Luca Anceschi, Joseph Camilleri and Benjamin Tolosa Jr (eds), Conflict, Religion and Culture: Domestic and Regional Implications for Southeast Asia and Australia, Manila, Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2009, 169 pp.
The violent riots which have hit the streets of Jakarta in the last two days and which have involved tens of thousands of demonstrators have obviously given vent to feelings of massive discontent. It is true that in the first instance the main objects of student anger were Japanese business interests which have achieved a stranglehold over several key areas of the Indonesian economy.
Contrary to popular belief, the Vietnam war has not ended. Indeed, ever since the beginning of negotiations back in 1968 between the United States and North Vietnam, the war has constantly escalated in so far as it has gradually engulfed Laos and Cambodia as well as the two Vietnams, and involved ever more destructive American fire power.
For some weeks now, all the headlines of the world’s press have been concentrating, quite properly, on the Middle East war, the emerging oil crisis and the continuing saga of political corruption and deceit within the United States. We have had, therefore, little or no opportunity to be reminded of the forgotten but unrelenting war in Indochina.
Joseph A. Camilleri, ‘Human Rights, Cultural Diversity and Conflict Resolution: the Asia-Pacific Context’, Pacifica Review, Vol. 6, No. 2, 1994, pp. 17-41.
This article by K. C. Boey (Sunday Times, Malaysia, 1 November 2003) reports on the book launch of Camilleri's book Regionalism in the New Asia-Pacific Order: the Political Economy of the Asia-Pacific Region, Volume 2. The book was lunched by Prof Desmond Ball (Australian National University).
The result of the recent snap election called by Shinzo Abe and Japan’s steady military build-up are a portent of things to come. The Korean crisis, which owes at least as much to Washington’s flexing of military muscle as to Pyongyang’s misguided nuclear antics, holds the key to many of these ominous developments.
