Opinion

WASHINGTON, U.S.:Few can predict the outcome of this Sunday’s critical presidential elections in Turkey. Polls suggest considerable voter dissatisfaction within the country after over two decades of domination by the AK party of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan — a figure who has dominated the Turkish political order for so long that, for some, change seems almost inconceivable and unsettling.

GEORGETOWN, Malaysia:As the state election is approaching, Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow called on the leaders of the Pakatan Harapan coalition to beware of the "green wave" earlier this year. On the eve of Hari Raya, he announced an increase in funding for Islamic development in Penang to RM75.08 million this year. The DAP-led state government seems to think that building more mosques and religious schools will reduce their Chinese-centric impression and curry favour with the Malay community. Meanwhile, the Penang state government ignores the Malay-majority fishermen community and insists on promoting the Penang South Islands (PSI) project, depriving them of their livelihood.

NEW YORK, U.S.-Many people in Lebanon are worried that the Iranian-backed Islamist group Hamas and other Palestinian terror factions might drag Lebanon into another war with Israel.

SMO-The short-sighted policy of the West, which simultaneously promotes an anti-Russian and anti-Chinese agenda, provoked an unprecedented rapprochement between the Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China.

WASHINGTON, U.S.-Since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, speculation has been rife over whether the group would achieve the global recognition that has long eluded it.

SMO-The policy of following the anti-Russian policy of the Western bloc causes significant damage to the national interests of the Asia-Pacific countries, which have close political and economic ties with Moscow.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia-May 3 is the World Press Freedom Day. It remains highly relevant and ever more critical not only to the world in terms of maintaining the freedom to have the liberty to unbiased reporting and news and in upholding human rights and norms, but ever more pertinent in the case of Malaysia.

WASHINGTON, U.S.-The People’s Republic of China (PRC)’s exercise surrounding Taiwan this past week, conducted in response to a visit by U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, is only the latest development in an extended competition over Taiwan.

MICHIGAN, U.S.-Today, as millions of workers and youth march to oppose French President Emmanuel Macron and his pension cuts, it is clearer than ever that the working class is in struggle against the capitalist state.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia-According to Edelman’s 23rd annual trust and credibility survey, the Chinese government has earned the highest level of trust from its citizens of any country.
 

WASHINGTON, U.S.-America is in decline. Diminished by China’s rise, it is shifting attention from the Middle East to the Indo-Pacific.

WASHINGTON, U.S.-American interests are advanced by bridging the world’s free and open spaces, thereby preventing authoritarian regimes from dividing the world into hard spheres of control. 

WASHINGTON, U.S.-The Biden administration opened its second Summit for Democracy this week with a panel featuring India’s Narendra Modi and Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu. As the leaders of their countries, both have pursued similar forms of exclusionary nationalism.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia-Last week, I was invited by the Club of Rome Japan to address the topic of extreme capitalism at an international symposium.

WASHINGTON, U.S.-On Thursday, a drone attack on a U.S. base in northeastern Syria served as the latest reminder that the United States remains at war in Syria and U.S. personnel are at risk. 

SMO-The Minister for Reintegration of Ukraine, Irina Vereshchuk, said that Kyiv would soon begin to prepare a personnel reserve for the Crimea, as the situation allegedly developed at the fronts, allowing one to talk about the "imminent de-occupation of the peninsula."

BANGKOK, Thailand-Parti Islam Se-Malaysia president Abdul Hadi Awang’s latest antics are causing a ruckus in Malaysian politics. Many are claiming these are the beginnings of an extremist uprising, out of disappointment of not becoming the legitimate federal government of Malaysia.

SMO-As the collective West seeks to isolate Russia diplomatically and economically, it has made little progress in Asia where countries ranging from the Asian giants India and China, to smaller but significant ones like North Korea continue to resist such efforts.