Category: Opinion
The latest opinion from those committed to making our region fair, just and democratic.
Engaging with State Power, without Losing Principles or Your Head · Part 3
Those of us Burmese who have made overthrowing our country’s well-entrenched military dictatorship, our business – or Doe-Ayay, as we say in Burma in specific reference to protests against any Oppressive Order – do not look to the United Nations or the European Union, let alone the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), for help.
Engaging with State Power, without Losing Principles or Head · Part 2
"In those years, the Burma policy world was caught in the emerging Orwellian duality of 'Sanctions Bad, Engagement Good' of international debates which took place with respective proponents talking past one another, pursuing their own concealed interests." Read Essay 2 from Maung Zarni in the new FORSEA Democratic Struggle Series.
How Racist is your Engagement with Burma Studies?
If you are genuinely interested in shaping a new field so that it is balanced and fully engages with the Burmese, all Burmese, both men and women, then ask yourself, how racist is YOUR engagement with the field. If you are not interested in this question, you are part of the reason structural racism thrives in the academy.
Engaging with State Power, without Losing Principles or Head · Part 1
"The Burmese military regime remained, as intransigent towards any compromise with the democratic opposition, as it was repressive, towards Burmese dissidents." Read Essay 1 from Maung Zarni in the new FORSEA Democratic Struggle Series.
Thailand’s Military-Palace Complex and Prospects for the Emergence of a Government of, for and by the People
"Unlike the past, the pro-democracy movements now see clearly who and which institutions are the key forces in the network of the royalist elites. They do not focus solely on a number of military leaders but called for a structural changes." Puangthong R. Pawakapan
The USA’s Pivot towards Asia and the Genocidal Massacre of Eelam Tamils in Sri Lanka
There needs to be a broader alliance amongst oppressed peoples in Asia who demand their right to homeland. It is necessary to extend solidarity to each other’s political struggles; it is also important to develop a common campaign to resist the USA/UK-led military paradigm in Asia which is backed by India, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Japan, South Korea, and so on, amongst whom the Sri Lankan state is at the heart...
Why is Japan NOT standing up for human rights and justice across Asia?
The next FORSEA Dialogue on Democratic Struggles Across Asia discusses Japan's disappointing policy responses to egregious human rights violations in Asia and its reluctance to use its economic leverage to help people in need. Live: May 11, 2021: 7pm Tokyo | 6pm KL | 5pm Phnom Penh, Jakarta & BKK | 4:30pm Yangon | 11am London.
Internet Control and Censorship in Myanmar & Across Far East and Southeast Asia
Read the report on the Dialogue with Dr James Gomez, Regional Director of Asia Centre, taking to Maung Zarni about the Myanmar junta in its grafting of surveillance technology onto the communications networks to secure future control of people and the country.
The plight of refugees and asylum seekers in Australia
"It's from the frying pan of wars and genocide at home, into the flaming fire of an off-shore refugee-prison complex in Australia". FORSEA hosted a virtual in-depth discussion on how a democratic state such as Australia has adopted and institutionalized an anti-refugee policy since around 2001.
India and the Myanmar crisis: Death of Justice, Death of Morality
What the BJP regime needs to understand is that deporting asylum seekers to Myanmar will undoubtedly be appreciated by the Tatmadaw. But it will come at a huge cost, not least to India’s battered image of being a democracy. Its more lasting consequence would be to damage relations with the protesting multitude of people in Myanmar.