Farewell 2019

The top posts of 2019 and end of year thanks.

Defections to expulsions: Future Forward Party’s internal turmoil

"Very few MP candidates actually call themselves “true believers” in the Future Forward ideology."

Religion, ethnicity and hate speech in Indonesia’s 2019 presidential election

A reflection on the Jokowi and Prabowo campaign strategies and how they unfolded.

44 Years after invasion: East Timor’s 1975 generation

The role of youth and students has been sidelined in the history of the resistance movement.

A volunteer cleaning effort on Queen Sirikit's birthday in 2019 (not part of the Volunteer Spirit 904 initiative)

Cascading royal-nationalism: Bangkok’s “Volunteer Spirit 904” bootcamps

Around 3,000 public servants have volunteered to attend intensive “boot camps” at a military base in Bangkok.

Lost in tongue: the politics of mother tongue education in Myanmar

A glimpse into the current state of mother tongue education and its connections to the broader ethnic reconciliation process.

Politicising the label radical?

Extremist labels are being utilised to repress criticism, strong-arm opponents and silence challengers of the Indonesian government.

How Christianity consolidated royalist, Buddhist “Thainess”

What do the late King Bhumibol and former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra have in common? They're both alumni of Catholic private schools.

Indonesia’s democratic paradox

The co-existence of Indonesia’s competitive elections with illiberal trends appears contradictory but the two are in fact interrelated.

National security and “immunising” Thais to political conflict

On the discourse of "immunity" against partisanship and contestation in Thailand’s 2019–22 National Security Policy

Why good women lose elections in Indonesia

Penelitian baru menunjuk bahwa sikap patriarkal dan institusi yang kurang ramah menghalangi suksesnya kandidat perempuan dalam pemilihan.

Pracharat welfare depoliticises Thailand’s “political peasants”

สวัสดิการประชารัฐกับการเปลี่ยนแปลงความสัมพันธ์รัฐ-ชนบทไทย

Land, emotions and the durability of power in Cambodia

ដីធ្លី, អារម្មណ៍, និងថាវរកម្មនៃអំណាចនៅកម្ពុជា

An interview with Shamsul Iskandar

Malaysia's Deputy Minister of Primary Industries discusses his political awakening, GE14, and reforming the palm oil industry.

Papal visits in Thailand and “foreign religious subversion”

As Pope Francis lands in Thailand, Katewadee Kulabkaew unpacks hardline fears that the Catholic Church is like "a stealthy python" that will swallow Buddhism.

Illiberalism and democratic illusions in Myanmar

မြန်မာနိုင်ငံရှိ တင်းမာသောအမြင်သဘောထားနှင့် ဒီမိုကရေစီလှည့်စားမှုများ - ဖွဲ့စည်းပုံအခြေခံဥပဒေပြင်ဆင်ခြင်းအား နိုင်ငံရေးစွမ်းဆောင်မှုအဖြစ် အသုံးချခြင်း

Securing the electoral success of women in Malaysia Baharu

Despite female politicians’ ambivalence about gender quotas, they remain an essential tool in making politics more representative.

Rainsy’s point of no return

Divisions in Cambodia's opposition have created divergent ideas about the best path forward.

The Thai Constitutional Court’s war on freedom of expression

While the Court has always targeted critics of the regime, it generally spared critics of its own rulings. With the rise of Future Forward Party, that's changed.

Farewell from a founder

Reflections on the ups and downs of New Mandala and the future for online academic engagement.

Sitio San Roque: in the peripheries of development

An urban poor community fight to save their homes in the face of arrests and arson.

Why Indonesia’s electoral system needs reform

Lawmakers have an opportunity to work with experts in civil society and academia to make politics less dependent on financial sponsors.

Not the Emperor’s, not the King’s, but the Straits Chinese

Ann Ang discusses the historical context, origins and identity of the Straits Chinese.

The medieval tropics

Medieval artefacts and manuscripts are explored by Alex West to give insight on the deep past of Southeast Asia.