Economics, Politics and Public Policy in East Asia and the Pacific
Author: Pierre van der Eng, ANU
Indonesia announced stimulus packages on 25 February, 13 March and 18 March with a total value of US$12 billion (Rp 181 trillion) aimed at keeping Indonesia’s economy ticking over during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is equivalent to 1.1 per cent of GDP in 2019 and 6.5 per cent of the 2020 state budget, indicating the government’s concern about the impact of the pandemic. A further package is being prepared. Read more…
Author: S Nathan Park, Washington DC
The alliance between the United States and South Korea is being tested by the Trump administration’s demands that Seoul quintuple its contribution for hosting US forces from just over US$923 million to US$4.7 billion. This outrageous demand, which does not reflect the extent to which South Korea already contributes militarily to the alliance, may yet be withdrawn. But in terms of eroding trust between two crucial allies, the damage may already be done.
Author: Pierre van der Eng, ANU
In mid-February, Indonesia’s Health Minister Terawan Agus Putranto pointed to divine intervention when explaining that no cases of COVID-19 had been identified in Indonesia. Despite his advice for continued prayer, the first case was confirmed on 1 March. During the following weeks many more cases were confirmed. As of 30 March, the total stood at 1285 and the number of related deaths increased to 114. Read more…
Authors: Gideon Lasco, University of the Philippines Diliman and Vincen Gregory Yu, Manila
On the night of 30 January 2020, Ireneo Ramos was killed in a motorcycle drive-by shooting in the Sampaloc district of Manila. Mere hours later, Jerick Lucana was shot and killed on a residential street in Mandaluyong City. Both men were reportedly in their respective neighbourhoods’ watch lists of alleged drug personalities. Read more…
Author: Padmanesan Narasimhan, UNSW
As of 30 March 2020, there were 901 cases and 27 deaths of COVID-19 reported by the Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The cases were unequally distributed across the states with Maharashtra and Kerala recording the highest numbers. India has an estimated population of 1.35 billion, making it home to 17.5 per cent of the world’s population, but has less than 1 per cent of the world’s COVID-19 cases. These numbers could reflect that India has been successful in combating the pandemic. Read more…
Author: Editorial Board, ANU
A US$1 trillion increase in the IMF’s crisis-fighting war chest, US$5 trillion in coordinated fiscal stimulus, US$250 billion to support trade finance, US$100 billion of additional lending by the multilateral development banks, the creation of new international institutions and reforms to existing ones, a commitment to reform global finance and a pledge not to impose any trade protectionist measures.
Author: Allan Gyngell, ANU
COVID-19 has done more to close borders, reverse globalisation, decouple supply chains and marginalise multilateral institutions than the most fervent efforts of the world’s populist nationalists.
Author: Gary Clyde Hufbauer and Euijin Jung, PIIE
Globalisation was under threat even before the pandemic. US President Donald Trump set the tone by declaring himself ‘tariff man’, imposing bogus ‘national security’ tariffs on steel and aluminium imports from allies while launching a trade war with China and eviscerating the WTO Appellate Body. But Trump was not alone in attacking the global trading system.
Author: M Chatib Basri, University of Indonesia
The COVID-19 outbreak recalls Albert Camus’s novel The Plague. While Camus was not writing about COVID-19, those who have read The Plague can see in it the anxiety and confusion currently gripping those isolated throughout the world.
Author: Shiro Armstrong, ANU
To help save the economy in the coronavirus crisis, governments need to target and design financial assistance at different phases of shutdown, lockdown and recovery and they need to do so urgently and responsibly. The strategy needs to be simple, communicated clearly and use tried and tested Australian policy innovations to succeed longer term. Read more…
Author: Gerrit van der Wees, George Mason University and George Washington University
President Tsai Ing-wen and her Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) momentous election victory on 11 January 2020 represents a significant turning point for Taiwan. It marks the culmination of a democratic transformation that started with the end of martial law in 1987 and the commencement of democratic reforms by former president Lee Teng-hui in the early 1990s. Since then, the government has changed hands three times. Read more…
Author: Matthew Sussex, ANU
Does the recent visit by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan signal renewed US interest in Central Asia? Maybe. The broader question is why Pompeo is seeking to engage with the region in the first place. Read more…
Author: Aileen S P Baviera, University of the Philippines
The Philippines was first a colony and then a formal treaty ally of the United States for so long that many Filipinos tend to take the existence of reciprocal defence obligations for granted. For the most part, the Philippines has always supported US security objectives when asked — whether during the Pacific War, the Korean War, the Cold War, the conflicts in Indochina or the ‘Global War on Terror’. Read more…
Author: Jayant Menon, ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
The COVID-19 pandemic is first and foremost a human tragedy. Measures introduced to deal with the pandemic could save lives but are having wide-ranging economic effects and inducing economic contagion. There are already studies estimating the economic impact of the virus. But greater focus is needed on the transmission mechanisms of the economic contagion and in critiquing how assessments of the economic impacts are made, concentrating on the ASEAN region.
Author: Ramesh Thakur, ANU
India’s slide into illiberalism began before the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came into power in 2014 under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In his book The Intolerant Indian, Gautam Adhikari contends that extremist religious ideologies and the violent politics of left and right forces alike have overshadowed the idea of a tolerant, plural society on which modern India was established. Read more…
