Row with Germany goes on as Thailand’s parliament opens – The Irrawaddy
August 1st, 2011
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21804
BANGKOK – An old commercial dispute has turned into a new diplomatic row between Germany and Thailand, putting the southeast Asian country’s monarchy in the spotlight as Thailand’s newly-elected parliament is inaugurated today.
Outgoing PM Abhisit Vejajjiva votes in Bangkok on election day (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
A Boeing 737 owned by Thailand’s Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn was impounded at Munich Airport on July 12 on the orders of a German court. The row goes back two decades, when a now-defunct German firm invested in a toll road to Bangkok’s old airport. The company’s liquidator was awarded €36m in damages by an international arbitration court in 2009 after successfully arguing that Bangkok breached the contract. Germany says the aircraft is Thai Government property, while Thailand says it belongs to the Crown Prince.
According to outgoing Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejajjiva, “the German government has no right to pressure Thailand to pay compensation in its dispute with a German contractor”, a brusque response to the impounding, which was followed by a demand by the Germany’s embassy in Bangkok that Thailand pay up and a warning that putative foreign investors might look elsewhere in southeast Asia. The prince has since said he would use his personal assets to settle the dispute, as he does not want to see Thai-German relations deteriorate. (more…)
Voices from Burma’s gulag – The Diplomat
July 30th, 2011
Ko Thet Oo is a a former bodyguard to Aung San Suu Kyi and ex-political prisoner in Burma. Pictured here at the AAPP office in Mae Sot, Thailand. He wears a hearing aid due to injuries sustained while in prison (Photo; Simon Roughneen)
http://the-diplomat.com/asean-beat/2011/07/30/voices-from-burmas-gulag/
Following are reflections from three of Burma’s recently-released political prisoners, all of whom are still inside the country and therefore request that pseudonyms be used.
MAE SOT – Ko Zaw was one of 55 Burmese political prisoners freed as part of a controversial May 2011 announcement that saw almost 17,000 prisoners released from jail.
‘I was released on May 17 under the so-called amnesty,’ he says, after spending almost four years in Myingyan prison, far from his family in Arakan in Burma’s west, close to the border with Bangladesh. In a country that holds almost 2,000 political prisoners, where some sentences amount to almost a century of jail time, human rights groups and Burmese opposition figures criticised the releases, as most of those freed were nearing the end of their sentences in any case. (more…)
Australia-Malaysia refugee swap: offshoring the problem? – The Irrawaddy
July 28th, 2011
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21788
A refugee swap deal between Australia and Malaysia continues to attract criticism, even as both countries’ governments offer assurances that refugees’ rights will be respected.
BANGKOK — While a new refugee swap deal between Australia and Malaysia will offer hope to some of the tens of thousands of Burmese refugees in Malaysia, there are different views on whether the arrangement lives up to international standards.
The “Arrangement on Transfer and Resettlement” was signed in Kuala Lumpur on July 25 by Malaysia’s Home Affairs Minister Hishammuddin Hussein and Australia’s Immigration and Citizenship Minister Chris Bowen. It will transfer 4,000 refugees in Malaysia to Australia over the next four years, in return for Malaysia taking in 800 asylum-seekers arriving in Australia or interdicted at sea en route to Australia after July 25. (more…)
More fuel for Malaysia’s fire – Asia Times
July 27th, 2011
United States diplomatic cables suggest Malaysia’s ruling party has been focused for years on avoiding overthrow by “people power”, throwing a spotlight on
Teargas fired during July 9 protest in Kuala Lumpur (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
controversial anti-riot methods seen in the crackdown on the opposition-backed Bersih 2.0 protests. Perhaps more damaging are allegations the party orchestrated religious controversies to foment sectarian divisions and increase its support among Malay voters.
http://atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/MG28Ae01.html
BANGKOK – Recently-released United States diplomatic cables from 2008-2010 shed light on Malaysia’s political scene in the aftermath of a controversial crackdown on an opposition-backed electoral reform demonstration in Kuala Lumpur where over 1,600 people were arrested, including opposition politicians.
On July 9, Malaysia’s police fired teargas and water-cannon at thousands of protesters who defied a ban on the rally, which was organized by Bersih 2.0, a coalition of non-governmental organizations that says it wants changes to how Malaysia stages elections, including the mandatory use of indelible ink to prevent voters from casting multiple ballots. (more…)
War trumps investment in Myanmar – Asia Times
July 25th, 2011
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/MG26Ae01.html
BANGKOK – Myanmar’s longest-standing ethnic minority militia, the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), has forced a halt to the construction of a key roadway link to the US$8 billion Dawei port and industrial estate mega-project. The blockage comes amid recently intensified fighting between government forces and insurgent groups in areas scheduled for massive foreign investment initiatives.
The Thai-financed Dawei project aims to jump-start Myanmar’s moribund industrial sector through better integration with Thailand’s more developed economy and infrastructure. It also aims to leverage into fast growing trade and investment enabled by the recently enacted China-Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) free trade agreement and to which Thailand has major regional hub ambitions. (more…)
Activists link Burma’s resource investments to ethnic fighting – The Irrawaddy
July 25th, 2011
Burmese environmentalists say that dozens of foreign investment projects linked to the country’s natural resources drive the recent increase in fighting between the army and ethnic minority groups in borderlands close to China and Thailand.
http://irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21756
BANGKOK - Speaking at the launch of Burma’s Environment:People, Problems, Policies, a new report from The Burma Environmental Working Group (BEWG), Naw La, a Kachin whose family has been driven from their home by fighting between the Burmese military and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), said that fighting started after the Burmese Government apparently did not listen to Kachin concerns about Chinese-backed hydropower dams in the northern region of Burma.
“The KIO (Kachin Independence Organisation) sent many letters to Naypyidaw and to the Chinese Government, objecting to the Myitsone dam”, he said, “and warning that there could be civil war if the dam is not stopped”. (more…)
Burmese Gov. said that NLD could take part in election – The Irrawaddy
July 21st, 2011
Burma’s Foreign Minister told the Cambodian Ambassador that Aung San Suu Kyi’s party would be allowed run in the 2010 election. Leaked US cables highlight divergences between Western and ASEAN views on Burma, with Hun Sen sounded-out as a possible interlocutor with the Burmese junta.
Boeung Kak lake in Phnom Penh, where thousands of residents have been driven out to make way for a Chinese-backed development, adding to concerns about the Cambodian Gov's human rights record (Photo: Simon Roughneen
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21732
BANGKOK — In a meeting with Scott Marciel, the then-US ambassador for ASEAN Affairs and current ambassador to Indonesia, Cambodia’s Foreign Minister Hor Namhong said “that the Burmese FM told the Cambodian ambassador recently that elections will be held in May 2010 and that 10 political parties, including Aung San Suu Kyi’s, would be allowed participate.”
Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), the party that won Burma’s previous election in 1990, only for the military to ignore the result, boycotted the 2010 election, partly due to the ban imposed on Suu Kyi from participating.
In any case, according to Burma’s state-run media, the NLD was officially proscribed on Sept 14, 2010, almost 2 months before the Nov 7, 2010 vote, which produced a landslide win for the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) in an election widely dismissed as rigged. (more…)
US cables show taboos in Thailand-Burma relations – The Irrawaddy
July 19th, 2011
http://irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21720
BANGKOK—More recently-released US diplomatic cables have shed light on Thailand’s relationship with Burma as perceived by American officials at their embassy in Bangkok.
The documents suggest that despite rhetorical differences, there was continuity of policy both before the 2006-2008 crisis in Thailand—when then-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was ousted in a military coup—and afterwards when Democrat leader Abhisit Vejajjiva took over power.
The cables provide accounts of various US officials, including former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, discussing various aspects of Thailand’s foreign policy with Thai lawmakers such as Thaksin Shinawatra and outgoing Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya. (more…)
Media and Malaysia’s protest – PBS Mediashift
July 18th, 2011
One of the 1667 people arrested by police at the protest (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
More than a week after Malaysian police fired teargas and water cannons at thousands of demonstrators seeking reform of the country’s electoral system, a Facebook petition calling on Prime Minister Najib Razak to quit has drawn over 200,000 backers, highlighting the role of social and new media in Malaysia’s restrictive free speech environment.
One contributor to the page wrote: “The world is full of multimedia and electronics; the things we so call camera and videocam … And photos and videos were already being uploaded on the Internet but ‘it’ still denies the truth and makes stories and lies until today.”
Social media such as Facebook and Twitter have played a major role in mobilising some of the demonstrators in the run-up to the rally, which went ahead despite a police ban and lockdown imposed on sprawling Kuala Lumpur on the eve of the July 9 protest. (more…)
Malaysian Worker Amnesty Postponement Leaves Burmese in Limbo – The Irrawaddy
July 15th, 2011
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21702
Burmese worker at workshop managed by Kyaw Thel (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
KUALA LUMPUR — After seven years as an undocumented migrant worker in Malaysia, waiter Ko Saw knows well the tough grind facing his compatriots in one of Southeast Asia’s more advanced economies.
“In my seven years here I have only been caught once by the police,” he recalls over a dish of deep-fried Burmese snacks at an open-air row of Asian street restaurants in the Puchong 12 district of Kuala Lumpur. The signs around are in Burmese, Chinese, Thai and Bahasa Indonesia, as well as English and Bahasa Malaysia, and the staff at the restaurants are all immigrant workers.
“I was taken to Semenya detention center,” he says, half-smiling through a slow, rueful shake of the head. “However, I was lucky. It was not so crowded then, so we did not have such a bad time of it.”
“I still have to watch for police, and try to avoid them,” he says. “I cannot afford not to work, as my parents are over 70 and need whatever money I can send back to them in Rangoon each month.” (more…)
