Category: Featured
Featured articles from FORSEA contributors.
Ignoring Global Realities? Western Governments need to invest in Asian Studies in their Universities
The West had a very long run forcing other societies to respect its supremacy, wear its clothes and adopt its manners, not to mention its languages, values, and even its laws. Yet Asian Studies centres are no longer a monopoly of the West but are now increasingly centred, where they are funded much more richly, by their own governments.
On Myanmar’s Dead Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement
Maung Zarni blew the whistle on military-led top-down democratic reforms – which he argued were, in the final instance, cosmetic as early as these "reforms" were launched by the Burmese generals in 2010. To his rage and dismay, this "transition" was blessed by none other than Aung San San Suu Kyi and celebrated by Western media and powerful external actors.
Bandung Principles in Question: The Case of ASEAN
The question now is not whether the Bandung Principles need to be completely changed. Certainly not. However, the following two questions need to be discussed: To what extent or under what conditions should a country not intervene in another country? And, if intervention is needed, in what form would this be appropriate?
The Philippines: FORSEA Dialogue on Attacks on Lawyers in the Philippines
In a damning report, the Commission on Human Rights found that the “grim reality” of being a human rights defender in the Philippines was that “they faced constant undermining and delegitimization of their work which lead to systematic attacks that place their ‘life, liberty, and security…at great risk”.
Patterns in the Killing of Lawyers: The Case of Attorney Rex Fernandez
I have been monitoring the attacks on lawyers in the Philippines for over a decade. For many years the Philippines has been one of the most dangerous countries in the world for lawyers. Since 2001 there have been at least 219 violent attacks in which 197 lawyers were killed and 22 survived.
Who speaks for Myanmar at the United Nations? Why it matters and other issues
Prof. John Packer said, “ ... Britain is wilfully blind to the duplicity of trying to recognize the genocidal regime through the farcical separation of a state from a regime.” He called sanctions against military leaders while embracing their regime “Bad Apple-ism”. That is, there are some bad guys in the Myanmar military, but as in the entire military as a national institution, not every rank and file member is...
Media Continues to Orientalize “Buddhist Myanmar”
Add “Buddhist Terror” to the standard duo of Sex/Scandal and War/Violence as the media angle that sells. Yet unlike these, “Buddhist Terror” is rooted in the distorted invention of Buddhism and Buddhists as peaceful (vis-à-vis Islam and Muslims as violent). This is so deeply troubling with mainstream media picking up the old trend – Orientalizing hatred and racism in non-Europe, non-Christian spaces, in Wirathu’s case, “Buddhist” Myanmar.
States and state-controlled Universities in Southeast Asia
FORSEA Dialogue calls for cross-border cooperation among concerned scholars to foster "counter-spaces" for intellectual freedom which is a pillar of an autonomous civil society.
Liberating Minds, Activating Citizens: What Role for Higher Education in Singapore
Join a webinar on liberal education in Singapore with Haolie Jiang, Robin Zheng and Meredith Weiss on September 9, 2021 08:00 PM in Singapore.
The Closing of the Young Minds of Southeast Asia: Post-colonial Universities in the Service of Autocratic States
Two leading scholars of Southeast Asia – Thongchai Winichakul, Emeritus Professor of History at University of Wisconsin-Madison and Michael W. Charney, Professor of Military History and Southeast Asian Histories at SOAS University of London – will share their professional perspectives on the ways in which higher education in the region has been misused and manipulated to promote what Michael W. Charney calls “State-Think”.