WORLD-WISE THE WEEK'S BEST COMMENTARY

MICHAEL MOORE, COLIN JAMES, S.D. MUNI, IAN BREMMER, JEREMY KIRK
MATP
1,070 words
4 September 2004
The Australian
1 - All-round Country
26
English
Copyright 2004 News Ltd. All Rights Reserved

HIDE OF A RINO

MICHAEL MOORE -- USAToday

WHAT was all the talk at the Republican Party Convention about New York being enemy territory? Anti-Bush campaigner and maker of Fahrenheit 9/11, Michael Moore, covering the event for USA Today wrote: "Nothing could be further from the truth. We New Yorkers love Republicans. We have a Republican mayor and governor, a death penalty and two nuclear plants within 30 miles of the city." Seriously, though, he had discovered a new category of Republicans -- RINOs -- or Republican in Name Only. "They possess a liberal, open mind and don't believe in creating a worse life for anyone else." They identified as Republicans, he argued, only because they feared Democrat administrations would raise taxes. "The Republican leadership knows America is not only filled with RINOs, but most Americans are much more liberal than the delegates gathered in New York. That's why this week we are seeing gay-loving Rudy Giuliani, gun-hating Michael Bloomberg and abortion-rights advocate Arnold Schwarzenegger. As tough a pill as it is to swallow, Republicans know that the only way to hold on to power is to pass themselves off as, well, as most Americans. It's a good show."

TWO NATIONS, ONE FUTURE

COLIN JAMES -- The New Zealand Herald

AUSTRALIA's election would be a referendum on two men, Colin James told readers of The New Zealand Herald. In his 1993 encounter with Prime Minister, John Howard, "a lifeless exchange", there had been "no hint of the battler who overcame his 1980s failure as leader to lead the liberals to three terms of power". About six years later he met Latham, "bursting with physical and intellectual energy, hungry for ideas to reconcile old Labor values with the globalised economy". The outcome mattered to New Zealand because "Australia's future is increasingly ours, strategically, economically and as a society with which we are meshed." Howard had aligned Australia tightly to the US (in contrast to New Zealand's stance); Latham would put high priority on the US alliance but, over time, balance it with Asia. Progress towards a single market was also critical. Howard's expected successor, Treasurer Peter Costello, was in favour, but Howard was thought by some to prefer Health Minister Tony Abbott to Costello, and Abbott was "an unknown quantity" on the matter. Meanwhile, Latham was committed to the single market. Economic management was another unknown, this time in relation to Latham, despite his assurances he would balance budgets and run an open economy.

KING IN CHECK

S.D.MUNI -- Hindustan Times

PLAYERS in Nepal who could arrest or accelerate the violence and destruction were the king, the Maoists, the political parties and the international community, S.D.Muni wrote in the Hindustan Times. "What Nepal urgently needs is a peace process that aims to provide the Maoists with a face-saver which, in turn, integrates them into the Nepali political mainstream." The political parties were crippled by internal bickering, and the king was reluctant to "adjust his own position within the parameters of a multi-party democracy". Nor were the Maoists inclined towards a genuine peace process, believing the strategic initiative was with them, and that their demand for a constituent assembly was gaining acceptance, even among political parties. India, for whom there was much at stake, had so far adopted an approach which was "myopic and confusing -- chanting the ideal of constitutional monarchy while lending almost total support to the king's authoritarian moves". What it should do, instead, was "lean heavily on the king to make him accept the role of a genuine constitutional monarch. India also needs to engage constructively with the political parties as well as the Maoists without prejudice".

GOOD COP, BAD COP

IAN BREMMER -- The International Herald Tribune

RIVALRY between China's Hu Jintao and Jiang Zemin had far-reaching implications, Ian Bremmer argued in The International Herald Tribune. Hu was president and controlled the Chinese Communist Party, but Jiang, 77, was chair of the Central Military Commission, in command of the People's Liberation Army. Security questions had caused the sharpest split. While Hu espoused a "peaceful rise", designed to "reassure regional actors that China's economic, political and military rise, while inevitable, will not destabilise the existing regional order", Jiang wanted the phrase removed from official discourse, and was much more assertive. After Hong Kong's July street protests, Hu avoided provocative action; Jiang tightened security and later marched a "parade" of 3000 Chinese soldiers through the city, flanked by tanks and aircraft. While Hu echoed the US in pressuring North Korea to continue nuclear talks, Jiang argued the US should be more conciliatory. But, above all, Taiwan's future was at stake. "Jiang has adopted the hardline tack, fearing Hu's policy undermines the credibility of China's stated determination to go to war with Taiwan if the island's leaders claim its independence."

IN FROM THE COLD

JEREMY KIRK -- Far Eastern Economic Review

AFTER 40 years in North Korea, US Army Sgt Charles Jenkins, 64, told the Far Eastern Economic Review's Jeremy Kirk: "When I got on that plane in Indonesia coming to Japan, my intentions [sic] was to turn myself in to the military, for the simple reason I would like to put my daughters with their mother, one thing. Another thing: I'd like to clear my conscience." Jenkins did not say why, in 1961, he disappeared while on patrol along the Demilitarised Zone between North and South Korea, nor what he learned about the North. The latter information might be used in a plea bargain with the US army, which plans to court martial him. The heavy smoker with heart and prostate problems and anxiety attacks spoke from his Tokyo hospital bed, saying he had been regularly beaten by another US defector over the 15 years to 1980. He then met and married his Japanese wife, who had been abducted in the mistaken belief she was a teacher who could school potential Korean spies in Japanese. When she was allowed to return to Japan, he had initially turned down a chance to join her, convinced he would be killed before reaching the airport. Later the couple agreed to meet in Jakarta.

[AUS_T-20040904-1-026-661921 ]

Photo

Document AUSTLN0020040903e0940004t