Two cheers for democracy in Southeast Asia?: recent elections in Malaysia, the Philippines and Cambodia

Image source: Election Commission of Malaysia

As Australia approaches its own poll, 2013 has seen three national elections across Southeast Asia. This Flagpost outlines the results and the controversies, and possible implications for Australia’s regional engagement.

The National Food Plan: food policy or something else?

 Image source: wikimedia commons

The Australian Government released the National Food Plan White Paper (the Paper) on 25 May 2013. At the time the then Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry said ‘For the first time, Australia’s food businesses and consumers have a road map for the future…’ The Paper, however, is not about food for Australians; it has minimal focus on what Australians eat, or food processing in Australia. It is more an export plan, particularly for Australian producers.

A snapshot of Southeast Asia in 2013

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

This year promises to be another big year in Southeast Asia, that part of Australia’s region where our economic and security interests are most actively engaged.

Both Malaysia and Cambodia will conduct national elections in 2013. In the case of Malaysia, where the election must be called by April, the upcoming poll has been characterised as the most competitive in the country’s history. This is despite ongoing concerns on the part of opposition parties and democracy activists about possible vote-rigging by the country’s governing coalition, the Barisan Nasional. Cambodia’s elections, scheduled for July, take place against the backdrop of rapid economic development, continued pursuit of closer economic and political relations with China and renewed allegations of human rights abuses by Hun Sen’s government.

Australia in the Asian Century: regional security and foreign policy dimensions



Image source: Australian Government
 

On 28 October, the Prime Minister released the Government’s ‘Australia in the Asian Century’ White Paper.  The Parliamentary Library has released several publications examining different aspects of the White Paper and the reactions to it: 

Australia in the Asian Century: aiming for the ‘top ten’

Australia in the Asian Century: improving university rankings

Australia in the Asian Century: Asian studies in schools

 

This piece discusses the regional security and foreign policy dimensions of the White Paper (chapters eight and nine).

Australia in the Asian Century: Asian studies in schools



Image source: Australian Government

The White Paper, Australia in the Asian Century, commits all governments to improving access to Asian studies in schools through the Australian Government’s National Plan for School Improvement. The Prime Minister has announced that Asian studies will be embedded across the Australian Curriculum, students will have access to at least one priority language (Mandarin, Hindi, Indonesian and Japanese), and all schools will ‘engage with’ at least one school in Asia to support teaching of a priority Asian language.

Australia in the Asian Century: Improving university rankings

Image: Macquarie University

The Asian Century White Paper sees higher education as a key sector in developing capabilities for economic success in what it calls ‘the Asian century’ and sets a national objective that ‘by 2025 10 of Australia’s universities will be in the world’s top 100’.
A number of questions arise from this objective, including the appropriateness of world rankings in setting and measuring goals; the degree of investment required to improve rankings and a decision on which ranking system to use.

World rankings have largely arisen in the last decade and there are now five major world university ranking systems. They have variations in methodologies but all stress research investment and performance over other measures such as teaching quality. As a recent Group of Eight analysis states: ‘As they are currently structured world university rankings do not relate well to the missions of universities whose principal mission is not research, or at least not internationally-referenced basic research’.

Australia in the Asian Century: Aiming for the 'Top Ten'

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

In the Australia in the Asian Century white paper the Government has set the goal of Australia becoming one of the top ten countries in the world in terms of GDP per capita by 2025. This post briefly considers how achievable the government’s objective is and how useful a focus on GDP per capita is.