Crackdown on online publishers, debt restructuring in Pakistan and Sri Lanka, Nepal’s registration of same-sex marriages and more
Southasiasphere is our roundup of news events and analysis of regional affairs, now out every two weeks. If you are a member, you will automatically receive links to new episodes in your inbox. If you are not yet a member, you can still get episode links for free by signing up here.
In this episode, we talk about crackdowns on online publishers and activists in India, Sri Lanka and Myanmar, as well as Pakistan's IMF deal and Sri Lanka's domestic debt-restructuring process.
For "Around Southasia in 5 minutes", we talk about Aung San Suu Kyi's last appeal for reduced sentencing, Nepal's registration of same-sex marriage, increased incidents of mob lynching in Bihar and Maharashtra, the impact of the monsoon in India and Pakistan, and four Tibetan students' attempt to flee to India.
For "Bookmarked", we discuss the 2023 movie Polite Society, directed by Nida Manzoor.
Episode notes
This podcast episode is now available on Soundcloud, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Youtube
***
This is a machine-generated, unedited transcript of the episode and may contain inaccuracies. For exactness, please refer to the recording.
This episode was recorded on the 11th of July 2023.
Raisa Wickrematunge: Hi everyone and welcome to Southasiasphere, our fortnightly roundup of news events and regional affairs. I'm Raisa, and I'm joined by my colleague and fact-checker and researcher Saheli. Hi Saheli!
Saheli Wikramanayake: Hi Raisa!
RW: So this episode, for our big stories, we're going to be talking about crackdowns on freedom of expression for online publishers and activists across the region, and Pakistan's staff level agreement with the IMF and Sri Lanka's domestic debt restructuring. In Around Southasia in 5 Minutes, we're talking about Myanmar hearing Aung Sun Suu Kyi's appeal for a shortened sentence, Nepal becoming the first Southasian country to register same-sex marriages, incidents of mob lynching in Bihar and Maharashtra, the impact of monsoon rain in India and Pakistan, and the arrest of 4 Tibetan students as they tried to escape to India. Let's start off with what's been happening in Kerala.
Now in Kerala for the past two weeks, there has been this crackdown on freedom of expression which has actually extended across the region, as we'll get into in a bit. On July 3rd, Kochi police raided Malayalam news portal, Marunadhan Malayalee's office, as well as the residences of several staff members and they even raided staff members', relatives and friends' houses as well. Now several laptops, cameras and the phone of at least one journalist were seized in these raids. This was all in relation to a video that the Kerala High Court said insulted Kunnathunad Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) PV Sreenijin, his father and several unnamed judicial officers. On July 10th, the Supreme Court heard the editor of the portal, Shajan Skaria's plea for anticipatory bail. Meanwhile on the 10th of June, Kerala police named a senior woman journalist at Asianet, Akhila Nandakumar, as an accused in a defamation case which was lodged by the Student's Federation of India. This is the student union arm of the CPI(M) party. The Kerala Union of Working Journalists has called the case an attempt to stifle independent media. All these cases have put the ruling CPI(M) party in the spotlight.
In Myanmar on June 28th, the Western Yangon District Court sentenced Thaung Win, the publisher of the Irrawady, to five years in prison for sedition and also imposed a hundred thousand kyat fine. Win was initially charged with violating the Publishing and Distribution Act for allegedly publishing news that allegedly negatively affected national security, rule of law and public peace. The Committee to Protect Journalists called the sentence punitive and unjust, and called for a reversal.
In Sri Lanka, activist Tharindu Uduwaragedara, who owns the YouTube channel Satahan Radio, was summoned to the CID to record a statement about comments made around the arrest of the comedian Nathasha Edirisooriya. She was arrested initially under the ICCPR Act and was recently granted bail. And in her case, the Colombo High Court noted that the joke that Natasha made that led to her arrest could not be considered as inciting national or religious or racial hatred, and even noted that the ICCPR Act was being implemented in a manner that was contrary to its intended purpose. And despite this, those who condemned her arrest, including Uduwaragedara, were still subject to questioning, especially those who were participating in the protests around Sri Lanka's economic crisis. Now what all these instances have in common is the use of legislation to target and impede free expression, including online speech. And this was particularly used to target journalists and activists across the region.
[Sound clips from Pakistan and Sri Lanka]
SW: On the 30th of June, Pakistan reached a staff level agreement with the IMF to unlock USD 3 billion worth of funding. This funding was reported as coming "at the nick of time," as Pakistan remained on the edge of default. Now, there were some positive signs in the stock market and with the Pakistani rupee appreciating against the dollar. But there are still a lot of issues to navigate. So Moody's Investor Service and Fitch Ratings, both said that Pakistan will require significantly more funding than what the IMF is giving them, because the country owes USD 25 billion in this fiscal year alone. There's also the fact that Pakistan is set to go for national elections in October. The IMF staff reportedly met with leaders from key political parties to seek assurances that they are committed to the objectives and policies under the agreement. These policies include reforms to the currency exchange rate and austerity measures to cut down government spending. And these policies are never politically popular. Understandably, given the impact that they have on people who are already suffering with inflation and shortages.
Another major hurdle that Pakistan will have to overcome is agreeing on how to restructure its debts with its creditors. This is something that Sri Lanka is in the process of, and it's proving to be as difficult as expected. So in early July, Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister Ali Sabry said that China won't be joining the official credit committee formed by 17 credit countries, led by India, Japan and France. He said though, that they are very confident about Beijing's support despite this. After meetings with the Chinese Finance Minister and the Chairman of China's Exim Bank. But China's staying out of the credit committee means that Sri Lanka will have to negotiate restructuring the significant debt over the China and Chinese entities separately. And this complicates the entire process, especially because all creditors will insist on being treated equitably.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka is also restructuring its domestic debt. Though the government tried to make it more palatable by marketing the process as "domestic debt optimisation," the decision was still met with much controversy. Some question the need for domestic debt restructuring at all, while others question why only debts owed to the pension fund are being restructured with debts owed to banks remaining untouched. Others also suggest that this is being pushed by international creditors.
Another unpopular reform that's being pushed by the IMF is to the welfare scheme in Sri Lanka. So the government introduced a new scheme called Aswesuma to replace the existing Samurdhi scheme. But analysis by the Center for Poverty Analysis suggests that the Aswesuma scheme reaches far fewer families in poverty than Samurdhi, despite an increase in the poverty rate. They estimate that there is a higher drop in the recipients in the estate sector, which has higher poverty rates to begin with. And it concludes that though Samurdhi was flawed, which is why reforms were pushed, the new scheme isn't any better. Protests were held island wide against the scheme. But overall Pakistan and Sri Lanka's experiences demonstrate the difficulties of countries in debt crises.
And now for our next segment, Around Southasia in 5 Minutes.
RW: On July 5th Myanmar's Supreme Court heard final arguments in an appeal from deposed Myanmar leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, against several convictions on incitement, election fraud and corruption, as she sought to reduce her 33-year sentence. Lawyers also filed appeal arguments on behalf of former President Win Myint and Min Thu, a former minister of the government office, both of whom were convicted with Suu Kyi in the election fraud case. Now Suu Kyi's legal team has faced several hurdles, including being unable to meet with her to receive her instructions for the appeals. Suu Kyi's supporters and legal experts say the case is an attempt to legitimise the military coup and present a facade that the military respects the rule of law while preventing her return to politics. While the military has made numerous references to an election, which will allow a transition to civilian administration, they claim, there's been no definite death set and many of the remaining parties, including the National Unity Government, are likely to boycott any elections.
[Sound clips from Nepal]
In Nepal, on June 28, the Supreme Court ordered the government to immediately begin registering same-sex marriages, while amendments to the country's civil court are being prepared. This landmark ruling makes Nepal the first Southasian country to recognise same-sex marriages. This is the latest in a series of progressive judgments from the Supreme Court, starting in 2007 with a judgement decriminalising homosexuality, though implementation and broader societal acceptance has been slower. In May, we published a letter by Bhojraj Pokharel, a former Chief Election Commissioner, and an influential leader of Nepali Civil Society, translated by Niranjan Kunwar. In the letter, he uses the story of his son coming out to his family to call for social acceptance and full rights for the LGBTQ community in Nepal. It's a really powerful piece and worth a read. It's linked in the episode notes.
RW: At the end of June, there were two incidents of mob lynching of Muslim men in the space of just four days. Afsan Ansari was lynched in Nashik by cow vigilantes due to suspicion that he was transporting beef. Ansari was travelling to Mumbai when he was attacked. Earlier on June 8, three men transporting cattle were also attacked by vigilantes in Nashik, resulting in the death of 23-year-old Lukman Ansari who was discovered two days later. On June 30, it was also reported that 55-year-old truck driver, Jaharuddin, was killed by a mob in Saran district while he was on his way to a bone dust factory. These incidents come after a court in Jharkand handed out 10-year sentences to 10 men accused of lynching 24-year-old Tabrez Ansari in 2019. He later died in hospital. His wife said that she was not satisfied with the sentence and would appeal against it. In 2019, we published an interview with Vasundhara Sirnate of the Polis Project, exploring how the National Crime Records Bureau had collected data for incidents of mob lynching in 2017, but then didn't release it, indicating that these incidents are only increasing. We'll link to it in the episode notes.
SW: Across the region, monsoon rain-related incidents have been reported. In Pakistan, 80 people died and 142 were injured, mostly in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Lahore experienced record-breaking rainfall of over 200mm, the highest in 30 years. Meanwhile in Northern India, at least 22 people have died in flash floods and landslides. According to the weather department, several districts in Himachal Pradesh received a month's rainfall in a single day. Delhi, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh have received 112%, 100% and 70% more rainfall than average in this monsoon season. It's been a little over a year since the devastating floods in Pakistan and India in the last monsoon season. We've published several pieces on the climate crisis and how it impacts Southasia in particular. Do check them out. I recommend checking out the explainer we published in 2021 called Count Your Climate Losses, which looks at reports assessing climate change in the region and how they look at climate damages, and 2021 and 2022 climate event strikers to see how extreme weather events have been affecting the region.
RW: On July 4, 4 Tibetan students were arrested while trying to flee to India, non-profit Tibet Watch reported. A further four students are missing. The eight students who come from Second Middle school in Chuchen first tried to leave Tibet in March 2023 but were stopped by police. According to Tibet Watch, quoting an anonymous source, police had contacted the parents of the missing students and told them that they had crossed the border and were in the hands of criminal or blacklisted organisations. They had asked for 80,000 yen per child for their release. Locals suspect that the four are actually in police custody with the police trying to extract a high ransom for their release.
And now for our next segment, Bookmarked. Saheli, do you have any recommendations?
SW: Thanks, Raisa. Yes, I do. So for this episode, I'm recommending Polite Society, a movie by British Pakistani director Nida Manzoor. It's an action comedy following these two sisters, Ria and Lena, who have, I guess, unconventional career aspirations and goals and they're trying to navigate it in this sort of hybrid British-Pakistani society. So Ria, the younger sister, wants to be a stunt woman and Lena wants to be an artist, though she's recently dropped out of art school and instead of going back, she chooses to get engaged. The movie sort of follows Ria trying to stop that from happening. It's a really hilarious movie. It's over the top and almost satire in some places, especially in the action scenes, and like the plot itself is sort of unashamedly ridiculous. But it's not just a ridiculous movie. It has a lot of charm and emotion in it, in how it focuses on the relationship between the two sisters and how messy and complicated it can be. So yeah, it's a lighthearted, fun watch that still carries an emotional punch to it and I really recommend it.
[Clip from the Polite Society trailer]
RW: Yes, I agree. I watched it as well and it was a really fun watch. I liked how it very subtly showed how difficult it can be to try to fit into what is expected of you as a member of a diaspora community. And for example, I could really relate to the elder sister who was emerging from a shop and just chewing on an entire piece of chicken and the disapproving looks of the aunties passing by. And if you live in this region, you will know how the scrutiny of aunties can impact your everyday life and actions. So I liked those subtle little kinds of humorous touches and definitely I really loved how they explored the relationship between the two sisters and how close they were but also didn't shy away from how contentious and fractious that relationship can be. I really loved how it showed the way they argued and showed the almost violence of what they said physically as well as, you know, emotionally. So definitely you would need to suspend your disbelief to watch this because there are parts of it that are unbelievable, ridiculous, kind of spectacular. But if you can go in thinking that then it's just a really fun watch. And I also loved how it was an ode to female rage and what it can achieve just through pure rage. And in that sense, it kind of reminded me of this other film on Netflix. I think it was called Do Revenge, which was a teenage coming of age, high school drama, which also was satirical and pushed it to a hilarious degree. So if you like that then I think you probably enjoy this movie and I also recommend watching it.
***