Newspaper network group ANN shortlists personalities who
have left their mark in 2011.
SO who’s my Asian of the Year?
Clue: She is the most beautiful Prime Minister in the world.
Last year, @asianewsnetwork
(Asia News Network) tweeted: “Who do you think stood out in the region this
year? #AsianoftheYear”
And I tweeted: Yingluck
Shinawatra.
In June 2011, I was in Bangkok
to cover the Thai general election and I witnessed how the 44-year-old
businesswoman, against all odds, became the first Thai woman Prime Minister
within 49 days of her political debut.
On second thought, I tweeted:
Thaksin Shinawatra.
Thaksin, the former prime
minister who was ousted in a coup in 2006 and the brother of Yingluck, is
Asia’s comeback kid. Like Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator, Thaksin is
indestructible, politically.
And behind the scenes, the
fugitive (he fled Thailand to escape a jail sentence) engineered the electoral
victory of his younger sister’s political party.
So, who did Asia News Network,
which is a network of national daily newspapers (including The Star) published
in Asian cities, select as Asian of the Year?
I e-mailed the question to
Yasmin Lee Arpon, an ANN editor. She is a former colleague as I was attached
with ANN in Bangkok from 2006 to 2010.
Yingluck, according to Yasmin,
received the most tweet nominations for ANN’s Asian of the Year. And Thaksin
received the most unexpected tweet nominations.
So is Yingluck ANN’s Asian of
the Year?
Before I reveal who, allow me
to introduce ANN’s 2011 Blacklist. And the dishonour (drum rolls) went to Nuon
Chea and Gloria Arroyo.
Nuon Chea, @ Brother Number
Two, is the man behind the most grim, bloodiest episode in Cambodian history.
“After Pol Pot died in 1998, he
became the most important surviving Khmer Rouge leader and now stands trial
before a Cambodia-UN court for crimes against h umanity, genocide, and grave
breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949,” wrote Nguon Serath of The Cambodia
Herald.
Arroyo, according to Yasmin, is
on the blacklist as “her rise and fall from power hopefully serves as a lesson
to other leaders”.
The former Philippine president
is in jail (a hospital suite at a government hospital in Manila) facing charges
of electoral sabotage.
Here’s the shortlist for ANN’s
Asian of the Year:
> Anna Hazare, India’s
74-year-old anti-corruption activist. “A modern day hero in fighting corruption
in India,” explained Yasmin.
> Burmese president Thein
Sein. “Some analysts compare Burmese President Thein Sein to former Soviet
Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev for introducing the Burmese version of
perestroika and glasnost (reconstruction and openness) to the
military-dominated country,” wrote Supalak Ganjanakhundee of The Nation
(Thailand).
“But many others doubt whether
he is a real reformer.”
> Queen Jetsun Pema, the
21-year-old lady who captured the hearts of Bhutan and its monarch King Khesar
Namgyel Wangchuck.
“She is referred to as the Kate
Winslet of Bhutan/Asia, capturing the heart of one of the region’s most
eligible bachelors,” Yasmin explained.
> Tan Sri Tony Fernandes,
the boss of AirAsia. “For changing the course of travel in the region through
AirAsia, which celebrates its 10th year,” said the ANN editor.
> Taiwan’s Tsai Ing-wen, who
took the reigns as chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in 2008
after its figure head, ex-president Chen Shui-bian, chairman of the Democratic
Progressive, was jailed for corruption.
“Whether opposition leader Tsai
wins the presidential election, she will be credited for changing Taiwanese
politics famous for its personal cult building, smear campaign and distracting
fanfare,” explained Alan Fong of The China Post.
> And Yingluck. “Because she
is the first female PM in Thailand,” Yasmin said.
ANN’s Asian Heroes are Japan’s
Fukushima 50.
“They symbolise the faceless
and nameless victims of the nuclear meltdown following the March 11 earthquake
and tsunami,” the ANN editor explained.
And ANN’s 2011 Asian of the Year is Ai Weiwei.
“After the 2008 Sichuan
earthquake, he raised the issue on the real number of schoolchildren killed and
solicited information from netizens on their names, publishing them daily on
his blog. The figures/information did not match the official ones,” Yasmin
explained.
Ai Weiwei has been provoking
the government through his art and blog posts/tweets. In April last year, he
was arrested on charges of tax evasion on his way to Hong Kong/Taiwan to
discuss a coming art exhibition.
For 81 days he was detained,
not allowed to talk to lawyers and family. His supporters raised the money so
he can pay the tax in part.
“He ‘educates’ people,
particularly the Chinese with no exposure to the outside world thanks to the
Great Firewall of China, through his art and tweets (his blog has been closed
down),” noted Yasmin.
I wonder who will be ANN’s 2012
Asian of the Year?
PHILIP GOLINGAI
The Star
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