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Hi, no one cares about SEA, not really, except on vacation, but do you know? I will tell you the true ones.
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Apr 2, 2019 22:12
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...c21e_story.html Basically, Thailand's junta came into power to straddle the correctly anticipated succession from a long-serving monarch to his successor, which it did. The goal was to ensure this happened under their influence, not anyone else's. Since then, we've been hurf durfing around for several years until the recent election, which was rigged to ensure that no matter who won, "good people" would be in charge. Well, guess what? "Good people" ended up in charge. However, there was just enough wiggle room left - because why do anything right? - to allow for uncertainty. Now, a coalition of parties that won seats are claiming the right to form a government. While *a* military figure won control, if you're from places like America or Japan, you may not understand the military as a fractious political and business entity. So, one arm of the military is essentially threatening a coup owing to their particular allegiances while the other is in charge. https://www.newmandala.org/what-if-thailands-junta-cant-control-the-military/ So, Thailand, America's oldest ally in the world and China's great hope for a Belt & Road endpoint, remains in flux for now. This can only end in an orderly, well-thought out result.
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Apr 2, 2019 22:18
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Meanwhile. Cambodia, which - while you've been paying attention elsewhere - has been growing like a weed, is also for a variety of reasons experiencing Sudan-like conditions this year: https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/cambodia-facing-power-shortage-of-400-megawatts-in-dry-season-pm-146690/ https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/farmers-told-not-plant-next-rice-crop The capital is out of water and out of power, as is much of the country, so bring your Sanistraw!
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Apr 2, 2019 22:20
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Welcome back, ReindeerF! We missed you! Edit: Sri Lanka's situation stopped being quite so interesting, when the prime minister who was probably-illegally removed by the president in favor of the former president who the current president stabbed in the back to become president, was reinstated as prime minister in December. Mahinda Rajapaksa, May He Live A Thousand Years, is back to being opposition leader in parliament. Goatse James Bond fucked around with this message at 23:54 on Apr 2, 2019 |
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Apr 2, 2019 23:49
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Good to see you Grey! Glad to hear you are experiencing stability there as well. May you live in pointlessly interesting times! In unrelated news, meet Nadia Summergirl and her Bitcoin boyfriend, Thailand's newly famous libertarian heroes: https://coinspice.io/news/bitcoin-girl-thailand-part-of-first-seasteaders-truly-private-home-proof-of-concept/ quote:TL;DR: Bitcoin Girl Thailand, Nadia Summergirl and her husband, Chad Elwartowski, are subjects in The Seasteading Institute’s first episode, of a four part documentary, about pioneers launching a private home into international waters. Originally scheduled to happen on the Genesis Block’s tenth anniversary, inclement weather delayed the project initially. Directed by veteran seastead activist and philosopher, Joe Quirk, in this installment, Facing the Storm, he asks “why these volunteers are so passionate about seasteading.”
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Apr 14, 2019 04:34
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Basically all of SEA at the moment:  Malaysia maybe slightly less so but lol I fear for my life as a queer person when I go visit fam.
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Apr 14, 2019 04:36
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i'm not currently in sri lanka but i still quasi-regularly do business there Past seasteading enterprises have worked so well that I'm really looking forward to this one. edit: their pitch and faq have, inexplicably, left me with many more questions at the end than the beginning ReindeerF posted:I just want video of Nadia Summergirl screaming about the Constitution at the Thai Navy. Nothing really deeply catastrophic is currently going on assuming you're not worried about relatively low rainfall, especially in drier provinces or, uh, the catchment basins for hydroelectric power and it's still a good place to find relatively English-proficient programmers for the sort of thing I work on. Well. There's also a news thing that's broken since the last time I spoke to my buddies there. Gotobaya Rajapaksa, former defense secretary and war I'm... not sure why he's doing that instead of his brother, but I imagine Mahinda's happy to have him back in the country. Goatse James Bond fucked around with this message at 04:53 on Apr 14, 2019 |
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Apr 14, 2019 04:37
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GreyjoyBastard posted:i'm not currently in sri lanka but i still quasi-regularly do business there It's SEA-adjacent, so how's business in Sri Lanka? I assume the answer is, "Yes." EDIT: Screaming in Thai.
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Apr 14, 2019 04:44
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Oh hi you aren't dead Reindeer, yay
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Apr 14, 2019 04:54
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Oh hi you aren't dead Reindeer, yay
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Apr 14, 2019 04:57
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Gotobaya's the rajapaksa family legbreaker / employer of independent security contractors who specialize in skeletal percussion. After his brother won the presidency, Gotobaya got appointed as minister of defense and more-or-less told to finish off the Tamil Tigers by any means necessary, wink wink. He was very successful in this, and within a few short years the number of Tamil Tigers, suspected Tamil Tigers, and people living in the general area of Tamil Tigers went from tens of thousands to less than tens of thousands. After Mahinda Rajapaksa's surprise loss in 2015, Gotobaya definitely did not argue in favor of a military coup to keep his brother in power, and shortly after the election decided he needed to spend a lot more time with his family, in the United States and not in Sri Lanka. The fact that he's back, and apparently hoping to run for president, is probably a good sign for the future of the country.
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Apr 14, 2019 04:59
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I assume he is in no way connected to a family business holding group that owns media companies, telecommunications companies, construction companies, concrete/cement companies or companies that have concessions to supply parts to the military or suchlike. EDIT: Also, not involved in import/export while also not being involved with some soccer or cricket teams or whatever. ReindeerF fucked around with this message at 05:16 on Apr 14, 2019 |
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Apr 14, 2019 05:14
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ReindeerF posted:I assume he is in no way connected to a family business holding group that owns media companies, telecommunications companies, construction companies, concrete/cement companies or companies that have concessions to supply parts to the military or suchlike. oh i see you're familiar with them Rajapaksa family business-corruption is afaik actually relatively new - before they got seriously into government, they were mostly landholders / agribarons in borderline-fuckin'-nowhere. One of Mahinda's more obvious boondoggles was funneling ludicrous amounts of money to his hometown and home province for projects that were uh less than perfectly merited.
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Apr 14, 2019 05:41
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Ah developing world, such simple and predictable cookie-cutter corruption. It's nice to be able to get your head around literally every loving corrupt thing that happens instead of dealing with an army of lawyers and politicians who make simple corruption so much more complex than it needs to be!
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Apr 14, 2019 06:08
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So, how is Vietnam doing? I think it's be darkly funny if the country the US fought hardest to keep the Communists out of in SEA was doing the best after their takeover.
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Apr 14, 2019 21:48
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small update: I talked to my occasional business buddy in SL and asked him about the Gotobaya Rajapaksa thing his opinion on the topic, verbatim: "rofl gonna be a shitshow"
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Apr 15, 2019 08:11
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https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/15/world/asia/indonesia-election-islam.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur I thought this was an interesting look at how once again, Saudi money and influence ruin everything.
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Apr 16, 2019 00:23
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ReindeerF posted:Good to see you Grey! Glad to hear you are experiencing stability there as well. May you live in pointlessly interesting times! http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/breakingnews/30367834 quote:An American man and his partner who set up a “seasteading” structure off the coast of Phuket say they are in hiding after facing criminal charges by the Thai authorities related to their waterborne homestead.
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Apr 17, 2019 23:50
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What an aptly named city.
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Apr 18, 2019 02:43
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quote:The couple say they want to launch a new sovereign state by creating new land far enough offshore that it would be recognised as independent under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. quote:The authorities seek immediate removal saying the lack of electricity at the structure could endanger shipping because of the lack of navigation lights.
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Apr 18, 2019 02:45
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I don't understand why sea steaders think they get to ignore SOLAS. I mean I know why they think they can.
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Apr 18, 2019 03:00
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The Indonesian election happened on Wednesday, Joko Widodo handily won, and now for the second election in a row Prabowo is claiming victory anyway, I think he's holding a big victory rally today lol. Analysts seem to be saying it's his way of ensuring that he has a little bit of sway with the next government. It's basically a result that ensures status quo, and the slow decline into further violating the rights of minorities, rather than rushing headfirst into violating them like what probably would have happened under Prabowo. It was basically two bad options the election, but at least the winner likes democracy I guess https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-04-18/the-trumpian-candidate-in-indonesias-election-claims-victory/11031058
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Apr 19, 2019 03:33
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China, yo money good, Yo money real good. https://en.businesstimes.cn/articles/111217/20190425/china-offers-to-fund-thailands-us-12-billion-railway-with-low-interest-loan.htm quote:Thailand previously announced that it was going to be mostly depending on domestic funding to complete work on its US$12 billion high-speed railway. However, that plan may have changed as the country could be considering accepting a low-interest loan offer from the Export-Import Bank of China (CEXIM) to complete the project. Anyway, I'm not sure Thailand's ruling class, such as it is, understands what it's about to get itself into with China. They aren't going to be able to cheekily dump the Chinese when the going gets tough and they're also going to be viewed more and more as a vassal state in international trade negotiations. Probably they just don't care. It's a pretty cynical bunch who care nothing for the State and just use it to line their pockets, pretty much. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-23/richest-family-in-thailand-is-getting-richer-by-helping-china quote:Chia’s son Dhanin Chearavanont is senior chairman of Charoen Pokphand Group Co., a vast conglomerate that is the world’s biggest producer of animal feed, shrimp as well as a top telecom firm in Thailand. It is at the center of an ambitious plan to turn Thailand’s eastern seaboard into a tech hub with bullet trains, 5G networks and smart car factories. The latter story is about the family that runs CP, which is a very interesting company not only because it's a huge conglomerate in Thailand, but because it's considered the most influential foreign company operating inside China, from everything I understand. When you read stats about Thailand being the largest rice exporter or shrimp exporter or among the largest chicken exporters or pangolin dick exporters whatever, CP selling into China is one of the main reasons for that. Example: https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:TndyMWd6PiIJ:https://sbrchina.com/the-cp-china-saga/+&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us quote:Chearavanont’s two major China deals have made headlines worldwide. In late 2012, CP paid US$9.4 billion to HSBC for a 15.6% stake in Ping An Insurance, one of the world’s largest insurers. In early 2015, CP struck again in a US$10.4 billion co-investment with Japan’s Itochu Corp. for a 20% stake in China International Trust and Investment Corp. (CITIC) , one of the country’s largest securities and banking groups. These deals make CP the most powerful foreign investor in the Mainland, and illustrate acceptance in conservative China boardrooms. ReindeerF fucked around with this message at 14:15 on Apr 27, 2019 |
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Apr 27, 2019 14:00
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Sri lanka was a buddhist attack against catholics. Sri lankan muslims and catholics arent enemies. Buddhist areas are seeing the most extensive attacks against christians. Muslim arent the enemy, buddhists dont claim their terror attacks quite so blindly (ISIS claimed credit = Bullshit, this is a retaliation for christchurch=bullshit) WAR CRIME GIGOLO fucked around with this message at 02:30 on Apr 28, 2019 |
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Apr 28, 2019 02:22
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WAR CRIME GIGOLO posted:Sri lanka was a buddhist attack against catholics. Sri lankan muslims and catholics arent enemies. Buddhist areas are seeing the most extensive attacks against christians. Muslim arent the enemy, buddhists dont claim their terror attacks quite so blindly (ISIS claimed credit = Bullshit, this is a retaliation for christchurch=bullshit) uhh didn't a couple dudes adjacent to the attacks just blow themselves and their families up in a house full of isis flags
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Apr 28, 2019 16:35
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shame on an IGA posted:uhh didn't a couple dudes adjacent to the attacks just blow themselves and their families up in a house full of isis flags There's also video of the bombers pledging loyalty to ISIS. The attack was probably in the works before Christchurch, though.
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Apr 28, 2019 16:53
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SimonCat posted:So, how is Vietnam doing? quote:Since the mid-1980s, through the Doi Moi reform period Vietnam has made a shift from a highly centralized command economy to a mixed economy that uses both directive and indicative planning through five-year plans. Over that period, the economy has experienced rapid growth. In the 21st century, Vietnam is in a period of being integrated into the global economy. Almost all Vietnamese enterprises are small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Vietnam has become a leading agricultural exporter and served as an attractive destination for foreign investment in Southeast Asia. In a similar fashion to other Communist countries after the end of the Cold War, the planned economy of Vietnam lost the momentum for productivity and sustainable growth. In the current period,[when?] Vietnam's economy relies largely on foreign direct investment to attract the capital from overseas to support its continual economic rigor.[9] Foreign investment on the luxury hotel and sector and resorts will rise to support high-end tourist industry.
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Apr 28, 2019 17:29
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I wrote a long post, but it occurs to me that I don't have enough knowledge on the topic to support it. In summary, debating what goes on in Asia using Western concepts and language is fraught - not only because people in the West don't understand how they apply or because the words don't translate as concepts in full, but also because the East playing the West like a fiddle with verbal jujitsu about Western concepts is an extremely well-practiced skill in all corners from all camps in all countries. In other words, not only do we not get how these things work in application in these countries, we are also told in our own language by guileful people in power things that fit into our preconceived notions, and because we're not really there and not really able to communicate or absorb first-hand knowledge, we take things at face value and carry on with the great game that has very little to do, usually, with what's actually going on in any given place at any given time. Thailand at the moment is a good example - it's a democracy again! You know how I know that? They just had an election, with candidates. Blacklists are over, baby, they're wearing suits instead of uniforms and they're using those fancy democratic names for themselves again. Woohoo. EDIT: I want to point out that I'm not doing that lovely thing a lot of people do where they say "you can never have have that learned experience, so you shouldn't talk about it." That's idiotic. All I mean is that it's worth looking at some real world examples, from rear end in a top hat to elbow, of how a given Western structure works in application in a given society to see how actual reality matches up with surface level perception.
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Apr 28, 2019 20:25
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So the new Thai king is pretty crazy. He reminds me of Henry VIII. https://uglytruththailand.wordpress.com/ I sometimes read this blog about Thailand, it's written in English by Thai living abroad and very informative if you are interested in Thai politics.
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May 4, 2019 13:41
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ReindeerF posted:EDIT: I want to point out that I'm not doing that lovely thing a lot of people do where they say "you can never have have that learned experience, so you shouldn't talk about it." That's idiotic. All I mean is that it's worth looking at some real world examples, from rear end in a top hat to elbow, of how a given Western structure works in application in a given society to see how actual reality matches up with surface level perception. Good to see you posting again, man!
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May 4, 2019 15:23
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Shibawanko posted:So the new Thai king is pretty crazy. He reminds me of Henry VIII. He has some absolutely incredible fashion sense. (  for lèse-majesté if you're in Thailand, barely worksafe otherwise).
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May 6, 2019 10:11
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Shibawanko posted:So the new Thai king is pretty crazy. He reminds me of Henry VIII. That blog has a lot of malware ads, just psa for anyone opening it on their phones/without adblock
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May 6, 2019 13:05
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Indonesia what's going on? :o
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May 22, 2019 06:32
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Synthbuttrange posted:Indonesia what's going on? :o  That's worrying. Paging Scylo.
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May 22, 2019 06:41
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Especially given who the loser was. (Hey Cefte!)
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May 22, 2019 07:10
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Synthbuttrange posted:Indonesia what's going on? :o I think at this point nobody really knows how it will escalate, or when the protestors are going to calm down or even if they will. I think there was definite a hope by a lot of people that the protest just wouldn't end up happening and would fizzle out. People are saying the protest isn't truly expected to begin until about an hour from now, and we already have lots of people that have been arrested, injured and a few dead, so gently caress knows what will happen from here. My partners friend is currently trapped where she lives because there is a demonstration right outside her house, and she can just hear gunshots and yelling. Hopefully everything will calm down, but I think a lot of peoples main worry is that there is just one guy somewhere with a bomb that decides now is a good time to do something with it. https://coconuts.co/jakarta/news/police-secure-envelopes-containing-cash-from-violent-rioters-in-c-jakarta/ It also seems like some of these protestors are just paid thugs anyway The crazy thing to me as a non-muslim is that almost all of the police and military are fasting during these riots, I feel bad for those guys.
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May 22, 2019 07:22
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I'm pretty sure Islam has special dispensation for eating in emergencies but yeah it's uh, I didnt even think of that.
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May 22, 2019 09:00
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It's going to make a touching montage in a McDonald's Ramadan commercial in a few years, tho.
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May 22, 2019 09:09
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Synthbuttrange posted:Indonesia what's going on? :o This week there were major elections across the world (India and Indonesia for example) but none of the news here seems to be talking about them or what happened at all, I guess journalism really is dead. Could someone helpfully give a rundown of the indonesian election
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May 22, 2019 12:18
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mila kunis posted:This week there were major elections across the world (India and Indonesia for example) but none of the news here seems to be talking about them or what happened at all, I guess journalism really is dead. Could someone helpfully give a rundown of the indonesian election The Indonesian election was actually last month but due to the size and how remote some of the polling stations are, it has taken until the 21st to count all of the results and announce the winner. Basically the election was between Joko Widodo the incumbent, and Prabowo Subianto, former general and alleged human rights violator. Joko Widodo and Prabowo were the candidates in 2014 as well. In 2014 Prabowo lost and protested the result, claiming widespread cheating. At that time it did not result in protests, and eventually Widodo was declared the winner. This time Prabowo ran again and every single poll done by any credible institution showed Widodo would win the election. On election day, the election commission announced the result of their Quick Count (basically they count a slice of votes from polling stations and announce that number) which showed Widodo clearly won. Prabowo immediately rejected the result (same as 2014) and then over the course of the last month has been making various unproven claims about cheating. During the election campaign there was also a lot of fake news spreading through WhatsApp about cheating, with claims about their being millions of votes in a warehouse that were already filled out for Widodo. Over the last month Prabowo has basically been continuing to say that there was a lot of cheating, the result is invalid, and yelling over and over about how there will be people power if the results find Widodo the winner, which has resulted in what is happening right now. He never openly encouraged violence but he has been courting more radical groups for years. They've made an official appeal to the constitutional court protesting the result, which I believe will be heard tomorrow, and given the complete lack of evidence I assume it will be quickly dismissed. And I guess.. hopefully that will be enough to make protestors go home, I have no idea what they do if the protestors decide to not go home
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May 22, 2019 13:44
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