Reuters (November 30)
Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan “needs to initiate a change in direction by releasing all caught up in the frenzy of collective punishment, dialing back on Turkey’s emergency laws and revising Turkey’s overbroad terrorism laws.” The witch-hunt has trampled too many basic rights rights. “Not long ago Turkey was on a path of commitment to protect those very rights and values. It’s not too late to return.”
Tags: Commitment, Emergency laws, Erdogan, Punishment, Rights, Terrorism, Turkey, Values, Witch hunt
Washington Post (December 11)
“Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric will live in infamy in U.S. history. He obviously doesn’t mind; his narcissistic personality is so extreme that every high-visibility outrage is for him a kind of validation.” Others should care. “Historians will look harshly on those who, for reasons of cowardice or opportunism, kept silent when Trump’s tirades put our constitutional values and the safety of Americans at risk.”
Washington Post (March 22)
Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew “was the democratic world’s favorite dictator.” Despite his virtues, he was “demonstrably unwise about democracy in Asia. While he was touting supposedly unique Asian values incompatible with liberal Western norms, Taiwan, South Korea and Indonesia became robust democracies and prospered economically.”
Tags: Asia, Democracy, Dictator, Indonesia, Lee Kuan Yew, Prospered, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Values, Virtues, Western
