TR EMERITUS

By Loretta Chao from Wall Street Journal BEIJING—Google Inc.'s decision to reroute its Chinese users to a search site in Hong Kong that the company isn't censoring was met with a mixture of resentment and confusion in China, as users, employees and partners braced for potential fallout from the move. Chinese authorities Tuesday didn't prevent users in mainland China from reaching the Hong Kong site, Google.com.hk, but the extensive filtering mechanisms the government uses against overseas Web content blocked users within China from seeing most results for politically sensitive search terms on Google's Hong Kong site. In addition to blocking entire Internet addresses, China also restricts Web pages containing objectionable terms. It appears to do so with filtering technology that looks for prohibited terms in Web pages, including the sites that display search-engine results. Thus, a user in China searching for, say, "1989 student protest" might be temporarily locked out of using search sites or have links to certain results blocked. Chinese officials maintained their barrage of criticism against Google. At a regular briefing Tuesday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang dismissed the notion that the Google case had harmed China's reputation, adding, "The one whose reputation has been harmed isn't China, rather it is Google." Google's decision was met with relief by some of its Chinese staff, who have waited in limbo since the U.S. company first vowed more than two months ago to stop obeying Chinese censorship rules. "There is a lot of relief at having some answers, after all the speculation as to what would happen," said a Google China employee about the atmosphere at the Internet giant's Beijing office, which was heavily guarded on Tuesday to keep out a swarm of journalists. Read rest of article here.  Read More →

From The Washington Times Monday, March 22, 2010 Sol Sanders ANALYSIS/OPINION: The last time I saw my old friend, she had finally given up on her magazine dedicated to what we used to call "upcountry" householders. She lamented the passing of "paradise," a Thailand she and I had known in the late 1940s when I was a young reporter for a local Bangkok English-language newspaper. "Rice in the paddy and shrimp in the klong (canal)," as the old saying put it, and all was right with the world. "Modernity" with all its problems had come to the devoutly Buddhist land, preindustrial but with abundant resources. Rites of passage once required young men to spend months in the wat (temple) with their begging bowls. Every morning, my friend along with most other housewives — seeking to "make merit" toward a future existence through charity — were at their doorsteps dishing out rice and Thai curries to them. But now the klongs in sea-level Bangkok are filled — originally by a corrupt French contractor — which produces continual flooding. The stench of diesel replaces cardamom drifting from night markets with the worlds most exotic menu. One might have eaten in Yaowarat, sarcastically called "Chinatown." For since the advent of cheap ocean passage after the opening of the Suez Canal in the mid-19th century, Bangkok was a Sino-Thai city, flooded with South Chinese immigrants. Modernization, of course, had its benefits. Health standards improved. The arid northeast no longer survived by sending migrants to the capital. In recent years, investors saw Thailand as Southeast Asias auto manufacturing center, not just the world's top rice exporter. Thai-processed delicacies were snapped up by housewives worldwide. And Thailand became a destination for sophisticated European tourists, replacing the '60s backpackers who came just for pot and sex. But all this is threatened by a social breakdown. Several decades in the making, it reached a crescendo in 2006 with the fall of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Ironically, the billionaire politician was brought down by his neighbors, the Singaporeans. Singaporean "Mentor Minister" Lee Kuan Yew — who styles himself as leader of a squeaky-clean regime — does not follow the adage admonishing Caesars wife to be above suspicion. For it was his daughter-in-laws Singaporean sovereign fund, Temasek, that blew up Mr. Thaksin. Temasek, moving away from funding of Singapores manufacturing base — eroded in no small part by China — has gone farther afield. In Bangkok, Madam Ho Ching, the wife of Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who is Lee Kuan Yew's son, negotiated an under-the-table $2-billion-plus deal for Mr. Thaksins telecommunications empire.When Mr. Thaksin and his family escaped paying any taxes on the deal, it was too much for Bangkoks Sino-Thai professional elite, fed up with unlimited corruption. They supported a military takeover. When Mr. Thaksin won another election, he was ousted again. But Mr. Thaksin had long since won over the rural population through a populist program that included medical services. Gone is the old division of labor — Bangkok Sino-Thai families dominating the bureaucracy but rural ethnic Thai rising through the military. (Mr. Thaksin, unlike yesteryears Sino-Thai, makes no bones about his Chinese origins, even going on a traditional kowtow to South China to his grandfathers grave.) Out of office but not out of money — even though a court recently seized $1.5 billion, about half his formal Thai holdings — Mr. Thaksin has been encouraging his supporters from exile. Clashes between his Red Shirts followers and their Yellow Shirts opponents — far too reminiscent of Germany on the eve of Hitlers takeover — threaten law and order. The beloved but aging King Bhumibol Adulyadej is increasingly powerless to play his traditional referee role. During the Vietnam War, a prominent Thai general told me his country could successfully continue to assimilate Chinese immigrants if the U.S. assured regional security. But now, not only is there a threat in the south where Muslim Malay ethnics link with internationalist jihadists, but Chinese no longer arrive only by sea and air. More and more, the Chinese export juggernaut is plowing into Thailands markets — with trade growing 20 percent annually. The old political isolation along the northern border with southern China is disappearing as Beijing pushes communications and development south along the Mekong River. Destructive violence — billions of dollars in tourist revenue already have been lost since 38 countries issued travel warnings — could spell disaster. The Thais have a cautionary tale in neighboring Myanmar. There military thugs for decades have squandered human and material resources. Myanmar's repressive regime is Beijings ally to which it supplies weapons and a market for oil. And Washington is no longer Southeast Asias big brother. An Obama administration preoccupied with domestic troubles and two wars seeks only accommodation with Myanmar, as it has with other old antagonists. Thailand, like so much of the rest of the world, is now adrift in a welter of conflicting domestic and world currents. Long gone are the days of the national leitmotif "mai pen rai" — "Never mind, it is not important." • International Business Editor Sol Sanders, veteran foreign correspondent and analyst, writes weekly on the convergence of international politics and business-economics. Source: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/mar/22/sanders-snarls-in-the-land-of-smiles/  Read More →

Written by Our Correspondent Lianhe Zaobao journalist Ms Yew Lun Tian who conducted a rare interview with Singapore Democratic Party leader Dr Chee Soon Juan a few weeks ago, has posted a clarification on her Facebook denying that she had attempted to put Dr Chee in a bad light deliberately by portraying him as being evasive about his income. Dr Chee had taken offence at the following segments of the interview which was published on 28 February 2010 in Lianhe Zaobao: "坊间流传他是拿了外国机构的资金，所以才能继续在新加坡无后顾之忧地进行公民抗争式的斗争。左问右问，他回答说：“我是学者，偶尔也领一些外国的研究基金。我的著作有时获奖，有时也参加海外的研究计划。”哪方面的研究，是有关民主的研究吗？他含糊地说：“嗯，或者是人类行为之类的。” The above was translated to an article by Jeremy Au Yong which was published in Straits Times the next day: "After being prompted a few times, he replied he also gets money from doing research work overseas.......When asked what area of research work he does, he replies vaguely "er, human behaviour or something like that". A day later, SDP Assistant Secretary-General John Tan sent a letter to the editors of both Straits Times and Lianhe Zaobao on behalf of Dr Chee who was in prison: "I wish to give you the heads up that there are several matters in the reports over which Dr. Chee takes issue with. For instance, the articles appear to suggest, inaccurately, that Dr. Chee was evasive when touching on questions about foreign funds." (read article here) This was followed by letters written by Dr Chee Soon Juan to the forum pages of Lianhe Zaobao and Straits Times on 7 March 2010: "Dr Chee Soon Juan has written letters to the forum pages of the Lianhe Zaobao and Straits Times over the interview that was published by Zaobao on 28 Feb 10 where the newspaper said that the SDP secretary-general was evasive when asked about his income." (read article here) The Straits Times Forum published Dr Chee's letter on 17 March 2010 titled "Chee claims ZB interview implied he was anti-S'pore." Dr Chee accused the article by Ms Yew as an attempt to portray him as being evasive about his income: "The way that the report is written is clearly an attempt to portray me as being evasive about my income. I had told the Zaobao reporter, Ms Yew Lun Tian, clearly that I depended on my books and from time to time, help from my relatives for survival. Because she found it hard to believe that this was sufficient, I told her that we lived simply and frugally......Yet Ms Yew reported it in such a way that I was trying to avoid her answer and had something to hide. What is left unsaid, although clearly implied, is that I may be a stooge of a foreign agent conducting activities against Singapore." (read letter here) In a posting on her Facebook yesterday, Ms Yew wrote that she received numerous feedback from friends and colleagues who thought that her interview was another attempt by the mainstream media to sabotage Dr Chee after reading his letter in the Straits Times Forum. She added that she was tired of explaining to them individually and she is now laying the facts on her Facebook for readers to judge for themselves. Ms Yew revealed that she was the one who initiated the interview with Dr Chee as she thought that readers are curious about him and the 30th anniversary dinner of SDP presented an opportunity for the interview with the emphasis that she was not directed from "above" to do so. "Alongside the interview was a 500 word news article about the Dinner, and a photo of the fashion show highlighting SDP uniform. Both were written by me. To my knowledge, this is the first time local media ran a profile interview of Dr Chee and gave SDP under him so much publicity," she wrote. She explained further that she implied Dr Chee's replies were evasive in the article because they were as she had to ask at least seven times in different ways to get the answers. In other words, she was simply reporting the facts as there were - that Dr Chee did appear to be evasive. A partial transcript of the interview is posted here. The predictable response of Dr Chee and his supporters may be sparked by historical animosities between him and the Singapore media which had demonized him countless of times in the past. To be fair, the articles on the SDP anniversary dinner and the interview with Dr Chee by Ms Yew were largely objective, fair and balanced and did portray SDP positively on a whole, even prompting one blogger to write an article "The coming around of SDP and Dr Chee". Ms Yew even used a smiling photo of Dr Chee in her article (see left) and quoting him in a caption to generate a positive image of him and SDP which will not be the case had she really wanted to "sabotage" him. While the mainstream media has not done itself any favors with some blatant unfair and inaccurate mis-reporting on opposition leaders in the past, we have to be rational and give credit when it is due. Adopting an antagonistic stance against the mainstream media all the time will not do the opposition any favors. In this case, though Dr Chee was portrayed as being evasive in the interview, he did state clearly the source of his income which has helped to dispel lingering public doubts about him and this would not be possible if Ms Yew had not proposed the interview to her superior in the first place.   EDITORS’ NOTE: Please join our Facebook page here and invite your friends to do so and help us exceed the number of fans on the official YPAP Facebook page.  Read More →