The Brief: Issue Fifty-Two

A New Challenge? New Political Party Founded by Bangladeshi Students
by Ralph Woods

The logo of the National Citizens Party. (Image Credit: National Citizens Party, Wikimedia Commons).

A new party has been founded in Bangladesh. Named the Jatiya Nagorik Party (National Citizens Party) it is made up largely of students and the party’s convenor has been named as Nahid Islam, one of the leaders of the students protests last July. The protests culminated in the overthrow of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina who led the country for a total of 15 years from 1996 to 2001 and from 2009 to 2024.

The leading role of Nahid Islam, 26, in the students protests led to his arrest by police who tortured him until he was unconscious. ‘We will keep Bangladesh and the interest of its citizens in mind and join hands to build a new nation,’ Islam said at the party’s launch last Friday.

The foundation of the National Citizens Party has upset the traditional two party system in Bangladesh. Together the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) under Khaleda Zia, who was Prime Minister from 1991 to 1996 and from 2001 to 2006, and the Awami League, under the ousted Hasina, have dominated the country since the adoption of the previous constitution nearly 35 years ago. Both parties’ time in government were criticised for corruption and democratic backsliding. Despite this both parties still have significant followings and loyalties that run back decades.

A caretaker government led by famed Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus is currently organising a new constitution and announced in December that elections will be held in late 2025 or early 2026.

Backlash as Children Fall Ill from Prabowo’s Free School Meal Programme
by Tamara Long

President of Indonesia Prabowo Subianto. (Image Credit: Ministry of State Secretariat, Wikimedia Commons.)

President Prabowo Subianto recently announced that the 2025 State and Regional Budget revealed a Rp306.69 trillion cut. Amongst other things, this cut was necessary to fund one of Prabowo’s biggest campaign promises – The Free School Meals Program (MBG) for students across Indonesia. 

However, Prabowo’s prized school meals have left a bitter taste in the mouth. Official numbers have not been determined, but suspected cases of food poisoning due to the meals have climbed into the hundreds.

BBC Indonesia has highlighted eight significant cases of food poisoning due to the MBG meals. In Sukoharjo, Central Java, 40 primary school students suffered symptoms of food poisoning such as nausea, vomiting, and diarrhoea after consuming their free school meals. An investigation by a local clinic found that the chicken served was undercooked. 

In response to these food poisoning cases, Dadan Hindayana, Head of the National Body of Nutrition (BGN), said of a case where raw meat was found in student meals that this was a ‘pure technical error’. 

Dadan stated that MBG kitchens were not used to serving this many meals, and that they needed time to adjust. He also announced that local MBG offices would be given funding to pay for the treatment of students who have suffered from food poisoning.

Whilst many institutions have called for a mass re-evaluation of the MBG program, Prabowo and his government show no signs of stopping. It seems that the Rp171 trillion allocated budget for the MBG program is – literally and figuratively – being flushed down the drain.

Japan Depletes Rice Stockpile Following Prices Rises
by Jaden Áine Lynch

A rice field in Nara, Japan. (Image Credit: Kansaikiwi, Wikimedia Commons.)

In recent months, the average retail price of rice in Japan has risen to ¥3,688 per 5kg (roughly equivalent to £20). This is up from just ¥2,023 last year, for an increase of more than 80 percent. 

As rice is a staple food in Japan, these price rises are of concern to both citizens and the government, with the potential to cause instability in the economy and significantly impact the cost of living. The cause is multifactorial, but record temperatures this summer resulting in a smaller harvest almost certainly contributed.

The Japanese government revealed on Friday the 14 February that they had made the decision to flood the market with 200,000 tonnes of stockpiled rice as a response to the price rises. Since 1995, Japan has kept rice reserves in case of emergency. Although they are usually only used in the aftermath of natural disasters and major crop failures, rather than due to distribution issues, the agriculture minister Taku Eto stated: ‘The price hike has been too sharp, which is why we have made this decision.’

Japan also dipped into its rice reserves last year, raising concerns about the rate at which the national stockpile is being depleted. The rice released into the market is set to appear in stores around late March.

7,000 Freed from Scam Centres on the Thai-Myanmar Border
by Joe Langham

KK Park, the collective name of fraud factories operating near the Myanmar/Thailand border (Image Credit: Maisoog, Wikimedia Commons).

Joint action by the governments of Thailand and Myanmar has finally begun to crack down on criminal cyber scam centres on their shared border. These criminal enterprises work by luring in workers on the promise of well-paying jobs, only to entrap them in compounds and force them to conduct online scams, extorting people from all over the world out of their money. This money has then been funnelled into militias controlling these border regions in Myanmar which are engaged in the country’s civil war. The workers, who have been essentially enslaved and imprisoned in these camps, report extensive abuse and even torture to be used as punishment for not attaining targets.

Now, the Thai government has cut off several scam centres from the electrical power sustaining their operations, thus freeing those inside who were then transferred to temporary camps in Thailand. However, the 7,000 inside these camps come from a vast array of countries, including countries as far as Ethiopia, and cannot yet be properly screened to distinguish criminals from victims. Further, serious concerns exist around the spread of infectious disease in these camps, with serious illnesses already reported. Some states have already begun repatriation efforts, which thus far has included the return of some 600 Chinese nationals and 84 Indonesians.