BOOK REVIEW 🇲🇾 "Anwar, like many politicians, excels as a political philosopher but falters in practice, guilty of preaching democracy while entrenching authoritarian tendencies, and universal Islam while tolerating repression of other faiths."

BOOK REVIEW 🇲🇾 "Anwar, like many politicians, excels as a political philosopher but falters in practice, guilty of preaching democracy while entrenching authoritarian tendencies, and universal Islam while tolerating repression of other faiths."

NEW 🇮🇩 "These floods are the cumulative result of long-term decisions regarding land use, infrastructure, and regulations. Extreme rainfall should be viewed not as the primary cause of disaster but as a trigger that highlights deeper failures in governance and accountability."

NEW 🇮🇩 Despite post-independence progress, the gap between Indonesia's per-capita GDP and that of the Netherlands' is as big as it was two centuries ago. Colonial extraction, policy choices, and post-independence development paths are all ingredients in this persistent economic disparity.

NEW 🇮🇩 Despite post-independence progress, the gap between Indonesia's per-capita GDP and that of the Netherlands' is as big as it was two centuries ago. Colonial extraction, policy choices, and post-independence development paths are all ingredients in this persistent economic disparity.

NEW 🇮🇩 "These floods are the cumulative result of long-term decisions regarding land use, infrastructure, and regulations. Extreme rainfall should be viewed not as the primary cause of disaster but as a trigger that highlights deeper failures in governance and accountability."

NEW 🇮🇩 The scale of 2025's flooding disaster is a direct consequence of extractive industries' degradation of local ecosystems. But many environmental groups are deterred from speaking out about these drivers of destruction by a government not averse to sanctioning NGOs that challenge its policies.

NEW: 🇹🇭 The battle over a historic Chinese temple slated to be lost to commercial development is putting property logic against moral geography in central Bangkok, writes Ying-kit Chan.

NEW 🇮🇩 Too big to fail, and too big to succeed, Jokowi’s new capital city eventually came to be pushed forward by little more than the former president’s need to justify its existence, writes Anders Kirstein Moeller. www.newmandala.org/nusantara-th...

NEW 🇮🇩 Prabowo Subianto says Indonesia was drained of US$31 trillion worth of its national wealth by Dutch colonisers. But conceptualising the nature of wealth transfer from colony to metropole—let alone accurately measuring it—isn’t such a straightforward business, argues Pierre van der Eng.

NEW 🇹🇭 Police are in many ways the ultimate “street-level bureaucrats”—those who do the difficult on-the-ground work of connecting policy with ordinary people. As such, they play a key role in shaping the real-world nature of citizenship in contemporary Thailand, as Bavo Stevens' research explores.

Excited to see some of my early findings from my research on policing in Thailand published in the @newmandala.bsky.social can01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...

NEW 🇮🇩 Using early-modern Javanese manuscripts, we can read new insights into the cultural significance of ancient temples in Islamic Indonesia—and go beyond colonial-era narratives of their “abandonment” and “discovery”.

NEW 🇹🇭 For decades, governments have sought to dam and divert rivers in the Salween River Basin—and for decades, communities have resisted under often deeply repressive political conditions. @zalifung.bsky.social explores their repertoire of "slow resistance" in this essay drawing on her PhD research

NEW 🇻🇳 Nguyễn Thị Thu Huyền and Chen Yi Ting's ethnography of the relocation of Hmong graves for a tourist site near the Vietnam–China frontier explores how ethnic minorities internalise the state's developmentalist logic via spiritual practices—challenging usual narratives that emphasise resistance.

NEW 🇲🇾 "Reform of recruitment and work permit systems that reproduce de facto debt bondage and isolate workers from their families have costs for migrant workers and Malaysian society more broadly. But entrenched political economy factors give too many political actors a stake in the current system."

NEW 🇮🇩 Indonesian official homophobia is not monolithic. One homophobia aims to eradicate ‘deviant’ sexualities, but another casts queer people as victims. By negotiating the two, LGBT organisations can secure a measure of freedom and dignity for their communities. www.newmandala.org/lgbt-organis...

NEW 🇮🇩 The scale of 2025's flooding disaster is a direct consequence of extractive industries' degradation of local ecosystems. But many environmental groups are deterred from speaking out about these drivers of destruction by a government not averse to sanctioning NGOs that challenge its policies.

NEW 🇮🇩 Indonesian official homophobia is not monolithic. One homophobia aims to eradicate ‘deviant’ sexualities, but another casts queer people as victims. By negotiating the two, LGBT organisations can secure a measure of freedom and dignity for their communities. www.newmandala.org/lgbt-organis...

NEW 🇻🇳 Nguyễn Thị Thu Huyền and Chen Yi Ting's ethnography of the relocation of Hmong graves for a tourist site near the Vietnam–China frontier explores how ethnic minorities internalise the state's developmentalist logic via spiritual practices—challenging usual narratives that emphasise resistance.

NEW 🇲🇾 "Reform of recruitment and work permit systems that reproduce de facto debt bondage and isolate workers from their families have costs for migrant workers and Malaysian society more broadly. But entrenched political economy factors give too many political actors a stake in the current system."

NEW 🇹🇭 For decades, governments have sought to dam and divert rivers in the Salween River Basin—and for decades, communities have resisted under often deeply repressive political conditions. @zalifung.bsky.social explores their repertoire of "slow resistance" in this essay drawing on her PhD research

My essay on “slow resistance” to long-proposed hydropower dams & diversions in the Salween River Basin is out with @newmandala.bsky.social ! It’s based on my PhD research & an article co-authored with @drvanessalamb.bsky.social in Antipode. www.newmandala.org/slow-resista...

NEW 🇹🇭 Police are in many ways the ultimate “street-level bureaucrats”—those who do the difficult on-the-ground work of connecting policy with ordinary people. As such, they play a key role in shaping the real-world nature of citizenship in contemporary Thailand, as Bavo Stevens' research explores.

NEW 🇮🇩 Using early-modern Javanese manuscripts, we can read new insights into the cultural significance of ancient temples in Islamic Indonesia—and go beyond colonial-era narratives of their “abandonment” and “discovery”.

NEW 🇮🇩 Prabowo Subianto says Indonesia was drained of US$31 trillion worth of its national wealth by Dutch colonisers. But conceptualising the nature of wealth transfer from colony to metropole—let alone accurately measuring it—isn’t such a straightforward business, argues Pierre van der Eng.

NEW 🇮🇩 What can we learn about the distribution and grassroots political influence of Indonesia's pesantren from government data?

NEW 🇵🇭 The political economy of kickbacks is central to why the Philippine government's strategy for coping with climate change is still too fixated on physical infrastructure, write Joseph Alegado and Cleo Calimbahin. www.newmandala.org/corruption-c...

NEW 🇮🇩 The legacies of Jokowi’s demobilisation of Islamist civil society, combined with Prabowo’s own credibility with hardliners, have given the president extensive leeway to embrace a more even-handed approach to the Israel–Palestine conflict. www.newmandala.org/why-islamist...

NEW 🇱🇦 The Lao state treats its public health workforce as a driver of socialist modernisation—but do those workers feel the same way? www.newmandala.org/laos-nurses-...

NEW 🇱🇦 The Lao state treats its public health workforce as a driver of socialist modernisation—but do those workers feel the same way? www.newmandala.org/laos-nurses-...

NEW 🇮🇩 The legacies of Jokowi’s demobilisation of Islamist civil society, combined with Prabowo’s own credibility with hardliners, have given the president extensive leeway to embrace a more even-handed approach to the Israel–Palestine conflict. www.newmandala.org/why-islamist...

NEW 🇵🇭 The political economy of kickbacks is central to why the Philippine government's strategy for coping with climate change is still too fixated on physical infrastructure, write Joseph Alegado and Cleo Calimbahin. www.newmandala.org/corruption-c...

NEW: 🇹🇭 The battle over a historic Chinese temple slated to be lost to commercial development is putting property logic against moral geography in central Bangkok, writes Ying-kit Chan.

NEW 🇮🇩 Too big to fail, and too big to succeed, Jokowi’s new capital city eventually came to be pushed forward by little more than the former president’s need to justify its existence, writes Anders Kirstein Moeller. www.newmandala.org/nusantara-th...

NEW 🇵🇭 The delay to the BARMM's landmark parliamentary elections set for October 2025 is the latest in a long line of mishaps and missed opportunities that undermine local confidence in Manila’s commitment to Bangsamoro autonomy. www.newmandala.org/how-bangsamo...

NEW 🇵🇭 The delay to the BARMM's landmark parliamentary elections set for October 2025 is the latest in a long line of mishaps and missed opportunities that undermine local confidence in Manila’s commitment to Bangsamoro autonomy. www.newmandala.org/how-bangsamo...

NEW 🇮🇩 Caught between eviction and embrace, residents of Jakarta’s informal settlements are finding new ways to assert their rights and reshape their city from the ground up. Part of a series supported by @anu-asiapacific.bsky.social www.newmandala.org/insurgent-pl...

NEW 🇮🇩 Indonesia’s small but active anarchist community has become the go-to bogeyman for governments seeking to justify crackdowns. The scapegoating of anarchists has meanwhile undermined the unity and political impact of anti-oligarchic protest movements. www.newmandala.org/whos-afraid-...

NEW 🇮🇩 Indonesia’s small but active anarchist community has become the go-to bogeyman for governments seeking to justify crackdowns. The scapegoating of anarchists has meanwhile undermined the unity and political impact of anti-oligarchic protest movements. www.newmandala.org/whos-afraid-...

NEW 🇮🇩 Caught between eviction and embrace, residents of Jakarta’s informal settlements are finding new ways to assert their rights and reshape their city from the ground up. Part of a series supported by @anu-asiapacific.bsky.social www.newmandala.org/insurgent-pl...

NEW 🇮🇩 With the destruction of landmark Dutch-era buildings in August's protests, Indonesians have lost sites where they have for generations re-signified colonial remains into something simultaneously inherited and all their own, writes Noandha Dhegaska. www.newmandala.org/indonesias-h...

NEW 🇮🇩 With the destruction of landmark Dutch-era buildings in August's protests, Indonesians have lost sites where they have for generations re-signified colonial remains into something simultaneously inherited and all their own, writes Noandha Dhegaska. www.newmandala.org/indonesias-h...

NEW 🇲🇲 The post-coup conflict has repeatedly confounded bold predictions of both swift regime collapse and decisive opposition victory. For now, the grinding reality points less to liberation than to a bloody stalemate, writes Andrew Selth. www.newmandala.org/myanmar-and-...

NEW 🇲🇲 The post-coup conflict has repeatedly confounded bold predictions of both swift regime collapse and decisive opposition victory. For now, the grinding reality points less to liberation than to a bloody stalemate, writes Andrew Selth. www.newmandala.org/myanmar-and-...

Great piece by Edward Aspinall discussing the ongoing protests in Indonesia (and why they are likely to keep resurfacing). www.newmandala.org/mass-protest...

NEW 🇮🇩 @edwardaspinall.bsky.social on how "August’s anti-government protests highlight the growth of a subculture of street protest in Indonesia in ways that that echo the anti-Suharto activism of the 1990s" www.newmandala.org/mass-protest...

"The recent protests can thus be understood as product of a clash between two worlds of Indonesian politics: the world of official representative politics and the subculture of youth protest that rejects it." NB @edwardaspinall.bsky.social on #Indonesia protests: www.newmandala.org/mass-protest...

My take on the recent protests in Indonesia www.newmandala.org/mass-protest...

NEW 🇮🇩 "What [the protesters] really stand for, above all, is rejection of the entire ruling elite. And the entire ruling elite, more or less, stands united against them." @edwardaspinall.bsky.social on last week's protests and the limits of comparisons with 1998 www.newmandala.org/mass-protest...