01/09/2025

MONDAY | SEP 1, 2025

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Some protests leaning to treason, says Prabowo

HANOI: Tourists retract arms and legs away from a passing train in Hanoi, shrinking back into railside cafes that have brought lucrative business to a former slum disdained by the government. Authorities have repeatedly tried to shut down the tumbledown quarter of the Vietnamese capital for safety reasons, but any closure seems unlikely as social media brings more visitors to the area. “I feel adrenalised because (the train) was so close,” Helena Bizonova from Slovakia told AFP, standing inches from the colonial-era locomotive chugging past at 10kph. The lantern-adorned tracks – and the elegant cafes that line them – are well known online and “something that I will never experience in my life again”, she said. Vietnam’s French former rulers built the railway in the early 1900s to transport goods and people across the country, then part of French Indochina along with Laos and Cambodia. Cambodia border conflict triggers civil war flashback SIEM REAP: When her son and son-in law, both serving in the Cambodian military, warned that a neighbouring country was preparing for military activity near the border, Van Kimyan, 63, felt her heart sink. The chilling words transported her back to a time she wished she could forget – the civil war that ravaged Cambodia between 1979 and 1991, when she was just 19. Back then, hunger, fear and the pain of losing loved ones were her daily reality – memories that remain etched deep in her heart even decades later. “All we want is peace. We want to live our daily lives without fear. Our children want to go to school and learn because education is all they have for a better future,” she told Bernama. Van, along with nine family members, has been living at the Por 5000 Pagoda Temporary Shelter about 170km from Siem Reap since the border conflict broke out at the end of July. They fled their home with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Although the ceasefire agreement offered a glimmer of hope, Van said fear still lingers. On July 28, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, in his capacity as the Asean chair, convened a special meeting in Putrajaya. The two-and-a-half-hour meeting was attended by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet and Thailand’s Acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai. At a joint press conference after the meeting, Anwar announced that Thailand and Cambodia had agreed to an immediate and unconditional ceasefire amid rising tensions along their disputed border. Both are now actively working to establish lasting peace along their 817km border, which has been a source of contention and has led to military confrontations in the Oddar Meanchey and Preah Vihear border areas. “International leaders must ensure this ceasefire is honoured. Life here in the camp is hard. Every day feels like a struggle,”Van said.

o TikTok suspends live feature

Protests have spread to other major cities, including Yogyakarta, Bandung, Semarang and Surabaya in Java, and Medan in North Sumatra province. On Saturday, a local council building was burned on the island of Lombok while a police headquarters in the eastern Java city of Surabaya was set on fire. The protests are the biggest and most violent of Prabowo’s presidency, a key test for the ex general less than a year into his rule. He pledged an investigation into the killing of motorcycle gig rider Affan Kurniawan and promised to help his family. Seven officers in the tactical van were detained for further investigations. The crisis has forced Prabowo to cancel a planned trip to China for a military parade commemorating the end of World War II in order to monitor the situation. Prabowo has pledged fast, state-driven growth but has already faced protests against widespread government budget cuts. In response to the protests, social media app TikTok said on Saturday it had temporarily suspended its live feature for “a few days” in Indonesia, where it has more than 100 million users. – AFP

But we cannot deny that there are signs of actions outside the law, even against the law, even leaning towards treason and terrorism,” Prabowo said in a speech in Jakarta. He said protests should take place peacefully and if people destroyed public facilities or looted private homes, “the state must step in to protect its citizens”. His comments come after the house of Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati was looted on Saturday night, soldiers guarding her residence and a witness said. Anger has spread to lawmakers and several have reportedly had their houses ransacked. The grievances of protesters are many but rallies this week focused on the revelation that lawmakers were receiving a housing allowance nearly 10 times higher than the minimum wage in Jakarta. At least three people were killed in a fire started by protesters at a council building in the eastern city of Makassar. Two workers died at the scene and a third person, a civil servant, died in hospital. Crowds were seen cheering and clapping as flames engulfed the building, with a few security forces in sight.

days amounted to treason and terrorism. Southeast Asia’s biggest economy was rocked by protests in major cities, including the capital Jakarta, in recent days after footage spread of a motorcycle gig worker being run over by a police tactical vehicle at an earlier rally against perks for lawmakers. “The right to peaceful assembly should be respected and protected.

JAKARTA: President Prabowo Subianto yesterday spoke out against protests over economic conditions and inequality, saying some actions in rallies that have spread across the country in recent

A fallen police motorcycle is seen in front of a barricade during a demonstration in Denpasar, Bali, on Saturday. – AFPPIC

Sri Lanka extradites murder suspects COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s most-wanted man was extradited from Indonesia along with five other criminal suspects, police said yesterday. Colombo and is also wanted for a dozen other killings and drug related crimes.

the gang was flown separately the previous day. Police said the six suspects were arrested on Thursday in Jakarta during a raid carried out by Indonesian police, supported by two Sri Lankan officers and an Indian intelligence agency. – AFP

Public Security Minister Ananda Wijepala. “I express my thanks to the government of Indonesia and the Indonesian police for helping us bring down a most dangerous criminal gang,”Wijepala said. A Sri Lankan woman member of

He and four of his gang were flown on Saturday on a commercial flight, escorted by Indonesian officers, and were received at Colombo International Airport by

Mandinu Padmasiri Perera, also known as Kehelbaddara Padme, is accused of organising the February courtroom murder of a rival in

‘Danger’ of Hanoi train street entices tourists

Parts of the line were badly damaged when US bombs rained down on the communist-ruled north during the Vietnam War that ended half a century ago. Vietnam now hopes to build a US$67 billion (RM283 billion) high speed railway linking north and south. But the state-owned Vietnam Railways Corporation still manages the old and underdeveloped metre gauge tracks, which remain a mode of transport for budget travellers. Similar “train streets” in Thailand and Taiwan attract thousands of tourists drawn by the rush of jumping aside when a locomotive rumbles through the throngs of people. Previously in a notoriously rough part of town frequented by drug users and squatters, Hanoi’s stretch of track now offers a business opportunity for enterprising baristas. A cafe owner who asked not to be named said tourism has transformed the area into a “cleaner, nicer and safer place”, while admonishing the efforts to shutter it.

A train passes between cafe terraces in central Hanoi. – AFPPIC

They are telling you strictly like you should stand by the line.” Vietnamese visitor Nguyen Le Trang, from the southern Mekong Delta, called the street “the one and only tourism speciality in Hanoi”, adding that authorities should not close it. – AFP

tracks, packing into nearby cafes and pulling their phones out to capture the scene. The cafe staff warn visitors to make way, which reassures tourists such as Slovakian Maria Morikova. “It is not dangerous,” she said. “They are preparing the streets for it.

“We should never try to close streets down. Instead, we should make full use of them and turn them into a distinctive features to promote tourism,” he told AFP from his cafe festooned with Vietnamese flags. As a red train rumbled into view, everyone in the tiny street cleared the