The oil industry, still reeling from the abrupt disbanding of the upstream oil regulatory body BPMigas last November, has been hit by another piece of bad news that threatens not only Indonesia’s energy security but also its balance of payments and fiscal consolidation, with an adverse impact on inflation and the rupiah exchange rate.The upstream oil regulatory task force that replaced BPMigas revealed last week that several big oil production-sharing contractors (PSCs), including giants such as

Ironically, even though we can hardly miss the acronym “AEC” when browsing through the newspaper each day, some Thai businessmen confessed to a survey recently that they don’t have a true understanding of how to prepare for the regional integration which is due to come into existence in 2015.In spite of the campaign to promote understanding of the AEC ― ASEAN Economic Community ― both in the public and private sectors, some Thai companies are not sure if they have a proper grasp of what this wil

Four years ago, on a bright, cold Jan. 20, Barack Obama took his first oath of office as president and proclaimed a new post-partisan era. “The stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply,” the Obama of 2009 said.The second four years of a two-term president’s tenure are always different from the first, but it’s hard to overstate how different Obama’s second term feels, even before his inauguration. He has most of the same goals and many of the same aides, but in

This month 75 years ago, the people of Nanking, China’s ancient capital city, were in the midst of one of the worst atrocities in history, the infamous Rape of Nanking. The truth of what actually happened is at the center of a bitter dispute between China and Japan that continues to play out in present-day relations.Many Chinese see Japan’s election last month of ultraconservative nationalist Shinzo Abe as prime minister as just the latest in a string of insults. And it was recently reported tha

Having worked and lived in Korea for 12 years now, I have observed many traditions and ethics ― mostly good, some less good.I’ve seen some Korean bus drivers literally greet every person who enters or disembarks his bus. It is extremely courteous, and one can only imagine how much such a person has invested on the “bank of good ethics” at the end of his life. I was wondering, though, whether he could keep it up. Some express-bus drivers courteously stand at the exit of the bus to greet all the p

President Barack Obama began his second term on Sunday with room to breathe. The global financial system is not failing, the U.S. housing market is not collapsing, and American jobs are not evaporating. Meanwhile, after a convincing win in November, his approval rating is robust, and the federal government’s fiscal condition is fitfully, contentiously improving. Yet any notion that Obama might use his second term merely to consolidate the shaky gains of his first, particularly the complex implem

Ever wonder what life in the United States would be like without a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency? The people of China have gotten a whiff of what happens when there are minimal pollution controls, and they are choking on it.That the air in Beijing is badly polluted is not exactly a new development, but this is: Now, it’s gotten so bad that the complaints are showing up in state-run media where the crisis is not only recognized but the need to be open and honest about it is, too.Photograph

“We wanted a clear message from Obama that the U.S. will continue to support democracy in Afghanistan,” Fawzia Koofi, a lawmaker and human-rights activist, said this month. “It’s the only alternative to Talibanization.” Her honesty revealed the plain truth, without official pieties and doublespeak: The U.S. is quitting Afghanistan, and the morning after it does, the Taliban will begin the reconquest of that tragic land. After 11 years, and a toll of more than 2,000 Americans killed, 18,000 wound