Category: Featured

Featured articles from FORSEA contributors.


Universities, Academic Censorship & Intellectual Un-Freedoms: How ASEAN States Make Their Peoples Unable to Think

This FORSEA Dialogue will explore the multiple ways in which ASEAN states execute the suppression of intellectual freedom, particularly within their state-run university systems, FORSEA’s in-depth dialogue series is bringing together a group of scholars who specialize in Southeast Asian affairs.

/ January 7, 2021

Condemning NUS Press for Obstructing Academic Freedom

FORSEA condemns NUS Press’ blatant censorship of a book critical of the Thai monarchy, and urges all members of the academic community who are involved with NUS Press to uphold the principle of academic freedom by refraining from lending their legitimacy and credibility to NUS Press as an act of scholarly solidarity.

/ January 5, 2021
Coup, King, Crisis cover FORSEA

Now Published: Coup, King, Crisis: A Critical Interregnum in Thailand

The prospects of the inevitable end of the Bhumibol era loomed large over 21st century Thailand. Events have now taken their course and King Maha Vajiralongkorn has been crowned. The new King is beginning to make his presence felt, but in important ways, Thailand is still in an interregnum: a time when the old order is dying but a new one struggles to be born.

/ January 3, 2021

Kemunduran Demokrasi di Indonesia dan Perlawanan Papua Barat

Di kalangan pembela hak asasi manusia,kelambanan pemerintahan Joko Widodo atas penyelesaian berbagai pelanggaran hak asasi manusia di Indonesia telah memicu kekecewaan yang meluas terhadap kepemimpinannya. Sementara situasi hak asasi manusia pada umumnya, dan khususnya, di Papua Barat, telah memburuk dengan meningkatnya represi dan kekerasan negara terhadap aktor masyarakat sipil termasuk terhadap para jurnalis.

/ December 25, 2020

Indonesia’s National Police Declare War on Hardline Islamic Group

Indonesia’s National Police, long believed to have abetted the creation of the thuggish Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) as an underground force to carry out extrajudicial tasks against police targets, clearly have decided the organization has outgrown its usefulness and are cracking down violently.

/ December 22, 2020

Leading scholars’ consensus was clear: Neither ICJ nor ICC on their own will deliver Rohingyas from hell

On 15 December 2020, a group of leading scholars and experts from Canada, USA, and Ireland involved in the global campaign to end Myanmar’s genocide of Rohingyas held a legal roundtable, jointly organised by the Free Rohingya Coalition and FORSEA.

/ December 17, 2020

FORSEA-FRC Joint Legal Roundtable: What can Rohingya Survivors Expect from ICJ & ICC?

To discuss the harsh realities confronting Rohingya people in Myanmar and refugee camps in Bangladesh, FORSEA-FRC Legal Roundtable brings together a group of leading experts on Rohingya genocide with a wealth of first-hand professional experience in various UN accountability mechanisms including the ICJ, ICC and International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia.  

/ December 14, 2020

Structure and Agency in Thai Military Politics

Thailand’s current protests have dragged a pleasure-seeking monarch away from his Bavarian retreat and into the heart of national politics as he stumblingly ventures out of royal compounds for selfies and overexuberant adoration from bused in crowds. Thus far, hard power has not been fully deployed against the demonstrators and the military’s role in all this remains unclear. The military must be brought under more coherent leadership before Thai praetorian...

/ December 12, 2020

Indonesia’s Democratic Regression & West Papuan Resistance

While the human rights situation in Indonesia at large – and particularly in West Papua – has worsened, there is increased state repression towards civil society actors and journalists. Furthermore, strong identity politics, cultural intolerance, and religious fundamentalism have risen, resulting in discrimination and violence against vulnerable social groups including women.

/ December 10, 2020

Thailand’s King: Above and Beyond Politics

Why are the people of Thailand rising up against this king today when the previous one drastically restricted Thai democracy?

/ December 6, 2020