https://www.scmp.com/rss/327157/feed Lynn Lee was the Post's Asia Editor from 2020-2022. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Indonesia and Singapore’s landmark agreements this week on airspace boundaries, extradition and defence cooperation have been lauded as a mark of mature and strong bilateral relations. The deals, signed by heavyweight ministers from both sides and witnessed by both countries’ leaders, bring to a close years of sometimes heated public wrangling. Indonesian politicians have from time to time accused Singapore of dragging its feet on an extradition treaty, alleging that it is enjoying the benefits... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3164933/indonesia-singapore-deals-milestone-asean-neighbours-navigating?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3164933/indonesia-singapore-deals-milestone-asean-neighbours-navigating?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 28 Jan 2022 01:00:25 +0000 A recent study on household budgets in Singapore found that a family of four – consisting of partnered parents, a preteen and a teenager – would need at least S$6,426 (HK$37,151, US$4,770) a month for a basic standard of living. This was more than just having access to housing, food and clothing, said the six researchers – most of whom are affiliated with Singapore’s top two universities – but one that “enables a sense of belonging, respect, security and independence” and includes the option to... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3153222/can-hong-kong-employers-help-low-income-workers-have-life-worth?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3153222/can-hong-kong-employers-help-low-income-workers-have-life-worth?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 22 Oct 2021 01:00:25 +0000 When US President Joe Biden announced sweeping measures earlier this month to mandate Covid-19 vaccinations for around 100 million people, he said the country’s “patience” had worn thin. An estimated 80 million Americans who can get vaccinated still refuse to do so. “Your refusal has cost all of us,” Biden said, referring to the rise in cases and deaths from the more-virulent Delta variant. The same frustration is playing out in Singapore, an island slightly smaller than New York City, where... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3149789/asia-doesnt-need-rush-broad-vaccine-mandates-us?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3149789/asia-doesnt-need-rush-broad-vaccine-mandates-us?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 24 Sep 2021 01:00:20 +0000 In societies with strong and effective law enforcement, and where the #MeToo movement has empowered female survivors of sexual assault, it’s sad that some are choosing not to speak up. In Hong Kong, victim-blaming and fear of “second trauma” are among the key reasons women stay silent forever or delay seeking help from NGOs and the police. RainLily, Hong Kong’s first sexual violence crisis centre, found that between 2000 and 2018, about 53 per cent of those who sought help for sexual violence... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3143960/even-metoo-survivors-struggle-speak-about-sexual-assault?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3143960/even-metoo-survivors-struggle-speak-about-sexual-assault?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 06 Aug 2021 02:00:11 +0000 Hong Kong’s move to cut the hotel quarantine time for most vaccinated travellers to seven days has been met with relief, and praised as a long-awaited reward for those who dutifully signed up for jabs. It is also a step towards reopening, and comes as fellow financial hub Singapore draws up a road map for living “normally” with Covid-19 amid mass vaccinations. If Hong Kong’s plan goes ahead on June 30, despite naysayers worried about the threat of the Delta variant, the city – where only close... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3138569/time-hong-kong-make-clear-its-plan-living-covid-19?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3138569/time-hong-kong-make-clear-its-plan-living-covid-19?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 25 Jun 2021 01:00:07 +0000 Various reasons have been given for the slow uptake of Covid-19 vaccines in Hong Kong, where only about 15 per cent of residents have taken at least one shot despite the government’s vaccination programme being open to all with sufficient doses to go around. One reason, say observers, is mistrust in government attributed to deep-seated grievances towards Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s administration. To some, being vaccinated is akin to supporting the government and thus endorsing Lam’s... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3133310/hong-kongs-wait-and-see-vaccine-sceptics-should-look-struggles?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3133310/hong-kongs-wait-and-see-vaccine-sceptics-should-look-struggles?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 14 May 2021 00:00:16 +0000 Hong Kong and Singapore will launch their long-postponed travel bubble from May 26, allowing quarantine-free entry as both sides have made sufficient progress in containing their Covid-19 outbreaks to deem it safe enough for their residents.   Announcing the arrangements on Monday, officials said Hong Kong would still require its residents, as an added safety precaution, to have received their second vaccine dose two weeks before departing for Singapore, which would not impose a similar rule on... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3131053/coronavirus-hong-kong-singapore-travel-bubble?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3131053/coronavirus-hong-kong-singapore-travel-bubble?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 26 Apr 2021 03:34:17 +0000 Indonesia’s two terror attacks this week resulted in limited casualties, but they point to an increasingly alarming trend. While women have always been crucial to terrorist networks, mostly behind the scenes, they are taking a leading role in extremist causes and in some cases supplanting men as terror masterminds’ frontliners of choice. After a recently married couple – the woman being four months pregnant – unleashed a pressure-cooker bomb at a cathedral in Makassar on Palm Sunday, killing... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3127985/indonesia-needs-more-women-counterterrorism-malaysias-normah?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3127985/indonesia-needs-more-women-counterterrorism-malaysias-normah?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 02 Apr 2021 03:00:15 +0000 Singapore’s “Year of Celebrating SG Women” – a national effort in 2021 to review issues affecting women and spark a mindset change in society on values such as gender equality and respect – has not started on a promising note. When a Singaporean woman took to Facebook earlier this month to describe how a man had made a sexual comment to her during a conversation in a professional setting, the disdainful – and downright misogynistic – responses from male social media users came in fast and... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3122214/celebrate-women-singapore-must-change-how-men-think-about-sexual?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3122214/celebrate-women-singapore-must-change-how-men-think-about-sexual?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 19 Feb 2021 00:00:11 +0000 First-world problems, perhaps, but on the seventh day of my three-week mandatory hotel quarantine in Hong Kong, the toilet flush stopped working. The concierge of my hotel in Aberdeen, which my husband and I chose for the view and a window that could open, apologised over WhatsApp: the Water Supplies Department had not notified them in advance that flushing services would be temporarily suspended to repair a water main. In a fit of incredulity, I rang the government’s Covid-19 hotline. I... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3119760/coronavirus-why-worlds-longest-hotel-quarantine?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3119760/coronavirus-why-worlds-longest-hotel-quarantine?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 30 Jan 2021 05:00:11 +0000 When Indonesian President Joko Widodo announced last month that Indonesians would get Covid-19 vaccines for free, he called on his cabinet ministers to “prioritise and reallocate other budgets … so there is no reason for the public not to get vaccines”. Like Southeast Asia’s largest economy – which also has the highest number of cases among Asean countries – governments worldwide are digging deep into the national purse to secure one or several of the seven vaccines currently available for... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3116044/asias-covid-19-vaccine-hopes-hinge-good-governance-and-countering?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3116044/asias-covid-19-vaccine-hopes-hinge-good-governance-and-countering?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 01 Jan 2021 02:00:14 +0000 Why has a government bill pitched as necessary to job creation in Indonesia – where only about 40 per cent of people have formal employment – sparked mass demonstrations in the last two weeks? That surely must be the question on the minds of those outside Southeast Asia’s largest economy who have seen thousands of people, many of them young men, rallying on the streets at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic with police firing tear gas to disperse them. Why Indonesians are protesting the... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3105639/indonesias-omnibus-law-protests-show-jokowi-cant-just-focus?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3105639/indonesias-omnibus-law-protests-show-jokowi-cant-just-focus?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 16 Oct 2020 03:00:15 +0000 Indonesia and China marked 70 years of diplomatic relations earlier this year, but it has not been a smooth friendship. It is only in the past two decades, after the fall of dictator Suharto in 1998, that relations have warmed, alongside Indonesia’s moves to remove discriminatory policies towards its tiny ethnic Chinese population. Bilateral trade, investment and tourism have increased correspondingly. China is Indonesia’s largest trading partner and is technically its top source of foreign... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3100122/china-and-indonesia-delicate-balancing-act-better-ties?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3100122/china-and-indonesia-delicate-balancing-act-better-ties?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 04 Sep 2020 04:00:16 +0000 As Singapore marked racial harmony day earlier this week, a local publisher said it would stop distributing and selling a Chinese-language children’s book that described a school bully named Mao Mao as being “dark-skinned with a head of oily curls”, while depicting other characters as fair-skinned. Marshall Cavendish Education said it had no intention to “produce content that promotes discrimination in any way”. Its response came after a Facebook user asked what “possessed” the publisher to... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3094525/indonesia-hong-kong-singapore-ongoing-battle-against-racist?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3094525/indonesia-hong-kong-singapore-ongoing-battle-against-racist?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 24 Jul 2020 06:01:33 +0000 Chinese officials said a further decline in new coronavirus infections on Tuesday suggested the epidemic was stabilising on the mainland. There were 125 new cases – down from 202 recorded a day earlier – and the lowest number since China’s health authority began publishing nationwide data in January. The National Health Commission said there were also 31 new fatalities, bringing the death toll to 2,943. With 114 of the latest cases occurring in Hubei, where the disease first emerged, there was... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3064695/coronavirus-who-sends-aid-iran-while-china-stabilises-lowest-new?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3064695/coronavirus-who-sends-aid-iran-while-china-stabilises-lowest-new?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 03 Mar 2020 01:03:56 +0000 More than 3,000 people have died from Covid-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, the vast majority in China where the outbreak began. The grim milestone was reached with 42 new deaths in the mainland, as of Sunday, bringing China’s fatalities to 2,912. China’s National Health Commission also reported 202 new infections on Monday, the lowest number of daily new cases since January 22, the day before emergency measures – including placing entire cities in lockdown – were introduced. The... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3064541/coronavirus-global-death-toll-exceeds-3000-china-reports-42-more?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3064541/coronavirus-global-death-toll-exceeds-3000-china-reports-42-more?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 02 Mar 2020 01:23:44 +0000 Even if the United States and China reach a trade deal, the lack of “strategic trust” between the two powers could still result in a fragmented global economy, Singapore’s trade and industry minister warned on Monday. Chan Chun Sing said countries around the world would try to “de-risk their economies” by making supply chains operate in silos to hedge against any further falling-out between the economic giants. “That is the most dangerous trajectory for the world’s economy,” Chan told American... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/3025411/us-china-trust-needed-more-trade-deal-stop-break-world?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/3025411/us-china-trust-needed-more-trade-deal-stop-break-world?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 02 Sep 2019 14:43:52 +0000 Fresh from winning a four-year legal wrangle with one of Canada’s largest property developers, Singapore tycoon Oei Hong Leong said he was glad justice had been served - but felt compelled to clarify that the case had nothing to do with Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing. Oei, who at 71 is worth an estimated US$1.5 billion according to this year’s Forbes billionaires list, said he had fielded questions about the ownership of Concord Pacific Acquisitions, part of Concord Pacific Group, that sued... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3019935/singapore-tycoon-oei-hong-leong-says-canada-property-lawsuit?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3019935/singapore-tycoon-oei-hong-leong-says-canada-property-lawsuit?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 24 Jul 2019 10:32:14 +0000 Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has accused Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of supporting genocide because of comments Lee made about Vietnam’s 1978 invasion of Cambodia which ended Pol Pot’s genocidal “killing fields” regime. Hun Sen’s comments marked an escalation in an ill-tempered exchange between Southeast Asian nations, stirring animosity and renewed debate about the legacy of war in the region and, in particular, the ousting of the Khmer Rouge regime and subsequent... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3013336/did-vietnam-invade-cambodia-or-save-it-singapore-pm-lee-hsien?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3013336/did-vietnam-invade-cambodia-or-save-it-singapore-pm-lee-hsien?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 06 Jun 2019 04:30:15 +0000 Indonesia has found China’s openness to its feedback on improving the Belt and Road Initiative highly encouraging” and is forecasting multibillion-dollar investments by Chinese firms in four regions earmarked as future growth drivers, the country’s investment minister Tom Lembong said. Lembong, who heads the Indonesian Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM), said one suggestion he gave Beijing was to involve professionals who could structure fair and financially viable deals for its ambitious plan... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/3008036/indonesia-forecasts-multibillion-dollar-belt-and-road?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/3008036/indonesia-forecasts-multibillion-dollar-belt-and-road?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 29 Apr 2019 00:30:19 +0000 Malaysia’s resumption of a billion-dollar Chinese-backed rail project and its enthusiasm for telecoms group Huawei underscores its interest in doing deals with China that promote fair trade and job creation, Trade Minister Darell Leiking said on Saturday. Leiking said his government’s request after coming to power last May for a review of the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) project price had been, on occasion, misrepresented as distaste for the Belt and Road Initiative, China’s ambitious plan to... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3007959/malaysias-revived-deals-china-proves-its-support-belt-and-road?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3007959/malaysias-revived-deals-china-proves-its-support-belt-and-road?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 27 Apr 2019 11:47:50 +0000 Even as the Philippines signs billions of dollars worth of agreements with its top trading partner China to boost bilateral ties, Manila will not back down from insisting on respect for its sovereignty, Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said on Thursday. “The President, many Filipinos and myself would make sure there is mutual respect for sovereignty. That is what we should maintain as good friends,” Lopez told the South China Morning Post in an exclusive interview. He added he was confident any... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/3007711/philippines-open-business-china-stands-firm-insisting-beijing?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/3007711/philippines-open-business-china-stands-firm-insisting-beijing?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 25 Apr 2019 13:40:22 +0000 If Prabowo Subianto becomes Indonesia’s next president, his government’s review of foreign investments – including the US$6 billion China-funded high-speed rail project – will not turn into a blame game, his pick for vice-president Sandiaga Uno has pledged. Indonesia is hungry for more domestic and foreign investments, especially from China, which is already a “huge investor”, to create quality jobs that can boost incomes and prosperity. “We would focus more on investments we can do together... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3006043/prabowo-will-focus-chinese-investments-create-jobs-indonesians?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3006043/prabowo-will-focus-chinese-investments-create-jobs-indonesians?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 13 Apr 2019 12:55:28 +0000 Indonesian vice-presidential candidate Sandiaga Uno believes he and his running mate Prabowo Subianto are the right team to unite a multicultural country divided by religious identity politics. Asked if the Muslim conservatives and hardliners mobilising support for him and Prabowo, 67, were a divisive force, the tycoon and investor, 49, said the pair were uniting Indonesians “from all walks of life” and religions by promising to focus on what voters wanted – a better economy. “We are talking to... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3005985/indonesia-election-not-about-religion-says-sandiaga-uno-its?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3005985/indonesia-election-not-about-religion-says-sandiaga-uno-its?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 13 Apr 2019 00:30:12 +0000 The American man being pursued by authorities for leaking data on thousands of people with HIV is a “pathological liar”, the Singapore government said on Wednesday, as it shot down Mikhy Farrera Brochez’s new allegations of abuse and denial of medical treatment while imprisoned in the city state. Brochez, who was deported from Singapore in April after completing his jail term, claimed in a series of Facebook posts on Wednesday morning that he had been tortured by Singapore police and gang-raped... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/2186040/american-man-miky-farrera-brochez-who-leaked-hiv-data?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/2186040/american-man-miky-farrera-brochez-who-leaked-hiv-data?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 13 Feb 2019 13:25:56 +0000 AS THE STRAINS of Taiwanese star Teresa Teng’s hit song The Moon Represents My Heart filled a ballroom in North Jakarta last month, an array of mobile phones were trained on the singer, Titiek Suharto. Titiek, the daughter of deposed Indonesian dictator Suharto, crooned soulfully in shaky Mandarin. Looking on, beaming, was her ex-husband Prabowo Subianto, the former general who is making his second bid to become the country’s president. The pair were at a dinner organised by ethnic Chinese... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2180716/indonesias-election-showdown-prabowo-woos-ethnic-chinese-jokowi?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2180716/indonesias-election-showdown-prabowo-woos-ethnic-chinese-jokowi?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 06 Jan 2019 03:20:19 +0000 “You want to know the story of this?” Goh Chok Tong says as he plucks at the grey fabric on his chest. It is not often that a former prime minister volunteers to share his fashion choices, so you say yes, perhaps a little too enthusiastically. He had worn a similar top in black at a public event the previous evening, getting people talking. So, yes, how did Goh, a Chinese Singaporean, end up wearing a Nehru (or is it a Modi) vest? The garment is a sleeveless jacket that keeps him warm against... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2171445/three-lees-too-much-goh-chok-tong-leading-singapore-after-lee?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2171445/three-lees-too-much-goh-chok-tong-leading-singapore-after-lee?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 02 Nov 2018 23:30:45 +0000 The core team of Singapore’s new generation of leaders will become evident next Sunday at the ruling People’s Action Party’s (PAP) internal elections, with the identity of the country’s fourth prime minister emerging soon after. The city state’s former prime minister, Goh Chok Tong, said the election of new leaders from the PAP’s fourth-generation (4G) to its central executive committee (CEC) on November 11 meant the issue of succession would be addressed by the end of the year as he had... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2171364/singapores-political-succession-watch-out-big-reveal-when-ruling?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2171364/singapores-political-succession-watch-out-big-reveal-when-ruling?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 02 Nov 2018 11:45:30 +0000