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Web-only Exclusives November 30, 2000 From Our Correspondent: Hirohito and the War A conversation with biographer Herbert Bix From Our Correspondent: A Rough Road Ahead Bad news for the Philippines - and some others From Our Correspondent: Making Enemies Indonesia needs friends. So why is it picking fights? |
MARCH
10, 2000 VOL. 26 NO. 9
Newsmakers
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ALSO
IN ASIAWEEK RATTLING
INDIA'S MILITARY, BY GEORGE! Call him an old lefty. Call him a gadfly.
Call him a political survivor. Defense Minister George Fernandes has craftily
managed to position himself as the pointman for India's military reform,
mostly by making the right gestures rather than upsetting the system.
He backed the official 227-page report - "From Surprise to Reckoning"
- that delved into last year's battle with Pakistan in the Kargil region.
It didn't name names or lay the blame for India's state of unpreparedness
on specific individuals - for all their laxity, India's military and intelligence
communities will go unreprimanded. Shortly before "Reckoning" was released,
Fernandes ordered a sweeping inquiry into all defense purchases made over
the last 15 years. If he's serious, he could rattle the ranks, but critics
expect either a whitewash or yet another interminable witch-hunt. But
if success is judged by the size of one's budget, Fernandes is on a roll.
In the wake of Kargil, defense spending will jump from 2.3% to 3% of GDP
in the next budget, plus he's also been given an extra $754 million for
this year.
RATTLING INDONESIA'S MILITARY, BY DUR! On Feb. 28, the Indonesian
military announced the second major reshuffle of senior officers in as
many months. This particular shake-up involved 74 men. Most notable is
the replacement of Lt.-Gen. Djadja Suparman by Maj.-Gen. Agus Wirahadikusumah
as chief of the army strategic reserve, known as Kostrad. Suparman and
Wirahadikusumah had butted heads earlier this year over the former armed
forces chief Gen. Wiranto, who has been named in the official investigation
of atrocities in the wake of the Aug. 30, 1999 autonomy-independence referendum
in East Timor. While Suparman defended Wiranto, Wirahadikusumah publicly
called for the army chief's resignation. Wirahadikusumah had been sent
to head the less desirable Makassar military command in the January shuffle;
as of Mar. 1, he returns to Jakarta. The promotion is a feather in the
cap of the two-star general - and one which strengthens President Abdurrahman
Wahid's control over the military.
RATTLING GO, BY LUI! It's a man's world, the world of "go" - East
Asia's subtle boardgame with a strategic complexity akin to chess. And
that's particularly true when it's played at the grand national level.
But the men-only reality ended in Seoul when Lui Naiwei, 37, beat "Go
Game Emperor" Cho Hoon Hyun, on Feb. 21 to become the first foreign and
the first female player to win South Korea's championship. Lui, an exile
from China, bested Cho when he ceded the last of three matches in the
199th round. In a qualifying bout, she stunned everyone by beating Lee
Chang Ho, a world champion who was recently named by South Korea's go
association as the best player of the 20th century. Lui was once a member
of the Chinese national team but fled in 1989 when her boyfriend, Jiang
Ju, went into exile after taking part in the Tiananmen Square anti-government
demonstrations. The couple, now married, have spent the last decade in
the U.S. and Japan.
Passage
RESIGNED Ochi Michio, 70, the minister in charge of Japan's Financial
Reconstruction Commission. Ochi's departure comes after heavy criticism
of off-the-cuff comments he made indicating his intention to allow more
lenient auditing of the country's still-shaky financial institutions.
The hurried resignation, formally approved by PM Obuchi Keizo on Feb.
25, reflects growing dissatisfaction with the ruling LDP's soft approach
toward Japan's debt-ridden banks. Ochi was immediately replaced by Tanigaki
Sadakazu, 54, a former Science and Technology Agency chief and close aide
to Japan's present finance minister Miyazawa Kiichi, 80.
TRIAL DATES SET Anwar Ibrahim, 52, Malaysia's incarcerated former
deputy prime minister, began his appeal against his April conviction for
corruption on Feb. 28. A different appeal, against his lawyer Zainur Zakaria's
three-month jail term for contempt of court, will commence on March 2.
On March 6, the same day Anwar's much publicized sodomy trial resumes,
Malaysia's ex-inspector general of police, Abdul Rahim Noor, will face
a Kuala Lumpur court on charges of voluntarily attempting to cause grievous
hurt to Anwar while in custody following his arrest in September 1998.
APPOINTED Henry Kissinger, 76, the former U.S. secretary of state,
as "adviser on general affairs" to Indonesia's President Abdurrahman Wahid.
"I do this as a public service to the two countries," Kissinger declared
to journalists on Feb. 28, following a meeting with Wahid at the state
palace in Jakarta. The former Cold War politico is already a well known
figure in Indonesian government circles as a lobbyist for the scandal-ridden
mining giant, PT Freeport Indonesia.
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