2019/79, 24 September 2019
On 23 September, large student demonstrations took place in cities and towns in Indonesia. In some cities, including Jakarta, more demonstrations were planned for 24 September. In most cases, the demonstrations were orderly, with clashes resulting in injuries only in Bandung. (In Papua on the same day, there were demonstrations on the racism issue where 20 people died.) The biggest of the demonstrations appear to have been in Yogyakarta, where an estimated 15,000 students marched to a location where a student protester was shot during anti-Suharto demonstrations in 1998.
2019/78, 23 September 2019
On 17 September 2019, 144 military members of the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, the Union Parliament of Myanmar, submitted a bill on constitutional amendment calculated to disqualify Daw Aung San Suu Kyi from continuing to hold the post of foreign minister. More importantly, the bill aims to produce a nativist right-wing narrative and to serve as the basis for an attack on current political office-holders in the run-up to the general elections due in November 2020. It will also enable attacks to those who hold political office in Myanmar in the future.
After just two months in office, the government of Thai Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha faces its first major political challenge. Parliament will convene next week, on Wednesday 18 September, for a general debate. The date itself has been arrived at only after much tussling between the government and the opposition.
2019/73, 4 September 2019
“Vietnam’s Infrastructure Development Dilemma: The China Factor” by Le Hong Hiep