Respite for Najib, Nightmare for Thaksin

Hello friends!

I am having a bad few weeks. I’ve just been off my game (and bad at time management). Yesterday I was so thrilled to moderate a CAUSINDY panel on the IA-CEPA developments. So thrilled, in fact, that I had push this back a day. So this one is going out to everyone and a sweet little 25 percent off discount for anyone who wants to sign up to the USUALLY regular email blasts can do so here:

At the end of this month I’m going to be joining the Jakarta Coconuts Colloquium on all things elections. I’m going to be completely outpaced by the brilliance of Febriana Firdaus and Stanley Widianto as I have been over dinners and beer garden dates with the pair of them for years. I can’t wait! Get a ticket now if you’re in town.

I also had this one published late last week with my faves OZY on Indonesia topping the world’s most generous index. The story was so fun to work on, if not a little frustrating, because while everyone I spoke with was surprised to hear Indonesia beat the world when I broke down the data the response was very ‘uh, well yeah that’s just what you do, why doesn’t everyone?’ Like every country, Indonesia has its problems but this is something I would like the world AND Indonesia to give itself more credit for!

Okay see you Friday!

Erin Cook

🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭I had some ideas what include here for the Philippines this week. Mostly ranting about how President Rodrigo Duterte is gung-ho about changing the name of the country to pre-colonial term Maharlika. Which is a fair enough idea, but a constitutional nightmare and hardly a priority with BOL and the launch of the campaign period yesterday. And then the National Bureau of Investigation went to the Rappler office in Manila and arrested CEO Maria Ressa. Watching this unfold over Twitter was a nightmare — it was very clear NBI were not interested in having the arrest documented, so why enter one of the country’s most buzzing newsrooms? As Natashya Gutierrez noted, the cyber libel charge on which Ressa has been arrested was only passed in September 2012 but the story which has been the target was published that May. Farcical.

🇹🇭🇹🇭🇹🇭Thailand, what happened here. Okay. So. Princess Ubolratana is out of the running. The Election Commission today recommended the dissolution of the Thai Raksa Chart Party, which the Constitutional Court will likely follow. The EC says the party violated the 2018 Political Parties Act by “committed an act deemed hostile to the constitutional monarchy.”

It’s a point that’s been made and will continue to be made because of how irritatingly true it is — with a whole range of post-2014 electoral reforms introduced by the junta it will be extraordinarily difficult for non-junta aligned parties to find even footing. A television channel linked to Thaksin Shinawatra has also been suspended, which does not bode well but is probably not all that surprising. What is certain, though, is that the drama has only just begun. Rumours of an impending coup went viral over the weekend. I’m struck by the headline Bangkok Post gave its analysis of the denials from the junta: Coup rumours prove false ... for time being. It’s all happening!   

Australian government readers, skim this part because I’m heavy-editorialising. Hakeem al-Araibi is home. I didn’t expect to be quite so moved when he was released. What a relief. And now he’s on the way to shake hands with Prime Minister Scott Morrison who has spent the last few days risking it all on ensuring other refugees currently detained off-shore don’t have the right to access healthcare. I really, really appreciated how transparent Foreign Minister Marise Payne was when discussing the difficulty in DFAT’s position given Hakeem is not an Australian citizen, but Morrison and Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton are going straight to Hades for their bullshit. Socceroos could run a better cabinet.

🇮🇩🇮🇩🇮🇩For Indonesia, most of the election related news will now be over at my new newsletter Ayolah. Elsewhere, police have apologised after using a snake during an interrogation in Papua. The IT Ministry had Instagram remove an account which posted a cartoon featuring Muslim LGBT characters. For all things Indonesia social media, I always lean on our pals at Coconuts who have done a ripper job of explaining this. I think there will be more analysis coverage of this coming from the LGBT and tech communities this week so I’ll be back with more Friday. I do just quickly want to say the IT Ministry is a fascinating one. It has made a lot of odd steps over the years, like going after even the homegrown ridesharing app Go-Jek, but this seems particularly small-fry for what the ministry’s scope is.

ACICIS is my fave season in Jakarta — any Australian students reading this, please consider applying next year — and so much good work has come from it! I love this one on Lawless, a motorcycle/tattoo/burger/proper icon collective of Kemang. The program ends this Friday so I’ll bring together some of the hits later in the week.

Go-Jek watch: mind your back, Grab.

🇲🇾🇲🇾🇲🇾Okay, Malaysia. We knew a delay was possible, maybe even likely, in the Najib Razak trial set to begin yesterday. Still, it didn’t stop me from letting out a huge whine when I saw the news Monday night. Lawyer New Sin Yew has an explainer in the Malay Mail about why it’s happened and what next. There’s also been some weird questions about the legitimacy of Najib’s degree from University of Nottingham. The university says it’s all good, but there have been rumours before, including from the Sarawak Report so hmm.

Indonesian expat Adelina Lisao was murdered by her employers in Penang last year. Most people will remember this because it prompted huge outrage at the time and a discussion about how domestic workers are treated. When her mother-and-daughter employer pair were arrested and charged with murder it seemed like justice was coming. Not fast enough, says Adelina’s mother Yohana Banunaek from Kupang. "I have been missing my child for a year," she told journalists during a press call marking the one year anniversary of her daughter’s death. Come on, Malaysia. Such brilliant momentum and I’m so sad to see it petered out at some point.

Could Malaysia play a part in bringing peace to Thailand’s restive south just across the border? Maybe. But the junta might have something to say about it first.

🇸🇬🇸🇬🇸🇬Very good and very sad news out of Singapore. Firstly, marital immunity for rape charges will be repealed in the overhaul of the penal code. This has been in the works for some time, long term readers will note, so a huge congratulations to the activists and women's groups involved in this push. The government has vowed to introduce new health and safety measures following the death of Aloysius Pang last month while taking part in National Service reservist training. While he’s the fifth National Service linked death since 2017, Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen says Singapore will never give up the program. And in an update on the HIV data breach, American national Mikhy Farrera Brochez can run but he can’t hide, Singapore says.  

🇱🇦🇱🇦🇱🇦Another week, another sad update in Laos. Survivors of the Xe Pian Xe Namnoy hydropower dam collapse are still not getting the help they need, according to a South Korean relief agency officer on the ground.

🇧🇳🇧🇳🇧🇳Brunei BMX bandits! Who knew? Indonesia.

🇹🇱🇹🇱🇹🇱Nasty one out of Catholic-majority Timor-Leste where the church packs a punch. American priest Richard Daschbach has been booted from his congregation after allegations of child sex abuse. He has a long history in the country after arriving in 1966, including building schools and the like. Timor hasn’t had a monster child sex abuse scandal the way other Catholic communities around the world have and I’m alarmed by some of the comments from other clergymen which suggest allegations made against other priests will be discouraged.

Gordon Peake, who writes beautifully about the country, has me very excited with this one for Lowy. Any push from Timor to join the rest of the region in Asean gets a lot of love from me. (The ‘days’ line also cracked me up!)

🇲🇲🇲🇲🇲🇲I feel like the world has Myanmar burn-out. The stories keep coming but they’re not having the same impact the did two years ago. Which isn’t fair and it allows the government to obscure its own responsibility. I’ll be interested to see if this trend continues. In any case. I was fascinated by this one from Jon Emont at the Wall Street Journal looking at the reemergence of centuries old feuds between Buddhist groups. With the background of violent nationalism, it’s a scary reality. People in Rakhine state are still struggling to get necessities and aid while the army is accused of shelling homes. Police fired rubber bullets on a Union Day rally in Kayah state where the Karenni ethnic minority is fighting against plans to erect a statue in honour of Aung San Suu Kyi. A French tourist looks set to get done for flying a drone in the capital.

🇻🇳🇻🇳🇻🇳Here we go for Vietnam, the first of the summit-linked Doi Moi crystal ball gazing. Here’s a sweet one from Reuters looking at a couple, one from Vietnam the other from North Korea, who had been forbidden from being together. Ooh, the Grab-Uber merger is under scrutiny. I’m bummed, but I think we’ll have to go light on Vietnam this month this summit is ruining everything.

🇰🇭🇰🇭🇰🇭Last week in Cambodia we talked about Brexit which is expected to impact Cambodia’s economy very poorly. David Hutt took a broader look here at what it means for Asean. And not a moment too soon, the EU is ready to pull the cord. Cambodia has a couple of those North Korea restaurants which are fading fast. Good. I hate these things. There used to be a couple here in Jakarta but I never understood the novelty of supporting the regime, particularly given the horrific reports of worker treatment.