A conversation about exploitation and quick profits with Dave Welsh from the Solidarity Center.

Mae Sot, which sits on the Thai-Myanmar border, has a well-earned reputation as a gateway to Myanmar's civil war and the scam compounds run by human traffickers, which have been subjected to a Chinese-backed crackdown by Thai authorities over recent months. The frontier town is also a haven for refugees. Mai Sot has an organic population of about 40,000 but has attracted an additional 250,000 people from Myanmar, who have fled the country's bloody civil wars and are in dire need of humanitarian assistance. But according to Dave Welsh, country director for the Solidarity Center in Thailand and Myanmar, their sheer numbers have also attracted business, in particular, the garment industry and big brands, in search of the cheap labor they require to maximize profits. Aiding their quest is the security situation. Mae Sot, about 490 kilometers northwest of Bangkok, is hemmed in by mountains, tight Thai security, and strict visa regulations, which ensure that Myanmar’s refugees have little choice but to stay put and take local jobs for paltry sums. Welsh spoke with The Diplomat’s Luke Hunt about their plight and exploitation and his push for a platform that would enable workers to sue employers through Thai courts, a condition that unions want incorporated into future free trade agreements with the likes of the European Union. Mae Sot, he says, is the next ground zero for the region's labor struggle, adding that unions also want the 10 members of ASEAN to act as a trade bloc and enforce basic international workplace standards, particularly in the garment industry, which remains a key employer across the region. Welsh has worked with the Solidarity Center, an international labor rights organization based in Washington, D.C., with operations in 60 countries, for about two decades. He is a former country director in Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, and Bangladesh.

A conversation about the crisis of integrity with journalist Huw Watkin.

Tragedy and major events have dominated headlines across Southeast Asia and beyond in recent months, including the civil war and earthquake in Myanmar, half-century commemorations marking the fall of Indochina to communism, and elections in Australia and Singapore. Among the headline writers was veteran correspondent Huw Watkin, who began his career in journalism in Australia in the mid-1980s before moving to Asia where, over the course of three decades, he lived and worked in Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Hong Kong. He is also the principal of Drakon Associates, a research and investigation consultancy focusing on the Asia Pacific. Now based in Australia, he continues to travel widely and writes about a range of subjects and issues from across the region. Watkin returns to Beyond the Mekong for a conversation with The Diplomat’s Luke Hunt after they both traveled through Cambodia, Vietnam, and Thailand. He says the crisis of integrity, which he spoke about at length during a previous podcast, has escalated in the West with the return to office of U.S. President Donald Trump, but this has provoked a backlash, evident at recent elections in Australia and Canada. Rapidly developing nations in Southeast Asia, like Vietnam and Thailand, are also in focus with Asian and Western countries like Australia looking to bolster alternative trade destinations that bypass the U.S., as Trump imposes a new and harshly protectionist tariff regime.

A conversation with Cornell University's Magnus Fiskesjo.

[caption id="attachment_286625" align="alignright" width="301"] Magnus Fiskesjö, a lecturer in the Department of Anthropology at Cornell University. (Photo Supplied)[/caption] In late February, Thailand ignored international pleas for mercy and secretly deported at least 40 Uyghurs to China, prompting accusations that Bangkok had bowed to pressure from Beijing and eliciting an angry response from Washington. Their deportation ended 11 years of “inhumane” detention in Bangkok and dashed any hopes for political asylum and a fresh life abroad, which had reportedly been offered by several Western countries. The deportation was seen as a major embarrassment for Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, who had previously promised to adhere to international human rights law. It was a diplomatic slap in the face for U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who had urged Thailand not to deport the Uyghurs. Magnus Fiskesjö is a lecturer in the Department of Anthropology at Cornell University in New York and has followed the plight of the Uyghurs for many years – and since their deportation in the early hours of February 27. He spoke with The Diplomat’s Luke Hunt about how the Thais have used a Chinese-backed crackdown on criminal syndicates, who are still operating scam centers near their borders with Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar, to sneak the Uyghurs onto chartered flights destined for China Fiskesjö was educated in his native Sweden and at the University of Chicago, where he received a joint PhD in Anthropology and East Asian Languages and Civilizations in 2000. He previously worked at Sweden's embassies in Beijing and Tokyo, and served as director of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities in Stockholm. Since 2005, he has taught anthropology and Asian studies at Cornell. His research involves political anthropology, ethnic relations, and genocide, as well as archaeology and repatriation issues, mostly in East and Southeast Asia. He has authored several books, including "Stories from an Ancient Land," on the Wa people of the China-Myanmar frontier.

A conversation with author Will Chickering.

[caption id="attachment_286232" align="alignright" width="300"] William Chickering, the author of "A War of Their Own." (Photo Supplied)[/caption] In 1967, during the Vietnam War, William Chickering commanded a Mike Force battalion of Montagnards, highland tribesmen who were also members of a secret army, FULRO, the Front unifié de lutte des races opprimée. Known in English as the United Front for the Liberation of Oppressed Races, these hilltribe insurgents waged their own war of independence against North and South Vietnam, one that continued long after the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975. Montagnards, or Dega, a collective of term for the ethnic minorities of the Central Highlands, formed a fierce alliance with Chams to rid the highlands of Vietnamese of all political persuasions, who they viewed as colonialists. At one point it was believed that the Montagnards could determine the outcome of the war. As the 50th anniversary of the fall of Indochina to communism approaches, Chickering spoke with The Diplomat’s Luke Hunt, about his new book: "A War of Their Own: FULRO: The Other National Liberation Front, Vietnam 1955–75." He also speaks about his time in the military, his quest to understand FULRO in the decades since and the rise of ethno-nationalism among the culturally and linguistically distinct Dega, which include the Jarai, Rade, Bahnar, Koho, Mong, and Stieng, who wanted a country of their own. In their struggle, an important role was played by the Civilian Irregular Defense Group, a program that began in late 1961 under the direction of the CIA and U.S. Special Forces.

A conversation with director Don Millar.

From remote Cambodian villages to the world of elite art collectors and galleries in New York and London, the new film "Loot: A Story of Crime & Redemption" documents the theft of artifacts known as "blood antiquities" from in and around the temple ruins of Angkor Wat and Koh Ker during Cambodia's civil war. Director Don Millar spoke with The Diplomat’s Luke Hunt about a documentary that was three years in the making, after its screening at the 14th Cambodian International Film Festival in Phnom Penh. He credits people like American lawyer Tess Davis for pursuing the thieves and galleries who acquired Khmer artifacts and takes a deep dive into the life of British “collector” Doug Latchford, who was wanted for looting and trafficking by the United States before he died in 2020. Latchford, a muscleman who liked to be seen with the bodybuilders he oversaw as president of the Thailand Bodybuilding and Physique Sports Association, also took an intense dislike to anyone who challenged his motives. "Loot" documents how Latchford paid destitute locals a paltry sum to dismantle and deliver thousand-year-old stone carvings and statues of religious deities, before shipping them to Western galleries and auction houses, where they sold for millions of dollars. For Millar, it was a story that began with the Pandora Papers, produced by the Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which tied dozens of relics to Latchford and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, among other prominent institutions. "Loot" then follows U.S. law enforcement officers and the Cambodians who, as children and young men, were pressured and duped by Latchford, and their relentless quest to secure the return of these priceless statues back to Cambodia where a dedicated museum is set to be established.

A conversation with academic and researcher Bradley Murg.

[caption id="attachment_284703" align="alignright" width="300"] Photo by Luke Hunt.[/caption] By most definitions, Myanmar is a failed state. The military has lost control of its borders, it has absolute control over just 15 percent of the country and can not ensure supplies of food and water to the population nor provide healthcare or education across most of the country. A recent pre-election census could only cover about half the population. It was Tom Andrews, the U.N.’s special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, who first raised the prospect that Myanmar was a failed state, just over two years ago. Bradley Murg, a political scientist and affiliate fellow with the Pacific Forum, picks up where Andrews left off, noting that it is Max Weber, the German sociologist, and his concept of a state's “monopoly of violence” that remains key in understanding failed states. A “monopoly of violence” is the idea that the state is the sole legitimate user of physical force within a territory and where this monopoly collapses, chaos follows. A four-year civil war has shown the military in Myanmar lacks that characteristic as well. Yet, junta chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing still plans to hold elections by January, with the tepid support from some ASEAN neighbors, and China and Russia, lending some legitimacy to the military regime. Murg spoke with The Diplomat’s Luke Hunt about failed states and the planned elections but he is mindful that the Trump administration has not laid out its foreign policy objectives for the resource rich country – and what Washington decides could impact the course of events.

A conversation with James Gomez from the Asia Centre.

James Gomez, a political scientist and regional director of the Asia Centre, was recently guest editor for a special edition of the Kyoto Review of Southeast Asia, examining the critical challenges facing regional democracies. Entitled “Eroding Electoral Integrity: Reasons for Democratic Backsliding in Southeast Asia,” the issue focuses on Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, and Myanmar, where elections were held between 2020 and 2024. Gomez says that control over populations is the overriding factor for many governments, which simply have little regard for the popular vote, but they are dependent on economic growth and raising standards of living, which is proving difficult. Gomez spoke with The Diplomat’s Luke Hunt about the report and its case studies, which provide insights into how ruling elites have actively worked to reshape electoral systems and institutions to preserve their dominance – resulting in democratic regression across Southeast Asia. The report found that elections will increasingly revolve around information campaigns based on misinformation and disinformation, where political parties or coalitions in power and government are responsible for disseminating fake news about their opponents. Moving forward, Gomez says electorates are likely to witness increased online manipulation in the run-up, during and after elections in the form of foreign interference. He also speaks about the plight of youths and university systems that are not delivering promised jobs, an overreliance on tourism, a hand-out mentality for the poor and the heavy-handed attitudes of ruling elites when they respond to complaints from their people. The Kyoto Review of Southeast Asia is published in collaboration with the Centre for Southeast Asian Studies at Kyoto University.

Cracking down on the human traffickers; will Rakhine fall to the AA?

Paul Greening works as a political analyst and a specialist consultant covering the conflict in Myanmar from his base in Mae Sot on the Thai border and is a regular guest with Beyond the Mekong, sharing his insights into the troubled country. He spoke with The Diplomat’s Luke Hunt about Thailand’s crackdown on criminal syndicates who are running the human trafficking networks just across the border and the prospects for Myanmar’s embattled military rulers in western Rakhine state. The crackdown enabled hundreds of people to be repatriated home over the weekend, among them, 84 Indonesians were flown to Jakarta from Bangkok while 12 Malaysians and 119 Thais were repatriated home out of Cambodia. A deal to repatriate another 5,000 Chinese at the rate of 1,000 a week over the next five weeks has also been struck, at a meeting between Thai, Chinese and Myanmar junta officials over the weekend. Meanwhile, nearly all of Rakhine State has fallen to the Arakan Army (AA), which has redeployed around the state capital, Sittwe, and Greening says a long, drawn out and bloody battle for the city with a population of about 120,000 could be in the offing. Should they succeed, the AA will be in a position to establish its own sovereign territory, thus signaling a break-up of Myanmar, with other states potentially to follow. Importantly, the AA’s relationship with the National Unity Government (NUG) is far from perfect and the NUG, Greening says, needs to tread carefully if it is to remain the political umbrella for the 20-odd Ethnic Armed Organizations and the People’s Defense Force at war with the junta. He also says the AA has opened talks with India over trade and with China, given the fall of Sittwe would leave the army in control of Beijing’s 771km oil and gas pipeline, which traverses the state.

Why was the environmental journalist blocked from re-entering the country that he has called home since 2019?

Gerald Flynn, a British journalist and staff writer for the environmental news site Mongabay, has been banned from entering Cambodia, where he has reported on environmental issues for the last five years and spent two years of those years as president of the Overseas Press Club of Cambodia. Flynn, 33, left Cambodia via Siem Reap International Airport in the northwest on January 2 when immigration officials told him that he had entered the country on a “fake” visa. On January 5, he attempted to return but was denied entry and told that his name had been added to a blacklist on November 25, shortly after he appeared in a France24 documentary that was critical of the government’s environmental policies. Covering the environment is a sensitive issue in Cambodia, more so since the Cambodia Daily was closed in 2017 and the Phnom Penh Post sold off to government friendly interests the following year, due to tax disputes. In July, a Cambodian court sentenced 10 Mother Nature environmental activists to lengthy prison terms. In December, a Cambodian journalist who covered illegal logging was shot and died two days later from his wounds. Flynn, who holds a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and a Masters in International Relations from the University of Reading in the U.K., spoke with The Diplomat’s Luke Hunt about his ordeal and the issues confronting the journalists who cover Cambodia.

The administration's aid cuts, tariffs, and new China strategy are all set to further test ASEAN.

Since stepping into the White House barely two weeks ago, Donald Trump’s administration has lived up to expectations by slashing USAID programs, slapping tariffs on major trading partners, and issuing a list of demands for the rest of the world to follow. Within Southeast Asia, deep cuts to USAID have already resulted in the suspension or curtailing of a wide range of programs targeting land mine clearance, health services for refugees, and education, forcing the region's governments to reach into their own pockets if those humanitarian needs are to be met. Bart Édes, professor of practice at McGill University and distinguished fellow at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, spoke to The Diplomat’s Luke Hunt about the prospects for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and its 10 member states under Trump’s radically reshaped foreign policy. He says disruptions to supply chains should be expected, particularly among major exporters like Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines. “Thailand and the rest of the world are going to have to get used to the fact that Trump earnestly wants to bring manufacturing back to the U.S.,” he said. Control over the South China Sea will remain a top priority and war-torn Myanmar – where ASEAN has failed to have any meaningful impact – could also move into focus given the junta’s relationship with Beijing and the prospect of China putting boots on the ground. How smaller and less developed countries like Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam fare will depend upon their relationship with Beijing, as the big power rivalry between the U.S. and China intensifies, threatening to divide ASEAN even further.

Historian Henri Locard explains how Cambodia's communists differed from their counterparts in Vietnam.

[audio mp3="https://manage.thediplomat.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/thediplomat_2025-01-15-212351.mp3"][/audio] The fall of Indochina to communism in 1975 sharply changed the political dynamics of Southeast Asia within the framework of the Cold War. North Vietnam annexed the South, ending a decade of conflict but in Cambodia the arrival of the Khmer Rouge resulted in disaster. Pol Pot and his henchmen inflicted unprecedented carnage, genocide, forced labor camps, and sickness, claiming about 2 million lives, or about a third of this country’s population, after seizing Phnom Penh on April 17 and evacuating the capital. South Vietnam fell on April 30. The Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia in late 1978 ended Pol Pot's tyrannical rule but civil war continued for another two decades, despite the Paris Peace Accords and the 1992-93 United Nations peacekeeping operation that enabled Cambodia’s first democratic elections. At 85 years of age, French historian Henri Locard ranks among the best academics who have made Cambodia their life’s work. He first arrived here in 1964, and lived through some tumultuous years, authoring many books, including "Pol Pot’s Little Red Book." As the 50th anniversary of the Khmer Rouge takeover approaches, Locard spoke with The Diplomat’s Luke Hunt about the differences that separated the Vietnamese and Cambodian communists, including the importance of Nuon Chea who was "brother number two" to Pol Pot. He talks at length about the role former monarch Norodom Sihanouk played throughout the conflict, his relationships with neighboring countries and the United States, and the importance of Catholicism within the context of Vietnamese communism. Also important was Sihanouk’s relationship with friends like Nhiek Tioulong, the Cambodian politician who featured in many of his movies, and – like many of Sihanouk’s confidants – did not support communism. Since 2000, after retiring from the Université Lumière – Lyon 2, Locard has lived in Phnom Penh and worked as a consultant with the Khmer Rouge Tribunal. He is now a visiting professor at the Royal University of Phnom Penh lecturing in history.

An interview with musicians Andrea Rubbio and Virginia Bones.

Andrea Rubbio and Virginia Bones are gaining international recognition as the indie band Geography of the Moon, which they formed as a duet eight years ago in Britain before moving to Cambodia and then took their distinctive sound to the rest of East Asia. Their death-pop, post-punk recordings incorporate elements of blues with surf-guitar riffs reminiscent of Frank Zappa that initially attracted the expat scene but are now widely played on commercial radio in Japan and Thailand – and in Europe and even South America. Rubbio, a Scotsman of Italian descent, and Bones, from France, spoke with The Diplomat’s Luke Hunt about their music, the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic, and their re-emergence onto the world’s rock scene with a batch of new songs, including "Sometimes" and "Feels Good to Feel Good." Both are classically trained musicians. Rubbio studied as a conductor and can play up to five instruments and recently added the sitar, a traditional Indian string instrument, to his list. And their success has enabled them to work as full-time musicians. They also talk about life on the road as a married couple and the highs and lows of playing more than a thousand gigs in venues big and small while recording, marketing and distributing music in a digital world from "one of our homes" in Cambodia.

From “Tomb Raider” to “Banged Up Abroad” and “37 Heavens.”

Nick Ray has spent almost three decades in Cambodia where he established Hanuman Films with his wife Kulikar Sotho and they have since worked on productions big and small with Hollywood stars, television actors and presenters. They have ranged from Angelina Jolie and Daniel Craig in “Tomb Raider,” released in 2001, to more recent work with Guy Pearce, Jeremy Clarkson and Gordon Ramsay. Hanuman has also produced its own award-winning films like “The Last Reel.” Ray spoke with The Diplomat’s Luke Hunt about his family’s production company which includes location scouting, filming and services for National Geographic, Netflix, Paramount and the BBC. He also urges authorities in Phnom Penh to be less sensitive about content and what foreign directors make – and instead take advantage of this country’s colonial architecture and natural beauty to promote Cambodia as a destination for filmmakers. Competition remains fierce but Ray says budgets appear to be steady for the coming year with film, documentaries, and television series in the planning. Major productions underway include “37 Heavens,” which offers a Hollywood account of an official visit to Cambodia and Angkor Wat in late 1967 by America’s former first lady Jackie Kennedy and her “brief but intense love affair” with a British diplomat, Lord David Harlech. Other productions in the works include further installments of “Banged Up Abroad” – a long running program about crime and foreigners in Southeast Asia – which uses local expats as characters and has turned more than a few into minor celebrities.  There’s also a Netflix production slated for release next year about the journalists who scoured Cambodia for the British pop star and sex offender Gary Glitter after he moved here in the early 2000s. Glitter was eventually convicted of pedophilia.

Chinese plans for Myanmar could have far reaching consequences in 2025.

Michael Martin, adjunct fellow with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., returns to Beyond the Mekong amid speculation that China and Myanmar's military junta are preparing to establish a “joint security company” to protect Beijing’s interests in the war-torn country. The junta has reportedly formed a committee to prepare an MoU for establishing a security company, which could be dispatched into Rakhine State, where fighting this year has been intense and the U.N. has warned that two million people are facing “the dire prospect of famine." Rakhine is also the starting point of Beijing’s 771-kilometer oil and gas pipelines, which stretches across the country and are a crucial energy source for the Chinese economy. A joint security company to protect the corridor could include Chinese boots on the ground and the sale of weapons and special equipment. It’s a strategy with the potential to reshape the military equation after the junta suffered dramatic territorial losses over the past year to anti-regime forces, consisting of ethnic armed organizations, the People’s Defense Force and the National Unity Government in exile. Martin has spent two decades as a specialist policy advisor on Myanmar alongside China, Hong Kong, and Vietnam. His work includes a 15-year tenure with the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress, where he provided political and economic analysis. He spoke with The Diplomat’s Luke Hunt about Chinese intentions for Myanmar and the need to protect its interests in the country, regardless of which side emerges victorious in a bloody civil war that has lasted almost four years and claimed an estimated 50,000 lives.

Is China preparing to put boots on the ground to protect its investments in the country?

Paul Greening, who has worked as a political analyst and a specialist consultant covering the conflict in Myanmar, says anti-regime forces are rife with speculation that China is preparing to send its own troops and security guards to protect its investments in the strife-torn country. That would include Chinese soldiers working alongside contractors, including Russia’s PMC Wagner Group, whose priority would be to secure control of the 771-kilometer-long oil and gas pipelines that run from Myanmar’s coast into China's Yunnan Province. The Diplomat has spoken with several other sources who also said China was preparing to put boots on the ground in Myanmar alongside contractors, including the Wagner Group. One military analyst said this could tip the balance of the civil war, depending on how the Arakan Army responds in Rakhine State. In recent months, Rakhine has seen perhaps the worst of the fighting in Myanmar since the military ousted an elected government in early 2021 and tipped the country into a bloody civil war. Greening said speculation about China’s plans for Myanmar intensified after junta chief Min Aung Hlaing met with Chinese officials earlier this month and amid reports that Peng Daxun, the head of the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, has been placed under house arrest in Yunnan. He also told The Diplomat’s Luke Hunt that heavy fighting was expected to continue into the dry season, but plans by ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) to take Mandalay by the end of the year now appear unlikely. He said EAOs and allied People’s Defense Forces have surrounded the city but fear the carnage that could be inflicted upon the civilian population if they were to mount a full-scale invasion of the former royal capital, once known as the seat of kings. Instead, Greening says, rebels will lay siege and choke off supply routes in and out of Mandalay while consolidating their positions in their respective states and mounting attacks into the military’s stronghold in Myanmar's central dry zone,

The veteran Asia correspondent is expecting another “carnival of chaos” after Trump returns to the White House.

Foreign relations was never a strong point for Donald Trump and his "America first" policy, and his return to the White House signals a return of China policy to center stage, forcing smaller countries to play a wily game if they are to win his attention. That means a further loss of relevance for multilateralism and trade blocs like the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), with Trump’s first two years in office expected to follow his first term, which was characterized as a “Carnival of Chaos” with decisions enforced in an ad hoc manner by presidential decree. As Keith Richburg, a long-standing East Asian correspondent for The Washington Post, puts it, Trump’s transactional style of negotiating, coupled with a dislike of multilateralism and alliances, will see him making deals aimed at benefiting his constituencies. That includes threats to impose 60 percent tariffs on Chinese goods, which could prove to be an ambit claim for the agenda Trump intends to pursue after he is sworn in on January 20. Richburg, who is also a member of the editorial board at the Washington Post, spoke with The Diplomat’s Luke Hunt about how Trump won back the White House, despite his criminal conviction and the polls which suggested a much tighter race. He also discusses the early hints about what will come next from Indonesia’s recently elected president, Prabowo Subianto, who is currently in the middle of his first overseas tour, to the United States, China, Britain, and Brazil. Of all the ASEAN countries, Indonesia’s relationship with Trump could prove the most interesting given its size and regional influence. Richburg said Jakarta has too often underplayed its role in international affairs, but now might be the time to step up to the plate.

A trip down the 1970s hippie-trail led the American author to a lifelong relationship with the country and its people.

American author Melody Mociulski spent 13 years of her retirement working in Myanmar and Afghanistan providing prosthetics, microfinance, and education for young girls, a decision that can be traced backed to 1974, when she traveled through Myanmar for the first time. Those experiences are behind her latest book "Intrepid Paths – Burma," essentially a collection of short stories about women in Myanmar and the lives they lead as the country transitioned from a closed society to a limited form of democracy in 2010. She also witnessed the coup d’etat in 2021, which ended Myanmar’s democratic progress and tipped the country back into a bloody civil war with Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing now at the helm amid a litany of well-documented atrocities. Mociulski spoke with The Diplomat’s Luke Hunt about her role as the Southeast Asia Program Director for the NGO Clear Path International and how she founded another organization to improve the lives of women and girls in Burma through education and literacy. She says Myanmar remains a society where the rules and norms of conduct are stacked heavily against girls, and empowering women through initiatives like microfinance is seen as a threat by the junta, “which just makes them angrier." In a final twist of fate, which led to the completion of "Intrepid Paths – Burma," Mociulski talks about being falsely diagnosed with a terminal lung disease and having to reconcile her fate before finding out the doctors were wrong.

A logistics specialist discusses economics, poverty and the nuts and bolts of climate change in Southeast Asia.

Why do Southeast Asian farmers get paid so little? How can people respond to the immediate impact of climate change? What must governments in ASEAN do if they’re serious about cross-border trade? Why is Cambodia building a 180-kilometer canal at a cost of $1.7 billion? Chris Catto-Smith is a logistics specialist, a career which began with the Royal Australian Air Force in the 1970s. He moved to the private sector and then took his experience to Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands encouraging disadvantaged communities to develop value chains and new routes to markets. He spoke with The Diplomat’s Luke Hunt in Melbourne, where he explained the issues confronting farmers and fisherfolk who are struggling to make ends meet and discussed what needs to be done in regards to the devastating impacts of climate change. Catto-Smith’s business principles are aligned with Corporate Social Responsibility, also known as CSR, which allows him to utilize consulting income to offset pro-bono development work. It’s a new model which allows him the freedom to select and support projects of his choice. Within the region where he works, climate change and severe storm damage have emerged as immediate problems, particularly in Vietnam, where he spent the COVID-19 years. During the pandemic, he began rethinking how to deal with the major issues confronting Southeast Asia – and getting goods to market. That includes the provision of cold storage, transport, clean water, sanitation, and health and education facilities, as well as the logistics needed in remote areas, where crops are grown but basic necessities are wanting and the infrastructure and post-harvest skills needed for the market are lacking.

What happened in Myawaddy as the junta saddles up with China.

Jason Tower is the country director of the Burma Program at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), where he closely follows Myanmar’s civil war, human trafficking, and the industrialization of scam compounds, which have spread across Southeast Asia in recent years. He holds unique insights into what is happening on the ground in Myanmar and has authored several reports for USIP over recent years, which include dire warnings about the conflict and the impact this is having on the civilian population. A veteran with two decades of experience in regional security, Tower also sounded the alarm on the growth of human trafficking and scam compounds in Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos, which are "rapidly evolving into the most powerful criminal network of the modern era.” Tower spoke with The Diplomat’s Luke Hunt at length about the fall of Myawaddy to anti-regime forces in April and what actually happened afterwards in regards to the Karen National Union and the local Border Force Guard and why many in the rebel camps felt betrayed. He also talks about the spectacular failures of the military on the battlefield and China’s expanding role in the conflict as it shores up its own financial and strategic interests – including its oil and gas pipeline that cuts across the country – by drawing ever closer to the junta and its leader Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing. This includes the complex relationship between the Arakan Army and the Rohingya in Rakhine state where the fighting has been brutal in recent months with the military desperately trying to hang on to what few areas it still controls.

A new book by Leslie Lopez details the unfolding of one of the world's largest financial scandals.

The scandal surrounding One Malaysia Development Berhad – or 1MDB – tore Malaysia’s financial system to its core and reverberated in financial markets around the world for a decade, resulting in the jailing of former Prime Minister Najib Razak. Many questions about the scandal remain unanswered, including who else was responsible for the billions of dollars that were siphoned out of the country. It’s a subject that Malaysian journalist, Leslie Lopez, has dealt with in his first book, "The Siege Within." 1MDB remains a tale of cover-ups and deceit that roped in the glitterati in Hollywood, investment bankers in New York and the luxury yacht set in the Arabian Sea. Lopez, a multi-award-winning journalist, says it’s a story that still requires closure and that too many people in power would prefer to see the biggest financial scandal in Malaysian history to simply go away. That would also enable those who contributed to the scandal to carry on untarnished, including former central bank governor Zeti Aziz and the infamous Malaysian businessman Low Taek Jho who remains an international fugitive. "The Siege Within" also paints long-serving former prime minister Mahathir Mohamed as the chief architect of a political system that paved the way for a criminal such as Najib “to lie, cheat and steal his way to power” through a system that protected him from scrutiny and prosecution. A fully independent commission of inquiry with legal backing would help and "The Siege Within" would be a must read for prosecutors, based on an archive built by Lopez ever since 1MDB was launched as an investment fund by Najib in 2009. Lopez spoke with The Diplomat’s Luke Hunt about his latest work and the issues still confronting Malaysia – which includes a lack of separation of powers and the absolute, unchecked authority his country’s prime ministers have enjoyed over the decades. "The Siege Within" is also earning terrific reviews and despite Malaysia’s tricky media landscape, it is available in all major bookstores.