Public health

...grounding democracy in ambág and bayanihan can help heal the polarized political landscape in the Philippines.

Filipino grandmothers often bear the brunt of providing and caring for their families. The Duterte government's COVID-19 response overlooks them.

“For hundreds of years, we’ve been practising so-called self-quarantine. Long before the recent COVID-19 outbreak. We called it besesandingon.”

With tourism making up a relatively small portion of Indonesia’s GDP, investment and household consumption do the heavy lifting in this trillion-dollar economy.

Young people are at a higher risk of mental health conditions when compared to the rest of the population, leading to poorer health outcomes, human rights violations and local and global economic loss.

Women in Rakhine state are doubly jeopardised when the threat of COVID-19 intersects with war.

Reports emerging of anti-communist attacks in cities and rural areas, arrests of activists and union members, and military action in spite of a declared ceasefire.

Technological solutions like TraceTogether will only effectively if people believe it’s there to help them.

Is adherence to social restrictions being used as "an uncritical litmus test to judge good and bad citizens?"

Who gets to be categorized as vulnerable and receive much-needed economic assistance?

Waning philanthropy has exacerbated the risks COVID-19 poses to Southeast Asia.
But there are lessons to be learned.

History lessons on epidemic disease monitoring systems from the League of Nations' Singapore Bureau.

Military interventions are preventing essential medical aid and health workers from reaching people.

Peera Songkünnatham on the military's troubled response to COVID-19, and the King's absence

The success of large-scale social restrictions is heavily reliant on effective coordination.

Economic disasters have a history of bringing down governments in Indonesia; COVID-19 impacts hardest on the disadvantaged in an already fragile system.

Fears of escalating repressions are growing as the state of emergency laws are used to arrest opposition affiliates and a journalist.

While reports of central government mismanagement are widespread, local and regional officials are implementing sound strategies that account for limited resourcing.

Sara Davies joins us for a coronavirus pandemic special on New Books in Southeast Asian Studies to talk about health security and political sovereignty in Southeast Asia and beyond.

From Timor-Leste, 'this is not a friendly letter. You’re like the black storm clouds that block us from seeing the moon.' Dadolin Murak reflects on what humanity might learn from the challenges we are facing.

Our new series looks at coronavirus in Southeast Asia through diverse lens, and invites authors and readers to reflect and speculate on what we can learn from this crisis and all it brings.

An ongoing crackdown on freedom of expression is impacting the access to essential information.

For centuries a cross roads of Asia, Myanmar has also suffered the attendant waves of epidemic and endemic disease.

Social distancing and travel bans won’t save Thailand from COVID-19 writes Anthony C. Kuster.