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.
Myanmar Military vs Women’s Underwear: Poem by Putu Oka Sukanta
Putu Oka Sukanta, a well known literary figure in Indonesia, dedicates a poem to the people of Myanmar who are struggling for democracy and human rights. The work is presented in English – translated by Gulah Wandita – and its original Bahasa Indonesia.
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.
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.
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.
The Sun has Set on Empire: Let’s Reimagine Southeast Asia
The struggle for racial, political and economic justice in Southeast Asia is a fight for a genuinely postcolonial condition, and its establishment is implied in each protest against authoritarian ambitions. If colonialism made the modern world, then decolonisation will not be complete until the world – including Southeast Asia – is reimagined.
FORSEA Supports Joint Statement on Myanmar by Myanmar National Human Rights Commission and Progressive Voice
People from the whole country who are taking part in peaceful demonstrations are facing violations of their basic human rights. This includes arbitrary arrests and charges, threats, the use of indiscriminate violence such as intentionally shooting into the crowd, beatings, the use of weapons, rubber bullets and water cannons, and restrictions on their freedom of expression.
Gay Couple Caned in Aceh, Indonesia
Same-sex practices in Aceh traditionally were not seen in contradiction with local customs (adat) and religion. It is ironic that in Aceh today, homophobic political and religious officials voice opinions that would be more intelligible to the condescending Dutch colonizers than to Aceh’s elite circles a century ago.
FORSEA Condemns the Forced Disappearance of Ahmed Samir Abdelhay Ali
Ahmed has been involved in several projects with human rights organizations and NGOs in Egypt as a vocal human rights defender. Ahmed's case is the latest in a series of cases of students being harassed and forcefully detained by Egyptian authorities.
Thai and Myanmar Militaries: Both Locked their Nations into Cycles of Nation-Destroying Coups
In their one-hour discussion, Pavin Chachavalpongpun and Maung Zarni, the Thai and Burmese exiles who co-founded FORSEA, draw lessons from the two countries’ vicious cycles of military coups – going back almost a century, in the case of the Kingdom of Thailand and six-decades in the case of post-colonial Myanmar.