🇵🇭 Indonesian police snag Alice Guo

Hello friends!

I am on the lovely Atauro Island of Timor-Leste this week and the wi-fi is spotty — but thankfully working enough to have spotted the Alice Guo story immediately after it broke. I feel a bit like those old vox pops they got in Boston after Whitey Bulger was arrested. ‘They got Alice! You can’t run forever!’ 

A lot to come on that front. Elsewhere, a few updates as the Pope begins his regional trip in Jakarta, the new(ish) cabined in Thailand is officially approved and Malaysia’s sticky one on the South China Sea. 

I’ve been warned that all of Timor is expected to shut up shop next week as the Pope arrives — judging by the sheer volume of billboards and kids in t-shirts, this is, if anything, underplayed — so don’t expect to hear from me until the end of the week. Will this ostensibly Australian Catholic, among the laziest Catholics in the world, become a true believer after watching Papa Frankie drive down the street? Let’s see! 

See you then,

Erin Cook

🇵🇭 Alice! Alice! Where the heck is Alice! (Tangerang immigration detention)

They got her! They got Alice Guo late Tuesday night. And in Tangerang of all places. The satellite city to the west of Jakarta is just about the weirdest place I’d expect them to find her — though it is home to Jakarta’s airport — after all the theories of where she’d ended up. 

Interestingly, there’s no warrant out for Guo’s arrest beyond the Senate for contempt. I didn’t think of that. But Rappler reports the Indonesian authorities probably stung her on immigration violations (there’s no visa option for ‘running from the Filipino Senate’ as far as I’m aware). Now, she’ll be deported back to the Philippines and land in Immigration’s arms before the National Bureau of Investigation gets involved and then hand her over to the Senate.

She should still expect some criminal charges: “Of course, we will file charges against her, criminal charges before turning her over to the Senate,” NBI Director Jaime Santiago said in a radio interview Wednesday, as per the Inquirer.

And, of course, this being a Philippines-Indonesia crossover event means the gags online have been thick and fast. 

There’s not really much to report as yet, but I couldn’t contain myself! What a strange turn of events. 

🇲🇾 A leaked memo and a South China Sea face-off

Don’t worry about that leaked classified memo, says the Malaysian Foreign Ministry. It’s referring to a memo from China’s embassy in Kuala Lumpur to the foreign ministry, dated in February, that appeared in the Philippines’ paper of record the Inquirer last week. ‘The note … demanded Malaysia to immediately halt all activities in an oil-rich area off Sarawak waters’ reports Malaysiakini. It protests explorations in Beting Raja Jarum and Beting Patinggi Ali — referred to in the memo by their Chinese names — which are two spots in the Sprtalys firmly in the Malaysian exclusive economic zone of the South China Sea. 

“China highly values China-Malaysia relations and is open to resolving maritime disputes amicably through dialogue, launching the China-Malaysia consultative mechanism for resolving maritime issues as soon as possible, promoting practical cooperation at sea including joint oil and gas developments, and preserving peace and stability in the South China Sea as well as the positive momentum in China-Malaysia relations,” the memo said. Oh, for sure. 

ISEAS’ Ian Storey has a well-timed analysis here for Channel News Asia that rejects criticisms that Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s government may be shifting its policy in the South China Sea as part of a broader more pro-China move. That’s not really the case here, writes Storey, and things have been ‘broadly consistent’ with the past. 

How the memo came to be in the hands of the Inquirer is up for investigation. The Foreign Ministry said it would file a police report and launch a hunt to find out how it leaked: “The ministry views the leak of this document, which constitutes an official communication channel between the two countries, with grave concern,” the ministry said in a statement, as per Reuters. 

🇹🇭 Continuity is the game in Thailand’s new cabinet

Thailand's King Maha Vajiralongkorn has gazetted the new cabinet compiled by Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and it’s hardly a game-changer. 

Pichai Chunhavajira will stay on as finance minister, Bloomberg reports. He was tapped for the role in Srettha Thavisin’s ill-fated cabinet reshuffle back in April. Call it a ‘a signal of policy continuity,’ Bloomberg reports. We shouldn’t expect to see too many changes in fiscal policy, in that case, and that darned digital wallet may well live to see another day, though it’s previously been tipped for a review. 

Foreign Minister Maris Sangiampongsa, Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul and Energy Minister Pirapan Salirathavibhaga will also stay on, Nikkei Asia reports here. Any suspected party dramas were dodged: “We see a little change as key coalition parties, including Pheu Thai and Bhumjaithai, retained the key positions,” Boonyakiat Karavekphan of the political science faculty at Ramkhamhaeng University, told Nikkei. 

Nikkei flagged the shift of Commerce Minister Phumtham Wechayachai to Defence, noting Phumtham is a good friend of Srettha’s. This could mean Pheu Thai is after a stronger hand on national security issues for the term ahead, Nikkei writes. 

🇮🇩 Pope Francis performs a miracle: drives down Sudirman unencumbered

Pope Francis has swung by Jakarta — capital of the world’s most populous Muslim country, of course — as he kicks off his Asia-Pacific tour. He counselled against religious extremism: “In this way, prejudices can be eliminated, and a climate of mutual respect and trust can grow … This is indispensable for meeting common challenges, including that of countering extremism and intolerance, which through the distortion of religion attempt to impose their views by using deception and violence,” he said, as reported by Reuters. 

Separately, President Joko Widodo noted the Pope’s previous comments on the war on Gaza saying “Indonesia appreciates the Vatican's attitude which continues to voice (and) call for peace in Palestine, and supports a two-state solution.” Elsewhere, Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said the President and the Pope did not explicitly discuss the conflict in their one-on-one remarks.