The week ahead: a second case shakes Singapore's politics

Hello friends!

Indonesia will overwhelm regional coverage this week, I fear. The transition from Jokowi to Prabowo Subianto begins this weekend with the inauguration. Why does it take so long, many people have asked me, why was the election in February but the inauguration in mid-October! I’m sure there’s an answer, but I do not know it. This is my first time seeing someone other than Jokowi inaugurated so we’re all learning together. (Except for the true eggheads who are yelling at their phone reading this)

As always, thank you to premium readers who make today’s newsletter free for all — as well as Friday’s Indonesia special. If you’d like to join the list I’d love to have you:

But for now, let’s head to Singapore.
Erin Cook

🇸🇬 Let’s head back to the court district

Another trial in Singapore! Opposition leader Pritam Singh of the Worker’s Party is facing charges he lied at a Committee of Privileges back in 2021. This has been a slow burn for Singapore, but it’s also a sensitive one so let’s quickly revisit. 

Then WP member of parliament Raeesah Khan made a speech to parliament in August 2021 in which she said she accompanied a sexual assault victim to make a police statement. Khan alleged that during this encounter, the police officer ‘made comments about the victim's dressing and consumption of alcohol,’ Channel News Asia reports. She later recanted the statement, resigned from both the party and parliament and was slapped with an enormous fine on the recommendation of the Committee. 

Singh is in trouble for allegedly falsely testifying that he’d encouraged Khan to ‘clarify’ her story on two separate dates. That is not true, prosecutors say. Rather they allege that he lied about telling her this and encouraged Khan to ‘stick to the lie,’ as the Straits Times puts it. This gets sticky so let me quote ST in full: ‘This meant that in attempting to downplay his own responsibility in Ms Khan’s lying controversy, he had provided false testimony to the Committee of Privileges, it added,’ referring to the prosecutor team. 

Singh faces three years jail time and/or a fine for both counts. The jail term would disqualify him from sitting in parliament or running again. The next general election — the first under People’s Action Party’s new PM Lawrence Wong — has to be held by next year. Much has been made of the PAP’s obvious fear of a growing opposition vote and it’s hard, to me, to separate that hysteria from this case. 

🇰🇭 A little news for Mech Dara

The widely-respected Cambodian journalist may be released from jail on health reasons, the Ministry of Justice said Friday as per Kiripost. Mech Dara was arrested earlier this month after a lifetime of reporting on the edge of Cambodia’s enormous scam and cybercrime boom. 

The ‘Phnom Penh Municipal Court will independently investigate’ a potential release, ministry spokesman Chin Malin told the outlet. It follows a fortnight of outraged statements from the US State Department and other governments to global journalists and anti-crime organisations. 

🇻🇳 To Lam hosts Premier Li

China’s Premier Li Qiang wraps up a three-day visit to Vietnam today. It comes, of course, off the back of extra heat in the South China Sea including a Sept. 19 confrontation between a Vietnamese fishing vessel and ‘Chinese law enforcement vessels.’ Not sure what that means exactly, but typically it involves the Coast Guard. 

“The two sides exchanged sincere and frank opinions on maritime issues,” a statement by Hanoi said, as reported by Bloomberg. The pair will “appropriately control disagreements, actively seek basic and long-term solutions that are acceptable for both sides.” 

Despite this flare-up, plenty of the normal commitments have been made. Defence and security co-operation and the ever-present pledge of further investment all came up. Li and Vietnam President To Lam also reportedly discussed rail and agriculture, Reuters reports. 

🇮🇩 End of an era and the start of another for Indonesia

This week marks the final of Joko Widodo’s decade in office. He’ll officially head back to Solo for the retired life after Prabowo Subianto is inaugurated on Sunday. That’s not really what’s going to happen. Indeed, Jokowi not checking out completely is the only thing we do know for sure. 

I’ll have a special newsletter to crack in on this Friday. 

Reading list (I’m cheating this week, two are me) 

Who’s in, who’s up, and who’s really representing who in Indonesia’s regional elections? — The Interpreter

If Indonesia’s 200 million-plus voters thought they would get a breather after February’s presidential election, next month’s regional elections have other plans. Governor offices, mayoral seats and other positions all the way down to the district level are up for grabs on 27 November.

With the usual post-presidential coalescing of former opposition parties behind soon-to-be-inaugurated Prabowo Subianto and his enormous Onward Indonesia Coalition, known as KIM in Bahasa Indonesia, and a shock legal ruling lowering the minimum seats required to field candidates, races for the November elections are heating up.

Anti-Vietnam Sentiment Is Raising the Heat on Cambodia’s Huns — WPR

Cambodia is packing it in on a 25-year-old regional agreement with neighboring Laos and Vietnam. In a surprise move, Prime Minister Hun Manet and his father, former Prime Minister Hun Sen—who stepped down a year ago but remains the head of the all-powerful Cambodian People’s Party—announced the country’s withdrawal from the Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam Development Triangle Area, or CLV, in late September. The announcement came after a protest movement and subsequent crackdown fueled by fears of Vietnamese encroachment, raising questions about Cambodia’s future role in regional affairs.

Malaysia's eviction of sea nomads casts light on precarious lives — Reuters

Patches of palm thatch entwined with a few forlorn stilts sticking out of the emerald waters in a Malaysian marine park off the island of Borneo are the only traces remaining of the homes of hundreds of sea nomads.

Robin, one of those left homeless among a community that inspired the fictional 'Metkayina' tribe in the 2022 film 'Avatar: The Way of Water', took to a boat with his children to flee the Malaysian officials who razed their home.