🇸🇬 A verdict becomes a moment for Worker's Party

Hello friends!

Singapore’s big week dominates our maritime section today. Still, there’s big news brewing in Indonesia so stay tuned for a look at that on Friday. 

Let’s crack in
Erin Cook

🇸🇬 Singh guilty but party looks ahead

As expected, opposition leader and Worker’s Party boss Pritam Singh was found guilty Monday on both counts. He dodged jail time and received fines of SGD$7,000 a pop which keeps him under the $10,000 per offence rule that would have seen him ruled ineligible for sitting as an MP or running again this year. 

Singh has indicated he’ll appeal the verdict, but stressed it is not a defeat for the WP: “I leave it to the public again to determine how they want to exercise their vote in what we in the Workers' Party believe is the need of the hour in Singapore, which is the evolution towards a more balanced political system,” he said, as reported by Reuters. 

The Worker’s Party, whose ascendancy has worried the People’s Action Party for a while now, have used the moment to galvanise ahead of the expected elections. 

Budget week! Prime Minister Lawrence Wong delivered his first budget yesterday. It’s a sweeter deal than the pre-election budgets of the past, analysts told Channel News Asia. “This Budget seems to be more generous and more inclusive, especially in the quantum of top-ups, vouchers and rebates that are being given,” Teo Kay Key, a research fellow at the National University of Singapore, said. 

SMU’s law expert Eugene Tan pointed out to the Straits Times that this budget is, beyond a pre-election gambit, very much focused on Singapore’s cost of living pressures: “The irony of the handouts is that the Budget statement seems to confirm this perception. Moreover, such help will be seen more as ‘Band-Aid’ and (the question is) whether the root causes can be better addressed.” 

The above CNA piece has an infographic laying out who gets how much and when. For watchers, the stimulus timings suggest the election will most likely be called after April but before the mid-year point, when pockets are most full. 

“The May disbursement of the first tranche of CDC vouchers may suggest to some that an election could be in late May or early June, but the July disbursement of SG60 vouchers suggests a possible later election date. Perhaps the current administration is trying to hedge its bets. There is no clarity," NUS political scientist Chong Ja Ian said. 

🇵🇭 How seriously should we take Rodrigo Duterte? (Very, I say)

Former president Rodrigo Duterte is back on form. “Let’s kill the senators now to create vacancies,” he told supporters at a pre-midterms rally for his PDP-Laban at the end of last week. “If we can kill around 15 senators, we can all go in. But, they’d be pitiful. Yet they’re irritating — not all of them, though. Talking of opportunities, the only way to do it is to use a bomb.”

We can’t be having that, says head of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group Maj. Gen. Nicolas Torre III. He filed a complaint on Monday alleging sedition and unlawful utterances to the Department of Justice. “I am filing this as a citizen, and as a policeman. It’s part of the [Philippine National Police’s] duty to ensure that we protect the public from criminal activities like this … It may seem trivial, but coming from a former president, it’s not farfetched that it could be copied or taken seriously by his blind supporters,” he said, as per Inquirer. 

Torre added that Duterte has form here — he said let’s kill drug addicts, and he did. Interestingly, Torre is a former police head in Duterte’s Davao stomping ground. 

Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla isn’t overly concerned: “The NBI [National Bureau of Investigation] can look at that motu proprio. But you know, sometimes we’re used to the former president’s language. We’re accustomed to it. Not everything he says will make us jump, right?”

He then had to thread an uncomfortable needle, noting that Duterte’s comments differ from those made by his daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte, threatening assassinations left and right. 

This whole thing is winding me up, but it’s Sen. Jinggoy Estrada’s comments that have sent me over the edge: “I think he just said it in jest. You know [him]. He’s just playful … [Duterte] is so entertaining to watch.”

Elsewhere in the family, sedition charges have been formally filed against VP Sara Duterte. National Bureau of Investigation Director Jaime Santiago told reporters last week that the agency had filed ‘inciting to sedition and grave threats’ to the DOJ and will decide to kick it into court or squash, the AP reports. Duterte has accused her rivals of wanting her out of the 2028 presidential race. The Senate, which is set for dissolution imminently, has been implored to get a move on with impeachment, PhilStar reports. 

🇮🇩 Indonesia gears up

Students across the country mobilised Monday in protest against President Prabowo Subianto’s deep budget cuts. The powerful (and very savvy) All-Indonesia Association of University Student Executive Bodies launched the ‘Indonesia Gelap,’ or ‘Dark Indonesia,’ with a rallying cry that the country is moving backwards. It also targets mining laws and wants to see former president Joko Widodo prosecuted. Further protests are planned for tomorrow so we’ll revisit on Friday. 

Two stories highlight how it’s biting for the country’s enormous civil service. Reports from at least two ministries show workers dealing with real office basics — keeping the lights on, having drinkable water and tissues — being cut off. And that’s before we even get to the programs they’re working on. 

One employee of the Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs told Channel News Asia that key programs like getting the regional areas of the country connected (of course, absolutely core to the productivity boost Prabowo is gunning for) will be much harder to implement with budgets slashed.  “Imagine if those programs get defunded. The impact extends beyond civil servants — it affects the public who rely on these services. If this so-called ‘efficiency’ backfires, it will ultimately be civil servants who pay the price,” the employee said. 

🇲🇾 Anwar loosens grip on protests

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has backed away from his government’s increasingly hard-line on protests, instead ditching investigations into various groups and a requirement to seek prior approval from venues for demonstrations. Hadi Azmi’s piece here in the South China Morning Post stresses the hypocrisy that lay at the core of Anwar’s draconian approach — this is a leader who made much of his career off leading popular protests! 

Organisers will now only need to notify police five days ahead for traffic management. This still makes snap protests difficult, but a step forward nonetheless. 

“This is a victory for students and the people who are fighting for freedom of assembly and demonstration. Well done to the new generation of student movements who dare to fight back!” artist and chief dissident Fahmi Reza said online in response. 

Some much-needed good news for Anwar in the economy. GDP growth in the final quarter of last year exceeded expectations, clocking in at a respectable 5%. That’s down slightly on the quarter before but still welcomed, given the global economic chaos. 

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Md. Mahmudul Alam, an associate professor of finance at Universiti Utara Malaysia, credited that with the stability under Anwar. “Over the past five years, frequent leadership changes – three prime ministers in three years before Anwar Ibrahim took office in 2022 – created uncertainty, weakening investor and public confidence … Anwar’s longer tenure has provided greater stability, allowing for sustained policy implementation, boosting business sentiment, and contributing to stronger economic performance.”

Malaysia must pay for the murder of Mongolian national Altantuya Shaariibuu, a court ruled last week. The government must send on 4.7 million ringgit (US$1.1 million) to her family’s lawyer within 30 days, Judge Sumathi Murugiah said on Wednesday. The 2002 murder of Altantuya on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur remains one of the most disturbing incidents in recent history. The Bloomberg piece here has done a phenomenal job of pulling together all the threads, so big recommend if primer needed. (Gifted link!)