http://siamnews.net Asia News with a Business Perspective Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:24:03 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://siamnews.net/asean/14444-malaysia-rivals-in-war-of-chinese-words/ http://siamnews.net/asean/14444-malaysia-rivals-in-war-of-chinese-words/#comments Wed, 25 Jan 2012 02:51:38 +0000 East Asia Forum http://siamnews.net/news/14444-malaysia-rivals-in-war-of-chinese-words/
The vote is likely to be among the most fiercely contested in the country’s history and could come any time between now and 2013. Mr. Najib is wooing voters by pledging more reforms to roll-back the affirmative-action policies that for decades have afforded a competitive advantage to the country’s majority ethnic-Malay community in a bid to help them catch up with Malaysia’s Chinese, who make up a quarter of the population. Many Malaysian Chinese, though, along with some of the country’s ethnic-Indian population, view Mr. Anwar’s opposition alliance as a better bet for bringing change and expanding the country’s economy, making the community a key battleground in the election fight. Mr. Najib already is an avid Internet user, employing both Facebook and especially Twitter to connect with potential voters. His aides say switching to Mandarin is a natural extension of that. In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Najib described how he had to move with the times, even if some of his more conservative advisers look askance at his willingness to go online. Last week he celebrated getting his 400,000 th follower on Twitter by—what else—tweeting about it. Political analysts expect Mr. Anwar, also a compulsive tweeter, to ramp up his campaign, too, after the Kuala Lumpur’s High Court on Jan. 9 acquitted him of charges that he had broken Malaysia’s strict sodomy laws – a charge which Mr. Anwar says was politically motivated. Mr. Najib denies having anything to do with Mr. Anwar’s sodomy case.

State prosecutors appealed the verdict late last week. In the Facebook face-off, though, Mr. Anwar could well retain the upper hand. His key political partner is the predominantly ethnic-Chinese based Democratic Action Party. ]]> http://siamnews.net/asean/14444-malaysia-rivals-in-war-of-chinese-words/feed/ 0 http://siamnews.net/asean/14407-vietnam-the-beginning-of-another-economic-transformation/ http://siamnews.net/asean/14407-vietnam-the-beginning-of-another-economic-transformation/#comments Fri, 20 Jan 2012 15:00:48 +0000 East Asia Forum http://siamnews.net/news/14407-vietnam-the-beginning-of-another-economic-transformation/ http://siamnews.net/asean/14407-vietnam-the-beginning-of-another-economic-transformation/feed/ 0 http://siamnews.net/news/14404-immigrants-learn-english-with-their-children/ http://siamnews.net/news/14404-immigrants-learn-english-with-their-children/#comments Fri, 20 Jan 2012 07:05:55 +0000 voanews http://siamnews.net/news/14404-immigrants-learn-english-with-their-children/ http://siamnews.net/news/14404-immigrants-learn-english-with-their-children/feed/ 0 http://siamnews.net/asean/14415-indonesia-ratings-boost-comes-despite-continued-graft-concerns/ http://siamnews.net/asean/14415-indonesia-ratings-boost-comes-despite-continued-graft-concerns/#comments Thu, 19 Jan 2012 22:44:18 +0000 thailand-business-news http://siamnews.net/news/14415-indonesia-ratings-boost-comes-despite-continued-graft-concerns/
The Moody’s rating moved Indonesia to investment grade for the first time since 1997. On the corruption front, despite evidence of progress, some experts say graft remains widespread, a perception supported by public opinion.

There is evidence of significant progress in policing. In a seven-year time span, the nation’s national anti-corruption agency known as the Corruption Eradication Commission, or KPK, has achieved a 100% conviction rate in 86 cases of bribery relating to public procurement and budgets, according to a 2011 Emory International Law Review paper (pdf) by Joanna MacMillan, an associate at McCormick Barstow LLP. Continue reading on Corruption Currents (requires subscription). ]]> http://siamnews.net/asean/14415-indonesia-ratings-boost-comes-despite-continued-graft-concerns/feed/ 0 http://siamnews.net/asean/14394-fitch-indonesia-has-spending-problem/ http://siamnews.net/asean/14394-fitch-indonesia-has-spending-problem/#comments Tue, 17 Jan 2012 01:53:28 +0000 East Asia Forum http://siamnews.net/news/14394-fitch-indonesia-has-spending-problem/
That was one of the contrarian messages from a presentation Tuesday by Fitch Ratings, the international debt rater that lifted Indonesia’s credit rating above junk for the first time in 14 years last month.  If it wants to accelerate growth, Southeast Asia’s largest economy has to get more aggressive about spending on its infrastructure, said Philip McNicholas, director of Fitch’s sovereign ratings for the Asia-Pacific region. “If its budget deficit does blow out, we would not necessarily view that as unfavorable,” as long as the spending was on things that could put Indonesia on a “high-growth path,” he said. Few countries have experienced the devastation that can come from too much dependence on debt and foreign capital in the way Indonesia did in the 1990s, when the Asian financial crisis sent the country’s economy reeling.

That experience, and the painful rebuilding, has made Indonesia more cautious than most for much of the last decade. Its public debt to gross domestic product ratio (more than 100% for many countries today) came down sharply from around 90% in 2000 to 25% today. As a result, the country has the opposite spending problem now – it spends too little, say some economists. While its growth rate, which has averaged more than 6% in recent years, is stretching its outdated roads, ports and power plants, year after year it fails to meet its spending targets for new infrastructure. In the meantime, its roads are getting more crowded and companies are complaining of costly delays at ports and airports.

The number of cars on Indonesia’s roads has jumped from around 15 per kilometer at the turn of the century to more than 40 today, Fitch said. Including two-wheelers, the number of vehicles has tripled to 150 per kilometer. It isn’t often that a cautious rating agency tells a country to stop worrying about debt, but Indonesia needs to live a little, said Mr. McNicholas. “It’s a pretty rare situation outside of the higher-rated countries,” he said. ]]> http://siamnews.net/asean/14394-fitch-indonesia-has-spending-problem/feed/ 0 http://siamnews.net/asean/14385-french-foreign-minister-meets-burmese-opposition-figure/ http://siamnews.net/asean/14385-french-foreign-minister-meets-burmese-opposition-figure/#comments Sun, 15 Jan 2012 07:11:10 +0000 voanews http://siamnews.net/news/14385-french-foreign-minister-meets-burmese-opposition-figure/ http://siamnews.net/asean/14385-french-foreign-minister-meets-burmese-opposition-figure/feed/ 0 http://siamnews.net/news/14363-economic-life-slowly-returns-to-indonesias-mount-merapi/ http://siamnews.net/news/14363-economic-life-slowly-returns-to-indonesias-mount-merapi/#comments Tue, 10 Jan 2012 18:18:32 +0000 voanews http://siamnews.net/news/14363-economic-life-slowly-returns-to-indonesias-mount-merapi/ http://siamnews.net/news/14363-economic-life-slowly-returns-to-indonesias-mount-merapi/feed/ 0 http://siamnews.net/asean/14375-whats-next-for-anwars-accuser/ http://siamnews.net/asean/14375-whats-next-for-anwars-accuser/#comments Tue, 10 Jan 2012 17:32:19 +0000 Lakshmi Balasubramanian http://siamnews.net/news/14375-whats-next-for-anwars-accuser/
Saiful couldn’t be reached for comment. But he suggested on his blog Monday that Judge Zabadin Diah’s verdict might not be the end of the two-year drama that has riveted this country of 28 million people. “My family and I hope the prosecution will bring this case to the Appeals Court,” Mr.

Saiful wrote. Prosecutors have roughly two weeks to decide whether to appeal Mr. Anwar’s acquittal.

So far they are not saying what they intend to do. Mr.

Saiful’s family, though, are adamant that Mr. Anwar really did sodomize the young man and that it wasn’t a political conspiracy to destroy a strengthening opposition movement, as Mr. Anwar says (and which the government denies).

There is enough uncertainty around the case to suggest that those Malaysians who already believe the opposition leader is guilty may not change their minds. Justice Zabidin ruled Monday that Mr.

Saiful’s testimony was uncorroborated. He said the court was reluctant to convict Mr. Anwar based on Mr.

Saiful’s word alone, and that the CSI-style DNA evidence presented by the prosecution was flawed and insufficient to support a conviction. Mr. Anwar’s previous sodomy conviction in 1999, which was overturned in 2004, was based on witness testimony. In addition, three of Mr. Anwar’s political foes last year released a video tape of a man whom they say is Mr. Anwar having sex with a prostitute. Mr. Anwar and his family deny he is the man in the tape, but the lingering controversy suggests that Malaysia’s political dramas might continue for months yet. Mr.

Saiful might not disappear from the public eye as easily as he might hope. Mr.

Saiful worked briefly for the Malaysian opposition’s election campaign in 2008. Volunteers such as Mr.

Saiful helped make a crucial difference.

The opposition won over a third of the seats in Malaysia’s Parliament, casting a chill over the ruling National Front coalition that has governed Malaysia since independence from Britain in 1957 and inspiring talk of a “political tsunami” in this closely controlled nation.

Then Mr.

Saiful’s life took a radically different direction. He visited Najib Razak, then deputy prime minister, and told him that Mr. Anwar had sodomized him at a Kuala Lumpur condominium complex. Mr. Najib said he told Mr.

Saiful to do what he felt was right – and Mr.

Saiful soon filed a police complaint against Mr. Anwar, setting in motion a dramatic chain of events in which he testified in court that, among other things, the 64-year-old opposition leader roughly sodomized him before treating him to coffee and curry pastries. Mr.

Saiful stayed away from commenting on the verdict. Instead, he logged onto Twitter to say that he would “remain calm, continue praying and be patient.” - Celine Fernandez in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this article. ]]> http://siamnews.net/asean/14375-whats-next-for-anwars-accuser/feed/ 0 http://siamnews.net/asean/14340-britain-to-maintain-sanctions-until-burma-frees-political-prisoners/ http://siamnews.net/asean/14340-britain-to-maintain-sanctions-until-burma-frees-political-prisoners/#comments Fri, 06 Jan 2012 04:49:51 +0000 voanews http://siamnews.net/news/14340-britain-to-maintain-sanctions-until-burma-frees-political-prisoners/ http://siamnews.net/asean/14340-britain-to-maintain-sanctions-until-burma-frees-political-prisoners/feed/ 0 http://siamnews.net/asean/14350-anz-agrees-sale-of-9-6-stake-in-vietnams-sacombank/ http://siamnews.net/asean/14350-anz-agrees-sale-of-9-6-stake-in-vietnams-sacombank/#comments Thu, 05 Jan 2012 23:50:09 +0000 Vietnam News http://siamnews.net/news/14350-anz-agrees-sale-of-9-6-stake-in-vietnams-sacombank/ http://siamnews.net/asean/14350-anz-agrees-sale-of-9-6-stake-in-vietnams-sacombank/feed/ 0