Thailand: Media trial to resume tomorrow – The Irrawaddy
February 7th, 2011
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=20683
BANGKOK – Tuesday is Day Two in the trial of Chiranuch Premchaiporn, in what is being described as a landmark case for freedom of expression in Thailand.
Chiranuch Premchaiporn outside Bangkok’s Criminal Court last Friday, after receiving flowers from a well-wisher (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
Ms Chiranuch, who executive director of the self-described independent news-site Prachatai, is accused of 10 different violations of Thailand’s 2007 Computer Crime Act (CCA), each of which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
However she is not accused of writing or saying anything defamatory herself, as the case stems from comments posted by users of the Prachatai Web board that authorities say are defamatory of the Thai monarchy–a criminal offense under Thai law. She has been charged under the CCA’s Article 15, with the prosecution making the case webmasters are liable for comments posted by third parties on their websites.
Interest from local and international media, as well as NGOs and international organisations, meant that the hearing had to be moved from the smaller courtroom 703 to the larger 701 down the hallway at Bangkok’s Criminal Court, where the judge sat, as is the norm in a Thai courtroom, under a framed photograph of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyedej, Thailand’s monarch since 1946. (more…)
Muted International Reaction to Opening of Parliament – The Irrawaddy
February 1st, 2011
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=20648
BY SIMON ROUGHNEEN AND LALIT K. JHA – While international media headlines focused on the “historic” opening of Parliament in Burma, international diplomatic reaction has been somewhat muted.
Since Monday’s first sitting of Burma’s Upper and Lower Houses of Parliament, little has been said by countries or international organizations that either have strong trade or diplomatic links with Burma, or by those that have been critical of the ruling junta.
Among the few to make any comment, a foreign ministry statement from Tokyo said, “The Government of Japan will closely observe the future direction of the National Assembly, including its administration, debates to be taken, as well as activities of pro-democracy movement and ethnic minority parties.”
A US statement ahead of Monday’s opening sessions was less optimistic. “The Nov. 7 parliamentary elections were neither free nor fair, so unsurprisingly it has yielded a parliament dominated by the pro-junta Union Solidarity and Development Party, so-called USDP, and military officials,” said State Department spokesman P J Crowley. (more…)
Ireland to Burma, voodoo politics – The Irrawaddy
December 30th, 2010
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=20438
Bleak midwinter at Dublin Airport's new Terminal 2 (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
DUBLIN — While doing research on folk beliefs in Ireland in the early 20th century, an American anthropologist asked an elderly woman if she believed in fairies. “No, I do not, sir,” came the decisive reply, which she diluted with the following cryptic qualifier: “However, they are there anyway.”
This well-known anecdote might be apocryphal, and the supernatural is long gone from Irish popular culture, but there are elements of the mystical about the country’s recent economic boom-to-bust saga.
From the mid-1990s to 2007, Ireland’s economic boom changed a nation of emigrants into one where around 10 percent of the population were recently arrived immigrants, many from Eastern Europe. Growth ranged from 5-10 percent over a 15-year period and Ireland acquired the “Celtic Tiger” moniker, after a Morgan Stanley economist compared the transformation of the North Atlantic island with the Asian Tiger economies of South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan.
Since 2008, however, Ireland’s GDP has contracted by 14 percent and its unemployment rate is now around the same percentage.
One Asian country that was never close to joining the Tiger ranks was Burma (more…)
Vietnam: a development success story? – The Guardian
December 23rd, 2010
Vietnam has made huge economic advances over the past 10 years. But sustaining growth and ensuring everyone benefits from this progress will be challenging.
Hanoi traffic during daytime (Photo: Simon Roughneen )
It’s 8am in Hanoi and already thousands of motorbikes, mopeds and scooters flow through the streets. Some sway with the weight of two or three passengers, boxes of merchandise, sacks of rice, or tied-down pieces of furniture that look heavier than vehicle and driver combined.
For the first-time pedestrian, crossing the road is a daunting experience, but, amid all the apparent chaos, the “system” works. The trick is to just walk when you can, and let the torrent of bikes flow around you. Don’t look left, don’t look right. Just walk. (more…)
Vietnam Pushes Facebook Clone – PBS Mediashift
December 22nd, 2010
http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2010/12/vietnam-pushes-facebook-clone-to-control-online-speech355.html
HANOI, VIETNAM – Inside one of Hanoi’s more than 3,000 online gaming houses, gamers clad in coats and scarves pass the hours shooting at each other on their screens, oblivious to the wintry gray and 10 celsius evening outside. This is southeast Asia, but the French colonial architecture and the proliferation of tourist-market socialist kitsch — all covered by a wet blanket autumn gloom — give the place a slightly European feel.
2010 marks the 1,000 year anniversary of the founding of Hanoi. These kids rehearse for a pageant to close the year out (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
With the Vietnamese economy growing at an average of seven percent per year over the past decade, and companies such as Microsoft and Intel announcing major investments, there is a limit to how European the ambiance is. There’s no downturn or recession here. Although average per capita incomes are little over $1,100 per year, Vietnam is moving up the international economic ranks. (more…)
A Vietnam Syndrome for Burma? – The Irrawaddy
December 21st, 2010
http://www.irrawaddy.org/highlight.php?art_id=20355
HANOI—One thousand years old this year, Hanoi’s streets remain decorated with thousands of the gold-starred red flags of the resistance. Nominally a socialist republic, the country’s economy has in fact adapted the post-Deng economic model of China, applied with a Vietnamese touch.
Looking across the Red River, Hanoi. (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
Now a focus for Western investors such as Intel, Boeing, Microsoft, Apple and many more, Vietnam has seen spectacular economic growth since the Đổi Mới system was introduced, and particularly since the normalization of relations with the US in 1995. Membership of the World Trade Organization came in 2007, another boost for the latest addition to Asian Tiger ranks and adding to the growing incentives for foreign multinationals to invest.
According to economist Suiwah Leung, “During the last two decades, the country has had an average FDI/GDP ratio of 5.9 percent; the highest among many Asean countries during their respective periods of rapid growth from the mid-1970s to mid-1990s.”
In his August 2009 meeting with Burma Prime Minister Thein Sein, US Sen. Jim Webb, who fought in the Vietnam War and has worked on America’s relations with Asian countries for many years, said that the Vietnam experience was one that Burma could look to. (more…)
Misplaced US optimism on Burma – Asia Sentinel
December 17th, 2010
http://asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2883&Itemid=168
BANGKOK – Diplomatic cables by the U.S. Embassy in Rangoon show that American officials were optimistic about dialogue with Burma’s military government, as Democrat Senator Jim Webb visited ruler Senior-General Than Shwe in August 2009.
“It is certain Than Shwe believes he has unclenched its fist”, said a cable released by Wikileaks overnight. The note opined that the Burmese ruler regarded the Webb-Shwe meeting and the release of American prisoner John Yettaw as a major concession, thereby requiring an American counter-offer. “We should allow Burmese Foreign Minister Nyan Win to visit the Embassy in Washington following UNGA” (United Nations General Assembly), the cable author wrote.
The meeting between Webb and Than Shwe “was decidedly more upbeat than expected”, with the reclusive Burmese ruler said to have “greeted Senator Webb and Charge ( Larry Dinger, U.S. Charge d’Affairs in Rangoon) warmly”. Than Shwe repeatedly spoke of “friendship” throughout the conversation, which Sen. Webb oiled by swiftly changing the subject when Aung San Suu Kyi was mentioned. (more…)
Talking to dead people – The Irrawaddy
December 15th, 2010
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=20323
US Embassy cables released by Wikileaks show that Singapore’s Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew scorned Burma’s “stupid” junta, as China claims it sought political prisoner release and advised the US to talk directly to “easy-going” dictator Than Shwe
Former Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew told US officials that the Burmese military rulers are “dense” and “stupid,” saying that talking to the regime was akin to “talking to dead people,” according to documents released by WikiLeaks this week.
Ridiculing the junta generals’ mismanagement of what he termed Burma’s resource-laden economy, Lee said that the US should approach Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to act as an interlocutor with the Burmese junta, or failing that, sound out Vietnam as a possible mediator. Dismissing his own suitability for the job, Lee said that he was perceived as too close to the US for the junta’s liking.
Lee’s comments were made to then US Ambassador to Singapore Patricia Herbold in Oct. 2007 as the Burmese dictatorship crushed the monk-led “Saffron Revolution” protests taking place in cities across the country. A confidential briefing on a 2007 conversation between Lee and US officials was released by WikiLeaks this week.
Earlier in 2007, China facilitated talks between the US and the Burmese government, with Beijing’s diplomats suggesting that the US deal directly with junta chief Snr-Gen Than Shwe, according to the documents released by WikiLeaks. (more…)
Online Freedom of Expression Under Siege in Thailand – PBS Mediashift
December 11th, 2010
http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2010/12/online-freedom-of-expression-under-siege-in-thailand344.html
BANGKOK — “Today I have to go all the way to Khon Kaen to report to the police,” said Chiranuch Premchaipoen, the editor of Thailand’s well-known online news site Prachatai during a recent conversation in Bangkok.
The town is 450 km from Bangkok, and Chiranuch has to travel there once a month just to check in with police. This arrangement is the result of her detention at the Bangkok airport on September 24. That came in response to a complaint made about comments posted by a third party on the Prachatai web-board. (Irony of ironies, Chiranuch was returning home from attending an Internet freedom seminar in Geneva.)
She was charged with lese-majeste, or insulting the monarchy, which under Thailand’s legal code can be filed by any citizen against another. Until the charges, which also incorporate an alleged breach of Thailand’s Computer Crimes Act, are dropped, or the case goes to court, Chiranuch must make the 450 kilometer journey north once a month. She could receive a 32-year jail term if convicted of one of two lese-majeste charges she faces. The first goes to trial in February 2011, while the latest will be reviewed by a police panel that will decide whether a court case is warranted. (more…)
China’s dim(ish) view of the Myanmar junta – Asia Times
December 10th, 2010
China wanted Myanmar’s junta to enter into dialogue with pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and ethnic minority groups in the months after the 2007 “Saffron” revolution protests, newly released US diplomatic cables show. Yet Beijing also warned US officials that even if talks made progress, the generals’ inept handling of the economy could throw the country into turmoil.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/LL11Ae01.html
BANGKOK – Newly released United States diplomatic cables show that in the months after the August-September 2007 “Saffron” revolution protests in Myanmar, China was concerned about the country’s stability and preferred that the military regime enter into dialogue with pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and ethnic minority groups.
“The Chinese ambassador no longer tried to defend the regime, and acknowledged that the generals had made a bad situation worse. The Chinese have used their access to the generals to push for change, without much observable result, but remain interested in working with us to promote change,” according to an account of a January 17, 2008 meeting between US charged’affairs Shari Villaraos and China’s ambassador to Myanmar, Guan Mu.
“The Chinese are clearly fed-up with foot-dragging by Than Shwe regime,” Villarosa’s report of the meeting concluded. (more…)
