Take me your

Press, 26 June 1989, Page 18

Take me your

g Prince Norodom I Sihanouk — The once and future King? ™ (Kampuchea/Cambodia) S Prince Sihanouk, the gKing of Cambodia (now for two periods between 1941 and 11955 and again from 1960. .to 1970, has been holding /talks which might result gin his return to power. has had ■many years of conflict. Between 1975-79 the ex-j ftreme communist group/ gthe Khmer Rouge, were? Bin power and two million I /people died during that ■time. The Vietnamese) ■have been controlling the Bcountry for the last 101 ■years. Recently Prince /Sihanouk, who lives in] (exile, and the Viet-? fenamese-backed Kampuichean Prime Minister, ■Hun Sen, have been discussing ways of setting up ga new Government, with ’/Prince Sihanouk as hea

[■ Carlos Menem — i Macho politician I (Argentina) j Carlos Menem, a [macho-style politician, [won the recent election [for the presidency in [Argentina. The son of an (Arab immigrant, Menem [supports the type of gov!!ernment of an earlier president, Juan Peron. He wants to take back the Falkland Islands from (Britain and stop paying (off Argentina’s SUSS7B [national debt. Menem promises higher pay and better conditions for rich and poor. It seems unlikely that these changes will come as the country [has very serious economic [problems. The annual initiation rate is 3600 per [cent and many jobs are very poorly paid. The average teacher, for example, only receives SNZIS a week and a headmaster SNZ3O. Read the international page to [see how the Argentinian (people are reacting to Menem’s election victory.

(c) Early Elections Various political, polls give us an indication of how leaders and political parties are faring in the public popularity stakes. Although only 500 to 1000 people may be involved in these surveys, they give an accurate statistical view of national trends. “The Press” Newspapers in Education would like South Island school students to vote in mock elections to see what they think about politics and politicians in New Zealand in 1989. Send your class and school election results to “The Press,” NIE Department, Private Bag, Christchurch. Include your teacher’s signature to verify that the votes are valid.

(See everyone has a voting paper). Rule out the parties you do not want to vote for. You may leave only one party. If we receive a large enough sample we will publish the results.

Democrats Labour National New Labour Party New Zealand Party Social Credit Values _ Other (give name)

Fold and place in the class election box.

Mikhail Gorbachev — H Mr Nice Guy (U.S.S.R.) h Mikhail Gorbachev, the 1 “leader of the Soviet; Union, looks like becoming the most famous world leader of the 1980 s; Hand 90s. His policies of; gglasnost (openness), de- ‘ Jmokratizatsya (democracy) and perestroika ■ (economic restructuring) Shave brought great ■changes to his country Jand much friendlier retentions with the Western world. In April this year people were able to svote in the first real fl national election for 71 Syears. Many other free-r Odoms are now being al-1 flowed for the first time/ |The new openness that! (Gorbachev has brought! Slabout means that people |

are now more aware oft the country’s huge econo-1 mic problems. Changes | are urgently needed ini this area if the Soviet I Union is to keep up with the Western world. Mikhail Gorbachev is! facing two main problems at home. He has to deal! with his people’s increas-l ing demands for a more democratic form of Gov-g ernment, and is also faced I with republics within thej Soviet Union, such as! Georgia, wanting to have! more independence. P

General Manuel | Antonio Noriega — jh 8 ‘Drug thug’ in power g (Panama) General Noriega is the Minister of Defence ini gPanama. He is also a drug' /dealer and a dictator.!Under a treaty arrange-! Bment the United States g J has troops stationed ini H Panama. Noriega has gspoken out strongly I ; against this. Since 19871 (the U.S.A, has tried to get! Noriega out of his position! of power. In May thej ■Panamanians held ang election for President andj J Vice-President. Noriega | was determined his candi-g dates should win. Noriega! ■ used thugs to beat up the I j opposition and interfere g gin the election. The elec-| tion was so unfair that thej /’results have been an-1 nulled (i.e., made as ifg They had not happened).| The U.S.A, has now sent I ■ extra troops to Panama.

e f?[ Yasser Arafat — ig Leader without a country [ gg (Palestine) • Yasser Arafat is theg i chairman of the P.L.O. 1H (Palestine Liberation Or-! ISganisation). Last year, for; -gthe first time, Arafat, siumade public a recognition /Hof the State of Israel.| C; j Until then Arafat and the .-0 P.L.0., who claim the; r area as their country of! e; Palestine, have never 21 been willing to do this.; :-|j Recently, Arafat further 1 s| increased hopes for peacei an by saying that the P.L.O. l|no longer wanted to des-g OH troy Israel. This hasp og brought criticism bothr oafrom the Israelis and the • more extreme P.L.O.

H Lech Walesa — ! (Poland) H Lech Walesa is the; [leader of the Polish trade; • union movement Solidarity. In mid-June Polish; ; (people were allowed a; llvote in the first free elec-; Htion for forty years. Until; rathis recent election oppo-j ®sition candidates were not' Hallowed to stand. Most of; Hthe opposition candidates 1 Hare supporters of Solidar-> gpty. They have received’ enormous support from; Kthe voters. It is thought; that a coalition between: and opposi-J tion candidates will probably be formed. (

Death of democracy in China?

I Deng Xiaoping — p Democracy on the: I streets 1 | (China) | Deng Xiaoping, the! | Chinese leader, is in! | trouble. During the lasts |two months hundreds off J thousands of students j 8 have taken to the streets | | demonstrating in supports |of a more democratic j | type of Government. Deng! I Xiaoping is known to be 8 j against making political | j changes. However, the! jstrength of the student! ggroups and the support! | they seemed to be getting! ■from the public was I I enormous. | From mid-April to early j sjJune the Government did 8 Inot use force against theg ■demonstrators. On June 3,1 ■B4-year-old Mr Deng, whoß gis said to be ill with I gcancer gave orders that I | the army should crush theg Iprotests. By June 10 Mr J IDeng was again appearing | gin public. He was seen on (television to be firmly in of the army. Ob-f Hservers regard this as’ for the Chin-1 Sese Government. jMW V* r The iron lady (Britain) ? ability to balance the. nation’s Budget keeps hers in power. Critics say that, her policies have made® Britain’s rich, richer andb the poor, poorer. Mar-g garet Thatcher is seen as 11 a very powerful influence g in European politics. r

George Bush — g i Waiting and seeing p (U.S.A.) | ( George Bush has now I been President of the J, United States of America,! I for four months. In the| (early days of his presi-| dency he made clear that,| as a new President, he' wanted to wait and seep before he took important g steps. It seems that het wanted to know what direction the other super! Powers, particularly the! Soviet Union, were going g in before making a move, p Critics felt that Bush g should take some initia-M (tive, especially at a time I when Mikhail Gorbachev! was getting so much at-1 tention and there seemed | to be many hopeful signs | for peace between the! Soviet Union and theg West. I Recently George Bush g became assertive and cap-1 tured world headlines byg making provocative re-1 marks about the Soviet I Union and China. He told I the Soviets that theyj should pull down the Ber-j Tin Wall and criticised theg Chinese Government forg the way the student! demonstrations have been I crushed. < r J | Margaret Thatcher — | Margaret Thatcher has been Prime Minister of (Britain since 1979. She is Reader of the Conservative (Party. Mrs Thatcher is not personally popular,- but commentators believe she ; (will win the next election, i Her determination and i

Compiled by Artwork by Defyd Williams Al Nisbet Coral Broadbent

June 26 Update the situation in China today with pictures and articles from “The Press” international section.