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Web-only Exclusives
November 30, 2000

From Our Correspondent: Hirohito and the War
A conversation with biographer Herbert Bix

From Our Correspondent: A Rough Road Ahead
Bad news for the Philippines - and some others

From Our Correspondent: Making Enemies
Indonesia needs friends. So why is it picking fights?

Asiaweek Time Asia Now Asiaweek story

Newsmakers 1995

A Year of Fear


WHAT IF AUM SHINRIKYO had enough gas to blanket Tokyo? What if Nick Leeson worked for a top global bank? Or India's Hindu right took power nationwide? What if Deng Xiaoping died? Nightmares loomed over Asia in the past year and the men and woman at the center of those fears are the Newsmakers of 1995. What actually happened, fortunately, was kinder than the what-ifs. Japan's sarin-gas cult seemed to have been neutralized and its elusive guru arrested. No lines of dispossessed depositors formed amid Baring Bank's collapse. Relations between Manila and Singapore are on the mend in the wake of Filipino maid Flor Contemplacion's hanging. And Deng is still with us.

But so are Asia's fears. For this year's Newsmakers demonstrated just how vulnerable some of the region's fundamental structures, policies and relationships are. Asahara Shokou faces murder charges, but Tokyo's pulsing megalopolis of 11.6 million people still wonders whether it could assuredly guard against a well-planned act of mass terrorism. The subway gassing also showed Japan to be a shell of its legendary self as a country where nothing goes wrong, a humbling exacerbated by a stubborn recession and the haphazard relief during the Kobe quake in January.

Nick Leeson's $1.3-billion boondoggle broadcast a warning to brash dealers in world markets and their sleepy-eyed minders in the halls of monetary authority: the high-tech swapping of financial assets could quickly crush even centuries-old institutions. Singapore tightened rules to prevent future debacles, and many banks and financial houses scrambled to improve monitoring and control. But not before the disclosure of $1.1 billion in bond trading losses at Daiwa Bank's New York branch. That leading executives in both institutions could not totally escape blame only intensified concerns that money in the bank may no longer be the safest bet.

Threats of international conflict flickered around and across the South China Sea. The Contemplacion case strained ties between Singapore and the Philippines, showing how electoral politics can give rein to a confrontational stance overseas. China too took a harder line abroad, with new emperor Jiang Zemin yet to establish his rule beyond doubt. Beijing rattled ASEAN over the Spratlys, sent missiles to intimidate Taiwan and jousted verbally with America over civil rights. As voters wield more and more influence on policy, leaders may have a tougher time avoiding cross-border squabbles.

Advocates of economic liberalization in India also felt the heat. If anyone believed the pace of reform would be sure and steady, Hindu rightists like Balasaheb Thackeray brought him back to earth with their election gains and their hard line on U.S. giants Enron and Kentucky Fried Chicken.

This year an academic's essay cast doubt on Asia's economic miracle, pricking any unquestioning confidence in the region's prospects. Even success, it seems, cannot escape the year of fear. Asian markets slumped as global money rushed to pump up Wall Street. High flyers like Singapore's Creative Technology and Hong Kong infrastructure star Hopewell lost ground to the stock bears. In 1995 the Newsmakers' warning rang loud and clear: Nothing is safe.


This edition's table of contents | Asiaweek home

AsiaNow


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COVER: President Joseph Estrada gives in to the chanting crowds on the streets of Manila and agrees to make room for his Vice President

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JAPAN: Japan's ruling party crushes a rebel ì at a cost

SINGAPORE: Singaporeans need to have more babies. But success breeds selfishness


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