The week ahead: Welcome to Vientiane, Asean

Flooding in Thailand, Rodrigo Duterte on the move (or not), Vietnam growth and Malaysia confronts Palestine solidarity limitations

Hello friends!

It’s Asean week! Brand new iconic handshake photos coming to us all soon. 

Elsewhere, a fresh disaster in Thailand where flooding has killed at least three, a certain former president is weighing his electoral options in the Philippines, growth data in Vietnam and a confronting story in Malaysia. 

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Erin Cook

🇱🇦 Vientiane readies for Summit season

It’s summit time! Asean leaders are descending on Vientiane for Wednesday’s summit, while the East Asia Summit will be joined by China, Japan and the US. It’s an immense time of flux — Indonesia, the US and Japan are all looking at either elections or imminent leadership transitions.

That’s not slowing Indonesia down, diplomats told the AFP ahead of weekend talks on the Myanmar crisis. Jakarta hosted representatives from ‘Indonesia, Asean, the European Union, United Nations and members of anti-junta groups’ to discuss all things Myanmar. Little news on what was said and by whom during the Friday and Saturday chat, but it does come after Myanmar announced it would send Aung Kyaw Moe, permanent secretary of the Foreign Ministry, to Vientiane. 

What to expect from the East Asia Summit? Perhaps some eye-rolling at Japan’s brand new prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba. He better leave that ‘Asian NATO’ idea back in Tokyo, writes the Jakarta Post editorial. ‘Even if he does stand the test of time, like his predecessor Fumio Kishida, Ishiba does not have much to offer in order to lure Asean leaders amid Japan’s declining economic power and the rising economic scale of Asean. All nations in the region still consider Japan their major investment source and key trading partner, but ASEAN now has greater bargaining power.’

The week will also see Laos hand over the keys to Malaysia for next year’s chair. 

🇹🇭 Cleaning up in Chiang Mai, bracing elsewhere

The gorgeous city of Chiang Mai in Thailand’s north is under floodwater. At least three people were reported dead as of yesterday with local media reporting elderly people and children were in desperate need of help evacuating. Trains have been stopped, though the airport is still operational as of this Bloomberg report Saturday.

There is some very sad reporting and footage about how this has been affecting the city’s elephant population. CNN has an amazing video here of the evacuation of Chiang Mai’s Elephant Nature Park. 

Two elephants were killed: “My worst nightmare came true when I saw my elephants floating in the water. I will not let this happen again, I will not make them run from such a flood again,” Saengduean Chailert, the director of the Elephant Nature Park in northern Thailand, told local media, adding that next year she plans to take them all to higher ground ahead of the season. 

The rains have stopped, but with rivers and dams overflowing authorities warn those in the central provinces, including Bangkok, to expect water, the AP reports here (including some amazing photos).  

🇵🇭 The Duterte comeback? 

Is former president actually planning a comeback, or does he just like the attention? That’s the question that has plagued me all weekend and we should have a resolution by the end of the week.

Rodrigo Duterte has teased a run for his old office of Mayor of Davao City. It’s a job he’s held on and off since I was born and has flicked between his children in more recent years. Chief sycophant Senator Robin Padilla wants to see Duterte and ‘one of his children’ run for the senate, but on that count Duterte has said an unequivocal no. Proof of life snaps from down south show the ex-prez looking very poorly and he’s ruled out the senate on health grounds.

The mayoral office of Davao, however, is another thing. He’s got until tomorrow to get his papers in. 

🇻🇳 Growth surprise in Vietnam, but peter expectations 

Vietnam booked a very impressive 7.4% GDP growth in the third quarter on a year earlier, the General Statistics Office announced yesterday. It’s largely thanks to a boom in manufacturing, Bloomberg reports. Wise heads warn that while that is a great sign, the economic impact of the devastating Typhoon Yagi will drag on the final quarter and the overall year. 

🇲🇾 Malaysia confronts limits of Palestinian solidarity

The Malaysia and Palestine story has long been an interesting one. The government is exceptionally pro-Palestine, but solidarity protests have often ended in arrests and warnings. Boycott, Divestment and Sanction movements have been very successful but calls for the government to ditch Israel-owned or connected contracts have been ignored.

This weekend feels like something different. Several Palestinian refugees were recorded shouting and vandalising property at a Defence Ministry shelter last week. The video has divided the country, with some arguing for deportation and others saying more understanding and patience is needed. “Not all (are like that). Only a handful who are enduring high stress (in their life). Mindef is looking into their grouses,” Defence Minister Mohamed Khaled Nordin said in a text message to Malaysiakini on Friday.

One of the women involved in the shelter incident was later spotted taking on a transit officer. Palestine’s ambassador to Malaysia, Walid Abu Ali, later told media that he had spoken to her and that “she realised that she was wrong and has apologised to the officer and to Malaysia. She admitted she was emotionally unstable that day.” He also apologised to Malaysia.  

Based on the conversation online, I would expect this coverage to continue into the week. There are wider conversations taking place about what the effects of war and PTSD have on those taking shelter in Malaysia, as well as connections being drawn to Malaysia’s outward pro-Rohingya position and the reality of the treatment of that community within the country. 

Reading list

As a social worker, Hoa has sat down with dozens of victims of domestic violence, but of all the stories she has heard, there is one that will always stand out.

“There was a woman who had been raped many times. Her whole family felt ashamed and believed that the only way to fix the situation was for her to marry her rapist,” Hoa told Radio Free Asia through a translator recently. 

A cultural shift is unfolding in Yala, one of the provinces in Thailand’s southern border region, where deeply rooted tea shops are bumping up with an influx of more modern cafés.

At the traditional Kedai Teh shops in Yala city, you can find old men reading print copies of newspapers and sipping tea, or hunched over while they play checkers with used soda-bottle caps as makeshift pieces. 

These Malay-style tea shops (known locally as Keda Tae) are long-standing hubs of community life here – social spaces where a mostly male clientele gathers to share news and enjoy each other’s company. But now, they are facing crosstown competition from coffee shops with wi-fi that cater to younger and more diverse customers – hipsters from the digital age. 

At 5 a.m., the air around Ijen volcano in eastern Java, Indonesia, is thick with bright yellow smoke. Undeterred, young Chinese tourists don gas masks and flock to the rim of the active volcano crater at sunrise, eager to capture the perfect photo. Steps away from a sheer drop into the turquoise volcanic lake, some whip out their phones to check Xiaohongshui

, a Chinese social media app, for the best vantage point. Within hours, their snapshots may join the thousands already shared on the platform. 

Aang Koen is familiar with this phenomenon. The 48-year-old Indonesian owns a travel agency in Surabaya and organizes tours to Ijen. For years, his clientele was predominantly European, but since early 2023, Koen’s business has undergone a dramatic shift. Now, 60% of his clients are Chinese, most of whom found him on Xiaohongshu. 

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