beijing.
However, Xi’s visit is expected to be smooth with an emphasis on the positives. These include mutual interests deemed to be larger than interminable disputes over distant rocks and islets.
Last year Chinese Vice-Premier Wang Yang visited Manila for four days amid more audible protests over territory such as Benham Rise. Yet the visit proceeded unhindered.
This time it is President Xi himself, for a state visit of only two days, with no particular complaint against China outstanding. It will also be after one full year of China having become the Philippines’ main trading partner.
For both sides the focus will be quite intense on specific projects backed by Chinese assistance. Duterte left the merrymaking in Papua New Guinea early to return home to prepare for Xi’s arrival.
For China, it would demonstrate to the region how it can cooperate with even a country locked in dispute with it to mutual benefit. This gains added significance when it is the Philippines, historically a US ally.
For the Philippines, there is a host of projects and programmes on Duterte’s wish list requiring Chinese aid. They span his ambitious 9-trillion peso (RM717bil) “Build, Build, Build” infrastructure plan covering all three regions of the Philippines: Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.
These come under the Six-Year Development Program (SYDP) signed last year with China as a framework for the Philippines’ “Golden Age of Infrastructure.” It is to be Duterte’s legacy for his country.
The 75 projects include a water pump and irrigation scheme, a dam, a north-south railway, a highway, bridges, a park and a rehabilitated power plant. Economic growth is projected to outpace debt.
Duterte is clear-minded enough to know that only China is able and willing to provide the assistance needed. No other country or combination of countries is in a position to do so.
There are also plans for more Chinese business investments, as well as a framework agreement for joint oil and gas explorations at sea. The latter are understood to cover some disputed areas, with China agreeing to only a 40% share of recoverable deposits.
Countries in dispute over territory and the reserves found therein tend to shy from joint exploration, as legally this may imply recognition of the other disputing party’s claim.
But since this condition applies equally to both parties, the Philippines may be confident that China would also be obliged to acknowledge the Philippine claim. Can there be a lesson here for other Asean countries with claims to the South China Sea?
To ensure the success of Xi’s visit, there had been a positive build-up of Philippines-China relations in recent months. Xi’s state visit in turn is envisaged to lead to even better bilateral relations.
Last August, joint simulated naval exercises were held in Singapore among Asean countries and China without US participation. Manila defended that decision by saying that the “tabletop” drill was meant only for neighbouring countries in the region.
Now as Xi prepares for his visit, the US Pacific Fleet is reportedly readying a series of naval operations as a “show of force” in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Straits. In response to China’s stated concern, the Philippines said it will have no part in those operations.Xi’s visit is important not just for the Philippines but also Asean, which had designated Manila the “point man” in dealings with China. Can Duterte clinch an agreement from China for Asean?
Manila had said that a legally binding Code of Conduct (CoC) in the South China Sea was on the agenda, but Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said it may take another three years.
If China really wants to prove its goodwill in Manila, Xi could suggest it may happen considerably sooner.
The last Chinese President to make a state visit to the Philippines was Hu Jintao in 2005. That occasion also marked the 30th anniversary of bilateral relations, which is as auspicious a time as any.
This Tuesday’s visit by Xi will be the first Chinese state visit in 13 years. That is an auspicious number in Chinese, but not so in Western culture.
Will it be auspicious for the Philippines, the only Christian-majority country in the region once colonised by Spain and then the US? Duterte’s original style of leadership may yet make the difference.
Warm welcome: Anwar shaking hands with Albanese at Government House in Melbourne, Victoria. Looking on is Governor of Victoria, Margaret Gardener. — Bernama
The Philippines cannot catch ‘big fish’ of geopolitics in SCS: Global Times editorial
Dealing with the past: Last year, vandals splashed red paint on the statue of Penang founder Captain Francis Light at Fort Cornwallis in George Town. around the world, statues and monuments of long revered colonial figures were also spray-painted or beheaded. — CHAN boon Kai/the Star 
Rightways 