Category: Opinion
The latest opinion from those committed to making our region fair, just and democratic.
FORSEA Statement on Singapore’s Arrest of Peaceful LGBT Student Protestors
FORSEA, a Southeast Asia-wide network of democrats, scholars and rights activists, are deeply troubled by the news of Singapore arresting a small but unprecedented group of students who staged a LGBT-rights protest outside the Ministry of Education. We call on the authorities to release and drop all charges against these student activists, whose “crime” was a peaceful demand to repeal transphobic discriminatory policies and practices in Singapore’s schools.
Are We as Area Studies Scholars Guilty of Negligence in Allowing Genocides to Happen in the Regions we Study?
Foreign scholars CAN help to prevent genocide again. If we're waiting for policymakers to prevent things on their own and save ourselves the trouble so that we can take a well-funded research trip and sit outside a coffee shop in Naypyitaw or Yangon, why should the rest of the world have any interest in reading anything we have to write? Scholarship and research should mean something.
Sovicheth Meta, our new board member: Her take on Genocide Education and Empathy
As one of the generation born 20 years after the genocidal regime in my country, I am optimistic that peace, justice, and harmony will prevail when we stand in solidarity to speak out and stand up against all forms of hatred, discrimination, racism, and social injustice.
FORSEA Dialogue on Democratic Struggles across Southeast Asia: A Burma Film Screening and Reflection
Join a screening of Deafening Silence followed by a 20-minute dialogue between it's director, Holly Fisher, and the two activists from Burma, Naw May-Oo Mutraw and Maung Zarni.
Universities, Academic Censorship & Intellectual Un-Freedoms: How ASEAN States Make Their Peoples Unable to Think
This FORSEA Dialogue will explore the multiple ways in which ASEAN states execute the suppression of intellectual freedom, particularly within their state-run university systems, FORSEA’s in-depth dialogue series is bringing together a group of scholars who specialize in Southeast Asian affairs.
Condemning NUS Press for Obstructing Academic Freedom
FORSEA condemns NUS Press’ blatant censorship of a book critical of the Thai monarchy, and urges all members of the academic community who are involved with NUS Press to uphold the principle of academic freedom by refraining from lending their legitimacy and credibility to NUS Press as an act of scholarly solidarity.
Kemunduran Demokrasi di Indonesia dan Perlawanan Papua Barat
Di kalangan pembela hak asasi manusia,kelambanan pemerintahan Joko Widodo atas penyelesaian berbagai pelanggaran hak asasi manusia di Indonesia telah memicu kekecewaan yang meluas terhadap kepemimpinannya. Sementara situasi hak asasi manusia pada umumnya, dan khususnya, di Papua Barat, telah memburuk dengan meningkatnya represi dan kekerasan negara terhadap aktor masyarakat sipil termasuk terhadap para jurnalis.
Indonesia’s National Police Declare War on Hardline Islamic Group
Indonesia’s National Police, long believed to have abetted the creation of the thuggish Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) as an underground force to carry out extrajudicial tasks against police targets, clearly have decided the organization has outgrown its usefulness and are cracking down violently.
Leading scholars’ consensus was clear: Neither ICJ nor ICC on their own will deliver Rohingyas from hell
On 15 December 2020, a group of leading scholars and experts from Canada, USA, and Ireland involved in the global campaign to end Myanmar’s genocide of Rohingyas held a legal roundtable, jointly organised by the Free Rohingya Coalition and FORSEA.
Structure and Agency in Thai Military Politics
Thailand’s current protests have dragged a pleasure-seeking monarch away from his Bavarian retreat and into the heart of national politics as he stumblingly ventures out of royal compounds for selfies and overexuberant adoration from bused in crowds. Thus far, hard power has not been fully deployed against the demonstrators and the military’s role in all this remains unclear. The military must be brought under more coherent leadership before Thai praetorian...