Filipino Dynasties Tighten their Grip

Published on May 22, 2013 by Luke Hunt

FAR EAST CORRESPONDENT — The Ampatuan clan was never going to be thrown out of power, despite being accused of killing 58 people, including 32 members of the media in one of the worst massacres in modern Philippine history. The latest count in the country’s mid-term elections has family members, including three wives of senior clan figures, who are facing murder charges, winning 19 local government positions. Read more from Lindsay Murdoch in The Age.   .

ASEAN Urges a Youthful Lead

Published on May 21, 2013 by Luke Hunt

FAR EAST CORRESPONDENT — Concern in Southeast Asia about the formation of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) by the end of 2015 is mounting. Members of the ten-member Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) have in recent years been big on rhetoric but evasive on details for such an enormous undertaking. Read more from Luke Hunt in The Diplomat. .

East Timor Floats Cambodia’s LNG Options

Published on May 17, 2013 by Luke Hunt

By Luke Hunt AsiaWATCH — A push towards using massive offshore refining pontoons for processing crude oil and LNG is gaining momentum and forcing governments, including Cambodia, to rethink their growth strategies after pinning their economic hopes on traditional oil and gas jobs. It’s a global phenomena but one that is finding its mark in Southeast Asia where high crude prices had improved the economic viability of offshore oil and gas fields in areas once difficult to reach and hamstrung by a lack of development such as ports and sometimes difficult politics. This was the case with Indonesia, Cambodia, The Philippines and East Timor. As the boom in oil prices gathered pace, less economical fields became viable and governments were....

Floating LNG Upsets Outlook

Published on May 15, 2013 by Luke Hunt

FAR EAST CORRESPONDENT — A push towards massive offshore refining pontoons for processing crude and liquefied natural gas (LNG) is gaining momentum and forcing governments – which had pinned their economic development plans to traditional oil and gas jobs – to rethink their strategies. It’s a global phenomena but one that is making its mark in Southeast Asia where high crude prices have improved the economic viability of offshore oil and gas fields in areas that are difficult to reach and hamstrung by underdevelopment and sometimes difficult politics. Read more from Luke Hunt in The Diplomat. .

Undercover, Hacked and Killed in the Line of Duty

Published on May 13, 2013 by Luke Hunt

Max Kolbe reviews recent events in news The BBC  courted controversy after one of its reporters apparently posed as a PhD student, hooked-up with a group of students from the London School of Economics (LSE) en-route to North Korea and went there in order to make an undercover documentary. Undercover journalism is shunned in most countries where it is considered dishonest although Britain through its tabloid newspapers has taken this type of investigative work to new heights primarily by targeting extremely difficult subjects. The News of the World by going undercover and disclosing cheating by Pakistani cricketers on a grand scale won praise, and perhaps the hermit kingdom of North Korea also merits such treatment. But it remains a dodgy....