As regular listeners to the Edict will know, I reckon Australians should know more about the other nations in our region. So our special guest today is journalist Erin Cook, who covers South-East Asia, and we’re talking Indonesia and Thailand. Mostly.
Erin produces the excellent newsletter Dari Mulut ke Mulut, an English-language summary of what’s happening in the region.
In this episode we talk about Indonesia’s soon-to-be president Prabowo Subianto and the nation’s plans to move the capital from Jakarta to the new city of Nusantara. We attempt to give you an introduction to the complicated and often amusing politics of Thailand. And we take a side journey into the politics of Myanmar and two varieties of popular music.
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Episode Links
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News and analysis from Southeast Asia three times a week.
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Erin Cook's newsletter.
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Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guinea... With over 280 million people, Indonesia is the world's fourth-most-populous country and the most populous Muslim-majority country. Java, the world's most populous island, is home to more than half of the country's population.
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Joko Widodo (Indonesian: [d??k? wid?d?] né Mulyono; born 21 June 1961), popularly known as Jokowi, is an Indonesian politician and businessman who is the seventh and current president of Indonesia. A member of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), he was the country's first president to not have emerged from the country's political or military elite. He previously served as governor of Jakarta from 2012 to 2014 and mayor of Surakarta from 2005 to 2012.
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Prabowo Subianto Djojohadikusumo (EYD: Prabowo Subianto Joyohadikusumo, born 17 October 1951) is an Indonesian politician, businessman and retired honorary army general who is the president-elect of Indonesia and current Minister of Defense. Prabowo will be Indonesia's third president who had military background after Suharto and Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY). In 1998, he was discharged from the military and subsequently banned from entering the United States for allegedly committing human rights abuses.
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[15 February 2024] Prabowo Subianto, a former army general with a controversial past, has claimed victory in Indonesia’s presidential elections. Unofficial results show Prabowo Subianto winning nearly 60% of the vote although the final count is still to be officially confirmed
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The May 1998 Indonesia riots (Indonesian: Kerusuhan Mei 1998), also known colloquially as the 1998 tragedy (Tragedi 1998) or simply the 98 event (Peristiwa 98), were incidents of mass violence, revolutionary protests, and civil unrest in Indonesia in May 1998, many of which were targeted at Indonesia's ethnic Chinese population. The events were mainly in the cities of Medan, Jakarta and Surakarta, with small incidents in other regions of the country.
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[19 September 2024] From a stunted democracy, to a human capital deficit, and too much reliance on China, Prabowo Subianto has been handed a curate’s egg, writes Greg Earl for his “Economic diplomacy” column from the ANU Indonesia Update.
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[16 September 2024] Unlike outgoing president Joko Widodo (Jokowi), whose administration was primarily focused on domestic development, Prabowo is keen to bolster Indonesia’s military capabilities and geopolitical footprint. He is expected to be an ‘orthodox innovator’, seeking to make gradual adjustments while deepening and expanding partnerships.
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The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, commonly abbreviated as ASEAN, is a political and economic union of 10 states in Southeast Asia.
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Myanmar (formerly Burma) (Burmese: ??????) operates de jure as a unitary assembly-independent presidential republic under its 2008 constitution. On 1 February 2021, Myanmar's military took over the government in a coup, causing ongoing anti-coup protests.
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Since 1999, Indonesia has had a multi-party system. In the four legislative elections since the fall of the New Order regime, no political party has won an overall majority of seats, resulting in coalition governments.
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We follow the Indonesian War of Independence (1945-1949) year by year, step-by-step.
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A true masterpiece of narrative history and the definitive story of the revolution that ignited the end of colonialism worldwide
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[3 August 2024] Jakarta is the fastest sinking city in the world, and the Indonesian government is moving its capital 800 miles away from the island of Java. Nusantara is set to open next month but with investors pulling out, project heads resigning and little complete, the city’s fate remains uncertain. WSJ explores how the promised capital risks squandering Indonesia’s funds and damaging the country’s reputation.
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[13 August 2018] The Indonesian capital of Jakarta is home to 10 million people but it is also one of the fastest-sinking cities in the world. If this goes unchecked, parts of the megacity could be entirely submerged by 2050, say researchers. Is it too late?
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Inside Out is a 2015 American animated coming-of-age film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures... Inside Out follows the inner workings of the mind of Riley, a young girl who adapts to her family's relocation as five personified emotions administer her thoughts and actions.
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[10 September 2024] Pope Francis received a rapturous welcome from the tiny Southeast Asian nation of East Timor, one of the world’s most Catholic countries, where almost half the population turned out for an open-air Mass on Tuesday.
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[9 October 2024] The northern Thai city of Chiang Mai is cleaning up after floods over the weekend. The waters are now receding, but cities further south – including the capital Bangkok -- are preparing flood defences. Al Jazeera's Tony Cheng reports from Nonthaburi, north of the Capital.
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[6 October 2024] Two elephants from a sanctuary in Chiang Mai also died after they were swept away.
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Paetongtarn Shinawatra RThBh (Thai: ???????? ???????; RTGS: Phaethongthan Chinnawat; pronounced [p????.t?????.t???n t???n.n?.wát]; born 21 August 1986), nicknamed Ung Ing (Thai: ????????), is a Thai politician and businesswoman who has served as 31st prime minister of Thailand since 16 August 2024 and as leader of the Pheu Thai Party since 2023. A member of the Shinawatra family, she is the youngest daughter of Thaksin Shinawatra (prime minister from 2001 to 2006) and a niece of Yingluck Shinawatra (prime minister from 2011 to 2014). Paetongtarn became the youngest prime minister of Thailand and is the second woman to hold the position, following her aunt.
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Thaksin Shinawatra (born 26 July 1949) is a Thai politician and businessman who served as the 23rd prime minister of Thailand from 2001 to 2006.
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Yingluck Shinawatra MPCh MWM (Thai: ?????????? ???????, RTGS: Yinglak Chinnawat, pronounced [jî?.lák t???n.n?.wát]; born 21 June 1967) is a Thai businesswoman, politician and a member of the Pheu Thai Party who became the 28th prime minister of Thailand following the 2011 election. Yingluck was Thailand's first female prime minister and its youngest in over 60 years. She was removed from office on 7 May 2014 by a Constitutional Court decision.
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The 6 October 1976 massacre, also known as the 6 October event (Thai: ????????? 6 ???? RTGS: het kan hok tula) in Thailand, was a violent crackdown by Thai police and lynching by right-wing paramilitaries and bystanders against leftist protesters who had occupied Bangkok's Thammasat University and the adjacent Sanam Luang, on 6 October 1976.
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In early 2009 the supporters of Thaksin—popularly called the “red shirts” for the colour of their uniforms and mainly rural-based and from northern and northeastern Thailand but also including urban-dwelling democracy activists—formed a populist movement called the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD).
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[13 July 2012] The BBC looks at two bitterly divided camps that have for years driven sporadic protests in Thailand - the red-shirts and the yellow-shirts.
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The Lan Na Kingdom or The Kingdom of Lanna (Northern Thai: ?????????????????, pronounced [???.n??.t??k lá?n n??], "Kingdom of a Million Rice Fields"; Thai: ??????????????, RTGS: Anachak Lan Na, pronounced [???.n??.t?àk lá?n n??]), also known as Lannathai, and most commonly called Lanna or Lanna Kingdom, was an Indianized state[broken anchor] centered in present-day Northern Thailand from the 13th to the 18th centuries.
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Everyday Popular Culture, Philip Cornwel-Smith text & photographs John Goss photographs.
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The Future Forward Party (FFP; Thai: ?????????????, RTGS: Phak Anakhot Mai, pronounced [p?ák ??.n??.k?ót màj]; otherwise known as 'New Future Party') was a Thai political party from March 2018 to February 2020.
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The People's Party (PP; Thai: ???????????, RTGS: Phak Prachachon) is the successor party of the former Move Forward Party following its dissolution by the Constitutional Court of Thailand on 7 August 2024.
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General elections were held in Thailand on 14 May 2023 to elect 500 members of the House of Representatives. The Move Forward Party, led by Pita Limjaroenrat, surprised analysts by winning the most seats, followed by fellow opposition party Pheu Thai who had won the most seats in the 2011 and 2019 elections. Turnout was a record 75.22%.
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In Thailand, lèse-majesté is a crime according to Section 112 of the Thai Criminal Code. It is illegal to defame, insult, or threaten any member of the Thai royal family (king, queen, heir-apparent, heir-presumptive, or regent). Modern Thai lèse-majesté law has been on the statute books since 1908. Thailand is the only constitutional monarchy to have strengthened its lèse-majesté law since World War II.
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Bhumibol Adulyadej (5 December 1927 – 13 October 2016), posthumously conferred with the title King Bhumibol the Great, was the ninth king of Thailand from the Chakri dynasty, titled Rama IX, from 1946 until his death in 2016. His reign of 70 years and 126 days is the longest of any Thai monarch, the longest of an independent Asian sovereign and the third longest verified reign of any monarch of a sovereign state in history after Louis XIV and Elizabeth II.
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Vajiralongkorn (born 28 July 1952) is King of Thailand since 2016. He is the tenth monarch of Thailand from the Chakri dynasty, styled as Rama X.
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Ananda Mahidol[b] (20 September 1925 – 9 June 1946) was the eighth king of Siam (later Thailand) from the Chakri dynasty, titled Rama VIII. At the time he was recognised as king by the National Assembly in March 1935, he was a nine-year-old boy living in Switzerland. He returned to Thailand in December 1945, but six months later, in June 1946, he was found shot dead in his bed. Although at first thought to have been an accident, his death was ruled a murder by medical examiners, and three royal aides were later executed following very irregular trials. The mysterious circumstances surrounding his death have been the subject of much controversy.
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The King Never Smiles is an unauthorized biography of Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX) by Paul M. Handley, a freelance journalist who lived and worked as a foreign correspondent in Thailand. It is published by Yale University Press and was released in 2006. The book was banned in Thailand before publication, and the Thai authorities have blocked local access to websites advertising the book
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Bhumibol Adulyadej (1927–2016), the late King of Thailand, had written more than 49 songs. His music is known in Thai as "Phleng Phra Ratcha Niphon" (Thai: ????????????????; lit. "Royal Composition"). He was influenced by jazz, but also wrote music in other genre such as waltz, march, and classical music.
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Dangdut (/d????du?t/) is a genre of Indonesian folk music that is partly derived and fused from Hindustani, Arabic and to lesser extent, Malay, Javanese, Sundanese and local folk music. Dangdut is the most popular musical genre in Indonesia and very popular in other Maritime Southeast Asian countries as well because of its melodious instrumentation and vocals. Dangdut features a tabla and gendang beat.
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Luk thung, or Phleng luk thung (Thai: ??????? or ???????????, pronounced [p?l??? lû?k t?û?], 'child of the field song'), often known as Thai country music, is an acculturated song genre that emerged after World War II in the central region of Thailand. The genre was derived from phleng Thai sakon, and developed in the early-20th century.
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Dangdut’s catchy, synth-laden rhythms have dominated local dance floors for decades. Now the genre is finding followers far and wide as a new generation of artists embrace a fresh gamut of pop, hip-hop, reggae and house beats via a selection of energising dangdut earworms. Our editors regularly update this playlist—if you hear something you like, add it to your library.
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Nothing beats a good old-fashioned backyard bash complete with a luk thung soundtrack. The Thai country music genre always makes for a jumping jamboree with its beat-heavy sounds and fun lyrics, and this collection of top tier artists like Pee Saderd and Kowtip Thidahdin serve up some of the most infectious tracks the style has to offer.
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