As regional cities expand, urban poor risk being left behind

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Un Raksmey and her husband were both widowed with two and three children each before they met and began a life together along a dusty road on the outskirts of the Cambodian tourism capital Siem Reap.

They built a rustic house with corrugated steel on a small plot of land that they’d bought in 2008. There, they began selling everyday products to repay their debts and support their children’s education. 

But their economic struggles kept growing. By 2021, during the Covid-19 pandemic peak, the couple could no longer afford enough food for their children.

“He decided to ask his mom to allow him to use her land title to take more loans to buy more stuff to sell and to feed our kids,” Raksmey said, talking about her husband. “Life was so difficult because we were so poor and didn’t have knowledge, because he quit school in grade seven and I quit school in grade six.”

The couple and their six children are now one of the 75 poorest families in Siem Reap, as selected by an informal settlement relocation project led by the non-governmental organisation Habitat for Humanity Cambodia. In partnership with the local government, the non-profit aims at providing the selected households with a stable and safe house environment and ensuring their long-term financial stability.

The programme is one of many of its kind across fast-urbanising Southeast Asia as stories such as Raksmey and Leap’s become increasingly common. According to reports from the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and other institutions, Asia-Pacific is home to the largest concentration of people living in urban poverty. As regional cities absorb newcomers seeking economic opportunity and better access to public services, governments are pushed to find ways to absorb them into the social fabric. 

“[The region] is more urban than rural since 2019, and the trend is that the urban population will continue growing in comparison to the rural one,” said Luis Noda, Asia-Pacific vice president at Habitat for Humanity International. “Many people are migrating to the cities looking for better opportunities. Unfortunately, this growth in population is surpassing the urban planning capacity of cities and newcomers end up living in informal settlements.”

If we decide to move, we’re not sure that we will earn the same income to repay the debt.”

Un Raksmey

Currently, one in four people in Cambodia lives in urban areas, according to the World Bank. In the Philippines, that number is one in two. About 40% of the urban population in these countries live in informal settlements. In conflict-stricken Myanmar, the bank’s latest data suggests 58% of the population is living in slums.

The stakes for better housing are high, not only for families but also for national interests.  Habitat for Humanity asserts improving informal settlements can boost a country’s GDP by as much as 10.5% while improving quality of life for residents. 

However, urban informal settlements do offer some benefits – namely cheap accommodation in areas where the poor might otherwise be priced out. Resettlement locations are often far-removed from city centres where residents can find better-paid work, and those who move away often struggle to rebuild their livelihoods.

This is the fear of Raksmey and her husband. The newly built resettlement village, named Veal, is six kilometres out of town. While most of the other families have already relocated, the couple is postponing to keep the little income they have managed to earn through their small shop.

“The reason [why] I am still here is because there are more customers here so we still can earn enough money to repay the debt,” Raksmey said. “And if we decide to move there, we’re not sure that we will earn the same income [as here] to repay the debt.”

On the outskirts of Siem Reap, Un Raksmey lives with her family in a house made of corrugated metal sheets. Her family is to be relocated to the new Veal village on the outskirts of Siem Reap as part of Habitat for Humanity Cambodia’s informal settlement improvement project. Photo by Beatrice Siviero for Southeast Asia Globe.

As marginalised families such as Raksmey’s weigh their options on the urban fringe, international non-profits have pushed more of their own focus into the region.

More than half of Habitat for Humanity’s global network is currently working on a campaign to address inadequate housing for informal settlements across the Asia-Pacific, from Nepal to Australia. 

Much of this work is based in Southeast Asia. The organisation is doing policy work and identifying funding for housing rehabilitation in Indonesia while carrying out other major resettlement projects in Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar. 

Pushed into an economic spiral by the 2021 military coup, Myanmar’s issues with urban poverty have become dire for many residents. 

 The risk of forced evictions since the military seized power has grown immensely.” 

UNDP Myanmar Resident Representative Titon Mitra

“It is essential to also consider [that] low-income urban areas in Myanmar often lack basic services and infrastructure,” said UNDP Myanmar Resident Representative Titon Mitra, pointing to core needs such as access to clean water. “This further squeezes already low incomes and reduces the time for work or education. In the worst cases, people may risk illness using unclean sources.”  

Yangon’s urban poor are those who are facing the harsher consequences of the bloody chapter of civil war started by the coup. Although not a conflict zone, the country’s largest city is home to thousands of internally displaced persons. 

With that, a January UNDP report projected Yangon’s poverty rate to triple from 13.7% in 2017 to 41.9% in 2022.

“These people often live in informal settlements too, where their homes are flimsy and impermanent, and conditions are typically squalid and cramped,” Mitra said. “What’s more, the risk of forced evictions since the military seized power has grown immensely.” 

According to his experience, people living in informal settlements – many of whom have lived there for decades – may be given just a few days’ notice to dismantle their homes and move out with no offer of an alternative place to live.

People living in the city’s poorest townships earn 30% less than those in the rest of the region and are more vulnerable to a host of social issues such as violence against women, limited access to drinkable water and school dropouts of children, according to the UNDP research.

“To create sustainable solutions to decrease urban poverty, it is critical to create more opportunities for people, including work and education,” Mitra said. “There needs to be support to the private sector to create jobs and efforts to train the workforce to fill those roles.”

A small park square in the newly-built Veal village in Siem Reap, Cambodia. The housing project was developed by the non-profit Habitat for Humanity as part of an informal settlement improvement programme. Photo submitted.

In an attempt to ease their conditions, the non-governmental organisation Step-in Step-up Academy, a delivery arm for UNDP, has been providing vocational training to Yangon youths.

Jackie Appel, the organisation’s founder, said the highest demand before the coup was usually in healthcare, office work and hospitality.

“We go out and we look for available jobs. We then create a tailored curriculum and call these very vulnerable people to join our training sessions,” Appel said. “But we cannot do this successfully without giving them food, vaccinating them, providing medical care and a stipend they can take home every month to give to their families.” 

The number of trainees varies according to the job availability in Yangon and their age must be over 18. However, many families forge their children’s age in official documents to have them selected for the training. 

We have to be able to get them jobs first. If there are no jobs, they can’t sustain their houses.”

Jackie Appel,, founder of Step-in Step-up Academy in Yangon

“This created another whole new area of concern,” Appel said. “But you can’t prove whether they are 18 or 14. Yet we couldn’t kick them out because they would be the perfect trafficked or exploited group of people. They’re the most vulnerable.”

Regardless of their real age, young adults have the potential to become breadwinners and support the cost of newly provided houses. But Appel also said, the potential to earn relies on opportunities being available – a factor outside a nonprofit’s control.

“Of course, these young people can sustain their own houses and their own communities,” she said. “But we have to be able to get them jobs first. If there are no jobs, they can’t sustain their houses.”

Post-coup Myanmar represents a particularly challenging landscape for international aid, but in general tight cooperation between institutions is key to successful housing improvement projects. Ensuring families can sustain themselves long-term is crucial for their well-being and that of their country, according to all the experts who spoke with the Globe.

In Cambodia, the most visible relocation project – a massive resettlement of thousands of families from Angkor Park in Siem Reap, home of the country’s historic temples – has cut a difficult path. Residents said they were forced from the park into a new zone far outside the city, away from the stream of tourists that many had relied on to make a living.

Habitat for Humanity was uninvolved with that effort, which is being handled solely by the Cambodian government. The nonprofit’s resettlement project at Veal village ensures the new residents are attached to an existing community, so the new families can integrate and work with local partners to find the support they need. The families also receive a range of training programmes, from vocational skills to family planning and basic land law.

“The lack of adequate housing in informal settlements is complex enough that no individual organisation can effectively tackle it alone,” Habitat for Humanity’s Noda said. 

For resettlement at Veal, selection criteria included areas such as land ownership, household income of less than $1.90 per person a day, house size smaller than 4 square metres per person or the disability of a family member.

Lampo Leap, right, and her 73-year-old mother, in wheelchair, in the family’s new house in the Veal village resettlement site. Photo submitted.

The chosen households were considered as the most vulnerable and hazardous and at high risk of living illegally on the state land, on infrastructure such as roads, canals or sewage systems. New Veal resident Lampo Leap, 35, said she was “excited” with the move.

“We no longer live in an odoured place,” Leap said. “Living along the canal was terrible. [The smell] affected our health. Living here, my mother sleeps better, and in the morning there is fresh air coming in.”

Leap is the deputy leader of the newly-built community, as well as a mother of a 10-year-old girl. She left her job at a local hotel four years ago, when her 73-year-old mother, who is now blind, started needing daily care. They have both been widows for more than a decade and have been relying on Leap’s brother’s income from his job in Thailand.

On a June afternoon in Veal, community leader Kung Sothy, 75, sat next to Leap after returning from a nearby bank to retrieve the monthly salaries for the village’s sewing group. 

“While I am having a good house and permanent place to reside, I try to find more income [for my community] so that in the future we won’t face difficulty like before,” Sothy said.

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Thai parliament to meet again on choosing PM on Aug 4

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BANGKOK: Thailand’s parliament is scheduled to sit on Aug 4 to try again to pick a prime minister, it said on Thursday (Jul 27), as a political stalemate drags on following a national election in May. Two previous attempts by the election-winning Move Forward party to have its leader PitaContinue Reading

As Fed wraps up tightening, Chinese yuan breathes easier

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No government is probably happier that the US Federal Reserve is completing the most aggressive tightening cycle in decades than Xi Jinping’s.

Amid intensifying headwinds zooming China’s way, the idea of less monetary austerity in Washington – and fewer shocks in global capital markets – couldn’t arrive sooner. And odds are that Wednesday’s Fed interest-rate increase, the 11th in 17 months, is the last in the current campaign.

Yet there’s another reason the Fed taking a breather is comforting news for Xi: It relieves pressure on the yuan exchange rate.

As investors ratcheted down their expectations for China hitting 5% growth in recent weeks, the central bank found itself in a tug of war with currency speculators. Local media detailed how China’s major state-owned banks were dumping dollars for yuan in onshore and offshore markets to halt the renminbi’s slide.

This week, the plot thickened as top Community Party leaders meeting in Beijing pledged to keep a floor under the yuan exchange rate as part of vows to invigorate the capital market and buttress confidence.

“It’s interesting that the Politburo mentioned FX stability in the statement, for the first time in recent years,” analysts at HSBC observe in a note to clients. “This means that smoothing yuan depreciation pressure may become more of a policy priority from now on. This is in line with the People’s Bank of China’s further tightening of FX policy recently.”

On the dollar’s recent strength, strategists at RBC Capital Markets note that “the current rise has not been accompanied by as sharp a spike in volatility.” Thanks to nimble policymaking, they add, the yuan’s recent softness hasn’t turned “into an acute crisis situation.”

Beijing limiting the yuan’s downside is good news for four reasons.

One, it reduces default risks in the property market.

It’s not a given that Fed chairman Jerome Powell is done raising rates. As economist Seema Shah at Principal Asset Management puts it: “Data dependence remains the buzzword and, given the confusing signals of waning inflation but a tight labor market, keeping all options on the table seems to be a sensible approach” for the Fed.

Powell, after all, is keeping his options open after Wednesday’s move to raise the Fed’s benchmark rate to roughly 5.3% from 5.1%, the highest level since 2001. As Powell said on Wednesday, “it’s certainly possible that we will raise rates again at the September meeting. And I would also say it’s possible that we would choose to hold steady at that meeting.”

Longtime Fed watcher Diane Swonk at KPMG speaks for many economists when she says Powell’s directive was “about as clear as mud.”

What is clear, though, is that the steady decline in US inflation over the past year – to 3% from 9% – means the Powell Fed will soon take a back seat on US economic policymaking.

As the Fed throttles back on austerity, monetary-policy currents among top economies will remain uniquely divergent for the rest of 2023. It means that the conditions that propelled the dollar to the highest in decades are being reversed just as China is struggling to support the yuan.

As downward pressure on the yuan recedes, so will concerns that “China Evergrande” will be trending on global search engines. The weaker the yuan gets, the greater the risk property-development giants might default on dollar-denominated debt.

Quieter conditions in Chinese credit markets will make it easier for Xi’s reform team to end boom/bust cycles in the real-estate sector.

Two, it reduces the risk of an Asia-wide race to the bottom on exchange rates.

In recent months, many Asian policymakers worried the yen’s 7% drop this year would prod Beijing to follow suit. Nothing, after all, might ensure China reaches this year’s 5% GDP growth target faster than a sharp drop on the yuan.

That would set the stage for a region-wise response. Given still-lingering trauma from the late 1990s, fears that Tokyo’s beggar-thy-neighbor strategy might provoke responses from China to South Korea to Southeast Asia has been a major fear of US Treasury officials.

Back in the ’90s, the Fed’s aggressive rate increases boosted the dollar to levels that forced officials in Bangkok, Jakarta and Seoul to abandon currency pegs. Those competitive devaluations set in motion the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis.

In the decades since, governments strengthened banking systems, increased transparency, created bigger and more vibrant private sectors and amassed sizable foreign-exchange reserves to shield economies from global shocks.

The Covid-19 crisis, though, demonstrated that Asia is still too reliant on exports for growth. Even so, Asian governments over the past year have been more inclined to prop up exchange rates to limit the risks of imported inflation.

As Xi and Premier Li Qiang resist the urge to engineer a weaker yuan, the global financial system has breathed something of a sigh of relief.

Three, a stable yuan could help reduce trade tensions. Surely, it has dawned on US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen that Beijing is displaying restraint in currency levels as Tokyo does the opposite. That might have been the reason Yellen’s team left China off Washington’s latest “currency manipulator” lists.

Even if Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s Japan is pushing the weak-yen envelope, Beijing needs to tread carefully. As President Joe Biden runs for re-election, Republican challengers – many itching to investigate China over Covid-19 and suspicious of Asia in general – are sure to accuse Beijing of unfair currency manipulation.

Sanctioning China is, after all, perhaps the only thing on which Biden’s Democrats and Republicans agree. Xi’s team surely realized that while Donald Trump’s trade war and unhinged rhetoric were a drag, Biden’s more targeted and consistent curbs on China Inc since January 2021 have landed some notable blows.

All the more reason to avoid new tensions just as Premier Li’s team pivots toward creating greater economic space for China’s private sector to thrive. Part of the problem is China’s own success in de-emphasizing the public sector over the last 20-plus years.

Sure, Xi’s regulatory clampdown on Big Tech since late 2020 stymied progress on increasing the role of – and innovation in – the private sector. But Beijing is being reminded the hard way that the public sector’s share of urban employment – roughly 20% – no longer packs the punch it once did. It means that, this time, Xi and Li need a more vibrant private sector to boost income and confidence on the way to faster GDP growth.

Here, the policy shifts on display in Beijing this month, coupled with a less draconian Fed, are a plus for private-sector development in Asia’s biggest economy.

“This latest rhetoric from the top man of China’s State Council is likely to boost positive animal spirits in the short term at least,” says analyst Kelvin Wong at Oanda.

“From a medium-term perspective, the external environment also needs to be taken into consideration when global interest rates are likely to stay at a higher level for at least till the second half of 2024 given the latest hawkish monetary policy guidance from major developed countries’ central banks,” including the Fed.

Four, it suggests the shift to more productive growth is real. The latest signals coming out of Beijing are that Team Xi is more focused on long-term economic confidence than short-term-stimulus sugar highs.

The strategy “talks about boosting consumption but only indirectly, via supporting household incomes,” says Julian Evans-Pritchard, head of China economics at Capital Economics. “Those hoping for a new approach to stimulus involving greater transfers to households are likely to be disappointed.”

Economists at Barclays add that “while it signaled more support for the economy, the Politburo meeting generally fell short of offering large-scale stimulus. We view this as a signal that the government would stabilize growth around its target but refrain from an outsized policy response, given the top leaders’ intended shift in focus to quality.”

With a weak-yen obsession these last 25 years, Japan has amply proved that a weaker exchange rate may boost GDP, but does nothing to increase innovation, productivity or overall competitiveness.

If you are the CEO of a large or midsize company, why bother doing heavy lifting on restructuring, recalibrating, reimagining or reanimating innovative spirits when a weak exchange rate is bailing you out?

At the same time, internationalizing the yuan has arguably been Xi’s biggest reform victory these last 10 years.

In 2016, Xi’s government set the stage for yuan’s fast-increasing use in trade and finance when then-PBOC governor Zhou Xiaochuan secured a place for the yuan in the International Monetary Fund’s Special Drawing Rights program. It marked the yuan’s inclusion in the IMF’s club of reserve currencies, joining the dollar, euro, yen and pound.

Xi’s team has steadily increased and broadened the channels for foreign investors to access mainland China’s stock and bond markets. Chinese shares were added to the MSCI index, while government bonds were included in the FTSE Russell benchmark. That, and moves to increase financial transparency, increased global demand for the yuan.

Odds are good, says analyst Ming Ming at Citic Securities, that Xi’s government will continue to improve China’s capital-markets infrastructure to attract more long-term investment and boost direct financing.

Part of the process of building trust in the yuan is letting markets decide its value. The lack of full convertibility remains a big speed bump, of course. But so would the perception that Xi’s team and the PBOC are actively manipulating the yuan lower – provoking the Biden White House or the wider Group of Seven.

Beijing is focused on maintaining progress to date in internationalizing the yuan, and for good reason. That will get a bit earlier as the Fed ends a tightening cycle that Xi’s Communist Party will not miss.

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After 38 years, Cambodia PM Hun Sen to hand office to son

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After nearly four decades in power, Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen has put in his resignation notice. 

Just two days after Cambodians cast their ballots in a general election dominated by his party and condemned by the West as neither free nor fair, the long-standing leader announced on state television that he would pass his office to his eldest son, Hun Manet, on 22 August.

Hun Sen will remain the head of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) and will stay in the new government as president of the Senate, a posting he’ll take in February. 

“It is the country’s plan to maintain long-term stability – such stability and peace is the foundation of development,” the prime minister said in the nearly hour-long televised address. “It is an assurance that when a new generation takes power, the old generation stands beside him.”

The CPP has long managed to keep its inner workings opaque, and though rumours of rifts still occasionally swirl beyond its ranks, the party today generally presents a united public face. After Hun Sen publicly announced in December 2021 his wish to hand power to his son, within nearly a week top party leaders – along with authorities from officially nonpartisan institutions such as the judiciary and military – had rushed to endorse Manet as a future prime minister candidate, swallowing whatever ambitions or reservations they may have had. 

“I am the one who makes the biggest sacrifice.”

Prime Minister Hun Sen

From there, last weekend’s ballot represents not only the image of a people’s mandate for dynastic rule, but also a means of cementing a son’s inheritance – a system of near-total state power largely accountable only to itself and tightly consolidated around a single family and its patriarch. 

The breakdown of the party’s historic factions to make way for such a personalised model of rule has been decades in the making by its architect Hun Sen, an ex-soldier who backed his will to power with a battlefield view toward governance. 

Through years of careful brokering, the prime minister has knit a tightly woven ruling elite using a mix of patronage politics and outright violence waged on a scale both petty and grand. In the past five years alone, the prime minister has made dramatic gains in societal control after the Supreme Court, led by a top member of the CPP, ordered the dissolution of the popular opposition Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP) ahead of the previous national elections of 2018. That ruling gave way to the mass trials of former CNRP members and supporters for crimes ranging from incitement to treason.

After his son takes the top office, Hun Sen will undoubtedly keep an unwavering eye on the careful balance of interests that have made possible his vision of rule. Even with his father’s continued influence, Manet may find the weight of this amassed power to be a heavy burden to shoulder.

“I am the one who makes the biggest sacrifice,” Hun Sen told Chinese state media before the election. “Right now, I have an absolute power, but in about a month, I won’t have the power to sign any bills the same way as I do today.”

Hun Manet, a Cambodian military commander and soon-to-be prime minister, speaks at a Cambodian People’s Party campaign rally in Phnom Penh on 21 July, 2023. Photo by Anton Delgado for Southeast Asia Globe.

Over the past year, Manet, a military commander, has represented the state in various functions both domestically and abroad. Last week, he headlined the CPP’s closing rally of the official campaign period, speaking to party supporters before leading a massive motorcade through the capital Phnom Penh. 

Despite its nearly exclusive historic control of all state mechanisms, the ruling party still handled Sunday’s national election as a critical juncture of a larger generational turnover within the CPP characterised in large part by nepotistic power transfers. 

In May, the National Election Committee rejected the country’s most popular political opposition – the Candlelight Party, a reconstituted version of the CNRP – over an alleged paperwork issue. With no serious opposition, the ruling party declared a “landslide” victory, claiming 120 of the 125 seats in the National Assembly. An analysis of the candidate list by the media outlet CamboJA found that 22.4% of CPP candidates are familial relatives.

The remaining five seats will go to Funcinpec, a royalist party. The organisation has deep roots – it won Cambodia’s UN-administered election of 1993, defeating the CPP, but was later toppled in a brutal 1997 clash orchestrated by Hun Sen. 

That first modern election served as the capstone of the unprecedented scope of the UN Transitional Authority of Cambodia, which ostensibly provided a framework to end the country’s long-boiling conflict with a shift to liberal democracy. 

By the time the UN rolled in with more than 20,000 personnel and $1.6 billion in eventual spending, Hun Sen had already been prime minister of a single-party state since 1985. 

A former Khmer Rouge cadre who defected early to Vietnam, he’d returned home in the 1979 Vietnamese invasion that swiftly crushed the communist government of Democratic Kampuchea and established a new, socialist government. Hun Sen rose through the ranks in Phnom Penh under Vietnam’s decade-long occupation and, upon its military withdrawal, took over the fight against the remaining Khmer Rouge insurgency.

Before the elections of 1993, geopolitical wrangling had left his government unrecognised by the international community. Cambodia’s seat at the UN was filled by a representative of a tripartite government-in-exile that included royalists, the Khmer Rouge and anti-communist Khmer nationalists avowed to end the Vietnamese occupation. 

This unlikely alliance was led by the late King Norodom Sihanouk, a deeply influential figure of modern Cambodian history who lent his legitimacy to its cause.

Prime Minister Hun Sen (R) with then-Prince Norodom Sihanouk (L) and French foreign minister Roland Dumas before the start of the historic Paris peace talks.

The years of international isolation had already chafed Hun Sen. So by 1993, when the royalist victory at the polls threatened to sideline the embattled prime minister, he promptly forced a power-sharing agreement that all but undid the results of the ballot. Hun Sen and Funcinpec party leader Prince Norodom Ranariddh, son of the former king, ruled as co-prime-ministers until the clash of 1997 put a decisive end to that.

In a recollection of the 1997 conflict published after its 10-year-anniversary, former UN rights worker Brad Adams described the short-lived fighting between the armed wings of the CPP and Funcinpec. 

“Even without the support of much of his party, Hun Sen was able to put together enough military power to succeed,” wrote Adams, who was by then the Asia director of Human Rights Watch. “He then unleashed his forces to carry out a campaign of extrajudicial executions, primarily of FUNCINPEC military officers. I and many of my colleagues at the UN human rights office had the unforgettable experience of digging up the bodies of men stripped naked to their underwear, handcuffed behind their backs, blindfolded, and shot in the head.”

To the victor go the spoils.”

Brad Adams, former Human Rights Watch Asia director

Speaking to the Globe shortly before the election, Adams believed the 1997 conflict was the key turning point for the eventual consolidation of Hun Sen’s power over both party and country. Though rival factions within the CPP may have once posed a real threat to his leadership, his triumph over Funcinpec and his co-prime-minister Ranariddh – who died in 2021, passing Funcinpec’s leadership to his own son, Prince Norodom Chakravuth – secured his status at the top.

“To the victor go the spoils,” Adams said. “He basically took control of the police, the military and the gendarmerie after the coup, and he hasn’t looked back.”

Though armed conflict akin to that in 1997 has yet to resurface in Cambodia, a steady current of unresolved street attacks on opposition members ahead of this year’s election managed to keep the old militaristic spirit alive. Still, in comparison with Funcinpec’s earlier beheading and the legalistic blitzkrieg unleashed against the CNRP, this year’s rejection of Candlelight was practically hushed.

“There’s never been a time when there haven’t been laws in the books that could be used this way, so the lawfare succeeded there as a result of years and years of violence and intimidation,” Adams said. “People have made a calculation this time around that the cost-benefit of publicly opposing this is not great because there’s almost no chance of a benefit.”

Within this mathematics of power, Manet is an untested variable. In a political system where blood ties are the ultimate bond, it remains to be seen exactly how much of his father’s legacy he will inherit.

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World’s newest dinosaur found in Kalasin

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Small plant-eater the eighth species to be found in ‘Thailand’s Jurassic Park’

PUBLISHED : 26 Jul 2023 at 18:41

World's newest dinosaur found in Kalasin
The fossil of the newly discovered Minimocursor phunoiensis dinosaur was remarkably well preserved.

A complete fossil of the world’s newest dinosaur discovery has been found in an area dubbed Thailand’s Jurassic Park in the northeastern province of Kalasin.

The discovery took place at the Phu Noi excavation site in tambon Din Jee of Kham Muang district in Kalasin, according to the Department of Mineral Resources and Mahasarakham University.

Oranuj Lorphensri, director-general of the department, said on Wednesday that department officials and staff from the Palaeontological Research and Education Centre of Mahasarakham University found the complete fossil of Minimocursor phunoiensis, meaning a “small runner” from Phu Noi, in the 1,200-square-metre excavation site.

The fossil is one of the most complete fossilised skeletons in Thailand and Southeast Asia.

“This fossil was kept in a way that its bones lay in order comprising the skull, the spine from the neck to the base of the tail, the left hand, pelvis, two hind legs and even spinal tendons,” Ms Oranuj said.

“It is one of the most complete dinosaur fossils in Southeast Asia.”

It is the 13th dinosaur fossil found in Thailand and the world’s newest discovered species of dinosaur, Ms Oranuj said.

The fossil dates from about 150 million years ago, which was in the late Jurassic period. Its pelvis is similar to those of birds, called ornithischian dinosaurs.

Phu Noi mountain, where the fossil was found, has been dubbed the Jurassic Park of Thailand because more than 5,000 fossilised remains of ancient creatures with backbones have been discovered there. It is the biggest and most bio-diverse site of fossilised vertebrates in Southeast Asia, Ms Oranuj said.

The small, plant-eating dinosaur was the eighth newly found species to have been found at the Phu Noi excavation site.

Sita Manitkoon, a researcher with the Palaeontological Research and Education Centre, said the fossil was estimated to belong to a 60-centimetre-tall dinosaur that weighed about 20 kilogrammes. Researchers believed that the fully grown ones might be have been about 2 metres tall.

A full report of the discovery was published on July 13 in the scientific journal Diversity.

An artist’s impression of <i>Minimocursor phunoiensis</i>. It is believed that adults of the species grew to be about 2 metres tall.

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China tells Myanmar to ‘root out’ scam gangs

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Beijing increasingly concerned by scale of illegal operations in Myanmar’s lawless borderlands

PUBLISHED : 26 Jul 2023 at 16:47

China tells Myanmar to ‘root out’ scam gangs
Two Thai cell towers are seen facing a development across the Moei River in Myanmar, south of Myawaddy and Mae Sot. It is believed the complex consists mainly of dormitories whose residents include suspected scammers.

YANGON: China has told Myanmar’s junta to “root out” online scam centres in its lawless borderlands that target Chinese citizens, Beijing’s embassy in Yangon said.

Criminal syndicates are accused of luring or kidnapping citizens of China and other countries to lawless enclaves along Myanmar’s northern and eastern borders and forcing them to work as online scammers.

The scammers typically target their compatriots and groom them for weeks before cajoling them into ploughing money into fake investment platforms and other ruses, analysts say.

The scams worry Beijing — a major ally and arms supplier of the internationally isolated junta.

Beijing’s ambassador held “special negotiations” on Monday with the junta’s foreign minister on “combating crimes including domestic communication frauds”, according to an embassy statement released on Tuesday.

“Communication frauds continue to spread in Myanmar border areas including northern Myanmar by severely harming the personal interests of people in both China and Myanmar,” the ambassador said, according to the statement.

“The residue of communication fraud and online gambling in Myanmar should be rooted out,” he added.

Beijing is a major ally of the junta and has refused to call its 2021 power grab a coup.

Several projects in its sprawling Belt and Road infrastructure initiative are slated to run through northern Myanmar, linking China’s landlocked Yunnan province with the Indian Ocean.

Beijing also backs and arms several ethnic rebel groups along its border with Myanmar, analysts say.

Some of these groups have clashed repeatedly with the Myanmar military in the aftermath of the coup, and an alliance of China-backed rebels in March called for Beijing’s help to defuse the crisis.

Last month, Thailand cut electricity supplies to a Myanmar border township that home to a billion-dollar development that analysts say is a front for illegal gambling and online scam operations.

The sprawling Shwe Kokko complex houses hotels and casinos targeting Chinese customers, analysts say, and is run by the Border Guard Force (BGF), a military-aligned ethnic militia.

The Myanmar army and the BGF have been battling Karen militias, with the resulting clashes and air strikes causing thousands of refugees to flee into Thailand.

Online “boiler room” scams have long had a presence across Southeast Asia.

Victims have reported travelling to Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand and Laos on false promises of romance or high-paying jobs, and then being detained and forced to work swindling their compatriots online.

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As global economy slows, SEA growth fights on

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In: South-East Asia, Technology

James Villafuerte remembers a few months ago when onions became a luxury in the Philippines. 

Rising inflation, the reopened economy and heavy storms combined to spike in demand and short-circuited supply, sending the price of the pungent vegetable soaring to a 14-year high of $12.8 (700 PHP) per kilogram. 

“[It got] to the extent that flight attendants were caught smuggling onions from other countries to bring into the Philippines because of the high price,” said the regional lead economist at the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Such anecdotes have become symbols of a global economy wracked with uncertainty, as the continuing war in Ukraine and increasingly urgent climate crisis fuel concerns over inflation and rising living costs. But a new report from ADB released this month and regional analysts are giving reasons for Southeast Asian optimism in the face of wider global challenges such as flagging growth numbers and rising inflation.

Workers push a trolley loaded with imported onions for delivery to stores in the Divisoria district of Manila on 26 January, 2023. Photo: Ted Aljibe/AFP

Released Wednesday, the Asian Development Outlook reported a “marginal” downgrade for Southeast Asia’s growth prospects – from 4.7% to 4.6% for 2023 and from 5.0% to 4.9% in 2024 – reflecting weaker global demand for manufactured exports. The latest edition of ADB’s flagship publication focuses on analyses and insights for individual and regional economies across Asia. 

Despite the foreboding outlook, experts still believe the region’s interconnectivity, resilient internal markets and the return of international travel will bolster Southeast Asia’s economies against the wider global challenges. Villafuerte noted that while growth projections have slowed, they still exceed those in other subregions and the global average. 

James Villafuerte, regional lead economist at the Asian Development Bank. Photo: supplied

“This is a region of 600  plus million people,” said Villafuerte. “Domestic demand remains intact and ‘revenge travel’ has really seen a huge leap in tourism, arrival and tourism related activities.” 

Villafuerte acknowledged that global headwinds from elevated prices had contributed to global inflation. On Tuesday, the Philippines central bank announced that policymakers were prepared to tighten monetary policy in view of continually rising inflation. 

His remarks came shortly after Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the UN’s major financial agency, voiced similar concerns at last week’s G20 summit. The IMF’s own growth downgrades were predicted at 3.4% in 2022 to 2.8% in 2023, before settling at 3% in 2024.

Georgieva cautioned that economic activity is slowing, “especially in the manufacturing sector”, and called for a stronger “global financial safety net” to help support less-developed countries. But for now anyway, she said the broader economic system is withstanding the pressure. 

“The global economy has shown some resilience,” Georgieva stated. “Despite successive shocks in recent years and the rapid rise in interest rates, global growth – although anaemic by historical standards – remains firmly in positive territory, supported by strong labour markets and robust demand for services.” 

A history of interconnected trade 

Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo (centre) and Minister of Trade Zulkifli Hasan (centre left) visit a trade exhibition in Tangerang. Photo: Adek Berry/AFP

While international trade networks remain important, countries are also looking inwards to their own domestic economies. 

According to the ADB report, while global demand for manufactured goods slowed, domestic demand amongst Southeast Asian countries remained intact. Indonesia’s GDP expanded by 5.03% in the first quarter of this year, and economic growth remained steady, despite a slowing in exports. 

Strong national economies can help build on a history of intra-regional connectivity, according to Amanda Murphy, head of commercial banking at HSBC.  

Amanda Murphy, head of commercial banking at HSBC. Photo: supplied

“Southeast Asia has long been a bastion of free trade and sits at the crossroads of two of the world’s largest free trade agreements: the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP),” she told the Globe. 

These agreements, formed in 2018 and 2020 respectively, have strengthened bilateral relations within the Asia Pacific area, creating a network of trade avenues with the advantage of geographical proximity. There are signs this is already paying some dividends.

According to a recent HSBC survey, Murphy explained, over the next two years, Asia-Pacific corporations will place 24.4% of their supply chains in Southeast Asia, up from 21.4% in 2020.

“In particular, RCEP, with its tariff reductions and business-friendly rules of origin, is increasing the appeal of Southeast Asia as a manufacturing base, something more corporates are recognising,” she said.

China 

People look at models of the Intelligent Net-Zero container terminal at the Meijiang Convention and Exhibition Center during the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Tianjin. Photo: Wang Zhao/AFP

Within the Asia-Pacific region, Southeast Asian countries are planning their next steps with one eye on Beijing. Concerns over China’s slowing economy have caused ripples throughout international markets. 

“Weaker growth in the People’s Republic of China has actually weakened the demand for manufactured goods in the region,” said Villafuerte. However some Southeast Asian countries are benefiting from a “China+1” strategy, where global manufacturers look to move production out of China to diversify supply chains and mitigate their risk. 

“As businesses seek geographic diversification and adopt the ‘China+1’ strategy, Southeast Asia will continue to gain market share,” said Murphy. “Southeast Asia currently accounts for about 8% of global exports – there is every reason the share can increase.”

China’s exports in June fell to their lowest levels in three years, with a worse-than-expected 12.4% slump from the year before. On the other side of the world, the U.S. also saw a 2.7% export drop at the beginning of the year. 

But for Southeast Asia, as trade between superpowers slows, there may be an opportunity to enter new markets and build new relations. As the U.S. and the E.U. have faded as top destinations for Chinese export markets, the East Asian giant has diverged towards other destinations, including Southeast Asia. Chinese exports to ASEAN – the country’s largest trading partner by region – spiked by 20% in October. 

For ASEAN’s own export markets, building on critical sectors such as garment manufacturing will help strengthen the bloc’s overall economic outlook despite the global slow-down.

“Excepting [Myanmar], governments in the region are strongly committed to growth, which is fundamental. And this is export-led growth which is even better,” said Gregg Huff, professor of economic development and economic history in Southeast Asia at Oxford University. “Productivity increase is what enables real wages to increase. And if these increase it contributes to political stability.”

Domestic markets 

People walk in front of the DBS tower building in Singapore. Photo: Roslan Rahman/AFP

Private consumption was the main driver for economic growth, due to improved labour conditions and income across the region. Some demographics saw an increase in  disposable income, according to Singapore’s DBS Bank. 

But Elizabeth Huijin Pang, a DBS equity research analyst, was quick to stress at a press briefing that some sectors felt the hit of rising inflation and prices more than others. 

“There are still vulnerable groups who have seen the opposite [to our median customers],” she said. “Boomers saw expenses grow faster than income.”

Gig workers were another demographic spotlighted by the bank. DBS data revealed these informal workers to be Singapore’s most financially vulnerable group, with an expense-to-income ratio of 112%, almost double that of a DBS median customer. 

“[Gig workers should not be] lagging behind the rest of the population in terms of their longer-term needs,” said Koh Poh Koon, Singapore’s senior minister of state for manpower,  at a press conference last week. The remarks come shortly after the government’s agreement to accept recommendations from a workgroup for better representation for gig workers’ needs. 

New sectors and opportunities 

People walk past electric tricycles (e-trike) as the local government unit offers free ride in Manila on 6 March, 2023. Photo: Jam Sta Rosa/AFP

As well as focusing on vulnerable communities, shifts into new sectors are also a key part of Southeast Asia’s economic recovery. The region is one of the most vulnerable to climate change, and despite a recent decrease in green investments, a shift towards more sustainable business structures will likely be a key part of the region’s growth in its next economic era.

ADB has recently pledged $1 billion (54.4 billion PHP) towards the implementation of electric buses in Davao City, the Philippines’ largest road-based public transportation project.

“I think transforming our growth model into a more environmentally sensitive and green model of growth is important,” said Villafuerte. “When we analyse actually some of these green industries, we realise they also generate a substantial amount of jobs. … These will again be investment opportunities and also opportunities for employment.”

For Murphy, the rise of the regional digital economy is another key focus area for growth.

“Given that more than 75% of its population is online it’s not surprising that businesses are transforming their business models to cater to changing customer behaviour,” she said. 

The rise of real-time payments and recent initiatives to facilitate cross-border transactions, such as QR code payment agreements between Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines, are helping to boost the region’s economic connectivity. 

“When intra-Southeast Asia real-time payments become a reality, we can expect a jump in the velocity of transactions, whether they are business-to-business or business-to-consumer, which in turn will lead to greater economic activity in the region,” said Murphy. 

Transitioning through growing pains

As global crises continue, it is up to Southeast Asia’s private and public sectors to proactively plan their own paths forward. 

“Three long-term trends that businesses cannot overlook if they want to capture the opportunities in Southeast Asia are what I would call the 3Ts: trade, transition to net zero, and digital transformation,” said Murphy. 

Looking ahead to the future, Southeast Asian nations will have to take a proactive approach to adapt to these growing sectors. Moves are already being made at government level. Both Singapore and the Philippines both recently announced their first sovereign ESG (environmental, social and governance) bond and in April, Singaporean finance minister and Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong revealed the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s finance plan for Net-Zero. 

For Vilafuerte, looking forward involves looking back. Governments and market response to the Philippines’ onion inflation earlier this year was almost immediate and prices and supply regulated. 

“These are temporary shocks and there are natural stabilisers,” he said. “Higher prices and inflation are a sign of a strong recovery. So I think this is just an adjustment period.”

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Behind ‘Riot Island’: Filmmaker talks Singapore prison documentary

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Almost 60 years ago to the day, a Singaporean effort to create a model prison came to a burning halt. 

Once heralded as a potential blueprint for a more humane kind of incarceration, the penal colony on the island of Pulau Senang quickly became synonymous with chaos and bloodshed. In 1963, the detainees held on the island revolted, burning the structures they’d built themselves and murdering British Superintendent Daniel Stanley Dutton and three other warders. 

Though the riots garnered international coverage, the story quickly became muted, eclipsed in the wake of Singapore’s independence two years later. It was this slipping from collective memory that intrigued British director and producer Tom St John Gray, a long-time resident of the city-state who sought to unearth the story of Pulau Senang for modern audiences. The two-part documentary, Riot Island, devised and produced by award-winning Singapore-based Peddling Pictures, aired in October. It was commissioned by broadcaster CNA and is now available to watch on CNA Insider’s YouTube platform.

“[In the middle of] a well-told Singaporean narrative of  a nation emerging from colonial order was kind of an almost unknown story,” he told the Globe. “As a filmmaker, you’re really drawn to something that’s faded from history.”

In an interview, St John Gray shared more about the process of uncovering history and sharing the story of Pulau Senang with the world. 

What was it that drew you to the Pulau Senang prison island and inspired you to tell this story?
In the 1950s and 1960s, there’s this well-told Singaporean narrative of a nation emerging from colonial order, the end of empire, and Singapore’s road to self-rule and independence. And then, across that sort of decade, there was the merger [with Malaysia], separation, race riots, Konfrontasi, all seismic events. 

[And] the middle of all these, these very well-known events was [an] almost unknown story, very self-contained, happening on an island in Singapore. 

I felt as a filmmaker, as a storyteller, it always felt Shakespearean – this grand tragedy playing out on this sort of mysterious, almost mythical island. It was full of hope and ambition and ended in hubris and death.

When we started to make this documentary, at the beginning, I spoke to lots of people and the majority of people had never heard of it before. And so that’s obviously as a filmmaker, you’re really drawn to something which kind of feels very interesting and intriguing. Why has it faded from history? And it was a major event at the time, which is a curiosity in itself. Why did something which was always in the newspapers, always in the headlines, it was a coffee shop talking point that faded from consciousness.

Did you discover the answer? Why did the story of Pulau Senang fade from public consciousness? 
It kind of got moved out of the hierarchy of trauma, I guess, of  Singapore in the 1960s. But I also do think it’s really telling when you look at the pedigree of the island, in a sense, that it was spearheaded by a number of people, including (future third president of Singapore) Devan Nair. 

And later on, when it came to fruition, this island was visited by the VIPs, the great leaders of the time. Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, the president, all who at that time [were] young politicians, they’re coming to this full of hope. So I think the unmitigated disaster that erupted just two years later must have been a very deep cut. If you pay so much money and attention towards this project and it fails so cataclysmically it must have been very difficult at the time to reconcile that. It was a terrible disaster that smashed a lot of hopes and dreams. And so, in some sense, there’s an element of historical amnesia – why would you want to remember this story?

Do you think the attack on British Superintendent Dutton can be viewed as a microcosm of wider attitudes and resentment towards British colonial rule?
Dutton was a man of the colonial era of the British Empire, a system that believed in British rule. He’s obviously married to [Malay-Singaporean fashion designer] Vicky Dutton [so] had a connection to this Malay world and he also spoke Hokkien. So that was interesting, in a sense, as to how Dutton is seen. 

Certainly some people we spoke to said Dutton would have been a target because he was symbolised as Britain, British rule. But I think that’s a difficult one to know about ever finding any specific evidence. Very grisly ends were meted out to the other three men who died, so I certainly would advocate that maybe these are just people in positions of power. 

These are gang members who had their own power on the mainland, and they were taken to his island and were all pretty much rendered powerless. So you would look to those people who are wielding that power, who are calling the shots, and I think whoever would have been in that position would have been hated or reviled by a group within the island.

What do you think it was that ultimately triggered his death?
The fact that he lived on the island in the early days in a tent alongside the men and the fact he seemed to have the respect for the men at the beginning shows that perhaps the problem was the corruption that happened later on, the corruption of the guards, maybe the corruption of his mind as accolades and honours grew up around him. It was already a gold star prison [and] rehabilitation centre, but Dutton was driven to overreach. And I think that’s what triggered his demise.

You spoke to some of the last surviving detainees of Pulau Senang. What did they share and what did you learn from their stories and experiences? 
What’s really fascinating is that when you talk to these people who’ve been there, they are very matter-of-fact, they had witnessed all of this, but it was something that was very much of their experience. But what I also noticed was that the trauma that lingers from this was very much alive. Lots of people we spoke to, who would not talk on camera, [this is] still very heavy for them, this is something that was within them and their families today. 

People felt worried about talking about secret society members or the events that might have happened and no matter if those threats exist now or not, it just shows that they were lingering. There was something that was so seared into their memory, seared into their psyche.

Tell me a little bit about the process of sharing those stories and making the documentary. 
Peddling Pictures wanted to make a series that was research-heavy and rich in historical detail. The team had this whiteboard where we wrote down the names of all 18 men who were executed, but also alongside that other key men who were part of the group – obviously Dutton and some of the officers – and we really put that as a marker of who we could find, who still exists today. So that became our motivation: there must be people around who are willing to talk to us who can give us a new perspective on this.

We set out to track down these people and that took months of everything from going into the traditional routes, like going into libraries, looking at files, reading books, to trawling through social media and genealogy sites. And that’s how we found Michael [Dutton], through a genealogy site, and we found other members of the Dutton family on a Facebook post.

Episode One is more complimentary about Dutton and his achievements and Episode Two shows the darker side emerging. And that was important, layering in historical documents, historical facts and events, kind of getting a sense of the story but also not letting it be bogged down by too much history.

How did you approach the reenactments of the riots? 
Peddling Pictures filmed the drama reenactments in Thailand with a large cast and crew, and with locations, props and wardrobe that needed to look historically accurate. There were many team discussions about how to correctly depict the terrible death and destruction that later ensued. I think what was really important for us was to say this was an island with a name that translates to “Island of Ease”. There was this tranquillity which was then jolted into this absolute carnage, this sort of eruption. People met their end and in a very grisly way. 

But also there were scores and scores of guards and people around who were very badly injured, who survived but had terrible injuries. So I think it was really important for us to show this kind of jolting violence to take the audience into why it was so shocking. And I think if you don’t have those moments of carnage, it’s hard to understand why down the line 58 men would face potential death penalty and why 18 men were sent to the gallows.

The documentary was a three-time winner at the recent New York Festivals TV & Film Awards 2023 in April. How have you felt about the reception of the “Riot Island’ documentary?
What was really heartening was that when you make history documentaries, you try and make it for a broad audience. You don’t just want history buffs, you want to attract people from across the gamut. And I think [it reached] people who weren’t normally interested in 1960s Singapore history, people from across different generations. It felt like a fresh take on the era, something they hadn’t heard before. 

And getting these accolades, it was really heartening to realise that something very local can be recognised on a global level. It showed there are so many interesting facets out there about Singapore that have not been told, it’s a really rich history with lots of themes and stories that need to be shared. It wasn’t just a Singapore story, it was a story relatable to everyone, a story of great promise, great tragedy and with this very bloody retribution at the end. 

What, with decades of hindsight, would you say is the main lesson learnt from the Pulau Senang riot? 
You could learn about law and order, about having the right people in the right job. But for me, the reason it’s so tragic is there’s this question: “What if?”

In the first year, we see there’s a huge success rate, detainees who were rehabilitated. And obviously we now know with hindsight, that that’s not so rosy, because these men were detained without trial and they were essentially used as workhorses. But, with that in mind, what if? What if Dutton hadn’t pushed them too hard? What if he had set in motion this incredible infrastructure, where men could work on the island and be able to really contribute something meaningful to society? And my final feeling is: would the Singapore system be different today because of that? 

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Matty Healy: Malaysia LGBT community angry at 1975 ‘white saviour stunt’

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The 1975 frontman Matty Healy performing on stage in Brazil on 25/3/2023Getty Images
By Frances Mao
Singapore

British pop singer Matty Healy’s protest stunt at a concert in Malaysia has sparked fury from LGBT activists and allies in the country.

Many have described the 1975 singer’s sweary rant at the Malaysian government – and kiss with a male bandmate – as an act of “performative activism” that would make their lives even harder.

Homosexuality remains a crime in Malaysia, punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Conservative Islam remains the dominant political and cultural force in the country, restricting sexuality, alcohol and other perceived threats to traditional values and “public decency” standards.

In a statement after Friday’s show, a source close to the band said Healy had wanted to stand up for the LGBT community.

But while many locals appreciated the intent, they say he crashed a precarious political environment for LGBT Malaysians and caused greater damage.

“Unfortunately, local activists are now having to deal with the fall-out and the potential policies and restrictions that might come from it,” said Dhia Rezki, an activist with Kuala Lumpur-based support group JEKAKA.

What did Healy do?

Last Friday, indie-pop band The 1975 was headlining a music festival in the capital Kuala Lumpur when Healy – who has a history of derogatory comments about women and minorities – launched into a tirade against Malaysia’s anti-LGBT laws and kissed his bandmate in protest.

He had already been drinking on stage and destroyed a drone belonging to concert organisers. Attendees reported him spitting on fans.

Swaggering around the stage, the 34-year-old insulted the Malaysian government and said he was “furious” he’d made “a mistake when we were booking shows”.

“I don’t see the [expletive] point, right, I do not see the point of inviting the 1975 to a country and then telling us who we can have sex with,” he said.

“I’ll take your money, you can ban me, but I’ve done this before and it doesn’t feel good,” he said. He then grabbed his bandmate’s face and kissed him.

The band’s set was shut down soon after. “Alright, we just got banned from Kuala Lumpur, see you later,” he yelled to the audience.

The next day authorities ordered the closure of the entire Good Vibes festival which still had two days to go and other international acts due to perform like The Kid Laroi, The Strokes and Ty Dollar $ign. Festival goers had paid hundreds of dollars to attend, many travelling from other parts of Southeast Asia.

Healy and his band flew out a few hours later. They cancelled the rest of their Asia tour dates – they’d also been due to play in devoutly Muslim Indonesia and Taiwan.

What’s the response?

While Healy was ranting to the crowd in Kuala Lumpur, he said: “I’m sure a lot of you are gay and progressive and cool” – comments which drew scattered cheers.

But videos from the night also show the audience’s silence and fans’ growing unease. TikToks show people’s faces falling and locals grimacing.

“Just sing the damn song,” mutters one girl in a pink headscarf and glittery eye make-up. “I mean you come here and then insult our country…” she says, swapping glances with her friend in the clip viewed millions of times. She captioned the video “Iykyk”.

That was reflective of the broader reaction across Malaysian social media on the weekend.

The TikTok commentary was overwhelmingly critical, and in many of the most popular videos, young LGBT Malaysians are furious.

“I’m seeing a lot of like ‘Oh Matt Healy stood up for the rights of the Malaysian queer community’ – No, Matt Healy, you’re an idiot. Do you have any idea of repercussions… do you have any idea how hard it is for queer people to just exist now?” one user said in another TikTok that’s been viewed more than 2m times since Saturday.

“I hate this white saviour complex of people coming to regions like Southeast Asia – with no prior research whatsoever to what the culture is, or the repercussions of doing acts like this – and ruining it not for them but for the people who actually live here.”

The festival organisers were pulled in by the Malaysian government the day after the 1975 show

MALAYSIA GOVERNMENT

Young Malaysians told the BBC they felt the act reflected a patronising Western attitude to Asia.

“It is very reminiscent of the whole white saviour complex, this narrative again and again of how ‘uncivilised or un-progressive’ the people in the East are and how the white person has to come into a country to save or better the people,” said Dee May Tan, an arts creative in Kuala Lumpur.

“The way he went about it was just purely culturally insensitive. Like it’s very self-righteous, entitled, ignorant and doesn’t gel with what he’s trying to promote.”

The criticism is in part also fuelled by Healy’s reputation. There’s a long-running internet joke that his bandmates cut him off on stage before he says something problematic. British-Japanese singer Rina Sawayama at Glastonbury last month called him out for his racist comments about Asian people.

Earlier this year in a podcast, he mocked American rapper Ice Spice, mimicked Asian and Hawaiian accents and asked the show’s hosts to do impressions of Japanese people labouring in concentration camps. He has apologised for some of the comments, saying people misinterpreted his sense of humour.

LGBT community fears reprisals

Healy had tried to do the right thing, but in the wrong way, suggested artist Jerome Kugan, who recently organised an exhibition in Kuala Lumpur allowing local LGBT artists to showcase their works.

“I understand and commend him for wanting to express his opinions about the regressive laws against LGBTQ+ folks in Malaysia and other parts of the world,” he said. “But I think he could’ve chosen a more conducive platform to do it.”

Malaysian activist Dhia Rezki also felt Healy’s protest message was genuine but feared his high profile stunt could reinforce LGBT repression.

Conservative groups have described the incident as a violation of “family values” and could point to it as evidence of the LGBT community “taking things too far, crossing the line”, he said.

“They’ll use it to target anything done by LGBT people, be it holding hands, kissing or even posting about relationships online.”

Malaysia has seen a noticeable shift to more conservative parties advocating harsher laws. There is outright state hostility.

Former Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, in office 2020-2021, described LGBT people as a threat to Islam, backed by “foreign influences”. He said they had a “disorder” that requires counselling.

Malaysia is ranked the second-worst place for transgender people in the world, and one study by local advocates Pelangi Campaign found nearly half of those who identify as LGBT have faced harassment and threats.

And while there are more open-minded views in cities like Kuala Lumpur, it’s different in other parts of the country.

“We’re still seeing people fired due to their sexual orientation, young people are outed, bullied or evicted,” said Mr Rezki.

“We agree that visibility is important, and at some point, we would like to have more public displays of our activism, but we have always planned carefully around how we intend to do it so that members of our community are not jeopardised.”

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Thailand to host global diabetes event

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In: South-East Asia

PUBLISHED : 24 Jul 2023 at 20:10

Thailand has been chosen to host the “IDF World Diabetes Congress 2025” for the first time in Southeast Asia.

The congress is expected to attract 10,000 participants, generating over 420 million baht in revenue.

The right to host the event has reinforced the kingdom’s goal of becoming a global medical hub.

Chiruit Isarangkun Na Ayuthaya, President of the Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau (TCEB), said on Monday that TCEB, in collaboration with the Diabetes Association of Thailand under the royal patronage of HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, submitted a bid for the right to host the event which is of the world’s largest international conferences on diabetes.

“This is a great opportunity for Thailand to host a world-class medical conference on diabetes,” he said.

“It also gives the Thai government and private sectors, as well as stakeholders, a platform to cooperate as host and support the organisation” of the event, which will take “place April 7-10, 2025, at the Bangkok International Trade and Exhibition Center (BITEC),” he said.

Akhtar Hussain, President of the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), said the congress’s objectives include providing a forum for the global diabetes community to increase the level of attention, recognition, and resources that diabetes treatment deserves.

He said the congress would help foster collaboration and political actions required to place diabetes at the top of the global health agenda and improve the lives of people living with diabetes and those at risk. 

Dr Narong Saiwong, Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH), said in Thailand, there are about 300,000 new cases of diabetes diagnosed per year.

In 2022, studies showed that out of 3.3 million patients recorded at medical facilities under the MoPH, only 29% could control their blood sugar levels, he said.

Dr Narong said failing to receive appropriate care according to standard guidelines may lead to complications, resulting in disability and premature death, which impacts the quality of life for patients, families, and society.

He said it is also an economic burden for the country with the estimated healthcare expenditure for treating diabetes as high as 47,596 million baht per year.

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