Category: Featured

Featured articles from FORSEA contributors.


FORSEA Condemns Military Coup in Myanmar

FORSEA, a grassroots network of scholars and activists across Southeast Asia, unequivocally condemns Myanmar military's coup and the detention of NLD leaders and MP-elects. 

/ February 1, 2021

Myanmar’s Coup Crushed the BIG LIE of Democratic Transition under Aung San Suu Kyi

The Dialogue on Democratic Struggles Across Southeast Asia will shed light on how Myanmar’s Big Lie – democratic transition / “fragile democracy" – has gained currency worldwide over the last 10 years since Myanmar military rolled out its constitutional government lead by ex-general Thein Sein in 2010.

/ February 1, 2021

“Bringing University to Heel”? An Unprecedented Attack on Academic Freedom in the Philippines

The abrogation of the UP-DND Accord means that the military and police can now enter UP campuses at will. The academic community now faces the prospect of armed military and police presence and constant surveillance. Schools and universities in the Philippines are under attack by a regime that knows no limits to its brutality and violence.

/ February 1, 2021

FORSEA Statement on Singapore’s Arrest of Peaceful LGBT Student Protestors

FORSEA, a Southeast Asia-wide network of democrats, scholars and rights activists, are deeply troubled by the news of Singapore arresting a small but unprecedented group of students who staged a LGBT-rights protest outside the Ministry of Education. We call on the authorities to release and drop all charges against these student activists, whose “crime” was a peaceful demand to repeal transphobic discriminatory policies and practices in Singapore’s schools.

/ January 29, 2021

Fighting and Winning the Struggle for Equality for All

The FORSEA Dialogue on Democratic Struggles Across Southeast Asia and Beyond: Inequality is an ever-advancing threat to the collective well-being of billions of people today. And yet we do live in a world with its unprecedented wealth which remains concentrated in a few hands. Ben Phillips, the author of and international campaigner, argues why winning the policy debate over how best to fight inequalities is no longer enough.

/ January 26, 2021

Are We as Area Studies Scholars Guilty of Negligence in Allowing Genocides to Happen in the Regions we Study?

Foreign scholars CAN help to prevent genocide again. If we're waiting for policymakers to prevent things on their own and save ourselves the trouble so that we can take a well-funded research trip and sit outside a coffee shop in Naypyitaw or Yangon, why should the rest of the world have any interest in reading anything we have to write? Scholarship and research should mean something.

/ January 22, 2021

FORSEA Dialogue on Democratic Struggles across Southeast Asia: Punk and Peace in Myanmar: Music for a Better Society

A film screening of Punk Rock Buddha (running time 26 minutes), The Good Road collection. The screening will be followed by a 30-minutes conversation (in Burmese) with Kyaw Kyaw, the film’s protagonist and lead vocalist of the best-known punk band Rebel Riot.

/ January 21, 2021

FORSEA Dialogue on Democratic Struggles across Southeast Asia: Film Screening – “A River Changes Course”

Film screening of "A River Changes Course", winner of the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize for Documentary at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, followed by dialogue with Executive Producer and renowned Khmer researcher of genocide, Mr Youk Chhang.

/ January 20, 2021

Sovicheth Meta, our new board member: Her take on Genocide Education and Empathy

As one of the generation born 20 years after the genocidal regime in my country, I am optimistic that peace, justice, and harmony will prevail when we stand in solidarity to speak out and stand up against all forms of hatred, discrimination, racism, and social injustice.

/ January 13, 2021

FORSEA Dialogue on Democratic Struggles across Southeast Asia: A Burma Film Screening and Reflection

Join a screening of Deafening Silence followed by a 20-minute dialogue between it's director, Holly Fisher, and the two activists from Burma, Naw May-Oo Mutraw and Maung Zarni.

/ January 11, 2021