December 31, 2011
Free Malaysia Today
Southeast Asia rode out 2011 with its the top stories likely to set the agenda for 2012.
KUALA LUMPUR: Southeast Asia was in 2011 bedeviled by political brinkmanship, territorial disputes, natural disasters and the region’s more colourful and notorious figures having their day in court.
FMT contributor Luke Hunt, who is based in Phnom Penh, offers a quick roundup of issues that made the news in 2011.
Thailand floods
Record floods devastated much of Southeast Asia. About 2,000 people were killed across the region with billions of dollars in losses chalked up by business primarily in Thailand with Burma, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and The Philippines taking a massive knock from Mother Nature.
The UN noted Bangkok had for years been warned about the need to develop a fully integrated approach to flood prevention. But the biggest impediment was always convincing the government. The rapid changes in Thailand’s leadership compromised the ability to plot long term strategies to combat floods.
While international aid donors were quick to react with millions of dollars of food, supplies and medicine airlifted in, harder to shift were attitudes.
Thailand is the world’s largest rice exporter and had expected a rice crop of about 25 million tons in 2012 and this is now forecast to slump by a quarter. Livestock and poultry industries also suffered heavy losses.
The global computer industry based in Thailand is expecting a slowdown in the output of hard disk drives and companies like Toyota suffered from disrupted supply chains that resulted in production also being scaled back in Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines.
In politics, Thailand was the only country in Southeast Asia to experience a change in leadership in 2011 after Yingluck Shinawatra and her Pheu Thai Party won a landslide victory over Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva in July.
Her win resulted in an easing of tensions at home and across the border and paved a way home for her brother and former leader Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a bloodless 2006 coup.
Her victory generated an improved political climate with Phnom Penh (Cambodia) allowing for an easing of tensions along their border. At the 900-year-old Preah Vihear Temple at least 10 people were killed in February when fighting broke out between Cambodian and Thai troops. A further 18 died when fighting erupted in April along other parts of the border.
Many thought her first task would be to negotiate an amnesty for her brother. However, Yingluck’s priorities rapidly changed as the worst disaster (floods) since World War II assailed the country.
Myanmar’s opening
Thirteen months ago, the Burmese military allowed elections that resulted in the first civilian government coming to power since 1962. The poll – despite being widely regarded as a sham — has pushed the country in a direction welcomed by the international community.
President Thein Sein has revised laws on political parties, freed about 300 political prisoners, sought a conciliatory line with pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and stunned observers by defying one of its few allies, China.
Beijing had planned to build a mega-dam inside Burma but the plan generated enormous local resentment, prompting the government (Naypyidaw) to suspend construction. The government has also legalized trade unions and eased censorship laws.
The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) applauded the moves and decided to award the Asean chair to Burma in 2014.
As US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived on an historic visit to encourage further reforms, Aung San Suu Kyi lent some support by announcing she would contest up-coming by-elections once her National League for Democracy (NLD) party had been re-registered.
However, 1,700 political prisoners remain behind bars and complaints of human rights abuses persist particularly in the countryside where ethnic conflicts continue, prompting warnings that Myanmar’s ruling elite still had a long way to go before convincing skeptics its reforms are anything but superficial.
Malaysia’s revelation
The July 9, Malaysia revealed its other side when a group of non-governmental organisations and opposition political parties decided to rally in support of fair elections in Malaysia. Some 50,000 people had gathered in Kuala and few had expected the police and politicians in Kuala Lumpur would react as harshly as they did.
Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak had initially attempted to play down the protest by Bersih 2.0 coalition of NGOs, but changed his tune after Amnesty International described the crackdown as the worst case of suppression seen in his country for years.
Police were deployed under “Operation Erase Bersih”. They sealed off roads, dispatched toxic water cannons and opened fire with tear gas as tens of thousands attempted to march towards the iconic Merdeka Stadium.
Stampedes followed, and the crowds dispersed into smaller groups and taunted riot police armed with batons, guns and shields. Baton charges followed.
One man was dragged and kicked from outside the Chinese Maternity Hospital (in Jalan Pudu) as tear gas was fired into the hospital’s grounds and next door at Tung Shing Hospital where protesters had sought shelter.
Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, whose trial for sodomy was finally wrapped recently with a decision scheduled on Jan 9, 2012, was injured after police fired tear gas canisters into a tunnel.
Protesters, however, remained defiant amid more than 1,000 arrests.
Such marches are common in European and North American countries, Australia and New Zealand, all first world nations – a club that Malaysia has aspirations of joining by 2020.
Malaysia – decent Asyraf
Also notable is the Malaysian who was caught in the London riot.
Out of the despair of the London riots one young Malaysian deservedly won himself a place among the top stories of the year for simply being decent.
Soft spoken Asyraf Haziq Rosli deservedly won himself a place among the top stories of the year for simply being decent.
Stunned and bleeding, Asyraf was filmed being helped to his feet after being beaten in East London at the height of the August riots.
The cameras also caught his supposed rescuers rifling through his backpack and stealing what they could grab.
At least three million viewers watched the cowardly act on You Tube while Asyraf was applauded for his response.
“I feel sorry for them,” the 20-year-old from Kuala Lumpur had told a news conference.
“It was really sad, for among them were children, boys in primary school. It was quite shocking.”
He initially suffered a broken jaw and lost some teeth in the attack and needed an operation after some 100 youths charged at him and a friend while they were pushing their bikes to a friend’s house.
The riots erupted after British Prime Minister David Cameron and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg announced massive spending cuts and introduced University fees of up to US$14,000 per student per year.
Cameron in reference to Asyraf’s plight, said it was a “disgusting sight” that highlighted how things were “badly wrong in our society”.
Indonesia – Terrorist arrested
Almost nine years after bombings by Islamic militants left 202 people dead on the idyllic Indonesian island of Bali, the last of the bombers was finally arrested signaling an end to a historic manhunt and the War on Terror in Southeast Asia as defined by the first decade of this century.
Omar Patek was captured by Pakistani authorities in January following an apparent tip-off from United States intelligence. Information surrounding his arrest was not released until two months later.
The arrest afforded some closure for the relatives of victims and survivors of a tragic episode that heralded what became known as the Second Front in the War on Terrorism, covering Southeast Asia.
In May, Osama bin Laden was killed.
A prominent member of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), Patek was a deputy field commander at the time of the first Bali bombing, committed amid calls by JI for an Islamic caliphate across Southeast Asia.
A tape reportedly made by Osama bin Laden also said the bombings were in retaliation of Australia’s support of the United States’ War on Terror and Australia’s role in winning independence for Christian East Timor. Eighty-eight Australians died in the twin blasts.
An explosives expert, Patek was also wanted in Australia, the United States and in the Philippines. He has since been returned to Indonesia where he is about to stand trial.
Spratly disputes
Southeast Asian nations have witnessed a disconcerting rise in tensions over the Spratly and Paracel Islands as China’s gained in the economic and military ascendancy.
Tensions this year were at their worst yet with Chinese belligerence over this issue leading to violent protests in Vietnam.
Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, Taiwan and the Philippines have also staked their claims over the chain.
Chinese claims are ambitious and in regards to the Spratlys lie across a sea and largely within the 200 mile limit of Philippines and a political stone’s throw from Malaysia and Brunei.
China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu insisted China held “indisputable sovereignty” over the island chain despite the geographical realities. None of its neighbours agree.
Still, Asean and China agreed to heed to the Declaration of Conduct (DOC) which China described “as an important milestone document on the cooperation among China and Asean countries.”
The DOC is a framework for future deliberations on territorial claims on the islands. It was signed way back, in 2002.
In Hanoi, rare protests were allowed, in the lead-up to an Asean Regional Forum (ARF) in Bali that was dominated by China’s Spratly stance. There was also a push to drop recognition of the name ‘South China Sea’.
Manila is now referring to it as the West Philippine Sea, the Vietnamese call it the East Sea.
Philippines tragedy
Over in the Southern Philippines where decades of unrest destroyed any semblance of normal life, a year-end tropical storm piled further havoc on the misery being felt there.
The storm triggered flash floods that officials said killed over 1,000 people and left many missing.
An army spokesman said many villagers on the north coast of Mindanao island were swept into the sea after Tropical Storm Washi brought heavy rain.
Iligan and Cagayan de Oro cities were hard hit. Television pictures of the aftermath showed smashed homes and cars and debris strewn across streets and clogging drainage canals.
Entire villages were swept into the sea by flash floods. The Philippines are struck by about 20 major storms every year but most of them take a more northerly track, hitting Luzon island.
Typhoons Nesat and Nalgae battered the country within days of each other in September, leaving more than 100 people dead. Both storms struck Luzon.
Cambodia – Pol Pot in court
The Khmer Rouge Tribunal finally got into full swing with three surviving leaders of Pol Pot’s regime in a UN-endorsed court for crimes against humanity.
Case 002 got off to a low key start when compared with the first trial which secured the tribunal’s first conviction. Arguments and testimony presented before the Extraordinary Chambers of the Courts in Cambodia (ECCC) were startling, with prosecutors focusing on the immediate forced evacuation of Phnom Penh and urban centres around the country after the Khmer Rouge seized control in April 1975.
Predictably, those in the dock were Nuon Chea, the brother of a one-time head of state Khieu Samphan – and former Foreign Minister Leng Sary. Both have denied the charges.
Nuon Chea claimed the Vietnamese were to blame for the atrocities, including genocide, committed in Cambodia.
Between 1.7 million and 2.2 million people died under Pol Pot’s rule that ended in January 1979 when invading Vietnamese forces pushed the Khmer Rouge into remote pockets of the country-side.
The court heard that beatings with rattans, the use of pincers to pull nails, noses and ear lobes, electrocution and suffocation were common. Labourers toiled in fields until their legs were eaten away by salt water. Tales of disembowelment and cannibalism were numerous.
Other issues in Cambodia that also grabbed the attention of long time observers was construction of a massive airstrip in the central province of Kampong Chhnang, which was funded by and built for the Chinese government, supporters of the Khmer Rouge throughout the Cold War. Tens of thousands were marched to the air strip and ordered to work. Conditions were so bad that many opted for suicide, choosing to leap under passing trucks.
Singapore’s polls
In Singapore, thick skins have always been in short supply. British author Alan Shadrake found this out when he was jailed simply for producing a book on executions in the island-state.
In most countries the loss of a handful of seats at a general election that had little or no impact on the overall governing of the state would merit little attention.
But in Singapore where the authorities have for years’ encouraged nothing but whole-hearted support such losses seemed tragic.
At the 16th parliamentary elections in May the opposition polled better than ever before.
The People’s Action party (PAP), which has been in office ever since independence in 1965, won a reduced overall 60 percent of the vote down from 67 percent in 2006. Still PAP managed to hold on to 81 out of 87 seats.
Housing shortages, problems with public transport, a growing wealth gap and immigration were blamed on the PAP’s worst performance in its history.
Singapore’s ruling elite is not used to criticism.
Lee Kuan Yew — Singapore’s founding father and longest serving Prime Minister and now Minister Mentor – was upset by the result and resigned.
His son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong described the poll as a watershed saying: “There will still be a few who are against us, whatever we say. And some of these may have different views from the PAP. Others will want to displace us. But the issue is not policies or whether we are doing right or wrong, but who is in charge, in power.”
Australia and people smuggling
For Australia, the year began much the same way as it ended. People smuggling and illegal immigration dominated its agenda with Southeast Asia, particularly Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.
A refugee swap with Malaysia was struck down by Australia’s High Court as overloaded boats ferrying human cargo from Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan and Sri Lanka continued to land.
This led to the December sinking of a boat off Indonesia with more than 100 lives lost.
However, Prime Minister Julia Gillard insists a deal with Malaysia along with a regional solution remains the best way to combat people smuggling.
More than 1,200 asylum seekers are being held in detention facilities on Christmas Island off Australia’s northeast coast amid reports that people smugglers had moved their bases from much harder to reach places, including Laos.
After opening an office in Thailand, tourism started to grow rapidly. Only in October due to flooding in Thailand, there was a decline of 18.4% in arrivals. In October, just 10,431 Thais visited Cambodia.
