In Asia: Weekly Insight and Features from Asia

This week, President-elect Obama announced his national security team, and with last week’s terrorist attacks in Mumbai, strengthening bilateral and regional relationships in South Asia will be among their most urgent priorities. In The Asia Foundation’s recently released recommendations for the in-coming administration, America’s Role in Asia, former Ambassador Karl Inderfurth provides recommendations for U.S. policy with India, while CSIS scholar Teresita Schaffer weighs in on Pakistan and Dr. Raja Mohan gives insight on what the South Asian region wants to see from Obama’s team.

On December 2, 2008, Thailand’s Constitutional Court ruled to disband three core parties in Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat’s beleaguered ruling coalition government:  the People Power Party (PPP), Chat Thai (CT), and Matchima Thipataya (MT). The Court also revoked the voting rights of the executives of the three parties for five years, effectively banning them from politics for the duration.  Among those executives is Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat.  Although PPP spokesmen have protested that the Court refused to hear over 200 witnesses in the defense of the three parties, the testimony of witnesses would have had little bearing on the Court’s final decisions.

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For one week, a group of anti-government protestors, known as the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD), occupied Thailand’s two major airports in Bangkok. The PAD’s major demand was for Prime Minister Somchai Wonsawat and his cabinet to resign. The taking over of the airport wreaked havoc for over 100,000 passengers trying to leave the country — not to mention the thousands of others, be they Thais or foreigners, who were trying to fly into Thailand. 

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Meet Buddhist Monks, Ride an Elephant

Budget travelers in search of inexpensive Southeast Asian vacation packages take notice: the Constitutional Court of Thailand has disbanded the ruling government party and barred the current Prime Minister, Somchai Wongsawat, from participating in Thai politics for five years.  In short, the occupation of Thailand’s Suvarnabhumi International airport by anti-government protestors is likely to end soon: you will once again be able to visit Thailand and expect to return home on schedule.   And, even better, in an effort to recoup what the Bank of Thailand believes will be close to U.S. $4 billion in lost tourism revenue, you can expect steep discounts.

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Where is Jonas Burgos?  Where is Jaime Balao?  Who killed Rolando Antolihao and Danny Qualbar?

One might better ask, “Who are these four men?” and find an easier answer.

Jonas Burgos was the son of the late Philippine publisher-activist Joe Burgos, who dedicated his life to teaching farmers natural farming techniques. At noon on April 28, 2007, he was abducted by two unidentified men in a mall in Quezon City. The Burgos family has been searching for him since, but his whereabouts remain a mystery.

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Six months ago, a major earthquake struck central China, leaving nearly 88,000 people dead or missing, injuring hundreds of thousands, and leaving over five million homeless. The quake, with a magnitude of 8.0, was centered in Wenchuan County in Sichuan Province, and was felt as far away as Beijing, Bangkok, and Hanoi. In the days and weeks afterwards, Asia Foundation staff worked together to share program ideas and identify main areas to focus relief efforts on urgent and medium-term needs primarily in Sichuan and Gansu provinces.

Flattened homes in front of the Yingfeng Chemical Factory, which also had a large ammonia leak after the earthquake

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