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Daily News on the Southeast Asian Region
12 May 2020
(pm) - 13 May 2020 (am)
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This is a daily information alert service containing articles and commentaries from international and regional news sources. The alert is released every Monday to Friday, focussing on Southeast Asia and special topics relevant to ISEAS' research interests. You can click on any of the links below to directly access the subject of your immediate interest. If you think your friends and colleagues would find this alert useful, please invite them to
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Southeast Asia Countries
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Cambodia
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Cambodia's forgotten war on drugs enters fourth year: Government data shows 57% of all inmates are held on drug-related charges. Of the 21,740 imprisoned under the anti-drug campaign between 2017 and last year, at least 39% were for minor, non-trafficking offences. But official statistics are a poor barometer in a legal system characterized by corruption and a lack of due process, with defendants regularly convicted in the absence of a lawyer and on flimsy evidence.
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Substance Abuses - The Human Cost of Cambodia's Anti-Drug Campaign: To date, the campaign's overwhelming emphasis on detention and prosecution - rather than ensuring access to adequate healthcare for people who use drugs, including treatment, rehabilitation, and harm reduction - has led to an escalating public health and human rights crisis. ....This report, which is based on field research carried out by Amnesty International in November and December 2019, documents the extensive human rights violations associated with the Cambodian government's anti-drug campaign.
[78-page PDF document]
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Cambodia poised to be big Covid-19 loser: Cambodia, despite reporting fewer coronavirus cases than most of its neighbors, could be among the region's biggest Covid-19 losers due to economic and financial contagion effects. The country's most crucial business sectors, including tourism and garment manufacturing, have ground to a virtual halt since the pandemic first emerged in China in January and thereafter spread worldwide.
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Indonesia
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Indonesia's financial system at risk amid pandemic: KSSK: Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, who serves as the committee's chair, said on Monday that the supply-demand shock and lower GDP outlook posed a "serious threat" to financial system stability. The KSSK [Financial System Stability Committee] was on alert over risks caused by the pandemic.
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Freight volumes fall sharply in logistics sector due to COVID-19: Cargo volumes in the logistics sector, including transportation and warehousing, in the first quarter of 2020 grew by just 1.27 percent (year on year), a decline from 5.45-percent growth registered in the year-ago period. "The decline in volumes in the logistics sector was greatly influenced by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which affected the demand for goods and commodities, as well as industrial activities," chairman of Supply Chain Indonesia, Setijadi, said in a statement on Tuesday in Jakarta.
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Economic recovery budget increased by Rp56.5 trillion: Bappenas: Minister of National Development Planning, Suharso Monoarfa, said the government has added Rp56.5 trillion to the economic recovery budget in the Government Work Plan (RKP) 2021 to deal with the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. "As for economic recovery, there has been an increase in non-operational spending by ministries and institutions of around 55 percent, or Rp56.5 trillion," Monoarfa, who also heads the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas), said on Tuesday in Jakarta.
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Bappenas forecasts 1% economic growth in Indonesia amid COVID-19: Minister of National Development Planning/Head of the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas), Suharso Monoarfa, projected that Indonesia will record an economic growth of one percent owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. Monoarfa noted that economic growth is not estimated to meet the government's target of 2.3 percent owing to the likelihood of significant contraction in the second quarter of 2020.
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Laos
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Laos Registers Workers Left Unemployed by COVID-19, Including Returned Migrants: Laos' Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare is registering information about Lao citizens who lost their jobs due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the first step in what the workers hope will be a government response to help them get through tough times, sources in Laos told RFA.
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Laos to press ahead with 'destructive' new dam on Mekong River: Environmentalists have criticised Laos for pressing ahead with plans for another "destructive dam" on the Mekong River, a waterway already strangled by hydropower schemes. The flow of the Mekong, South-east Asia's longest river, is interrupted by a cascade of dams in China - where it is called the Lancang. Two downstream dams - the Xayaburi and Don Sahong - have been built in Laos, which wants to construct seven more as it strives to live up to its billing as the "Battery of Asia".
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Malaysia
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my Say: MCO and its revelations on the food supply chain: The MCO has uncovered a number of shortcomings that deserve serious attention to ensure our food security. First, the country is not well prepared for a shock in food supply management. This is understandable, as such a disruption was abrupt and unanticipated. But as some experts have concluded, the future of agriculture is going to be rough owing to climatic factors, resource depletion, growing complexities in market dynamics, among others. Hence, uncertainty and instability are important parameters in the production equation.
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Leaked recording of 'Muhyiddin entrusting Dr M' to decide on Bersatu exit from Pakatan: In the one-minute audio recording, a voice that sounds like party president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin can be heard saying that chairman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was entrusted with the mandate to pull Bersatu out of Pakatan.
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The case for a no-confidence vote: It is usual for government business to take precedence over private member's bills and motions in Parliament. What this means is that Mahathir's motion will not be debated because it is a one-day sitting and, this being the month of Ramadan, the sitting will break before 6pm. Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Takiyuddin Hassan has revealed some of the business of government that needs to be considered by the 222 MPs. This includes the tabling of two supplementary bills related to Budget 2020 that need to be approved in view of the government's Covid-19 economic stimulus package to help businesses survive.
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'Outgunned by six Umno excos, Faizal set to be weak MB': Aziz said that according to the principles of the parliamentary democracy system, the six Umno members can vote unanimously to reject any decision by the MB and that this was the political reality after Perikatan Nasional had established a government without the mandate of the people.
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How party-hopping brings down state govts: Such matters first came under the spotlight in 1992, when then supreme court justice Eusoff Chin ruled that Kelantan's anti-hopping law was inconsistent with Article 10(1)(c) of the federal constitution concerning freedom of association. Since then, 11 MPs and 11 assemblymen have either resigned or defected to bring down one federal government and five state governments, with Perak having suffered it twice, in 2009 and this year.
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Self-sufficiency Malaysia's key challenge in post-pandemic era: The crisis has exposed the structural flaws of an economy that is overly dependent on cheap migrant labour, which has suppressed wages for everyone and led to the middle-income trap, they said. But, the pandemic is also an opportunity for Malaysia to fix those flaws, boost incomes, especially in rural areas, reduce its massive food import bill and increase food self-sufficiency.
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Strange logic behind one-day sitting: The current policies are one-sided without constructive scrutiny. Parliament is the place where our voices are represented and debates held. For a response to be both comprehensive and legitimate, Parliament must be ready to hear feedback about what's working and what isn't. We need more, not less, parliamentary scrutiny. A one-day sitting while most business sectors are allowed to resume operations casts Parliament in a bad light.
Khoo Ying Hooi is deputy head and senior lecturer at the Department of International and Strategic Studies, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Universiti Malaya.
Malaysian Insight, 13 May 2020
https://www.themalaysianinsight.com/s/245102
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Apakah ada masa depan buat Bersatu [Is there a future for Bersatu]? Jika Bersatu akhirnya hanya mengikut arus yang sama, mula bercampur dengan mereka yang membawa budaya politik yang dulu kita berikrar untuk perangi, apologetik dan merasa tak bersalah pula bersama dengan mereka yang pernah kita kalahkan kerana kerakusan wang dan kuasa yang jelas berlaku di depan mata, di manakah lagi rasionalnya keperluan parti kita untuk orang Melayu?
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Even if no-confidence vote against PM fails, Dr Mahathir wins: Political commentator Cheah See Kian said the fact that such a motion will be raised in Parliament is a blot on the record of Muhyiddin, who betrayed the nonagenarian leader with whom he founded Bersatu in 2016 to topple the Umno regime. Ilham Centre executive director Mohd Azlan Zainal said even if the motion does not see the light of day, Dr Mahathir has successfully raised questions about Muhyiddin's legitimacy as prime minister.
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Bersatu pays price for Muhyiddin to keep top job: SURRENDERING Kedah and Johor is part of the concessions that Muhyiddin Yassin has had to make to stay on as prime minister with Umno's support, said political analysts. They said this was evident when Bersatu gave up the Johor menteri besar's post to the Barisan Nasional lynchpin.
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Accelerating digital empowerment best way forward: International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Azmin Ali said the Covid-19 crisis had highlighted the need for a rapid transformation of the Malaysian economy. ... Azmin said Malaysia should seize emerging trends and opportunities to mitigate the Covid-19 pandemic which had lasting implications on global investment.
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IRB: Pandemic will not leave a big dent: The Covid-19 pandemic will put a dent on the government's tax revenue this year, according to the Inland Revenue Board (IRB). Its chief executive officer, Datuk Seri Dr Sabin Samitah, however, said the impact would be minimal as the country had a strong revenue base to offset the shortfall in tax collection.
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Sanusi touted to become Kedah MB: The Jeneri state assemblyman from Pas, however, dismissed the notion but sources within the Perikatan Nasional (PN) bloc were confident of his potential to replace Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir as the state's top executive. ... Yesterday, Sanusi held a press conference announcing the collapse of the state government under Mukhriz, saying 23 out of 36 assemblymen had lost confidence in the latter, who is Jitra assemblyman and Jerlun member of parliament.
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22 bulan sebagai pembangkang [22 months as opposition]: Dari bulan Mei hingga Disember 2018, tempoh itu adalah saat-saat sukar bagi UMNO. Mengira herdikan, cacian dan sindiran, seluruh anggota parti bagaikan terduduk, Menara Dato' Onn bagaikan tidak bermaya.
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Malaysia posts slowest growth since 2009 of 0.7 per cent but beats forecast of Q1 contraction: Defying expectations of a sharp contraction due to lockdown curbs, Q1 GDP grew by 0.7 per cent though Q2 could be worse. Malaysia is expected to be hard hit in the event of a global recession with its March unemployment rate the highest in a decade
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Who has the upper hand in Mahathir v Muhyiddin showdown?: Malaysia's Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has often been likened to a "smiling tiger", a man whose charm and laid-back demeanour belie the instincts of a ruthless political animal. In the lead-up to the next sitting of Parliament next Monday, he has clearly marked his prey - Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin. Should he succeed, Tan Sri Muhyiddin will be the third prime minister to be brought down by 94-year-old Dr Mahathir. Such is his record that Umno politician Alwi Che Ahmad said, only half in jest: "Look, he even brought down himself when he resigned as the PM."
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Perubahan kerajaan Kedah tamatkan spekulasi [Change in Kedah government ends speculation]: Pensyarah Kanan Hal Ehwal Dasar, Politik dan Pengajian Antarabangsa, Pusat Pengajian Antarabangsa, Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM), Md Shukri Shuib, berkata keadaan itu akan membawa kepada kestabilan politik yang seterusnya memberi kesejahteraan kepada rakyat. Menurutnya, perkembangan politik di Kedah mengambil masa yang agak panjang berbanding negeri-negeri lain seperti Johor, Melaka dan Perak yang turut berubah pentadbiran susulan perubahan kerajaan di peringkat pusat.
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Rakyat pilih 'roti' berbanding 'undi' ketika berdepan krisis [In times of crisis, the people choose 'bread' over 'votes']: Meskipun kerajaan semasa dibentuk pada awal Mac lalu tanpa manifesto, ia membuktikan manifesto tidak bertulis mereka cukup berkesan untuk mengurus krisis kemanusiaan terburuk yang pernah berlaku dalam negara. Tanggungjawab kerajaan adalah memastikan kesihatan rakyat berada pada tahap terbaik. Rantaian COVID-19 perlu diputuskan sementara vaksin wabak ini masih belum dijumpai.
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Mahathir's No-Win No-Confidence Gamble: Calling for a no-confidence motion against Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin in parliament this month, Dr Mahathir Mohamad - Muhyiddin's predecessor - has gone for zugzwang - a German term in chess that denotes a situation for a player when any move will worsen his position. As in zugzwang, Mahathir was compelled to move, knowing full well that ultimately he will be the biggest loser.
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BN backs Muhyiddin but undecided on formalising Perikatan Nasional: Barisan Nasional (BN) assured Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin of its full support today, although it remained undecided on formalising the Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition. BN chairman Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the formal registration of PN was something that needed to "go through certain processes" among the coalition's component parties. Nonetheless, he gave Muhyiddin his assurance that all BN MPs will support him should a no-confidence vote be tabled against him in the Dewan Rakyat.
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Population up despite fewer births, more deaths: Malaysia has recorded a slight increase in population despite more deaths and fewer births in the first quarter of the year compared to the same period last year. Chief Statistician Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the population now stood at an estimated 32.73 million, an increase of 0.6% compared to 32.53 million in the first quarter of 2019.
[contains 1 info-graphic]
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Industrial production dips by 4.9% in March: Industrial sectors suffered a 4.9% dip in production for March 2020 compared with the same period last year, the Department of Statistics Malaysia said today. Chief Statistician Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the decline was attributed to a drop in production in the manufacturing, mining and electricity sectors.
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Isu etika dan keabsahan kerajaan [Ethical issues and government legitimacy]: Saya berpendapat bahawa tindakan Dr Mahathir dan Anwar untuk tidak mengiktiraf kerajaan hari ini bukanlah bermaksud kerajaan hari ini tidak sah. Ia hanyalah satu percaturan politik yang biasa dibuat oleh ramai politikus dunia dalam meyakinkan rakyat bahawa kerajaan yang tertubuh bukanlah kerajaan yang dikehendaki.
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Percaturan politik tidak diduga oleh Tun M [Unexpected political tactics by Tun M]: Agak mengejutkan apabila kerajaan PN pimpinan Perdana Menteri, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin yang dianggap berjaya menjalankan urus tadbir kerajaan dengan begitu baik termasuk dalam menangani ancaman pandemik Covid-19, kini boleh diibaratkan seperti 'telur di hujung tanduk'.
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Memulihkan dasar luar Malaysia [Restoring Malaysia's foreign policy]: Datuk Seri Hishamuddin Tun Hussien mengambil alih jawatan Menteri Luar Negeri pada Mac lalu ketika Malaysia dan dunia sedang menuju ke arah sekatan pergerakan. Ini menyebabkan beliau tidak mempunyai kesempatan melakukan lawatan kerja bagi memperbaiki hubungan diplomatik.
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Myanmar
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Myanmar's economic relief plan risks excluding vulnerable populations: It is concerning that the government has not provided any guidelines to subnational and township authorities for identifying eligible beneficiaries, which could lead the government to exclude the most vulnerable groups they intend to target. This includes groups who lack formal documents (such as national registration cards and land documents) and/or work in the informal sector. This begs the question: Who gets to be categorized as vulnerable and receive much-needed economic assistance?
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Myanmar Army Acknowledges Unlawful Interrogation Methods After Viral Rakhine Beating Video: Myanmar's military said Tuesday that some of its troops used unlawful and improper interrogation techniques while detaining five Rakhine men suspected of having links to the rebel Arakan Army, a rare admission offered a day after a video published by RFA showed soldiers beating the men on board a naval vessel.
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Myanmar's Major Political Parties Chilly Toward Post-2020 Election Coalition Talk: Two small political parties [Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD) party and the People's Party] in Myanmar are calling for a coalition government following year-end elections, saying such an arrangement is needed to resolve armed conflicts and political deadlocks that have stifled the peace plans and reform pledges of the four-year-old administration of Aung San Suu Kyi. Major parties poured cold water on the idea.
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As COVID-19 Hits Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi and the Military Seek an Electoral Edge: Before the video was posted online on March 21, the government also established a coronavirus task force. But all the while, it sought to downplay the likelihood that COVID-19 would wreak havoc in Myanmar to the same degree it had elsewhere. When the first positive cases soon cropped up, Suu Kyi opened a Facebook account-her first, and likely an attempt to better personalize her relationship with the public-to, as she put it, "communicate faster and more efficiently" on coronavirus-related developments.
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Philippines
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The Philippines' Pandemic Response: A Tragedy of Errors: The Philippine government has been boasting that as early as March 16, they had the gumption to implement a lockdown in major cities and provinces in response to the unfolding COVID-19 pandemic. However, Manila's overall response to the pandemic has been fraught with incompetence and rife with terror.
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The Fourth Republic: Duterte vs oligarchs: What was once unthinkable is now probable. The once mighty and untouchable are now vulnerable like never before, as Philippine politics heads into uncharted territory. Our country is in the midst of not only a public health and economic crisis, but also of the seeming disintegration of a decades-long political order.
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Singapore
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Singapore, Chongqing working together to keep supply chains open: Singapore is working closely with the Chinese city of Chongqing to keep supply chains open amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing said yesterday. Writing on Facebook after he and Manpower Minister Josephine Teo met the city's Party Secretary Chen Min'er and Mayor Tang Liangzhi in a video conference, Mr Chan said both sides also discussed ways to progressively resume travel. "We agreed on the importance of keeping supply chains open during this difficult period, noting that flights between Singapore and Chongqing continued to operate, as well as discussed ways to progressively resume movement of our people with a common set of standards and protocols," said Mr Chan.
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Thailand
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Save informal workers, save economy: Unstable income and health risks are no strangers to highway stall vendors, but this year's pandemic underscores the policy urgency to provide them and other 38 million informal workers with better life and work security. How to help low-income informal workers who cannot follow the "work-from-home" policy?
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Thailand: The Coronavirus Suicides: Scholars warned that the number of suicide cases caused by economic repercussions could even exceed the number of coronavirus deaths if the government does not react quickly....People with fewer resources have been the hardest hit since the country confirmed the first positive case outside China on January 13. Health officials say their mental health hotline is receiving an unprecedented barrage of calls. In March alone, for example, the Department of Public Health received 600 calls, compared to just 20 and 40 in each of the previous two months, and the number has continued to increase.
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Vietnam
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How has Vietnam, a developing nation in South-East Asia, done so well to combat COVID-19? Vietnam is an authoritarian, one-party state which is notoriously secretive about sharing information. But most experts believe Vietnamese authorities are being honest about coronavirus statistics.
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Conflicting policies, land issues hinder equitization of SOEs in Vietnam: The equitisation of State-owned enterprises (SOEs) is being hindered by troublesome policies, lack of transparency in land management and the Covid-19 pandemic, experts said. Among 93 SOEs selected to be equitised by Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc this year, only two have been given the green light from the Government for their equitisation plans.
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Vietnam's Coronavirus Success Is Built on Repression: Todd Pollack, the country medical director of the Partnership for Health Advancement in Vietnam and a specialist in infectious diseases, ascribed Vietnam's success to three factors: its relatively young population (just 12 percent of Vietnamese are over 60, compared with 22 percent in the United Kingdom); rigorous testing combined with early hospitalization for those found to be infected; and diligent contact tracing and isolation. It is the last of those three-the tracing and isolating of infected people-that enabled Vietnam to get its outbreak under control....the reason Vietnam's disease control mechanisms have been so effective, and the reason why they are unlikely to be copied, is that they are the same mechanisms that facilitate and protect the country's one-party rule.
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Nimble Vietnam reaping gains from success against Covid-19: Schools have reopened and buses are running as usual in Vietnam, which has gone for almost a month without seeing community transmission of the Covid-19 virus. Having staved off a wider outbreak, Hanoi is now reaping strategic gains from its nimble response. Investor interest - which shrivelled up early this year - is picking up again as the pandemic heightens the urgency of shifting production away from China, say business consultants. Meanwhile, Vietnam's export of face masks and test kits could help cushion the larger economic impact of the pandemic
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ASEAN/Southeast Asia
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Post-pandemic Asean must bridge the digital gender divide: Asean and its members have a unique opportunity right now to quickly address the gender gaps in the digital economy. It is vital that the region tap into all of its resources now to chart the course through Covid-19 recovery in a manner that facilitates a smooth transition to the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Giulia Ajmone Marsan is a Strategy and Partnership director at the Economic Research Institute for Asean and East Asia, Jakarta, Indonesia, and Lydia Ruddy is director of Communications at the Economic Research Institute.
Nation, 13 May 2020
https://www.nationthailand.com/opinion/30387734
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Asia Pacific
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China steps up maritime activity with eye on post-pandemic order: The moves each point to Beijing's ambitions to assert a stronger presence in the post-coronavirus world order. This all comes when the U.S. Navy has recently experienced a rare power vacuum in the West Pacific and the South China Sea.
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East/South China Sea
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China's Chance to Demonstrate Leadership in the South China Sea: China, in a series of assertive and sometimes risky unilateral actions, has netted some significant gains in the South China Sea in the past decade...China's best move would be to rein in its coast guard patrols and get serious about cutting equitable resource sharing deals with other claimants that put aside the question of sovereignty. In doing so, it could effectively lock in its gains to date while laying the foundations for improved relations with Southeast Asia and a greater leadership role in the region.
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Philippines-China Cooperation In South China Sea During Pandemic: These Philippine protests against China have created an impression that conflicts between these two countries have escalated in the SCS. But the two countries are, in fact, seriously involved in a series of peaceful dialogues and consultations to actively promote functional cooperation and decisively avoid military conflicts in the South China Sea through the Philippines-China Bilateral Consultative Mechanism in the SCS (BCM). Confidence built at the BCM greatly facilitated the continuing Philippines-China cooperation during the pandemic.
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China rebuts Vietnam's protest against South China Sea fishing ban: Chinese Foreign Ministry on Monday said Vietnam has no right to comment on China's summer fishing moratorium in the South China Sea waters since the measure belongs to China's administrative rights. Spokesperson Zhao Lijian's remarks came as his Vietnamese counterpart voiced the country's objection to the fishing ban and demanded that China not "further complicate the situation in the South China Sea."
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Global Economy
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Deglobalisation and its discontents: But globalisation, as is clear from its various forms, can be destructive as well as constructive, and in recent years, a growing number of governments and people around the world have come to view it as a net risk. When it comes to climate change, pandemics and terrorism-all exacerbated by globalisation-it's not hard to see why. But in other areas, the increased opposition to globalisation is more complicated.
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