What else is going on?

Hello friends!

I’m on the move! Left Manila just before the weekend and now enjoying the steam of Siem Reap at the gorgeous Baby Elephant hotel. We’ve done nothing but read, work our way through the cocktail list and picked up conversations we put on hold in March 2020.

Will be hitting Phnom Penh at the end of the week for more beers, watching the Australian election results come through and meeting all the people I’ve been dying to chat to for years. Recommendations for meals and bars are always welcome! Also, books. There are a lot of Cambodia tomes I have on the Kindle but what are a few more 500-pagers. 

Today I’ve checked in with a few other stories I was trying to follow in the middle of all the Philippines news. We’ll certainly be revisiting there more in the coming weeks but here are some others I missed.

Also, I’m feeling good! Feeling excited! Thrilled to be back in the region. For this week, I’ve set up a 25 per cent discount for all new annual memberships:

If you’re an Asean or Timor national under 30 let me know and I’ll activate your free membership for you. 

Thanks!Erin Cook

Keeping up with the Americans

It’s a “new era” says US President Joe Biden. Just showing up is a nice change after the Trump years, but he’s serious. The US pushed to elevate relations to match those hammered out with China at the end of last year, pledging to an Asean-US Comprehensive Strategic Partnership "that is meaningful, substantive, and mutually beneficial." It’s still not exactly clear what that will look like, but will be finalised in November. 

There was a bit of chatter on Ukraine, but that’s hardly an issue primed to show off the best in Asean cooperation with much of the region slow, or unwilling, to condemn Russia for the war. More understandably, Myanmar rose to centre stage. Under the current Asean rules, the junta is barred from attending official events.

“We reiterate our commitment to peace and stability in the region and continue to call for the immediate cessation of violence in Myanmar and for the release of all political detainees, including foreigners,” the joint statement released Friday read. 

The bloc dodged any formal commitment to engaging National Unity Government representatives. Malaysia Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah did, however, meet with NUG counterpart Zin Mar Aung on the sidelines of the summit.

Radio Free Asia has a fantastic Q&A with Zin Mar Aung on Asean 

🇲🇾 Old foes meet again

Anwar Ibrahim and Najib Razak faced off last Thursday in a televised debate centring around embattled energy provider, Sapura Energy. The parameters of this newsletter don’t extend too far into domestic issues like those facing Sapura — and, as always, Between the Lines is the one to read for Malaysia — but this is a bit different. 

With the long lead up to an election that must be held by September last year and who these two fellas are made the debate a primetime event. If Sapura falls, Najib says, the people will be on the hook for it, not to mention all the jobs lost. Sure, says Anwar, but let’s do a forensic audit first or else it’s throwing good money after bad and, well, Malaysia’s done too much of that recently. 

It’s a proxy debate for the general election. Najib is on way back to the top and Anwar is working overtime to get his coalition’s ducks in a row to prevent that. “Najib stressed the importance of political stability while Datuk Seri Anwar pushed the integrity of governance,” Hazlin Hassan, the Malaysia corro for Straits Times, wrote. 

It’s a misstep for Anwar, writes a couple of Malaysiakini columnists. By agreeing to the debate he gave “political legitimacy to the world's greatest kleptocrat,” Mariam Mokhtar says. Interesting, says S Thayaparan. Still, “the problem with Anwar and Harapan is that they do not have a political narrative that anyone beyond the most partisan adherents would subscribe to.”  

🇱🇦 Thirsty Laos

Laos is back open for travel! The country has reopened borders in the third announcement of restrictions dropping on Monday. AP has some staggering data on the impact — 2019 was a bumper year for tourism there, reaching a record 4.79 million foreign visitors, followed by just 886,400 in 2020. Numbers for 2021 haven’t been released yet but would be presumably even lower.

Laos is very high on the ‘must visit’ list for me, but it seems now might not be just the right time. The fuel crisis which has smashed the world has been particularly devastating there. The Laotian Times reports shortages across various provinces in March and April have now hit Vientiane. Restrictions on how much fuel can be bought by motorists have done little to offset the difficulty in imports. It’s part of a ‘perfect storm’ for the economy, writes Sebastian Strangio for the Diplomat. The Lao kip has fallen through the floor and the economy was, like everyone’s, battered for the last two years. Add to that foreign debt woes and it’s a tough few months ahead.  

🇮🇩 LGBT under attack, again

I was almost thinking the culture wars in Indonesia had quietened down during the pandemic. 

The place of LGBT people in Indonesia — that is, their sheer existence — is again being questioned by many after social media superstar/world class mentalist Deddy Corbuzier featured Ragil Mahardika and Frederik Vollert, a gay married couple. 

Coconuts Jakarta, which does the country’s best immediate reporting on internet culture, describes Deddy’s podcast as a ‘Joe Rogan-esque’ format which sensationalised the hour-long chat with the title ‘Tutorial on being gay in Indonesia.’ With millions of subscribers, the response was swift. Coconuts says at the time they published there were at least 87,000 comments and most of them along the lines of gross homophobia. 

It has reached the level of a national scandal. “I still believe that LGBT [behaviour] is an abnormality that must be treated, not to be left alone under the guise of tolerance. Even if they’re born that way, that’s still not God’s will. Normal humans entail men pairing with women, and vice versa. Don’t take part in promoting the LGBT couple,” MUI Chairman Cholil Nafis tweeted, as quoted by Coconuts. 

“I have recommended since 2017 for LGBT [people] and premarital sex to be outlawed by the KUHP (Criminal Code). But you in the DPR (House of Parliament) did not ratify such suggestions. We can’t carry out a heteronomic legal action if it’s not against the law. When will [the criminalization of LGBT and premarital sex] be ratified in a bill? We are waiting,” Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Mahfud MD said on Twitter in response to criticism from another lawmaker. 

Deddy has deleted the video and apologised. But so what? The LGBT community has been under attack for years and the internet will seize any opportunity to show that those attitudes are, if anything, becoming more ingrained and violent. If an enormously famous creator faces this kind of backlash for having the conversation and then immediately walks it back because of the intensity, what hope does the young, queer, Indonesian have? When were these borders around Unity in Diversity set so rigidly? 

Nuiceletter says it best: