Watch https://youtu.be/0HsAtrd8bNE?
This is the lecture Australians should listen too, not the psychotic rubbish that the army of elite propaganda journalists publish each day in Australian newspapers and on TV. The lecture was given in Hong Kong. The speaker is the well known former Singaporean diplomat Kishore Mahbubani who examines the changes taking place in the world today, and the implications from it.
He says “geopolitics is the most cruel game in the world”. Being a nice country is not enough. You need to be shrewd and cunning if you are going to survive. He affirms that “we live in amazing times of amazing changes around the world, and that we have an obligation to keep up with the changes and learn how to adapt to it.”
The world order that emerged out of the ashes of WW2 has served Asia well, and many have prospered from it, but the reality today is that world order is under threat.
Where does the threat come from?
He deals with these issues and questions in 3 parts,
In the first part, he explains how the world has changed so dramatically and argues these changes mean we have to change the world order. He explains this by comparing India with the UK economy, and Germany with ASEAN, which has resulted in a massive shift in power in the world.
In part 2, he explains where the resistance to this change is coming from? He focuses on Europe as the main resistance to change. He makes a good point about the IMF’s inability to implement reforms to its voting rights among member states which has led to its illegitimacy. He also talks about the UN’s inability to reform the UNSC to make it more relevant to the world today.
In part 3, he suggests why it would be better for those who are resisting this change to avoid doing so.
He refers to “Sunrise and sunset institutions” in the world today. For instance, the G7 today is like “Snow White and the 7 dwarfs” – a sunset organisation … In contrast BRICS is a sunrise organisation
He also discusses the China-India relationship, and how Hong Kong can maintain its system within China. Beijing wants Hong Kong to succeed, and part of the reason why is because the US doesn’t want Hong Kong to succeed. In the future however, in the US-China contest, Hong Kong will become a political football.
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I very much appreciate Brigadier Ranjan de Silva’s insightful framing of Ranil Wickremasinghe’s arrest as a watershed moment for the rule of law in Sri Lanka. His piece underlines a profound shift in our political culture: for the first time, the current government is demonstrating real courage and commitment by enforcing the law equally—even against former presidents. Historically, those with political backing often escaped accountability, but this arrest signals that no one is immune, and that election promises of justice and equality before the law are being upheld in practice.