Articles by M G G Pillai

Search for a Role INDIA'S post-independence view of southeast Asia within a prism of the cold war and her political and territorial confrontations with China and Pakistan now come to haunt her. Her initial view of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) as a probable western Trojan horse did not help. When she did focus her attention at the region, after the Vietnam war, it was as a sideshow to China's perceived threat. So when her economic reforms and political developments demanded a link, few in ASEAN supported her bid. That is New Delhi' sdilemma as the prime minister, P V Narasimha Rao, prepares to visit Malaysia in August.

M G G Pillai Malaysian prune minister Mahathir Mohamed's strident views about Asia's role and its niche in global trade, without being an adjunct to the west's or the United States' agenda, ensures him both a high profile and the image of a cassandra in western perceptions. But, as was evident at the second APEC summit at Bogor, his central questions remain unanswered THE Malaysian prune minister, Mahathir Mohamed.dominated the second APEC informal summit at Bogor, Indonesia, as he did the first in Seattle. USA. Me upstaged president Bill Clinton in Seattle by staying away, and president Suharto in Bogor by mending. It did not earn him friends. His actions riled every leader and they all but ignored his views. The Indonesian foreign minister. Ali Alatas. tetchity insists that should Malaysia not agree, she would be left out of the proposals altogether. Ear more disturbing, though, is the tension this caused between Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur, which is perceived even more starkly than it was during the early 1960s. during Indonesia's confrontation of Malaysia.

M G G Pillai The confrontation between the Indonesian army and the Muslim fundamentalist groups has pushed president Suharto into a corner WHEN president Suharto indicated that he would not stand for re-election in 1998, after 33 years in power, the inevitable regrouping of Indonesian politics and pressure groups pitched the armed forces of the republic of Indonesia (ABRI) against the strongest pressure group, the Muslims. This tense but quiet confrontation inevitably paints president Suharto into a corner. But he is still in a better position than his predecessor president Sukarno was in 1965, when ABRI put down a bloody, communist-backed coup in which a million people were massacred and the Parti Komunis Indonesia (PKI) was banned.

Islamic Criminal Law: Bowing to Fundamentalists M G G Pillai Muslims, who are the dominant political community in Malaysia, have failed to benefit from the recent economic development in the country, PAS, the fundamentalist Islamic opposition party, is capitalising on their frustration to spread the tentacles of Islamic criminal law.

M G G Pillai India has produced four parallel-processing supercomputers which, while not as fast as the Cray or other supercomputers on the international market, come at a tenth of the cost of the others. Selling them overseas, however, will be tough without adequate servicing facilities and appropriate software.