The week ahead: Blinken in Manila, Thai senate comes for cabinet, conscription fears in Myanmar

Hello friends!

This week is a bit of a mess for me as I try to pack everything back up and head to Canberra for the winter (a decision I should know better than to commit to). 

For premium readers, expect an erratic publication schedule. No one ever gives us poor Antipodeans credit, but that four-hour difference between Jakarta and southeast Australia is just enough to ruin your life for a couple of days. So I’m going to ease back into it and then next week we’ll be back on track. Oh! And I’ll finish the Beehiiv move so it’ll be sooo cute too.

Still, these are the stories I’ll be watching closely in between packing and reacquainting myself with the Canberra bus system. Gojek, I’ll miss you most of all. 

Erin Cook

Blinken, Marcos Meet in Manila

Blinken is coming to town! The US Secretary of State will swing by Manila on Tuesday to chat “security” matters with President Bongbong Marcos. The timing is critical. Marcos has just completed another mini-world tour drumming up support for the Philippines as tensions with China in the South China Sea continue to spill over. Joint defence exercises are also in the works, potentially in northern provinces that are amazingly close to Taiwan. 

According to Reuters, Japanese outlet Asahi reports a three-way summit between the US, the Philippines and Japan is almost ready to go in DC at some stage in April. Expect some charged language out of the Chinese Foreign Ministry in the coming days, and I’ll be watching closely on how explicit Blinken will be about the ‘mess with the Philippines, we get involved’ security alliance trigger.  

Senate asks for a Thaksin sick note

The Thai senate is looking forward to grilling the Pheu Thai government over former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. The general debate itself will take place next Monday, but expect it to dominate this week, especially after Thaksin’s appearance in Chiang Mai. 

Senator Kittisak Rattanawaraha told the Bangkok Post that cabinet can expect to be examined over how and why the Ministry of Justice both allowed Thaksin to be paroled and to serve his teeny sentence in a hospital. The senator doesn’t expect it to be easy. He noted that Thaksin allies have already threatened to sue would-be critics.  

Brace for conscription roll-out in Myanmar

Myanmar’s conscription could come into effect very soon, Radio Free Asia reports. Junta officials ‘are summoning draft-eligible youths and taking information door-to-door’ in Yangon, the outlet reported. One 28-year-old man spoke to RFA and said is avoiding authorities after he was compelled to provide information to his local ward in the city. The junta has previously said it won’t go into effect until April, but reports from across the country indicate it’s on the move now. “We reject their authority under martial law,” the 28-year-old said. 

Lawyers hit back on Najib pardon

The Malaysian Bar is not happy with the Pardons Board's decision to cut former prime minister Najib Razak’s 12-year sentence in half. The Bar, which passed a motion for a judicial review by an “overwhelming majority,” plans to file either this week or next, Malaysiakini reports.

The pardon was approved by the king, but Bar President Ezri Abdul Wahab has stressed the bar is not going after the monarch: “We are only filling the judicial review on the Pardons Board and not on the decision made by the Agong. The manner and how it was conducted.”

Hitting the road this Idul Fitri

Indonesia is about to get moving on a scale never seen before. That’s the estimation from a joint survey released by the Transportation Ministry, Communications and Information Ministry and Statistics Indonesia ahead of mudik season later this month. Around 193.6 million Indonesians will head to their hometowns in the lead-up to Idul Fitri in April. That’s a 56% rise on last year’s numbers, the Jakarta Post reports. 

Intriguingly, the survey found that in a buck of trends, this season most travellers are planning to go by public transport. It’s a welcome move for policymakers and advocates a like, saying it shows faith in the ever-developing transport system. Still, more can be done: “Improve the capacity of the country’s public transportation and offer more free mudik bus and boat trips, so we can reduce the number of people travelling by motorcycle, which is not only dangerous but also contributes to heavy traffic,” suggested Djoko Setijowarno of the Indonesian Transportation Society. 

Reads you better not miss

Ancient find reveals new evidence of Malaysia’s multicultural past (Al Jazeera)

I love a good archaeological find, and this one in Kedah state, Malaysia, is a biggie. The 1,200-year-old Buddhist stupa of Bukit Choras was unearthed last August by a research team and they’re hard at work figuring out more about the site. “We are still not sure of Bukit Choras’s function. It may have been a military garrison or coastal trade outpost, but we need to do further excavation [to assess]. Based on our preliminary findings, it shows plenty of similarities with other sites found in Java and Sumatra, Indonesia,” researcher Nasha Rodziadi Khaw told Al Jazeera. 

The Philippines’ ‘Heroes’ Trafficked to War-Torn Syria (New Lines)

A stunning deeper look here from New Lines about a story we often trace here: protecting Overseas Filipino Workers during times of upheaval around the world. Much of this report follows Lucy Cayamba and just when you think it can’t get much worse for her, it does. But she’s still here and still pushing back. 

“I had a lot of orientation, training. I thought it was legal. But when I was in Kuwait, someone told me ‘you will go to Syria,’” she says. “I know there is a war in Syria, but I didn’t have a choice, I didn’t have money then. How can I go back to the Philippines? I didn’t have one peso on me.”

Taylor Swift and the Singaporean Smugness (Rice)

I can’t promise this is the last time that we’ll talk about Taylor Swift, but I can promise this is one of the best, most interesting reads on the entire hullabaloo. Clement Ooi takes on the inter-Asean beef and offers some insight to Singaporean readers about why the rest of the region was super, super mad. He doesn’t come to a solid conclusion but his balance seems bang on to me. “No one likes a showoff. But everyone loves the guy who shares what he has. In the classroom analogy, nobody picks on the guy who likes to bring Pocky for everyone to share,” he writes. 

A decade of digital repression and resistance in Southeast Asia (Global Voices)

I love Mong Palatino’s pieces for Global Voices, but this is him at his most self I think! The headlines don’t look good for the region, everything feels tense and nervous. But it’s the sprouts of resistance Mong turns his attention to this week. 

🎧 The mighty, mighty Mekong meets Vietnam Weekly

 Ask and you shall receive (an email from ). Just last week I said it was about time to read the Brian Eyler book on the Mekong and lucky for those of us still working through our Prabowo reading lists, Mike over at Vietnam Weekly chatted with Eyler on his podcast!