Pearls and Irritations

In Asian media this week: Another Shinawatra becomes PM in Thailand. Plus: Kishida ‘lost people’s trust’; Big losses as Asian Muslims shun KFC over Gaza; Manila reshapes its superpower ties; Gen Z revolution in Bangladesh; Racism a factor in Olympics row.

The lawfare that afflicts government and politics in Thailand continues, with the Constitutional Court sacking the prime minister and his cabinet only a week after dismissing the main opposition party.

At the time of writing, Thailand’s House of Representatives was meeting to elect a new prime minister. The only nominee was Paetongtarn Shinawatra, leader Pheu Thai, the main party in the governing coalition, and daughter of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

The Thai Enquirer reported on its Facebook page that 296 MPs were present. They had begun formalising her election https: //www.facebook.com/search/top?q=thai%20enquirer by voting one by one.

Paetongtarn, 37, would become the third member of the Shinawatra family to hold the position – after her father and her aunt, Yingluck.
The court on Wednesday, in a 5-4 ruling, dismissed Srettha Thavisin as prime minister, finding him guilty of a gross violation of ethics, Bangkok Post reported. His offence was to appoint a convicted criminal to the ministry.

The man in question is Pichit Chuenban who was convicted of contempt of court in a 2008 case where he appeared for Thaksin and where he appeared to be involved in trying to bribe court officials.

Under the Thai constitution, the ministry is disbanded if a prime minister is dismissed for wrongdoing but the court ruled the cabinet could stay on in a caretaker capacity.

A commentary in Thai Enquirer’s news site said the case against Srettha was brought forward by a group of senators thought to be aligned with retired general Prawit Wongsuwan.

A second opinion piece on the same site said the two court rulings raised concerns about judicial independence and fairness – and could be seen as a judicial coup, undermining democratic norms. However, the ruling on the Srettha case was justified, the analysis said.

The court’s rulings have spooked the politicians. Bangkok Post said Pheu Thai had initially decided to nominate as prime minister Chaikasem Nitisiri, a former attorney-general. But MPs later noted Chaikasem had previously supported amending the country’s strict lese majeste law.

It was a campaign against the royal-insult law that that led to the dissolution last week of the progressive Move Forward Party.

Pheu Thai and its coalition partners dropped Chaikasem and decided to nominate Paetongtarn.

Bangkok Post on Friday published an essay on the role of the judiciary, written by Vitit Muntarbhorn, Professor Emeritus in Chulalongkorn University’s law faculty.

He noted a case where a prominent court (which he did not name) had disenfranchised millions of voters by disbanding their political party under very dubious grounds. “This has happened repeatedly and with impunity,” he said.

Vitit said the judiciary was often said to be one of three pillars of state, along with the executive and the parliament.
“The people of the land are the key fourth pillar that should not be overlooked,” he said.

PM faced defeat in leadership vote

With a public support rating of only 25 per cent, Japanese leader Fumio Kishida has decided to quit. He will not run in the Liberal Democratic Party’s presidential election next month, paving the way for a new prime minister.

“The easiest way for me to clearly show that the LDP has changed is for me to step aside,” he said this week.

The Japan Times reported that an NHK poll showed his support had dropped from 29 per cent in November to 25 per cent now. In an Asahi Shimbun poll last month, 74 per cent wanted to see him gone after the leadership vote, the paper reported.

His big political burden was the so-called slush fund scandal. A Reuters “explainer” published shortly after the scandal erupted said police were investigating whether lawmakers had received money from fundraising events that saw millions of dollars kept off party records.

A commentary in The Japan Times said Kishida had wanted to try his luck again and contest the party leadership battle.

“However, once it become clear that his chances of winning the September vote were minimal, an embattled Kishida chose to bow to growing pressure and prioritise the party’s interests, with an eye to a general election slated to take place within the next 14 months,” the analysis said.

“His standing with the public peaked during the [May] 2023 Group of Seven leaders’ summit in Hiroshima, only to nosedive weeks later due to a string of policy mishaps and a lacklustre leadership style.”

An editorial in The Asahi Shimbun newspaper said Kishida’s Government had lost the people’s trust and had failed to take firm steps to regain it.

“He is bowing out in the face of intense pressure from LDP lawmakers concerned that the party would suffer a drubbing in elections under his leadership,” the paper said.

Kishida had made a succession of radical policy changes without broad public debate, it said – including defence changes that seriously undermined the postwar principle of a strictly defensive security stance.

Free burgers in Israel spark Indonesian boycott

Almost 90 per cent of Indonesia’s 270 million people are Muslim and they are, unsurprisingly, pro-Palestinian and opposed to Israel in its war on Gaza. Companies with real or perceived links with Israel of being hit by boycotts.

One company that can quantify its losses is KFC, which has operated in Indonesia for 45 years and has more than 700 outlets across 150 cities.

A story in the South China Morning Post said KFC announced recently it had lost $US 21.5 million in the first quarter of this year, about 60 times the $343,000 loss it made in the same period of 2023.

The paper quoted a KFC manager in Indonesia as saying he had noticed a sharp downturn in business since last November. He was surprised the losses were not higher.

“It is the result of boycotts because of Palestine,” he said.

The Indonesian boycotts began at the start of the war when McDonald’s in Israel was reported to have given Israeli soldiers free burgers.

Boycotts have also hit companies in Malaysia, where KFC closed more than 20 outlets in Muslim-majority states and Starbucks reported a big drop in revenue dating from the start of the war.

The story said McDonald’s chief executive Chris Kempczinski blamed a drop in international sales on “countries like Indonesia and Malaysia”.

Philippines concerned about armed conflict with China

Manila is quietly reshaping its relations with China and the US – hedging its bets, according to an analysis in the South China Morning Post.

Academic and author Richard Heydarian says the Philippines’ leadership is profoundly concerned about potential armed conflict with China and wants to avoid needless provocations.

Manila has increased the number of US bases in the Philippines and has accepted US funding to speed up the modernisation of its coastguard and navy.

But President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr has declined to align fully with US policy in East Asia, by maintaining strategic ambiguity on Taiwan and by not granting the US access to northernmost facilities in the country, the article says.

Manila has also insisted on managing independently its tensions with China. Marcos turned down an offer of US help following its most recent South China Sea confrontation with China.

It has also reached a temporary agreement with Beijing on managing tensions and give diplomacy a chance.

A separate SCMP article says both the Philippines and Vietnam are seeking closer military ties with regional partners to strengthen their ability to manage their maritime rows with China.

But Hanoi has adopted a low-profile approach to managing tensions, the story says. It quotes Abdul Rahman Yaacob, a Southeast Asian specialist with the Lowy Institute, as saying Vietnamese vessels in the South China Sea had been harassed by Chinese vessels.

“However, unlike Manila, Hanoi is keeping a low profile and does not publicise these incidents,” Rahman said. “Vietnam’s policy is not to allow its disputes with China in the South China Sea to shape its otherwise healthy relations with its northern neighbours.”

Footnote: SCMP reported late on Thursday that To Lam, Vietnam’s Communist Party chief, would visit Beijing for three days from Sunday. It will be Lam’s first overseas trip in his new role as party general secretary.

Time of reckoning: the past is not past

A time of reckoning is coming in Bangladesh.

The past is not past – and ousted prime minister Sheik Hasina has a lot of answer for, as do her political party and those in society who helped her illegally to ascend to power, says an analysis in Dhaka’s The Daily Star.

The piece is written by retired brigadier general Shahedul Anam Khan, who is also a former associate editor of the paper.

The interim government, headed by Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus, face a huge task, the article says.

“Every single institution will have to be cleansed,” it says. “The detailed administration, the partisan Election Commission and the Anti-Corruption Commission…

“The police should be a major concern for the interim government. Hardly have I seen, if ever, the police being subject to so much public wrath.”

A piece distributed by Project Syndicate, the expert writers’ group, and written by economist N. Niaz Asadullah, says the student protests in Bangladesh grew into a Gen Z revolution that forced the country’s Iron Lady to flee.

“To restore Bangladesh’s democracy, the new government must tackle several changes simultaneously,” the article says – stabilising the economy, winning the confidence of business, restoring civil order and gaining support from international development banks.

“Yunus is well-equipped for the task.”

A commentary published in Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper raises concern about a dangerous political vacuum in Bangladesh, creating uncertainty about its democratic and economic future.

“This instability could have broader regional implications,” it says. “Technocrats typically struggle with navigating complex political landscapes, but Dr Yunus is no ordinary expert.”

A columnist in The Indian Express sees lessons for her country in the Bangladesh revolution. Author and journalist Tavleen Singh says she believes Hasina brought about her own downfall by showing complete disrespect for the fundamental rules of democracy.

In India, she says, the process of crushing dissidence has gathered speed.

“[A] lesson India can learn from Bangladesh is that no amount of economic transformation compensates for political autocracy,” she says.

“We are lucky that… elections remain free and fair.

“What we can learn from (Hasina’s) mistakes is that they cannot and must not be made in India.

“As the only democratic country surrounded by tyrants of one kind or another, India must remain a shining model of democracy.”

Imagine that: a boxer who hits too hard

The repugnant row at the Paris Olympics over female boxers Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting was seen as a gender issue and (incorrectly) as a transgender matter.

But there was a third lens through which to view the social-and-mainstream media war of words that erupted over accusations that the two were biological males and that is racism.

Khelif is Algerian and Lin is Taiwanese.

Retired Indian Army general Bhopinder Singh, writing in The Statesman newspaper, said a subliminal spirit of racism, white supremacy and disdain towards non-Westerners still afflicts many people.

“Shades of such bias and unsubstantiated accusations that have been the historical privilege of entitled Westerners surfaced in the Olympics arena,” he said. “Italy’s boxer Angela Carini withdrew from the bout against… Khelif after 46 seconds, claiming she had been hit abnormally hard…

“This… led to a barrage of vile accusations and online abuse.”

Singh recalled French tennis star Amelie Mauresmo had been the subject of inelegant whispers, with rival Martina Hingis calling her “half man”.

“The French had readily and rightly taken objection to unsubstantiated aspersions on one of their ‘own’,” he said.

“But perhaps affording a similar instinctive reaction to an Algerian in the Paris Olympics may have been too much to expect.

“The perceptions and dynamics of an Algerian in France comes with its load of wounded history that is enmeshed in colonialism, denialism and continuing racism.”