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- 📚 July reads: farewelling James C Scott and the environmental costs of Indonesia's nickel boom
📚 July reads: farewelling James C Scott and the environmental costs of Indonesia's nickel boom
The Singaporean scams on Meta platforms and how Filipino boxing is preparing for a post-Pacman era
Erin Cook
August 01, 2024
Hello friends!
I’ve been a little under the weather this last week or so and I’ve been taking it easy. But there were so many good reads in July that I simply cannot delay sharing them!
I’m also very excited to share last week’s episode of Reformasi. Kevin O’Rourke and I chatted with longtime friend of the newsletter, Mike Tatarski, about the death of Nguyen Phu Trong, the ‘burning furnace’ and Vietnam’s incredible rise in recent years. Listen here:
The region mourns James C Scott
James C Scott by Michael Marsland (c/o Yale News)
James C. Scott, the legendary American scholar and author of Seeing Like a State and The Art of Not Being Governed, died last month at 87. There have been a lot of obituaries and tributes, but what has really gotten me is the number of tweets from Southeast Asian scholars who note that while Scott’s work was influential in their education, it was his openness and generosity in responding to emails and queries. Good energy.
Mourning James C. Scott, a Sterling anarchist and friend of Myanmar (Frontier Myanmar)
‘He wrote about events and ideas in places as diverse as the Middle East, the Soviet Union, China and Brazil. But he called himself a Southeast Asianist first and foremost, and his heart lay in Myanmar in particular.’
James C. Scott Trampled Across Borders to Explain the World (Foreign Policy)
James C. Scott, Iconoclastic Social Scientist, Dies at 87 (New York Times)
🖥️ Tech reads: from robots in elections to robots on the plantations
Artificial intelligence hasn’t (yet) ended the world as we know it, and this year of endless elections was widely expected to be a tech-dystopia disaster. It hasn’t quite played out that way but Indonesia shows us where it could be heading.
When Prabowo Subianto wanted to soften his image among young Indonesian voters, his campaign team brought out a smiling face: a cartoonish digital version of himself.
In his previous two unsuccessful runs for office, the retired general sought to portray himself as a strong leader, but young people tended to see him as scary.
His digital avatar, part of a successful run for Indonesia's presidency this year, shows how the power of artificial intelligence is being felt in elections in Asia this year.
In Malaysia’s palm plantations, owners are spending big on automation. They say with chronic labour shortages robots are the only way forward. Bloomberg is impressed that the automation process — already in action in some segments of the industry — has opened up space for women. I personally will wait to hear more.
With global stockpiles set for the first back-to-back decline in more than 40 years, Malaysia has every reason to push for automation to boost production. Increased awareness of the industry’s problematic reliance on migrant workers — clouded by restrictions and labour abuses — has also encouraged companies to find alternative solutions, said Mohamad Helmy Othman Basha, group managing director of SD Guthrie Bhd., a government-linked company previously known as Sime Darby Plantation.
“To depend on foreign workers for all these key tasks is actually putting this industry at a very high risk,” Helmy said. “This is why we have to take this plunge. We really have to place these bets.”
A good rule of thumb anywhere, but especially in Cambodia, is don’t worry about what they say — worry about what they do. Crypto payments are the backbone of many of the hideous scams coming out of Southeast Asia and for Cambodia’s elite that seems to have been an opportunity. This report links Hun To, nephew of Hun Sen and cousin of Hun Manet, to a lucrative scam.
While not all $11 billion in transactions cited by Elliptic can be traced to illegal transactions, the researchers said the evidence provides “very strong indications” that the majority of payments stem from illicit activity.
“Many of the merchants explicitly offer money laundering services,” Elliptic said, “including accepting payments from victims around the world, transferring it across borders and converting it to other assets including cash, stablecoins, and to Chinese payment apps.”
Huione’s media representatives did not respond to a request for comment. Hun To could not be reached for comment.
Meta is letting scams run rampant on its platforms in Singapore (Rest of World)
Singapore is doing such a great job with public service announcements around scams, I think. Lots of regular coverage on how scams operate and what can be lost in both online news and out and about. That Singaporeans are still so regularly victimised tells us a lot about how entrenched this has become. Half of the scams targeting the city are found on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp and victims want Meta to do more.
The online services with the highest risk of e-commerce scams in Singapore include Facebook Marketplace, Facebook ads, and Facebook pages, according to the Ministry of Home Affairs. It has asked service providers to implement user verification requirements and will assess measures to verify the identity of “risky sellers” on Facebook Marketplace between June 1 and November 30. “If the number of e-commerce scams reported on Marketplace does not drop significantly, MHA will require Facebook to verify the identity of all Marketplace sellers by 1 March 2025,” it said in a statement.
Anti-scam laws can have limited success in deterring criminals, Munira Mustaffa, executive director of security consultancy Chasseur Group, told Rest of World. “This is likely why Singapore policymakers are redirecting their efforts toward pressuring tech companies to comply with regulations and implement designs to create a more secure online environment,” she said. “However, these efforts are almost certainly under-resourced relative to the scale of the problem, [considering] the substantial financial resources that these companies could potentially allocate if they were either inclined or mandated to do so.”
Malaysia is having a big conversation about the role of social media in the community (more on this next week). Much of that is focusing on cybersecurity, but the suicide of TikTok user Rajeswary Appahu early last month over cyberbullying has raised worries that the law is not doing enough to protect Malaysians online.
Such investigations and prosecutions are difficult because there are no specific provisions for cyberbullying under Malaysian laws, according to Law Minister Azalina Othman Said. The government will consider proposals to define “cyberbullying” and make it a crime under the Penal Code, she added.
“Cyberbullying isn’t a new issue in Malaysia, and each year, we are shocked by news of individuals being bullied, which end with them taking their own lives,” she said in a statement Tuesday.
I hate mukbang content — a user filming themselves eating a hell of a lot of food and making loud noises while doing it, bleugh — but this might be a step too far. Filipino vlogger Dongz Apatan died in June after suffering a stroke, which Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa blamed on overeating and obesity.
“We have to study first why this person died and find out if we, the (Health Ministry), which is a regulator for health activities, can ban such activities (because) they are unhealthy,” Dr Herbosa said.
Should the ministry investigation determine that mukbang contributed to Mr Apatan’s death, it would push for such a ban on local websites and social media platforms.
“(That’s because) you are promoting unhealthy behaviour to the Filipinos. So I can ban it locally. I can propose… banning mukbang locally,” Dr Herbosa said.
“I can even ask the DICT (Department of Information and Communications Technology) to stop those sites (from showing and broadcasting mukbang) because it is basically food pornography. They are making people eat like gluttons,” he added.
🌴 Environmental reads: can Indonesia strike the sustainability-development balance?
Indonesia’s nickel goals are a great idea in Jakarta but not so great for the communities that are home to huge nickel deposits. In Halmahera, now the site of the world’s largest nickel production facility, that looks like environmental destruction. A new report has found sites developing nickel facilities are undergoing deforestation at twice the rate elsewhere in Indonesia. The photos and graphs here are very illuminating.
Since 1950, more than 740,000 square kilometres (more than 285,000 square miles) of Indonesian rainforest — an area twice the size of Germany — have been logged, burned or degraded, according to Global Forest Watch.
In Lelilef Sawai, the village now surrounded by the Weda Bay Industrial Park, the deforestation and its impact are evident. Loha, the farmer, has held out, refusing to sell the land he’s tended for four decades. Now orange dust often covers his plants and clean water is scarce. The plants also grow more slowly, he said.
Still in Indonesia this month, this stunning decree from President Joko Widodo allowing religious groups to take over concessions of mining is still playing out. It has split Nahdlatul Ulama, the country’s largest Islamic group, with members saying it’s a very sad move after how outspoken on environmental issues NU had become in recent years.
Civil society groups told Mongabay that the change was fraught with procedural and practical pitfalls.
“It’s nonsense,” Muhammad Jamil, head of the legal desk at the National Mining Advocacy Network (Jatam), a watchdog group, told Mongabay Indonesia on May 1.
With a claimed 100 million followers, Nahdlatul Ulama is by far the largest Islamic organization in Indonesia. The decision on religious mining permits came as Islamic organizations were winning domestic and international praise for increased attention to biodiversity loss and climate change.
Many young Islamic activists inspired by this pivot to the environment have responded to Jokowi’s policymaking with dismay, interviews showed.
“This is fraught with conflicts of interest,” Asman Aziz, the deputy of an NU chapter in East Kalimantan province, told Mongabay Indonesia.
🫂 People, places and culture
I love reading about people who are super, super into something niche. For Ong Pang Yeow, that’s Singapore Air. His house (which looks amazing, by the by) is filled to the rafters with memorabilia of one of the city’s most iconic brands.
Dr Ong, who proudly noted that he was born in the same year as SIA, has accumulated his fair share of keepsakes since his teenage days.
Other treasured items include sliding puzzles that he received on a plane as a child, which his mother still plays with today, and a pair of teddy bears given by his father’s colleague when Dr Ong and his father visited Bangkok together in the 2000s. He said they remind him of happy times with his father on that trip.
Boxing legend Manny Pacquiao is five years too old to enter the Olympics and lobbying efforts to change the age restrictions weren’t fruitful. It’s time for a new generation of boxing headliners from the Philippines and this piece from Nikkei lays out the enthusiasm for it. I gave it a quick Google this morning and it looks like Carlo Paalam is just about to pick up his second medal soon.
"There are a lot of expectations as this is one of the most popular sports in the Philippines. We are optimistic; we have a good record in boxing; and we are a nation that loves it," Marcus Jarwin Manalo, executive director of the Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines (APAB), told Nikkei Asia.
A big reason for that passion is Pacquiao, one of the most successful fighters in the sport's history. The legendary "PacMan" won 12 world titles in a stellar professional career that ran from 1995 to 2021. The fighter also became a senator in 2016 and then unsuccessfully ran for president in 2022.
"Boxing was popular before Manny Pacquiao but he took it to a new level, he transcended the sport," said Manalo.
When, oh when will this come to Australia! I love Thai movies — truly, they do a romcom like none other — but How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies sounds a league of its own. This piece from Lynn Sasinpong takes a look at why the film has been such a run-away hit across the region.
But what is perhaps the most impressive effort by Director Boonnitipat and screenwriter Thodsapon Thiptinnakorn is their exploration of the theme of loneliness interwoven throughout the story. Indeed, we often fail to appreciate how isolating loneliness can be. The World Health Organization has declared loneliness as a “global health concern” with serious impacts on our health and our society. It is an epidemic, affecting 20 to 34 percent of older people in China, Europe, Latin America, and the US. But the numbers do not convey as well as Lahn Mah does, when Ah Mah waits in her best dress for all her children to come see her, only for none to show up; when she describes loneliness as just “how things are”; or when she gets suspicious when her sons or daughter turn up to visit her–because they usually don’t.
As Thailand steps further and further into an aging society, this movie serves as another reminder to take care of our elderly. Because no one should be alone trying to finish all the leftovers after Chinese New Years, or Thanksgiving, or on any other holiday.
Singapore diversifies food sources with insects (Nikkei Asia)
Would you eat insects and bugs? I would. They made us eat that stuff at year 6 camp, imagine if it was all cooked up by a brilliant Singaporean cook and not just pulled from a tree by a 23-year-old working on their bachelor of education.
In its latest move toward that end, the Singapore Food Agency this week approved imports of 16 species like crickets, grasshoppers, mealworms and honeybees as food.
"With immediate effect, SFA will allow the import of insects and insect products belonging to species that have been assessed to be of low regulatory concern," the agency said in a circular dated Monday. The insects can be in the form of ingredients or ready-to-eat products like fried snacks and protein bars containing insect powder.
To ensure safety, the new guideline says traders must certify that insects are not harvested from the wild and that feeding substrates do not include manure, decomposing organic material or material originating from diseased animals or fish. They must also be treated by heat or a bactericidal process sufficient to kill any pathogens.
Indonesia’s evolving lesbian, bisexual and trans movement (East Asia Forum)
Indonesia’s LGBT community isn’t embraced by the majority, but, unlike other countries in the region, nor is it explicitly outlawed either. This creates a unique circumstance that activists, advocates and scholars go to great lengths to explain and defend in pieces like this. Saskia E Wieringa’s piece traces the history of lesbian, bisexual and trans movements in Indonesia and connects it back to the 1965 tragedy.
Yet Indonesia has a long history of gender and sexual diversity. Three deities serve as examples of gender diversity, and while they have mostly lost their powers now, they have been important historically — Ardhanary and Durga in the Hindu religion, and Kwan Im in Buddhism. In several traditional religions transgender priests played important roles. They were seen as mediators between the world of the gods and that of the humans. They might marry partners of the same sex but of a different gender.
The combined effects of colonialism, bringing with it European heteronormative morals from a period in which homosexuality was widely denounced and even criminalised, homophobic monotheistic religions and national histories built on leaders’ postcolonial amnesia have almost destroyed these gender diverse practices. Postcolonial amnesia refers to a process in which postcolonial leaders adopt the heteronormative morality of their colonial predecessors, ignoring traditional non-heteronormative practices and beliefs.
Why do migrant workers pay thousands of dollars to work in Singapore? (Channel News Asia)
This is a really interesting angle on Singapore’s large migrant worker community I have not considered at length before. To get to Singapore, would-be workers are required to pay thousands of dollars to secure a job and the right to work legally. Is it worth it?
In HOME’s experience, recruitment fees stated by agents can range from S$5,000 to S$16,000.
"Generally, Bangladeshi workers tend to be charged more than workers of other nationalities," said Mr Tan, adding that workers who are in Singapore for their first job typically pay between S$13,000 to S$16,000.
For repeat workers who have previously been employed in Singapore, the fees are lower, TWC2’s Mr Au added. For instance, a worker could pay about S$5,000 for a second job, and S$2,000 to secure third or subsequent employment.
Brutal birth (Inside Story)
I simply cannot and will not stop talking about Revolusi by David Van Reybrouck. It is one of the best books I’ve ever read about anything ever. Hamish McDonald’s review is a bit more nuanced than that, so give it a read (and then get Revolusi).
In retirement homes in Europe and Indonesia, and even in remote Nepali villages where veterans of the British forces were living, Van Reybrouck collected personal accounts of the war crimes committed during this brutal conflict. Ex-soldier Goos Blok talked of field interrogations, of a fifteen-year-old rigged up to a field telephone to receive electric shocks, of water torture and civilians shot in panic. Radio operator Stef Horvath, who couldn’t hear signals because they were drowned out by the screams of suspects being interrogated next door, saw prisoners dead of dehydration and suffocation in sealed railway wagons.
In battle for eyeballs, Netflix boosts Southeast Asian content in bid to fend off local rivals (SCMP)
In Southeast Asia, Korean content trumps all. But Netflix is hoping fans will soon flock to locally-produced content — and keep their Netflix subscriptions.
That playbook seems to be working. In Southeast Asia, Netflix leads the region across subscribers and monetisation, accounting for 49 per cent of the streaming sector’s total subscription revenue, according to the MPA report.
The platform also surpassed 10 million subscribers at the end of the first quarter of this year, pulling ahead of local and regional competitors such as Viu, Disney+ Hotstar, Vidio, WeTV and Amazon Prime Video, the report added.
Revisiting Vietnam's past through my parents' eyes (Nikkei Asia)
A beautiful piece here from Nguyen Phan Que Mai, author of The Mountains Sing, on returning with her parents to their hometowns in Vietnam. It’s a personal history, but also a walk through Vietnam’s not-so-distant history. The photos are so sweet too!
More than two decades earlier, when I lived in Hanoi, two hours' drive from my birthplace in Ninh Binh, my father often told me: "Don't go to our village without me. You would not know how to behave." He feared that I would upset the village's elders by not knowing whom to visit first, whom to invite for dinner, and whose houses I should pass by.
Now, my parents are showing the same caution about their own visit. They have been preparing for this return trip for many months. Due to growing fragility in old age, the many obligations they feel they must meet when they return, and the trauma they have tried to bury, they have not visited for many years. For this trip, they have bought new clothes, prepared gifts for our relatives, and set aside cash to pay for reception dinners because those who return from the big cities are expected to finance such meals.
Foreign nationals in Indonesia want dual citizenship so they can live in their homes and work without worries (ABC)
Every 18 months or so, the Indonesian government will tease a tantalising fruit: dual citizenship. For children of one Indonesian parent and a foreign parent, the need to ‘choose’ a nationality at 18 is fraught. Why not both, advocates have said for years, because this could stem the brain drain and ease complicated legal struggles. The outgoing government again raised it earlier this year, before ditching it again. The ABC speaks with Australian-Indonesians on what they hope to see one day.
Ms Murti, a freelance translator and event coordinator, said there was a "gap and huge grey area" in the laws. "I am always on my toes, worrying if I break any laws," she said.
"[Immigration law] clearly states that we, as spouses of Indonesian citizens who live in Indonesia, are allowed to provide for our family. So, we have the right to work. However, we need special permission to do so."
Ms Murti said she felt like she had been treated "just a little bit better than a tourist". "We are real people, with real families and real issues that can be solved if there is a will from authorities," she said.
Marriage equality in Thailand is still waiting to be gazetted, but big business is looking to cash in. For wedding and event planners, ooh that’s going to open up some opportunities. Pride month already brings in millions to the country, it’s hoped events will see that figure grow.
For three decades, Dujruedee Thaithumnus has presided over symbolic weddings between same-sex couples on the white sand beaches of Thailand’s Samui island.
As Thailand prepares to legalise LGBTQ marriages, Dujruedee is looking forward to officiating legally recognised ceremonies for the first time – and cashing in on the “pink baht”.
“Samui has all the ecosystem required to organise weddings, the island is a one-stop shop. I have no doubt after the bill passes, we’re going to be on the world map as an LGBTQ wedding destination,” Dujruedee, who charges anywhere between $1,000 and $50,000 for her beach packages, told Al Jazeera.
Patient abandonment on the rise (The Star)
This is a very sad story from Malaysia. Hospitals and authorities are working together with a rise in patient abandonment leaving many, especially oldies, without people to care for them. The Star reports this is typically due to family breakdowns.
These abandoned seniors are occupying hospital beds that are in high demand as there is a long list of patients in need of medical attention and awaiting admission.
HKL Social Work Department chief Zulhan Ambi said the statistics of patients being left at HKL showed an upward trend each year (see graphic).
Last year, the hospital recorded 358 abandonment cases, and 166 cases up until May this year.
🗣️ Politics and foreign policy
Who’s afraid of Prabowo? Not Indonesia’s young ‘Chindos’ (Straits Times)
I know I’ve said it multiple times, but let me say it again: I cannot get enough of post-election autopsies from Indonesia. Johannes Nugroho takes a look at how the Chinese-Indonesian community is responding to the incoming Prabowo Subianto presidency and it may go against assumptions.
Both groups lived through anti-Chinese discrimination policies under President Suharto’s rule from the late 1960s till 1998. Mr Prabowo’s former status as Mr Suharto’s son-in-law and his successful military career during the New Order era have resurrected the old spectre of repression of Chinese Indonesian identity and culture. Older Indonesians remember policies such as the 1966 injunction for Indonesians of Chinese descent to “indigenise” their names. Other forced assimilation policies included a ban on public celebrations of Chinese New Year and the display of Chinese characters.
But the suspicions about Mr Prabowo carry less weight with younger Chinese Indonesians; millennials born between 1981 and 1996 and Gen Z, born between 1997 and 2012, mostly grew up in the post-Suharto era, marked by the undoing of restrictions against Chinese Indonesians by successive presidents.
It’s been a bit quiet from the Mahathir Mohamad camp. The two-time Malaysian prime minister was hospitalised last month and there haven’t been any updates since. I do think, though, that wherever he is, he is smiling wryly about Joe Biden being dumped. Mahathir turned 99 in July and I get the feeling that he is probably still plotting something.
While some voters told Al Jazeera they would like to see younger people in election lineups, they were more concerned with the policies of the day than with a candidate’s age.
“My priority would be for whoever has a better plan, not necessarily age,” said office manager Shaun Ho, 40.
“An older leader with a better plan would still be preferable to a younger leader who still follows the status quo,” Shaun said.
🇲🇲 Struggling and surviving in Myanmar
Myanmar temple city pines for tourists as conflict rages (AFP via Straits Times)
One day, when this is all over and peace and justice return to Myanmar, I’m going to go see Bagan. The town, home to temples hundreds and hundreds of years old, is struggling with the collapse of the tourism industry both international and domestic.
On a hill usually dotted with many tourists watching the evening shadows lengthen over the old city, there are as many souvenir vendors as visitors these days.
“I think people don’t want to spend much money, and they rarely travel and buy from us,” one seller said. “On some days, we don’t see even a single person.”
On the far bank of the Irrawaddy River the atmosphere is far more worrying, locals told AFP.
The area has seen sporadic clashes between the military and pro-democracy People’s Defence Forces, with Bagan residents saying they often hear the sounds of gunfire from across the river.
Fight or flight? Families of conscripts live in fear (Frontier Myanmar)
With conscription well underway and young people in training ready to be deployed by the military, families are heartsick waiting to hear from them. This fantastic report from FM speaks to families left at home, and notes that the Peoples Defence Forces have been briefed by their own leadership. “Raise the white flag,” U Maung Maung Swe, deputy secretary of the National Unity Government’s Ministry of Defence, told the outlet.
“He didn’t provide any further support. My son didn’t want to join the military, so he was unhappy with the administrator. I wouldn’t complain if they had done a random draw to determine who would join, but this is just tyranny,” she said.
Other villagers said the second batch was determined by a random draw on June 29, with eight more men being selected.
“We haven’t heard anything about the third batch yet,” said another resident. “Parents with adult sons are very distressed. They’re afraid they will be next.”
Daw Nyo said very few people in her village supported the coup, and the subsequent crisis has only made the military more unpopular.
“Min Aung Hlaing’s military coup has made the people suffer,” she said. “I think everyone has their own problems because of the coup, but I never imagined my son would have to serve in the military.”
Artist Jakkai Siributr lives along the Thai-Myanmar border, but for a long time knew nothing about the refugee camps that many fleeing Shan State call a temporary home. A visit both opened his eyes and launched a project in collaboration with women and girls at the camps that is bringing their stories to the world.
The Koung Jor refugee camp on the Thai-Myanmar border is just three and half hours from Jakkai Siributr’s home in Chiang Mai. But it was only during a visit in 2019 that the Thai textile artist learned about the ordeals of the Shan refugees living there.
That visit inspired a collaborative embroidery project, with participation from 20 girls and women from the Shan ethnic minority living in the camp in northern Thailand, who were invited to sew images and words of their choice.
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