ASEANEWS EDITORIAL–CARTOONS: The Straits Times says: Inter-faith dialogue on a broader stage
President Halimah Yacob has mooted the idea of a high-level dialogue focused on inter-faith harmony similar to the Shangri-La Dialogue on security issues held here every year. That parley, regarded widely as the region’s most important security forum, is attended by the defence ministers and military chiefs of 28 Asia-Pacific countries, including the United States, China and Indonesia. The dialogue has helped to put Singapore on the global map of strategic discourse.
President Halimah’s suggestion is a worthwhile one in that context. The unfortunate but unavoidable association of religion with extremism and terrorism has turned religion, which is intended to be a supreme source of spiritual uplift and deliverance, into a security issue. Thus, meetings such as the Shangri-La Dialogue are compelled to treat religion in terms of its deformation at the hands of suicide bombers, mass killers and such like. Indeed, terrorism has risen from being a low-level security threat to an existential one that endangers societies at their core. Yet, faiths are much greater than the nefarious efforts of some or even many people to divert common belief to the pursuit of political and personal ends. Had faiths not been so strong, none of the great global religions could have survived this long. They would have descended long ago into a continuous war of each against every other that would have destroyed their transcendental power.
TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE …https://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/st-editorial/inter-faith-dialogue-on-a-broader-stage
James Mattis to explain US regional role
US Secretary of Defense James Mattis is set to deliver a major speech on US leadership and the challenges of Indo-Pacific security at the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue on Saturday 2 June. Join us as we stream the speech on our website and social media channels.
ASEANEWS EDITORIAL CARTOONS:.
7.1. The Daily Tribune – One step at a time
7.2 The Manila Bulletin – A more viable Social Security System
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7.3. The Manila Standard – The gall of these people
7.5. The Philippine Daily Inquirer – Bad timing
8.1. For The Straits Times – Italy and the next crisis in Europe
Jonathan Eyal – Europe Correspondent
Jonathan Eyal was born in Romania, but has lived most of his life in Britain. Educated at Oxford and London universities, his initial training was in international law and relations, in which he obtained both his first degree and his Master’s with a Distinction. His doctorate, completed at Oxford in 1987, analysed relations between ethnic minorities in Eastern Europe. After teaching at Oxford for three years, Dr Eyal was appointed a researcher at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence Studies in London. Since 1990, Dr Eyal has been Director of Studies at the Institute. Dr Eyal has authored books on military relations in the Balkans and Eastern Europe, and became a regular commentator for The Guardian newspaper in London. He started writing for The Straits Times in 2001, and is currently the paper’s Europe Correspondent. He is fluent in French, Romanian, Italian, Hungarian and German.
VEERA PRATEEPCHAIKUL FORMER EDITOR
– The Bangkok Post
# Unanimous – Hello Supreme Leader Xi… Where are my BILLION$ ???
