The infamous Burmese Insein Prison

Myanmar - There seems to be a lot in the news lately concerning the “hermit kingdom” of the south.  On Monday, the Burmese PM met with U.S. Senator Jim Webb, chairman of the Senate subcommittee on East Asia and the Pacific.  Webb, in a continuation of the new pragmatic Obama foreign policy for SE Asia, stated:

“The (U.S.) administration’s new policy and the commitment of the Myanmar government to holding elections next year are both signals that we have the potential to change the dynamic of this important relationship.”

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Courtesy of Time Online: Manila Flood

Philippines - As many as 140 people are believed dead and, approximately 300,000 more are displaced  in the  Greater Manila region in the wake of Typhoon Ketsana.  The area is home to 12 million people, and an amazing 80% of the capital has been flooded.  Various international aid agencies and the U.S. Navy are helping the overwhelmed Filipino government with relief efforts.  Another tropical storm is expected to make land fall later this week.  With the ground already saturated, another storm will only exacerbate the situation.

Cambodia - In a continuation of the ongoing conflict over the Preah Vihear Temple in the Thai-Cambodia border region, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has threatened to skip the 15th ASEAN summit to be held next month in Thailand.   Instead, he will send the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister.  Sen has also refused talks with Thai PM Abhisit Vejjajiva over the issue until Vejjajiva stops using a Thai map that demarcates the region in a way that Cambodia disapproves.

Vietnamese Dong Bills

Asia Times Online has several great articles out this week on Southeast Asia:

- Vietnam could be facing another currency crisis.  The  Vietnamese Dong may crash due to the governments unsustainable trade and spending deficits.   Apparently, things got out of hand as early as late 2007, when Vietnam started printing Dong based off of the massive influx of U.S. dollars into its economy.  The government failed to deal with the resulting liquidity issues, which lead to a  30% increase in inflation by the middle of 2008.  Hanoi’s  response has been to increase interest rates, implement price controls, and reign in government spending.

…..click here to read more

Vietnam's PM Nguyen Tan Dung

The Arroyo Administration and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) have signed an agreement to form an “International Contact Group” to help negotiate a peace agreement between the two sides in the  predominately Muslim island of Mindanao.  Got all that?  The agreement was signed in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday.  For more background go here.

- The Vietnamese PM, Nguyen Tan Dung,  stated that all property in Vietnam belongs to the government. This is not exactly reassuring to foreign investor, but his remarks were specifically directed at the Vatican, which recently requested the return of all land the Catholic Church had owned.  The communist government started confiscating Catholic Church land in 1954, before North and South Vietnam were united under their rule.  In recent weeks Vietnamese Catholics have held demonstrations demanding the government return these properties.  It is believed that in less than two months, Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet will travel to the Vatican for meeting with Pope Benedict XVI on the  re-establishment of diplomatic relations.  Yet, in recent months, the Vietnamese government has been cracking down on Catholic dissidents.  It is possible that Vietnam wishes to make clear to the Vatican the limits of its tolerance ahead of time, if the meeting will even take place.  There are believed to be six million Catholics in Vietnam, the highest number in SE Asia outside the Philippines.

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Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen

-UPDATE (9-20-2009) - DNA test results confirm Top’s death.

Indonesian authorities have officially declared Noordin Muhammed Top, suspected terror mastermind of the July Jakarta Hotel Bombings, dead. He was killed in last month’s Indonesian police raid of a house  in the central Java town of Solo.  The identification was based on fingerprints  stored on the Indonesian police database.  DNA tests are still pending.  Top was also accused of aiding in the 2003 Jakarta Marriott  bombing, the bombing at the the Australian Embassy in 2004, and the 2002 and 2005 Bali bombings.

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Nguyễn Chí Vịnh

Shawn W Crispin has an interesting article in Asian Times concerning the Vietnamese government’s  latest freedom of speech crackdown that has specifically targeted bloggers who had publicly expressed anti-Chinese sentiment.  Hanoi fears it cannot control the more than two million Vietnamese based blogs, a common source of uncensored news.  While a general fear of the internets power to organized like-minded political dissidents, the author specifically focuses on the Chinese angle:

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Indonesian Protesters at the Malaysian Embassy

An update on the recent Malaysian - Indonesian quarrel:

The situation between the two nations has deteriorated  to the point that the  Malaysian government has asked the Indonesian government to protect its nationals in Indonesia.  Further, Malaysia’s PM, Najib Tun Razak instructed Anifah Aman, his Minister of Foreign Affairs to meet with his counterpart in Indonesia, Hasan Wirajuda, next Thursday.

This was prompted by reports of sporadic attacks on Malaysians in Indonesia.  The violence appears to have started with Indonesian protesters pelting the Malaysian Embassy in Jakarta with eggs.  Not long after, a Malaysian medial student was reported to have been “stoned” by a mob at Jogjakarta University.  Then, on Malaysia’s 52nd National Day, about 30-40 people carrying sharpened bamboo sticks stopped people in downtown Jakarta asking them for their national id cards to verify if they were Malaysian.  The mob was telling people they would “sweep” Indonesia clean of Malaysians.  This was eventually stopped by police; however, last week, a group of Indonesians  publicly declared their wish to volunteer to go to war with Malaysia.  They went as far as to publicly practice martial arts to show their combat prowess.

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Timorese President Jose Ramos-Horta

- The Philippines will begin a type of visa waiver program to attract Chinese nationals, enabling them to obtain visa’s upon arrival at the airport.    These rules were adopted on the recommendation of the Filipino Tourism Department to increase revenue.  The visas will allow Chinese nationals on vacation or business to stay in the Philippines for up to 7 days before being required to  apply for an extension.

-  The Geneva-based foundation, the World Economic Forum (WEF) has ranked these Southeast Asian nations in the top 25  of all the worlds nations in terms of economic competitiveness, from highest to lowest:  Singapore (3),  Malaysia (25).  Brunei and Thailand made the top 50.  The rankings are calculated from public data and the Executive Opinion Survey, a comprehensive annual survey conducted by the WEF with its network of leading research institutes and business organizations.

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Indonesia’s military has been busy lately, and not just perusing terror suspects, but in activities one might consider a serious misallocation of resources.  The Indonesian Navy has deployed Marines to the barren island of Jemur, one of nine islands in the Riau (Arwah) Archipelago,  in response to both the Travel Journal and Osvaja.net listing it as part of the Malaysian state of Selangor, instead of  the Indonesian province of Riau.  This posturing is disturbingly reminiscent of  the conflicts the two nations had in the Sulawesi (also Ambalat or Celebes) Sea, which lasted from 1962-1966.

The waters in the Straits of Malacca are oil-rich and both Indonesia and Malaysia have contracted major multinational oil companies to do exploration and production, Royal Dutch Shell (2005) and ENI (1999), respectively.  Culturally, the area is believed to be the origin point to modern ethnic Malay culture and the Indonesian language (Bahasa Indonesian).

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-  Malaysia is often sited as an example  for the wider Muslim world of how a  moderate pluralistic democracy can be compatible with Islam.  An article in Forbes explores how moderate Malaysia actually is.    First, the article recants the common outsiders view of Malaysia:

…the Southeast Asian nation boasted the world’s tallest building, the iconic 88-story Petronas Towers. Powered by electronics, palm oil and petroleum, Malaysia is the world’s 20th-largest exporter, ahead of Sweden, Australia and India. Per capita income, about $14,000 in purchasing parity terms, is about the same as in Argentina. Apart from the obvious prosperity of downtown Kuala Lumpur, the casual visitor notices the comforting trappings of a British colonial past–a parliament, a judiciary, a professional police force.

SNIP

About four in 10 Malaysians are Buddhist, Christian, Hindu , Sikh or Confucian. (By contrast, Turkey, the poster-child for an Islam at peace with the 21st century, is 99.8% Muslim.)

He then goes into the darker side of the miracle, touching on the affirmative action program that favors the Malay majority (and even ethnic Indonesians or Muslim Filipinos who migrate to Malaysia) at the expense of the Chinese and Indian minority.    This system affects Malaysian citizens chances for gainful employment, housing, and college admittance.

…..click here to read more