As 2015 comes to a close, it is worth looking back at the people and events that made headlines across Asia. And, inspired by Washington Post columnist Chris Cillizza’s annual “Worst Year in Washington” award, we’ve drawn up a list of some of the people and places whose 2015 were, for very different reasons, particularly challenging.
Our choice for worst year in Asia for 2014 went to Myanmar’s Muslim Rohingya minority — persecuted at home and increasingly ignored by business and political leaders hungry to engage with the new Burma. (Cillizza gave his 2014 worst year award to U.S. President Barack Obama “for losses at home and crises abroad.” This year, U.S. presidential candidates dominated as Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton shared the dubious distinction).
In Asia, elections, territorial disputes and trade deals provided fertile ground for our choices. So, on the final day of 2015, here are our choices, from bad to good.
Worst year: Asia’s lungs
All too often in Asia, starting the day in 2015 meant donning a face mask or perhaps a hacking cough rather than a cup of tea or coffee.
The culprit is the region’s declining air quality as development brought more factories and cars to an increasingly urbanized region.
India reported nearly 3.5 million cases of acute respiratory infection in 2014, a 30% increase since 2010. The World Health Organization says 13 of the top 20 most polluted cities worldwide are in India.
In China, Beijing has issued its first “red alert” smog days as the nation’s notorious pollution has returned with a vengeance this winter. Indeed, the now banned-in-China online documentary “Under the Dome” spoke of premature deaths of up to 500,000 people from cardiovascular and cardiorespiratory disease.
And in Southeast Asia, a haze from fires used to clear forest land in Indonesia darkened the region, closing schools and businesses. Thousands sought care for respiratory ailments and at least 19 deaths were reported in Indonesia.
Also important not to forget is Nepal, whose people suffered through two huge earthquakes that claimed more than 8,000 lives. It got even worse for the country with what has been described as an “unofficial blockade” of goods such as fuel and medicine along the border with India over demands by Madhesis communities calling for greater representation in Nepal’s constitution.
Bad year: Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak
If an alleged extra $700 million shows up in your accounts, and you are Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak — or any prime minister for that matter — expect investigations and protests to follow.
That was the state of affairs following The Wall Street Journal’s reporting earlier this year that money possibly linked to the financially troubled 1Malaysia Development Berhad might have found its way into Najib’s personal accounts. The state-owned investment company had been founded in part by Najib to invest in property, infrastructure and energy projects.
Najib has countered that the money was a donation from Middle East backers. Investigations into the case continue, with Swiss and U.S. authorities possibly involved after news that financial institutions from these countries were involved.
Not-so-good-year: Modi and Jokowi
Last year, we gave Asia’s “new management” — India’s Narendra Modi and Indonesia’s Joko “Jokowi” Widodo along with China’s Xi Jinping and Japan’s Shinzo Abe — the award for best year in Asia. Prime Minister Modi and President Jokowi were seen as pro-business and reform-minded with agendas that had the potential to kick into high gear their countries’ economies.
What difference a year makes. Entrenched economic interests and a little “bric” — bureaucracy, regulation, interventionism and corruption — continue to impede the structural changes needed to attract more foreign direct investment and drive long-term job creation.
Struggling Chinese and Japanese economies, Jokowi’s declining approval ratings and the defeat of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party in two regional elections signal that the honeymoon is over.
Good year: Trans-Pacific Partnership
Disagreements over “rule of origin” and pharmaceutical and dairy products threatened to delay once again the conclusion of negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a major international trade pact.
But on October 5 came news that negotiators had overcome all obstacles and reached agreement. Begun in 2007 as an exploratory services and investment negotiation between Brunei, Chile, New Zealand and Singapore and the United States, the TPP now encompasses 12 Pacific Rim nations and covers almost 40% of world trade.
TPP signatories must now ratify the deal. That is where the hard work truly begins — especially in the United States, where trade agreements don’t fare well during an election year.
Best year: Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank
When China first floated the idea of establishing a new development bank to help finance Asia’s infrastructure, critics countered whether it was necessary. Others feared a new China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank would become an extension of Chinese power and a further challenge to the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, led respectively by American and Japanese presidents.
The United States and Japan in particular also raised questions about governance and project-lending “standards” at the AIIB.
But money talks. The United Kingdom was the first U.S. ally to break ranks with the Obama administration over joining the new AIIB. Nearly 60 nations ultimately signed on as founding members of the new $100 billion institution, including many in territorial disputes with China in the resource-rich South China Sea.