Banyan

IT WAS billed as one of Australia’s most dramatic political showdowns in years. When it came, the strength of the victory took many by surprise. On February 27th Julia Gillard, Australia’s prime minister, trounced Kevin Rudd, her former foreign minister, by 71 votes to 31 for the leadership of Australia’s ruling Labor Party. Ms Gillard emerged from a tense meeting of their parliamentary colleagues in Canberra to claim her resounding victory as the end of the “ugly” drama that has rocked the party. 

For the time being, at least, it will achieve that. Ms Gillard has come out of her bitter rivalry with Mr Rudd as a strengthened leader who will be able to stare down her critics. Their fight, after all, was never about policy or strategic direction.

Continue reading "I won by this much" »

IN THE lush fields of Goa the opposition billboards complain of a “family Raj” and ask voters to reject dynastic rule. A mile or so away is a sports ground whose perimeter is lined with portraits of the Congress Party’s blood line of deceased prime ministers: Jawaharlal Nehru, his daughter Indira Gandhi and her son Rajiv Gandhi. Among the pictures, too, is the shy face of Sonia Gandhi, Rajiv’s wife, apparently recovered after a recent battle with illness, probably cancer. She holds no government post but rules the Congress Party that still runs India’s central government and Goa too, where state elections are being held.

A trickle of people are gathering to see her in the flesh; the closest thing India has to political royalty.

Continue reading "Sonia has left the building" »

AFTER weeks of political turmoil Julia Gillard, Australia’s prime minister, has scheduled a showdown with Kevin Rudd, whom she unseated as Labor Party leader and prime minister in 2010. Mr Rudd quit dramatically as foreign minister at 1 o’clock in the morning on February 22nd, while on a visit to Washington, DC. He did so accusing Ms Gillard of failing to repudiate charges of disloyalty against him, and declared he could no longer serve in her government. Next day, Ms Gillard responded by announcing a ballot for the leadership of the ruling Labor Party on February 27th. She will contest it, and says she expects to win. Mr Rudd has yet to declare his intentions—but everyone assumes he will try to seize his old job back.

Continue reading "Rudd resigns, redux" »

WILL justice delayed be justice denied? On February 16th, Japanese police arrested seven people associated with the financial scandal at Olympus. Critics may grumble rightly that it comes three months after the company itself admitted the fraud took place, and five months after its boss blew the whistle (and lost his job as a result). Nevertheless, for anyone who cares about integrity in financial markets, rule of law and corporate governance, this is a moment to feel pleased.

But don’t pop the champagne corks just yet. There are myriad ways in which today’s arrests may turn out to mean nothing.

Continue reading "Arrested development" »

A CHILL wind has come to the Maldives, an Indian Ocean archipelago whose political life has been suddenly blown upside down. The new president, Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik, vehemently denies there was any conspiracy to oust his predecessor and former boss, Mohamed Nasheed, and insists that his own ascent to office, on February 7th, caught him by surprise. But events over the past week have shed doubts on that claim.

Maldivians watched as, swiftly, Mr Waheed’s cabinet brought old faces from the 30-year-long autocratic government of Maumoon Abdul Gayoom back to the fore. The attorney general under Mr Gayoom has returned in the same role. Mohamed Shareef, a loyal spokesman to Mr Gayoom for years, is youth minister.

Continue reading "Policeman's paradise" »

GALLOWS humour among some residents of the Indonesian capital has it that serious traffic accidents are impossible. Why, because of the city’s notoriously gridlocked roads keep motorists safely at a crawl! Sadly, that is not the case.

On January 22nd, shortly before noon, a group of four young Indonesians who had been out all night partying rammed their car into a crowd of pedestrians at a roundabout in Central Jakarta. Nine people were killed, among them a three-year-old girl and a pregnant woman. The driver, a 29-year-old woman named Afriani Susanti, is reported to have admitted taking drugs and drinking alcohol in the hours before.

Continue reading "Street legal" »