🇹🇭 COVID battle sparks online war

Good morning friends!

I’m a dummy and got too excited about Singapore and messed up my settings for Monday’s newsletter. It’s public now but possibly not in your inbox. Have a peek here!

As way of an apology, today’s premium newsletter is open to all readers. If you’d like to receive the regional look each week join up here for $6 a month or $60 for the year:

I’ll see you early next week for a look at just what the heck is going on in Malaysia.

Thanks!Erin Cook

A snap of me getting VERY scammed on the first time in Bangkok

🇹🇭

Thailand has gone two months without a community transmission — congrats! — but two new imported cases have fears ramping up again. An Egyptian crewman from a military plane and the 9-year-old daughter of Sudanese diplomats have both tested positive for COVID-19 but were exempt from the tougher quarantine restrictions of ‘regular’ visitors. 

Reuters reports more than 400 people who may have been in contact with the two are now under self-isolation, while Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha has apologised and vowed to reassess policies. Still, the people of Rayong are furious. "We have been cooperating with the government's measures on Covid-19 all along. All we need from them is a timely warning about Covid-19 risks. Is that too much to ask?" resident Nalinee Paipimai told the Bangkok Post, before heading off to get tested. 

It’s not just Rayong. Netizens are spewing. Let’s just quote directly from the Thai Enquirer because this made me laugh: ‘Two hashtags trended on Twitter from Tuesday night to Wednesday #รัฐบาลหัวควย (the government is a dick) and #ประยุทธ์ออกไป (Prayut get out).’

This is very interesting to me. Thailand has dealt with the virus longer than any country bar China and has been doing a fantastic job of it based on the data, but it’s an important reminder that the data isn’t the whole story and that this pandemic isn’t happening in a vacuum. Issues that existed before the pandemic still exist and may even be exacerbated. This might be a no-brainer, but a moment of clarity for me! 

Are Thai-US relations best described as ‘frenemies’ at this point? Here’s a good op-ed from the Thai perspective. 

🇻🇳

First, have you got your name on the Vietnam Weekly list yet? I shout it a lot, but I won’t be stopping any time soon!

Secondly, congrats to the doctors, nurses and other public health workers who have seen off 42-year-old Scottish pilot Stephen Cameron. He spent four months in hospital and was known as the ‘sickest’ COVID-19 patient in Vietnam. "The odds say that I shouldn't be here," Cameron told BBC. Vietnam’s death toll from the virus still rests at zero. 

A look at the recent history between Facebook and Vietnam’s government. 

🇰🇭

I don’t typically link to press releases, but I do want to just flag this one in from Human Rights Watch on Tuesday. We’ve talked quite a bit about Cambodia’s microloan industry over the years and, at times, the devastating impact it has on borrower’s lives. Now with the pandemic causing mass unemployment and tightening purse strings, HRW has called for a moratorium on collecting payments. Cambodia is the headline on this industry, but I know private microloans are also highly common elsewhere in the region so could be something to watch.

A draft of the new Law on Public Order has confirmed the fears of many activists and watchers with loose definitions and narrow interpretations of what ‘counts’ as culture. “This law aims to ensure public order management by maintaining order, aesthetic value, sanitation, cleanliness of the environment, quietness, social stability, preservation of national tradition, and the dignity of citizens,” Article 1 says. Another one to watch.

Is it Hun Manet’s time to take over from dad? Not yet, probably.

🇲🇲

Air attacks on Rakhine State led by the Tatmadaw amount war crimes, Amnesty International says. Air raids ostensibly aimed at rooting out the Arakan Army have left families destroyed and scores of civilians dead according to witnesses. "While Myanmar authorities were urging people to stay at home to help stop COVID-19, in Rakhine and Chin states its military was burning down homes and killing civilians in indiscriminate attacks that amount to war crimes," Amnesty International's Asia-Pacific regional director Nicholas Bequelin said, as reported by Al Jazeera.

Here’s an interesting op-ed on the jade mine tragedy from Hanna Hindstrom of Global Witness. 

🇱🇦

Laos has surpassed the three-month mark with no new confirmed COVID-19 cases. Like much of the region, dengue is, however, wreaking havoc with over 2,000 confirmed deaths since January. 

🇹🇱

We’ve got some exciting Timor-Leste news coming!

🇮🇩

A very disturbing one from Jakarta where a French national accused of sexually assaulting hundreds of children was nabbed, before taking his own life in a jail cell. Flash flooding and landslides in South Sulawesi has left at least 16 dead and hundreds displaced. 

A reliance on rapid testing in the regions, often to allow travel, has public health experts concerned. They say many of these tests run the risk of false negatives AND positives. Inadequate training for those conducting the test is also a concern.

Is Jakarta going back to lockdown? The capital has been the country’s epicentre of COVID-19 before Surabaya took over that dubious crown. Record daily new case additions in recent days have the city government reportedly mulling over restrictions. "If this continues, we may have to return to [social restrictions]. […] Do not let this situation reach the point where we have to pull the emergency brake,” Governor Anies says. He flagged religious events and economic and social activities.

🇧🇳

Brunei has also surpassed the two-month mark.

🇲🇾

It’s all happening in Malaysia. Too much, really. So let’s take a proper look on Monday and see where we’re at. Snap elections! House Speaker intrigue! A new party for Mahathir, maybe! Oh, my. 

🇸🇬

On Singapore, I compiled some links in the immediate aftermath on Monday here so check that out. I would also recommend these pieces from East Asia Forum from Michael Barr, Bridget Welsh and the editorial board. I’m also inhaling Cherian George’s Air-Conditioned Nation Revisited for some much-needed context.

🇵🇭

ABS-CBN is done. The network will challenge its franchise loss at the Supreme Court in August. So what does that mean? Producing online will continue, Ging Reyes of ABS-CBN told Alan Robles for SCMP. “No one is certain at this point as to who will retain or lose their jobs. We are all living in uncertainty,” she said. The debacle has reignited the dynasty conversation (which is, of course, never too far from the surface anyway) and this one dropped my jaw. Glass houses, surely. 

Elsewhere, a plan to go door to door and find asymptomatic cases of COVID-19 is somehow legal — useful still needs to be seen! Honestly, I’m still a bit confused about how this will work and will be back next week with more. This has been a very hard week for the country in its fight against the pandemic and the stress looks to be building on the government.

Cambridge Analytica has its fingers in everything out this way! Could they rebrand the Marcos clan?