The amazing race for Malaysia, across the world

As Malaysians head to the most contentious elections since Merdeka, its citizens abroad are valiantly overcoming great odds to get their votes counted.

Notes from the campaign: all eyes on Selangor

The Pakatan Harapan state government in Malaysia's economic powerhouse looks safe enough, but will Selangor's federal seats swing the opposition's way?

Playing the China card is unlikely to save the MCA

Barisan Nasional's Chinese component parties face a do-or-die contest this GE14. Selling themselves as conduits for investment from China isn't working.

The teka-teki of Indonesian

The second in a series of articles by veteran journalist Frank Palmos, reflecting on his time living and working in Indonesia in the early 1960s.

The limits to identity politics in GE14

Fracturing of Malay/Muslim parties has made it difficult to unite the Malay/Muslim electorate through ethnoreligious appeals.

Notes from the campaign: Johor, Selangor, Perak

No Malaysian election campaign is complete without these highlights of food, flags and swag, as the GE14 season enters its final days.

Notes from the campaign: Lembah Pantai

Street theatre and the wayang of politics merge one warm night in an urban battle about corruption big and small.

A politics of redemption in fractious times

How much change, beyond Najib's ousting, does a Mahathir-led coalition represent? Or does an emboldened, victorious Najib mean political rebirths are redundant?

Thailand Mapped กำเนิดเมืองไทยจากแผนที่

‘Thainess’ only truly laid down its roots at the end of the 1970s. ความเป็นไทยหรือการเป็นคนไทยเพิ่งจะลงหลักปักฐานจริงๆก็ในปลายทศวรรษ 1970 เท่านั้นเอง

The ‘Apa Lagi Cina Mahu’* politics of endless division

Malaysia's GE14 marks the end of Malaysian Chinese politics after 60 years of dwindling and divisive outcomes, as its modern patron UMNO itself struggles to survive.

A conversation with Thanathorn, Future Forward Party founder

Thanathorn has made clear that the Future Forward Party has no intentions of being a Pheu Thai shadow.

Millennials won’t rescue Indonesia

Beyond the media hype, the new Indonesia Solidarity Party (PSI) isn’t much different from the conservative, oligarch-linked parties we’re used to.

A look at the rural Malay voter

Both sides of the political divide are trying to woo a vastly underestimated, non-homogenous rural Malay public.

Call for papers: Myanmar Update 2019

The Australian National University's long running Myanmar Update series addresses the theme of 'Living with Myanmar' in 2019.

Social media struggles for the opposition as BN surges

Social media is now central to any Malaysian election campaign. In 2018, the opposition is facing a far better organised incumbent than last time.

Voting for Islamisms beyond the ballot box

Political Islam at GE14 isn't just a race between parties as democratisation throws up alliances and fractures to define Muslim society.

Losing a legacy, finding a nation in Sarawak

A new generation's contest over Sarawak's lost autonomy may force its GE14 voters to reconsider how today's leaders are trapped by the past.

Happy-washing: how a ‘happiness campaign’ hurts disaster survivors

Tacloban's new tourism campaign is a coverup of five years of post-Yolanda devastation.

Mapping out elections for victory

Electoral changes recently rammed through parliament can mean winning power at GE14 with just 16.5% of the popular vote. But would such elections confer the legitimacy to rule?

The Sufi poet and the peculiar whale (part two)

A commentary on the Sufi poem of the peculiar whale, by the 16th-century Malay poet Hamzah of Barus.

In the contest for power, Malaysia’s resurgent states stake a claim

The era of Malaysia's dominant federal government may be over as its leading states push for greater autonomy.

Mapping the Indonesian political spectrum

A new survey shows that political parties are divided only by their attitudes on Islam.

Indonesia’s regions a test bed for civil society influence

Nearly two decades of decentralisation have shown the promise and challenges for Indonesia's civil society.