Southeast Asia Thread

As of now, Malaysia has a hung parliament with the 4 top coalitions, PH, PN, BN and GPS have 82, 73, 30 and 22 seats respectively in a 222 seats parliament. PH supporters want their party to have first dib in forming the government because they have the largest number of seats but PN is courting the other 2 to join them to form a majority, something PH cannot do because they have a knack of making everyone other than their supporters to hate them. The King wants a name to be nominated as PM by 2.00 pm today.

Edited by Blurring on Nov 20th 2022 at 10:05:35 PM

Quick and dirty guide to the principal cast:

• Barisan Nasional (BN): The longtime establishment bloc, led by the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) party. Historically championed racial policies favouring the ethnic Malay majority in the public sector over ethnic Chinese, Indian and Indigenous minorities (despite having constituent parties representing those groups). Was led by strongman PM Mahathir Mohamad from 1981 to 2003 (who entrenched a corrupt patronage system in the party machine), and by disgraced PM Najib Razak (of the 1MDB corruption scandal infamy) from 2009 to 2018.

• Pakatan Harapan (PH): The centre-left opposition bloc that unseated Najib in 2018. The coalition is led by opposition icon Anwar Ibrahim, a former protegé of Mahathir's who joined the Reformation movement against his mentor in 1998^* In parallel with the similarly-named mass protests in neighbouring Indonesia, because the 1997 Asian financial crisis just wasn't a great time for right-wing autocrats on the whole. and was subsequently jailed for sodomy charges in retaliation. The coalition as a whole is progressive and multiracial, but also carries some establishment baggages: part of it is Anwar's past as a hardline Muslim youth leader, and part of it was their decision to enlist Mahathir as a leader against the incumbent Najib in 2018. The bloc lapsed into infighting amidst Mahathir's resignation as PM in 2020, losing the government as a result, and while it's still a major contender, the PM's seat has been ping-ponged back and forth between BN and PN since.

• Perikatan Nasional (PN): The right-wing bloc for people who hate BN. Its biggest constituent party is PAS, a far-right Muslim party (one of the country's oldest) that draws most its votes from conservative Malay voters in Kelantan, Kedah, Perak, Johor and Terengganu (i.e. Malay states that remained unfederated under British rule). Also includes BERSATU (a UMNO splinter party that used to be part of PH under Mahathir before peacing out again) and a bunch of token non-Muslim/Bornean factions for flavour.

• Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS): Basically a regional splinter faction of BN that took over Sarawak (the western half of Malaysian Borneo) after the 2018 election. I don't really know anything about them other than that.

Edited by eagleoftheninth on Nov 21st 2022 at 9:31:35 AM

GPS said that they're ready to back BN and PN to form a coalition government.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/malaysia-ge15-election-coalition-new-government-gps-pn-bn-grs-3087896

I've been hearing some news that the Agong is "concerned" about the deadlock in the Rakyat that he wants all the parties involved to settle their differences if a coalition government is to be formed.

Edited by Ominae on Nov 21st 2022 at 4:58:49 AM

Ironically, BN parliamentarians are currently much sought after right now, and they can't decide among themselves which party they will ally with.

LOL.

I know I discussed this with my Australian mate from my Masters batch in Singapore.

CNA: BN will not back either PH or PN to form the next Malaysian government, says Ismail Sabri. Wonder how many deadline extensions they can fish out of the Istana?

Reuters: Indonesia quake kills over 160, search for survivors continues. The epicentre lied beneath the mountainous inland of Cianjur, West Java, where most casualties were incurred.

I'm sure the Agong can work something out.

Still deadlocked. King to hold special meeting with fellow Rulers at Istana Negara on Nov 24.

Well Anwar got his dream fulfilled.

He's the PM, but his government will have to be in a coalition now.

So Najib went to jail, Mahathir lost an election for the first time since man went to the Moon, and Anwar became PM at long last. Probably not the absolute worst way this year could've gone, eh.

BBC: Death toll from the West Java earthquake has gone up to 271.

Edited by eagleoftheninth on Nov 24th 2022 at 7:47:42 AM

Manila Times: Alarm raised over Maharlika Fund. Long story short, the Marcos admin and its supporting legislators are looking to create a Philippine sovereign wealth fund... by pulling money from social security institutions, state banks and the treasury, which labour activists and opposition lawmakers are all up in arms over.

Hey, it's not like Southeast Asia recently had a corrupt head of government voted out, brought to trial and jailed over a gross misuse of a sovereign wealth fund or anything like that.

Watch them lose it all betting on crypto.

...I really hope this post doesn't become prophetic.

Already people are saying it'll be the next 1MDB.

Trying to figure out who's the Filipino equivalent of Jho Low.

I also remember that Ferdinando (?) Marcos was one of the most corrupt politicians in the world, embezzling enormous sums.

I think in a few years' time you'll discover that much of that money has mysteriously disappeared.

Can't wait to hear Ferdinand Marcos Jr's claims when something goes really wrong.

I know Philippines is Southeast Asia but we do have a Philippine Politics thread...

There are stories I hear about Imelda Marcos's shoe collection... that can't have been cheap.

Hi, a question for Thailand tropers, are transgenders subject to conscription?

I keep getting contradictory sources on this info.

Am not Thai (I know someone who hangs around the World Building subforum), but I saw a CNA news clip a while back on Thai trans women going to a conscription call-up in order to present their medical certificates and receive a formal letter of exemption.

Conscription in Thailand operates on a lottery system rather than being universal for male citizens like Singapore's or South Korea's, and there are talks of ending it altogether due to a surplus of volunteer recruits (though it's uncertain how many of those would've "volunteered" without a conscription system in place). So while everyone assigned male on their birth certificate has to respond to the call-up, not everyone actually ends up drawing the "red ballot" and being put in a uniform.

That makes sense, thanks.

Indonesia outlaws sex outside marriage

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/06/world/asia/indonesia-sex-gay-rights.html

And a lot of other things along the way if this article is to be believed: The new laws will also criminalize adultery and extramarital cohabitation. Unmarried couples caught having sex may face a jail term of up to a year, while those found living together could receive a prison sentence of six months. Women who seek abortions will also face new penalties, according to Bloomberg.A person caught insulting or undermining the government could face up to 3.5 years in jail. Peaceful protests, which have typically been overlooked by the government, may also attract new fines. And journalists who publish what the bill vaguely defines as “incomplete stories” may also be jailed for two years.

...how the fuck do they think they'll be able to enforce this??

Seems more like "unenforceable" laws where they just use it as an excuse to arrest people.

That's the idea. The people in power aren't going to go after everyone who falls foul of the new criminal code, but it serves as a nifty pretext to prosecute anyone they want knocked down for any number of reason; just take a look at the selective enforcement of blasphemy laws in the 2017 Jakarta gubernatorial election, which played a big role in empowering Indonesian reactionaries of both Islamic fundamentalist and New New Order oligarch flavours.

I distinctly remember that Islamist policies were a big part of the reason why Indonesia was so badly hit by COVID-19.