Category: Opinion
The latest opinion from those committed to making our region fair, just and democratic.
The Closing of the Young Minds of Southeast Asia: Post-colonial Universities in the Service of Autocratic States
Two leading scholars of Southeast Asia – Thongchai Winichakul, Emeritus Professor of History at University of Wisconsin-Madison and Michael W. Charney, Professor of Military History and Southeast Asian Histories at SOAS University of London – will share their professional perspectives on the ways in which higher education in the region has been misused and manipulated to promote what Michael W. Charney calls “State-Think”.
U.S. & Brazilian Religious Rights: Their Political Impact, Worldviews, Connections, and Love for Dictatorships
Staffers of the largest freethinking group in the United States have interviewed the author of a new book comparing the evangelical movements in the United States and Brazil.
US and UK Usurp Rohingya Voices while (mis-)framing Myanmar Genocide as “Ethnic Cleansing” Slobodan Milošević Euphemism
it’s one thing for the United States and its British poodle to abandon dissidents worldwide during their hours of needs, yet it is a moral low for the British and American officials and leaders to coordinate acts of genocidal denial as they have done with their official statements on the 4th anniversary of “Ethnic Cleansing” in Rakhine State.
Transnational Activism vs White Saviourism in Myanmar Affairs
As a Burmese who has been angry – very angry – for decades over numerous forms and countless instances of oppression and injustices in Myanmar, and emphatically, around the world, I am less concerned about the morally corrupt desire of revenge and vengeance of the oppressed towards their oppressor or the System than the enveloping White Saviourism with its corrupting coloniality.
State-Think and the Problem with University Education in Post-Colonial Societies
This closing up of genuine intellectual counter-spaces marks the critical moment when universities go from saying this is what the state wishes to teach you, to this is what the state limits your understanding to be. And they cancel the contracts for books, reject inviting talks by scholars, and ignore work that shows a different way to view one or another of the societies in the region.
FORSEA Co-founder offers his no-hold-barred view of the Myanmar terrorist regime renaming itself “Caretaker”
The coup regime's latest move to reinvent itself as "Caretaker" government is the vicious repeat of the pattern of deceiving Myanmar public which began with General Ne Win intervening in electoral politics in September 1958 – under the same "Caretaker Government" label.
The Misuses of Histories and Historiography by the state in Myanmar: The Case of Rakhine and Rohingya
Some look to find solutions in holding Myanmar to account through international law regarding what the Myanmar military has done to Rohingya. That is what they can do. I am not a lawyer, but a historian. When I look at Myanmar, I am trying to unravel the ways in which religious haters in the country misuse history to legitimate what they do.
Myanmar Coup Regime’s Handling of COVID-19: Is it Genocidal?
it is conceivable that the Myanmar terrorist regime of the SAC may be genocidally minded in its approach in tackling COVID-19 within the military and its sub-social system, while deliberately putting at risk the lives of millions of anti-military Burmese of all ethnic and religious backgrounds.
Josef Silverstein, The Death of A Fine American Scholar who “Gave Back” to His Subjects
Joe was one of the very few western scholars who made compassionate efforts to give back to the people or “the subjects” whom they study. This last quality alone of Joe, the scholar, will etch his name in my memory, and the memories of those, who had the great fortune of knowing him as a friend, a colleague, a fellow scholar, a teacher, and a comrade in the people’s struggle...
Myanmar anti-coup opposition’s Happy Birthday Parties for Aung San Suu Kyi do not augur well for the country’s future
The mass hysteria around Aung San Suu Kyi’s birthday is the clearest indication of deeply entrenched cultist neo-totalitarian thoughts, mental habits and political behaviour among Ms Suu Kyi’s populist base. It confirms how indifferent this base is to the democratic ethos, international law, and normative principles of human rights.