US, ASEAN must press Myanmar military regime to stop violence: Blinken
REGION OF POTENTIAL FLASHPOINTS Mr Blinken also took the opportunity to address other issues, such as tensions in the South and East China Seas and North Korea’s latest nuclear test. “We must uphold the freedom of navigation in the South and East China Seas and maintain peace and stability acrossContinue Reading
Lawmakers to hold new PM vote July 19 after reformist Pita stumbles
Parliament confirmed Friday it would vote again for a new prime minister next week, after military-appointed lawmakers foiled liberal frontrunner Pita Limjaroenrat’s bid for the top job.
Mr Pita’s Move Forward Party (MFP) won the most seats in May elections, buoyed by young people eager for progressive reforms after nine years of army-backed rule in the kingdom.
But the Harvard-educated millionaire’s campaign to lead the next government was knocked back Thursday by the legislature’s senators, who consider his pledge to reform strict royal defamation laws a red line.
And the vote came just a day after Thailand’s top election body recommended the Constitutional Court suspend Pita as an MP — providing more fuel for senators already poised to vote against him.
Parliament will hold its second ballot for a new prime minister on July 19, deputy house speaker Pichet Chuamuangphan told AFP on Friday.
But it remained unclear whether Mr Pita would be renominated or if he would face any additional candidates.
“We still have to talk about it first,” said Mr Pichet, a member of MFP’s coalition partner Pheu Thai. “For now, it’s gathering opinions and feedback from the people.”
Mr Pita has insisted that he remains a candidate to lead the next government and was “not giving up” despite taking only 324 votes overall — well short of the 375 needed.
Just 13 senators voted for him, with many voicing their opposition to MFP’s pledge to soften the royal defamation laws.
– Senate hurdle –
All 250 senators were appointed under the junta-drafted constitution, which political analyst Thitinan Pongsudhirak said was a reliable impediment to MFP’s reformist platform.
“It is a way for the authority and the regime to stay in power in the long term and to prevent a pro-democracy government that can stand against them,” he told AFP.
Mr Thitinan said he expected Pheu Thai — a party that held office before a 2014 military coup but is now in an uneasy alliance with MFP — to field prime-ministerial candidates of their own.
If a Pheu Thai candidate won with the backing of conservative lawmakers, they may yet form a government that excludes Pita’s party altogether, he added.
“The conservative forces see Pita and MFP as a threat to be put down,” he said. “I would not be surprised, along these lines, that they would do the same thing to prevent MFP from even being in the government.”
Pheu Thai secretary-general Prasert Jantararuangtong said the party would meet with the MFP on Friday evening to discuss strategy for the next ballot.
“We need to discuss what we do next,” Pheu Thai leader Cholnan Srikaew said.
Speaking to reporters, he referenced the parties’ coalition agreement supporting Pita for PM, and said: “I am still backing that statement.”
– ‘Abuse of power’ –
Mr Pita rode a wave of support that saw voters emphatically reject almost a decade of army-backed rule under Prayut Chan-o-cha, who took power in the 2014 coup.
But the MFP’s reformist agenda has drawn strident objections from conservative supporters of the country’s establishment, particularly its plans to shake up the outsized economic role of powerful business monopolies.
On Wednesday, the electoral commission recommended Mr Pita’s suspension from parliament over allegations he broke campaign rules — a move the MFP branded as an “abuse of power”.
The recommendation followed a probe into Mr Pita’s ownership of shares in a media company, which MPs are prohibited from under Thai law.
The station has not broadcast since 2007, and Pita has said the shares were inherited from his father.
The MFP was the only party that campaigned on tackling the thorny issue of the royal defamation laws, but that too landed it in trouble.
The Constitutional Court has agreed to hear a case alleging that the promise amounts to attempting to “overthrow” the constitutional monarchy.
The party has two weeks to present its defence.
India launches rocket to land spacecraft on moon
SRIHARIKOTA: India on Friday (Jul 14) launched a rocket seeking to land an unmanned spacecraft on the surface of the moon, a live feed showed, its second attempt to become only the fourth country to do so. The rocket lifted off from Sriharikota in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh carryingContinue Reading
Preparations for Singapore Grand Prix going ahead amid CPIB probe involving Ong Beng Seng
SINGAPORE: Race promoter Singapore GP on Friday (Jul 14) said it was going ahead with preparations for its Formula One event in September, amid an anti-corruption probe involving its chairman Ong Beng Seng. “Singapore GP continues with the planning and preparations for the Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix slated for 15Continue Reading
Singapore to emphasise the role youths play in driving climate action as Grace Fu visits UN next week
“Whether it is in engagement with leaders, political leaders, exposure to other ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) youths, or getting training and development opportunities available in our national SkillsFuture framework, we’d like to equip them with knowledge, with skill sets, and with understanding,” she said.
Youths have a longer runway ahead of them, she noted.
“They’re able to think about challenges that are two, three decades out that require solutions that really require long-term thinking and implementation,” she said.
“So we thought that they will be a really important stakeholder in this journey of climate action.”
YOUTH ADVOCACY “POWERFUL”
Among these young stakeholders picked to join Ms Fu at the UN is Ms Farah Sanwari, a youth leader behind several sustainability projects like Repair Kopitiam that promotes fixing broken appliances instead of throwing them away.
“I noticed that there were gaps in how we address sustainability issues in Singapore, particularly in consumption back when I was still a student,” she told CNA.
Asia falling behind the AI regulation race
In 2023, the EU Parliament debated the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act, China publicly commented on draft generative AI rules and US industry leaders — including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman — called for robust AI regulation.
The European Union, China and the United States may set the benchmarks for AI governance but Asia’s middle powers could shape a regulatory framework that benefits them. Asia’s middle powers should coordinate their efforts through an AI governance center of excellence.
Given the speed of technological change in AI and the strategic significance of the digital economy to intra-regional trade in Asia, the exchange of regulatory best practices and challenges among countries in the region is critical to formulating beneficial AI regulations.
Multilateral agreements — including the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership — include provisions on e-commerce, data transfer and cybersecurity issues.
But the gap in AI governance underscores the need for an AI governance forum within a framework of Asian digital governance.
There is little practical alignment on AI governance throughout Asia. According to Oxford Insights’ 2022 Government AI Readiness Index, Asia has both leaders and laggards in AI regulatory governance.
Singapore ranks at the top for AI governance based on benchmarks such as a national AI strategy, ethics principles and data privacy and cybersecurity laws. South Korea, Japan and Australia also score highly. But China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia score lower, with the Philippines, New Zealand and Vietnam at even lower tiers.
Examining the state of play on AI governance for some Asian countries provides insight into the potential value of AI governance collaboration among Asia’s diverse economies.
Singapore has adopted an industry-friendly approach and is not yet pursuing comprehensive legislation. Singapore provides a practical AI ethics toolkit for industry.
In June 2023, Singapore’s privacy regulatory body, the Personal Data Protection Commission and the Infocomm Media Development Authority led efforts to incubate and launch AI Verify. AI Verify is an independent non-profit offering industry-driven evaluation and testing of explainable, transparent, fair and human-centric AI systems.
Australia’s Department of Industry, Science and Resources issued a discussion paper in June 2023 on safe and responsible AI, focusing on governance mechanisms to ensure AI is developed and used safely and responsibly.
The report highlights the constellation of regulations relevant to AI in Australia, including data protection and privacy, consumer protection, competition, copyright, online safety and discrimination laws.
Vietnam, though, provides a snapshot of where many Asian countries currently stand on AI regulation. Vietnam’s national AI strategy sets explicit numerical goals, including the number of AI centers and businesses to be established within a certain year. The strategy mandates the creation of AI laws and regulations by 2027. Yet no draft regulations are available publicly.
The AI governance efforts in Thailand and New Zealand highlight the questions that many Asian governments need to confront.
Thailand’s draft Royal Decree regulating AI raises concerns about the extraterritorial application of their domestic AI regulations. The Thai decree would require a global AI service provider to register or appoint a local representative in Thailand when providing services to Thai users.
New Zealand offers another perspective on AI regulation, with explicit mention of indigenous rights. Its Algorithm charter acknowledges questions on indigenous rights in AI, including Maori data sovereignty.
Asian regulatory trends are not entirely moving in a straight line, with some governments moving in different directions from previous policies.
In 2018, Japan amended its copyright laws to be friendlier to AI development, allowing a fair-use exception to copyright infringement for AI training data. But Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida recently suggested a review of such copyright issues at a meeting of Japan’s Strategic Council on Intellectual Property. A more restrictive regulatory stance may be coming.
Indian regulators have shown a change in attitude too. In April 2023, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology stated it did not intend to issue legislation. But in May 2023, India’s Minister of Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw indicated that regulations will be coming.
Regional policymakers should initiate the process of coordination and sharing best practices sooner rather than later.
Initiatives in issue areas of privacy and data transfer offer a template, including the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation’s Cross-Border Privacy Rules or the World Economic Forum’s concept of Data Free Flow with Trust.
The OECD has staked out the AI regulatory issue and provides valuable resources for it globally — but by its design, discussions there may reinforce the digital divide. ASEAN has also indicated that it will develop an AI guide for its 10 member states.
A center of excellence bringing all aspects of AI governance discussion across Asia together in one forum would provide an opportunity to comprehensively examine and develop regulations in concert with, and complementary to, the domestic regulatory settings of each country.
AI regulation will form part of broader digital governance issues going beyond privacy, data protection, cybersecurity or intellectual property.
Building awareness, sharing best practices and forming consensus points for AI governance advocacy are essential to ensure the views of stakeholders outside the European Union, United States and China are represented in Asia and globally.
Seth Hays is a lawyer and Managing Director of APAC GATES, Taipei.
This article was originally published by East Asia Forum and is republished under a Creative Commons license.
Gaur carcass found in Wang Nam Khieo
800kg male believed to have been shot to death
NAKHON RATCHASIMA: The carcass of a male gaur, believed to have been shot to death, was found on Thursday near a village in Wang Nam Khieo district.
Local residents found the carcass in the bush near Khlong Sai at Moo 8 village in tambon Wang Nam Khieo, about 300 metres from Khao Yai National Park and 2km from the Khao Phaeng Ma forest, said Annop Buanual, chief of the Khao Phaeng Ma Non-hunting Area.
The dead gaur was a male, about 12 years of age, and weighed about 800 kilogrammes, he said.
Pol Col Rungroj Tang-amnat, the Wang Nam Khieo police chief, said the animal had been dead for at least four days. Seven bullets were found embedded in the body.
The protected animal might have been shot and wounded elsewhere, probably by villagers seeking to scare it away from intruding into their farms, before it was found dead near the village, he said.
An investigation is under way. Those found to have shot the gaur to death would be liable to a jail term of up to 10 years and/or a fine of up to 1 million baht under the Wildlife Protection Act, he added.
Asia floods: Death toll climbs in severe monsoon season
Getty ImagesMore than 100 people have died across Asia this month as the vast region experiences an intense monsoon season.
The past fortnight has seen extreme rain that has caused floods and landslides across several countries including India, China and Japan.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to evacuate as a result.
On Friday, South Korea was on high alert as a storm battered the capital Seoul, while in the Philippines officials warned of a tropical cyclone.
Earlier this week, Japan also reported record-breaking floods on the island of Kyushu in which at least eight people, including a local politician, died. Others are still missing.
“It’s raining like never before,” a spokesman for Japan’s meteorological agency said, as cities around the country logged record amounts of rain.
Scientists warn that climate change has increased the risk of of floods worldwide. Many countries are struggling to mitigate the dangers of the extreme weather.
The World Meteorological Organization’s director of hydrology, water and cryosphere said developed countries such as Japan were “extremely alert, and they’re also very well prepared when it comes to flood management measures.”
“But many low-income countries have no warnings in place, hardly any flood defence structures and no integrated flood management,” Stefan Uhlenbrook added in his statement on Thursday.
Japanese authorities had earlier in the week evacuated more than 420,000 residents from two prefectures in Kyushu island.
“Your life is in danger, you need to take action immediately,” the orders read.
Meanwhile in Seoul, 135 people were evacuated early Friday as torrential rain hit the South Korean capital, causing power cuts across 4,000 households.
In an emergency meeting with government agencies, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said preventing deaths was the country’s top priority.
“All public officials should remain alert and respond until the end of the monsoon,” Mr Han told local media.
He also warned officials to “thoroughly prepare” for the possibility of North Korea releasing water from a dam near the inter-Korean border after the country also received heavy rain.
Such releases in the past have often occurred without notice and led to flooding and deaths in the South.
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While many factors contribute to flooding, scientists say climate change due to global warming has increased the likelihood of heavy rain across the world, because a warmer atmosphere holds more water.
Last week, the World Meteorological Organization declared the onset of El Niño – a weather event where sea surface temperatures in the tropical eastern Pacific rise to at least 0.5C above the long-term average – for the first time in seven years.
This set the stage for a surge in global temperatures, as well as disruptive weather and climate patterns, the organisation said.
China and India have already seen weeks of heavy rain causing severe damage across different areas.
In northern India, authorities say almost 100 people died in the past fortnight due to landslides, flash floods and property collapses.
In the capital Delhi, sections of the subway system have been shut down, putting more pressure on flooded roads in the country’s second-most populous city.
Pictures and footage online showed people stranded on flooded streets and wading waist-high through the waters.
Unusually heavy rains have also killed several people and damaged infrastructure across China. Dramatic footage from southwestern Chongqing last week showed a building collapsing into a river amid raging currents.
Meanwhile Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh was hit by flash floods last week, following what officials said was the “heaviest rainfall in three years”. Around 14 districts across the city were affected.
Further south in the Philippines, heavy floods during the morning rush hour on Thursday caused a 17km (10 miles) traffic jam on a major highway leading to the capital Manila.
Some flights out of Manila airport were cancelled. Authorities expect the heavy rains to continue as a tropical cyclone lashes regions northeast of the capital.
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Chuvit urges Move Forward to back down from 112 demand
Many other things need to be done besides reforming royal insult law, says former politician
If the Move Forward Party wants to be the core for the formation of a government, it should back down from its stand to amend Section 112 of the Criminal Code or the lese majeste law, former politician Chuvit Kamolvisit said.
Mr Chuvit posted his remark on Facebook after a parliamentary vote on Thursday to select the prime minister which saw Move Forward Party candidate Pita Limjaroenrat receiving only 324 votes, far below the required 375 needed from existing members of the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Mr Pita accepted the outcome, but said he would not give up.
Mr Chuvit said if there was a second round of voting and the outcome remained the same, it would then be time for Move Forward to decide whether to continue pushing for the amendment of Section 112 or to abandon it completely.
To be in government, it is not necessary for the party to concentrate on reforming the royal institution since there are still many other things to be done, he said.
Mr Chuvit believed Move Forward managed to win 14.4 million votes in the election more because the voters agreed with its intention to reform the armed forces and do away with laws deemed draconian and dictatorial than its stand on amending Section 112.
“Move Forward can now be only part of a coalition government, not a single-party government. Not even one [other] party would agree with amending Section 112. It would be able to do so only if it could win more than half of the House seats in the next election,” he added.
Chuvit urges Move Forward to back down from royal insult law demand
If the Move Forward Party wants to be the core for the formation of a government, it should back down from its stand to amend Section 112 of the Criminal Code or the lese majeste law, former politician Chuvit Kamolvisit said.
Mr Chuvit posted his remark on Facebook after a parliamentary vote on Thursday to select the prime minister which saw Move Forward Party candidate Pita Limjaroenrat receiving only 324 votes, far below the required 376 votes from existing members of the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Mr Pita accepted the outcome, but said he would not give up.
Mr Chuvit said if there was a second round of voting and the outcome remained the same, it would then be time for Move Forward to decide whether to continue pushing for the amendment of Section 112 or to abandon it completely.
To be in government, it is not necessary for the party to concentrate on reforming the royal institution since there are still many other things to be done, he said.
Mr Chuvit believed Move Forward managed to win as many as 14 million votes in the election more because the voters agreed with its intention to reform the armed forces and do away with laws deemed draconian and dictatorial than its stand on amending Section 112.
“Move Forward can now be only part of a coalition government, not a single-party government. Not even one [other] party would agree with amending Section 112. It would be able to do so only if it could win more than half of the House seats in the next election,” he added.