VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr's approval ratings edged lower due to public dissatisfaction over his government's handling of inflation, but he remains popular, an opinion poll showed on Wednesday.

The Pulse Asia survey found that 78% of 1,200 respondents polled in March approved of Marcos' performance, lower than the 82% he got in November, while 80% said they trusted the president, down from 83% in an earlier poll.

Since taking office in June 2022, Marcos, the son of the late strongman ousted in a 1986 uprising, has had to grapple with inflation that has soared to levels not seen in 14 years due largely to rising food and fuel costs.

Inflation slowed for a second straight month in March to 7.6% but remained well above the government's 2%-4% target for the year.

Controlling costs of living was the top concern of 63% of respondents.

Slightly more than half, or 52%, of respondents disapproved of the government's handling of inflation, with 25% saying they approved, while the rest were undecided.

Marcos' approval ratings were slightly lower than the 83% that his vice president, Sara Duterte, got in March. Duterte, daughter of former president Rodrigo Duterte, currently serves as education minister, while Marcos helms the agriculture department.

In the same survey, 61% percent of respondents approved of Marcos' government in terms of "defending the integrity of Philippine territory against foreigners", up from 58% in November. (Reuters)

Thailand's health minister who championed the legalisation of cannabis is hoping the reform will help deliver gains in next month's election, with expectations he could emerge as a power broker who can stitch together a coalition government.

Anutin Charnvirakul, 56, is confident his Bhumjaithai Party will be part of the next government after an election that is shaping up to be a tight contest between pro-military conservatives and their populist opponents.

The economy is the main election issue with signs of recovery despite inflation and a global slowdown, but last year's legalisation of cannabis has brought Anutin and his party more attention, both positive and negative, in the run-up to the May 14 vote.

"We'ill win more seats than last time, for sure. Our goal is to get parliamentary seats in the three digits in this election because of what we've done," Anutin, a deputy prime minister and health minister, told Reuters in an interview.

In the last election in 2019, when electoral rules favoured small and medium-size parties, Bhumjaithai, or Proud to be Thai, won 51 seats in the 500-member parliament, becoming a junior partner in a coalition dominated by pro-military parties.

This time, new election rules favour bigger parties, and Bhumjaithai has strengthened its slate of candidates to compete with larger opponents.

Opposition parties, including the Pheu Thai Party loyal to former telecoms tycoon and ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra, have criticised Bhumjaithai and the ruling coalition for what they see as the rushed and loosely regulated decriminalisation of cannabis.

But Anutin, a former chairman of one of Thailand's largest construction companies, said opening up the marijuana business was a proven vote winner.

"Last time, Bhumjaithai Party won millions of votes from people who believed in the benefits of marijuana," he said.

Two opinions polls last month showed Bhumjaithai was the most popular party in the ruling alliance but behind the favourite, the Pheu Thai opposition party that Thaksin's daughter, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, hopes to lead to victory.

'INSPIRATION'

Political scientist Wanwichit Boonprong of Rangsit University said Anutin could emerge as a king-maker because of his party's popularity and his relationships across the political divide.

"Bhumjaithai will likely gain the most seats among the parties in the government coalition," Wanwichit said, predicting it could win more than 70, including from rural strongholds in the lower northeast.

The party has promised debt moratoriums on small loans and improvements to the health system. Anutin said he was open to working with any party and would be prepared to be prime minister if the opportunity arose.

"I am younger, more fresh and I understand politics in a democratic system," he said.

But the staunch monarchist draws the line at any suggestion of amending a lese majeste law.

A youth-led protest movement that emerged in late 2020 to oppose military involvement in politics called for changing the law that protects the monarchy, which punishes perceived royal insult with up to 15 years in jail.

Some small parties have suggested amending it and Pheu Thai has raised the possibility of discussing it in parliament.

But for Anutin the monarchy is sacrosanct. (Reuters)

Afghanistan's Taliban administration has said forbidding Afghan women from working for the United Nations was an "internal issue," after the global organisation expressed alarm at the decision and said it would review its operations there.

In the Taliban administration's first statement on the decision since the U.N. acknowledged hearing of the new restrictions last week, spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Wednesday the policy "should be respected by all sides".

The United Nations has said it cannot accept the decision as it would breach its charter. It has asked all its staff not to go into its offices while it holds consultations and reviews its operations until May 5. On Tuesday, the U.N. Mission to Afghanistan said the Taliban administration would be responsible for any negative humanitarian impacts stemming from the ban.

Mujahid, in a statement, blamed foreign governments for the humanitarian crisis spurred by sanctions on its banking sector and the freezing of Afghan central bank assets held overseas, some of which have been placed in a Swiss trust fund.

Some diplomats and aid officials in Afghanistan and around the world have expressed concerns donors may withdraw support to Afghanistan's humanitarian aid programme, the largest in the world, and that implementing programmes and reaching women in the conservative country would not be possible without female workers.

Taliban authorities in December said most Afghan female NGO workers would not be allowed to work.

The U.N. humanitarian agency has said a huge funding plan for Afghanistan for 2023 is less than 5% funded.

"If funding is not urgently secured, millions of Afghans will be staring down the barrel of famine, disease and death," it said on Wednesday. (Reuters)

Myanmar's military said it carried out a deadly attack on a village gathering organised by its insurgent opponents this week and if civilians were also killed it was because they were being forced to help the "terrorists".

Up to 100 people, including children, were killed in Tuesday's air strike in the Sagaing area in northwest Myanmar, according to media reports, making it the deadliest in a recent string of military air attacks.

Myanmar has been in turmoil since a 2021 coup ended a decade of tentative reform that included rule by a civilian government led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

Some opponents of military rule have taken up arms, in places joining ethnic minority insurgents, and the military has responded with air strikes and heavy weapons, including in civilian areas.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the air attack in Sagaing and called for those responsible to be held accountable, his spokesperson said, adding that Guterres "reiterates his call for the military to end the campaign of violence against the Myanmar population throughout the country".

Junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun told military broadcast channel Myawaddy late on Tuesday the attack on the ceremony held by the National Unity Government (NUG), a shadow administration, for their armed People's Defence Force was aimed at restoring peace and stability in the region.

"During that opening ceremony, we conducted the attack. PDF members were killed. They are the ones opposing the government of the country, the people of the country," said Zaw Min Tun.

"According to our ground information we hit the place of their weapons' storage and that exploded and people died due to that," he said.

Referring to accusations of civilian casualties, he said "some people who were forced to support them probably died as well".

'BODY PARTS'

Zaw Min Tun said photographs showed some of those killed were in uniform and some in civilian clothes, accusing the PDF of falsely claiming civilian deaths when their forces were killed.

He also accused members of the PDF of committing "war crimes" and killing "monks, teachers and innocent residents" in the area who did not support the opposition.

U.N. Human Rights chief Volker Turk condemned the attack in a message before the junta's comment was widely reported, saying it "appears schoolchildren performing dances, as well as other civilians ... were among the victims".

Citing residents of the region, BBC Burmese, Radio Free Asia (RFA) Burmese, and the Irrawaddy news portal reported between 80 and 100 people, including civilians, had been killed in the attack by the military.

According to a PDF member, about 100 bodies, including 16 children, had been cremated.

"The exact death toll is still unclear since ... body parts are scattered all over the place," said the PDF member, who declined to be identified.

Myanmar's lightly armed opposition fighters have no effective defences against the military's air force.

In October, a military jet attacked a concert, killing at least 50 civilians, singers and members of an ethnic minority insurgent force in Kachin State in the north.

Kyaw Zaw, a spokesman for the NUG, said it believed nearly 100 people were killed in the Tuesday attack when air force jets dropped bombs on villagers and helicopter gunships then followed up, calling it "another senseless, barbaric, brutal attack by the military".

The military denies accusations it has committed atrocities against civilians and says it is fighting "terrorists" determined to destabilise the country.

The military has ruled Myanmar for most of the past 60 years saying it is the only institution capable of holding the diverse country together.

Suu Kyi, 77, is serving 33 years in prison for various offences that she denied and her party has been disbanded. (Reuters)