Daily commentary on Asian business, management, market research, marketing tips, business prospects, economic and culture news. Market prospects. Economic prospects. Short reviews, links, advice, satire and topical coverage for international and Asian managers doing business in Asia.

The Hari Ini column is available daily on the Asian Business Strategy & Street Intelligence Ezine home page. Sure.. go there now for more of the same. At least it's fresher...

This page contains one month of the archives.

The Hari Ini column documents off-the cuff comments, very odd spots, unsubstantiated rumours, misinterpretations, cruel innuendo, limp jokes, dodgy links, tips lacking in credibility, and other material very roughly related to Asian business, marketing, management, culture, politics, economics and why the earth is round.

Some of the items emerge into sections later on; some are contributed by email or word of mouth by friends of the forum, columnists, editorial advisors, and the Chao Phraya River Rat. ..Most of it just ends up here...

Basically it means we can at least comment on happenings that we wouldn't otherwise have the time to.

"Hari Ini" means "Today" in both Malaysian and Indonesian.

..Which means that everything on this page is already outta date...

As the masthead suggests, this column also includes all the news that doesn't fit..

It also means we can add some lightheartedness and CNN type shallowness to our otherwise more serious content. As CNN proves, such content sells...

Mostly the column just reflects the mood of the editors on the day, and gives a potted summary of key issues in the region. If you want it to reflect your mood as well, email us contributions at chiyo@apmforum.com.

Chiyo Hyiuiki (Webmaster, and on behalf of the editors)

We know where you live Moody-San: Moodys is considering upgrading Malaysia sometime this year but may downgrade Japan as early as today, despite the Mafioso-tinged threat from Japan's finance minister that Moodys "...should not do anything they may regret..." | Dave from Canada wrote in to let us know that not only Australians and Taiwanese are partial to a decent pub brawl in parliament, as reported in an earlier Hari Ini. He writes.. "Personally I was always partial to Tom Wolfe's description of a "tauro-scatalogical epithet". It reminds me of the Western Canadian MP who made reference to the Conservative leader's lineage being descended from canines before charging across the floor to try and assault him. All captured gloriously on the House of Commons television network..." | The Malaysian KLSE stock market index has reversed its downwards trend of the past month yesterday and today in anticipation of the Moody's upgrade referred to earlier. Moodys says that Malaysia should be rated as high as Thailand because its has made more structural reforms and has higher growth prospects. | Also on Malaysia, Barclays Hong Kong estimates the Malaysian Ringitt is undervalued by around 20% | Singapore has become the darling of the world community in the last 2 years. De-regulation, notably in finance and recently the media, opening up of the market, continued increasing transparancy and leadership in reducing corruption and even loosening the tight control over censorship and free speech, has defined a new Singapore. The US Embassy in Singapore however is not so impressed, whose usembassysingapore.org.sg site expresses doubt whether continued government control is really nurturing a workforce with the skills to take full advantage of the Information Age. According to the Yankee Embassy, "The effectiveness of the government has ironically reduced the propensity of the populace to anticipate new challenges and effect survival strategies on its own. ...In this respect, Singapore may be a 'victim' of its own success in that decades of economic prosperity under a paternalistic but committed and competent government has led to a comfort zone developing around the people." | We may sympathise with Microsoft in that it's very success in the free market to control much of the IT industry has led to an attack by the very government that likes to see itself as the model of free enterprise internationally. Microsoft has also produced some very good (though often unstable and increasingly expensive) software. Yet the spin of the MS PR chappies that MS has been a model of innovation and creativity and has empowered their users does stretch credibility. Windows itself was a copy of the Apple OS. MS's most innovative software has been acquired, not developed. Creative programmers are dissuaded from creating new software because of the expectation that MS would produce similar though inferior products down the line and wipe out independent competitors simply on the basis of their marketing dollars and industry control. As far as the Internet is concerned, MS first tried to take the Internet head on with its own first version of the Compuserve-inspired MSN and despite its power, failed miserably. Windows was far behind IBM and Apple on providing internet access through their OS. As Larry Eddison says, Gate's biography "The Road Ahead", didn't mention the Internet once. Don't fall for the hype. Microsoft became rich by copying, acquiring, and just simple marketing muscle in a market they dominated. Creativity, Innovation and "Empowering the consumer" continues to play an almost insignificant part in Microsoft's success. | Customs offices sometimes DO have a fun job: Recent headline in the Bangkok Post reporting on the success of customs agents in detecting an illegal shipment of a Chinese delicacy - "Customs officers seize hundreds of rooster's testicles" -Ouch!- | Accepted that immigration officers around the world are never the most jovial of people (they are coppers after all), but how long will Kuala Lumpur immigration desk clerks continue to wear those bright yellow smiley-face "Service with a Smile" buttons? Maybe they think it saves the effort of exercising those facial muscles in reality? Or is it a subtle warning that you are about to enter a country where hype and reality co-exist uneasily...? Get rid of the buttons and restore the credibility...

Bangkok: Monday June 26th 2000

Chang Invasion: Reports received today that a horde of elephants and their mahouts are gathering on the outskirts of Bangkok ready to invade after the new Bangkok governor is installed. The previous governor, under pressure from conservationists and in order to be seen as doing something about Bangkok traffic jams banned elephants from the streets of Bangkok. Mahouts brought them to Bangkok to entertain tourists who would buy bananas and watermelons to feed them for 20 Baht a pop. This provided both elephants and mahouts a much better income than back in the provinces. Some brave souls are assuming everything will be back to normal much sooner than expected and it will no longer be necessary to resort to our guide to 20 ways to hide an elephant from the coppers. They may be misled however. If the poll leader Samak, under a cloud for his involvement in the 1976 massacre, gets in, he will probably shoot them... | The ruling Japanese coalition will extend it's decades-long term, though PM Yoshiro Mori may lose his position as head of the LDP and as PM after counting from yesterday's election concludes this week. It was a close result on a rainy day with a low turn out following more than a decade of economic decline and a few months of poor economic news. ..And this in the face of a resurging Asia with China at it's forefront. For excellent background go to Asia Source's Special Japanese Election Report, for comment - to Asia Times' Japanese economy page, and for breaking news to Yahoo and Excite. | HR Guide provides credible free resources on Human Resource Management, though it has a US rather than global perspective. Nevetheless they redeemed themselves somewhat by adding a link to the APMF. Seriously - well worth a bookmark for HR heads. | We THINK we know what they mean: Increasingly popular restaurant for Thai yuppies and expats is bringing in the punters. We've referred to the original and creative names Thais give to their small businesses. Some may think twice however before booking a table for two at "Brown Eyes"... | Not only are Thai's highly creative, they are also a very modest and polite people, and we have given many examples during the years. The tradition carries on... Spied behind the bar at our fave restaurant in Bangkok - Bourbon Street - was a "cheat sheet" of the ingredients for some of those outrageously named cocktails favoured by the considerably ruder Westerners. Right down the bottom was the recipe for a "Screaming Organism". | Big shindig in Warsaw today attended by Kofi Annan, the rude American Madeline Albright and more than 100 leaders to discuss "the state of world democracy" culminating in a new Warsaw Declaration on Democracy. More interesting were those left off the guest list - China, Iraq, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Cuba, Vietnam, Taiwan and Malaysia. The exclusion of Taiwan is of course a sop to China. | One Malaysian Muslim hostage out of the 20 Malaysians, Europeans, and Philippinos held by Moro rebels was released yesterday. Watch the Philippines and Malaysia fight it out for the credit in the next few days...

Kuala Lumpur: Friday June 23rd 2000

Thais can at last read the (almost) totally unexpurgated report of the enquiry into the May 1992 bloodshed after public outcry forced the government to republish the previously heavily edited document. According to the report a major factor in the bloodshed was "instigation by a third party". Naturally, political parties implicated have denied any role.. | Galahs invade the house: Those who have spent some time in the Ozzie outback would know that a galah is a colorful common native Australian bird with a raucous squawk, ..and a personality similar to the wombat which eats roots and leaves. Seems the galahs have now flocked to Canberra. Australia's parliament saw 6 MP's expelled during Wednesday's session. Among jibes used during a heated question time were "sanctimonious windbag", "grub", "crawl back under your rock", and the common very short two word phrase denoting that one should leave and have sexual intercourse at the same time (quite a feat when you think about it...) The Australian newspaper called it a "national disgrace", and it does seem that though Paul Keating has retired his legacy does indeed live on. ...Still - its not that bad... Nothing of course compared to the Taiwanese parliament where honourable members regularly resort to fisticuffs, pulling each other's hair and grabbing each other's glasses. Nor Thai parliament where they just go to sleep. ...Nor the US parliament where they gossip about their presidents private sex life interminably. Hell.. why can't they just all be well behaved like in Malaysia and Singapore? As for the Ozzie bad boys.. well we just hope that their chickens all turn into emus and kick their dunny down... | Interesting article and reference starting point on Education, manpower and development in South Korea | Don't go pulling our pig-tails... "Waiting" a book by Chinese-American Ha Jin which won the US National Book Prize has been banned in China according to the Washington Post today. According to Liu Yiqing, a Beijing university academic, "Just because there are people like Ha Jin who is willing to smear his compatriots in order to win an award, the West, especially the United States, cannot change its impression of China, formed at the beginning of the 20th century, that Chinese are cowardly, ignorant, dirty and lazy, smoke opium, have bound feet and have no guts to fight back when their pigtails are being seized." | It looks like Japan's ruling party will win the upcoming election despite ex-Rugby player PM Yoshiro Mori's continuing verbal gaffes. We don't really know what rugby players really get up to in those scrums, but maybe they are just putting their feet into each other's mouths. | Singapore wins again (sigh)... We are just getting a tad tired about Singapore coming out on the top of just about every rating from transparency, competitiveness (both last month) to health (yesterday) and today - corporate governance. According to the latest of PERC's ubiquitous expat surveys, which the Singapore government press laps up like sugar laced milk in the cat's saucer, their Business Times today reported that Singapore "...emerged with the best grade ... (among) ...14 Asian economies on corporate governance. Australia, Hong Kong and Japan follow, while India and Vietnam take up the tail end." The Business Times also managed to slip in a back-hander to Malaysia reporting also that "...in (PERC's view, Singapore companies are much more focused on profitability, "unlike in Malaysia, where companies closely linked with the government are often used as tools of the government's social engineering agenda". Still... it's only foreign expats saying that... and they have no understanding of the Malaysian way...

Kuala Lumpur: Thursday June 22nd 2000

It's the pub with no beer.. with a twist... Shift Magazine's correspondant nosied down to Malaysia's Multi-Media Super Corridor and found the only thing worse than a pub with no beer... ...a cybercity with no internet access... most probably penned by a racist homosexual foreign devil, possibly a Jew, currency trader, PAS leader or IMF official, fuelled by a hidden agenda. | So now let's get on to The "Right" Stuff: The Malaysian government is launching a website to "...counter negative and inaccurate reports about the country...". Run by the National Security Division of the Prime Minister's Department, Malaysian Bulletin provides all the politically correct information that's fit to print. According to the Malaysian Star newspaper- "...Division director-general Datuk Jaafar Ismail said the website was set up based on the concept of providing explanation from the right perspective on matters or issues frequently exploited regarding the country..." | Given the overseas image of Malaysia as a land of either happy robots or shabby rioters, visitors to Kuala Lumpur are surprised to find perhaps one of the liveliest eating/bar/social scenes in all Asia on Jalan P. Ramlee just behind the Concorde Hotel. As cosmopolitan as you could find anywhere, these yuppie hang-outs offer coffee bars, trendy restaurants, bars and discos and even an outside beach bar complete with tropical rain forest and smallish vicious looking sharks swimming around in a tank on top of the bar. But it's the people that make this scene, and the "friendly Malaysian" is alive and well, and hanging out at Jalan P Ramlee after work every night of the week. Try Modesto's, already on our best restaurants list for perhaps the best Italian style pizzas in South East Asia, who are offering 50% discount off everything at certain times. | A good place to get sick: Surprising results from the World Health Organization's first world-wide analysis of health systems has Singapore (6th) ahead of Japan (10th) on their ranking system. Other selected Asia Pacific rankings - Australia (32), Brunei (40), New Zealand (41), Thailand (47), Malaysia (49), South Korea (58), and Philippines (60). | Self Analyze THIS! - Old mate Charles Margerison, famed for the Team Management Systems team building system has launched a new website containing management diagnostic questionnaires on-line. For free on On-Line Profiles dot Com - you can assess your career development with the Career Advantage Questionnaire and feedback, "understand others better at work" and "understand your clients". The questionnaire had quite a few suggestions for your erstwhile editor, but sure as hell were not letting you know... You will just have to go and analyze yourself...

Kuala Lumpur: Tuesday June 20th 2000

Just what is on with the KL stock exchange? Yesterday the main Malaysian index, the Kuala Lumpur Composite Index dropped to its lowest level for the year, continuing a downwards trend for the past 3 weeks just as neighbouring bourses rose. After a stuttering and non-descript 1999, the KL stock market was one of the early winners in 2000. Yet despite re-instatement with Morgan Stanley, generally positive moves in other Asian markets, and an increasingly ensconsed government with daily reports of disunity in the opposition camp, Malaysian investors are displaying a general lack of confidence. One can blame Western "propaganda" from sources such as the AWSJ for fueling rumours of rifts between Mahathir and Daim, his chief recovery architect. One could also not be blamed for entertaining the view that the money is running out from months of artificially propping up stock prices from government coffers courtesy of Petronas et al. Both are extreme views yet in a country where transparency is not even close to what could be expected of an economy of Malaysia's substance and potential, it's a guessing game in Mahathir's Malaysia right now | Tensions between Manila and Kuala Lumpur rose yet again yesterday with a warning from Manila to Kuala Lumpur to keep out of hostage negotiations. Frustrations are high with the inability of the Philippines to end the impasse, and the Malaysian government denies it is interfering and that the latest negotiations are run by a group of "private Malaysians", possibly to extract a commission from any financial deal with the hostages. - Malaysian entrepreneurship runs amok. | With all the monetary unions and continued talk on Asian common currencies, it may give pause to browse this piece on Conflict potentials in monetary unions. | It's been a bad couple of months for Soeharto, with Wahid letting his know gently that he's in trouble by stating over the weekend that "...he may have in his possession at least US$25 billion that could be handed back to the Government...", continued health scares and "memory lapses", and his court case against Time being thrown out by a local court. Even his fave tellie channel - the Discovery Channel - is getting a bit boring lately. His family does not allow him to be exposed to news media. Its all getting a boring for us too. Less attention on the self proclaimed Javanese King, and more attention to how the kids are managing the fortune may be more interesting. | Mahathir has still not forgiven the Malays for their disaffection with UMNO in the last election. Following his comments that Malays were "ungrateful", and continued comments on reducing the privileges for Bumiputras (using Globalization as the reason), he has now suggested that Malaysia may one day have a non-Malay Prime Minister if the Malays are "dis-united". Such a comment of course is akin to Lee Kuan Yew's statement of a couple of years back that Singapore could re-unite with Malaysia - drawing attention subtly to past achievements and who achieved them - and made to unite a critical group against a perceived threat.

Kuala Lumpur: Monday June 19th 2000

Out of the SH*T and into the VOMIT: Shahnon Ahmad, Malaysian national laureate and author of the satirical tome SH*T, which targeted the Malaysian political élite and PM Mahathir at the height of the Anwar controversy, yesterday reversed his decision to resign from the opposition Islamic based PAS. PAS leaders put him under pressure to reverse his decision, and Malaysian ruling party UMNO were gearing up to publicise yet another defection from opposition camps. It's all a lot for an old man and academic who really only wants to write literature, admittedly with a satiricial style, which is a style of humour neither understood nor appreciated by many in Malaysia. The follow up, entitled VOMIT, - is completed and will be released this month. All in Malaysia are bracing for the title of the third in the trilogy. | The APMF crew arrived in Mahathir's Malaysia on the weekend from Phuket, with the news that Malaysian tourist authorities are well advanced in promoting Malaysia as a shopper's paradise. In case you get an eerie feeling of déja vu, this has been Singapore and Hong Kong's pitch for quite a few years. Shopping revenues have always been the major revenue earner from tourists, well exceeding accomodation, for almost all Asian tourist destinations, so the reasoning is sensible. Kuala Lumpur's advantages over competing tourist shopping destinations like Bangkok and Singapore is that Malaysia is largely English speaking, some prices could be cheaper, and there is a good mix of accessible department store, and pasar (market) shopping. Disadvantages include the relatively inconvenient airport, higher transfer costs, and less variety compared to Bangkok, a city 8 times the size, and Singapore a city 2 1/2 times the size. Malaysian shoppers themseleves who regularly visit Singapore for the variety despite higher prices and Bangkok for the prices and exotic appeal, may be hardest to convince. | Diamonds are a (Singapore) gal's best friend - according to De Beers, where 53% of all Singapore women own a piece of diamond jewellery. Even more interesting is that De Beer's sees Singapore as a "self-purchase" market compared to traditional European and North American markets where gals come about the sparkling stuff mainly via gifts. Seems Singapore women have more confidence in precious gems than their partners. | The board of the International Monetary Fund expressed "great satisfaction" with Thailand's economy recovery, but urged the country to make more efforts on corporate and banking restructuring to sustain the momentum. (Xinhua News Agency) | A critical look at research methodology by Burke Interactive has determined that respondents find the Internet a fast, friendly and functional tool for data collection. (Business Wire) | The e-business forum from the Economist Intelligence Unit, "provides insight and analysis to help senior executives build successful strategies for the global digital economy." | From Wharton - What Makes a High-Performance Workplace? Evidence from Retail Bank Branches - a PDF research article | And from the Institute for International Economics, a working paper on How the Sick Man Avoided Pneumonia: The Philippines in the Asian Financial Crisis. All worth a gander.... |

Phuket: Thursday June 15th 2000

Thais are well known for creativity in their advertising, which at times puts the highly paid creative teams in Singapore and Hong Kong to shame. A recent new commercial for a perfume features a wispy Thai female model walking down the street, wearing the aforesaid perfume, sending 2 obviously gay men into paroxysms. The chaser...? "...It's enough to turn you straight...". | Who could forget also the funny but controversial ads for Leo Beer which portrayed Thailand governors hosting parties where all present including the guv himself were.. well.. quite obviously mau mak...? All great Sanook.... It doesn't take an advertising agencies services either.. small businessmen also get into the act themselves. There must also be at least a hundred dentists in the Kingdom that call themselves Dr Smile.. And a self-deprecating sense of humour is always a relief in face-conscious Asia. Back to Phuket - our base this week - a well advertised car rental biz is calling themselves "Riski Rentals". | The posters are up again through the streets of Bangkok with the upcoming Bangkok governor election. Leading in the polls is Prachakorn Thai leader Samak Sundaravej. ...Curious given his role in the 1976 Thammasat massacre. | Dr Mahathir's World Analysis, a monthly column for the Japanese Manichi newspaper published it's final instalment this month, with another stinging attack on the Western media. When asked what he felt about being labeled as a dictator, Mahathir responded "...The important thing is what people in this country think of me. As you can see, despite the Western media calling me a dictator, the Malaysian people gave my party a three-fourths majority. I don't think I can change the image because I will continue to condemn the West and their press if they do anything wrong. They hate me for that. They would like to see me go and so they will always give me a bad image..." | Short analysis from the Economist Intelligence Unit on the sustainability of the Asian recovery. | India's industrial output recorded a 12.2% growth on a year basis in April on the back of a buoyant 14.0% growth in the manufacturing sector, a government statement said Monday. Industrial output had recorded a 5.0% growth a year ago (Bridge) | Chaebols on the move: LG Electronics and LG Information & Communications are expected to merge next month in a move that would revive the manufacturing giant, whose post-merger assets would top $13.2 billion. (CMP Publications) | The Sectoral and Trade Barriers Database from the European Commission offers reports on more than 50 countries worldwide, in 26 sectors, and 13 different divisions of measures. It's free... | From the IMF, a PDF format article on Stock Returns and Output Growth in Emerging and Advanced Economies | Many thanks to the people of Phuket for their great hospitality this week. Watch out for our feature next week on Phuket's new CyberPort-International City Project, with exclusive interviews with the Mayor of Phuket, leading hoteliers, and Thai e-business leaders. | Reporting from Kuala Lumpur Malaysia next week.

Phuket: Monday June 12th 2000

Reporting this week from Phuket, one of the world's best known tourist destinations and location of Thailand's new Cyberport. While Phuket receives bad publicity for increasing over-development and environmental degradation, it is a bigger island than many think. Idyllic beach and country spots still exist, and the Cyberport will have a lot going for it, albeit in a very competitive market. | Having just received some laudatory (if reserved) response to recent govt. initiatives to liberalize a still heavily govt. controlled media, Singapore received some more good news over the weekend. PERC'S latest survey indicates that Singapore has the best legal system in Asia, followed by Japan, Hong Kong and Australia, well ahead of (in order) Taiwan, Philippines, Thailand, South Korea, Malaysia, India, Vietnam, China and Indonesia, rated by expats working in Asia. More analysis later today at the Chao Phraya River Rat. | Cyber attack in Malaysia! Malaysian government and opposition web sites were hacked over the weekend with postings featuring skulls and cross-bones and pornographic photos. Seems Malaysian hackers are just like hackers world wide. Apolitical and in it just for the challenge. | Teaching the West: The ancient Chinese art/superstition of Feng Shui, which has shaped the modern sky-lines and interior designs of China, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore to mention just a few, is now all the rage in the US. The LA Renaissance Hotel is designed using Feng Shui principles. Even Donald Trump, best known to Malaysians for a comment on Dave Letterman that KL's Petronas Towers, the tallest building in the world was a "thungamarjuaggamori" (thanks to Malaysian censors), is also designing his new Trump International Hotel along such lines. Practitioners say Feng Shui makes people happier, and improves productivity. Don Trump can afford it. A Feng Shui consultation in the US, complete with the compass, comes at around $200 to $400 for a two hour session... Ever felt you were in the wrong profession? Meanwhile the World of Feng Shui website is our own reference whenever we feel like lugging a few desks around, and the golden carp have coronaries. Auntie Agga, at the same site, offers on-line consultations for free... | 100,000 Condoms are being distributed to 10,000 athletes at the Sydney Olympic games. That's around 10 protected nookies for each competitor. Well actually take away those whose religion, wives and husbands, coaches, or preferences forbid such shenanigans, and the fact that you need only one per two people, and the ratio expands dramatically. They also come in a choice of colors - Gold, Silver and Bronze. Unfortunately you choose the color BEFORE this particular event, so some guess-work is involved.

Bangkok: Saturday June 10th 2000

You can run, but you can't hide in the new Thailand: The official Thai Defence Department's report of the enquiry into the May 1992 riots in Bangkok was released early last week heavily censored with the black texta, and implying that rioting protestors were largely to blame for the massacre. Public outcry led to PM Chuan ordering a new version to be released. One Thai newspaper however beat him to the punch, publishing an alternative independent report of a commission led by former Supreme Court President Sophon Rattanakorn, completed just months after the event but "buried" for 8 years. Today Bangkok's Nation reprinted excerpts of this report, which provides a vastly different interpretation of events, concluding that the impulsive use of troops led to the bloodbath. As Thailand's Deputy PM - the highly connected Surin - and the head of Thailand's TOT which illegally tapped the phone of an independent investigator into the Surin scandals found out, the old boy's club is looking particularly besieged these days as a free press and the Thai people's enthusiasm for curbing corruption starts to make inroads. And for Senate candidates relying on privilege and corruption for their victories, the electoral commission has stated that they will even go to a 5th round of voting to weed out recalcitrants in the new Thailand. Take as many rounds as you like guys.... Reform takes patience. | Radical Islamist separatists have asked for 1 Million buckaroos for each of the hostages taken from a Borneo Island almost 2 months ago. Seems if the Philippines government doesn't give them autonomy, the money will do... | The Geopolitics of Opium: Web site "dedicated to academic research (geographic) on the geopolitics of opium in Asia and especially in the Golden Triangle and the Golden Crescent" argues that the "drug trade reveals itself as a consequence of, as well as a cause to the problem of territory and identity". (Thanks Matthew) | Mag Portal provides business articles in 16 categories ranging from Diversity, Future Trends, Industries, Small Business, and Strategies and Management. (Thanks Scout Report) | Bring your bullet-proof vest: The Voice of America is looking for an Indonesian Service chief plus contract translators and broadcasters. | Judicial Reform?: Minister in the Malaysian Prime Minister's Department, Dr Rais Yatim, suggestion that Chief Justice Eusoff Chin's vacation in the land of the long white cloud in 1994 with a Malaysian lawyer was improper got a typically Malaysian defensive and arrogant retort from Chin last week. What's with the PM's department? Is this just PR or is Malaysia now honestly trying to clean up a judicial system which shows little respect for the Westminster System's principle of the separation of powers, as well as the independence of legal players? Clearly Rais has strong support within the government. Not so long ago, Malaysia's Attorney General stated that those making statements that his department was engaged in "selective prosecutions" could be charged with sedition. Worth keeping an eye on... (Eds...)

Bangkok: Thursday June 8th 2000

It's good to be cool in usually sweltering Bangkok. Carlsberg is claiming to have captured a further 10% of the Thai premium beer market against market leaders Heineken and new entrant from the Thailand's own traditional brewer Boon Rawd - Mittweister - which is selling well provincially. Carlsberg previously had a fairly down-market image in the Thai marketplace with a low-price-driven market entry strategy, despite its image in other markets. A "cool" label on the bottle "lights up" as the beer is poured. Thai yuppies are suckers for premium beers, but like their affection for PM's, fickleness reigns supreme... | Good job prospects in OZ: ANZ job ads survey this month returned the highest job openings index score for 13 years. The ANZ jobs survey, based on the number of vacancy advertisements posted in leading newspapers is a respected indicator of potential growth in the Australian economy. | Malaysian PM Mahathir did nothing for diplomacy with his Northern neighbour by reacting to publicity on AIDS in Malaysia by offering advice that Malaysians should not visit Southern Thailand for "recreational activities". He neglected to mention that horny Malaysians can pick up the virus just as easily from many "massage parlours", "health clubs", and "karaoke clubs", in Malaysia itself - some in KL's major hotels - thank you very much. The extent of the sex industry in Malaysia is covered up by protection payments to coppers and pollies alike. Malaysia's top man could do better by listening to his daughter Marina Mahathir who is leading the AIDS fight with considerably more pragmatism and dedication in Malaysia, rather than using the issue as further grist to his "foreigners are evil" propaganda mill. Marina should have a quiet word with pops about reality and fantasy. | Rats desert a sinking ship. ...Well at least its a sinking ship as far as their personal political career aspirations go... Career politicians who joined alternative Anwar inspired Keadilan are now returning to UMNO, the mainstream press is proudly proclaiming. Parti Keadilan Nasional Youth secretary Wan Indra Putra Ahmad is one. UMNO secretary-general Tan Sri Khalil Yaakob predicted this on Tuesday when he stated that "...Keadilan's reformation struggle was impractical and that there was no other way for the young generation to express their ideas except by joining UMNO...". It couldn't have been said better of course... Apart from the pesky PAS radicals up North, the Malaysian élite could well be looking forward to the joys of a one-party state. Such career moves may not be in these UMNO-turned-Keadilan-turned-UMNO job-hoppers long term interests however. Today it suits those who control Malaysia to féte such prodigal sons. But long term they will forever wear the brand of fickleness and disloyalty. | Interesting new Web search engine at http://www.the brain.com/ | The Asian Observer is a well maintained and updated Asian news site | A Web master was arrested in China yesterday for carrying comment on the Tiananman Square Incident yesterday while the official Xinhua newsagency is reporting that "...An increasing number of Chinese children are quietly sailing into the cyberage through the Internet..." | Massey University's Marketing Bulletin always offers some useful original PDF marketing articles including one on the Japanese Market for Organic Fruit and Vegetables. |

Bangkok: Monday June 5th 2000

Coke's latest China blunder: China last week banned Coca Cola's latest advertisement featuring Taiwanese pop icon Ah Mei | God's on our side: The Pope on the weekend pronounced that journalism was a "sacred" occupation | Political instability affects Philippines economy: Philippine Economic Planning Secretary Felipe Medalla said Thursday the economy's growth this year may be capped at 4.3% year-on-year, lower than the government's original projection of a 4-5% growth, citing the impact of the conflict in the southern Mindanao region | Malaysia's opposition justice party (Keadilan) seems increasingly in disarray with internal disputes and accusations of poor leadership hitting the mainstream press - ever-hungry for bad news from the opposition camp. Last week a feature article published by the Kuala Lumpur-based Star newspaper highlighted disharmony and "reformasi" sites criticisms of the Anwar-sacking inspired party. Consequently several of these sites complained of being misquoted. Nookie-allegation fever has yet again reared its ugly head with Anwar's daughter accused internally of having a relationship with a senior Keadilan leader. In an accusation worthy of the US National Enquirer a former Keadilan aide claimed that "...at 3 am on Nov 19 last year, (a) politician climbed over the fence of Anwar's house to give his eldest daughter a Calvin Klein watch as a birthday present...". As Keadilan self destructs with a lot of help from the establishment media, Islamic-based opposition party PAS held a rally in Kuala Terengganu yesterday attracting 2,000 fellow travellers. A Keadilan organised rally in KL a couple of months back failed to attract much interest after a week long fear campaign from the gov. warning of violence and retaliation against supporters. Reinforced is that the real threat to Malaysia's political and business élite is now not so much from the middle and intellectual classes embodied in Keadilan but a religious-based and poorer mainstream quiet revolution led by PAS. | Steady she goes in Korea: Standard & Poors affirmed on Thursday its single-'A' long-term local currency sovereign credit rating and its triple-'B' long-term foreign currency sovereign and senior unsecured credit ratings on the Republic of Korea. | The OECD is optimistic that China's expected entry into the WTO will not only be positive for China but also for economies globally. | PR Newswire reports that America Online and Volkswagen, two companies that have built their names into outstanding global brands, have been elected to the prestigious Marketing Hall of Fame , sponsored by the New York American Marketing Association. See Paul Temporal's analysis of the branding of Volkswagen at Branding Asia dot Com | (Eds...)