Singapore’s next billionaire has upset the strategic heart of capitalism. Eduardo Saverin, who owns a four percent stake in Facebook, is renouncing his U.S. citizenship, lodged the required paperwork to make Singapore his new home and is no doubt scouting the island-state for the right bankers.

All this comes as Facebook readies itself for a an IPO that will potentially value it at about $100 billion, which will add several more billion dollars to Saverin’s personal coffers and expose him to an unwanted U.S. tax bill from the income earned on future stock sales. Singapore, his new home, likes rich people, and there’s no capital gains tax there.

Tax, and those who avoid it, is a sensitive subject on Main Street, USA. And the likes of Saverin have the good ’ol boys a tad upset. At 13, Saverin’s name was discovered on a gangster’s list of potential kidnap targets in his native Brazil. His family fled north.

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During elections, people tend to be more inspired to voice their opinions on politics, governance, and democracy. Campaigning hasn't officially started in Malaysia, but it's encouraging to see that ordinary citizens have been so aggressive in recent weeks in pushing for various government reforms.

Bersih (clean), an electoral reform movement, surprised the government when it successfully mobilized thousands of people in the streets on April 28. It was reported to be the biggest rally ever held in Malaysia. But before Bersih, there were several “people power” initiatives that deserve recognition, such as the Occupy Dataran Merdeka, the student march against the “inefficient and exploitative” national school loan program, and the popular indignation against the operation of a rare earth refinery in the town of Kuantan. 

Bersih has three demands: the resignation of the Election Commission, the cleaning up of the electoral roll, and the presence of international observers at the general elections. The government claimed that it had already addressed the concerns raised by Bersih, but its response didn't impress protestors, who were violently dispersed by the police. The fact that Bersih managed to gather a record number of protesters in the streets of Malaysia and in other cities around the world should be placing genuine pressure on the ruling coalition, which has been in power for the past 55 years, to rethink its tactic of nonchalantly dismissing all reform advocates as proxies of the opposition.

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Recent international media attention related to Thailand has been (quite reasonably) focused on the tragic story of Ampon Tangnoppakul, also known as “Ar Kong,” an elderly grandfather who had been sentenced to twenty years in prison for allegedly sending text messages defaming the monarchy. This despite the fact that he had no previous political experience, and the state couldn’t even prove he had actually sent the messages, but instead simply applied the standard that he could not disprove he sent them – obviously not a reasonable standard of proof in a democracy. Sick with cancer and other ailments, and separated from his entire family, Ampon died in jail earlier this week. There have been many stories on him, but one of the most insightful, and provocative, is “A Tale of Two Grandfathers.”

Ampon’s death may finally help catalyze a broader movement to reform Thailand’s archaic and now brutal Lèse-Majesté (LM) laws. Unfortunately, the Yingluck Shinawatra government continues to say that it won’t favor reforming such laws.

Yet, at the same time as this case is getting media attention, other more under the radar news in Thailand should prove extremely worrying to U.S. policymakers. In an interesting piece in Asia Times, two retired U.S. army officers who frequently write on the Thai military note that the Thai armed forces are currently beefing up their strength, working to promote closer intra-army unity, and essentially preparing for a potential conflict with the elected government should Thaksin return to the country, or should the elected government try to carve into the army’s political independence.

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China continues to raise the heat in its dispute with the Philippines over the sovereignty of Scarborough Shoal/Huangyan Island. On Monday, He Jia, an anchor on China’s state-run CCTV, mistakenly declared that “China has unquestionable sovereignty over the Philippines” rather than just over the disputed island. On Tuesday, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Fu Ying warned a Philippine diplomat that China was fully prepared to do anything to respond to escalation. Deep-water drilling has begun near islands in the South China Sea and Chinese travel agencies have reportedly suspended tours to the Philippines. Chinese netizens are fully in support of the claims, and have in many instances criticized the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for not taking more assertive action.

As with previous territorial disputes in East Asia these days (see China-Vietnam, China-Japan, and Korea-Japan), the political, diplomatic, and military maneuvering has a cyber component. On April 20, Chinese hackers attacked the website of the University of the Philippines. The next day, Filipino hackers struck back with the defacement of Chinese websites. On the 23rd and 24th, the two sides again traded tit-for-tat attacks (a very useful timeline up until April 30 can be found here). Attacks have continued over the last week; attackers have also pasted the Chinese flag on the website of the Philippines News Agency.

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The self-appointed culture police are at it again. Indonesia’s hard-line Muslims are promising to block American singer Lady Gaga from taking to the stage during a scheduled June 3 performance in Jakarta. Among their many complaints are that the pop diva is a danger to children.

In threatening to mobilize 30,000 people, the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) also described the hottest artist in contemporary music as vulgar, very dangerous and argued that her sense of dress were threatening to a child’s sense of morality.

About 25,000 concert tickets have already been sold and threats to intercept Lady Gaga at the airport have sparked an angry backlash on social media from her fans, known as Little Monsters.

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