Re:Jacques de Goldfiem eye on Asia (1 viewing) (1) Guest
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TOPIC: Re:Jacques de Goldfiem eye on Asia
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Jacques (Moderator)
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Re:Jacques de Goldfiem eye on Asia 1 Month, 3 Weeks ago
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To see my last post, go to the bottom of this page
12 November 2008
Crazy Burmese generals
Nay Phone Latt, a young blogger who has been held since 29 January in Insein prison, was facing a possibly seven-year sentence after new charges were brought against him on 7 July under the article 5 (j) of the 1950 Emergency Provision Act, article 505 (b) of the criminal code (which punishes defaming the state) and article 33 (a) of the Electronic Act. He was originally charged under article 32 (b) of the Video Act, which would have limited his maximum detention to six months
The new charges were approved by a special court in Insein prison, where his lawyer has never been allowed to see him since his arrest. Another court appearance was scheduled for 16 July, but Nay Phone Latt told his mother it has been postponed. Meanwhile, he has contracted an eye problem but the prison authorities are not letting him see a doctor
A year after thousands of monks took to the streets of Burma’s towns and cities to protest against the tyrannical rule of the Military Junta were broadcast across the world via the internet, the Junta has shown that it will not tolerate any semblance of critical opinion being voiced over the World Wide Web.
Finely Nay Phone Latt has been sentenced to a total of twenty years and six months for possession of a banned video and having a blog to express his concerns about the increasingly difficulty of Burmese people to voice their opinions since the protests last year
Nay Latt’s mother wasn’t allowed into the courtroom to see her son get sentenced. The blogger’s lawyer was himself jailed for criticizing the special court’s procedures
These Burmese generals are crazy. If the sentence for writing a blog is more than twenty years in jail, what could be the one for rapists, killers… and corrupted generals ?
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Jacques (Moderator)
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Re:Jacques de Goldfiem eye on Asia 1 Month, 3 Weeks ago
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Karma: 26
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16 November 2008
On Chen Shui-bian arrest
I have been very shocked to see the former Taiwan president, Chen Shui-bian, taken in handcuffs from the prosecutors' office to the Taipei district court.
The former Taiwanese president Chen Shui-bian has been formally arrested over money-laundering and corruption allegations which he has described as political persecution.
Taipei's district court ordered his detention on suspected corruption, bribery, forgery, money laundering and illegal possession of state assets. "The court, after questioning the suspect, believes the suspected crimes to be severe," it added in a statement. "And there are enough facts to believe there was buried evidence, fabrication, altered evidence and conspiracy among suspects or witnesses."
The 57-year-old former president denies all charges.
The prosecutor's office said Chen could be held indefinitely before charges are filed, but there was no intention to delay. The first three charges carry minimum prison sentences of five years on each count.
Members of Chen's family and former aides are also under investigation. Chen led the country from 2000 until spring this year, when his pro-independence Democratic People's party suffered a landslide defeat at the hands of the Nationalists.
Members of Chen's family are suspected of sending at least $30.4m to Japan, the United States, the Cayman Islands, Singapore and Switzerland, among other places, local media have reported.
Prosecutors said they wanted to determine whether the funds were donations left over from political campaigns - as Chen says - or whether bribery might have been involved.
I don’t know if Chen Shui-bian and his family used this money for themselves or if it was a part of the dollar-fight against China to buy diplomatic links with small countries. The court will say. But he is not a dangerous gangster. So it was possible to charge him with no arrest and any case with no handcuffs
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Jacques (Moderator)
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Re:Jacques de Goldfiem eye on Asia 1 Month, 1 Week ago
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25 November 2008
Today is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women
What will be the fate of this young Afghan girl, so happy today ?
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Asia Observer picture on Flickr
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Jacques (Moderator)
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Re:Jacques de Goldfiem eye on Asia 1 Month, 1 Week ago
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Karma: 26
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3 December 2008
On Mumbai attacks
I think that the Indian government is wrong in involving the Pakistan’s governement in the terrible attacks in Mumbai. You know that he a very little control in some parts of its country and that it cannot to be responsible of what do everyone of its citizen.
It is like after the September 11 attack in the United States. All, except one of the attackers, where from Saudi Arabia. The US authorities did not accused this country to have organized the attack
In another way, It is stupid, has we can read in Asia Observer forums that the Mossad is implicated in the Mumbai terrorist attacks. This disinformation action is contradicted by the fact that the Jew Center in Mumbai has been attacked and several people killed. What could be the interest of Israel give an help to islamist terrorists who want Israel to be destroyed ?
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Jacques (Moderator)
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Re:Jacques de Goldfiem eye on Asia 1 Month ago
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9 DECEMBER 2008
Pakistan will not hand over to India any suspects they have arrested in connection with the Mumbai attacks
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that Pakistan will not hand over to India any suspects they have arrested in connection with the Mumbai attacks, but will try them under its own laws. He said on December 9, 2008 that. "The arrests are being made for our own investigations. Even if allegations are proved against any suspect, he will not be handed over to India," said "We will proceed against those arrested under Pakistani laws."
I think he is wrong. The criminals have to be extradited to the country where their crime occurred. That is the international rule. But the country that wants somebody to be extradited has first to give hard evidences that this person committed these crimes on its soil.
The only exception is that the countries which have abolished the death penalty can demand guaranties that the criminal will not be condemned to death, but at a maximum life sentence
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Jacques (Moderator)
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Re:Jacques de Goldfiem eye on Asia 2 Weeks, 6 Days ago
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20 DECEMBER 2008
Hard time for Abhisit Vejjajiva
Thailand has been stricken by months of political deadlock as anti-government protesters from the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) mounted a campaign to topple the PPP. The PAD accused the PPP of being a proxy for Mr Thaksin, who was ousted in a coup in 2006.
On December 2, the Thai PM, Mr Somchai's brother-in-law of exiled former PM Thaksin Shinawatra, and near of 40 of the PPP members of the parliament have been ousted of politics for five years and the PPP dissolved for fraud.
After having persuade some of the small parties and even some MPs of the PPP to rally him, the president of the Democratic Party, Abhasit Vejjajiva was elected the new Thai PM
Mr Abhisit's appointment has at least temporarily brought calm to Thai politics. But many say his image as an upper-class elitist - from a wealthy family, born in England and educated at Eton and Oxford - could hinder his attempts to end the turmoil. But he is untainted by corruption or conflicts of interest, which is almost unheard of in Thai politics, especially for someone who has been in parliament for 16 years.
The 44-year-old Oxford graduate faces an enormous challenge trying to unite the country largely split between the middle class that is his base and the rural poor who backed Thaksin Shinawatra and manage an economy buffeted by Thailand's political turmoil and a global slowdown.
The furious reaction of the ousted government's supporters outside parliament, when they hurled metal barriers at the gates and smashed cars belonging to Democrat MPs, may foreshadow further violent opposition to the new administration in the pro-Thaksin heartland of the north and north-east.
For its part, the PAD says it will resume its protest campaign if there is insufficient progress towards its concept of "new politics", which includes a partly appointed parliament, something the Democrats oppose.
His may be the fresh new face, but behind him the wheeling and dealing for the Democrats is done by veteran party godfathers, in particular Secretary General Suthep Thaugsuban, a politician whose public image is far removed from the squeaky clean Mr Abhisit. It was Mr Suthep who did all the hard bargaining to win over defecting factions from the Thaksin camp. It is not sure that these new supporters are so clean that Abhisit
The potential instability of Mr Abhisit's coalition will also make it hard for him to drive through effective policies, at a time when the country is crying out for them. His margin of victory in parliament was 37 votes, out of a total of 436; that could shrink after by-elections in January for the 29 MPs banned in early December's court ruling against the former government
I hope that Abhisit will succeed, but he will do it only if he gains the trust of the peasantry which is the majority of the electorate and if is can solve the economic crisis of the country
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Jacques (Moderator)
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Re:Jacques de Goldfiem eye on Asia 1 Week, 2 Days ago
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30 DECEMBER, 2008
POOR BANGLASHESH
So, an alliance led by Sheikh Hasina Wajed, the former Bangladeshi prime minister, has won a landslide election victory in the country's first poll in seven years. The Awami League, in alliance with a smaller party called Jatiya, won a more than two-thirds majority in Parliament even if the begum Zia, leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party said that if the election was fair, she would win stressing that "We have reports that BNP supporters were barred from coming to the polls and also were driven away from polling stations in many places," Previous elections have been marred by violence and widespread accusations of
vote-rigging.
But the margin is so large and election officials and monitors said the polls were mostly peaceful, that the elections mark a personal triumph for Sheikh Hasina, whose political career seemed at an end last year when she was jailed on charges of corruption. Ms Hasina's Awami League alliance has won more than 260 of the 300 seats in a poll mostly praised by media, monitors and the international community.
Reporters were planning questions on how Ms Hasina planned to tackle rising prices, Islamist militancy and the issue of corruption that has dogged both her and her main defeated rival Khaleda Zia. They point out that the BNP and its alliance won a two-thirds majority in 2001, and produced what many people considered to be the most corrupt government in the country's history.
Most of all, in its bid to clean up politics, the caretaker government sought to drive the two women who head the country's two principal parties out of politics forever: Khalida Zia of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Hasina. But the leaders refused to go into exile even after they were jailed on corruption charges; they fought to be let out and campaign for office. The government relented, releasing both women this year on bail as their cases wound through the courts.
After two years of military rule, Bangladesh comes back to the prior situation. The two ladies, the orphan (Hasina) and the widow (Zia) are in a hating fight with no consideration for the poor population, just taking advantage of their position, even if the candidates have pledged to lower food prices, and to tackle corruption and terrorism. It is funny that although jailed by the interim military government on charges of corruption, both Zia and Hasina campaigned on promises to fight endemic graft
In prior most balanced elections, the loser party had the capability to paralyze the parliament. It is not the case this time. So Hasina has a last opportunity to prove that she can help her country, but I have some doubt 
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Jacques (Moderator)
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Re:Jacques de Goldfiem eye on Asia 6 Days, 13 Hours ago
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2 JANUARY 2009
THE END FOR SRI LANKA'S TAMIL SEPARATISTS ?
So, the Sri Lankan military troops have taken the northern town of Kilinochchi, the headquarters of the Tamil Tiger separatist group. Sri Lankan troops have been on the outskirts of Kilinochchi, about 580 km (360 miles) north of Colombo, for more than a month. They took a key highway junction and a town outside the city Thursday.
Mahinda Rajapakse, the Sri Lankan president, hailed the capture of Kilinochchi as an "unparalleled victory".
The Tamil Tigers ran a parallel administration from Kilinochchi with their own police force, courts, prisons and taxes, and they had declared government plans to retake the city a "daydream." But after Sri Lanka launched a new offensive against the rebels in the fall, the insurgents moved their nerve center and logistics bases to Mullaitivu, on the northeastern coast.
After Jaffna, the loss of Kikichochni is a big blow for the LTTE. If after more than 25 years of civil war the Sri Lankan forces at last win after more than 70,000 dead, the Colombo authorities have to take care: no revenge against Tamil people. The start of the problem was when the new independent Ceylon government decided that Singhalese language will be the only one for all the country.
When I was living in Sri Lanka, My maid was a Singhalese and my driver a Tamil. Many times, Singhalese officials expressed their annoyance and I each time answered that for me, I just gave a job to a Sri Lankan citizen
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