The world today through the eyes of history
MANY murder cases have taken the world by storm. Still, there are undoubtedly many others that never made the headlines.
Dr Marek W Rutkowski, Lecturer in Global Studies, School of Arts and Social Sciences, Monash University Malaysia, discovered the murder of a diplomat in South Vietnam in 1957 while working on his PhD a few years ago.
The case sparked many speculations at the time but was never resolved, which piqued his interest. This murder case, although only a speck in history, could lead to lessons that can be learned today.
In the 1950s, Vietnam achieved its independence from France after years of the First Indochina War and was divided into North (communist) and South (anticommunist) Vietnam.
The country was in the process of setting up, and an international supervisory commission was established to oversee the ceasefire.
In April 1957, a Canadian diplomat on this commission was found dead in his villa in Saigon, stabbed with a knife with no evidence of a struggle.
Investigations were carried out briefly but ultimately dropped. There were many different speculations regarding who could have done it. Was it a local, or the communists who wanted to disrupt the situation, or another diplomat stationed there at the time?
“I have been trying to piece the story together using sources from multiple archives. To my surprise, I could only find a few documents in Canada where the case was mentioned but without specifics. However, intriguingly, I was able to locate a former diplomat who was in Vietnam at the time who implied that the
reason I could not find anything was that it was a sensitive matter that could damage the image of the country and the person himself. My speculation is that some of his actions at the time got him in trouble.
“The mystery surrounding the case compelled me to dig deeper and resolve it, although this may be impossible as it happened a long time ago,” Dr Rutkowski expressed.
What can we take away from this story? This murder case, a fragment in history, is more than just a curious mystery.
It touches on geopolitics and portrays how a post-colonial state like Vietnam had to manage relations with foreign powers, especially during the turbulent time of the Cold War.
Local police investigating the case had to manage foreign advisors who commented that their work wasn’t done professionally and yet they couldn’t interfere.
This leaves the question of who should have been investigating the case. And did it affect the relationship between governments in any way?
Global Studies is the interdisciplinary area of study comprising various disciplines including international relations, political science, history, sociology, economics and anthropology to compel students to understand the world around them and apply each disciplines’ fundamentals to the contemporary world.
Dr Rutkowski, a historian by training, specialises in international history with a particular focus on the Cold War in Asia.
One of the units in which he lectures, Introduction to World Politics and History, covers the history of the Cold War.
The unit builds a student’s understanding of what happened during that period which connects to what is happening today. This, in turn, prepares students for other units under Global Studies such as Globalisation which focuses on the engagement between countries, cultural spread and political replication which emerged from the Cold War period.
In their third year, students are exposed to the real world through work-integrated learning units, where they learn to resolve simulated crises in the real world.
Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are also invited to come in with projects for students to propose their solutions to.
This allows them to apply the knowledge they have gained in previous semesters in a realistic environment, which gets them ready for the workforce when they graduate.
“Career options for a Global Studies graduate are less defined than for an engineering graduate, but we like to emphasise on the soft skills that graduates gain during their degree such as research and writing skills as well as critical thinking.
“We train them to process information and to evaluate it critically. We prompt them not to take things at face value, to always ask questions, and not to accept a black or white answer, and instead look for the shades of grey. This skillset has successfully gotten our graduates into different sectors such as governments, private companies and think tanks,” Dr Rutkowski said.
Monash University has placed 57th in the world in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2022.
Our research is strengthened through global collaboration with industry and government, and our improved industry income score demonstrates the success of these relationships.
Monash University Malaysia has given out scholarships worth RM200 million to successful recipients for the past ten years. If you are passionate about tackling core challenges facing the world, Monash University Malaysia is the perfect place for you. Learn more about our programs at www.monash.edu. my.