Weekly Governance Links: Southeast Asia in Focus

This week’s installment takes a look at recent developments in Southeast Asia, a region featuring a number of states included in the Countries at the Crossroads reports.

Thailand has been abuzz lately as former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra made his triumphant return to Bangkok following a 17-month stint in exile. The junta which ousted Thaksin in 2006 honored the results of Thailand’s recent parliamentary elections, effectively bringing an end to another (inevitably) disappointing experiment with military rule. The majority government of the People’s Power Party, formed from the remnants of Thaksin’s banished Thai Rak Thai party, faces mounting domestic problems, particularly the rising, so far poorly-handled Islamist insurgency in the nation’s south and a harshly administered anti-narcotics campaign drawing international criticism. For more detailed analysis, the superb blog The Bangkok Pundit offers up-to-date commentary on political developments in Thailand.

Vietnam has been turning some heads in the new year following its accession to the United Nations Security Council. Hopes were high that the seat at the table could condition Vietnam’s international behavior, as well as its attitude toward human rights issues. Thus far in 2008, Hanoi has taken some steps towards ameliorating its international image, drawing praise from the Asian Development Bank for its anti-corruption measures. The Vietnamese Ministry of Finance recently permitted state and local governments to use government funds to purchase information for combating corruption, broadening the fight against graft. Hanoi also made headlines for the recent release of imprisoned journalist Tran Khai Thanh Thuy after nine months in prison for “causing a public disorder,” though Human Rights Watch observed that the crackdown against critics of the nominally Communist regime continues.

Indonesia has been in the crosshairs of the International Crisis Group, which has recently published two reports regarding the spread of Islamist radicalism in the archipelago. The first report covers developments in the Muslim-Christian conflict in the Sulawesi district of Poso, while the second addresses the threat posed by the publishing arm of the radical Jamaah Islamiya group. In spite of the ongoing challenges to state security, the regime of Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyon (“SBY”) has been hailed by Newsweek as pioneering a new model of Southeast Asian leadership in breaking from the “strongman” past embodied by Suharto. To be sure, Voice of America observed that there is a key impetus for anti-corruption measures: the run-up to 2009 presidential and local elections, during which SBY will seek to shore up his legacy and avoid past electoral mistakes.

Aside from the machinations noted last week, corruption has been the buzzword in the Philippines recently following widespread demonstrations protesting the rule of President Gloria Arroyo Macapagal. The protests in fifteen cities have represented a wide cross-section of Philippine society, including backing from the Roman Catholic Church and former Presidents Joseph Estrada and Corazon Aquino. Estrada’s stance might raise eyebrows, considering he himself was freed in October 2007 by Arroyo after serving six years in detention while awaiting trial for embezzlement of public funds; to now find himself in the position of protesting against his liberator’s abuses of power is a bit odd. Protestors are calling for Arroyo’s ouster over her part in the auction of a government broadband network, an activity now under investigation by the Philippine senate.

Malaysia has been the scene of recent intrigue as political parties jockey for position in advance of parliamentary elections on March 8th. The chief opposition, the Democratic Action Party, has made a tactical shift to running on an anticorruption platform, blasting the regime of Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi for widespread graft. Malaysia’s Islamic opposition, meanwhile, has softened its tone, dropping its calls for a Koranic state under Sharia law. Meanwhile, amid the pre-election chatter, outrage among Malaysia’s ethnic Indian minority – who account for 8 percent of a population of 27 million – has reached a crescendo following the recent destruction of Hindu temples in Selangor state.

Cambodia has also made news on the human rights front recently, with much attention being paid to the ongoing trial of notorious S-21 prison chief Kaing Guk Eav, aka “Duch,” at the Cambodian genocide tribunal. Duch and four other key defendants, including former Khmer Rouge President Khieu Samphan, face trial for atrocities committed during Pol Pot’s reign of terror between 1975 and 1979. As Cambodia continues the collective healing process from this national scar, observers continue to decry ongoing rights violations in the country. A coalition of six leading human rights organizations recently condemned Phnom Penh for the wrongful imprisonment of two men for the 2004 murder of Cambodian labor leader Chea Vichea.

Finally, in Laos the government was recently accused of paying individual bounties on Hmong fighters, according to Radio Free Asia. Also generating controversy is the construction of the Nam Theun 2 hydroelectric dam, a World Bank-supported protect due to come online at the end of 2009. A Reuters article recently highlighted criticism of schemes to relocate and compensate nearly 120,000 villagers downstream from the dam as woefully inadequate. 

Photo Credit: Flickr user isriya