Category: Featured

Featured articles from FORSEA contributors.


Duterte’s Anti-Poetry-FORSEA

On Court Poetry During the Marcos Dictatorship and A Note on Duterte’s Anti-Poetry

Duterte’s aggressive anti-poetry in broken English, Tagalog and Visayan is the truth of today’s politics. And it is also the unmasked truth of the poetry of all of Marcos’ court poets. In other words, Duterte’s anti-poetry is the truth of the poetry of De Vega, Mella and Hufana.

/ April 29, 2020
Philippines home quarantine FORSEA

The Pasaway and Duterte’s Pandemic Blame Game

The Duterte government will never be able to correctly deal with the pandemic unless it recognizes what, not who, the real enemy is. The enemy is not the pasaway, the poor or the rebels.

Dams Development & Disaster on the Mekong

Given the Mekong’s critical state arising from 11 Chinese dams and the recent Xayaburi dam in Lao, a moratorium on all hydropower construction on the Mekong as part of a “New Deal to Save our Mekong” is needed now before it's too late.

/ April 23, 2020
Thailand Supreme Court Bangkok FORSEA

Coups, Courts, and John Austin’s Theory of Law

If one day Thai society decides to prosecute a junta for their crime against the state, the set of people to stand trial, as partners to that crime, will need to include more individuals than the coup-makers.

/ April 19, 2020

Myanmar’s Double Contagion: the Covid-19 and the Viral Discourse of Islamophobia

Over the last 8 years, another type of virus, namely Islamophobia, has effectively spread across all segments of Burmese society, with devastating impact on Muslim communities and, more acutely, the community of Rohingyas, numbering 2 millions in total.

/ April 15, 2020

Parasite VS Parasite OR Parasite VS Host?

A close-reading of Basement and Stairs.

/ April 13, 2020

Taking on the Virus, Talking with his Fists: Duterte’s Unique Approach to the COVID-19 Crisis

Duterte is floundering and clueless as a head of state. His arrogant claim to be the supreme arbiter of life and death over his countrymen has been rudely taken away from him by a virus that has put him in his place.

/ April 8, 2020
prevent the spread of the covid-19 virus At Hua Lamphong Railway Station

Contagion and the Thai State

Now, more than ever, Thailand needs free-flowing credible information, vigorous popular input into the policy-making process, and grassroots organisations to implement public health directives. Human resources need to be mobilised in a national effort to stave off disaster.

/ April 5, 2020

Regional Roundup: Asia Dares Covid Disaster

it is increasingly clear that disaster is possible for significant parts of the countries that make up 70 percent of Asia’s population unless authorities can find ways around it.

/ March 25, 2020

Can Thailand Recover from Persistent Dictatorship?

Thailand was once the hope of democracy in Southeast Asia. Two coups and two constitutions later and opposition nearly suppressed into extinction, the Bangkok elite have dragged Thailand back to something akin to absolutism. Is there any chance for democracy in Thailand? There are indications in Thailand’s Northeast, or Isaan, that networks may be able to come together in a progressive alliance.

/ March 9, 2020