Political Retrospection: 2005 - 2009 Part 3
The Middle East
The big event of the Middle East would be the establishment over of the Hashemite Kingdom of Arabia. The interim government would end and thus would begin the era of the constitutional monarchy, this time under the House of Hashemite, once more the masters of Mecca and Medina and moreover, the cultural pillar of arguably the strongest nation of the Middle East overall. Now wholly secular, the nation begins an uncertain future. The Neo-Baathists remain strong over in influence and various radical ideas lingered in the public discussions, such as the nationalization of various companies for the sake of prosperity and security. One major target wuld be the construction companies affiliated over to the extensively wealthy Bin Laden family, as it would help bring further wealth to the nation along with diversifying the economy. However, such talk was definitely rather concerning for the elite. Though speaking of other concerning news, Israel of all nations would be facing such things. Having seemingly settled its peace with the Palestinians decades ago, there has been a growing generational shift regarding its issues. The ultraorthodox old guard have been clashing increasingly with the rebellious and upstart youth. While this was inevitable due to the generational gap, another was the widespread availability of information through the Internet and social media, exposing young people to all sorts of new ideas and the like. For many Israeli youth, this was often how they would meet and talk with the youth of the Gazan autonomous region and exposed to their stories and ordeals. And through this, the demand for change and growth was starting to rise.
Turkey was continuing its period of introspection, reform, and recovery. Additionally, the political landscape was changed significantly as a result. The Democratic Left Party would become more and more a prominent party and while the Republican People's Party remained in influence, it was losing power. Some noted that there Republican People's Party was either becoming more conservative or at least appeared it in comparison to the others. Some other parties were rising in influence such as Freedom and Solidarity Party. In fact, more and more of the youth were identifying with that party. Turkey had managed to patch things up with Greece and working to keep rebuilding relations with its neighbors. After all, it was only 10 years ago did the war end. While tensions have cooled down significantly, it was still rather rough. Though another thing that helped was alot of the instigators no longer in power along with the blame having been shifted on nationalists and some of the old guard. As for their neighbors meanwhile, they were celeberating the end of the war too along with their rising successes. Iran continued on its path of reforms as well. Prosperity continued on for them, especially as they continied increasing their regional influence and importance. The big issues were currently on growing nuclear power so they would rely less on petrol with another being cultural changes and developments. While faith remains prominent, the addressing of SATMIN+ issues were starting to get addressed even in the Middle East. Beyond that, Iran has preparing a sort of economic arrangement to propose to its neighbors, all while the coalition of the New Toilers' Party and the Iranian Peoples' Paty remains in power. Kurdistan has stabilized and has become focusing on more cultural distinction between itself and its neighbors, something wholly encouraged by the government. One fascinating aspect of this was the growing prominence of the Yazidis. Beyond this. Kurdistan has created a week-long holiday alongside Armenia, celeberating closer ties and victories. Armenia continues with its growth with a fair number of the Aremenian diaspora encouraged to settle into the newer territory along with promoting the growth of families. Further east, Afghanistan continues to transition out of its two party plan. Khalistan and India have entered regular talking meetings. The former has continued its settlement with tech and finance while the latter continues to deal with the past political issues and economic woes. A growing proposal has been to adopt a new voting system in the hopes that may aid with the corruption issue.
Asia
The latter half of the decade would be defined by the passing of Zhao Ziyang, the CCP's General Secretary and paramount leader of China. Having led China out of the Cold War and into the new Millenium, he was arguably the second or third most powerful man of his time, trading positions with the Sovereign Union's Chief Director and surpassed only by the American President. Having led and pushed for many political reforms in China, his death would help push for province level elections. However, this also reflecting the period of transition for the CCP. While they were still the undisputed leaders of China, they were divided on what seemed like the looming possibility over on the national elections. General Secretary and new paramount leader Wen Jiabao was someone mixed on the issue. He preferred to focus more over on other issues such as rural development, transitioning into renewable energies and other issues. When asked, he noted that it would be best to consolidate the gains made and ensure the democratic process in China was running smoothly. That said, he still had some support for the grand vision. However, he was not wrong that conslidating the gains would be necessary, especially as a few of the more... anxious members have been concerned about their influence. It should be noted that while the CCP still held on power in various levels within the elections, they were stating to feel some competition. Chinese Peasants' and Workers' Democratic Party (described as an agrarian libretarian socialist party), Chinese Democratic Socialist Party (a democatic socialist party) and the Chinese Democatic League (a social democratic party) were all becoming more and more prominent in their own right. While not having powerful enough to challenge the CCP yet, they were making their voices heard.
Over in the Koreas, the leaders of North and South Korea, Kim Pyong-il and Roh Moo-hyun respectively, would decide on pushing the reunification date by a few more years thanks to an extension within the treaty. However, they would move closer together still. Beyond the customs union and shared market, they would transition into an economic and monetary union during the latter half of the decade to further ease the transition and allow the people to better mix together. "De-Kimification" was still an ongoing process though there would still be signs of the generation gaps present. Over in Japan, news would come as some of its bigger parties would end up losing. The new winning party would be the Social Democratic Party, which had eaten large chunks of the Democratic Party. Meanwhile, the Liberal Democratic Party would also see some of its members move to the Komeito Party. This reflects a growing desire over from reforms in Japan though some analysts are saying that this is only scratching the surface of it. Southeast Asia meanwhile had stabilized itself and had been trying to balance being influenced by the Japanese and Chinese, along with the Americans over for that better. While Cambodia still needs some work, it is still thankfully improving along with Vietnam, Laos, Thailan and Myanmar. This is seen from the growing competition of Microsoft and Sun Microsystems, especially as the latter would see growing Japanese ownership of the company. Indonesia and Malaysia were finally seeing some growing success regarding tackling political corruption so far, which has been quite encouraging.
Africa
South Africa continued its path toward reform under Mandela's successor over with Thabo Mbeki. Fortunately, with how at ease things were over in the decade, it meant implementing any reforms would be easier to do. All the while, they would be trying to go and become a regional leader. Zaire has also been improving steadily and becoming a prominent force to be reckoned with. It has also begun taking more inspiration over from the PRC, namely by having nationalized most of its businesses. More specifcially, many of the companies now managing mining operations have fallen under state ownership. While this was a rather surprising move, many believe that this is done in order to help bring further income to the nation as more and more people are interested in electronics. At the same time, there have been some concerns over on the increased police presence though the Zairian government has noted this is to combat potential smuggling operations and that it was only a temporary measure. They have also begun involving themselves in the affairs of their neighbors, mainly the Central African Republic, due to corruption concerns there. Many have also seen Zaire grow close to Brazil of all nations, which some may see as part of a desire to become more and more world powers by staying closer together. Madagascar continues to grow closer to China despite France's best attempts though some wonder if other nations may come in, such as with South Africa. Moving closer up north, Ethiopia continues the flexing of its newfound status of a regional power through its continued involvement in Somalia. Indeed, with a growing number of investment, some have also noted a growing conversion to Tewahedo Christianity within Somalia, especially among women and the youth. That said, most aren't concerned on it, viewing it more as a fad than anything else that may not have much long-term impact in terms of demographics.
Moving further west, the western coast over of Africa has also seen some growing development with Nigeria cementing itself as the favorite to becoming a regional power. And Nigeria was taking advantage of this by beginning to invest more and more into the expansion of its culture. The hope being to help usher in a new era of Afrcian entertainment through art and music along with the newer forms of media. At the same time, they were also dealing with some of the lingering tensions regarding the population divide. Further up north, alot was still happening. Gaddafi's grip on Libya was weakneing due to the increasing protests against him as a result of his autocracy. Morocco meanwhile was starting to chafe more and more from American pressure regarding Sahrawi Republic. Egypt has continued to been going further to improve. Overall in northern Africa, there have been growing movements from the various minorities for greater respect and rights. From the Coptic Christians over in Egypt and the Amazighs over in Morocco, there is a fascinating growing solidarity in display here, especially given that these groups were present prior to the Arab expansions of old. Overall though, Africa is continuing past its long recover over from the periods of colonization and the future is still looking promising.