Category: Featured

Featured articles from FORSEA contributors.


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
Young Thais protest in Boston USA

Boston Rally in Support of Pro Democracy Protesters in Thailand

The clash between living god’s notions and basic human rights does not only lead to many dilemmas in Thailand, but there are also struggles in the Thai community over the nation’s border, like what has taken place in the Thai community in Boston, USA.

/ December 4, 2020

Thai Royalty Attack on Exiled Critic

In cyberspace, the Thai Palace and its proxies are taking an aggressive approach. But this approach will eventually be counterproductive, since social media users today, mostly in their youths, have access to alternative information about the monarchy and refuse to be “brainwashed” by the state, like their predecessors.

/ December 2, 2020

Democratization in Malaysia in particular and Southeast Asian region in general

The British-trained international law scholar, politician and humanitarian Tan Sri Dr Syed Hamid Albar with decades of experience in government and international politics will share his thoughts on Malaysia's stalled democratization and the state of democratization in the region.

/ December 1, 2020

Beyond Trump: A Political Economy of American Power in the Asia-Pacific

Private corporations and public institutions in the US have pursued fairly consistent policy-level linkages with Asian-Pacific nations that seek to preserve American geostrategic dominance in this highly important area. Institutional power thus limits the impact of political change.

/ November 29, 2020

Renowned Thai Scholar and Veteran Dissident of 1976 Democratic Uprising Speaks to FORSEA

Against the backdrop of the current framing of protests as “unprecedented” in the way they publicly and frontally criticise the Thai monarchy and the monarch himself, Thongchai reminds us that it was only 2 or 3 generations ago that the public in the kingdom were able to openly talk about the monarchy, critically or not.

/ November 25, 2020