A student revolution in Bangladesh. A stunning electoral rebuke for India’s once unassailable Narendra Modi. A rare corruption conviction in Singapore and political chaos in Japan and South Korea. Asia in 2024 was characterised by turbulence and surprises.
Some developments were easier to predict. Asia’s tycoons grew richer even as ordinary people struggled under rising living costs. Scammers kept on hammering the Asian public, North Korea’s nuclear-armed leader Kim Jong-un continued provoking his southern neighbour and Myanmar’s junta refused to yield power – although its losses are mounting as the country’s civil war grinds on.
It was another year of superlatives for Asia’s environment – but the ones no nation wants to hear: the hottest on record, the heaviest rain ever, the most powerful storms … From India to Japan, Asia contended with floods, bad air and searing heat.
But it wasn’t all doom and gloom. Taylor Swift mesmerised Singapore, a film about ageing got Asian audiences weeping – and earned an Oscar’s shortlist – and a chubby hippo in a Thai zoo blew up the internet.
Bangladesh
In July, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina unleashed her security forces on massive student-led protests across Bangladesh, killing hundreds. It was a crackdown that spectacularly backfired. On August 5 she fled to India after protests that began over contentious job quotas billowed into a call for an end to her corruption-riddled 15-year period helming the country.
As Hasina loyalists were driven from office and into self-exile, an interim government under Nobel laureate Muhammand Yunus was tasked with restoring law and order and paving the way for fresh elections.
The coming year will be decisive for Bangladesh, with polls likely for next year. Yet the goodwill that has floated the interim government so far is showing signs of running out, as infighting gets louder and the public returns its focus to inflation and jobs.
India
Elections in the world’s largest democracy India threw up a summer surprise as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lost its outright majority in parliament. That left Modi dependent on regional political allies for support to return for a third consecutive term. The opposition INDIA bloc made inroads into the BJP’s Hindi-speaking heartlands, casting doubt over Modi’s once unassailable hold over the public and the appeal of the hardline Hindu nationalist agenda he and his party have propagated.
Still, Modi is only the second Indian leader to win three terms in office. He also remains the steward of the world’s fastest-growing major economy, which is bracing itself for Donald Trump’s return to power to see if tariff threats help his nation with more factory relocations or harm it with crushing levies on Indian goods.
Elsewhere, India’s top tycoon Gautam Adani was indicted on bribery charges by US prosecutors in November, accused of paying more than US$250 million in bribes to Indian officials for securing solar energy supply contracts.
Pakistan
Pakistan remained mired in political instability, with supporters of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan clashing sporadically with police to demand his release, following a corruption conviction in January.
In February, Pakistanis voted in polls marred by alleged interference of the military. Independent candidates affiliated with Khan’s party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, won a majority of seats but, Khan did not gain a parliamentary majority.
Two weeks after the elections, the Pakistan Muslim League (N) led by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and Pakistan People’s Party led by Bilawal Bhutto announced that they would form a government. From jail, Khan has rallied supporters, a continued influence that makes his quick release increasingly improbable.
Singapore
Lawrence Wong became Singapore’s fourth prime minister in May, the republic’s third leadership transition since independence in 1965. Wong, 51, succeeded Lee Hsien Loong, who led Singapore for nearly two decades. The long-anticipated handover came as the ruling People’s Action Party faces heightened political competition ahead of the next general election, due by November next year.
In September, former transport minister S Iswaran pleaded guilty to accepting gifts as a public servant. The scandal that gripped the nation was linked to businessman Ong Beng Seng, whom he worked with on the Singapore Formula One Grand Prix, and Lum Kok Seng, a director of a construction company involved in works to a railway station, while Iswaran was transport minister. The gifts included bottles of luxury wine and whiskey, tickets to the Singapore F1 Grand Prix, a business class ticket to Doha and a Brompton bicycle.
Earlier in the year, Singapore became the envy of its Asean peers when it became the only Southeast Asian stop in American pop star Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. But a state grant to help bring Swift’s world tour to Singapore sparked ire and debate among some neighbouring countries also keen for a slice of “Swiftonomics”.
Indonesia
Former defence minister Prabowo Subianto emerged victorious in February’s general election after President Joko Widodo’s eldest son, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, joined Prabowo’s ticket as vice-president. Despite his popularity and the title of “infrastructure president”, Widodo left office facing some criticism for democratic backsliding.
Indonesia has also been in a back-and-forth with tech giant Apple, banning sales of the new iPhone 16 in October for failing to meet the country’s content requirements. Last month, the government rejected a US$100 million investment proposal from the California-based company, calling it insufficient and inconsistent with Apple’s commitments in other Southeast Asian nations. However, Apple has since come back with a US$1 billion pledge, which Prabowo reportedly approved last week.
Japan
Better known for its staid predictability, Japanese politics entered the unknown after a snap election gamble by Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in October backfired, leaving the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) without a majority and ending its near seven-decade hold on power. The polls were called after a corruption scandal engulfed the LDP, leading to former prime minister Fumio Kishida making way for Ishiba.
The climate crisis also left its mark on Japan, with record rains and record temperatures taking lives and causing chaos, while the peak of Mount Fuji went without snow until November, the latest time snow settled on its slopes in 130 years.
South Korea
President Yoon Suk-yeol stunned the world with an unexpected declaration of martial law on December 3 as he attempted to quash his critics. Yoon has insisted his martial law decree was a legitimate effort to safeguard the country from opposition forces he claimed were conspiring with North Korea. But the move fell apart and he now faces impeachment over the self-coup attempt that nearly unwound decades of democratic progress.
North Korea
The reclusive regime headed by Kim Jong-un unexpectedly sent an estimated 100,000 troops to fight Russia’s war in Ukraine. Throughout the year, Moscow emerged as Pyongyang’s new best friend, offering North Korea anti-air missiles, military technology ranging from surveillance satellites to submarines, and even a million barrels of oil in exchange for North Korean weapons and troops.
Pyongyang scrapped all economic cooperation with Seoul and blew up sections of deeply symbolic roads connecting it to the South. Kim also made it clear that he has the legal right to “wipe out” South Korea, while his officials condemned Seoul for using drones to drop anti-regime propaganda leaflets, warning of military action.
Not to be outdone, Seoul’s National Intelligence Service dropped loud hints that Kim is seeking alternative medicine to address his health problems linked to excess weight and stress as well as heavy smoking and drinking. Unsurprisingly, that renewed speculation whether his young daughter Kim Ju-ae, sister Kim Yo-jong, or someone else will take his place as supreme leader. Is a possible meeting between Kim and the US president-elect Donald Trump on the cards? Watch this space.
The Philippines
Maritime confrontations with China in the South China Sea continued to define the news agenda from the Philippines. A July deal to resolve their dispute collapsed within hours after both sides refuted key details of the agreement. To counter Beijing, Manila has forged deeper ties with allies, including an intelligence-sharing agreement with the United States and a mutual troop deployment deal with Japan.
Crime also dominated events on the archipelago. A high-stakes congressional investigation into a web of criminal enterprises across the Philippines took a dramatic turn when new evidence emerged linking infamous former mayor Alice Guo to Chinese espionage operations, raising alarms about foreign infiltration and election interference.
A political storm erupted after Vice-President Sara Duterte-Carpio threatened that she could hire an assassin to kill President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr, who called the threat “troubling”.
Hit not just by major tropical storms Toraji, Trami, Kong-rey and Yinxing, the Philippines also witnessed the eruption of Mount Kanlaon where plumes of hot ash and gases were launched, forcing residents to evacuate and schools to close.
Best of the rest …
In Vietnam, a corruption purge saw property tycoon Truong My Lan given the death sentence for a US$12.5 billion embezzlement from a bank. In Muslim-majority Malaysia, boycotts over alleged links to Israeli firms saw Starbucks, KFC and McDonald’s haemorrhage sales.
Meanwhile, in Thailand billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra made a stunning return to the centre of power with his daughter Peatongtarn as prime minister, but Moo Deng the podgy baby hippo in a Chonburi zoo stole the limelight and hearts of millions across the world. Thai film How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies, which stormed box offices across Southeast Asia, also sparked a TikTok try-not-to-cry craze, and in December it was shortlisted for the best foreign film at next year’s Oscars.