Southeast Asia Thread

Rappler: Former Foreign Secretary of the Philippines, Albert del Rosario, has died at 83. He was a longtime ally of the Aquino family and is perhaps best known internationally for his winning lawsuit at the Hague against China's Nine-Dash Line claim, as well as previously serving as the ambassador to the US under Arroyo (whom he had a falling out with).

Vietnamese dissident Duong Van Thai was reported to be "taken" from Thailand by Vietnamese intelligence agents.

Hanoi says that they nabbed him after he was seen entering Vietnam illegally from Laos.

https://www.voanews.com/a/friends-of-vietnamese-dissident-suspect-state-sponsored-abduction-in-thailand/7068440.html

Time: The last known female Yangtze giant softshell turtle (Rafaetus swinhoei) has died in Hanoi's Đồng Mô lake, leaving only two known males.

Shot: The Royal Australian Mint released a limited-edition $2 coin commemorating the 50th anniversary of Australia's withdrawal from the Vietnam War.

Chaser: Vietnam asks Australia to halt circulation of items with flags of now-defunct Saigon regime.

Edited by eagleoftheninth on May 4th 2023 at 5:26:11 AM

Philippine Senator and Duterte critic Leila de Lima acquitted for one of two drug charges.

EXCERPTS:

These are the important parts that I can get.

Edited by alnair20aug93 on May 14th 2023 at 3:30:16 AM

Just keep the important passages and remove the unimportant ones. The mods will get you for that long quoteblock.

Also, need I remind you that we have a a Philippine Politics thread. I know Philippines is Southeast Asia but it would help to post anything Philippines-related there.

Edited by HallowHawk on May 12th 2023 at 11:10:34 AM

That needs a bit of a dusting. Last year's elections were a tough time for that thread to discuss things.

I hear Thailand had a nice election.

PM LHL is ordering an inquiry on K Shanmugam and Vivian Balakrishnan on a couple of residential properties on Ridout Road after they got rented out.

"Oh? You think your father's house issit?"

Who?

Quick overview:

• Singapore has been ruled since independence by the autocratic People's Action Party, headed for decades by the republic's founding figure Lee Kuan Yew.

• "LHL" refers to low-hensity lipoprotein PM Lee Hsien Loong, the current head of state and one of Lee Kuan Yew's sons (he's currently not on the best of terms with his siblings).

• The cabinet is mostly made up of a handful of top PAP technocrats who basically just switch jobs with each other every few years. K. Shanmugam is currently serving as the Minister of Law; Vivian Balakrishnan is the Minister of Foreign Affairs and probably best known internationally for his selfie with Kim Jong-un (I got to meet him at an event many years ago).

• The two ministers were recently discovered to be occupying very high-end bungalows downtown. Singapore is small; most of the population lives in public housing. Landed housing is pretty much the purview of the top 1%, and the properties they're occupying are specifically classed as state-controlled plots whose rental rates, ah, might potentially stretch even a ministerial salary. So the government is conducting an "independent" review over the propriety of the situation, naturally headed by Teo Chee Hean, another PAP elder.

The whole situation is extra funny because Lee Hsien Loong himself has some history with property drama — specifically, his dad's. The late Lee Kuan Yew hated the idea of having a personality cult and wanted his old house demolished after his death. But LHL poured a lot of capital into milking his late dad's legacy as PM and moved to get the house gazetted as a national heritage site, which his siblings are bitterly opposed to.

TL;DR: landed property gets crazy rich Asians acting unwise.

Edited by eagleoftheninth on May 24th 2023 at 12:21:44 PM

So basically a couple of Singapore's ministers are likely abusing their positions to stay in expensive properties while most of the citizenry are stuck living in tiny ass public condos.

Funny thing about that is the two ministers did ask for a public inquiry if they're gonna cross a red line.

Halimah Yacob won't stand for the presidential elections in Singapore, which is due by September of this year.

So far, Lee Hsien Yang did say that he's considering it. But right now, he's living in Europe with his wife.

George Yeo declined to be a candidate.

What's the role of the President of Singapore compared to the Prime Minister?

The president has "official diplomatic functions and possesses some executive powers over the government of Singapore, including control of the national reserves and the ability to veto and revoke public service appointments."

He/she also appoint the PM.

The PM, however, is the one responsible for managing daily government affairs.

One thing I do respect about Singapore is that they beat a lot of the corruption you'd expect from the average authoritarian government simply by paying their ministers CEO wages.

Kind of late, but: Nikkei Asia: Thailand's politicized military faces moment of truth after polls. A brief takedown of just how much of an upset the Thai election results were: not only Move Forward and Pheu Thai won the majority of voters in traditionally pro-military areas, but they also won over most voting servicemembers below the rank of colonel.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/jocelyn-chia-malaysia-mh370-singapore-comedy-offensive-comments-high-commissioner-3546331

Jocelyn Chia made a dark job regarding MH 370 that Kuala Lumpur and Singapore took steps to condemn her and mitigate the "damage".

But there's a protest due at the American Embassy in KL.

Wonder if the military will, uh, respect the results of the election if Move Forward start coming down on their asses.

VnExpress: Vietnam demands Taiwan cancel live fire drills in Spratlys. The Taiwanese military operates a pier and a single aircraft runway on the tiny Itu Aba Island in the Spratlys, which is also known as Taiping Island to both the ROC and the PRC, Ba Binh to Vietnam, and Ligao to the Philippines. This wasn't the first time that Vietnam complained about "illegal" Taiwanese military drills in the Spratlys — the last one occurred in December last year.

Anyway, speaking of places named Taiping: TIL (from a friend who came from there) about the full etymology of the city of Taiping in Perak, Malaysia! The area was a jungle until the mid-19th century, when a minor noble of the Sultanate of Perak found tin deposits there. The sultanate set up a settlement by the Malay name Larut and began to lease out mining concessions, which were quickly grabbed by two rival Chinese secret societies: the Hakka-dominated Hai San Kongsi (based in Penang) and the Cantonese/Hokkien-dominated Ghee Hin Kongsi (based in Singapore).

The two groups were largely made up of recent refugees/immigrants who'd fled, ah, the ongoing unpleasantness in a certain Taiping Heavenly Kingdom up north, and competition over mining rights spiralled into a series of bloody conflicts, which grew worse as the Sultanate of Perak itself lapsed into a succession crisis where the rival claimants sought the backing of the warring Chinese societies. The war came to an end in 1874, when the Abdullah II faction (backed by Ghee Hin) asked the British to intervene, pressuring the Hai San-backed Ngah Ibrahim faction to the negotiating table. The two sides signed an armistice, and the town of Larut was given the new Chinese name Taiping 太平 ("eternal peace") to commemorate the treaty.

Interesting with Jocelyn Chia since the Royal Malaysian Police is "looking" for her, considering that she's an American now and it may not look good even if her MH370 jokes may be in bad taste.

Variety: ‘Barbie’ Film Banned in Vietnam Over Disputed Map Scene.

Oof. It's gonna be a difficult film to premiere here too for an anticipated movie as being return to form, and it's dashed.