Power, illegality and impunity in Indonesia’s plantation zone

INDONESIA AT NEW MANDALA

• Power, illegality and impunity in Indonesia’s plantation zone about 3 days ago

  Palm oil companies can act with impunity because of corporate–state collusion and a lack of organised resistance.

• The rise of performance politics in Indonesia? about 2 weeks ago

  What does it mean for Indonesia’s political development when elites and voters view democracy in instrumental terms?

• Indonesia and North Korea: warm memories of the Cold War about 4 weeks ago

  Friendly ties to Pyongyang have been an emblem of non-alignment for generations of Indonesian foreign policy makers.

• Indonesia’s virtual capital about 2 months ago

  In the online version of Nusantara, nobody can hear you protest.

• Indonesia’s new criminal code turns representatives into rulers about 4 months ago

  The new law isn’t the final nail in the coffin for democracy, but it’s a hammer for anyone who wants to drive one in.

• Can Indonesia clean up political pollution along the Citarum River? about 4 months ago

  River pollution is not only a result of overwhelming waste, but a problem of resource capture across all levels of governance.

• Profile: Patrick Anderson’s career in environmental and human rights movements about 7 months ago

  Working in solidarity globally and at the intersection of environmental protection and human rights.

• A new capital city for who? Central-local tensions in Indonesia about 7 months ago

  A lack of coordination between state actors and a lack of acknowledgment between state and society undermines the new capital project.

• Civil society in the Mekong: What can we learn from environmental struggles? about 8 months ago

  As political space contracts, the role for informal networks or coalitions expands.

• Campaigns, criminalisation and concessions: indigenous land rights in Cambodia about 8 months ago

  All Cambodians suffer from natural resources exploitation, but indigenous peoples' social, cultural and economic ties are deeply ingrained in forests

THAILAND AT NEW MANDALA

• After the Nong Bua Lamphu shooting, a need for grief-sensitive journalism about 6 months ago

  Evidence of inappropriate reporting on the Nong Bua Lamphu tragedy is rife.

• Public programs weekend: Our Grandfather Road about 6 months ago

  Interact with some of the most socially-engaged and topical art produced by contemporary artists both emerging and established from the region

• Suffer the children: in Thailand, children risk sexual abuse by officials charged with their care about 6 months ago

  It is in the interests of conservative and progressive Thais to develop new cultural norms and effective legal sanctions to address sexual abuse.

• New Books on Southeast Asia: Chris Baker on “A History of Thailand” about 8 months ago

  This new edition contains a new chapter on Thailand's turbulent politics since 2006 and incorporates new sources and research throughout.

• “Mandatory” deaths for the poor, get out of jail free card for the rich in Asia about 8 months ago

  The fact that dirty money needs to be cleaned provides opportunities for law enforcement agencies in ASEAN to collectively monitor drug lords and drug traffickers.

• Image-making as necessity in Fighting Fear II about 1 day ago

  A recent exhibition showcased Myanmar artists' responses to the coup and resistance to it.

• A (qualified) farewell from the editor about 4 months ago

  Working on New Mandala has been a labour of love which has motivated me to pursue my own academic work as a researcher and teacher.

• Asian Art Research Now: Postgraduate workshop about 5 months ago

  Supportive critique and cross-pollination across institutional boundaries, as well as those of geography and temporality.

• The Yogyakartan Surrealism of Jokowi about 6 months ago

  Like the Yogyakartan surrealist, Jokowi’s leadership offers a dreamscape, relying much on the promise of the future.

• A conversation about Vomit Girl: Mai Nguyen-Long talks to Elly Kent about 6 months ago

  Studying Vietnamese folkloric practices, the artist has crafted objects that reflect the aesthetics of creative subversion and resistance.

• The women entrepreneurs of early modern Vietnam about 11 months ago

  Their contributions were fundamental to shaping Vietnam’s early modern social, religious, and economic society, but historical scholarship has neglected their experiences for centuries.

• Whose history, whose future? Creating a new legacy of shared maritime heritage about 1 year ago

  Proactive engagement, people-to-people connections, developing mutual trust and respect is essential to protect Perth for the future.

• Forgotten art history: the art of Chinese-Indonesian women in the 20th century about 1 year ago

  Uncovering transnational and gendered experiences reveals a far richer and more multifaceted picture of Indonesian art and identity.

• At what cost: The impact of Indonesia’s Omnibus law on underwater cultural heritage about 2 years ago

  Why, after such a long hiatus, is underwater cultural heritage is once again being considered as an economic, not an archaeological or historical, resource?

• Remembering HMAS Perth (I) for the future about 2 years ago

  For Indonesia and Australia, the salvage of Perth has put maritime heritage cooperation into the spotlight, prompting greater bilateral engagement.

SOUTHEAST ASIA IN A TIME OF CORONAVIRUS

• COVID-19 flights to nowhere: radical escape or radical reimagining of the everyday? about 2 years ago

  The illusion that the domestic space is only a site for social reproduction is over, but what will replace it?

• The role of neighbourhood leaders in Indonesia’s COVID-19 response about 2 years ago

  Neighbourhood leaders enjoy high levels of public trust but concerns about legitimacy and conflict limit the extent to which they can implement COVID-19 restrictions.

• Gendering Indonesia’s responses to COVID-19: Preliminary thoughts about 2 years ago

  The approach used in the creation of these policies ignores that women may face more difficulty in accessing the promised benefits.

• Moral economies: the politics of donation in Thailand under COVID-19 about 3 years ago

  During the pandemic, “immodest” or ungrateful receiving by the poor has been strongly denounced both by the state and middle-class donors.

• LGBTQ+ community leaders in Indonesia: overcoming pandemic hardship about 3 years ago

  LGBTQ+ Indonesians are driving some of the most effective community responses to the hardships of the pandemic.