Democratic contraction in Southeast Asia | New Mandala

Democratic contraction in Southeast Asia | New Mandala
Bridget Welsh,  5 JANUARY 2016

2015 was the year authoritarian governments struck back against democratic pressures.

The story of 2015 in Southeast Asia was Myanmar’s November election. In giving the National League for Democracy and its leader Aung San Suu Kyi a landslide, Myanmar citizens signaled their strong support for democratic change and better governance.

These calls have been loud in recent years — in Malaysia’s 2008 and 2013 elections, in Thailand’s repeated electoral victories for a non-military aligned government, in Cambodia’s 2013 and Singapore’s 2011 polls as well as strong electoral support for democracy in the Philippines and Indonesia. Democratic pressures on Southeast Asian governments have been increasing, and are not likely to recede in the near future.

2015 was the year authoritarian governments in the region struck back. Behind the Myanmar headlines there is a worrying trend of a significant democratic contraction taking place. The use of the authoritarian arsenal by Southeast Asian governments are not new, but in the course of the year regional governments expanded their use of incumbency and control of institutions to shore up their positions.

The most obvious trend has been the increased use of repression, especially targeted toward opposition politicians and critics. In Malaysia, opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim was jailed in February. In Thailand, a trial began against ousted PM Yingluck Shinawarta as she was denied the right to travel. In Cambodia, opposition politicians were physically attacked. The leader of the opposition Sam Rainsy has delayed his return to Cambodia from November as a result of jail threat. Malaysia has the highest number of opposition politicians facing various charges from sedition to violations of banking finance regulations.

The threats opposition members across the region face in calling for change extend from being physically attacked on the campaign trial (as occurred for Myanmar’s Naing Ngan Lin NLD candidate who was slashed by a machete) to potential bankruptcy.

The use of the law for political ends moves beyond opposition members. Journalists and bloggers remain targeted. Radio reporter Jose Bernardo was shot dead at a restaurant in Manila in November. He joins the other 77 journalists who have been killed in the Philippines since 1992, making this country one of the most dangerous places for media professionals in the world.

Myanmar tops the region’s list with the most number of journalists jailed, pipping Vietnam this year who released some of its bloggers. Notably, blogger Ta Phong Tan was released after 10 years in jail. The situation for bloggers in Vietnam remains serious, with a number of incidents where bloggers and associates were beaten up in mysterious circumstances rather than jailed. In Singapore, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong won his defamation case against a blogger critic Roy Ngerng, who was asked to pay PM Lee S $150,000. Lee joins Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak as the second current leader in the region who filed charges for public criticism.

The crackdowns on freedom of expression extend to ordinary citizens, from artists and academics to taxi drivers.

Young Chaw Sandi Tun was sentenced to six months jail for insulting Myanmar’s army in her Facebook post noting the similarity in color between the Tatmadaw’s uniform and the opposition leader’s clothing. In Thailand, the cases involving lese majeste have extended the boundaries to include insults to the king’s dog. Thanakorn faces up to 15 years in jail for this reference, and joins a long list of cases that have involved jailing of university students for a play, taxi cab conversations, novelists and more.

A mother of two was sentenced to 28 years for her Facebook comments, while a hotel employee received 56 years for his posts in August as part of the lese majeste unending prosecutions. Cartoonist Zunar in Malaysia faces up to 43 years for his satirical art work. These developments have had chilling effects on public discourse. Even in more open Indonesia, discussion of the 1965 attacks on communists were shut down.

As power has been used to quiet alternative voices, the rule of law itself has faced erosion. In some cases the law is not being implemented. In July, the co-Investigating International judge Mark Harmon of the Khmer Rouge tribunal in Cambodia resigned his position after the tribunal declined to arrest two former Khmer Rouge leaders for whom the court had issued warrants.

Despite having the technology to find the daughter separated from her mother Indira Gandhi for seven years by a husband who is abusing religion in a personal vendetta against his ex-wife, the Malaysian police have proven to be unwilling to use its tools to follow the court order to return the daughter to the mother.

In other cases, constitutional frameworks protecting rights have been by-passed through the introduction of military courts – as has been the case in Thailand and called for in Malaysia – and new measures that empower leaders to declare ‘security areas’ without checks on their authority, as occurred with the hurried passage of the National Security Council law in Malaysia. This law is being seen as a measure that will allow unpopular Prime Minister Najib to stay in office if he loses an election. In Myanmar, there are potential laws being considered that may give military impunity for alleged past crimes.

The area where the laws are under real scrutiny continues to be corruption. 2015 showcased some shocking scandals.

In Malaysia the 1MDB $700 million ‘donation’ into Najib’s personal accounts remains inadequately explained, as the rule of law has not been properly applied to the premier and impunity appears to have allowed the premier to hold onto office even with his personal reputation in shatters. Efforts to undermine Indonesia’s Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and the recent demands for payments from Freeport to politicians to conduct business have showcased that persistent problem of bribery, lack of transparency and abuse of position.

From corruption concerns tied to the Aquino administration in the Philippines to persistent effects of corruption trails associated with Vietnam’s elite, there lacks effective leadership in tackling the region’s most serious governance problem. The end effect is that leaders at the top are seen to engage in graft, reinforcing a system where office is used for personal wealth rather than public service.

Control over resources and alliances with cronies remains a dominant feature of Southeast Asia’s political economy. Four countries in the region – Malaysia (3), Singapore (5), Philippines (6), Indonesia (10) – were in The Economist’s crony capitalist list, which measures the favoritism of wealth toward tycoons and politically-affiliated business interests.

Measures to enhance this favoritism expanded in 2015 through the introduction of consumption taxes in Malaysia and Myanmar, regulations that facilitated more burning rather than less in the haze-affected region in Indonesia and service fees in areas such as tolls to crony-companies. The region’s most vulnerable populations are feeling the economic pain, with depreciating currencies and a slowdown in growth in the region as a whole. These conditions have contributed to conditions where the use of state resources through populist policies have boosted incumbent governments, a factor that contributed to the People’s Action Party’s September 2015 electoral victory.

Those on the margins are being particularly impacted, with serious implications for rights. Southeast Asia was not immune from the global refugee crisis affecting over 60 million people worldwide. Conditions affecting the livelihoods of the Rohingyas in Myanmar remain severe, with conditions in camps across the region not much better. The shocking findings of death camps in Thailand and Malaysia involving torture, rape and human and organ trafficking in May have yet to be properly accounted for.

One reason for this lack of accountability lies with the upgrade the Obama administration gave Malaysia on its human trafficking assessment in the wake of the discovery of the gruesome murders. The Obama administration’s sell out of human rights principles was especially acute in 2015, where interests associated with the Trans-Pacific Partnership overrode other concerns.

From questions tied to the trial of Burmese migrant workers in killing British backpackers Thailand to the persistent practice of ‘sea slaves’ with citizens hauled onto fishing boats, those that are vulnerable remain so at the end of the year, which limited measures to point to strengthening protections.

Vulnerability in 2015 extended to religious and ethnic minorities as well. Bogor was labeled Indonesia’s most intolerant city when it declared a ban of the Shia faith in the city. Hate speech toward Muslims persists in Myanmar, in spite of the electoral victory signaling greater inclusiveness. Churches were burned in Aceh. Christmas celebrations were banned in Brunei. Rights of religious minorities were curbed in Malaysia in cases involving child custody and worship.

Measures to forge peace with minorities fell apart, as the Philippines’ Bansamoro Basic Law did not pass the legislatures. In other places such as Myanmar, Protection Race and Religion Bills denying rights to marriage and religious freedom were introduced, as protections for rights were in fact eroded.

There were nevertheless bright spots in greater freedom across the region – a gender rights bill in Thailand, the end of the persecution of a book seller and academic by religious authorities in Malaysia, the reinstatement of direct local elections in Indonesia and the subsequent peaceful elections in December, to name but a few.

Southeast Asians continue to fight for their freedoms valiantly, over cyberspace, in courtrooms and in communities. The climate however has not been conducive to greater freedoms as those in office continue to use their offices to hold on to power.

As we look ahead, with a slowing economy and persistent insecurities by incumbents, the prospects for expanding rights does not appear promising in 2016. Last year has shown us however that we can expect the unexpected, with the military’s acceptance of the Myanmar’s electoral results as an example.

As ASEAN formally announced its community on 31 December 2015, many hold only to potentially a different ‘imagined community,’ where the ideas of brilliant scholar Benedict Anderson of shared belonging, human dignity and decency live on.

Bridget Welsh is Professor of Political Science at Ipek University, Senior Research Associate at the Center for East Asian Democratic Studies of National Taiwan University, Senior Associate Fellow of The Habibie Center, and University Fellow of Charles Darwin University.

War in ASEAN’s troubled waters | New Mandala

War in ASEAN’s troubled waters | New Mandala

 

HUNTER MARSTON, GUEST CONTRIBUTOR, 

10 AUGUST 2015

Chinese ships have been constructing artificial islands and sea walls in the South China Sea. Image: CSIS Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative and Digitalglobe/TNS.

China’s claims and assertive moves in the South China Sea are putting ASEAN states on edge. But it need not be a case of history repeating and lead to major conflict.

Mounting antagonism in the South China Sea has provoked crisscrossing air and naval jousting on the high waters as well as legal battles in international courts.

China’s increasing assertiveness in territorial waters claimed by ASEAN states have not only cause increased “tensions” in the region, but led observers to wonder if China’s peaceful rise has given way to a new era of great power conflict.

Many scholars have pointed to past precedent and wondered if China’s reemergence as a major power threatens the security architecture and global norms put in place by the United States that has preserved peace in Asia since the end of World War II.

Nearly 2,500 years ago, the rise of Athens led to war with Sparta in the Aegean Sea.

Sparta, leader of the Peloponnesian League, felt a rising Athens threatened stability on the Aegean and launched a war to prevent Athenian dominance. By the end of the nearly three decade conflict, Sparta had subdued Athens, laying waste to the Athenian Empire and ushering in the end of the Greek golden age. Thucydides’ account of the Peloponnesian War outlines the risks posed when a rising power challenges a ruling power.

The South China Sea dispute serves as a litmus test for what Harvard political scientist Graham Allison has called the “Thucydides trap.” Whether China’s rise will inevitably lead to war between major powers is an open question, but Beijing has definitely ratcheted up the tension with deliberate expansion policies.

In May 2014 China deployed an oil rig within 200 nautical miles of Vietnam’s coast and reportedly rammed Vietnamese coast guard vessels. In February this year, the Philippines Foreign Ministry accused Chinese ships of ramming Philippines fishing boats. The government in Manila has since filed its case with the International Court of Justice at The Hague, where arbitration is pending.

Enhanced satellite imagery has revealed massive dredging and reconstruction of underwater rocks and tiny islands by China across the South China Sea – what some have labeled the Great Wall of Sand.

While awareness of the conflicting claims and recent clashes has grown among the international public, most casual observers give the South China Sea short shrift given its looming great game competition for resources and influence.

The South China Sea is believed to hold over 100 billion cubic meters of natural gas and 28 billion barrels of oil. The region possesses strategic passageways vital to international trade, such as the Strait of Malacca, through which 14 million barrels of crude oil pass every day. Control of sea lanes grants economic clout, security, and lasting prosperity.

China’s rise, which Beijing’s leaders have previously struggled to assert is peaceful and nonthreatening, has not led to outright conflict between major powers. Now, its increasingly provocative actions are worrying international observers and leading outside powers (Japan and the United States) to reassess the need for stabilising forces in the region, while minor powers seek to build stronger relations with the US, which maintains a hegemonic presence in the Pacific.

Patrick Cronin of the Center for New American Security explains that “the primary competition in the South China Sea is rooted in a reemerging China’s capacity and desire for expanding influence over its neighbours and adjacent waters.”

Just as Athens sought to wage minor skirmishes to gain a foothold in the Aegean more than 2000 years ago, China aims to enlarge its sphere of influence and control in the South China Sea, commensurate (in its view) with its status as a great power.

Beijing’s desire to retake hegemony over regional waters is understandable, and not without precedent. In 1823, President James Monroe declared that the United States would unilaterally regard any incursion in North or South American waters by outside (European) nations as a deliberate act of aggression, and that the US would be forced to respond in kind. The Monroe Doctrine served as a de facto declaration of US hegemony over regional waters.

Yet China’s assertiveness in the South China Sea is different for several reasons.

For one, the Americas of the early 19th century comprised a far smaller portion of the global economy. The South China Sea today accounts for one third of global trade, with about 7.2 million barrels of crude oil imported to China per day (slightly more than the US at 7.08 million barrels a day).

Secondly, a huge geographic distance separated America from its rivals across the ocean, colonial Great Britain and Spain. The South China Sea and East China Sea are home to US and Japanese forces as well as the modern navies of the Philippines, Vietnam, and other fledgling states.

Thirdly, as Cronin argues, geopolitics today operate on international rules and legal norms far more than spheres of influence that were more prevalent in the 19th century.

The Thucydides paradigm still holds many valuable lessons for today’s quagmire.

Just as the rising power Athens threatened the security architecture of the ruling power Sparta and its Peloponnesian League, today the rise of China manifests a real threat to the stability enshrined by the rules-based international order led by the US and its alliances with Japan, the Philippines, and South Korea.

Any escalation of armed conflict on the South China Sea would have grave negative repercussions for international trade and likely see a spike in oil prices. Such instability could trigger another global recession, or worse, war between the two superpowers.

While realists may cite the Thucydides Trap as evidence of unavoidable conflict between China, the US, and ASEAN states, optimists and pragmatists are working hard to increase dialogue and understanding through confidence building measures and advocating for peaceful dispute settlement mechanisms.

The US could ratify the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea to signal a genuine interest in submitting to international law and rules-based solutions to resolve the dispute. Such a move might relieve apprehensions across the Pacific of a U.S. policy to contain China.

Finally, history may repeat itself, but it need not preordain disaster, as modern readers of Thucydides may warn. We can learn from the mistakes of our past, and China and the US may be able to work together to find a “new model of great power relations,” which Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for.

The balance of power isn’t necessarily a zero-sum game. The future may hold room for competition amid cooperation between major powers, without ruling out minor confrontations and adjustments to existing alliances.

Hunter Marston is a freelance Asia analyst based in Washington, DC. He holds a MA in International Studies from the University of Washington in Seattle.

Will the Asean Chair Strain Myanmar’s Resources? | The Irrawaddy Magazine

Will the Asean Chair Strain Myanmar’s Resources? | The Irrawaddy Magazine

WILLIAM BOOT / THE IRRAWADDY, January 9, 2014

Burma’s chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) begins in earnest next week when it hosts its first major regional meeting—a gathering of foreign ministers from the 10 member countries.

The meeting next Wednesday in Bagan will be the first of hundreds of Asean events, including two leaders’ summits, during Burma’s year-long leadership of the huge trading bloc. And 2014 is a crucial year for the 40-year-old regional grouping, as it moves toward a unified market along the lines of the European Union.

But as Burma itself strives to re-emerge as a viable economy after decades of isolation, how much of a strain will the Asean chairmanship be on a country with limited resources?

“Managing the [Asean] chairmanship will impose extra burdens upon a narrow cohort of able people who are managing the reform process, but who are already grossly verworked. To this extent, the chairmanship could be an unwelcome distraction,” economist and Burma expert Sean Turnell told The Irrawaddy while visiting Rangoon.

“On the other hand, the country is receiving assistance in the role from prior chair countries, which is likely to be helpful both for the matter at hand, and perhaps more broadly in terms of public administration.”

Some in giant neighbor India have welcomed Burma’s prominent role this year in Asean, saying Indian and Burmese businesses will likely benefit from new opportunities.
“Holding of the Asean [leadership] symbolises [Burma’s] re-entry to the global community. At the same time, it gives [Burma] another opportunity to demonstrate that it is committed to democracy and wider integration with the world outside,” Saroj Mohanty, a strategic analyst at the Indo-Asian News Service (IANS), wrote in a commentary last month.

“However, doubts have been raised about the country’s ability to steer a grouping as significant as the Asean in a rapidly changing strategic environment in the region where the US, China, Japan and the EU are intensifying their re-balancing efforts.This has been further compounded by the internal challenges the country faces and its abysmal infrastructure.”

Burma’s failure so far to improve its dilapidated infrastructure continues to affect economic progress, with poor roads and inadequate electricity supply. Hosting major events draws attention to these problems and makes them worse for local people, critics say.

“During the World Economic Forum, [hosted by Burma in 2013] many infrastructure problems were made glaringly obvious,” the Southeast Asia Globe magazine reported.

“For most, travel to the capital, Naypyidaw, involved a long journey by road from [Rangoon] airport. Only a select few were able to land at the capital’s airport and, for those lucky enough to alight there, the 30-minute taxi ride into town often cost more than the flight. Upon arrival, many found a shortage of hotel rooms along with poor internet connections and frequent power cuts.”

Such a negative experience for high-profile business or political visitors clearly does not help Burma’s image, but Turnell, a professor at Macquarie University in Australia and co-editor of the Burma Economic Watch, believes the year-long leadership of Asean will help Burma in more ways than one.

“The chairmanship shines a light on the country in ways that, perhaps, might encourage further reforms and dissuade more negative elements,” he told The Irrawaddy this week.

It will be too late for the Asean year and all the many hundreds of comings and goings between Rangoon and Mandalay and Naypyidaw, but plans at least have been drawn up to greatly improve the railway system.

Ironically, perhaps, it is Japan and not Asean countries stepping forward to help improve Burma’s infrastructure.

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is finalizing arrangements with the Ministry of Rail Transportation for a US$200 million loan agreement to finance modernization of the Rangoon-Mandalay line. The refurbishment is aimed at cutting the journey time between the two commercial cities by half.

Burma’s other giant neighbor, China, has so far said little about the 2014 leadership of Asean. This might be a reflection of the allegations that Beijing sought to manipulate the 10-nation bloc’s foreign policies during Cambodia’s 2012 stewardship.

“In recent years, China’s shadow has loomed large over Asean proceedings. In its 2012 stint as chair, Cambodia was heavily criticised for toadying to China over the South China Sea dispute,” reported the Southeast Asia Globe.

“If Beijing tries to overplay its hand and push the [Burma] government too hard on Asean matters, it’s likely that [Burma] will push back,” the Globe quoted Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia division, as saying. “[Burma] will likely not repeat Cambodia’s mistake.”

The Asean year will certainly put the international spotlight on Burma, but whether it will bring more business investment into the country will only become clear by the end of 2014.
One foreign company certain to benefit—in prestige terms, at least—from Burma’s stewardship is the upmarket carmaker BMW. The German firm is providing almost 100 luxury limousines to the Naypyidaw government to carry Asean VIPs to and from meetings.

EU supports Asean approach to sea row | Philippine Daily Inquirer

EU supports Asean approach to sea row
Leila B. Salaverria, Philippine Daily Inquirer, November 6th, 2012

VIENTIANE, Laos—In meetings on Monday with President Benigno Aquino III, leaders of the European Union (EU), Switzerland and Norway declared support for an Asean approach to the territorial disputes in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea).

Secretary Herminio Coloma of the Presidential Communications Operations Office told reporters that the European leaders indicated their support for a peaceful resolution of the territorial conflicts based on international law, which is the same as the Philippine  position.

But any meeting with China, which is claiming nearly all of the West Philippine Sea, is not on Mr. Aquino’s schedule, Coloma said.

Aside from the Philippines and China, Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei also have claims to parts of the sea.

Mr. Aquino is also expected to mention the matter when he addresses the Asia-Europe summit and is likely to discuss the territorial dispute during bilateral talks with the leader of Japan on Tuesday, Coloma said. Japan also has simmering tensions with China due to conflicting claims to East China Sea islets.

“There was an agreement that it is a matter of international interest considering that a significant amount of world trade passes through that body of water. And in particular, Switzerland and the EU, and to some extent also Norway, indicated their firm support for the Philippines in terms of our position that conflicts or disputes in that area are to be resolved peacefully and follow international law,” Coloma said.

“And in particular, there is firm support for an Asean-centric approach, which has always been the position of President Aquino considering that four out of the 10-member states of Asean have specific stakes in the West Philippine Sea,” he added.

China has taken the position that territorial disputes should be settled bilaterally.

President Aquino had trilateral meetings with Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council, and Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission.
He also held bilateral talks with Norway Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and Swiss Confederation President Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf.

Coloma said the EU officials told Mr. Aquino that concerns about the Philippine aviation industry were technical and not political.

Philippine carriers have been banned from the European Union following the poor assessment by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) of the country’s aviation safety measures.

“It was emphasized by the President of the European Commission… that these are technical issues—technical issues involving safety standards and these are not political issues. And we acknowledge that we are addressing the technical concerns and that we are moving positively in the direction of addressing and resolving all of those concerns,” Coloma said.

The Philippines was assured that it would get “every measure of support” in meeting international safety standards, he said.

“Definitely, the present restrictions on our Philippine carriers would not promote the idea of increased tourist traffic between Europe and the Philippines. And so we would like to see an early resolution of the concerns of the ICAO and similar bodies like the US Federal Aviation Administration,” Coloma said.

Originally posted: 9:02 pm | Monday, November 5th, 2012

ASEAN diplomacy all at sea | Phnom Penh Post

ASEAN diplomacy all at sea | Phnom Penh Post
David Boyle, 03 August 2012


The headaches at number 3, Samdech Hun Sen Street, have just been getting worse since the ASEAN summit at Phnom Penh’s Peace Palace in June descended into an ungainly squabble.

Cambodian diplomats and politicians at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have found themselves nose diving into a protracted bilateral dogfight with the Philippines – that has many commentators crowing is unbefitting of the ASEAN chair.

How Cambodia ended up trading barbs for weeks after the summit with a country separated from it by Vietnam and more than 1,000 kilometres of ocean has left many scratching their heads.

For the third time this week a Cambodian ambassador yesterday publicly bought into the dispute, which has raged over who was responsible for the failure of ASEAN to issue a foreign ministers joint communiqué during the summit for the first time in its 45-year history.

In The Japan Times Online yesterday, Cambodia’s ambassador in Tokyo, Hor Monirath, rehashed well-worn accusations that the Philippines and Vietnam had “hijacked” the communiqué by insisting it specifically mentioned their bilateral disputes with China over the South China Sea.

Cambodia’s assertion that bilateral disputes were an inappropriate topic for the communiqué  has infuriated Manila, which counters that the hosts obstinately thwarted any attempt to even negotiate over the contentious sea.

The Philippines, Vietnam and a handful of other ASEAN countries all make claims to the immensely valuable waters through which about half the world’s shipping passes and which China argues belongs almost entirely to them.

Officials at the Cambodian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Philippines Embassy in Phnom Penh were not available for comment yesterday.

Some cheeky commentators and one anonymous diplomat quoted in The New York Times, have suggested Cambodia was a little too close to cash-riddled China rather than its ASEAN brothers during the talks.

Monirath, the son of Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong, suggested in his article yesterday that “some media have gone as far as to try to paint a bleak picture of Cambodia’s Chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations”, and defended the ASEAN chair’s actions during the summit.

“Cambodia tried to prevent the dispute from further flaring up and to avoid adding fuel to the fire,” he said in the “clarification” published by the Japanese news outlet.

But this latest retort came just two days after Phnom Penh’s ambassador to Manila was publicly summonsed by the Philippines to explain what they deemed was an inflammatory letter to the editor published in the Philippines Star and is, if anything, only likely to exacerbate increasingly heated diplomatic relations.

Both the Cambodian Foreign Ministry and the Philippines Department of Foreign Affairs have engaged in public finger pointing, far away from the private corridors of civil diplomatic banter, variously accusing each other of “dirty politics”, “souring the mood” and “sabotage” at the summit.

Political analyst Lao Mong Hay said he was disappointed by the language and the fact that after Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa flew around the region to negotiate a face-saving ASEAN statement of principles on the South China Sea, the feud has continued.

“It seems at the foreign affairs level, Indonesia has done something positive already but it has not been able to unite or reunite and reconcile the two sides,” he said.

“I think we have talked enough about it [and] we should move on after this ASEAN statement; otherwise, you are playing into the Chinese hands.”

An undersecretary at the Indonesia Embassy in Phnom Penh who declined to be named, said the country “was always ready to step in whenever they need us to step in, but we still need for both sides to agree”.

ASEAN prides itself on a special relationship between members, dubbed the “ASEAN way” but one might wonder if the post-summit events have been an example of diplomacy the normal way or the ASEAN way.

‘Language’ holds up South China Sea pact | The Phnom Penh Post

‘Language’ holds up South China Sea pact | The Phnom Penh Post
Bridget Di Certo and Cheang Sokha, 12 July 2012

The world is watching ASEAN foreign ministers as they scramble to reach a consensus on a regional Code of Conduct for the South China Sea, officials at the summit in Phnom Penh acknowledged yesterday.

Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said that consensus among ASEAN members was a “work in progress”. “We are getting there,” he said.

The major hold-up is “agreement on language,” Ministry of Foreign Affairs Secretary of State Kao Kim Hourn said at a press conference yesterday evening.

“The foreign ministers are working on their joint communiqué, but are working on agreement on the language.”

ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan said ASEAN discussions on the CoC were already having a “calming affect” on the international community.

“The fact that they are all committed to work on the code of conduct seriously in good faith . . . we have already achieved a milestone,” Pitsuwan said. “Earlier on, there was a reluctance on some parties to engage or not to engage and to engage … informally or engage periodically.”

Earlier in the week, ASEAN officials announced that officials had already drafted key elements of the CoC and these elements would then be taken to informal discussion with China.

However, China’s Vice Foreign Minister, Fu Ying, told reporters that there had been a “suggestion” from ASEAN ministers to launch discussions with China on the Code.

“The Chinese minister would like to give a serious consideration of the proposals for exploring the possibilities of a discussion of CoC,” Ying said, stressing that engagement would hinge on all members of ASEAN obeying and implementing the current Declaration of Conduct.

China to join ASEAN sea talks | The Phnom Penh Post

China to join ASEAN sea talks | The Phnom Penh Post
Shane Worrell and Cheang Sokha, 10 July 2012

China may not be in ASEAN, but it’s looking more and more like an honorary member – at least where the South China Sea is concerned.

ASEAN foreign ministers yesterday took a significant step towards involving the burgeoning superpower in South China Sea discussions, adopting key elements of a Code of Conduct on behaviour in the disputed waters.

Kao Kim Hourn, secretary of state at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said ASEAN was now ready to meet with China over the long-awaited document that would be for “11 parties, not just ASEAN”.

“At the first meeting [on Sunday], they [senior officials] agreed that to work on the Code of Conduct ... ASEAN will meet with China to discuss the code of conduct from now on,” he said. “It is ASEAN and China.”

Senior officials, including some from China, would be involved in the final wording of the CoC, he said.

China, Taiwan and ASEAN members the Philippines, Brunei, Vietnam and Malaysia have all made claims on the resource-rich waters that have become a powder keg under the ASEAN chairmanship of China’s close ally Cambodia.

Anxieties about the CoC have intensified this year as activities in the waters increased.

In 2002, ASEAN members and China agreed on a Declaration of the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DoC), but it was never fully implemented.

Yesterday’s announcement came just hours after Prime Minister Hun Sen officially launched this week’s ASEAN meetings, which included yesterday’s 45th ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, in front of hundreds at the Peace Palace in Phnom Penh.

During his opening address, the Prime Minister said ASEAN “should give emphasis to the implementation of the DoC, including the eventual conclusion of [a CoC]”.

ASEAN secretary-general Surin Pitsuwan acknowledged yesterday there had been “rising interest” since the ASEAN regional forum in Hanoi in 2010.

“I think this has something to do with the heightened attention to the issue and the realisation and awareness that the region must be able to show the international community that it is manageable and we are trying to manage it in the best possible way,” Pitsuwan said.

The Chinese Embassy in Phnom Penh released a statement underscoring its commitment to implementing the DoC, adding that it had been engaged in “informal discussion” on how to “jointly formulate a code of conduct in the South China Sea”.

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To contact the reporters on this story: Shane Worrell at shane.worrell@phnompenhpost.com
Cheang Sokha at sokha.cheang@phnompenhpost.com

Clinton to Thailand: Be a leader I Bangkok Post

Clinton to Thailand: Be a leader I Bangkok Post
Agence France-Presse, June 14, 2012


WASHINGTON - United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton voiced hope Wednesday that Thailand would play a greater leadership role after years of political turmoil that has shaken the oldest US ally in Asia.

Clinton met in Washington with Thai Foreign Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul ahead of formal talks Thursday on issues ranging from trade to human rights and the environment.
"We support the kingdom of Thailand assuming a greater leadership role in the region," Clinton told reporters.

"We look forward to working with Thailand in pursuing our common objectives for maintaining peace and prosperity in the Asia Pacific."

Thailand has long been a linchpin of US policy in Asia, with the kingdom then known as Siam famously offering elephants to Abraham Lincoln as he put down secession in the 1861 to 1865 Civil War.

But the US has been concerned that Thailand has been too absorbed in recent years by domestic politics at a time that President Barack Obama's administration is putting a renewed emphasis on Southeast Asia.

Surapong welcomed the greater US focus on Southeast Asia, saying: "We believe that this would help contribute to regional peace and stability, which is important for economic growth and prosperity of the region."

Thailand plunged into chaos in 2006 when royalist generals staged a coup that ousted elected prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, a populist billionaire. More than 90 people died in mass protests in Bangkok in 2010.

Clinton visited Thailand in November and urged reconciliation after an election that brought Thaksin's sister Yingluck Shinawatra to power as prime minister.

ASEAN to up defence against crisis - Phnompenh Post

ASEAN to up defence against crisis  - Phnompenh Post
Don Weinland, 20 March 2012

Cambodia and other members of ASEAN were in talks to double a regional currency swap to US$240 billion as a source of funds in the event of a future economic crisis, officials and experts said yesterday.

Discussion on increasing the fund, which began with multilateral swaps in 2010 and is known as the Chiang Mai Initiative, would continue at ASEAN meetings next week, National Bank of Cambodia chairman and spokeswoman Nguon Sokha said.

“It is a goal, and it will be an objective at the meeting,” she said yesterday by phone.

“This discussion started before the debt crisis in Europe and is more associated with the global financial crisis.”

Doubling the swap would increase Cambodia’s contribution to $240 million, and likely lift the amount the country is entitled to borrow to $1.2 billion, Jayant Menon, lead economist at the Asian Development Bank’s Office of Regional Economic Integration, said yesterday in an email.

The increase was likely to happen, and would be announced formally in May, Menon said.

“The doubling is designed to address the concern that the fund was too small at $120 billion, especially if [several] members needed liquidity in a contagious crisis,” he said.

Up to 20 per cent of each country’s entitlement can be borrowed without taking a loan from the International Monetary Fund, another figure Menon said could change.

The IMF might loosen this restriction to 30 per cent or beyond, he said.

China, Korea and Japan – so-called ASEAN+3 members – contribute more than 70 per cent to the current $120 billion swap.

Cambodia contributes 0.1 per cent, and countries such as Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand nearly four per cent each.

“The main purpose is to build a resilient regional grouping in coping with future financial crises,” Chheang Vannarith, executive director of the Cambodia Institute for Cooperation and Peace, said yesterday, adding that the increased access to funds would help both private and government sectors deal with financial uncertainty and instability.

Cambodia had about $3 billion in dollar-denominated foreign reserves during the first half of 2011, the Post reported.

The Kingdom has significant exposure to US and EU markets via its garment-manufacturing industry, which was worth $4.25 billion and accounted for about 32.1 per cent of gross domestic product last year.

Garment and textile shipments to the US and Europe composed about three-quarters of the trade, or $3.14 billion, the Post reported

Euro zone crisis puts Asean model into question

 Euro zone crisis puts Asean model into question

Pana Janviroj, ANN/The Nation, Davos | Fri, 01/27/2012 9:45 PM

Asean, the European Union--regional blocks in general--are they an endangered species?
Pailin Chuchottaworn, CEO of PTT Plc, told the audience at the World Economic Forum in Davos that the crisis in the euro zone has suddenly thrown the Asean model into question.

"Asean 10, which is starting an Asean Economic Community, was modelled after the euro zone...which is facing a meltdown...Suddenly, we lost our way," he told a session on East Asia.

The PTT chief executive officer's question about Asean was later underscored by German Chancellor Angela Merkel in her opening address, in which she said that Europe was well in need of a new model. She reiterated that further integration and fiscal policy coordination were needed.

Nonetheless, Asia remains a bright spot and talking point at Davos 2012. Asia continues on a high-growth path alongside Brazil and Russia to help the world economy make up for the slump in the US and European economies.

Karim Raslan, CEO of KRA Group from Malaysia, said some smaller economies, such as the Philippines, are also doing surprisingly well.

Jason Li Yat-Sen from China's George Institute for Global Health reiterated that China's 8-per cent growth target for 2012 will be achieved and the country has a very good balance sheet to deal with any external shocks.

Chang Dae-Whan, chairman of Maekeyung Media Group from Korea, said the West could learn from Asia about shortening the implementation period of its policies. It is something the Europeans don't understand, he said.

In another session, Michael Spence, an economics and business professor from New York University, echoed this belief in the benefits of the policy pragmatism found in Asian economies.

Spence said the US now has a broad understanding of the structural changes it needs to make in the medium and long terms to get the economy back on track. But politics poses an obstacle.

Asked in the Asian session about the devastating floods at the end of last year, PTT's Pailin said the crisis is over and the economy is back on the growth path with retail, tourism and manufacturing picking up momentum, although investor confidence is still down.

His view was supported by Hiroyuki Ishige, CEO of the Japan External Trade Organisation, who said that both the Thai and Japanese economies--following their respective natural disaster--proved quite resilient through the strength of their management supply chains.

Pailin said that to Asean, as a group of satellite of economies, China and South Korea "will prove critical for our future".

Southeast Asia can leverage different networks including those in India, Raslan said.
Yat-Sen did not rule out a Chinese-Japanese economic axis if their historical differences can be overcome.

ASEAN sets key players for summit

Chhay Channyd, Monday, 05 December 2011

Global heavyweights Russia, China and the United States will be on hand for the sixth ASEAN Defence Ministers’ summit hosted by Cambodia in February, officials said on Friday.

Policy and Foreign Affairs Department chief General Nim Sowath said that five other non-ASEAN states will also attend the summit, which will be held in Phnom Penh.

The summit agenda will be spread out over a few months, Nim Sowath said, adding that 14 meetings are slated for February, followed by monthly meetings until the summit closes in May with a high-profile event chaired by Defence Minister Tea Banh.

“We will make cooperation a priority [and] solve some emerging problems confronting ASEAN such as emergency disaster relief, anti-terrorism strategies and military cooperation,” Nim Sowath said.

His comments follow a commentary released by the Council of Ministers’ Press and Quick Reaction Unit last week titled “‘Experts’ subjective and derogatory opinion”. The commentary was a rejoinder to the remarks of two Indonesian political experts who questioned Cambodia’s ability to come to a “neutral resolution” on border issues

Read more: ASEAN sets key players for summit

ASEAN Trade Vision Facilitates Exploiting Its Workers?

Siriluk Sriprasit , Prachatai, 6 Jul 2009

The ASEAN charter was adopted at the 14th ASEAN Summit in November 2007 and eventually came into force in December 2008.

One of ASEAN’s crucial visions is creating a single free trade area by 2015, but there are doubts that it will be implemented or achieved.

ASEAN's objective, which is also aiming to accelerate economic growth and a single market for the region, has already given more concern to labour and human rights scholars and activists.

"The number of informal workers is rising significantly in ASEAN, because of the weakening of industrial relationships. Factories reduce the number of their formal workers and give the work to informal home-based workers who used to be the formal workers," says Daniel S. Stephanus, head of the Accounting Department at Ma Chung University in Malang, East Java, Indonesia.

He added that the government also supports or facilitates the liberalization and informalization of workers through its policies and actions.

Chapter 1, Article 1(5) of the ASEAN charter states the goal of creating 'a single market and production base which is stable, prosperous, highly competitive and economically integrated with effective facilitation for trade and investment in which there is free flow of goods, services and investment; facilitated movement of business persons, professionals, talents and labour; and freer flow of capital.'

These goals are considered to be the cause of more migrant workers, and home-based workers as these workers provide cheaper labour for companies. While the capitalists and businessmen are getting richer, the workers are getting more exploited in this free-trade world.

"There is no adequate protection for the workers, formal or informal, at all and the agricultural sub-contract farmers here are also now suffering from the free trade agreement with less regulation of trade and lower tariffs," Stephanus said.

Indonesia, where about 93 percent of the total labour force are home-workers, has not ratified the 1996 ILO Convention on Home Workers.

This Convention defines a home worker as someone who works for remuneration in his or her home or in other premises of his or her own choice, rather than the workplace of the employer, resulting in a product or service as specified by the employer, irrespective of who provides the equipment, materials or other input used.

Dr. Sriprapha Petcharamesree, the Director of Office of Human Rights Studies, Mahidol University in Bangkok, Thailand stated that although the ASEAN countries have signed the agreement, the single market is still far from realization.

"ASEAN countries are too competitive and we cannot deny that when capitalists move from Malaysia and Thailand to invest in Vietnam or China, this is a natural market rule. The investors are always looking for a cheaper place in order to gain more profit," she added. "Moreover, the workers in the formal sector and especially in the informal sector will be less protected."

The Director of Office of Human Rights Studies said that in the ASEAN charter, there was not much mention of the rights of migrant workers who had come from Myanmar (Burmese and ethnic minorities), the Philippines and Indonesia to work in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.

"There is no protection for them at all. They hardly have access to healthcare services in the second country and no social security is provided. Also, there is no protection of the right to equal pay for equal work, or freedom of movement. Domestic workers or housekeepers are usually kept in the houses and are scared to come out," said Dr. Sriprapha.

"Women migrant workers are the most vulnerable people," she said.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) indicates that although in the case of Cambodia they have to face more challenges from the informalization of women workers in the textile and garment industry, their main focus is the estimated 85 percent of Cambodia's labour force which is officially employed in the informal economy.

According to 'Rights for Two-Thirds of Asia - Asian Labour Law Review 2008' by the Asia Monitor Resource Centre, home-based work in Malaysia has been expanding and workers are not recognized by Malaysia's labour laws.

"Many factories have outsourced employment in certain production lines to subcontractors, who supply labour to the production lines in accordance with the fluctuating demands of the factory," the Centre's report says.

In addition, the ranks of unprotected informal workers in the Philippines as well as in the whole of Asia, are growing fast, and formal workers are being depleted by the onslaught of trade liberalization and the increasing flexibility of labour contracting.

For Thailand, the informal economy makes up almost 50 percent of employment, and the rights of workers in the informal economy are not equal to those in the formal economy. Informal home workers in Vietnam contribute much more; out of 43 million employed people, 33 million are informal home workers.

"ASEAN's objectives about trade are only provisions and an attempt to legitimize itself as it moves toward liberalism," said Stephanus.

This objective contradicts and goes against its other purposes, such as in Chapter 1 article 1: to alleviate poverty, to promote sustainable development, to enhance the well-being and livelihood of the people; and Article 2: respect for fundamental freedoms, the promotion and protection of human rights, and the promotion of social justice.

It seems ASEAN still has a long way to go.

This story was written under a 2009 Southeast Asian Press Alliance Fellowship.

Source: English thaiindy.org