John Berthelsen

Move Forward’s ouster likely to only breed bigger protest next time

Edited by Pete Spurrier, Melville Jacoby (photographs) and Bill Lascher (text). Blacksmith Books, Hong Kong. Hard cover, 276 pp, US$34.49

Military and diplomatic ties formed long ago come into play as Gaza explodes

The arrest in a Kuala Lumpur hotel of a mysterious 36-year-old Israeli “gangster” possessing six handguns and 200 bullets who traveled from the United Arab Emirates on March 12 using what authorities believed to be a fake French passport, has awakened feverish questions over who was likely to be his prey, although it was believed unlikely to be either Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, King Ibrahim Iskandar, or any other high officials – nor, police believe, was it likely to be the rival gangster he told police he had come to Malaysia to gun down.

On April 4, White House spokesman John Kirby, in a televised conversation with Fox News journalist Neil Cavuto, speaking of the Israeli Defense Forces, said “We’re going to watch and see, they’re expected to make some announcements in coming hours and days of ways they’re going to improve the efficacy of their targeting process, ways that they’re going to improve humanitarian assistance, ways they’re going to protect aid workers.”

In a sudden announcement that rocked Singapore, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s office announced this morning that the 72-year-old Lee would step down on May 15 – in just a month – to be replaced by Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, only the third leadership transition in the island republic since its independence in 1965. Two of the premiers have been members of the Lee family, one of the most enduring political dynasties in Asia.

Despite protestations, the retaliations aren’t going to stop

Singapore can be a prickly place for journalists to do business

Eighteen months after he came to power – and at least 24 years after he began his campaign to become prime minister – the Unity coalition government of Anwar Ibrahim, at age 75, is struggling to find enthusiasm from voters in a by-election this weekend which it won previously by a very comfortable margin. The by-election in the country’s wealthiest state, Selangor, is a result of the death of the incumbent legislator from Anwar’s coalition partner the ethnic Chinese Democratic Action Party. His urban, moderate ethnic Malay-oriented party has an overwhelming majority. A loss in the by-election wouldn’t cause a shift in power. But it will be a referendum on Anwar and his government, analysts say. His party is also bracing itself for another by-election in his own home state of Penang where a legislator is critically ill.

Multiple states aim to limit Chinese property ownership on security grounds