How it looks from Asean

Hello friends!

GUESS WHAT THIS IS ABOUT! 

This is the plan for the week: today, a whip-around. Some of our smaller and quieter (or draconian media law) friends are undercovered, so today fills that in. But our bigger member states have much larger stories, so we’ll crack into those individually throughout the week. I’ve also got some actual Asean-the-organisation ranting to do so we’ll add that into the mix.

And please — with this much content flooding in, my usual media monitoring isn’t working as well as it usually does. If you come across anything fascinating or underreported or the start of something, hit that reply! 

Coverage this week will be open to all subscribers, but if you’d like to support this project (or spend your days at home digging through the archive!) do so here for $6 a month or $60 for the year:

And finally. Thank you to everyone who sent such nice messages last week when I took leave! I was genuinely overwhelmed by all the kind words and by the sheer amount! So if I haven’t gotten back to you yet, I’ll get there.

Thanks so much and look after yourself!Erin Cook

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Stripped of public health importance, Cambodia has certainly been one of the more interesting and substantive responses. With years of sinking South China Sea resolutions at Asean and accusations of ‘picking’ China not just at the expense of the West, but the rest of the region, this, I think, is the line in the sand. Not that anyone should be surprised it was clear we were heading here anyway. 

Truly, I think Prime Minister Hun Sen visiting China and sitting with President Xi Jinping as the news and virus spread will be a moment in at least half a dozen future China-US-APAC books. At no stage during the outbreak in China did Hun Sen signal a shutdown of travel between the two countries. That courtesy (if it can be called that!) has not been extended as the virus goes global. 

Nationals from Italy, Germany, Spain, France and the US will be denied entry into the country for at least 30 days from March 17. That is going to smash tourism, not to mention hits to manufacturing exports separately, and the government is putting together its stimulus package. Between $800 million and $2 billion will be dispensed in the coming months. 

And nothing will stop the war games.

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As always on Vietnam, Mike Tatarski’s Vietnam Weekly wrap is a really handy way to stay on top of developments there. He does a phenomenal job of keeping up to date with news which can be much harder to find outside of the country and his analysis is beaut. I might outsource this section today since he nailed it and everything else is so long. 

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Myanmar has introduced travel restrictions, with visitors who have been to France, Italy, Iran, Spain and Germany placed under quarantine for a fortnight and a blanket ban on anyone who has been in China or South Korea. All the fun inside the country has been cancelled or put on hold too, with social gatherings shelved — including the Thingyan Water Festival. 

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Laos is much the same, the government has issued guidelines restricting large gatherings and keeping smaller events short and sweet. And please don’t go hiring from abroad for a minute. 

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Thailand is fairly straight forward on this but has gone full Thailand re: foreigners as carriers. As of Sunday, there are 114 cases in the country, the health ministry said, with further restrictions on entry expected later this week. What this will mean for the Songkran holiday, where mass movement is feared to further spread the virus, is still up in the air but I’ll be watching that closely. 

I laughed at the monkey story, but now I’ve read it properly I feel bad and it’s not funny at all. 

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Malaysia had been a bit of a mainland sleeper for the last few weeks, don’t you think? I was just about to write that it must’ve been treated quietly but I just remembered political collapse. That has changed very quickly with a massive cluster around an event at the Sri Petaling Mosque in Kuala Lumpur from Feb. 27 to March 1. Around 16,000 attended, with the vast majority Malaysian nationals but also around 1,500 foreigners prompting shut-downs of mosques and masjids in Singapore and some positive cases in Brunei.  

Finger-pointing has some attendees blaming foreigners for bringing it in. I’m personally interested in coverage of how the fear and the real ramifications are impacting otherwise quite tightly-knit communities, so I’ll be keeping an eye on this particular angle here.

An estimated 600 Sarawakians had attended the event, raising fears we could see an outbreak in the East. “I hope those who have yet to report themselves to the nearest health department or hospital will do so immediately as this is very crucial for their own health and society at large,” State Disaster Management Committee chairman Amar Douglas Uggah said in a statement. 

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Brunei has shut it down from today. Nationals are no longer allowed to leave the country but can apply for special dispensation with the Prime Minister’s Office. Currently, the country has 50 cases but the government is warning than a surge in cases should be expected shortly. The Malaysia cluster is a major part of it. “The most important thing is still containment and contact tracing of these [confirmed] cases. If we manage to get 80 percent or more of the contacts of this [Tabligh] cluster, God willing, we will be able to contain it,” says Health Minister YB Dato Dr Hj Md Isham Hj Jaafar. 

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Dang, Singapore is getting a real reputation for nailing this! Close readers may have noticed I have a particular soft-spot (near apologism, perhaps?) and there is a lot to discuss here. Currently, the city has 226 cases including 13 in ICU. I would like to go deeper into this so stay tuned.

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The Philippines is one I want to get into deeper. There are so many moving parts already and then on top of it an extreme lockdown which includes enforced curfews and comparisons to martial law. The country also has a mortality rate well higher than the global average that should be explored deeper — and I do wonder if this would be a similar story across the region given extreme poverty is known as a co-morbidity. God, I don’t know might have to call my uncle soon. 

I’m also going to be desperately searching out what this means for OFW, particularly those working in the health and other caring roles around the world. Filipino women (and it will primarily be women) are going to be the frontline of this in many places around the world while their families will be under the government’s control. 

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Today is a big day for coronavirus in Indonesia. Yesterday, President Jokowi said it was time for the country to begin working, studying and praying from home when possible. Indonesia’s response has to differ from elsewhere in the region because of the sheer population and physical size. I’ll likely go into this deeper with Indonesia Intelligencer’s the Lede later in the week. Please join us!

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Papa Frankie won’t be heading to Timor-Leste just yet. I’m struggling to find a lot of news from here. Stay tuned, I’ll follow up with a couple of people and find out what’s up.