2019/51, 6 June 2019
To no one’s surprise, junta leader and incumbent Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-ocha won the contest for the premiership in the Thai National Assembly last Wednesday. He will head a new coalition government of 20 parties led by the Phalang Pracharat Party (PPP).
2019/50, 3 June 2019
On May 25, women members of parliament (MPs) played an unprecedented role in the first working session of the lower chamber of Thailand’s parliament, whose purpose was to elect the House Speaker. The dramatic debate in which their role was so pronounced caused a delay in the voting process.
2019/49, 29 May 2019
The success of the Phalang Pracharat Party-led coalition in winning the post of House Speaker for former Thai Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai of the Democrat Party with 258 of 500 votes last Saturday was a crucial victory. It heralds the imminent reinstallation of 2014 coup leader and incumbent Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-ocha as Thailand’s premier.
2019/48, 28 May 2019
Deadly riots erupted in downtown Jakarta after the Indonesian Election Commission (KPU) officially announced the results of the 2019 elections in the wee hours of May 21. The Commission declared that Prabowo Subianto-Sandiago Uno had lost the election to Joko Widodo-Ma’ruf Amin by a 11 per cent margin.
2019/47, 27 May 2019
On 21 May 2019, a meeting of the Central Steering Committee on Anti-Corruption (CSCAC) was convened in Hanoi under the chairmanship of Standing Member of the Secretariat of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Tran Quoc Vuong. The meeting reviewed the progress of the ongoing anti-corruption campaign and stressed the need to continue to implement the anti-corruption agenda adopted by the Committee in a timely manner.
2019/46, 24 May 2019
After the Indonesian Election Commission (KPU) completed the vote recapitulation and officially announced the final results on 21 May 2019, a mass rally by Prabowo Subianto’s supporters was held in front of the Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) office in Central Jakarta to express disappointment with Prabowo’s defeat. The street protests turned violent late at night on 21 May. According to the KPU, Joko Widodo (Jokowi) garnered 55.5 percent (85,607,362) of total valid votes, while Prabowo garnered 44.5 percent (68,650,239). The official announcement was released at 1.46 am on 21 May, one day earlier than the initial plan to release the results on 22 May 2019. Prabowo criticized KPU for making the announcement while “people were asleep”. However, the KPU argued that it was better not to delay the announcement once the recapitulation had been completed. The immediate announcement by KPU was a way to avoid potential accusations that KPU had manipulated the election results.
2019/45, 23 May 2019
Beijing recently hosted its first ever Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilization (CDAC) in May 2019. The CDAC marks the culmination of a proposal made by Chinese President Xi Jinping to convene such a conference at the Boao Forum for Asia in 2015.
2019/44, 21 May 2019
The May 14th announcement in the Royal Gazette that King Vajiralongkorn had endorsed the 250 newly selected members of the upper chamber of Thailand’s parliament seems to ensure that the pro-junta Phalang Pracharat Party will form the next government.
2019/43, 16 May 2019
In the past five years Singapore has overtaken China as the top investor in Myanmar for each fiscal year. At present, the total amount of investment by firms based in Singapore is USD20840.400m, just a little more than the total of USD20500.073m invested by China’s companies, according to the Directorate of Investment and Company Administration of Myanmar (DICA).
“Land is Life: When Protecting Forests means Saving Malaysia’s Original Peoples” by Serina Rahman