By Andy Gordon “Big Brother” seems to follow me wherever I go.
Even when I go halfway around the world.
In the 1990s, I ventured off to Southeast Asia to run a trading company. And there was an unapologetic paternalism among the wealthy and highly educated.
While most Asian countries held elections, the majority of them were limited, highly stage-managed and often fixed. Dictatorships were common and accepted. Benign ones ruled in Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore. And not-so-benign ones lorded over the population in Myanmar, Cambodia, the Philippines and elsewhere.
In Indonesia, where my Asian headquarters was, the government was as ruthless as it was corrupt. But …read more
