Escape from Thailand

Published on Aug 6, 2012 by Luke Hunt

FAR EAST CORRESPONDENT — Thailand is known as the Land of Smiles. In 2009, I spent a hot December day in the Land of Smiles, in jail. Initially, this seemed mildly amusing and novel—Thai jail, the brown jumpsuits, the rattle of shackles. I assumed I’d be there five minutes. I passed the rest of the day (not smiling!) in alternating states of resignation, panic, and fury, slouched against the wall with a ration of pork skin on rice, or at peak agitation, with my face pressed between the cell bars for fresh air and a glimpse of my lawyer, Ronnachai, who was supposed to be bailing me out. I was charged with criminal defamation, a consequence of reporting in the ....

PNG has a PM

Published on Aug 6, 2012 by Luke Hunt

FAR EAST CORRESPONDENT — After months of political wrangling and a constitutional crisis dating back a year, Papua New Guinea finally has a new Prime Minister. Peter O’Neill was sworn in by the country’s Governor-General Sir Michael Ogio after he waselected on the floor of the Parliament with 94 votes to 12. A final bid by O’Neill’s chief nemesis — his former deputy prime minister and probable opposition leader Belden Namah – failed despite his insistence that he and not O’Neill would form a government. Read more in The Diplomat. .

Thein Sein’s One Term

Published on Aug 2, 2012 by Luke Hunt

FAR EAST CORRESPONDENT — Comprehending the political reforms in Burma over the past year can be overwhelming. Most observers have welcomed the opening-up of the country by President Thein Sein while others are warning it would be more prudent to wait before dispatching the accolades. The realities are that if an election was held tomorrow the opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi would win with a landslide while punters would be hard pressed to find anyone who believes Burma’s military, which is unfairly mandated with 25 percent of the seats in parliament, would simply handover power. Read more in The Diplomat. .

Battle for the Mekong

Published on Aug 2, 2012 by Luke Hunt

FAR EAST CORRESPONDENT — The Mekong, a precious jewel of Southeast Asia, has become a critical battleground between hydropower dam projects and the survival of the world’s greatest freshwater fisheries. The future of this 4,880 km (3032 miles) long river may well be decided by what happens to the Xayaburi mega-dam project in Laos, the first of a cascade of 11 dam projects on the lower Mekong. Read more from Tom Fawthrop in The Diplomat. .

Indonesia Looks Back

Published on Aug 1, 2012 by Luke Hunt

FAR EAST CORRESPONDENT — Before Indonesia’s former President Suharto was forced to stand down in 1998, many Western and local media described him as his country’s first democratically elected leader. This was done simply because most journalists were scared of him and his nepotistic regime. Once gone, and no longer a threat, correspondents immediately changed their tune and referred to the nation’s accepted face of democracy as the “former dictator Suharto” or “the strongman”. It was an inglorious flip-flop but one that recognized the realities of his 32-year rule. Fourteen years since his forced retirement, a landmark investigation has determined just how mean Suharto could be, finding he had committed a “gross violation of human rights” when conducting the communist....