Anti-Government Protests in South East Asian Countries

March 21, 2014 March 21, 2014

South-East Asia is the part of Asian continent which generally perceived as south to China and East to India. It comprises several small countries such as Cambodia, Laos, Brunei, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, and Singapore etc. This part of the world is most famous for its tourist destinations owing to its favourable climatic conditions and suitable hospitality. Many of the UNESO world heritage sites are situated in South-East Asia. However, some of the countries such as Malaysia, Cambodia, and Thailand etc are facing severe anti-government protests recently on the issues ranging from price hike to labour rights and reforms.

The protest against the government has become a regular phenomenon in the countries of East Asia in recent times. In Cambodia the protest started with the demand of raising the minimum wages and turned violent as the government forces fired upon the protestors. Similarly in Malaysia, the protestors came to the streets on the issue of rising petrol prices. In Thailand the protest started to remove unpopular government. The Indonesia is facing the similar situation where the incumbent president is facing the rise of another leader to take its place. The protests though are different in nature, extent and implications, they have certain commonalities.

Two of the more prominent anti-government protests are being waged at Cambodia and Thailand. Although the inherent issues for the protest in both the countries are different, the consequences of these are surely going to affect the entire region politically and in any other ways such as in trade and investment etc.

In Cambodia, the protests trace its root to the garment factory workers and unions conducting a nationwide campaign to put forward their demands to raise the monthly minimum wages from the current $80/month to $160/month. The Cambodian garment sector is a huge $5 billion Industry and many of the world’s leading clothing brands get their supply from Cambodia which at present is having one of the lowest minimum wage rates in Asia-Pacific region.

Taking advantage of already brewing dissatisfaction against the government, the opposition in Cambodia started rallying against the incumbent government which has taken an ugly turn following government forces hitting back to the protestors. In fact the strike of garment workers complimented with opposition rally has become one of the largest street protests in Cambodia in recent decades. The protestors and the opposition have also received the support of certain land owners who lost their land due to government policy of redistributing the land to private developers since early 2000s.

Thailand, on the other hand, is facing similar protests from the opposition which is hell bent on overthrowing the democratically elected government. The continuous rallies have forced the government to impose a 60 days emergency in the capital and the surrounding areas.

The consequence of the persist disturbances in south-east countries are becoming visible. The foreign investors in case of Thailand are increasingly getting annoyed with the ongoing political turmoil. The stock market has fallen down substantially and the tourism is also getting badly affected. The capital city of Bangkok may not see many companies relocating there and various infrastructure projects in pipeline are reported to be delayed.

Similarly for the Cambodia the garment industry has been the victim of the political turmoil and speculations are in the air of relocating the manufacturing units from Cambodia to other places. The overall growth rate of South-East Asia is speculated to be affected and the Asian Development Bank in its recent forecast has predicted the growth rate of the region to be around 5.2 percent only.

The political volatility in South-East countries is threatening to jeopardise the overall political stability of the region which may also affect negatively the ASEAN target of building a strong ASEAN economic community by the end of 2015. It surely is a sign of the worry not only for the region but for India as well due to the possibility of the having a negative effect it may have on our focussed approach (through ‘Look East’ Policy) of including the region and our efforts to build a strong relationship with ASEAN.

References

« Previous Post Next Post »