Few can now doubt that Japan’s economy, hardly in the most robust of shapes anyway, has taken a battering from last year’s tsunami. On Monday, data showed that output fell between October and December for the third time in four quarters as companies battled a perfect storm of problems.
The Eurozone, the Hildebrand affair and prospects for political reform in Myanmar
As Greece continues to haunt the Eurozone, Berlin bureau chief Quentin Peel and Europe news editor Ben Hall join Gideon Rachman to discuss the latest developments in the crisis. Also, Zurich correspondent Haig Simonian discusses the fallout from the Philipp Hildebrand affair at the Swiss National Bank, and Gwen Robinson, south east Asia correspondent, discusses the prospects for political reform in Myanmar
Back in 1990 it looked as if events in Myanmar were part of a great wave of democratisation that was washing around the world, after the fall of the Berlin Wall. But while eastern Europe broke free from dictatorship – and democracy came to countries as diverse as Indonesia and South Africa in the 1990s – the democratic wave receded in Myanmar. But might Myanmar and Aung San Suu Kyi have better luck this time?
The Financial Times has decided to change its style and from today will use the name Myanmar rather than Burma.
Is this premature, too late or just wrong? Please send us your comments or tweets at @ftworldnews
The reasons for the change are explained in the following editorial, which appeared in today’s newspaper:
Rick Perry eat your heart out. According to the Jakarta Post, Indonesia’s government plans to dissolve 10 of 88 state bodies deemed inefficient or with overlapping authority.
That easily beats the timid reform proposal from the Republican presidential candidate who appears content to get rid of just two government departments – or was it three?
(Top row L to R) Thai deputy prime minister Kittirat Na-Ranong, Singapore prime minister Lee Hsien Loong, Peruvian president Ollanta Humala Tasso and (front row L to R) Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Chinese president Hu Jintao and Canada prime minister Stephen Harper - Image AFP/Getty
There may be a leadership crisis in Europe, but Asian leaders attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum in Honolulu mostly appeared as relaxed as the bronzed holidaymakers stretched out on Waikiki beach.
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the Indonesian president, was so laid back he began his presentation at the parallel business leaders’ forum with a song of his own composition.
The tune, accompanied by sappy lyrics worthy of a charity single, was about saving the environment, a sentiment that Indonesia sometimes honours in the breach.
Still, the retired general credited with bringing political stability and economic growth to his country of 240m people, appeared in confident mood. He said that the economy, which has been growing steadily above 6 per cent, was fairly resilient to the troubles in Europe. He pointed to a deficit of just 2.5 per cent of gross domestic product – which he said would be lower next year – and public debt/GDP levels of 25 per cent. Are you listening Lucas Papademos?
“I almost left the country thinking they’re moving a little too fast. I never thought I would say that about Myanmar.”
Those are the words of Espen Barth Eide, Norway’s deputy foreign minister, after a trip this week to Burma, which the Norwegians call by its official name of Myanmar. Mr Barth Eide said that political reformers in the country “have the upper hand” and were moving quickly to try to consolidate their position before there was a counter-offensive from hardliners. “The danger is not that it’s not sincere,” he said of the push to open up the political process, “but that the counter forces will set in.”
At least one newspaper in China has finally come out in strong support of pro-democracy demonstrations and mass sit-ins. An opinion piece in the official China Daily objected to what it called a “blackout imposed by major news media” of the growing protest movement.
The country being so criticised is not, of course, China.
Rather, it is the US, the latest leg of the global revolution, where news of the Occupy Wall Street movement has allegedly been suppressed.
In this week’s podcast: As president Mahmoud Abbas presses his argument for Palestinian statehood at the UN – we ask former editor of the Jerusalem Post, David Horovitz and head of the Palestinian government media centre, Ghassan Khatib, what the people on the streets of Israel and Palestine really think about the prospect; then we talk about an activist Turkish foreign policy which sees Turkey facing confrontation on many borders; and finally, rising inflation and soaring property prices in Hong Kong open up the gap in living standards between the rich and poor.
Presented by Gideon Rachman with Dan Dombey in Istanbul and David Pilling in Hong Kong – interviewed by Serena Tarling. Produced by LJ Filotrani
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