Against the Current on the Mekong

Posted by AsiaViews | Jan 8, 2018 | 0 |

The Nation, 4 Jan 2018

(Source:http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/opinion/30335343)

National interests and policies regarding the river aren’t flowing in the same direction

A series of summit meetings are planned this year on the future development of the Mekong River basin, and Thailand needs to start playing a more active role. The nations along the river have to agree on a clear, unified strategy if this valuable resource is to be safeguarded from ruinous exploitation.

Leaders of the six riparian countries – Thailand, China, Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam – will gather in Phnom Penh next week for their second Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) summit. In March, it will be Hanoi for a conference of the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS), which has been sponsored by the Asian Development Bank since 1992.

Though the LMC and GMS have identical memberships and significant overlap in their objectives, their focuses differ. The latter considers matters of infrastructure and economic links among the nations of mainland Southeast Asia. The former has a broader outlook, weighing political, security, economic, social and cultural aspects.

The overlaps between the two entities lie in agriculture, trade, tourism, the environment and human resources, all subjects that the national leaders will discuss in different forums at different times. It is important that they pursue every chance to review cooperation schemes to zero in on targets and practice their aim – and to avoid redundancy and wastes of time and resources.

Meanwhile the countries bordering the lower reaches of the Mekong – Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam – will meet in April in Siem Reap, Cambodia, as the Mekong River Commission (MRC). That body seeks to regulate water use and consider the implications of development projects on the main river stream. Such projects must undergo a process of prior public consultation to gauge likely ecological and social impacts. The MRC’s task is made difficult by the fact that China and Myanmar further upstream are building hydroelectric dams and modifying the river channel to facilitate navigation. Neither nation is obliged to adhere to formal agreements on such developments. It makes little sense, obviously, to have a single body attempting to regulate only the lower part of a 4,900-kilometer river. Whatever happens further upstream is bound to have an impact along the entire length. People in the Mekong Delta in southern Vietnam are, for example, catching fewer fish because of what’s happening far to the northwest.

China has built eight dams and plans several more, and its claim to enjoy ‘good cooperation’ with the MRC tends to ring hollow. In particular it points out that water released from its reservoirs helped ease a severe drought in Vietnam in 2016 and that its expertise has aided the Lower Mekong countries during annual flooding. Beijing is not interested in joining the MRC, which would require its signature on a restrictive 1995 treaty. It prefers instead to remain a ‘dialogue partner’.

This stance must be rejected as unacceptable. The entire Mekong River – known in China as the ‘Lancang’ – should be governed as international waters under international law. Thailand should press for a more viable arrangement and a review of overlapping schemes and regulations. The LMC forum next week, at which all the Mekong countries will be represented, would be a good place for Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to begin driving the points home.

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EXTRICATING NDONESIAN CHILDREN FROM ISIS INFLUENCE ABROAD

Indonesia urgently needs to revisit the possibility of repatriating the neediest of its young citizens stranded abroad, whose families had earlier joined ISIS. Most of these children are in camps in northern Syria but there are also small numbers in the Philippines, Afghanistan and Iraq. “Extricating Indonesian Children from ISIS Influence Abroad”, the latest report from the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) argues that the government could begin by bringing back small groups of unaccompanied children under ten years of age, who pose minimal security risk and are most vulnerable to deteriorating conditions in the camps.“The problem is that health and security conditions are worsening by the day in the Syrian camps, and the children are growing older,” says Dyah Kartika, IPAC analyst. “They need access to schools, a nurturing environment, and medical attention. If the government waits too long, the children will be further exposed to ISIS ideology.” The new report examines a 2019 list of Indonesians in camps and prisons run by the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The Indonesian government has been trying to verify their citizenship, but with pseudonyms, misspellings and bad transliterations, it is a daunting task. At the time the data was collected, between March and June 2019, there were 555 Indonesians in SDF camps and prisons, including 367 children. Among the children, approximately 277 were under the age of ten and 34 were unaccompanied. In June 2021, there are fewer than ten children who are both unaccompanied and under the age of ten that could be prioritized for return. Bringing back children of ISIS families is no easy task. The report analyses the main challenges faced by the Indonesian government. These include definitional issues, bureaucratic competition, the difficulty of verifying nationality, evaluating the toll of exposure to conflict, assessing security risk, and finding relatives or others willing to provide care once the children are returned. In addition, COVID has meant stringent restrictions on travel, placing further obstacles in the way of repatriation. There are several models for rehabilitation of children exposed to violent extremism in Indonesia that could be modified to accommodate the needs of children repatriated from abroad. The report examines these models and argues that the government does not need to have every detail of rehabilitation programs in place before it starts extricating children from ISIS influence. It can start by bringing back the most vulnerable children and then modify programs as needed.

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Against the Current on the Mekong