Archives

Indonesia’s agro nationalism in the pandemic

"Can Indonesia have food security without security?" Colum Graham looks at who really benefits from the government’s recent measures to address Indonesia’s food crisis.

Ambág and Bayanihan: The Communal Values of Philippine Populism

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

Who will look after Lola during the pandemic?

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

Vale Arief Budiman (1941-2020): liberated intellectual in authoritarian times

Even years later, if I told a Jakarta taxi driver I used to teach at Satya Wacana, their face would light up: “Arief Budiman, very good!”

Dignified quarantine: indigenous strategies for containing COVID-19 in Indonesia

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

The Patani Panopticon: biometrics in Thailand’s deep south

The collection of facial recognition data to identify separatist insurgents in the deep south will only feed distrust towards the Thai state.

Have reports of Bali’s death been greatly exaggerated?

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.

What’s driving Indonesia’s moral turn?

The intensification of punitive sexual surveillance in Indonesia goes deeper than the rise of conservative Islam.

Looking Ahead: Laos in 2020 and beyond

Constraints on freedom of expression have expanded alongside dynamic economic growth in Laos over the past 12 months. Where will it lead?

Post-COVID 19: Deepening deprivation for young people

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.

Fighting on two fronts: the women facing conflict and COVID-19 in Rakhine state

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

Rodrigo Duterte’s war on COVID-19 is a war on the Filipino people

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.