StratNews Global

In the uninterrupted six decades that the People’s Action Party (PAP) has ruled Singapore, leadership succession has been carefully choreographed well in advance and executed. That plan has now gone awry, with prime minister-in-waiting Heng Swee Keat announcing that he was bowing out to make way for younger leaders. He wasn’t up to the job in the first place, says Michael Barr, who teaches international relations at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia. That someone like him was appointed shows the ‘serious systemic problem that Singapore faces in its standard of governance’, Prof. Barr told StratNews Global. Since the PAP rule in 1959, Singapore has had just three prime ministers—Lee Kuan Yew, Goh Chok Tong, and Lee Kuan Yew’s son Lee Hsien Loong (still on the job). While it was good for Singaporeans to have long-term political stability in the early decades, the longer it has gone on, the less well it has served them, feels Prof. Barr. Listen in for more.

Podcast Producer: Manas R. Tarai 

Despite four elections in two years, Israel once again seems headed for a coalition government, with no party getting a decisive mandate. After consulting 13 political parties earlier this week, President Rivilin reluctantly gave Benjamin Netanyahu the mandate to try and stitch a ruling coalition. The trial against Netanyahu, who faces charges of corruption, breach of trust, and fraud, resumed this week. He has denied the charges against him but his image has taken a beating, as Navtej Sarna, former Indian ambassador to Israel, says. Putting together a coalition will be tough but any trickery that enables Netanyahu to cling to power will be tried, Ambassador Sarna told StratNews Global. Listen in for more.

Podcast Producer: Manas R. Tarai

Two months into the military coup in Myanmar, over 400 people have been killed in the brutal crackdown by the army that has sprayed bullets and even used airstrikes against its own citizens. It’s reprehensible but the military wants to ensure that it operates from a position of strength, says Pratap Heblikar, former Special Secretary to the Government of India. “I think the military has gone far too down the road to come back to a point where it can sit and talk to the people,” he told StratNews Global, adding, with armed ethnic groups pushing back, the military will have to fight on multiple fronts. And the threat of a civil war looms. Listen in for more.

Podcast Producer: Manas R.Tarai

More than six years into the war in Yemen, which has resulted in the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, Saudi Arabia  has come  up with a proposal to end the conflict that has left millions starving and displaced. The rebel Houthis aren’t too happy with the offer that includes partly lifting the blockade on some airports and seaports.  Earlier attempts at peace have failed; will it work this time around? The new administration in the United States has said that the war in Yemen should stop. Besides, it has also ended support to offensive operations by its allies in the war-torn nation. In this podcast, political analyst  Dr Waiel Awwad shares his views on the timing of the peace proposal and more.

Podcast Producer: Manas R. Tarai

The Integrated Review released by the United Kingdom earlier this week, which sets out strategies for national security and international policies, expresses the country’s intent to pursue deeper engagement in the Indo-Pacific. Britain feels the rules of the world are increasingly set in Asia, and it wants to play a part in shaping those rules, says James Crabtree, faculty member at Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. After leaving the European Union, the UK eyes Asian trade deals and is also keen on playing some role in the security decisions that are taken around Asia, Professor Crabtree told StratNews Global. Listen in for more.

Podcast Producer :Manas R. Tarai  

As early as this week, China’s rubber stamp Parliament could endorse a Communist Party proposal prescribing that only patriots should govern Hong Kong, the former British colony which was handed over to China in 1997 under an agreement that the bustling global financial centre would have greater autonomy, its own judicial system and a set of personal freedoms that’s barred in mainland China. The new changes to Hong Kong’s electoral laws suggested by Beijing is the complete dismantling of whatever remains of formal democracy, says Benedict Rogers, chief executive of Hong Kong Watch. There seems to be a desire by Xi Jinping to establish total control and remove any fig leaf of democracy that previously existed, the human rights activist told StratNews Global. Listen in for more.

As casualties from the junta’s crackdown against protesters rise, there has been a concerted attempt to go after online infrastructure to prevent mass mobilization on the streets. It’s a two-pronged approach, says Dr James Gomez, Regional Director of Asia Centre, a Bangkok-headquartered think tank. One approach is to throttle internet speed to frustrate users; the other is a total internet shutdown on the lines of what’s in place in Rakhine and Chin, Dr Gomez told StratNews Global. Any recognition of Aung San Suu Kyi’s party’s plans to form an ‘interim government’ to rival the junta must have a rider that it will be inclusive and have voices from other ethnic groups, he added. Listen in for more.

After Nepal’s Supreme Court reinstated the lower House of Parliament, calling its dissolution unconstitutional, what’s the way forward for Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, who, amid a raging power struggle within the ruling party, recommended that the House of Representatives be dissolved? Oli will either have to resign or face Parliament where he has to prove his majority, says Yubaraj Ghimire, journalist and Editor of deshsanchar.com. Oli is under pressure from his own followers to step down and give a chance to (salvage) party unity, Ghimire told StratNews Global. One faction of the ruling NCP led by former PM Prachanda has been gunning for Oli’s ouster ever since he recommended that the House be dissolved on December 20. Listen in for more.

As expected, U.S. President Joe Biden has announced he will impose sanctions on military leaders of Myanmar who ordered the coup that deposed elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, President Win Myint and others. Strong export controls will be imposed, he said, asking the Myanmarese military to relinquish power and release the detained civilian leadership. In his telephonic conversation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier this week, both leaders discussed the developments in Myanmar. Even if the Biden administration steps up pressure on Delhi to join in the campaign to bring back democracy in Myanmar, India will persuade the U.S. and the West on the need for pragmatism, for a realistic policy approach on Myanmar, says Rajiv Bhatia, former Indian ambassador to Myanmar. In this podcast with StratNews Global, the Distinguished Fellow at Gateway House also spoke about what’s at the heart of India’s policy approach towards Myanmar. Listen in for more.

Podcast Producer : Manas R. Tarai 

Constant squabbling over power sharing between two factions of the Nepal Communist Party, one led by Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and the other by Prachanda, has pushed the country to the brink of snap polls (slated for April-May) after the President accepted Oli’s recommendation to dissolve the lower house of Parliament and go for fresh elections. Oli, who has been expelled from the party by the rival faction, is trying to seek India’s support for holding the elections, says Kamal Dev Bhattarai, a Kathmandu-based journalist writing on Nepal’s political and foreign affairs. With a caretaker government in Nepal now, Nepalese foreign minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali’s recent visit to India (to attend the sixth meeting of the India-Nepal Joint Commission on January 15) was actually aimed at enlisting India support for Oli’s move to seek a fresh mandate, Bhattarai told StratNews Global. Listen in for more.

Podcast Producer : Manas R.Tarai