Tomorrow Matters: Oct 2021

October 13, 2021

Tomorrow Matters

Tomorrow Matters: Oct 2021

Posted Oct 7, 2021

The last month has seen a number of defining geopolitical events, most notably the inception of AUKUS, the trilateral security pact between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, which has aggravating implications for US-China tensions and for relations in Southeast Asia.

In contrast to the seriousness of recent events, September has also been a month highlighted by festivals, including Yom Kippur and the birthday of Confucius. In Central Asia, Pashtun Culture Day was celebrated on 24 September – a refreshing reminder that Afghanistan and the wider region should not be defined by conflict alone.

This month’s edition of Tomorrow Matters begins with an analysis of another US-China event: the surprisingly fluid exchange of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou for Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor.

Then, we move to Indonesia, with a fascinating long read on the politics surrounding the sugar industry.

India provides the third read for this month, with a historical analysis of the right to fly in India, and the challenges India faces with regards to its budding aviators.

Returning to Southeast Asia, a broad stroke article from Vietnam questions solar panels and the problems the region faces on the road to solar energy self-sufficiency.

Finally, this month’s edition closes with a piece on the impacts of sea level rise facing Bangladesh – and an unlikely protection in the form of oyster reefs.

We hope you enjoy this month’s selection of some of the most interesting commentary from around the region.

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Meng Wanzhou, the CFO of Huawei, was detained in Canada for nearly three years and has recently been successfully exchanged for two Canadians - Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, who were detained in China. The affair represents the difficulties in Canadian-China diplomacy.

Dabing Li, writing for South China Morning Post, breaks down the situation from a Chinese point-of-view, describing how former US president Donald Trump had a significant role to play in imbuing geopolitical tension into Meng’s original detention. Dabing Li links the tensions of this particular exchange to the wider US-China tensions, and going forward, cautions against ‘recklessness’ on the part of both the US and China: “Anger is being weaponised for political and nationalistic purposes worldwide.”

Indonesia is the largest importer of raw sugar in the world, at around 4 million metric tonnes per year – a staggering 1 million metric tonnes higher than China, in second. The country’s local plantations have not been developed to meet local demand, and commentators have noted that this may be due to links to politicians and the military.

For New Mandala, Colum Graham pens an analysis of ‘sugar capital’ and ‘sugar politics’ in Indonesia, linking seemingly isolated events and scandals to paint the history of Indonesian sugar plantations. “If modes of sugar patronage institutionalised in tumultuous periods of Indonesian history remain unaddressed,” he writes, “incremental changes to sugar-related regulations can only have a piecemeal effect on prices.”

The history of domestic and international aviation in India is colourful and inextricably tied to the development of its politics, from colonial independence to the creation of passports and the politicisation of race.

Priya Mirza, writing for the Caravan, produces an extensive and well-researched article that provides a meandering narrative of aviation in India – and what complexities the nation faces as more people look to the skies: “From the inception of aviation in India, indignation among rulers and their subjects arose over the perceived violation of the “sovereignty of air”—the idea that the air above is as inviolable as the land below.”

Vietnam, like other countries in Southeast Asia, is making the turn to renewable energies. Amidst the global slowdown in fossil fuel use, Ksor Hbo Khap explores the complexities and recent developments of solar energy supply in Vietnam and across the region for Southeast Asia Globe.

The focus of this article is on the often-undiscussed issue of how solar panels are disposed of: “Up to 78 million metric tons of solar panels will have reached the end of their lives by 2050,” Ksor Hbo Khap writes, “equivalent to the total weight of more than 10.4 million adult elephants.”

The impacts of climate change are being felt the world-over and in increasingly destructive ways. In Bangladesh, it manifests mainly as sea level rise, which has the potential to be disastrous in a country already affected by severe riverine flooding.

Approaches to addressing these challenges are varied, and Aysha Imtiaz, writing for BBC Future, discusses the use of bio-engineering in the form of oyster reefs, which have acted as a natural armour for Kutubdia Island, off the coast of southern Bangladesh.

Imtiaz raises important questions about the validity of non-conventional and locally-appropriate solutions to climate change, noting that, “The reef would be able to grow upwards and keep pace with sea-level rise. Minor damage to the reef, especially by natural causes, would be self-repaired.”

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