Before elections, Cambodia blocks database of public information
With a pivotal election coming up, Cambodia’s informational authorities have kept an especially close eye on the unruly gardens of the Internet.
This week, ahead of Sunday’s balloting, authorities took steps to nip in the bud Kamnotra, an independent database of public information and the latest initiative of non-governmental organisation Cambodian Center for Independent Media (CCIM). The group launched the online tool less than a month ago to make official data more easily accessible in both English and Khmer languages and partially fill the void left earlier this year by the government-ordered closure of its news outlet, Voice of Democracy (VOD).
“I can not tell what the government is thinking. We intended for Kamnotra to be a public database of already publicly available information,” said Ith Sothoeuth, the centre’s media director. “But maybe the website contains information that the government thinks is not to their benefit.”
The order from the national Telecommunications Regulator to local Internet service providers to block Kamnotra comes a week before the Kingdom’s national elections, a contest that Prime Minister Hun Sen and the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) are all but guaranteed to win.
The run-up to the officially designated three-week campaign season had been littered with crackdowns, from the closure of VOD in February and the harsh sentencing of a former opposition leader in March, to the disqualification of the main opposition party in May. CCIM had attempted to continue its mission in some form through Kamnotra, but this swiftly joined the growing list.
The CPP, despite having virtually full control of every state mechanism, has left nothing to chance with the election, which sets the stage for the expected formation of a new government in August. After nearly four decades as prime minister, the 70-year-old Hun Sen will pass near-absolute power to his eldest son, military commander Hun Manet.
“The decision to block Kamnotra’s website less than one month after its launch constitutes the latest example of a series of oppressive decisions that severely threatens the freedom of expression in Cambodia,” said Chak Sopheap, executive director of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights. “Such decisions threaten democracy and the rule of law in Cambodia especially during the elections, a critical time for individuals to cast their vote and freely choose their representatives.”
The Record
Kamnotra, or “The Record” in Khmer, launched two databases in June: “The Gazetteer” and “In Dispute”. The first indexed laws and subdecrees published by the government’s Royal Gazette, while the second compiled years of reporting on land disputes in order to track conflicts.
“We digitised documents so everyone could access it, but simply making the database, it is not very useful,” Sothoeuth said. “We also created explainers, factsheets and analysis to make these dense documents easily understandable.”
This work went unhindered for less than a month.
On Monday, the Cambodian government ordered internet service providers to block the websites and social media accounts affiliated with Kamnotra, as well as the already banished news outlets The Cambodia Daily and Radio Free Asia. Both of the latter outlets were targets of the broader 2017 government crackdowns that centred on the forcible dissolution of the former opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP). Though locally shuttered, the news outlets have continued to publish reports about the country’s current affairs.
This time around, a one-page order issued Monday by the Telecommunications Regulator of Cambodia stated the sites had “disseminated information causing confusion, undermining the honour and the prestige of the royal government”.
The document ordered the sites to be blocked within seven days, which would likely render them largely unavailable for the election.
“Depriving individuals of access to vital information to understand the electoral process, constitutes a serious limitation of their fundamental rights,” Sopheap said. “Without access to reliable information, it is challenging for Cambodian citizens to eloquently exercise their right to vote and elect political office holders.”
Meas Sophorn, spokesman for the Ministry of Information, said Kamnotra publishes content in the “form of news articles” which the website was not allowed to do for a reason he did not explain. He continued that the independent centre should “know very clearly how to be a legal media outlet” in a nod toward VOD.
He did not respond to Globe’s follow-up inquiries about if the decision to ban Kamnotra could be reviewed or contested. Based on precedent, however, the reversal of the decision seems unlikely – at a World Press Freedom Day event in May, Sophorn dashed hopes for VOD’s reopening.
Sothoeuth rebuffed the claim that Kamnotra was publishing news articles and said the ministry had given no prior warning before ordering it blocked.
“Our team will continue working as usual for now, updating the website. Even though Kamnotra cannot be accessed now, hopefully it will be accessible later. People can still access the site through other means,” he said. “Tools like Kamnotra are very important, especially before elections. People need to have access to these documents and data to make informed decisions.”
Recent updates to the database included summaries on title promotions granted to family members of Hun Sen; minor political parties failing to register poll agents; and land concessions given to tycoons with ties to the prime minister.
The Cambodian government has steadily worked to assert more control over the Kingdom’s digital landscape with plans for a National Internet Gateway, which would route the country’s internet traffic through a single, government-run portal. Though long delayed, such infrastructure would theoretically enhance the state’s ability to gather user data, block websites and disconnect Internet access at will.
The expected adoption of the Law on Access to Information, which was meant to be introduced in 2021, has also been slow to come together.
Kamnotra and the other blocked sites are still mostly accessible through a virtual private network, or VPN, which essentially hides a user’s browsing history and location. The software to create these private networks, however, often has to be downloaded separately and at an expense. The encryption process run by a VPN also requires more internet bandwidth, which can slow websites.
“I can not say what we are going to do next after the elections. From our side, we made our intentions clear that it was a database. We wanted everyone to have access to publicly available data,” Sothoeuth said. “Perhaps it is not strange that we see things differently than the government. Hopefully we will have a common understanding in the future.”
Fake Nato doctor romances woman out of B60k
PUBLISHED : 18 Jul 2023 at 18:06
A man has been arrested for duping a woman in a romance scam – posing as a Vietnamese military physician attached to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato).
The man, identified only as Narathip, 31, a native of Uttaradit, was detained at a house in Bang Kapi district of Bangkok.
He was charged with fraud in running a romance scam in which he contacted a woman via Instagram but never met in person. He pretended to be a military physician from Vietnam working under Nato on an overseas posting.
According to the Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau (CCIB), the suspect had courted the woman online, and she fell in love with him. He talked her into wiring money to pay for his move to Thailand.
The woman made several money transfers amounting to 60,000 baht to Narathip.
On June 23, the CCIB discovered the remittances were recorded in a bank account often used by romance scammers. They immediately alerted the woman, who then filed a police complaint.
CCIB commissioner Pol Lt Gen Worawat Watnakhonbancha ordered investigators to compile the evidence and request a warrant for Mr Narathip’s arrest.
Once the warrant was out, police apprehended the suspect on charges of colluding to defraud a person and putting false information into a computer system.
In a similar case, a woman civil servant found herself on the verge of being declared bankrupt after she was deceived by a fraudster in the guise of a stock trader, and had a relationship with him.
The 35-year-old woman, accompanied by a team of Sai Mai Tong Rod (Sai Mai District Must Survive) emergency response workers, lodged a complaint with deputy national police Surachate Hakpan on Tuesday.
The woman told police she met the man through a dating app in April. He claimed he made a living as a stock trader.
The man finally met the woman. He again posed as a successful stock trader, claiming two bachelor’s degrees in finance and large overseas bank accounts.
After three months of going steady, he advised her to buy two cars as investments, which she agreed to. She also obtained bank loans worth five million baht for him and bought him gold jewellery.
The man then took off with the cars, money from loans, and valuables. The woman said she later discovered the cars were sold to a dealer in Pathum Thani.
The woman said was verbally abused when she asked for the cars and money back. The man also threatened to blackmail her with pictures of them in indelicate situations.
Unable to pay off the loans, the victim said she now risked being taken to court and declared bankrupt, which would ruin her career in the civil service.
âNo political agendaâ in generalsâ Langkawi trip
Source quashes rumours about talks with Thaksin, says Apirat was in Malaysia for South talks
PUBLISHED : 18 Jul 2023 at 17:56
A trip by former army chief Gen Apirat Kongsompong and the chief of defence forces Gen Chalermpol Srisawat to a Malaysian island on May 5-7 had nothing to do with national politics, a source said on Tuesday.
The visit took place a week before the May 14 general election but did not have any political implications, and it had nothing to do with a so-called secret deal to form a coalition government, said the source, asking not to be identified.
The pair did not meet former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, as suggested by some reports circulating in social media.
Thaksin, who fled the country in 2008 before being convicted of abuse of authority, has in recent weeks been claiming he is ready to return to Thailand and face the legal consequences. Rumours have been flying that the formation of a government that will accommodate his wishes is central to the plan.
“There’s an attempt to link the visit to politics. There are rumours about Gen Apirat, but he chooses to stay silent,” the source said.
“That he keeps quiet doesn’t mean there are grounds to those rumours. He’s not in the position to get involved in politics, and it’s best to keep him out of it.”
Gen Apirat stepped down as commander of the Army in September 2020. He currently serves as the Vice-Chamberlain of the Royal Household Bureau and the deputy director of the Crown Property Bureau.
The source said the facts are that Gen Apirat and Gen Chalermpol were part of a delegation to Langkawi to meet key insurgent members to support peace initiatives in the southernmost provinces.
The source said the meeting sought to open an extra communication channel for concerned parties, adding the dialogue to restore peace in the deep South was awaiting direction from a new government.
According to the source, Gen Apirat is keenly interested in the southern unrest issue and is quietly monitoring its progress.
His connections could be beneficial in promoting efforts to solve the insurgency in the region, the source said, adding that Gen Chalermpol also keeps himself abreast of the southern situation.
US national held by N Korea after crossing border – UN
EPAA US national has been detained in North Korea after crossing the border, a UN body says.
The United Nations Command, which operates the Demilitarised Zone and joint security area (JSA) that separates the north from South Korea, said the man did not have authorisation.
“A U.S. National on a JSA orientation tour crossed, without authorization, the Military Demarcation Line into the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). We believe he is currently in DPRK custody and are working with our KPA counterparts to resolve this incident”
BBC News has contacted the US Department of State for comment.
The Demilitarised Zone (DMZ), separates the two Koreas and its border is one of the most heavily fortified areas in the world.
It is filled with landmines, surrounded by electric and barbed wire fencing and surveillance cameras and armed guards are supposed to be on alert 24 hours a day.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version.
You can receive Breaking News on a smartphone or tablet via the BBC News App. You can also follow @BBCBreaking on Twitter to get the latest alerts.
Related Topics
Asia’s ESG investors must ‘re-imagine role of capitalâ | FinanceAsia
A version of this story was first published by sister title, AsianInvestor.
Infrastructure investors in Asia can promote a new, more ambitious role for capital in funding social and environmental development, according to Nikhil Chulani, investment director covering the industries, technology and services sectors at British International Investment.
“On the markets that we at BII focus on in Africa and South Asia, there are huge opportunities for growth and achieving greater scale,” he told an audience at the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute conference in London in June.
“To accelerate progress in realising the potential of these opportunities, one key aspect is vision and ambition, and tapping into creative solutions via financial services sector to re-imagine the role of capital.”
The UK development finance institution currently invests between $1.5 and $2 billion per year in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean.
He noted that, as ESG investing broadens from a focus on people to include the environment, the scope of allocations, and the range of problems they address, is widening. He said developing bottom-up strategies is more important than ever.
Being able to clearly identify and articulate which problems investors are aiming to address with their allocation is crucial, he added, emphasising the need to integrate impact and financial return within an investment model.
“Having an impact doesn’t exist separately from investing, it is a core part of investing,” Chulani said, adding that, while many investors still saw the ESG potential of their investment as distinct from its investment potential, attitudes were changing.
Size matters
Michael Anderson, who was director general between 2010 and 2013 of the UK’s Department for International Development, a government department that was responsible for more than $6 billion in annual aid programmes, said that a pressing question for enterprises and projects with a social or environmental dimension was achieving the scale necessary to unlock large investments.
“It’s not that we need to do more to attract major investors, but when they are attracted they need to have the deal flow to enable large ticket sizes,” he said.
“Big investors with multibillion dollar funds can’t go after small deals,” he added. “The key challenge is thinking at a bigger scale, especially in areas beyond infrastructure.”
“There has been some good investment in green infrastructure, but not enough in other areas,” he noted, pointing to social services, social infrastructure, and businesses designed to have a positive social impact.
Anderson, who is founder and CEO of MedAccess, a social enterprise improving access to medical innovations wholly owned by the British International Investment, gave the example of essential medicines.
“The critical reason that these drugs are not getting into markets where they are needed is that the companies who manufacture them don’t find it commercially viable to sell into those markets,” he said.
Investors were essential in providing the “catalytic finance” to de-risk distribution into less profitable markets, he added.
Anderson gave the example of a recent TB drug project mediated by MedAccess, where the finance provided reduced the per dose cost from $40 to $15. MedAccess also facilitated increased production by the drug company and worked with companies to secure distribution.
“Sometimes this means lower margins [for manufacturers],” he noted.
Local opportunities
However, Ana Nacvalovaite, research fellow at the Centre for Mutual and Co-owned Business to Kellogg College, University of Oxford, speaking at the same session, said small-scale, local projects offered considerable opportunities for ESG investors, given their strong social and environmental credentials in many cases.
Such projects that are aimed at securing specific social or environmental outcomes often involve joint investment by development banks alongside sovereign and other institutional investors such as pension funds.
But those institutions best placed to provide such “blended finance” are not necessarily the biggest, Nacvalovaite observed, pointing to the example of funding for rural farm co-operatives in Rwanda.
“The [Government Pension Fund of Norway] has its hands tied, since approval is required by the ministry of finance. But Rwanda’s fund [the Agaciro Development Fund, launched in 2012] could trial this. It is the right size and Rwanda has lots of co-operatives, so they are looking at these blended finance opportunities,” she said.
Nacvalovaite said that while single project investments with a finite lifecycle might produce tangible environmental or social benefits during their lifetime, they also created challenges when they complete.
“The community that has been built up around it has to pack up and move on,” she said.
By contrast, financing co-operatives and employee-owned businesses provided longer lasting social outcomes. “We are talking about people creating their own infrastructures,” she said.
¬ Haymarket Media Limited. All rights reserved.
Thai PM hopeful ready for premiership revote after defeat
However, it remains unclear whether the Move Forward Party leader can be renominated as prime minister.
Speaker of the House of Representatives and president of the Parliament Wan Muhamad Noor Matha said on Tuesday that certain parliamentarians do not support Mr Pita’s renomination for the premiership because he had already been rejected last week.
They claimed a rejected motion cannot be resubmitted for consideration in the same parliamentary session, citing the regulations for parliamentary sitting.
“The other opinion is that the prime ministerial selection is not a general motion but a process to nominate an individual as prime minister, which exists as a separate section in the regulations for parliamentary sitting,” Mr Wan Muhamad explained.
Parliamentarians will be able to debate the issue before he reaches a conclusion.
PITA READY TO BACK PHEU THAI IN CASE HE LOSES
The election on May 14 saw the highest voter turnout in Thailand’s political history. There were about 52 million eligible voters in the polls, and about 39.3 million people – 75.22 per cent – came out to cast their ballots.
The Move Forward Party pulled off a surprise victory with 151 seats in parliament, followed by Pheu Thai with 141 seats.
Still, the electoral winner is struggling to consolidate enough votes for its leader to become the next prime minister, especially from the 249 senators handpicked by the military government of General Prayut Chan-o-cha – Thailand’s caretaker prime minister.
Last week, 159 senators abstained from voting and 43 others did not show up for the prime ministerial vote.
Singapore launches mandatory climate reporting consultation | FinanceAsia
Earlier this month, Singapore’s Accounting and Corporate Authority (Acra), together with Singapore Exchange Regulation (SGX RegCo), instigated a public consultation on a proposed set of mandatory climate-related disclosures (CRDs). The two bodies partnered in June 2022 to form Singapore’s Sustainability Reporting Advisory Committee (Srac).
The public consultation runs from July 6 until September 30, during which the public can access related documents through a portal on Acra and RegCo’s websites and submit feedback via a designated form. The two bodies (Acra and SGX RegCo) plan to consider public feedback and finalise the recommendations by 2024.
If further amendments are proposed to listing rules around sustainability reporting, a separate consultation will launch before the end of the year, SGX RegCo added in a press release.
The mandatory CRDs will require issuers listed on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) to report their climate impact in line with the standards set by the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), starting from financial year 2025 (FY2025).
Similar requirements for large non-listed companies with annual revenue of over $1 billion will be mandatory starting from FY2027, according to the recommendations. In doing so, Singapore becomes among one of the first markets in Asia to consult on CRDs that are set to affect large, non-listed companies.
“To transition to a net zero economy, we need the critical mass to move the needle. With more companies adopting climate related disclosures, we are better able to drive actions and impact to meet our climate targets and make Singapore a better and more sustainable place for our future generations,” Esther An, chair of Srac told FinanceAsia.
New requirements
The new recommendations advance the city-state’s current reporting requirements, which were initially introduced in a phased manner in late 2021 to elevate Singapore’s role in Asia’s ESG arena and to uphold its position as a global business hub.
The market’s current CRDs require listed companies active in five prioritised carbon-intensive industries (finance; energy; transportation; materials and buildings; agriculture, food and forest products) to submit data related to their corporate climate impact.
However, the proposed amendments expand these requirements to all issuers listed on the SGX.
All SGX-listed corporates will be required to report their scope 1 and 2 emissions – those direct emissions that result directly from their activity or their production processes.
Corporates will also be required to submit data around scope 3 emissions – the indirect pollutants that result from the full breadth of a company’s supply chain. However, because these involve more complex calculation, Srac is offering companies one to two years to prepare for these reporting requirements before having to submit exact data, the press release explained.
“Scope 3 emissions are typically the largest component of many companies’ greenhouse gas emissions,” An elaborated to FA.
“To facilitate companies in making the disclosure, the ISSB standards have provided relief. For example, the standards allow the use of estimates to prepare this disclosure when the information cannot be obtained without undue costs and efforts,” she explained.
External assurance on scope 1 and 2 emissions provided by Acra-registered audit firms will be expected from all listed firms starting FY2027, and from large non-listed companies starting FY2029, according to the recommendations.
Dominoes
Commenting on the new disclosure requirements, Helge Muenkel, chief sustainability officer at DBS Bank told FA, “By starting with economically significant non-listed companies in Singapore, the goal is to eventually create a domino effect with better quality ESG data across the value chain, especially in relation to scope 3 emissions.”
As a Singapore-headquartered lender, DBS has been an active participant in Singapore’s sustainability effort. The bank announced in early July that it had upskilled over 1,600 institutional banking relationship managers and 170 credit risk managers to deepen their knowledge of sustainable financing practices, in order to better help corporate clients navigate the sustainability landscape.
Last September, market regulator, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and SGX collaborated to launch a platform, ESGenome, aimed at enhancing companies’ ESG reporting processes, FA reported. The assistance provided by the capability includes processes for sustainable procurement across supply chains.
To further facilitate large non-listed companies that are new to climate reporting, Srac suggests that scope 3 emissions need only be disclosed in the third year of mandatory reporting, An added.
The Srac team confirmed that mandatory CRDs for large non-listed companies with revenue over $100 million is set to commence from FY2030, but this timeline will be further reviewed in 2027, depending on the outcome from implementation of the current recommendations.
“With more countries pledging for net zero and the rising carbon cost globally, climate strategy and reporting can help companies, listed or non-listed, to mitigate and adapt to risks in the transition to a low carbon economy,” An said.
Whether the requirements will expand to include other aspects of ESG-related reporting remains undecided. The recommendations begin with CRDs as a starting point, An said, emphasising the urgency to combat climate change.
¬ Haymarket Media Limited. All rights reserved.
Move Forward submits 7 bills for ‘change’
PUBLISHED : 18 Jul 2023 at 17:12
The Move Forward Party has submitted seven bills intended to “demilitarise” the armed forces and “demonopolise” the economy.
The draft legislation was submitted on Tuesday by a group of Move Forward MPs led by Parit Wacharasindhu, and accepted by a representative of the House speaker.
Mr Parit said Move Forward had drafted 14 sets of bills. The seven bills which had been submitted for House deliberation were from the first two sets of draft legislation.
The first set has five bills and the second has two.
The five bills in the first set are for the reform or demilitarisation of the armed forces. They are:
• A bill to abolish mandatory conscription and replace it with 100% voluntary enlistment.
• A bill to reorganise the Defence Ministry, curtail the power of the Defence Council and place civilians above the armed forces.
• A bill on fiscal and financial discipline, to ensure transparent expenditure of state budgets.
• A bill to abolish the Internal Security Act of 2008, to dissolve the office of the Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc).
• A bill to abrogate orders issued by the coup-makers’ National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) and NCPO chairman.
The two bills in the second set are for demonopolisation, to promote fair trade competition and enhance the competitiveness of the Thai economy. They are:
• A bill to amend the Excise Tax Act to promote a “progressive liquor” sector, aiming to create fairer rules for the production of alcohol by small or community-based producers.
• A bill on trade competition, to create rules for fair trade and prevent monopoly and collusion by companies.
Mr Parit said the Move Forward Party has drafted 12 other sets bills, to be submitted to parliament. They concern local administration, bureaucratic reform, corruption prevention, public services, land reform, labour rights protection, environmental protection, tax reform, rights and liberties protection, social conflict, cultural diversity and constitutional amendment.
The Move Forward Party believes these sets of bills, if approved by parliament, would help convince the people that a “better Thailand” can be achieved through the House of Representatives, he said.
Russia arrests woman for helping Ukraine plot a ‘terrorist act’ on critical infrastructure
MOSCOW: Russia’s FSB security service said on Tuesday (Jul 18) it had arrested a Russian woman it suspected of collecting information on a “critical infrastructure facility” at the order of Ukraine’s intelligence services. It did not name the facility, but a surveillance video which Russian media said was taken byContinue Reading
Democrats: No talks with MFP about votes
Jurin says MPs will decide on Wednesday how to vote, but lese-majeste law still the sticking point
PUBLISHED : 18 Jul 2023 at 17:01
There have been no talks between the Democrat and Move Forward parties about voting to endorse Pita Limjaroenrat for prime minister on Wednesday in parliament or the formation of a government, outgoing Democrat leader Jurin Laksanawisit said on Tuesday.
Mr Jurin was responding to reports that Chalermchai Sri-on, the party’s acting secretary-general, had told him that he’d been contacted by Move Forward secretary-general Chaithawat Tulanon, who asked Democrat MPs to vote for Mr Pita.
Mr Jurin said he did not know whether Mr Chaithawat had really called. Mr Chalermchai also denied having talked to Mr Chaithawat.
“I would say that there have been no talks about forming a government with the Move Forward Party,” said Mr Jurin, who stood down as leader after the party’s poor showing in the May 14 polls. A vote for a new leader is scheduled for July 23.
Mr Pita fell 51 votes short of the 375 needed in the first prime ministerial vote last Thursday. Since then, political commentators have discussed various scenarios under which he could narrow the gap. One scenario would involve seeking the votes of the 25-member Democrat Party, or even inviting it into the current 8-party coalition.
Mr Jurin reaffirmed the Democrats’ stand against amending Section 112, the lese-majeste law, a key plank in the Move Forward platform.
Democrat MPs opted to abstain from voting on July 13. They plan to meet on Wednesday morning to decide whether to openly vote against Mr Pita’s nomination in the second round, Mr Jurin said.
Mr Jurin was evasive when asked whether the party would join the government coalition if the Pheu Thai Party were to form a government and nominate a prime ministerial candidate. He said he would rather not reply because this had not happened.
He also declined to answer when asked whether the re-nomination of Mr Pita for prime minister would amount to submitting an old motion that had been rejected and go against parliamentary meeting regulations, saying it was a matter for the House speaker to decide.
Speaker Wan Muhamad Noor Matha, addressing reporters after a meeting with party whips and the Senate speaker on Tuesday, said he would not rule until after parliament debates the matter on Wednesday.
Varawut Silpa-archa, the leader of the 10-member Chartthaipattana Party, said there were confusing reports that Move Forward had contacted his party about joining the coalition.
Asked what would happen if Pheu Thai became the core of a new government, Mr Varawut said his party has a firm stand against amending Section 112. It would be negotiable if Pheu Thai did not have a policy to amend the law, he added.
Mr Varawut declined to answer when asked whether Pheu Thai would be able to form a government without the inclusion of Move Forward, saying it was a matter for Pheu Thai to decide.