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MAY
12, 2000 VOL. 26 NO. 18 | SEARCH ASIAWEEK
Newsmakers
Passage
Died: Pham Van Dong, 94, a giant of Vietnam's modern
history and a leader in its struggle for independence and reunification,
died in Hanoi on April 29, one day before the 25th anniversary of
the fall of Saigon. Dong was one of the country's earliest modern-era
revolutionaries - he founded the anti-colonialist Viet Minh guerrilla
force in the 1950s with Ho Chi Minh. Dubbed Ho's "favorite nephew"
and imprisoned by the French, Dong was instrumental in defeating
both them and the Americans on the battlefield and at the negotiating
table. At the war's end in 1975, Dong was the guiding force behind
the reunification of Vietnam under Communist rule. He was prime
minister for more than 30 years, until 1987, and never abandoned
his faith in socialism.
Yusuf Abdullahal-Rawa, 78, Islamist leader and the retired fifth
president and first Murshid'ul am (spiritual guide) of Parti Islam SeMalaysia,
Malaysia's largest opposition party. He died on April 28 in Penang.
Freed: Chinese dissident Chen Lantao, 36, arrested
in June 1989 for "anti-revolutionary" activity. No reason was given
for the April 29 release, but it came only weeks ahead of a U.S.
Congress vote on permanent normal trade relations with China.
Denied Medical Parole: Hua Di, 64, a former weapons scientist
jailed in Beijing since 1988 on charges of revealing military secrets,
was denied parole on April 27. Hua suffers from a rare form of breast
cancer which strikes men.
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Like Father,
Like Daughter
After her jailed father's attempt to overturn his six-year conviction
for corrupt practices was rejected by a three-judge panel headed by Justice
Lamin Yunus on April 29, Anwar Ibrahim's daughter Nurul Izzah stepped
in to fill the breech. Before more than a thousand people who bought $25-a-plate
tickets for a fund-raising dinner at Kuala Lumpur's Mandarin Oriental
Hotel on May 1, the 19-year-old delivered a riveting tribute to Anwar.
The event celebrated the first anniversary of the founding of the now-floundering
Parti Keadilan Nasional, the opposition organization led by Anwar's wife,
Wan Azizah Wan Ismail. But it was Nurul Izzah's ringing conviction and
sense of injustice that brought the crowd - which included key opposition
figures - to their feet with shouts of "Reformasi." The evening confirmed
Nurul Izzah as a strong advocate of her father's cause, but it also hinted
at a future as a significant Malaysian political opposition figure.
What
Happened?
Remember how people used to say that Taiwan's presidential election was
about more than just relations with China? That presidential hopeful Chen
Shui-bian had a sweeping agenda that would put an end to old-style politics?
Forget the rhetoric. Many of the forty or so nominees for Chen's cabinet,
announced on May 1, are familiar faces from the days of the Kuomintang.
The appointments reflect the reality that Chen and his feisty vice-president,
Annette Lu, will encounter once they take office on May 20: They are at
the head of a coalition government that must build consensus rather than
forge new policies. So many of the cabinet members are from outside the
Democratic Progressive Party that Lu told them to read up on Chen's campaign
positions to understand what their boss expects of them once they are
in power.
What
Could Possibly Go Wrong?
Pretty much everything. It has been a year since the last of the former
leaders of the Khmer Rouge was apprehended. Meanwhile, negotiations with
the United Nations have dragged on about who should be tried, when, where
and by whom. In the latest round of talks an American senator, John Kerry,
left Phnom Penh on April 29 after meeting with PMHun Sen. Kerry claimed
some success in sorting out the problems. All sides agree to "exert their
best efforts to complete all the tasks necessary to be able to have a
formal agreement by June 15," Kerry said at his departing press conference.
The U.N. had been considering a U.S. proposal that would give Cambodian
judges a majority in the tribunal. Kerry's model allows the foreign prosecutor
to issue indictments independent of his Cambodian counterpart. It all
sounded fine until soon after Kerry was gone. That is when HunSen started
to emphasize his feeling that the final decision on the tribunal is not
his alone, but actually lies with the querulous National Assembly.
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