SBC: March 2013

Mar 31, 2013

Malaysia - M'sia parliament dissolution likely only after mid-April

The dissolution of parliament to pave the way for Malaysia's general election looks likely to take place only after the second week of April as PM Najib Tun Razak is scheduled to perform the umrah or minor haj next week.

Sources said the Prime Minister is expected to depart for Saudi Arabia on April 3 after chairing the next cabinet meeting and taking part in a cycling event in Putrajaya.

He is expected to return two days later.

For Muslims, the umrah is sometimes performed to seek guidance before making major decisions and for Najib, it has been an annual ritual.

Speculation has been growing that the Prime Minister, who will mark his fourth year in office next Wednesday, may stretch close to the full five-year term of the current parliament, which expires on April 30, before calling for polls.

“We are ready but Barisan component parties and machinery can always use any extra time available to ensure that we are as prepared as possible for the general election,” said Barisan Nasional multi-party coalition information chief Datuk Ahmad Maslan.

The state legislature of the Malaysian state of Negri Sembilan expired on Thursday and all but three states will follow if the Prime Minister decides to allow parliament to run its full term.

Penang's term expires on May 2, and Kedah and Terengganu both expire on May 6.

Over the past few days, the Prime Minister has been chairing a series of meetings with Barisan component party leaders and the coalition's state leaders to finalise the candidate list.

In addition to performing the umrah, it is understood that Najib could also make a quick trip to Brunei on April 24 to attend the ASEAN Summit.

No Malaysian Prime Minister has ever given the meeting a miss, as ASEAN is the cornerstone of the country's foreign policy.

Mazwin Nik Anis and Razak Ahmad

The Star

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Indonesia - Jakarta churches hold mass at Presidential palace, demand tolerance

Members of a number of churches in Greater Jakarta will hold their Easter mass in front of the Presidential Palace in Central Jakarta today and call for an end to their suffering.

Members of the Yasmin Indonesian Christian Church (GKI) in Bogor, the Batak Protestant Church (HKBP) Taman Sari and HKBP Filadelfia in Bekasi will present an Easter egg to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono today as a symbol of religious freedom, GKI Yasmin spokesman Bona Sigalingging said.

Bona said they will give the president a big Easter egg ornamented with colourful paper in the hope that the government would protect all citizens, irrespective of religion and faith.

“We will keep praying in front of the palace as long as the state lets the majority discriminate against us and close our churches,” he said.

The GKI Yasmin congregation has conducted their Sunday service in front of the palace every two weeks for the last three years in their relentless effort to reclaim their church since it was sealed by the Bogor mayor in 2010. Although they have won their case at the Supreme Court, Bogor administration refuses to open the church in the Taman Yasmin housing complex.

The HKBP Filadelfia church, meanwhile, is facing violent resistance from residents and Islamic organisations despite having the required permit. The police have repeatedly failed to protect the congregation from harassment.

And yet another church recently fell victim to intolerance that observers say is the direct result of the absence of a strong government.

Last week, a HKBP church in Taman Sari, Bekasi, was demolished by the administration because the church did not have a building permit.

Reverend Advent Leonard Nababan of HKBP in Taman Sari, said his church would hold Easter mass both in the front yard of their church and the Presidential Palace.

Leonard said the congregation hoped that the government would pay attention to them.

“We hope the president will be willing to go to the field and see what has happened to his people,” he said.

HKBP Filadelfia lawyer Judianto Simanjuntak said the service on Sunday did not defend only besieged Christian churches but all minority groups oppressed by majorities. He said HKBP Filadelfia was currently using another HKBP church in Duren Jaya to conduct their services and would continue to fight for their rights.

Indonesia is under the international spotlight for its failure to protect religious minorities.

New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged President Yudhoyono to order the heads of local administrations to stop tearing down houses of worship and annul discriminative regulations on houses of worships in Indonesia.

Brad Adams, the executive director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia Division, said in a press release that the demolition of HKBP church in Taman Sari by the Bekasi administration did not only violate religious freedoms but would also bring about sectarian conflicts.

The president needed to pay compensation to the congregation and publicly order all local administrations to stop demolishing houses of worships, he added.

The group recorded that more than 30 churches in Java and Sumatra and a mosque in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, were shut down from 2010 to 2012.

According to the group, Christian congregations in Indonesia find getting permits to build churches difficult, which forces them to build the churches illegally.

More than 20 HKBP churches in Bekasi were built without permits.

The Jakarta Post

Thailand - From rock to religion

Former Silly Fools frontman Veerachon 'To' Satthaying explains why he left the music business to concentrate on his religion

Once the idol of many teenagers in Thailand, former Silly Fools and Hangman front man Veerachon "To" Satthaying has renounced rock for religion and today dedicates himself to Islam.

"Music is 'haraam' [sinful] in Islam," says the 38-year-old, chatting with The Nation at the White Channel, a 24-hour Islamic satellite television station where he now works.

Under Islamic rules, singing, coupled with music, is sinful while singing without musical accompaniment is permitted under certain circumstances and with particular conditions.

The lyrics of songs must be pure and innocent, and must keep within the moral bounds set by Islamic teachings. And lyrics that are erotic and licentious and/or sung in a licentious manner, are forbidden.

Veerachon is not a convert but a Muslim by birth. The first of three children born to a doctor and poet, he was given the Islamic name 'Firdaus', meaning heaven. He had always loved music, and almost 20 years ago, was singing on stage at a pub when he caught the ear of Thai rock outfit Silly Fools' founder and guitarist Jakarin "Ton" Juprasert, who recruited him as the band's new singer in 1996.

"My parents are modern, so I didn't have to seriously adhere to the rules," Veerachon explains. "Even so, I presented the philosophy of my religion through the lyrics I wrote and tried to soften fans' attitudes during my shows. That's one of the reasons I didn't sing any covers. I think God was building me."

Those songs included "Roy Yim" ("Smile"), a number about betrayal, and his first for Silly Fools, as well as "Chan vs Satan" with Hangman.

"I wrote the first song from my viewpoint of an 18 or 19-year-old facing the world. As a kid, I remember that a bus conductor didn't collect my fare and a passenger gave me a seat. When I grew up, the boot was on the other foot. The conductor collected my fare and nobody gave me a seat. I wanted to express my feelings about this change but didn't have the skills to write a poem. I did, however, know how to mix music with words.

"'Chan vs Satan' was more concerned with the Islamic religion, as it talked about having another character in my mind who was trying to push me on a path contrary to what I knew was right. It's about the fight between Satan and myself.

"When I started learning more about Islam, it was harder for me to speak nonsense as I knew it was a sin. For us, nonsense covers love, money, sex, boastfulness and arrogance. Instead, I wanted to talk about God. I wanted to convey that people shouldn't betray each other but rather respect each other. That's hard because it isn't a topic that anyone wants to hear. And after reading the Koran, I discovered that singing to the accompaniment of musical instruments is forbidden...When I realised that music wasn't the way to change the world, I put a halt to my singing career," he says.

In 2006, the rock star shocked fans with his announcement that he was retiring from Silly Fools and would form a new band called Hangman. That outfit too went by the wayside, when Veerachon eventually decided to end his music career altogether and devote himself to Islam.

"I'm just an ordinary man, a student, who tries to carry out his duty to help other people, different from a savant or mullah who has studied the religion since childhood..They can recite the entire Koran, word for word and vowel for vowel, without any personal opinion. I, on the other hand, have gradually learnt it by myself and spoken to listeners using ordinary words so that they can understand what I'm talking about. This is possible because I had a concise way of songwriting, which I recognise was a gift."

Since the expiry of his recording contract with GMM Grammy a few years ago, Veerachon has become a propagator of his religion, working with the White Channel, also known as the "station for goodness".

"I'm responsible for the production. The channel features a variety of programme, including cooking for children, as well as religious dissemination and has no musical soundtracks or appearances by seductive women. I host 'Motor Vaccine', which offers tips on repairing second hand cars, co-host with a friend the talk show, "To Kap Tal", and host another talk show that has an imam answering trivia questions. In the future, I will be producing a travel variety show presenting places of interest as well as halal foods around the country."

In addition to the production, Veerachon is also responsible for promoting the channel in all regions of the country, especially in the largely Muslim South.

"I talk to tens of thousands of people about topics such as heaven and hell, family, marriage, gossip as a sin, and I focus on drugs and hooligans when I target the youth. Before, young people used to shy away from our activities but now they come because of me. This year, we will go to Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Pai, Khon Kaen and Saraburi," says Veerachon, who is married and has two children, a son aged two and a one-year-old daughter. "I think my speaking is much more interesting than singing."

So what is his ultimate aim?

"My aim is heaven," says Veerachon. "I have to die after satisfying God."

Kitchana Lersakvanitchakul

The Nation

Myanmar - Myanmar's Halting Steps toward Press Reform

Sixteen papers get licenses to publish, but a press law still lurks out there

Independent newspapers are set resume publishing on April 1 in Myanmar for the first time since they were banned five decades ago. Today there are four state-owned dailies.

Sixteen papers* have received "Temporary licenses" from the Information Ministry "after scrutiny." The licenses are ‘temporary' pending a new media law which was supposed to have been passed prior to the approval of the new papers. The licenses would presumably be ratified once the new media law is finally in place.

This burst of newspaper license approvals comes after a rash attempt by the minister of information to rush his own version of a media bill through parliament before the applications were approved. That maneuver was foiled by street demonstrations of outraged journalists and civic society activists who sent letters to individual lawmakers demanding that they reject the bill.

The need to face the electorate in 2015 may have persuaded the legislators to heed the public outcry. The debate on the bill has been deferred to the June sitting of parliament. Legislators didn't share the information minister's urgency to pass the media bill by end-March.

Minister Tries to Bypass Press Council

The press council, a body of government nominees, journalists, publishers and printers representatives set up by President Thein Sein himself, was tasked with drafting the new media law "to international benchmarks". Their work is not finished yet. The information minister blind-sided the council in submitting his media bill to parliament. Government members of the press council were offended by the minister's dash and joined journalists in chastising him. The information minister's justification for his now aborted pre-emptive action was that after censorship was abolished mid-2012, many "poisonous" publications have appeared.

Transgressions allegedly included saucy female photographs "contrary to Myanmar's cultural norms" and articles "encouraging gambling" which moral guardians of the State-appointed Buddhist organization objected to.

He didn't mention an article on corrupt practices at the ministry of mining which prompted its sputtering minister to threaten a defamation lawsuit (a la Singapore) against the journal which exposed it. This is exactly the kind of press disclosure which panics the generals long used to working their turf without impediment.

Toby Mendel, executive director for the Canada-based Centre for Law and Democracy, released a statement saying that consideration should be given to doing away entirely with the system of registration for publishers, printers, news agencies and imported publications, and that if registrations is retained, it should be limited in scope, and any restrictions on content should be in line with international standards, with the Ministry of Information playing no role in applying the rules.

Is free press too risky for the regime?

The horror of an unfettered private press prying into the fiefdoms of generals may well have triggered the scramble to lock into place all the old ways of muzzling journalists and frightening publishers, printers and distributors.

A press not subservient to the power structure holds dangers for a regime navigating a transition to nominal civilian administration without surrendering military privileges and entitlements. For 60 years news was what the regime scripted out for press and TV to deliver without question. Weaning the regime off that self-serving diet of managed mass media is a challenge. There is considerable skepticism among the Myanmar intelligentsia about the regime's democratic reforms. The suspicion is that all the right noises are being made to lull American and European governments into relaxing sanctions for foreign investment to kick-start the stagnant Myanmar economy. And to take regime generals off their visa blacklists as they and their proxies position for local-partner status to leverage the incoming corporate investors. The military monopolizes business and is well set to profit from inward investment flows.

The Lady has gone quiet too

President Thein Sein's bold break with earlier policy to free Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest and to allow her and her National League for Democracy (NLD) to contest by-elections in 2012 had the desired impact on foreign governments.

Suu Kyi was allowed to receive her Nobel Prize and tour the world. She obliged by not condemning the regime. She pledged to work with the army-dominated government for the good of Myanmar society. The president co-opted her onto several government panels. She declares belief in ‘restorative justice' rather than exacting revenge for past sins.

For all of her human rights credentials, Suu Kyi has been deafeningly silent on the continuing organized violence targeting Muslims and the systematic bombing of Kachin State, which has been subjected to sustained military action close to the Chinese border.

The Kachins had refused to participate in the regime's last general elections. The state is rich in mineral deposits and has large dams with hydroelectric power generation potential. Gas and oil pipelines also run through the state into China. The Kachins are also largely Christian in a country which is predominantly Buddhist.

Daw Suu Kyi has also been silent on a 2008 constitutional provision which denies her the chance to become president if her party gains a majority in the scheduled 2015 general election. It bars anyone from the position whose spouse, child or parent holds foreign citizenship. That provision was clearly written with her in mind.

At the recent National League for Democracy party assembly, there was considerable dissension in the ranks as a new generation of party activists challenged an old guard which is reluctant to make way. There is also resentment at the 15 member party politburo that Suu Kyi had picked, exercising considerable influence to have it her way. While there is much awe and admiration for Suu Kyi across the nation, her younger party activists are not quite sure what she stands for.

*The 16 newspapers to have received temporary licenses are Khit Moe, Shwe Naing Thit, Union, Empire, Messenger, Up-Date, Myanmar Newsweek, Mizzima, Eleven, San Taw Chein, Kit Thit, Yangon Times, Myanmar Dikai, Union Athan, 7-Daily and D-Wave (opposition NLD paper)

Cyril Pereira

http://www.asiasentinel.com

Philippines - Filipino Catholics Raise Birth Control Stakes

Church now going after lawmakers personally at the ballot box

The Catholic Church in the Philippines has raised the stakes in its fight against the historic birth control bill passed in December by the legislature, seeking to use the ballot box in May 13 general elections to go directly after lawmakers who voted for the measure.

The midterm election will see 12 senators and 229 members of the House of Representatives as well as governors, provincial legislatures and mayors facing the voters. The church's decision to publicly oppose those who voted for the reproductive health act, as it is known, may be the church's biggest gamble of its influence in modern history.

"The results of the May 2013 election will likely illustrate to what extent the Catholic Church's political agenda resonates with both voters and politicians," according to a subscription-only report by the Manila-based country risk firm Pacific Strategies & Assessments. "While the outcome of the elections are unlikely to impact the church's popularity, it could affect the church's political agenda."

Victories by pro-birth control candidates, the report said, could suggest a decline in church influence and encourage politicians to push for passage of legislation the religious body opposes, such as a proposed divorce law that has been stalled in the legislature for decades. The Philippines is the only country in the world that hasn't legalized divorce.

Conversely, if the church holds sway and drives lawmakers from office, other legislation proposed by President Benigno S. Aquino III including land reform and the regulation of the mining industry could be affected negatively.

The Conference of Bishops, the church's ruling body, has already mounted an all-out legal campaign against the reproductive health act, which Aquino signed into law in January. Ten different petitions have been filed with the Supreme Court by allies of the church to attempt to stop the law from going in effect. The court, on March 19, voted to delay implementation of the measure until oral arguments are held on June 14.

The law mandates that government health centers provide free access to nearly all contraceptives including condoms, IUDs and other devices to everyone. It also makes sexual education compulsory in public schools.

The electoral focus of the church's campaign so far has been the city of Bacolod, with 511,000 residents, the capital of Negros Occidental Province in the Western Visayas Region. In February the Bacolod Diocese posted a giant tarpaulin in front of the San Sebastian Cathedral, listing the names of lawmakers who had voted for the bill and calling them "Team Buhay," or "Team Death." Lawmakers who voted against it were identified as "Team Patay," or "Team Life."

At least 60 churches in the diocese have posted smaller Team Patay posters in the effort to oust lawmakers who voted for the legislation. Political observers have described the effort by the church as unprecedented in Philippine politics. In the past the church has never campaigned against candidates by name, instead listing the traits voters should look for in candidates.

The Bacolod campaign almost immediately ran into heavy going from a group calling itself "Team Tatay," or "team father," identifying five Bacolod priests including three bishops, an archbishop, a retired bishop and one priest who allegedly have sired children. Married priests have long been a widely suspected phenomenon in the Philippines. Indeed, Team Tatay said it would unmask further married priests if the Team Patay campaign continues.

Undeterred, another five dioceses are said to be planning to join the Bacolod campaign. According to the news site Rappler, they are in Marinduque, Occidental Mindoro, Bulacan, Laguna and Batangas, three of them among the country's most populous provinces.

The church's influence in the past played a major role in ousting the strongman Ferdinand Marcos in 1986, when he was forced to flee the country in the so-called People Power revolution which brought millions of Filipinos to the streets to protest his policies. The church also played a major role in driving Joseph Estrada from power in 2001 after he was accused of corruption and an impeachment campaign against him failed.

However, the church's gamble in the May elections could be chancy. Although 81 percent of Filipinos classify themselves as Catholics, as many as seven of 10 polled indicated they supported the passage of the reproductive health act, according to Rom Dongeto, the executive director of Philippine Legislators' Committee for Population and Development (PLCPD), an NGO that is one of the strongest proponents of the law. Half of Filipinos who marry today do so in civil ceremonies, or don't wed at all, which fits with statistics that show 20 percent of the country's births are out of wedlock.

It might be ominous for the church that the Conference of Bishops last year mounted an all-out campaign when it became clear that Aquino would attempt to push through its passage, with parish priests all across the country denouncing the measure from the pulpit on a weekly basis.

Apparently the flock didn't get the message. They certainly didn't turn on the President. Despite the church's campaign, Aquino pushed the bill through with relative ease. And, despite threats - not carried out - by the church to excommunicate the president, he remains extremely popular with the voters. In the latest Pulse Asia survey, his overall rating climbed from 66 percent in January to 68 percent today, with his undecided rating falling by four points. Getting their parishioners to vote to drive his political allies from office may be more difficult than church leaders think.

http://www.asiasentinel.com

Philippines - Philippines Renews Claim to Sabah

Aquino doesn't want to look soft

The Philippine Foreign Ministry yesterday reissued a 2008 circular reminding the country's government agencies not to refer to the North Borneo state of Sabah as a part of Malaysia.

The claim isn't likely to sit well in Kuala Lumpur, which is considerably irritated by the invasion of Sabah's Lahad Datu township by 200-odd followers of the Sultan of Sulu, who crossed the strait between Sabah and the Philippine island of Tawi Tawi on Feb. 9 in an attempt to assert the sultan's ancestral claim to the state.

Although the Philippines has always maintained historical and legal rights over the Malaysian state, it has remained in Malaysian hands since it was known as British North Borneo.

After a couple of weeks of indecision, Malaysian security forces assaulted the Filipino group on March 1 with jet fighters and armored personnel carriers. The Malaysians say they killed 62 of the Sultan's men and that 10 police and soldiers have died in the fighting while arresting more than 100 Filipinos on suspicion of having links to the sultan's group.

President Benigno S. Aquino has been criticized for not doing enough to end the crisis peacefully, stating that negotiations are the answer to the crisis, not open warfare as he attempts to walk a careful line between trying to keep a leash on the Sultan's followers while not giving into nationalist sentiment.

Thousands of Filipinos have lived in Sabah for decades. Hundreds have since fled back across the strait in an effort to escape the fighting and roundups by Malaysian security forces. The Philippine government has sought to quell the invasion, arresting 38 fleeing members of the sultan's followers last week as they sought to re-enter the Philippines. The government later filed criminal charges against the group in a court in Tawi Tawi.

Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman Raul Hernandez said the presidential palace issued the memo in 2008, titled "Guidelines on Matters Pertaining to North Borneo (SABAH)," cautioning government agencies against making any statements implying recognition of a foreign state's sovereignty over Sabah, which was described as a Philippine territory.

The circular provides that "No department, agency, or instrumentality of the Philippine government shall make any act or statement expressing or implying, directly or indirectly, any recognition of a foreign state's sovereignty over North Borneo (Sabah) or non-recognition of Philippine title or historical and legal rights to the same."

http://www.asiasentinel.com

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North Korea - North Korea in ‘state of war’ with South

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea warned Seoul on Saturday that the Korean Peninsula had entered “a state of war” and threatened to shut down a border factory complex that’s the last major symbol of inter-Korean cooperation.

Analysts say a full-scale conflict is extremely unlikely, noting that the Korean Peninsula has remained in a technical state of war for 60 years. But the North’s continued threats toward Seoul and Washington, including a vow to launch a nuclear strike, have raised worries that a misjudgment between the sides could lead to a clash.

In Washington, the White House said Saturday that the United States is taking seriously the new threats by North Korea but also noted Pyongyang’s history of “bellicose rhetoric.”

North Korea’s threats are seen as efforts to provoke the new government in Seoul, led by President Park Geun-hye, to change its policies toward Pyongyang, and to win diplomatic talks with Washington that could get it more aid. North Korea’s moves are also seen as ways to build domestic unity as young leader Kim Jong Un strengthens his military credentials.

On Thursday, U.S. military officials revealed that two B-2 stealth bombers dropped dummy munitions on an uninhabited South Korean island as part of annual defense drills that Pyongyang sees as rehearsals for invasion. Hours later, Kim ordered his generals to put rockets on standby and threatened to strike American targets if provoked.

North Korea said in a statement Saturday that it would deal with South Korea according to “wartime regulations” and would retaliate against any provocations by the United States and South Korea without notice.

“Now that the revolutionary armed forces of the DPRK have entered into an actual military action, the inter-Korean relations have naturally entered the state of war,” said the statement, which was carried by Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency, referring to the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Provocations “will not be limited to a local war, but develop into an all-out war, a nuclear war,” the statement said.

Hours after the statement, Pyongyang threatened to shut down the jointly run Kaesong industrial park, expressing anger over media reports suggesting the complex remained open because it was a source of hard currency for the impoverished North.

“If the puppet group seeks to tarnish the image of the DPRK even a bit, while speaking of the zone whose operation has been barely maintained, we will shut down the zone without mercy,” an identified spokesman for the North’s office controlling Kaesong said in comments carried by KCNA.

South Korea’s Unification Ministry responded by calling the North Korean threat “unhelpful” to the countries’ already frayed relations and vowed to ensure the safety of hundreds of South Korean managers who cross the border to their jobs in Kaesong. It did not elaborate.

South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said the country’s military remains mindful of the possibility that increasing North Korean drills near the border could lead to an actual provocation.

“The series of North Korean threats — announcing all-out war, scrapping the cease-fire agreement and the non-aggression agreement between the South and the North, cutting the military hotline, entering into combat posture No. 1 and entering a ‘state of war’ — are unacceptable and harm the peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula,” Kim said.

“We are maintaining full military readiness in order to protect our people’s lives and security,” he told reporters Saturday.

In Washington, Caitlin Hayden, a spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council, noted the “reports of a new and unconstructive statement from North Korea.”

“We take these threats seriously and remain in close contact with our South Korean allies,” Hayden said. “But, we would also note that North Korea has a long history of bellicose rhetoric and threats, and today’s announcement follows that familiar pattern.”

The White House has stressed the U.S. government’s capability and willingness to defend itself and its allies and interests in the region, if necessary.

“We remain fully prepared and capable of defending and protecting the United States and our allies,” Hayden said.

The two Koreas remain technically at war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. Naval skirmishes in the disputed waters off the Korean coast have led to bloody battles several times over the years.

But on the streets of Seoul on Saturday, South Koreans said they were not worried about an attack from North Korea.

“From other countries’ point of view, it may seem like an extremely urgent situation,” said Kang Tae-hwan, a private tutor. “But South Koreans don’t seem to be that nervous because we’ve heard these threats from the North before.”

The Kaesong industrial park, which is run with North Korean labor and South Korean know-how, has been operating normally, despite Pyongyang shutting down a communications channel typically used to coordinate travel by South Korean workers to and from the park just across the border in North Korea. The rivals are now coordinating the travel indirectly, through an office at Kaesong that has outside lines to South Korea.

North Korea has previously made such threats about Kaesong without acting on them, and recent weeks have seen a torrent of bellicose rhetoric from Pyongyang. North Korea is angry about the South Korea-U.S. military drills and new U.N. sanctions over its nuclear test last month.

Dozens of South Korean firms run factories in the border town of Kaesong. Using North Korea’s cheap, efficient labor, the Kaesong complex produced $470 million worth of goods last year.

North Korea - NKorean propaganda mill serves up soft side of Kim

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The outside world focuses on the messages of doom and gloom from North Korea: bombastic threats of nuclear war, fantasy videos of U.S. cities in flames, digitally altered photos of leader Kim Jong Un guiding military drills.

But back home, North Koreans get a decidedly softer dose of propaganda: Kim portrayed as a young, energetic leader, a people person and family man.

Mixed in with the images showing Kim aboard a speeding boat on a tour of front-line islands, or handing out commemorative rifles to smartly saluting soldiers, are those of Kim and his wife clapping at a dolphin show or linking arms with weeping North Korean children.

The pictures can look odd or obviously staged to outsiders. But they’re carefully crafted propaganda meant to give North Koreans an image of a country governed by a leader who is as comfortable overseeing a powerful military as he is mingling with the people.

Analysts say the images also hint at something that often gets lost amid the threatening rhetoric: North Korea’s supreme commander isn’t an all-powerful, isolated monarch who can govern without considering his people’s approval. Kim is still busy building his reputation at home.

“Even dictatorships respond to public opinion and public pressure,” said John Delury, a North Korea analyst at Seoul’s Yonsei University. “He’s expected to pay attention to and make improvements in the common people’s standard of living. They’ve put that promise out in their domestic propaganda.”

It’s a tall order. Living standards in Pyongyang, the capital, are relatively high, with new shops and restaurants catering to a growing middle class. But U.N. officials’ reports detail harsh conditions elsewhere in North Korea: up to 200,000 people estimated to be languishing in political prison camps, and two-thirds of the country’s 24 million people facing regular food shortages.

When it comes to North Korean propaganda, much of the world focuses on the series of outlandish videos uploaded to the country’s YouTube channel and government website, largely for foreign consumption. In one fantasy, missiles rain down on a burning American city while an instrumental version of “We Are the World” plays in the background. In another, President Barack Obama and U.S. troops burn.

But what most North Koreans see on state TV is a different propaganda message: Kim Jong Un bending down to receive flowers from children, Kim visiting families living in rustic homes on front-line islands, Kim mobbed by gushing female soldiers.

As with any propaganda or PR, the images are carefully staged. And many make foreign news headlines only when experts and photo editors discover that North Korea is digitally altering them. For instance, in a picture distributed recently by state media, troops and hovercraft land on a barren, snow-dappled beach. Experts say some of the multiple hovercraft have been copied and pasted into the image.

But North Korea’s propaganda makers aren’t concerned about the criticism abroad to their heavy-handed photo editing. “These efforts are aimed more at an unsophisticated domestic peasant audience than those of us who are more discerning,” said Ralph Cossa, president of the Pacific Forum CSIS think tank in Hawaii.

The caring domestic persona being built for Kim by his image specialists is aided by his wife, Ri Sol Ju.

She is young and glamorous, a chic and smiling presence at his side in many of the country’s propaganda images. The couple is often photographed at amusement parks, nurseries, factory tours and concerts.

“It’s a more complex kind of image he has as a leader,” Delury said. “The basis of his legitimacy domestically has to do with these other, non-military things.”

The propaganda machine in North Korea also worked to build up a caring image for Kim’s father, the late Kim Jong Il. He doggedly appeared at tours of factories, farms and military posts. But while Kim Jong Un puts his wife front and center and is a relaxed presence on camera, his father was stiff in photos and secretive about his family life.

North Korea takes pains to select and sometimes alter photos so its leaders appear in the best light possible, said Seo Jeong-nam, a North Korean propaganda expert at Keimyung University in South Korea.

For example, past propaganda specialists were careful not to pick photos that showed the large lump on the back of the neck of Kim’s grandfather, North Korean President Kim Il Sung, Seo said. When Kim Jong Il was alive, North Korean photographers tried to make him look taller in photos than he actually was, often positioning him slightly in front of others, Seo said.

As for Kim Jong Un, Seo said North Korea’s propaganda mill chooses photos that show off his strong resemblance to his grandfather, who still is depicted on state TV as the loving father of the nation, surrounded by children and adoring citizens.

Cambodia - UN to pay overdue salaries at Cambodia trial

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — The United Nations-backed tribunal trying former Khmer Rouge leaders for genocide said Saturday that it would pay several months of overdue salaries for its Cambodian staffers, in rare good news for the troubled body.

The tribunal has been beleaguered by political and financial considerations since its establishment in 2006. It spent $141.1 million through 2011, and so far has completed only one trial, finding the head of a Khmer Rouge torture center guilty of crimes against humanity and other offenses.

The tribunal said in a statement that it would provide funds covering January through April this year, but did not specify how much would be given. Foreign and Cambodian personnel are paid under separate budgets.

The tribunal is tasked with seeking justice for atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge during its 1975-79 reign of terror, when an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians died from forced labor, starvation, medical neglect and execution.

In mid-2011 it began trying four former top members of the Khmer Rouge for genocide. Last year, one defendant, former social affairs minister Ieng Thirith, was ruled mentally incompetent to stand trial, and was freed from custody. Her husband and co-defendant, Ieng Sary, the Khmer Rouge’s foreign minister, died earlier this month.

The two remaining defendants in the current trial are former head of state Khieu Samphan, 81, and the group’s chief ideologist, Nuon Chea, 86.

The defendants’ age and poor health have raised concerns that they may not live long enough to hear a verdict. The tribunal ruled Friday that a medical exam determined that Nuon Chea was fit to stand trial, but expressed concern about the state of his health.

Tribunal officials are seeking to prosecute other former Khmer Rouge leaders, but Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has warned that more trials will “not be allowed,” claiming they could cause unrest. Many people in Cambodia’s government, including Hun Sen himself, are former Khmer Rouge officials.

The current trial has been stalled for weeks due to the financial problems as well as the ill health of the defendants, who have been repeatedly hospitalized.

Translators for the tribunal went on strike in early March over their pay complaint. They agreed to resume work after being paid their wages for December.

Tribunal spokesman Neth Pheaktra said Saturday that the government, which is responsible for paying the Cambodian staff, and the United Nations were continuing negotiations about the shortfall of funds and how to pay salaries for the rest of the year.

Foreign aid donors have provided millions of dollars for the tribunal, but most of it is earmarked for the international staff.

Myanmar - Burma says govt not to blame for religious riots

YANGON, Burma (AP) — Burma’s government on Saturday rejected remarks by a U.N. human rights official suggesting that the authorities bear some blame for recent mob attacks by Buddhists on minority Muslims that killed dozens of people.

The U.N. official, Tomas Ojea Quintana, urged Burma’s government on Friday to investigate allegations that security forces watched as Buddhist mobs attacked Muslims. He also said the government needed to do more to protect the country’s Muslims.

Deputy Information Minister Ye Htut said on his Facebook page Saturday that he “strongly rejected” the comments by Quintana, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Burma.

Ye Htut, who is also the presidential spokesman, wrote that it was “saddening that Mr. Quintana made his comments based on hearsay without assessing the situation on the ground.”

He added that such remarks amounted to ignoring efforts by the government, security personnel, religious leaders and civil society organizations trying to restore order.

State television announced Saturday that President Thein Sein had formed a 10-member State of Emergency management central committee to control the ongoing violence.

The committee will expose and detain those who instigated the violence, and seek ways to prevent recurrence of racial and religious conflicts, and enable rapid response in times of conflict and better coordination between security forces.

The formation of committees to investigate unrest has become a minor hallmark of Thein Sein’s government, but there is little sign they have been able to solve any problems, or even serve as a pressure valve because of the polarizations in society.

The state-run Kyemon newspaper said Saturday that 43 people had died and 86 were injured since rioting first flared on March 20 in the central town of Meikhtila. It said there were 163 incidents of violence in 15 townships in the country, with 1,355 buildings damaged or destroyed.

It reported that a few attacks against “religious buildings,” shops and houses continued Friday, a day after President Thein Sein declared that his government would use force if necessary to quell the rioting, which was sparked by a dispute between a Muslim gold shop owner and his Buddhist customers.

The report said soldiers and police had to shoot into the air to disperse the mobs Friday, though no casualties were reported.

Thein Sein warned in a televised address Thursday that efforts by “political opportunists” and “religious extremists” who tried to sow hatred would not be tolerated.

Quintana welcomed Thein Sein’s public call for the violence to stop, but said authorities “need to do much more” to keep the violence from spreading and undermining the reform process.

“The government has simply not done enough to address the spread of discrimination and prejudice against Muslim communities,” Ojea Quintana said in his statement. He also called on the government to look into allegations that soldiers and police stood by “while atrocities have been committed before their very eyes, including by well-organized ultra-nationalist Buddhist mobs.”

Police in Meikhtila had been criticized for failing to act quickly and decisively against the rioting, in which mostly Muslim-owned houses, shops and mosques were burned down.

Occasional isolated violence involving majority Buddhists and minority Muslims has occurred in the country for decades, even under the authoritarian military governments that ruled Burma from 1962 to 2011. But tensions have heightened since last year when hundreds of people were killed and more than 100,000 made homeless in violence in western Burma between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Muslim Rohingya.

Thein Sein took office in 2011 as part of an elected civilian government after almost five decades of repressive military rule. By instituting democratic changes and economic liberalization, he has built a reputation as a reformer and restored relations with Western nations that had shunned the previous military regime for its poor human rights record.

Laos - 40 years on, Laotians tell of US war legacy

WASHINGTON (AP) — Forty years after the secret U.S. bombing that devastated Laos, heirs to the war’s deadly legacy of undetonated explosives are touring America to prod the conscience of the world’s most powerful nation for more help to clear up the mess.

Two young Laotians — one a bomb disposal technician, the other the victim of an accidental explosion — arrived Friday on the anniversary of the end of U.S. military involvement in Vietnam and its far-less publicized bombing of neighboring Laos. The U.S. dropped 2 million tons of bombs on Laos over a nine-year period up to 1973 — more than on Germany and Japan during World War II.

Manixia Thor, 25, works on an all-female team that clears bombs and other explosives from villages and farm land in her native province of Xieng Khouang, one of the worst-hit areas of the country. Joining her on the speaking tour is Thoummy Silamphan, 26, who lost his left hand to a cluster bomb at age 8 as he dug for bamboo shoots to put in soup. He’s from a poor farming family in the same province and counsels victims of ordnance accidents that still maim dozens of Lao each year.

Experts estimate that about 30 percent of the cluster bombs failed to explode after they were dropped from high-flying aircraft, as the U.S. attempted to crush communist forces in Laos and interdict the Vietcong supply line known as the Ho Chi Minh trail. Large swaths of northern Laos and its eastern border with Vietnam remain contaminated.

Manixia, who is ethnic Hmong and has a 2-year-old son, said her grandparents passed down to her stories of how they hid in limestone caves during the bombing that obliterated virtually all of the province’s free-standing buildings and left its plains and mountainsides pock-marked by craters.

About 15 years ago, her uncle lost his left hand as he attempted to salvage ball bearings from inside a cluster bomb. He joined an estimated toll of 20,000 civilians killed or injured by explosives since the war.

Manixia works for the British charity, the Mines Advisory Group. Like Thoummy, it’s her first trip to America. Their tour, organized by an American charity, Legacies of War, and funded by the State Department, will also take them to New York, California, Oregon, Washington state and Minnesota as they talk about “UXO,” or unexploded ordnance.

“I came here because I want to share with people the continuing dangers of UXO in Laos,” Manixia said. “There’s still a lot of work to do (to clear UXO) and not enough resources to do it. I don’t want people to be injured like my uncle was, or for my son to grow up and also be hurt.”

Despite efforts to educate about the dangers of the explosives, about 40 percent of the victims in the past 10 years have been children.

Thoummy said that last month two accidental explosions injured six people in Xieng Khouang, two of them seriously. Three of them were boys foraging for bamboo; the others were caught in a blast while burning stubble in a rice field.

Thoummy, whose prosthetic arm is hard to spot when he wears a tan jacket, works for Quality of Life Association, a Laotian nonprofit that helps victims cope with the kind of depression that he grappled with as a boy after his accident.

“My life had stopped. I wanted to die. I stayed at home and although my family tried to encourage me, I didn’t care,” he said.

But his outlook changed after a 10-minute conversation he had five months after his accident with a Lao government official — a survivor of a bomb accident who inspired him to get on with his life and complete his education. He later studied business management at a local college.

Thoummy is keen to recount his own experiences and bears no apparent grudge against the U.S. Asked if America is responsible for clearing the unexploded bombs, he squirms a little and concludes: “It would be good if the USA thinks about the problem in Laos and if we have more support.”

International help for bomb clearance only began in earnest about 20 years ago, and it will take many decades more to render affected land safe. Since 1997, the U.S. has provided $47 million in assistance, including $9 million in 2012. Last July, Hillary Rodham Clinton became the first U.S. secretary of state to visit the country since 1955. She spoke to a cluster bomb victim and promised more help.

Taiwan - Taiwan vows to step up patrol in East China Sea

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan’s president has commissioned a new vessel to beef up patrol in a group of disputed islands in the East China Sea also claimed by China and Japan.

President Ma Ying-jeou Ma on Saturday commissioned the 2,000-ton Xinbei cutter, which is equipped with machine guns and water cannons. The vessel will join a fleet of smaller ships to patrol the islands, known in China as Diaoyu and in Japan as Senkaku.

On board the ship off southern Kaohsiung harbor, Ma renewed his calls for parties to negotiate and set aside their claims to the islands and jointly develop the rich natural resources there.

China has so far ignored Ma’s offer because it still sees Taiwan as part of its territory more than six decades after they split amid civil war.

Malaysia - Sabah crisis sends wider ripples

MANILA - Amid intensifying territorial disputes with China and new uncertainty over the US's military commitment to the region, the Philippines strategic headaches have been further complicated by the unfolding crisis in Sabah, Malaysia.

Malaysian armed forces are now engaged in a full-scale mopping up operation against followers of the Philippines-based Sulu Sultanate, which launched a rag-tag occupation of a remote area of the Malaysian state to assert Sultan Jamalul Kiram's historical claims to the territory. After a long stand-off, Malaysian forces assaulted and killed several members of Kiram's non-state Royal Security Forces (RSF).

The violence now threatens to spiral with an estimated 800,000 Filipinos among Sabah's 3.2 million population and signs of insurgent-style attacks outside of the initial occupation area. The crisis has ignited popular calls for a re-assertion of Philippine historical claims to Sabah, an oil-rich, ethnically diverse state on the island of Borneo that historically has had an uneasy relationship with the Malaysian federal government in Kuala Lumpur.

Domestic politics have complicated the crisis. Both Malaysia and the Philippines are in crucial election cycles, with Philippine President Benigno Aquino facing a de facto referendum on his rule in upcoming by-elections. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak is fighting to thwart the political opposition led by Anwar Ibrahim from making electoral gains at polls that must be called before June.

Neither national leader can afford to yield the nationalistic high ground or absorb allegations of being soft on security in relation to Sabah by their respective oppositions ahead of the upcoming elections. At the same time, the Sabah crisis could have long-term strategic implications for both countries if myopically handled for short-term political gains.

For Aquino, the crisis represents a significant strategic diversion at a time his government bids to shore up its external security capabilities - including through strengthening ties with allies like the US, Japan and Australia - vis-a-vis China's rising assertiveness in the South China Sea. For Najib, the spike in instability has raised uncomfortable new questions about central sovereignty over outlying areas and the hitherto unexpected potential for a prolonged and debilitating armed ethnic conflict.

Given the importance of bilateral economic ties with China, the Philippines has faced a stark diplomatic choice between acquiescence and confrontation. Aquino has so far opted for a mixture of appeasement and hedging with China aimed at securing a multilateral resolution of the territorial disputes.

Yet two years of intensive talks and strategic jostling at sea have done little to halt China's perceived encroachment into the Philippines' Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). China has been able to leverage its influence on Cambodia, last year's chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), to frustrate any unified multilateral attempts to build consensus around a binding dispute settlement mechanism.

That has left the Philippines to seek external help and military hardware to shore up its ''minimum deterrence capability''. Manila followed up with an audacious bid to take China to the International Tribunal on Law of the Seas (ITLOS) to not only settle the territorial disputes but also to highlight China's expansive nine-dash-line map, which outlines Beijing's claim to practically all features in the South China Sea.

China has responded by rejecting any attempt at third-party arbitration and taking the unprecedented decision to dispatch an armada of maritime surveillance ships and a Haijian B-7103 helicopter to conduct supposed patrol and observation missions within China's claimed territories. China has also dispatched more naval assets to consolidate its claims, including over the Scarborough Shoal, the site of a bitter stand-off between Filipino and Chinese ships in mid-2012.

Adding to Manila's strategic anxieties, a cabinet reshuffle in the US has sent mixed signals about America's military commitment to the region. New Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel have both publicly expressed their hopes for a more amicable strategic relationship with China.

"I'm not convinced that increased military ramp-up [in the Asia-Pacific] is critical yet," Kerry argued in his confirmation hearing, signaling a potential new foreign policy direction from his predecessor Hillary Clinton's 'pivot'. ''That's something I'd want to look at very carefully."

At the same time, Washington and Manila held joint military exercises in the guise of humanitarian and disaster relief training in the Philippine province of Negros Oriental, situated near some of the contested maritime areas, earlier this month. Those exercises will be followed in April by the 9th annual ''Balikatan'' joint military exercises which are scheduled to bring together more than 8,000 Filipino and American soldiers.

Game of thrones

While Manila recognizes that it cannot contain China's territorial assertiveness, Aquino and his deputies do maintain hopes that fellow ASEAN members, especially original and influential states such as Malaysia, will help to diplomatically resolve the disputes through multilateral mechanisms.

Judging by the behavior and pronouncements of Filipino officials during the Sabah crisis, Manila is clearly trying to downplay the conflict and avoid any deterioration in bilateral ties with neighboring Malaysia. Some local commentators have even accused the Aquino administration of speaking on Malaysia's behalf while ignoring the supposedly legitimate territorial claims raised by the Sulu Sultanate.

Sultan Kiram has repeatedly sought Manila's support for, among other things, an official appeal to international arbitration to reclaim Sabah for the Philippines, similar to the recent submission it made to the ITLOS against China. Instead, in the initial days of the crisis, the government threatened Kiram and his followers with prosecution, technically over violating an election period ban on bearing arms.

Manila's behavior has also been influenced by Aquino's fears that the Sabah crisis could torpedo ongoing efforts to implement the Framework Peace Agreement (FPA) reached last year between his government and the insurgent Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). The deal, which promises to end decades of debilitating armed conflict on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao, was brokered by Malaysia. Najib reportedly played a direct role in the diplomacy.

Rival Philippine rebel groups, including the MILF's mother organization, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), are now aiming to use the Sabah crisis to scupper the FPA. Former MNLF leader Nur Misurari has publicly backed Kiram's stance on Sabah, while arguing that the FPA is invalid unless the government also honors its earlier agreements with the MNLF on the establishment of an ethnic Moro sub-state. He has also accused Malaysia of interfering in Mindanao's internal affairs in order to divert attention from boiling ethnic tensions in Sabah.

With some estimates putting the total number of Filipinos in Malaysia as high as 1.5 million, the Aquino administration has expressed diplomatic concerns about the well-being of its nationals amid the unfolding crisis. There are indications that Kuala Lumpur could use the crisis as pretext to deport or further marginalize Filipinos in Malaysia. Approximately 5,000 Filipinos have so far fled the armed crackdown, according to the Philippine National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.

Aquino's broader geopolitical need to preserve stable bilateral ties with Malaysia has influenced his so far soft approach to the Sabah crisis. Critics have accused Aquino of secretly dropping the Philippines' long-standing claim to Sabah - although constitutionally the executive has no power to permanently drop territorial claims without the approval of the legislature and the Supreme Court - to win Malaysia's support for the FPA.

Some Philippines-based commentators and former diplomats have argued that Malaysia is loathe to wade into the South China Sea disputes because of its own strong relations with Beijing. Others have suggested that Kuala Lumpur, also a claimant in the South China Sea, has indeed advocated for a more a unified ASEAN voice to deal with "acts that contravene the international law on EEZ and continental shelves''.

Manila thus still clearly believes that ASEAN - especially core members such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and Singapore - will under Brunei's chairmanship this year use their collective weight to cajole China into an amicable solution to the intensifying territorial disputes. Until that happens, it will be unclear whether Aquino's approach to the Sabah crisis has forwarded the Philippines' interests in both Sabah and the South China Sea.

Richard Javad Heydarian

http://www.atimes.com