CALD & FNF

05 March 2013

 CALD Women’s Caucus Chair and Cambodian Member of Parliament Mu Sochua was one of the distinguished speakers at the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy held at the International Conference Center in Varembe, Geneva, Switzerland last 25 February 2014.

http://cald.org/site/cald/?p=7521

BURMA

03 March 2014

 Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina held a bilateral meeting with Myanmar President Thein Sien at Presidential Palace at Naypyitaw on Monday. During the meeting, they discussed issues related to bilateral interests. Later, she met Myanmar Opposition Leader and Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Rule of Law and Tranquility Aung San Suu Kyi at her parliament office…

http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2014/03/03/21559

Hasina to meet Aung San Suu Kyi

01 March 2014

 Prime Minister Sheik Hasina will meet Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on the sidelines of the BIMSTEC summit at Myanmar’s capital Nay Pyi Taw.

It would be her first meeting with the Noble Peace Laureate pro-democracy leader who was released from house arrest in 2010 after 15 years of detention.

http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2014/03/01/21259

Myanmar says Doctors Without Borders can stay

01 March 2014

A day after Doctors Without Borders announced its expulsion from Myanmar, the government backpedaled, saying the aid organization would be allowed to resume operations everywhere but Rakhine, a state plagued by bloody bouts of sectarian violence.

The Nobel Peace Prize-winning group expressed grave concern Saturday about the fate of tens of thousands of vulnerable people in the state, which is home to the country’s long-persecuted minority Rohingya Muslim community. Many have been displaced by violence and are living in crowded camps, where they have little or no access to adequate health care.

http://www.kansas.com/2014/03/01/3317978/govt-doctors-without-borders-can.html#storylink=cpy

Yangon Conference to Focus on Challenges to Media Freedom in Asia

28 February 2014

Deputy Information Minister Ye Htut and journalist and founding member of the National League for Democracy Win Tin will be among the speakers at an international media conference being held in Yangon from March 10 to 12.

Former ASEAN secretary-general Surin Pitsuwan, Myanmar author Thant Myint-U and Ethan Zuckerman, director of the Center for Civic Media at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will also address the conference, which is being hosted by the US-based East-West Center.

The center says it expects more than 300 journalists from up to 30 nations to attend the conference, which will focus on the theme ‘Challenges of a Free Press’ in Asia.

http://www.mizzima.com/mizzima-news/media/item/10947-yangon-conference-to-focus-on-challenges-to-media-freedom-in-asia

CAMBODIA

03 March 2014

Cambodia’s ruling and opposition parties agreed in talks Monday to work together to reform an election voter registration process and review campaign financing procedures following disputed polls in July last year.

But opposition leader Sam Rainsy’s Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) said the talks did not signal a possible end to its boycott of parliament or its demand for fresh elections following allegations of fraud in the July polls.

A working group with representatives from the CNRP and Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Cambodia People’s Party (CPP) met Monday for the second time in two weeks in the capital Phnom Penh, agreeing to consider the possibility of electoral reforms.

Read more here:

http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/talks-03032014150645.html

The Word “Yuon” and its Origin

03 March 2014

Dear Editor,
In two recent articles titled “Killing underscores animosity” and “Rainsy alleges intimidation” published respectively on February 18 and 21, 2014, The Phnom Penh Post repeated the foreign-entertained allegation about the “use of inflammatory rhetoric in regard to Vietnam” attributed to the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) and myself.

The origin and the cause of the controversy rest on one single word: “yuon”, simply meaning Vietnam or Vietnamese in Khmer language.

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/analysis-and-op-ed/word-‘yuon’-and-its-origins

Cambodia Opposition to Resume Demonstrations Following Ban Lift

26 February 2014

Cambodian opposition leader Sam Rainsy vowed Wednesday that his party will resume mass demonstrations against Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government now that a ban on public protests imposed amid a violent crackdown last month has been lifted. 



Sam Rainsy made the remarks at a rally of his Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) in Kandal province, which went ahead undisturbed despite warnings from Hun Sen of ruling party counter-protests at opposition gatherings.

http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/cnrp-02262014193138.html




MALAYSIA

27 February 2014

The move by Selangor Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the federal government to restructure the water industry in the state, which was stalled since 2008, should serve a lesson to opposition leaders.

Gerakan Youth chief Tan Keng Liang said Abdul Khalid’s action would hopefully, become a turning point to cooperation between the federal government and opposition-held opposite states to implement projects, which benefitted the people.

http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v7/ge/newsgeneral.php?id=1017994

SINGAPORE

01 March 2014

 This year’s Budget “seems to be overly focused” on the Pioneer Generation Package, such that the future needs and challenges of other Singaporeans in healthcare, education and transport appear to be overlooked, an opposition party said yesterday.

Issuing its response to Budget 2014 announced last Friday by Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, the National Solidarity Party (NSP) yesterday called for better healthcare via the development of more polyclinics, more hospital beds and the enhancement of the Community Health Assist Scheme that subsidises visits to participating general practitioners. Subsidies for individuals on the scheme with three or more chronic illnesses, or with disabilities, should be doubled, the party said.

http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/pioneer-generation-package-welcome-inadequacies-remain-opposition

TAIWAN

03 March 2014

The opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) will unveil the fifth chapter of its defense policy blue paper March 4, including a detailed plan for indigenous submarines, officials of a party think tank said Sunday.

The New Frontier Foundation recently completed a report on the military threat China will pose to Taiwan in 2025, along with the party’s defense policy for the next decade, the officials said.

York Chen, convener of the foundation’s Defense Policy Advisory Committee and an assistant professor at Tamkang University’s Graduate Institute of International Affairs and Strategic Studies, said the DPP’s defense policy is not about an arms race with China.

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/national/national-news/2014/03/03/401899/DPP-to.htm

 DPP’s Su condemns 228 Massacre remarks

02 March 2014

 Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday condemned controversial remarks Shih Hsin University professor Wang Hsiao-po (王曉波) made regarding the 228 Massacre and said Wang has added insult to injury for families whose loved ones were killed in the tragedy.

Wang, who was also the convener of the Ministry of Education’s controversial curriculum adjustment task force, said on Friday that the killing of 20,000 people by former president Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) Nationalist military in the 228 Massacre was “a small case” compared with the 400,000 killed during Chiang’s purges in China.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2014/03/02/2003584669

DPP Launches Publication Summarizing Foreign Relation Achievements

28 February 2014

On February 27, the DPP held a press conference releasing its newest publication “The New Diplomatic Strategy”, summarizing two years of the DPP’s achievements in foreign relations.

Mr. Liu Shih-chung, director of the DPP’s Department of International Affairs, said that this publication highlights the DPP’s foreign policy, which as Chair Su has pinpointed, is to “open up internationally, show care to the world and to promote democracy and peace”.

In the publication, it is told that the DPP exerted a large amount of effort into fundraising to re-open the DPP representative office in Washington, D.C., which was closed twelve years ago when the DPP won the administration in 2000. Without the contributions from Taiwanese residents in the U.S. and in Canada, this office would not have been opened, and as a tribute to them, the publication largely dedicates the DPP’s achievements to their support.

http://dpptaiwan.blogspot.com/2014/02/dpp-launches-publication-summarizing.html

DPP Tackles Low Birthrate in New Education Policy

27 February 2014

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday unveiled a new education policy focused on tackling the challenges of the nation’s low birthrate, the imbalanced development of secondary education, and the supervision and management of private universities.

Education is one of the most important policy areas with regard to Taiwan’s competitiveness, especially since the nation has one of the lowest birthrates in the world, DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) told a press conference.

The press conference was the first of a series of events during which the party is to unveil its policies on foreign affairs, national defense, energy and other areas that are to form the backbone of its “Green New Deal” initiative ahead of the seven-in-one election in November.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2014/03/02/2003584669

 THAILAND

03 March 2014

The Democrat Party is stepping up pressure on the caretaker government as it prepares fresh Constitution Court challenges against the administration. The opposition looks to capitalise on what it believes…

http://www.voanews.com/content/thai-protesters-scale-back-demonstrations/1861920.html

Thai Protest Leaders Calls for End to Street Rallies

01 March 2014

In a marked shift in Thailand’s ongoing political conflict, the leaders overseeing protests have called for an end to street rallies in central Bangkok. The move could open the way for talks to end the crisis. The decision follows increasing attacks on rally sites and a call from U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry for full investigation into recent violence.

Protest leader and former lawmaker Suthep Thaugsuban called for an end to protests that have shut down key centers of central Bangkok since mid-January in a campaign to force Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra from office.

http://www.voanews.com/content/thai-protesters-scale-back-demonstrations/1861920.html