Word: strongmanism
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...DIED. THANOM KITTIKACHORN, 92, former Thai strongman whose military regime was overthrown in a bloody student-led uprising in 1973; in Bangkok. Thanom ruled Thailand in the '60s and early '70s as part of a triumvirate of dictators known as the "Three Tyrants," and allowed tens of thousands of U.S. troops to be stationed there during the Vietnam War. He fled into exile after being overthrown but returned in 1976, became a Buddhist monk, and never entered politics again...
...often that a strongman voluntarily loosens his grip on government, but in what one diplomat called an "astonishing" announcement last week, President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom of the Maldives appeared to do exactly that. No longer would he run the executive, courts, police, parliament, army and media single-handedly, Gayoom proposed at a constitutional forum he convened in the capital, Mal?. Instead, there would be a Western-style separation of powers, with a Prime Minister, a Supreme Court and a strengthened legislature. Political parties would be allowed to flourish, and human rights would be safeguarded...
...Hendropriyono told reporters last Thursday that up to 20 other nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are being closely monitored by security authorities. "Should we find that these people are continuing to sell out their country, we may return to the old measures," he said, referring to the days of strongman Suharto, during which NGOs were tightly controlled and their workers routinely jailed. As for Jones, whose visa expires on June 10, she continues to press for a renewal but isn't hopeful. Still, she says, even if she's obliged to move to another country in the region, "That's certainly...
Elections often produce strange bedfellows, but Indonesia came up with a particularly choice union last week. Presidential candidate Wiranto, the former military chief of former strongman Suharto, announced that his running mate in July's election would be Solahuddin Wahid, deputy chairman of the country's Commission on Human Rights. Wiranto was in charge of the army in 1999 when hundreds died in East Timor at the hands of anti-independence militias allegedly funded and armed by the military. Wiranto continues to be dogged by these accusations: last week he was ordered arrested by a U.N.-backed court in East...
...popular with young educated urbanites by dropping its demands for Islamic law and painting itself as a corruption fighter. And Golkar's Wiranto is gaining by tapping into lingering nostalgia for the high-growth days of Suharto. During the party's political convention, Wiranto emphasized his ties to the strongman with a black-and-white video that juxtaposed his face and the dictator's. The biggest threat to Megawati, however, is Yudhoyono. The 54-year-old four-star general, who resigned from Megawati's Cabinet in March, is seen by the public as tougher on terror and a stronger leader...