Page 2 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
ASIA / PACIFIC
November 20, 2017
Top court overturns discriminatory religious law
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia’s top court has overturned a law that
denied recognition and legal rights to followers of indigenous faiths in a surprise
advance for religious freedom in the world’s most populous Muslim nation. The
Constitutional Court, in a unanimous ruling from its nine-judge panel, said
articles in the 2013 Civil Administration Law were discriminatory and violated
the principle of equality before the law. “These articles are not legally binding as
they contradict the 1945 constitution,” presiding judge Arief Hidayat told the
court. The ruling is an unexpected victory for moderates at a time when religious
conservatives have demonstrated growing political influence and undermined
the country’s reputation for tolerance. The 2013 law effectively required
followers of faiths not among the six recognized by the government to list one of
the official religions on their national identity card or be denied basic rights such
as marriage registration and land titles. The ruling, published on the court’s
website, said the law caused injustice to followers of native faiths. Difficulties in
obtaining national identity cards meant some were deprived of education, access
to the justice system, and other rights, it said. Indonesia has for decades
recognized only Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and
Confucianism as religions, but millions practice animism and other local
faiths.
Hong Kong, Southeast Asian nations sign free-trade pact
MANILA, The Philippines (AP) — Hong Kong signed a free-trade agreement
and an investment deal with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) in pacts that it said are a vote against protectionism elsewhere.
ASEAN officials said the free-trade agreement they signed with Hong Kong in
Manila is the sixth such deal forged by the 10-nation bloc after concluding
similar pacts with China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia, and New
Zealand. The Philippines hosted the annual summit of ASEAN heads of state
with Asian and western leaders. Hong Kong commerce secretary Edward Yau
Tang-wah said the new free-trade accord is “a loud and clear vote from all of us
here for freer and more open trade” amid protectionist tendencies in other parts
of the world. He said ASEAN is Hong Kong’s second-largest merchandise
trading partner and fourth-largest partner in services trade “but the best is yet
to come,” with the agreements expected to fuel new investment opportunities
and boost trade flows. Philippine trade secretary Ramon Lopez, this year’s
chairman of the ASEAN Economic Ministers, said the signing of the two
agreements marked the commitment toward shared prosperity and inclusive
growth in the region. “We send a strong message to the world of our outward
oriented drive and economic resolve toward cooperation,” he said.
Border traders losing money amid North Korea sanctions
BEIJING (AP) — Chinese traders are complaining about new U.N. sanctions
on North Korea, saying they have all but dried up business in the border city of
Dandong. They say they’re unable to collect payment from impoverished North
Korean state companies for goods such as toothpaste, instant noodles, and other
household items. Large-scale trade involving North Korean iron ore and coal has
been banned entirely, dealing a big blow to Dandong’s port, whose operator
defaulted on a $150-million corporate bond. China has long been the North’s
biggest economic partner. Beijing accounted for more than 90 percent of its
neighbor’s foreign trade of about $6.5 billion in 2016, and continues to be a key
source of food and fuel aid to help keep North Korea’s weak economy from
collapsing.
Pohang quake leaves 1,500 homeless, dozens injured
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Officials say a 5.4-magnitude earthquake that
was South Korea’s second-strongest in decades damaged infrastructure, injured
dozens of people, and left about 1,500 homeless. No deaths were reported since
the quake rattled the southeastern coastal region around the port city of
Pohang. The Ministry of the Interior and Safety said at least 1,536 people
evacuated their homes and 57 people were injured. The ministry’s statement
said the quake destroyed or damaged more than 1,000 houses and dozens of
other buildings and cars. Cracks and other damage were found in military
facilities, bridges, port facilities, and water supply facilities. It’s the
second-strongest quake in South Korea since the country began monitoring in
1978. Last year, a 5.8-magnitude quake occurred near Gyeongju.
REPTILE ROUNDUP. Fireman Phinyo Pukphinyo removes a python from a garage roof in Bangkok, Thailand. When
the latest distress call came into Pukphinyo’s fire station in Bangkok, it was not about a burning home or office building.
Instead, the caller needed urgent help with a far more common problem facing Thailand’s capital: snakes. City authorities
say the number of snakes caught in Bangkok homes has risen exponentially in recent years, from 16,000 reported cases in
2013 to about 29,000 in 2016. Figures for the first half of 2017 are more than 30 percent higher than last year. (AP Photo/
Sakchai Lalit)
Bangkok firefighters on front
line of city’s snake scourge
By Tassanee Vejpongsa
The Associated Press
ANGKOK — When the latest distress
call came into Phinyo Pukphinyo’s fire
station in Bangkok, it was not about a
burning home or office building. Instead, the
caller needed urgent help with a far more
common problem facing Thailand’s capital:
snakes.
A 10-foot-long python was dangling from the
caller’s garage roof, and after rushing to the
scene, it took Phinyo less than a minute to
remove the slithering reptile.
The number of snakes ending up in urban
homes is on the rise in Bangkok, apparently in
part because of development pains in the vast
metropolis of about 10 million people.
Tara Buakamsri, Thailand country director
for Greenpeace Southeast Asia, said the city is
seeing more snakes because it sits on a “flood
plain with a wetland ecosystem which is a
habitat [for reptiles], including snakes,” and
housing expansions in recent years have
curtailed their land.
Bangkok’s low-lying landscape makes it
prone to floods during the rainy season, which
also invites snakes and other reptiles such as
monitor lizards.
The huge python Phinyo’s team caught was
not the first of the day, or the last. Hours later,
the station was called to remove a green snake
found in the bathroom of another Bangkok
resident, who apologized to the firefighters for
calling them for the third time this year.
“I’ve been living in this house for 20 years
and we would very rarely see any snakes,” said
the caller and homeowner, Chanun Chisa.
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Ford, Chinese partner form electric car venture
BEIJING (AP) — Ford Motor Co. has announced it is launching a venture with
a Chinese partner to develop electric vehicles for sale in China, the biggest
market for the technology. The announcement of the $750-million venture with
Anhui Zotye Automobile Co. adds to rising investment by global automakers in
China’s growing electric vehicle industry. Zotye already has its own electric
vehicle business and said sales in the first 10 months of this year were up 14
percent over a year earlier, at 22,500. Sales of pure-electric and gasoline-electric
hybrids in China rose 50 percent last year over 2015 to 336,000 vehicles, or 40
percent of global demand. U.S. sales totalled 159,620. Beijing has supported
sales with subsidies and a planned quota system that would require automakers
to produce electric cars or buy credits from companies that do. Ford said it
expects China’s market for all-electrics and hybrids to grow to annual sales of 6
million by 2025. The company said previously that it plans to offer electric
versions of 70 percent of its models sold in China by 2025. Daimler AG’s
Mercedes Benz also makes electric cars with a Chinese partner.
“But this year, it seems like we see one every
few months.”
Phinyo said his fire station gets more calls to
catch snakes than to put out fires.
“In a day, we can get several calls to catch
snakes,” he said. “I think people have just
started to become aware that they can call
officials up to deal with it. Beforehand, people
used to handle the snakes themselves, using
sticks to hit them and that kind of thing.”
He said he can now identify most types of
snakes and has become an in-house instructor
who teaches other firefighters how to safely
capture the wriggly reptiles.
“We have no choice but to learn how to
handle them,” Phinyo said.
Piya Saereerak, a veterinarian who works
for the Thai government’s Department of
National Parks and Wildlife, said Bangkok’s
snake invasion is sustained by the city’s
growing piles of trash, which subsequently
leads to more rats and birds — favored prey for
serpents.
The Thai capital is producing more trash
every year, which it has struggled to get rid of.
The city has produced around 10,454 tons of
trash per day this year, up from 8,943 tons
daily in 2011, according to the Bangkok
Metropolitan Administration.
“In the wild, you’d have eagles and big birds
that eat snakes, and their eggs are food for
other reptiles,” Piya said. “But in a big city like
Bangkok, there is nothing hunting them.”
Piya heads a wildlife clinic that takes in
around 300 to 400 snakes per month from
rescuers such as firefighters in Bangkok.
Every week, the staff from his clinic releases
Continued on page 5
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83.565
4027.0
6.6268
2.0935
7.8116
65.015
13531
35262
112.1
8316.6
4.161
104.1
105.3
3.242
50.953
59.026
3.7502
1.3561
1097.5
153.65
30.084
32.846
22827