Lee’s successor coming into new view in Singapore

Finance Minister Lawrence Wong is among the frontrunners to take over when PM Lee Hsien Loong finally steps aside

In a nation reputed for its staid politics, the delivery of the annual budget statement is one of Singapore’s keynote political events. Amid the unveiling of the latest spending plan has been a back-of-mind concern that Singaporeans have not previously been accustomed to: a stalled prime ministerial leadership transition.

When Finance Minister Lawrence Wong announced the budget earlier this month, it was his first time doing so since a cabinet reshuffle last April put him in charge of the influential ministry, a portfolio held previously by deputy premier Heng Swee Keat, who had earlier that month stepped aside as prime minister-designate in a surprise announcement.

The appointment put 49-year-old Wong, already one of the most visible government leaders in his role as co-chairman of a multi-ministry task force in charge of Singapore’s Covid-19 response, among the frontrunners in a contest for which there is still no clear successor a decade since aging Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong first broached his plans to retire.

Apart from Wong, who on February 18 unveiled a spending plan designed to drum up revenue with a slew of tax hikes on higher income groups after two years of pandemic-era big-spending, local media and commentators see Education Minister Chan Chun Sing, 52, and Health Minister Ong Ye Kung, 52, as the top contenders to succeed Lee.

Read the full story at Asia Times.

Nile Bowie is a journalist and correspondent with the Asia Times covering current affairs in Singapore and Malaysia. He can be reached at nilebowie@gmail.com.

Muted ASEAN response to Russia’s brazen invasion

SE Asian states have been mostly reticent on Russia’s assault on Ukraine but no doubt quietly worry about the precedent being set

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “shock and awe” invasion of neighboring Ukraine, the biggest attack on a European state since World War II, has been met with condemnation from global democracies for the dangerous new precedent being set by Moscow.

Yet in Southeast Asia, a region where non-interference in the internal affairs of other nations is sacrosanct among democrats and autocrats alike, governments have been reticent to issue strong statements on the fast-moving developments in Eastern Europe as invading Russian forces attempt to encircle the Ukrainian capital of Kiev.

Singapore, both the region’s smallest state and its most outspoken thus far, sees the unfolding security crisis as a stark reminder that sovereignty, independence and adherence to international law are not to be taken for granted, with its foreign affairs ministry condemning “any unprovoked invasion of a sovereign country under any pretext.”

The city-state reiterated its stance that “the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine must be respected,” a position that it alone took in the region after the Kremlin recognized Donetsk and Luhansk, breakaway territories in eastern Ukraine held by pro-Russian separatists, as “independent” states on February 21.

Read the full story at Asia Times.

Nile Bowie is a journalist and correspondent with the Asia Times covering current affairs in Singapore and Malaysia. He can be reached at nilebowie@gmail.com.

Malaysian economy grows, but pandemic risks remain

With record infection numbers, authorities are not ready to end quarantines for travelers or reopen borders

Malaysia’s economy is firmly in recovery territory with full-year growth for 2021 having expanded within the official forecast range at 3.1% after a rebound in the final quarter of last year. But Southeast Asia’s third-largest economy isn’t out of the woods as inflationary headwinds threaten to stymie growth-spurring private consumption.

Authorities are also now battling a surge in Covid-19 cases fueled by the highly transmissible Omicron variant, which has driven up daily infections fivefold. The country reported a record high of 27,831 cases on February 16, adding to a cumulative total of more than three million since the pandemic started.

With a 78.8% full vaccination rate and approximately 99.6% of new cases suffering only asymptomatic or mild symptoms, health experts say Omicron’s milder impact should make the current wave more manageable than the deadly Delta variant that killed tens of thousands last year, resulting in one of Asia’s highest fatality and infection rates.

Weary of a viral resurgence, authorities are still not ready to end quarantine restrictions for vaccinated travelers or reopen borders, which have been closed since March 2020. But as Malaysia’s neighbors step up their easing of restrictions on inbound international travel, analysts say the government’s guarded stance risks hindering foreign investment.

Read the full story at Asia Times.

Nile Bowie is a journalist and correspondent with the Asia Times covering current affairs in Singapore and Malaysia. He can be reached at nilebowie@gmail.com.

Migrant labor abuse bouncing back on Malaysia

Malaysian rubber glove makers are trying to right past wrongs as the US bans their products on modern-day slavery allegations

Malaysia’s major medical glove makers control more than two-thirds of the global market for a product that has been in emergency high demand amid the Covid-19 pandemic. But many of the Malaysian companies that export personal protective equipment (PPE) to hospitals across the developed world now face modern-day slavery allegations for their widespread labor abuses.

Some of Malaysia’s biggest rubber glove and palm oil exporters have recently had their goods blacklisted by the United States in response to third-party complaints of human trafficking, exploitation and forced labor of migrant workers in factories and plantations.

Malaysia is heavily reliant on migrant workers who toil in low-paid, labor-intensive jobs in the manufacturing, agriculture, construction and services sectors that are typically shunned by locals. Around 2 million foreigners work in the country of 33 million, with those employed in the glove industry hailing mainly from Bangladesh and Nepal.

Now, glove makers are making unprecedented debt bondage repayments to tens of thousands of their current and former workers in response to a string of US Customs and Border Protection (CPB) bans on their products that have resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars worth of losses.

Read the full story at Asia Times.

Nile Bowie is a journalist and correspondent with the Asia Times covering current affairs in Singapore and Malaysia. He can be reached at nilebowie@gmail.com.