A BRIDGE OVER THE TROUBLED WATERS OF THE MEKONG

Posted by AsiaViews | Jan 8, 2018 | 0 |

In the decades ahead, global warming will inexorably alter the ways humans live. Many in the Pacific will have to migrate en masse as the islands they live on disappear beneath the rising sea. Those who live in subtropical areas will have to deal with stronger and more frequent cyclones.

Life in a changed climate will mean a new emphasis on the importance of that natural resource fundamental to human life: water. Control of it will be a point of even greater contention in many parts of the world.

In Southeast Asia, control of the Mekong river is becoming an international wrangle of possibly greater significance than the one in the South China Sea.

While the maritime row centers on the possession of strategic specks of barely inhabited islands and what natural resources may exist nearby, the riverine dispute affects 30 million people in mainland Southeast Asia.

Rising in the Tibetan plateau and emptying into the South China Sea, the Mekong passes through five Southeast Asian countries: Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.

In each country it passes, the 4,350-km-long river plays a pivotal role.

In Myanmar, the Mekong runs through contested areas controlled by armed ethnic militias. The river then defines most of the border between Thailand and Laos and sustains Cambodia through its great lake, the Tonle Sap. Further downstream, sediments enrich the fertile soil of Vietnam’s Mekong Delta.

The low-lying delta region is home to 20 million people—a fifth of Vietnam’s population—and is under threat of inundation from the rising sea. Long before that problem will appear, however, dozens of dams built along the Mekong are adversely affecting its flow and creating a water crisis downstream.

Electricity generation plans by Laos and China, as our first opinion article by Brahma Chellaney outlines, are the main driver of this dam construction.

While the resulting electricity is meant to benefit regional countries through the ASEAN Power Grid, Cambodia and Vietnam are objecting to more dams.

Diplomacy has so far failed to bring about an enduring international understanding on the Mekong.

The intergovernmental Mekong River Commission (MRC) has proven ineffective in bringing China and Myanmar to the negotiating table. A second, China-led initiative, the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation, is making progress instead. Cambodia will host its second summit this week.

Our second opinion article by the Bangkok-based Nation is taking a skeptical stance. For good reason. The political preferences of attending countries make the upholding of the 1995 international treaty on the Mekong, which the MRC advocates, unlikely.

So, where does that leave us? Climate change and its attendant problems loom over the horizon. Water-related crises are unfolding in downstream countries of the Mekong and fast-growing economies of Southeast Asia have legitimate needs for electricity.

It is evident that what we need is political will to work together and negotiate on how to share the bounties of the Mekong.

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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.

“It’s important that the government see these children as victims” says Dyah. “They deserve a chance to be children again.”

A BRIDGE OVER THE TROUBLED WATERS OF THE MEKONG