Large anti corruption protests in the Philippines are underway. Triggered by deadly floods which exposed $2billion lost to corruption in flood defence projects some of which didn't exist at all. www.rappler.com/philippines/... And a familiar flag is being flown at the protests.

Tune in to the Singapore–Malaysia press conference tomorrow morning (GMT+8). Register here: us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

This morning, the Singapore Prison Service issued Datchinamurthy Kataiah, a Malaysian on death row in Singapore for drug offences, an execution notice. They plan to hang him on Thursday, 25 September. There’ll be a cross-border press conference tomorrow morning; open to the public to join remotely.

Silly Jimmy Kimmel. He should have just called for all homeless people to be killed and he’d still have a job.

Becoming increasingly clear we’re gonna have to build a parallel infrastructure for all the media we really love. The reason all of this is happening under the color of law is hyperconsolidation, dissent being traded straight up for merger approval, or fear of harassment.

The US has an authoritarian government affiliated with a fascist movement. If they saw this elsewhere, US journos would be writing about authoritarian takeovers. Now it's in their own backyard, many are still trying to behave as if these are normal times and normal political disagreements.

Simultaneously excited and nervous for @mekongreview.com’s upcoming tenth anniversary issue! Am working hard to make it a very, very good one 💪🏼

Honestly this is not getting as much coverage as it should. Korean auto workers in the US kidnapped by ICE and kept in inhumane conditions for over a week.

Not that anyone in politics listens to research, but there is a bucket of research (including some excellent recent studies) which show exactly this. Voters listen to leaders and respond to what they say.

Just read the very good article about scam compounds in Myanmar. Lots of interesting stuff in this edition.

You do not in fact have to praise the guy who said homeless people should be murdered with lethal injections and then apologized four days later to save his job. Let's get a grip here.

The entire centrist establishment writing fan fiction about how Kirk's life was dedicated to building bridges while assiduously ignoring the movement-wide conservative effort to incite a pogrom against trans people.

We know now that Kirk wasn’t killed by “the left” but they won’t let that stop them

I delayed my newsletter wrap by a day this week because I wanted to focus on this: four families have written a joint appeal to Singapore’s president and prime minister pleading for clemency for their loved ones on death row for drug offences: www.wethecitizens.net/14-september...

I just think if your definition of civility is about the volume and tone of speech and ignores the content of the speech you probably need to start over

I’m sure when they talk about “carrying on Charlie Kirk’s work” they mean all that feel-good stuff about reaching across the aisle that the pundits made up and not his record of pushing the racist great replacement theory or doxxing teachers for wrongthink, right? Right?

Sweden pulling development aid & other support to Myanmar groups is really worrying. Many groups struggling after other major cuts. The impact will be disastrous on both humanitarian aid programmes & media & civil society groups. Will add to quoted post with more potential places to donate soon™️

Everything I read coming out of US politics these days makes me feel like we have all been taken over by brain worms

Super weird that the guy who was Practicing Politics The Right Way somehow magically seems to have a following so racist against Black people that him getting shot by a white person in the whitest state in USA results in 7 Black universities receiving terror threats. What's this got to do with us?!

“The man was a fascist who spouted racist hate speech and condoned gun violence, but you gotta appreciate how dedicated and effective he was at spreading those ideas around” what the fuck

“Even when there’s no reason to believe things will improve, we can’t help but cling to this diminishing hope" Poignant piece from @mono24.bsky.social in @mekongreview.com on Cambodia's golden age of journalism, feat. Mech Dara, Kann Vicheika and Phuong Vantha: mekongreview.com/memories-of-...

“Protests in Nepal have revealed the extent of young people’s frustration with the lack of opportunity in the Himalayan nation, as they spiraled into a broader challenge to the government.” apnews.com/article/nepa...

My interview about why politicians' allowances have angered so many in Indonesia, leading to nationwide protests that have turned deadly with parliament and police buildings attacked currentsnewsletter.com/p/it-is-scar...

Listening to @calumstuart.bsky.social’s conversation with @andreasharsono.bsky.social on the ongoing protests in Indonesia: currentsnewsletter.com/p/it-is-scar...

This week's newsletter focuses on what Singapore can do to take a strong stand against genocide in Palestine. The govt says that they're happy to recognise Palestinian statehood "in principle", but has so far been resistant to actually doing it, which is BS. www.wethecitizens.net/6-september-...

Sad news 😔 www.crikey.com.au/2025/09/04/m...

In the face of funding cuts and growing oppression, Cambodian reporters cling on to hope through memories of a golden age of journalism. Read more: mekongreview.com/mem... Subscribe: mekongreview.com/sub...

The SG govt says that they're prepared "in principle" to recognise the state of Palestine, but not before Palestine meets conditions that the SG govt recognises they can't meet because of Israel, but the SG govt won't recognise Palestinian statehood now because of potential "counter actions".

At least, 25 cities where (local) parliament buildings were attacked, some burned down, in Indonesia. The public anger against politicians is very high now www.instagram.com/p/DN-JDT5kgX_/

I love introducing people to Mekong Review and I especially love seeing people buy the magazine (or, even better, subscriptions) so drop by lyf Farrer Park today before 8pm if you’re in Singapore!

My interview with Al Jazeera on ongoing protests in Jakarta and other cities in Indonesia. It's about the police's excessive use of force. What the Indonesian government should do? How is about hundreds of peaceful protesters arrested over the last one week? www.youtube.com/watch?v=qL68...

Today in acronym hell: I learn that Singapore’s LLM is not actually called MERLION It’s called MERaLION

Of all the things that are happening in the world, the hill that my government is choosing to die on in 2025 is vaping

Once again, the Singapore government demonstrates the stubborn refusal to understand the difference between people thinking the death penalty is an effective deterrence, and it actually being proven to be an effective deterrence www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/si...

A columnist assistant being offered more money than I’ve ever earned on a job and I run a whole literary journal

Oh my god?????? You understand that you just said “I’d vote for Hitler.” This is what all of you people sound like. Absolutely out of control of yourselves.

In a moment of inspiration I hauled out all the copies of @mekongreview.com at home and did a new inventory, which means our online store is now fully updated: ko-fi.com/mekongreview...

If anyone would like to try their hand at running a cinema, the space The Projector was in has already been listed for rent: www.commercialguru.com.sg/listing/for-... S$33,000 a month.

I guess it'd been touch and go for a while but terrible news that The Projector is closing in Singapore. (And this text is a great eulogy by Kirsten.) So many of these kinds of stories recently, of the arts ravaged by cuts, spaces shut down, in Singapore, Finland, Berlin...

A newsletter special on the sudden closure of The Projector, a beloved independent cinema in Singapore that provided space for many arts and civil society events that wouldn't have found a venue anywhere else in the city. www.wethecitizens.net/this-city-wo...

The Transformative Justice Collective’s statement on the first clemency granted to a death row prisoner since 1998:

I've updated wethecitizens.net to Ghost 6.0 so apparently it's now possible to find the newsletter at @[email protected] but I don't seem to be succeeding here...

STOP STEALING THE EGGPLANTS www.straitstimes.com/life/arts/eg...

A new issue of @mekongreview.com! I really enjoyed editing the stories in this piece—so much research and experience and reflection went into the writing 🥰

I'm not saying that every academic is a bad writer (far from it!) but oh my god, academic writing. As a more journalistic/narrative editor, it makes me want to cry. Why is a single sentence six lines long If you can make the point in two lines why take 3 paragraphs Please just say what you mean

Today’s newsletter reflects on all the recent media coverage about vapes and Kpods: as expected, the discourse in Singapore pivots towards punishment, but is that the only way? Does it even work? www.wethecitizens.net/26-july-2025...

It is fucking insane that we had a decade of people complaining about the dangers of cancel culture, and now literally hundreds of thousands of people are being purged from government jobs for ideological reasons, but that is not cancel culture.

To boil down this conflict to be just about the temples is dumb AF if not, dare I say, orientalist. It reduces the perception to “oh look at these silly Asians killing each other over a bloody stupid temple!” It’s obviously more complex than that.

What happened to this article on Rice Media...? I did another search under "vape" to see if maybe they'd changed the headline but none of the articles that came up were published this year, much less two days ago, so it seems to really be gone?