“Police have sent the hard liquors mixed with harmful substances to the laboratory in Semarang to be tested,” Metro TV quoted Sleman police chief Yulianto as saying.

Deaths from moonshine are common in Indonesia, particularly in rural areas where many villagers are unable to afford licensed spirits.

– Reuters

But historian Thant Myint-U, whose Yangon Heritage Trust has lobbied to preserve the city’s crumbling colonial-era architecture, has raised alarm over a recent surge in the destruction of old buildings.

“Over the past few months we’ve seen a rise in the number of demolitions, including six or seven buildings downtown, and also a lot of inappropriate new construction,” he said.

The recently razed buildings include a prominent teakwood house, police station and shophouse, the Trust said.

Thant Myint-U said he suspects the uptick in demolitions is linked to the country’s tense power transition.

“People don’t really know what’s on the other side of this change of government…so I think people want to rush through whatever they can,” he said.

He expects the new parliament to tighten building codes and regulations.

Yangon maintains a list of 189 recognised heritage sites, but lacks legislation to protect the buildings, many of which have rotted into disrepair or been bulldozed for new development.

Residents displaced

The city lies at the centre of huge changes that have swept through long-isolated Myanmar under the quasi-civilian government that replaced outright junta rule in 2011, attracting surging investment in response to the reforms.

Cranes spike the skyline, while once sleepy streets are tightly packed with newly imported cars.

The changes have also unleashed a scramble for land, sparking conflicts between often impoverished locals and the state in a nation where ownership rights are notoriously murky, and the military and elite stand accused of widespread land grabbing.

Settling these competing land claims is likely to be a major challenge for the new government led bySuu Kyi‘s party.

The Myanmar National Human Rights Commission last week raised concerns over a recent spate of evictions as government workers flattened hundreds of shanty homes in Yangon and Mandalay.

It said officials had failed to provide promised food, temporary shelter and healthcare for those made homeless in the expulsions.

“In reality there was no help for them, so they looked after themselves as best they could on the side of the road,” the statement said on Wednesday, urging officials to take care of the basic needs of those affected.

In one of the controversial evictions, authorities used mechanical diggers to destroy nearly 500 shanty dwellings on land next to an army-owned factory on the northern outskirts of Yangon, leaving residents destitute in what many said was a shock move after just a day’s notice.

Tin May Win, 42, said her family spent two decades cultivating the plot, which was an over-run mess of wild plants when they first arrived.

“No owner ever appeared during the 18 years that I lived there,” she said.

– AFP

Wise advice from Malaysian authorities to keep our young people safe from militant threats online?

Sadly, no.

And this manual is a mere appendix to a detailed best practices guide IS has circulated among its members to help them cover their tracks online and thwart surveillance.

Uncovered by researchers from the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point’s military academy in New York last year, the guide even comes with 24-hour customer support service!

Now try any of the cyber security initiatives for young people run by local agencies and authorities, like Cybersecurity Malaysia and the Malaysian Communications and Multi-media Commission – IS is not mentioned on their sites as one of the online threats youths are facing today, what more advice on protection against cyber militants.

Don’t even look for any counter messaging against IS propaganda.

While a spokesperson says that the MCMC does use various programmes such as talks, workshops and other events to warn the public about the danger of IS, it doesn’t seem to do so anywhere online that we could find.

To say that we are losing to IS in the online war on terror is an understatement.

As local terrorism expert Ahmad El-Muhammady sees it, “We have been gunned down by the IS media team.”

We have to admit that we are not up to the mark in countering IS social media strength, says the International Islamic University of Malaysia lecturer who has been working closely with Malaysian police on militant research and rehabilitation programmes.

“We don’t understand the way they work. In fact, we don’t even study them properly before fighting them,” he feels.

The Government’s announcement at the recent International Conference on Deradicalization and Countering Violent Extremism in Kuala Lumpur that a regional digital centre to counter IS propaganda will be set up this May could not come any sooner.

Ahmad points out that Bukit Aman Counter Terrorism division principal assistant director Datuk Ayub Khan Mydin Pitchay had highlighted as far back as May last year that around 95% to 98% of Malaysians were recruited via social media.

That we are still using the “old style” to address this issue is a big problem, says Ahmad.

“We failed to reach out to the youth because we are using an outdated medium of communication while the militant group is far more advanced than us in capitalising on new technology, IT, social media and HD videos to spread its ideology.

“Generation Y communicates more electronically or virtually than Generation X.

“Ceramah (public talks) for the public is good but we have to admit, it has certain limitations. If we continue on this path, I’m not optimistic we will win hearts or this battle,” he says.

It is urgently vital to take the fight online, he stresses, as he indicates his support of the plans for the anti-IS regional digital centre.

To be fair, plans for the Regional Digital Counter-messaging Communication Centre (RDC3) were first mooted last September, and the Malaysian police, with the cooperation of agencies like the MCMC and the Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim), have been working hard to track IS followers and fight, if not stop, the influence of the militant group. A number of terror attempts have been foiled.

The number of Malaysians being recruited, however, has not declined. It is, in fact, growing.

To date, it is estimated that over 150 Malaysian citizens have been arrested for terrorism-related activities.

At least 47 Malaysians are reported to be with the militant group in Syria and Iraq. Some 200 Malaysian and Indonesian fighters primed for “specialised missions” – as snipers and suicide bombers – have been detected in the Malay-speaking arm of the IS, Katibah Nusantara.

The number of potential “lone wolf” attackers in the country is unknown.

The RDC3 can help us effectively combat the terror group on its most critical frontier, notes Ahmad, and hopefully stem the flow of Malaysians joining IS.

While the details of the new centre have not been disclosed, it is confirmed that the RDC3 will be modelled on the Sawab Center, a joint initiative by the UAE and the US governments launched last July in Abu Dhabi to counter IS online propaganda and recruitment drives.

As alluded by its name “Sawab” – which in Arabic means “doing the right thing” or “being on the right path” – the centre aims to promote “true Islam” through online communication and social media to present a more “attractive” alternative to the extremist narrative of IS.

One of its objectives, states the Sawab Center’s media arm, is to amplify the voices of moderation against IS by using social media platforms and allow the silent majority to express its opinions.

Soon after its inception, the Sawab Center launched a Twitter account, @SawabCenter, which was followed by a hashtag campaign #CampaignToReportDaeshSupporters encouraging Twitter users to report content and users spreading Daesh (IS) propaganda.

In December, the centre launched an Instagram account.

Other online campaigns include #exposing-Daesh-lies to increase public awareness of the militant group, #DaeshDeniesHerDignity to debunk the “glamour” of jihadi brides, and most recently, #DeludedFollowers, to expose IS tactics to recruit foreign fighters from across the globe.

With more than 30,000 followers on social media, the Sawab Center may still have some way to go considering that there are some 100 million youths aged 15 to 29 in the Middle East alone, but its campaigns are gaining traction, hitting over 420 million views after six months.

Ahmad believes the Sawab Center is a good model to follow in Malaysia’s digital efforts to combat IS.

“Besides ceramah and public talks, we need to create short video clips, posters to be shared online, short messages to be spread via smartphones and social media, to explain and inform the public about how IS deviates from the true teachings of Islam.”

However, he stresses, it is imperative for Malaysia to make the necessary changes to suit local needs and the ever changing scenarios of today.

Echoing Ahmad’s stand on the need to tailor the RDC3’s IS counter-narrative to the local and regional context, the Foreign Policy and Security Studies director at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies Malaysia, Elina Noor, stresses the importance of substance in the content of the messages.

“Ideally, this should not be a copy-and-paste job from other regions. The messages can draw from examples outside the region and even address, for example, foreign policy grievances but, ultimately, they should speak to the local context of the target audience.

“If the messages are meant for a Malaysian audience, they should be tailored to fit a Malaysian audience. Similarly for other countries in the region. This will require an intimate understanding of local conditions, even local drivers of grievances, and being honest enough about confronting some uncomfortable political issues, real or perceived.”

Elina also believes that it is key to stress this region’s religious and cultural diversity.

To quote her from her recent article on the digital initiative in a local daily, we need to “boldly recapture the historical testimony of this country and South-East Asia”, and reclaim this region’s “brand of faith – in word and practice – (which is) … long marked by accommodation, tolerance and acceptance”.

Crucially, she reiterates, this message will only be effective in countering the extremist ideology that IS peddles if it is matched in speech and practice in our daily lives.

“We cannot preach how God created nations and tribes among us so that we may get to know each other, yet retreat into our communal cocoons barbed with hateful rhetoric and action.”

Another point to be considered is the moniker Islamic State for the militant group which is widely used here, says Elina who prefers to use the term “Daesh”.

“If we choose to use the term ‘Islamic State’ because it is a convenient shorthand in the English medium, we should always pair it up with ‘the so-called’ or ‘the self-professed/proclaimed’. I am more inclined to use the phrase ‘Daesh’ because there are derogatory undertones to the term. As you may know, while Daesh is the acronym for what the group calls itself in Arabic, acronyms are not as commonly used in Arabic as they are in English. My understanding is that ‘Da’esh’ is one word away from the word ‘daa’ash’, which means to trample or crush underfoot.”

Equally important is for the authorities to get their messaging uniformly right, she argues.

“I have seen the word ‘jihad’ used in a government media broadcast and in police press releases when describing the activities of Malaysian fighters in Syria and Iraq. We should avoid this completely if we are to effectively convey the message that what groups like Daesh and their supporters/sympathisers are doing is wrong. We cannot sell the message of condemnation of those activities on the one hand yet inadvertently legitimise it by associating them with ‘jihad’ on the other.”

On the medium of messaging for RDC3, Elina pushes for the inclusion of Bahasa Malaysia, along with other relevant languages in the region, depending on the target audience.

To appeal to the young, however, the language of messaging should avoid the tone of preaching or lecturing, she stresses.

“This can come across as patronising. Rather, it should sow doubt, particularly in the minds of those thinking about travelling to fight in Syria and Iraq, intellectually challenge them, and offer constructive alternative options for those seeking to effect some kind of change.

“This will, after all, be a battle of ideas so those in charge of RDC3 will need to set a high intellectual bar to empower people to make the right decisions for themselves. There will no doubt need to be constant tweaking along the way to get the messaging just right.”

The 112th Branch of the Pasay City Regional Trial Court has yet to open Arroyo’s trial for electoral fraud.

She has won an order from the Supreme Court temporarily stopping her trial for plunder.

Arroyo has questioned court resolutions that denied her right to seek a ruling on the sufficiency of the evidence against her.

She also claims that detention has worsened her many ailments.

Duterte, who served as presidential consultant on public order in Arroyo’s administration, said Arroyo, like ordinary citizens, was entitled to a speedy trial.

“If [the prosecution] is not ready, every time the case is called for hearing, [the court] should dismiss [the charges] because [the delay also] delays justice,” Duterte said.

Why Tondo

Duterte and his running mate, Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, will launch their campaign in Tondo, Manila, on Tuesday.

READ: Duterte-Cayetano proclamation rally: Why in Tondo?

Manila Rep. Amado Bagatsing said on Saturday that Duterte and Cayetano chose Tondo to dramatize the need to rescue the Filipinos from poverty.

“Tondo mirrors the true state and image of Filipinos who are trying to break free from extreme poverty,” Bagatsing, who is running for mayor of Manila under Duterte’s PDP-Laban, said in a statement.

The choice of Tondo also has a historical significance for Duterte, Bagatsing said.

Tondo is the birthplace of national hero Andres Bonifacio, a brave leader of the revolution against Spain who was known for his sympathy for the poor, Bagatsing said.

“Bonifacio and Duterte have so much in common aside from being born of the working class. They symbolize our people’s burning desire to break loose from poverty and oppression,” he said. With a report from Nancy C. Carvajal

Soukhaseum is hosting the exhibition because he wants to encourage more people to take a deeper interest in painting and see the importance of art and culture and ensure its preservation for future generati ons, as well as supporting disadvantaged children in Laos.

Soukhaseum was born on August 1, 1947, at Vat Chan village, Chanthabouly district, Vientiane. He lived in London, England, for a long time, but at the moment he is visiting his birthplace in Laos.

He recalls that he started to practice painting when he was young, producing hundreds of pictures, and many people liked his artworks.

After finishing secondary school, he studied art at the Fine Art School in Vientiane from 1962-1966.

When he finished his studies there, he was asked to teach at the school due to the lack of art teachers at the time. After teaching there for several years, he moved to continue on with higher level studies at a technical college in Vientiane.

However, during his time studying at the college, as an active student he thought that the course was not enough for him because he felt that he was not fulfilling his artistic potential.

So, he eagerly planned to study abroad at a higher level, moved to England and studied at the Chelsea School of Art and Design, in London, in 1972. Studying there made him feel strongly that the move was right in order to fulfill his artistic development, and finally he received a Diploma in Art and Design with distinction.

When he finished his studies he made a decision to live in England because he enjoyed living aboard even though he still loved his motherland.

He started to participate in painting exhibitions in 1963 and painting competitions in 1966 and won numerous prizes. After that he held and took part in many art exhibitions in England and Laos.

After leaving Laos in 1972, he returned to visit his birthplace in Vientiane for the first time in 1990.

Since 1990, he has been back to visit Laos several times. On each occasion, he has produced several artworks, which he left in Laos with the thought that one day when he held an exhibition he could use them and also allow other artists to look at them and gain inspiration.

Besides the current exhibition, there was an auction that lasted from January 26 to February 2. The winner was Kiengkham Rasasombath with a bid of US$800.

Some 40 percent of the money from the auction went towards helping children from the northern provinces, and 60 percent went to the maintenance of the exhibition venue and supporting local artists.

Soukhaseum said that he is very happy to visit Laos again and hold another exhibition. Years ago, he hosted many exhibitions but after that he did not host an exhibition in Laos for a long time. So, this is a special exhibition because he has prepared various colourful paintings to go on display.

“I think it is important to share my passion and expertise in art among the people of Laos. I also feel the need to share the skills and knowledge I have gained.”

“Using myself as an example, I wish to inspire other artists as to see what can be achieved if you put your mind, heart and soul into something. From my experience, you have to work extremely hard in order to succeed and be successful in what you do.”

“As an example, if you don’t look after a flower by giving it the water and nutrients it needs, then it will never grow to be beautiful in return,” he said.

The Deputy Director of Maison de la Culture de Ban Naxay or Cultural Exhibition House of Naxay village, Ms Xayprani Chanthalangsy said that Soukhaseum is an active professional artist who works hard at his painting and when he holds exhibitions, the funds raised go towards supporting other Lao artists and helping local children.

She congratulated him on his great success in his profession and urged Vientiane residents to visit the exhibition which is currently on show at the Cultural Exhibition House of Naxay, on Sisangvone Road, Naxay village, Xaysettha district, which runs from January 26 to February 16.