Category: Opinion

The latest opinion from those committed to making our region fair, just and democratic.


The Geopolitics of the Global War on Terror Third International Conference on Islamophobia, Istanbul, Turkey, 28 March 2021

The whistleblower on Myanmar's genocide of Rohingyas, Maung Zarni, dissected the 4-decades of policies and practices of genocidal persecution of the national minority who live in their ancestral home region of Western Myanmar.

/ April 7, 2021

Like China, Russia and Saudi Arabia, Thailand’s regime hunts down its opponents around the world

What is happening to dissidents in Thailand must be exposed and discussed within the context of the ruthless tactics adopted by the despotic regimes of China, Russia and Saudi Arabia. It is time that the West sees the true nature of the Thai monarchy: a despotic regime that harasses, threatens, and kills its critics.

/ April 5, 2021

Enforcing Alliances: Containing China in East Asia

China has accrued formidable economic power, and is now beginning to channel greater quantities of that power into military modernization. Its primary purpose is overseas force projection in a great arc ranging from the Sea of Japan to the Indian Ocean. Asia’s Pacific rim states have become a primary target for incorporation into a China-centered world system that aims to exclude American influence.

/ April 2, 2021

สมยศ พฤกษาเกษมสุข–ขอให้ศาลตัดสินโทษประหารชีวิตเพื่อยุติปัญหาทั้งหมด

จุดมุ่งหมายของบทความนี้ก็เพื่อต้องการให้สังคมไทยลุกขึ้นมาเรียกร้องความยุติธรรมให้คุณสมยศ และผู้ต้องหามาตรา 112 คนอื่นๆ องค์กร FORSEA สนับสนุนอิสรภาพของคุณสมยศ และผู้นำการประท้วงคนอื่น และขอประนามการกระทำของรัฐไทยในกรณีคุณสมยศ และเรียกร้องให้มีการยกเลิกกฎหมายอาญามาตรา 112 โดยเร็ว

/ March 30, 2021

Revolutions and Revolutionary Acts

I do not have the moral or intellectual option of telling those on the ground who risk their lives and livelihoods that their resistance is futile. Nor do I share the view that resistance is futile or that another world is not possible. History does not change through normal politics. What Myanmar and her people are undergoing is nothing less than a textbook example of Revolution.

/ March 23, 2021

“I am Proud to be a Burmese Today”

I never thought I would feel proud again as a Burmese who deeply cares about my country’s affairs. Today I hold my head high, whatever the immediate and short-term outcome of this revolution. This is unparalleled in Burmese history over the last 100 years since the first political strike against British colonial education in 1920.

/ March 21, 2021

Statement from Milk Tea Alliance Indonesia: Myanmar Junta Terrorists Beyond Condemnation

We as global citizens, with the set bunch of rights and global responsibilities that come within, condemn all the actions of the military junta, which has now become a group of terrorists. An Immediate response is needed because the world is watching.

/ March 13, 2021

We should call the Myanmar Coup Regime a Terrorist Group

Myanmar today has become a textbook example of failed and collapsed state with the national armed forces, having morphed into gangs of heavily armed terrorists, still commanding the air force and navy. Myanmar’s military regime should no longer be treated as a state actor. They are terrorists, no less.

/ March 8, 2021

As in Myanmar, Coups are Becoming More Successful, and More Sophisticated

Military dictatorships are not as common as they were during the Cold War. Today, leaders trying to roll back democracy usually do so in creeping ways, by altering legal systems, voting rules and other institutions to give themselves greater power. And yet coups have not only lingered; they’ve become more effective in the past decade.

/ March 6, 2021

Japan’s Values Diplomacy Runs Aground in Myanmar

Japan’s rivalry with China reinforces Tokyo’s inclination to avert its eyes from human rights abuses, electoral fraud, corruption and suppression of fundamental freedoms. Tokyo is not opposed to liberal democracy but also not prepared to risk anything to support it.

/ February 23, 2021