🇰🇭 No debt trap for us, thanks

Hello friends!

I had a bad case of the Canberras so far this year. This is where the public service doesn’t start work until Jan. 8 and everyone else takes that to be an extended holiday too, even if they work for themselves in an extraordinarily precarious industry. Silly!

But that’s good because it’s given me an extra week to offer 50% off the first year of all new subscriptions:

Usually, today’s look at the Mekong states would be behind a paywall but this week I’m going to show off everything to our new readers. Will also note, typically you could find Myanmar here but it’s been a while since we checked in so it needs its own large dispatch. 

Will return tomorrow for Malaysia and Singapore (it’s a juicy one!) and then Indonesia and the Philippines on Friday. 

See you tomorrow,

Erin Cook

🇰🇭 Debt trap? Never heard of her!

Prime Minister Hun Manet closed out the year with a familiar refrain: China hasn’t snagged us in a debt trap, dang it! “Our approach to borrowing is strategic and targeted, ensuring that loans are allocated to development projects that yield tangible benefits for our economy. We are committed to transparency and judicious spending in every project we undertake,” he told an audience at a sewage treatment centre opening on Dec. 27 in the capital, as per Phnom Penh Post. The denials follow criticism from Khmer-language outlets based abroad, the paper reported. 

A hungry Indonesia is good news for Cambodia, which saw rice exports to the country rise 100% from January to November 2023. It’s part of a broader plan to deepen economic ties and trade. 

This report from CamboJA on the long journey to same-sex marriage equality in Cambodia starts off reasonably enough. There’s a deep degree of ignorance and discrimination that needs to be tackled before getting a law out there. It then reports a side of Cambodia I’ve never really heard much about. Fantastic work from CamboJA and fingers crossed we see some movement here. 

Facebook user and social commentator Ny Nak has been arrested after the Minister of Labor and Vocational Training, Heng Sour, filed a complaint with authorities over Ny Nak’s posts to the platform allegedly criticising the government, the Associated Press reports. He posted about a news report that suggested the government had handed over land to the minister. You might remember Ny Nak from last year when he was beaten after criticising Agriculture Minister Dith Tina on rice prices. He faces up to five years in prison and it doesn’t look good for him, but I would like to go on the record with saying he rules. What a brave man! 

🇹🇭 Is Yingluck coming home?

Last year brought the return of Thaksin Shinawatra to the country, will 2024 be a family reunion? That’s what the big talk was over the break after the Supreme Court formally dismissed Yingluck’s ‘malfeasance in office’ case dating back to a Sept. 2011 scandal that eventually saw her ousted as prime minister in 2014. Is a royal pardon on the cards? She’ll need to do what big brother did and return home and surrender in her other cases. So we’ll see! The Thai Enquirer view isn’t impressed. It’s all about the consolidation of power between the Shinawatra and the conservatives that forced the siblings out of office to begin with.

There’s been a lot of visa reporting lately and I’m sick of it! I shan’t be talking about it again unless it’s genuinely interesting beyond ‘Thailand is desperate for people to visit.’ 

Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin’s controversial digital wallet program will begin rolling out in May, he announced today. It’ll disperse around 10,000 baht to eligible Thais in an effort to kick-start the economy. I’m interested to see how this develops before it formally launches. It’s very straight-down-the-line stimulus cash, but the digital-ness of it all (plus the messiness of the government itself) makes it curious. 

And in another watershed policy reform, Thailand is a step closer to marriage equality. This great report from DW looks at how the LGBT community in Bangkok is responding. 

🇻🇳 What’s ‘bendy’ and what’s ‘spineless’?

Here’s an interesting look at Vietnam’s ‘Bamboo diplomacy,’ a flexible approach to foreign policy that is aimed at dodging the one-or-the-other of the US-China beef. In concept, it’s great and has been picked up by neighbouring countries also not particularly keen to be involved. But in reality, it might not mean all that much. 

VinFast is coming for you, India. The mega-giant manufacturer is set to build a $2bn plant in Tamil Nadu state. It’s the first step into India, AP reports, and follows similar expansions into the US. I hope someone is working on a book about VinFast. Listen to this from AP: ‘VinFast is part of Vingroup, a sprawling conglomerate that began as an instant noodle company in Ukraine in the 1990s that was founded and is run by Vietnam’s richest man, Pham Nhat Vuong.’ Tell me you don’t want to read that! 

Make-up artist and content creator Hua Quoc Anh has been booted from TikTok in one of the weirder stories about the government’s digital overreach. He posted a photoshoot from Angkor Wat and can be heard saying he’s in Thailand. The famed complex is, of course, in Cambodia, and now he’s on the hook for US$300 in fines after “insulting the reputation of agencies organizations, honour and dignity of individuals,” reports Business Insider.

🇱🇦 Asean chair moves quickly with envoy

Alounkeo Kittikhoun has been tapped as Asean’s special envoy to Myanmar this year under Laos’ leadership, ThaiPBS reported Sunday citing unidentified sources. Alounkeo was previously Laos’ envoy to the United Nations. ThaiPBS notes that it’s unusually early in the year for such a naming, perhaps suggesting how serious Laos is taking the conflict. I would note that it has also been a particularly intense time in recent months in Myanmar, which has probably necessitated the moving up of the schedule. 

What else should we expect under Laos? Sanchita Basu Das and Julia Tijaja have some ideas over at Fulcrum.