Category: Featured

Featured articles from FORSEA contributors.


Bangkok Thai Student Protests August 2020 FORSEA

Deep Dish: Thailand’s Youth Demand Democratic Reforms

Thai society needs to be able to speak openly now about the role of the monarchy. For decades, the Thai monarchy has dominated the Thai political space, firmly supported by the military.

/ August 28, 2020
Facebook blocks royalist marketplace in Thailand FORSEA

Facebook Cultivates Authoritarianism in Thailand: It blocks access to “Royalists Marketplace” group

The Royalists Marketplace stands for freedom of expression. Crude censorship from the Thai government crushes the freedoms that Thais are entitled to. In blocking the page, Facebook is cooperating with the authoritarian regime in obstructing democracy and cultivating authoritarianism in Thailand.

/ August 25, 2020
Duterte Blame Game FORSEA

Foreign powers, political elites, and ruling regimes enabled Duterte’s rise to power

It is time to stop scapegoating the Left for Duterte’s rise. Instead blame and fight the real culprits – foreign powers, political elites, previous regimes and their policies – and to forge stronger unities and intensify the struggle against the cronyist and dictatorial regime.

/ August 22, 2020

The Milk Tea Alliance: How Thailand, Taiwan, and Hong Kong are supporting each other’s fight for democracy

With the world in shambles and leadership severely lacking, young people are proving that they are not afraid to fight for a better future and to stand together throughout this process. That is the true power and potential of this Milk Tea Alliance.

/ August 20, 2020
What's behind the Thai student protests 2020

Call for Urgent Monarchical Reform is behind the 2020 Thai Student Protests

The student gatherings at the Democracy Monument and at Thammasat University in August were a turning point in the course of the ongoing protests in Thailand. Calls are now being made for an immediate reform of the monarchical institution to locate back into the constitutional framework.

/ August 16, 2020
Thailand Freedom over Fear Monarchy

Thailand Student Protests: FORSEA stands in solidarity with Thammasat University Students on Monarchical Reform in Thailand

For several decades now that the so-called “constitutional monarchy” of Thailand has proven to be fraudulent. The call from Thammasat University students is both timely and crucial in moving Thailand forward in the democratic direction.

/ August 11, 2020
FORSEA Pavin Chachavalpongpun Monday August 10, 2020, Thammasat University student protests

FORSEA prominent at Thai Protests for Reform of the Monarchy

Pavin Chachavalpongpun, FORSEA’s co-founder, sent his message to the large gathering of Thammasat University students, Bangkok, August 10, 2020, supporting them in their endeavour to bring discussion of the monarchy into the open.

/ August 11, 2020
Uncivil Society- Religious Organisations, Mobocracy Jeff Kingston

Uncivil Society: Religious Organisations, Mobocracy and Democratic Backsliding in Asia

Civil society is usually seen as a force for liberal reforms, but uncivil society merits more scrutiny. It represents the dark side of the 3rd sector, is subject to elite capture, and can be an advocate for an agenda conducive to authoritarianism. We examine religious organisations in four of Asia’s plural societies– Bangladesh, Indonesia, Myanmar and Sri Lanka.

/ August 7, 2020

COVID-19 Attacks the Regime: The Case of Thailand

The failure of the Thai government takes many forms. Ex-generals occupying top political positions whose frame of thought is confined within their military expertise were not the right people to lead the country against this non-traditional threat.

/ August 5, 2020

How Black Lives Matter Inspired West Papua’s Freedom Struggle

The people of West Papua have suffered decades of oppression and discrimination at the hands of the Indonesian state. Now they’ve drawn inspiration from the Black Lives Matter protests to mount popular resistance to yet another authoritarian clampdown.

/ August 2, 2020