There
is plenty of news as America re-engages Asia
WHEN politicians go around with sourpuss
faces, because they screwed things up and technocrats lead new governments,
it’s a great week. In fact, whenever politicians are unhappy, it’s a sign that
things are better.
It’s a greater week when the ultimate
political nation, Italy, has a government composed in entirety of technocrats.
Burlesquoni (former premier Silvio Berlusconi) now has only his billions to
protect him. He can bribe and hold orgies, but he can’t scare people out of
government jobs, let alone fire them. The condottieri no longer guard his
compounds and palaces. Politicians will continue to play their games but
there’s a layer of competence between them and policy.
It’s a great week when an allegedly
kleptocratic ex-president of a would-be major Asian player is shown with a wire
cage around her head and shoulders, only the supreme court (all of whose
members she appointed) trying fruitlessly to protect her. So she, Gloria
Arroyo, and her bulky husband hovered at the airport to get on the first plane
out, barred by the president of the republic’s orders.
Funny, isn’t it, that most of the countries
she’s listed as her destinations lack extradition treaties with the
Philippines. And that she’d allegedly switched huge assets to those countries
as the net started to ensnare her during her last two years in office.
I just returned from our mutual hospital to
find hundreds of reporters and photographers awaiting word on the latest round.
Inside St Luke’s Medical Centre, Gloria seems
to have lost her will to live (why didn’t these ailments bother her for any of
her nine years of mostly stolen leadership?)
It’s always a great week when something has
become so obvious that mention of it is forbidden.
Funny isn’t it, that the Australian prime
minister announced the movement of United States marine forces to the
northern-most and least populous part of the long Oz coastline, barely holding
back her smirk. Do people remember
what the multiplier of 2,500 US marines is?
And a general diplomatic realignment in
Southeast Asia progresses, with the five-letter word ever a no-no. The presidents
exchange visits and their ambassadors think of nothing except that South C--
Sea problems (sorry, I got close to using the C-word) are looming bigger and
bigger. And the Philippines has renamed part of its contiguous waters. You
could actually feel the hearts of (US President) Barack Obama and (Australian
Prime Minister) Julia Gillard beating as one, as our joint manifest destinies
once again are renewed by common values, an amazing ability to work together,
just because of that problem
about C--.
It’s a wonderful week when Occupy Wall Street
pushes Tea Party out of the news, even if the police push them off New York
encampments. And wonders never cease — the Republicans begin to get serious!
There are actual stakes in next year’s elections, primaries start in less than
two months.
But the biggest news (at least for me) is that
Washington finally woke up: Asia is where it’s at. I used to tell students that
they couldn’t read everything. If they just learned the basics about the Middle
East, then they could tune it out permanently, since everything is always the
same (coups, counter-coups and Israeli incursions) and when a sea-change came
they could again tune in. It’s frankly not a very big region economically
(other than Saudi Arabian oil), but even before the Arab Spring, the West was
riveted by it.
Now, we’ve figured it out. And guess what, so
has everyone else.
The only really interesting thing there is the
real intra-regional war: Sunni against Shia. If you think Israel hates Iran,
talk to my Saudi friends. So the Syrian battle’s seriousness for non-Syrians is
whether a Shia surrogate (the Alawites are Shia offshoots) can remain in power,
thus playing the Iranian card. Whether Iraq, Shia-ruled for the first time in
eight centuries, will ally with Teheran is a tough one to call.
Meantime, the Japanese are beginning military
exercises throughout the region. Everyone south and east of C-- was making love
in Bali last week, in Asean capitals, and through enhanced military cooperation
at all levels.
The greatest of all was that instead of C--’s
ability to pick off cherries one by one, we witnessed most of Asean lining up
with Obama and in one medium-sized room to all but confront Beijing’s leader on
its bullying behaviour in their shared waters.
Welcome to the new reality.
W.Scott Thompson
NewStraitsTimes
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