Malaysia Airlines Emotional Trauma

Published on Jul 27, 2014 by Luke Hunt

Many Malaysia Airlines staff are arriving at work with tears in their eyes. “Some of our members cannot fly because they have been affected mentally,” says the president of Malaysia Airlines’ flight attendants’ union Ismail Nasaruddin.Back-to-back disasters that killed six pilots and 21 flight attendants have had a devastating impact on the morale on thousands of air crew and employees of Malaysia’s national carrier.Read more from Lindsay Murdoch in The Age  .

Indonesia Polls: Early Count Suggests Widodo Wins

Published on Jul 13, 2014 by Luke Hunt

Early counting today suggested that former furniture salesman and governor of Jakarta Joko Widodo has won Indonesia’s presidential election; however, analysts said there were widespread fears the final vote could be rigged against him.Read more from Luke Hunt in The Diplomat..

China Lets Its Oil Rigs Do the Talking

Published on Jun 29, 2014 by Luke Hunt

It passed with barely a word. A two-day meet in Bali this week was supposed to improve relations between China and the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). It was touted widely in the Chinese-friendly press but in the end not even the sycophantic scribes of Beijing had much to say.Read more from Luke Hunt in The Diplomat..

OPCC Takes the Helm

Published on Jun 29, 2014 by Luke Hunt

Written by Luke Hunt for The Phnom Penh Post.The FCC had a legendary name by the time I arrived as bureau chief for Agence France-Presse in 2001, but it was in name only. Journalist numbers had dwindled, and a chorus of reporters complained it was no longer a real club.Indochina Assets had seized control, the names and contents on the premises, amid one spurious claim that permission had been granted by the board. FCCs exist in Hong Kong, Thailand, Japan and South Korea alongside like-minded groups around the world, all non-profit with elected boards and paid-up memberships.Our FCC had none of this and had morphed into a theme bar for tourists arriving by coach.The constitution was changed. The FCC no....

Indiana Jane and the Looted Temples of Koh Ker

Published on Jun 8, 2014 by Luke Hunt

Cambodia has begun to see the return of national treasures looted during its Civil WarWritten by Luke Hunt for The Diplomat.In what has been a long time coming, three 1,000-year-old statues looted in the 1970s were sent back to Cambodia this week after U.S. authorities used their collective clout and had them returned from auction houses Sotheby’s and Christie’s, and the Norton Simon Museum in California.Critical to their return was Tess Davis, a U.S. art lawyer and affiliate researcher at the University of Glasgow, who stressed Cambodia had only won the first in a series of battles, in what could prove to be a protracted war over the return of looted art.“The kingdom has taken on the art market, an....