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Jose Ramon Albert | East Asia Forum

Dr Albert works at the Philippine government's think tank. He is a former Chief Statistician of the Philippines, having been the Secretary General of the defunct National Statistical Coordination Board, which was consolidated with other statistics offices into the Philippine Statistics Authority. Dr Albert is also a member of various bodies and expert groups on statistics and related matters, including the UN Global Pulse Privacy Advisory Group, and the Philippine Committee on Higher Education’s Technical Committee on Statistics. Dr Albert earned an MS in Statistics (1989) and a PhD. in Statistics (1993) from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. ....

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Politics gets personal in Malaysia | East Asia Forum


1 February 2021
Author: Editorial Board, ANU
When Pakatan Harapan won the 2018 elections in Malaysia, it revealed what really underpinned the rule of the Barisan Nasional government that led Southeast Asia’s third-largest economy for 61 years since independence from Britain.
Certainly, an electoral system engineered to produce victories for the incumbent coalition, and widespread curbs on civil liberties and the press were part of the formula. But just as in non-communist regimes elsewhere in Southeast Asia, political despots or their hegemonic parties relied on support from business and many citizens who benefited from the spoils of the pre-Asian Financial Crisis boom.
All too often, economic rents came in the form of patronage for favoured companies, industries or social groups. But so long as there was enough patronage to go around, its beneficiaries became contributors to the political and social stability that in turn made Southeast Asia a magnet for investm ....

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COVID-19 masks mischief in the South China Sea


13 January 2021
Author: Carlyle Thayer, UNSW Canberra
Key developments in the South China Sea in 2020 were shaped by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, international lawfare, and maritime security.
COVID-19 impacted disputes in the South China Sea in two ways. First, there were no face-to-face meetings between ASEAN members and China via the Joint Working Group to Implement the Declaration of Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (JWG–DOC). As the JWG–DOC has carriage over negotiations on the South China Sea, already difficult talks were further complicated and no progress made on the Code of Conduct (COC), which seeks to manage inter-state relations and territorial disputes in the contested waters. ....

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Sri Lanka's economy hemmed in by COVID-19 and geopolitical tensions


11 January 2021
Author: Dushni Weerakoon, Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka
The unprecedented disruptions of COVID-19 are causing a geopolitical reset and as the global order is redrawn, small emerging market economies like Sri Lanka are vulnerable to the fallout. Sri Lanka straddles vital shipping routes and is at the centre of diplomatic spats between China and the United States, who called on Sri Lanka to make ‘difficult but necessary choices’ over its growing economic and political ties to China.
In December 2020, a US grant offer of US$480 million under its Millennium Challenge Corporation was withdrawn and any further assistance under the US Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act has been made conditional on Sri Lanka containing China’s influence. China in turn denounced what it considers as US pressure on countries ‘to pick sides’. The challenges are many for Sri Lanka’s newly elected government to sidestep global rivalries and m ....

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