12/02/2025

WEDNESDAY | FEB 12, 2025

7

Virus disinformation drives anti-China sentiment

Military officers in civilian posts spark concerns JAKARTA: Indonesia’s appointment of an army general to run the national food procurement company has raised concerns about the expansion of military roles under President Prabowo Subianto, with a rights activist saying it also violated military laws. Major-General Novi Helmy Prasetya was named chief executive of Bulog, a powerful state logistics company in charge of government controlled imports of rice and other important food staples, on the weekend, becoming the first active duty general in the role since the authoritarian regime of General Suharto. Under military laws, soldiers are allowed to fill civilian posts only at state institutions in sectors such as defence, security, intelligence and disaster response. They are also not allowed to be involved in politics and business. “This is a threat to democracy and a violation of the law,” said Ardi Manto Adiputra, director of Indonesian rights group Imparsial, late on Monday. The armed forces are subject to the military justice system, which is separate from the civilian criminal code, raising issues of oversight and transparency at any government institution run by active duty officers, Adiputra said. State-Owned Enterprises Minister Erick Thohir said the appointment was a strategic move towards achieving a goal of food self sufficiency, according to Antara news agency. The SOE Ministry and the presidential communication office did not respond to requests for comment. The military law does not stipulate penalties for such a breach. However, the appointment can be appealed through a petition to the administrative court. It follows other military appointments in civic works since Prabowo took office in October, a trend that has caused unease among some people as it raises comparisons to Suharto’s military-backed regime. Prabowo was a military commander under Suharto, who was overthrown in 1998. Australian National University research fellow Sana Jaffrey said Prabowo had appointed other active duty officers, such as his Cabinet secretary and senior officials at the ministries of agriculture and transport, which she said showed he trusted the military to help him meet his goals. “But he’s not willing to consider the long-term political consequences of placing active military officers in civilian roles,” she said. – Reuters Singapore detains radicalised teenager SINGAPORE: An 18-year-old student radicalised by far-right extremism and who idolised the gunman behind deadly attacks on two places of worship in New Zealand has been detained under the Internal Security Act. Nick Lee Xing Qiu envisioned starting a “race war” in Singapore, the Internal Security Department (ISD) said in statement issued on Monday. “Lee’s attack ideations were aspirational and he had no timeline to carry them out,” the ISD said, adding investigations into his contacts had not revealed any imminent threat to Singapore. Lee has been detained since December under the ISA, which allows suspects to be held for up to two years without trial. The ISD said Lee found far-right extremist content on social media in 2023, and then began actively searching for such content. It said Lee idolised the gunman who killed 51 people in two places of worship in Christchurch in 2019, role-playing as the gunman in an online simulation. “Lee aspired to carry out attacks in Singapore with like-minded far-right individuals that he conversed with online,” the ISD said. – Reuters

o HMPV not mystery illness, says expert

“The authors of some of these posts were trying to scare people,” said Philip Mai, co director of the Social Media Lab at Toronto Metropolitan University. Mai said there was “an uptick in anti Chinese rhetoric”, with many on online platforms unfairly trying to blame HMPV cases “on an entire community or culture”. One video, shared by hundreds of users, showed a confrontation between Chinese citizens and police in medical suits, claiming that the country had begun to isolate the population to tackle HMPV. Fact-checkers found that the sequence portrayed an unrelated altercation that occurred in 2022 in Shanghai. Other posts claimed that HMPV and Covid-19 had “cross-mutated” into a more severe disease. But virologists said the viruses are from different families and impossible to merge. Adding to the wave of disinformation were sensational, “clickbait” headlines in some mainstream media outlets that described HMPV as a “mystery illness” overpowering the Chinese healthcare system. In reality, it is a known pathogen that has circulated for decades and generally causes

only a mild infection of the upper respiratory tract. “It’s an example of monetising panic in an already bewildered public right on the heels of the Covid-19 pandemic,” said University of Illinois Chicago epidemiologist Katrine Wallace. “The truth is that the HMPV is not a mystery illness.” Such posts have led to a surge in anti-China commentary across Southeast Asia, with one Facebook user going as far as saying that Chinese people “shouldn’t be allowed to enter the Philippines anymore”. One TikTok video shared an Indian TV news report on the virus but with an overlaid message: “China has done it again”. “Because of the psychological trauma inflicted by Covid-19 and by draconian lockdown policies, citizens react anxiously to the possibility of another pandemic emerging from China,” said Strategy Risks chief executive Isaac Stone Fish. “The right response is to distrust what Beijing says about public health, but not assume that means the (Chinese Communist) party is covering up another pandemic, and certainly not to insult Chinese people.” – AFP

HONG KONG: A deluge of disinformation about a flu-like virus called HMPV is stoking anti-China sentiment across Asia and spurring unfounded concerns of renewed lockdowns, despite experts dismissing comparisons with the Covid-19 pandemic five years ago. Fact-checkers have debunked a slew of social media posts about the usually non-fatal respiratory disease human metapneumovirus after cases rose in China. Many of these posts claimed that people were dying and that a national emergency had been declared. Garnering tens of thousands of views, some posts recycled old footage from China’s lockdowns during the pandemic, as well as of crowded hospitals and medics in hazmat suits. The falsehoods and fearmongering, which researchers warn could jeopardise the public response to a future pandemic, surged even as the World Health Organisation said China’s HMPV outbreak was “within the expected range” for this season.

Progressive Block senatorial candidate Danilo Ramos campaigning yesterday in Malolos city, Bulacan province. – AFPPIC

Duterte’s future in balance as Philippines election season kicks off MANILA: Campaigning began yesterday in the Philippines for mid-term elections that could set the table for the next presidential race and determine the political future of impeached Vice-President Sara Duterte. President Ferdinand Marcos has imploded spectacularly, was impeached by the House of Representatives last week on charges of “violation of the constitution, betrayal of public trust, graft and corruption, and other high crimes”. The Duterte camp last week put out a statement urging voters to “choose wisely who they will vote for, especially in the Senate, where the fate of VP Sara will be decided”.

Yesterday’s campaign kick-off is limited to Senate hopefuls and candidates for party-list seats reserved for interest groups ranging from taxi drivers to midwives. Electioneering will kick into higher gear next month when candidates for the remaining 254 House seats and thousands of local positions launch their bids for office. A survey by pollster Social Weather Stations last month listed job creation, food security, the health system, education and workers’ rights as Filipinos’ top concerns. – AFP

Talk show hosts, movie stars and a preacher jailed on sex-trafficking charges are among the candidates vying for a dozen vacant Senate seats. While the May 12 vote will fill more than 18,000 posts nationwide, it is the would-be senators who are facing a duty few bargained for; serving as jurists in the impeachment trial of former president Rodrigo Duterte’s eldest daughter. The vice-president, whose alliance with

Sixteen votes in the 24-seat Senate are now needed to deliver a conviction that would bar Duterte from public office, including a presidential run she says she is “seriously considering”. “The composition of the next Senate will be crucial” to the trial’s outcome, said Dennis Coronacion, head of the political science department of Manila’s University of Santo Tomas.