For Tom Allard's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have appointed Brunei's second minister for foreign affairs, Erywan Yusof, as special envoy to Myanmar, the group said on Wednesday. Erywan has been tasked with ending violence in Myanmar and opening dialogue between the military rulers ...
The pandemic has been a grinding descent toward poverty and hunger for many of the country's economically vulnerable.
Language on freeing political prisoners was unexpectedly watered down and did not contain a firm call for their release.
The United Nations and rights advocates say Indonesia's security forces are carrying out grave abuses.
Not only has the United States not promised to help with vaccine supplies, it also shocked Indonesia officials by asking to land its spy planes in the country.
U.S. officials made multiple approaches to Indonesia's defense and foreign ministers before Indonesia's president rebuffed the request, the officials said.
Only last week Luhut Pandjaitan, Indonesia’s maritime minister and close confidant of the country’s president, touted herbal mangosteen juice as a coronavirus remedy. His suggestion was the latest in a string of unorthodox treatments put forward by the president’s Cabinet over the past six months, ...
Shanti Ramchand learned quickly what was expected when she began campaigning in Jakarta for Indonesia's national parliament; distribute envelopes of cash at a small campaign event, and give a motorcycle or an air-conditioning unit to the community leader. Ramchand — an aspiring politician from the ...
From its clubhouses in Melbourne and Sydney, the Lads Society promotes drug-free living and exercise — and "white resistance" and Islamophobia, according to online statements and interviews with two of its leaders. One of Australia's most high-profile extremist groups, its members last year infiltrated the ...
Seizures of high-purity crystal methamphetamine have surged more than tenfold in Thailand over the past two years, statistics show, a stark indicator of the growth in industrial-scale production of the stimulant in neighboring Myanmar. Thailand is a major trafficking route for crystal meth manufactured in ...
