Inside Asia

In late November 2022, Malaysia held its general election. The landmark result brought longtime opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim to power, although leading a complex coalition. Dr. Meredith Weiss discusses what happened on election day, and the result's implications throughout the region. Meredith Weiss is a Professor of Political Science and director of Rockefeller College’s Semester in Washington...

In late November 2022, a deadly apartment fire in China’s Xinjiang region touched off contentious protests throughout the country focusing primarily on China’s continued COVID-19 lockdowns. Dr. Darren Byler, Assistant Professor of International Studies at Simon Fraser University, joins the podcast to discuss the protest dynamics and governmental response. We discuss the intersection of ethnicity w...

On November 26, 2022, Taiwan held local elections commonly referred to as its "midterms." Dr. Kharis Templeman of the Project on Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific at Stanford University's Hoover Institution joins the podcast to explain the results. We discuss the implications for the balance between the governing DPP and the opposition KMT, the country's rejection of an amendment to lower the voting age,...

On November 20, 2022, Nepal will hold its national election. Dr. Jeevan Sharma, Director of the Centre of South Asian Studies at the University of St. Andrews, joins the podcast to talk about the stakes of this race. We discuss the fragmentation of Marxist parties in the country, the role of Hindu nationalism, the consolidation of democratic institutions under the country’s new constitution, and t...

The Center for Asian Democracy hosted Prof. Sheila Coronel for our 2022 Annual Lecture. Prof. Sheila Coronel is the Director, Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism at the Columbia University School of Journalism. In 1989, Coronel and her colleagues founded the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism. In 2003, she won the Ramon Magsaysay Award, Asia’s premier award for advocates o...

After a hiatus, CAD’s podcast is back , with dynamic voices spotlighting democracy in Asia. Our first featured guest is Dr. Ishani Dasgupta! Ishani Dasgupta is the Postdoctoral Associate at the Center for Asian Democracy. In her research, she centers the refugee as the key political figure of our times, whose actions both indict the global order of nation-states that creates regimes of violence an...

Originally uploaded to Soundcloud in 2016. On Monday, May 9th a record 40 million Filipinos went to the polls in elections to determine the Presidency, Vice Presidency, the Senate, and Congress. The results were a blow to the country’s ruling elite as maverick independent Rodrigo Duterte defeated his closest rival by over 6 million votes. Dubbed ‘the Punisher’ Duterte has pledged to introduce the...

Originally uploaded to Soundcloud in 2015. Earlier this year a humanitarian crisis took place across Southeast Asia, as upwards of 25,000 Rohingya tried to escape from Burma by cramming onto boats bound for Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. The Rohingya are an ethnic group of some 1.3 million from the Rakhine (Arakan) state in western Burma. Despite the fact that most Rohingya have lived in the c...

Originally uploaded to Soundcloud in 2016. With the world watching Myanmar's process of democratization with the elections in early Nov., Malaysia appears to be going in the opposite direction. Join us as we talk with Dr. Surain Subramaniam from UNC-Asheville about the current state of democracy in Malaysia and in Singapore.