The Arroyo Administration and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) have signed an agreement to form an “International Contact Group” to help negotiate a peace agreement between the two sides in the predominately Muslim island of Mindanao. Got all that? The agreement was signed in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday. For more background go here.
– The Vietnamese PM, Nguyen Tan Dung, stated that all property in Vietnam belongs to the government. This is not exactly reassuring to foreign investor, but his remarks were specifically directed at the Vatican, which recently requested the return of all land the Catholic Church had owned. The communist government started confiscating Catholic Church land in 1954, before North and South Vietnam were united under their rule. In recent weeks Vietnamese Catholics have held demonstrations demanding the government return these properties. It is believed that in less than two months, Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet will travel to the Vatican for meeting with Pope Benedict XVI on the re-establishment of diplomatic relations. Yet, in recent months, the Vietnamese government has been cracking down on Catholic dissidents. It is possible that Vietnam wishes to make clear to the Vatican the limits of its tolerance ahead of time, if the meeting will even take place. There are believed to be six million Catholics in Vietnam, the highest number in SE Asia outside the Philippines.
– The NY Times has an interesting article on the rise of Asian universities. The article looks at a changing trend – increasing amounts of Asians students choosing to study abroad at regional schools, bucking the traditional focus on Western schools. Singapore and Malaysia are cited as having some of the most attractive universities in East and Southeast Asia. There major selling points are solid educations in English at a much lower cost their their Western competitors. Some Western universities are taking notice, the University of Nevada, University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Stanford University have created joint degree programs with local Asian schools or established their own branches in Asia. All of these programs are seen as being attractive to the large number of Mainland Chinese looking to study abroad. Singapore and Malaysia have an added advantage due to their large ethnic Chinese populations.
In East Asia and the Pacific, 42 percent of students who left home remained in their region in 2007 compared with 36 percent in 1999, according to the 2009 edition of Unesco’s Global Education Digest. Unesco officials attributed this in part to the growing local availability of higher education.
Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong all want to attract thousands more international students. Malaysia wants 100,000 foreign school and university students by next year, compared with 71,000 enrolled in the current academic year. Singapore plans to attract 150,000 by 2015, up from 97,000 in 2008.
–Seven small bombs went off in the suburbs of Myanmar’s former capital, Yangon. Explosions could be heard last Wednesday and Thursday, but there were no reported casualties. Previous attacks were blamed on exiled Burmese democracy groups and ethnic minority rebels. No group has claimed responsibility.
– In lighter news, 107 year-old Malaysian woman, Wok Kundor is afraid her husband of 4 years, who is 70 years younger than her, will leave her. She has been married 22 times in total. Her husband said that there marriage was “God’s Will”.
And, the American R&B superstar, Beyonce, will be performing in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia despite the strict dress code. After objection by Islamic groups two years ago, she cancelled an event in Malaysia, instead, opting for Indonesia, which is a bit less prudish. The Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party plans on protesting the government over the latest concert. In related news, last month, the government reversed its decision to ban Muslim Malays from attending a concert by the American hip hop group The Black Eyed Peas, because it was sponsored by a beer company. This was beleived by many to violate Sharia law, which Muslims in Malaysia are ajudicated under. About 60% of Malaysia’s population is Muslim.
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