FORSEA Co-Founder & Burmese scholar-activist Maung Zarni to speak at Auschwitz International Conference on Exclusion 7 – 8 July
The international debate is an opportunity to emphasize the role that Auschwitz and other museums and memorial sites play in educational process because the history of Auschwitz is not only a sequence of historical events, but above all it is a universal experience passed on to us by the Witnesses.
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.
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.
BJP’s Hindutva, Modi’s Righ-wing Populism and their Devastating Impact on India Society
Amitabh Pal, the American-educated Indian journalist offered his incisive analysis of the ideological pillars on which rests the toxic mix of Hindutva or Hindu nationalism and right-wing populism of the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
How the Indian Government’s Mindset Led India Into a Pandemic Cataclysm
"Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ascension to power seven years ago combined a Hindu nationalist ideology and a right-wing populist persona. Both these qualities have hurtled India into an unprecedented humanitarian nightmare in recent weeks and months." Join a discussion with Amitabh Pal and FORSEA's Maung Zarni.
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