NEW 🇮🇩 "In Surabaya, the ghosts of the Dutch East Indies have not merely lingered; they have been revived through commodification in tourism...a certain narrative is quietly whispered: the colonial past was not only orderly and elegant, but perhaps even desirable" www.newmandala.org/instagrammin...

NEW 🇲🇾 Putrayaja is taking Malaysia’s universities down the sorry path tread by many other governments towards commercialisation—and the declining research and teaching quality that come along with that. www.newmandala.org/rescuing-mal...

NEW 🇮🇩 Ahmad Syarif from @johnshopkinssais.bsky.social takes a look at the rise of bankers and professional investors in government in Indonesia—and how they’ve eclipsed academic economists as a key source of influence over the direction of economic policy www.newmandala.org/beyond-the-b...

NEW 🇮🇩🇯🇵 Right-wingers are scapegoating foreigners as part of their campaign for Japan's upper house elections, creating new anxieties for the local Indonesian community—and distracting political attention from the need for reforms to protect migrant worker rights. www.newmandala.org/japanese-fir...

New episode of The Show with PJ Thum: PJ details the mechanisms of competitive authoritarianism in Singapore, argues that SG’s elections are in essence a narrowly restricted referendum of PAP’s performance without meaningful choice. youtu.be/-zzuXNLVkPo?...

Exciting new work on Laos!

79 years of independence, when what waa begun in 1896 was fulfilled in 1946. Happy Republic Day!

NEW 🇮🇩: Indonesian elites increasingly live in fear of the wrath of social media. But social-media driven "reactive democracy" isn't a substitute for functioning democratic institutions, and risks reinforcing the plebiscitarian dynamics of the post-Jokowi politics. www.newmandala.org/indonesias-d...

NEW 🇮🇩 Open your fridge or your bathroom cabinet and you'll spot something containing carageenan, a seaweed-derived thickener. In Indonesia, a major carageenan exporter, a seaweed boom is transforming coastal communities' ties with each other and the local state. www.newmandala.org/sea-space-co...

NEW: 🇵🇭's female members of congress, including those with dynastic ties, are much more likely than male counterparts to advocate for gender equality in legislative processes—supporting the case for quotas to boost women's representation elsewhere in the region. www.newmandala.org/gender-dynas...

NEW: We're pleased to launch a series of essays that highlight the PhD research of a diverse group of emerging scholars of Southeast Asia. www.newmandala.org/introducing-...

NEW 🇻🇳: Khánh Linh Lê argues that postwar Vietnam shows how "state-building is not a purely top-down process—rather, its outcome is shaped by the bottom-up dynamics of settler migration, and the resulting interactions between settlers and indigenous minorities." www.newmandala.org/coffee-confl...

NEW: Discussions about transnational influences on Mainland Southeast Asia's autocratisation often focus on China—but @gregoryvraymond.bsky.social argues that a more important factor is how the region’s authoritarian regimes help reinforce each other. www.newmandala.org/making-mainl...

Insightful explanation of the head-scratcher that is Imee Marcos.

Sol Iglesias' "Populist Appeal or Fearful Support? Examining the War on Drugs in the Philippines under Duterte" examines President Rodrigo Duterte's "war on drugs." Subscribers can read in the Fast Track tab on IngentaConnect. Abstract available to all: bit.ly/3GxxJ1Q @soliglesias.bsky.social

PhD Timeline xkcd.com/3081

I’m speaking tomorrow 1:30pm (Japan) on Anti-Crime Campaigns in the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia—online (link in poster) and in person at CSEAS Kyoto University. Join in! kyoto.cseas.kyoto-u.ac.jp/event/202504...

New content available on our forthcoming webpage! The English abstract of Sol Iglesias's "Populist Appeal or Fearful Support? Examining the War on Drugs in the Philippines under Duterte" is available to everyone on bit.ly/3Y7NNx6 @soliglesias.bsky.social

Was support for Duterte, with his astronomical popularity, and the drug war even real? Or were the numbers driven up by fear? Forthcoming in Pacific Affairs! pacificaffairs.ubc.ca/issues/forth...

NEW: Rodrigo Duterte's arrest marks a milestone for accountability and truth. But culpability for drug war abuses goes far beyond him, and the Philippine justice system remains ill-equipped to overcome a politics that favours impunity, argues Patrick Peralta. www.newmandala.org/duterte-at-t...

NEW: In Malaysia, Jeremy Lim argues, deindustrialisation hasn’t paved the way for a comfortable, consumption-based economy, but rather for a “gigification” of the labour market for many of those who haven’t got a foothold in the upper middle class.

Imee Marcos is banking on a rising pro-Duterte sentiment over his arrest but volatility of public sentiment over this bruising fight with the pro-Marcos camp doesn't assure her of an easy win. I spoke to Karmina Constantino on ANC's Dateline Philippines. www.youtube.com/watch?v=mI9D...

The Philippine Star reported on my research. Violence pattern means policy: when to START killing (Duterte starts Tokhang) & when to STOP it (Jee Ick Joo’s tokhang-for-ransom exposé & Kian delos Santos’s murder). I said ”This is what systematic violence looks like”. www.philstar.com/headlines/20...

What about other kinds of evidence establishing Duterte's culpability for the mass violence in the "war on drugs"? My study shows that the chances that these killings were somehow naturally occurring or a coincidence is very small, less than 5 out of 100. cids.up.edu.ph/policy-brief...

The arrest of Duterte should teach political leaders that, to quote Karim Khan, “international law is not as weak as some may think.” My commentary for the University of Melbourne’s Asialink. asialink.unimelb.edu.au/diplomacy/ro...

AAS LATE LATE BREAKING PANEL ON DUTERTE’S ICC ARREST The Arrest of Rodrigo Duterte Saturday, March 15, 2025 
2:00 PM - 3:30 PM 
Room B240/B241 (Level 2, Convention Center) Join us!

Friends at AAS in Columbus! Join our panel on Saturday, March 15 4:00 PM-5:30 PM Area of Study: Southeast Asia 9-041. Authoritarianism and State Violence in Southeast Asia Conv. Center, Room B232, Level 2 4:00 PM-5:30 PM asianstudies.confex.com/asianstudies...

Scholars for Peace condemns the aerial bombing in Mindoro and Bukidnon as international humanitarian law crimes & violations of CARHRIHL. Please read and share our statement. Resume the peace talks now! www.facebook.com/615526950551...

I spoke to the NYT about Duterte’s ICC arrest in the view of the Marcos Jt. camp’s long game www.nytimes.com/2025/03/12/w...

President Marcos announces that Duterte's plan left at 11:03 pm bound for The Hague. "Mr Duterte was arrested in compliance with our commitment to the Interpol.... Interpol asked for our help and we obliged because we have commitments to the Interpol." What a day!

About my research, what I'm reading... and my Netflix recommends! kyoto.cseas.kyoto-u.ac.jp/en/staff/igl...

Follow SEACAF for new and up-coming programs on academic freedom in Southeast Asia! www.facebook.com/615730750511...

What I’m up to in Kyoto, among other things! kyoto.cseas.kyoto-u.ac.jp/en/staff/igl...

NEW: The social revolution bound up in the resistance to Myanmar's coup has opened, in a partial yet meaningful way, avenues to transcend entrenched racial and class dynamics, argue Cecile Medail & Saw Chit Thet Tun. www.newmandala.org/ethnic-solid...

NEW: From Naypyidaw to Tatmadaw, how various political actors in Myanmar are referred to is more politically loaded than many outsiders recognise—Andrew Selth reflects on the issue in this first part of two essays on the finer points of names and titles in Myanmar. www.newmandala.org/name-calling...

NEW: The subtleties of honorifics, nicknames and pseudonyms are often lost even on experienced Myanmar-watchers. Andrew Selth reflects on the topic in this second part of two essays on the finer points of names and titles in Myanmar. www.newmandala.org/name-calling...

Please read and share our Network in Defense of Historical Truth and Academic Freedom statement. Walk out, and get your alternative learning at EDSA itself or wherever you are! Never again, never forget! EDSA Commemoration holds line against historical revisionism medium.com/@manifestofo...

The troubling consequences of excluding Sulu from BARMM (or having included it in the first place?) understandingconflict.org/en/publicati...

The strategy of the GRP seems to be: win the war but lose the peace www.facebook.com/629776512/po...

(In Singlish fashion): Wah www.straitstimes.com/singapore/nu...

NEW 🇮🇩🇲🇲: Despite a reluctant reception from locals and diminishing humanitarian support from international donors hit by Trump aid cuts, it appears some Rohingya are in Indonesia for the long haul, write Nino Viartasiwi & Antje Missbach after a recent visit to Aceh www.newmandala.org/will-pekanba...

As things get worse fir refugees everywhere, tgey get worse for the rohingya in particular www.newmandala.org/will-pekanba...

Interrogate what the senate candidates have to say on gender and LGBTQIA+ rights! On Feb 20, UP Diliman

Ugh what a way to ruin your reputation from a defrauded CJ of the Supreme Court to an ultra conservative nutjob

NEW: Tidying up for socialism—or socialising? Amelie Katczynski on the practice of ǭkhǣngngān (communal cleaning) in Laos and how it's appropriated by those made to participate in it. www.newmandala.org/playing-with...

Great to see the Syed Hussein Alatas Memorial Seminar is happening later this month in KL! Can’t help but wonder, though: why isn’t NUS hosting it this year as it had since 2018?🤔 www.facebook.com/100001892724...

The big problem with the Kadiliman vs. Kasamaan showdown is that Team Kasamaan deserves what’s coming to it (impeachment, ICC, etc) but Team Kadiliman is not interested in pursuing justice but leverage

Jan. 27, 2025: Philippines human rights news ▶️ #DrugWar: Philippines to help ICC ▶️ Sex education: Disinformation used in war vs children's rights ▶️ #DeathPenalty: Firing squad won't end corruption ▶️ 113 of 149 PH cities run by political dynasties humanrightsnews.substack.com/p/drugwar-ph...