SSEAC Stories

Social media has become a crucial avenue for political discourse in Southeast Asia, given its potential as a “liberation technology” in both democratising and authoritarian states. Yet the growing decline in internet freedom and increasingly repressive and manipulative use of social media tools by governments means that social media is now an essential platform for control. “Disinformation” and “f...

From glove puppets of Chinese origin and Hakka religious processions, to wartime political theatre and contemporary choirs and dance groups, the diverse performance practices of ethnic Chinese communities throughout Southeast Asia highlight the complexity of minority self-representation and sense of identity of a community that is often considered solely in socioeconomic terms. Each performance fo...

Southeast Asia's demand for protein in the form of animal meat is increasing by more than 4% every year. This has important consequences for regional food security and household incomes and wellbeing. Laos and Cambodia are ideally placed in the region to meet the demand. However, current livestock production and health practices pose a constraint and are preventing this opportunity from being real...

Myanmar is scheduled to hold general elections in November 2020. While the country has experienced political liberalisation since 2011, the latest Freedom House Report ranked Myanmar as “not free.” Dr Roger Lee Huang talks with Dr Natali Pearson about Myanmar's ongoing regime transition, arguing that the country’s "disciplined democracy" contains features of democratic politics, but at its core re...

Deep in the jungles of Myanmar lie the remains of an ancient kingdom, the 15th-century royal city of Mrauk-U. Located in the Bay of Bengal and separated from the rest of the country by the Arakan mountain range, Mrauk-U Township boasts a stunning rural landscape dotted with the hundreds of spires of stone temples, remnants of the former glories of the Arakan Kingdom. Long abandoned by local author...

Indonesia’s labour movement emerged weak and disorganised after more than 30 years under authoritarian rule. Yet in the two decades since the country’s transition to democracy, it has emerged as a vibrant, even influential, political actor. While the movement’s rise to success has not been without its challenges, it achieved its goals by adopting a unique combination of political tactics. As Indon...

Around the world, social justice movements have exposed the pervasive extent of gender-based violence in the workplace. While women’s empowerment has long been a tenet of development aid, in practice, aid projects often impact social relations in complex ways and catalyse social violence by grouping and categorising people for aid distribution. Women are overwhelmingly affected by this process and...

Traditionally and historically, disability has widely been seen and treated as a medical impediment. For decades, the Indonesian Government perpetuated this medical model of disability, which focuses on what a person cannot do and cannot be. But in recent years, activists have challenged this notion, emphasizing that 'disability' is the result of the interaction between people living with impairme...

In 1998, Indonesian fishermen diving for sea cucumbers discovered a shipwreck off Belitung Island in the Java Sea. The ship was a Middle Eastern vessel constructed from planks sewn together with rope — and its remarkable cargo originally included around 70,000 ceramics produced in China, as well as luxurious objects of gold and silver. Whether the vessel sank because of a storm or other factors as...

With two megacities and strong economic growth, Indonesia has seen dramatic rates of rural-urban migrations. According to the World Bank, nearly 70 percent of Indonesia's population are expected to live in cities by 2045. While this transition has undoubtedly boosted the country's economic growth, it has also brought to the fore all the challenges that come with rapid and uncontrolled urbanisation...

In 'Fighting for Virtue: Justice and Politics in Thailand', Professor Duncan McCargo investigates how Thailand's judges were tasked by the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX) in 2006 with helping to solve the country's intractable political problems—and what happened next. In this podcast, Professor Duncan McCargo speaks to Dr Aim Sinpeng about the world of Thai judges: how they were recruited,...

As instruments of global governance, Multilateral Development Banks were created to lend developing states capital for economic growth and development that they could not access from private capital markets. Despite their positive aims, these international organisations have often come under fire and received harsh criticism for their lending practices on economic, political, environmental, and hu...

The early post-war years (1945-1948) in Asia witnessed the dismantling of empire leading to a massive territorial reorganisation of the region under the framework of ‘reconstruction’. Contested borders dating from the age of empire were soon to be settled, as new national borders were drawn along ethnic or religious lines in the region. Yet the settlement of borders posed important challenges for...

As 2020 began, the world watched as the COVID-19 pandemic slowly spread its way across the globe. Across the countries of ASEAN, this unprecedented event played out in diverse ways. Countries like Vietnam demonstrated highly effective ways of managing the virus, whereas others, like Indonesia, spent considerable time denying its existence. These experiences reflect quite different responses to the...

The livelihood impacts of COVID-19 have been diverse and far-ranging, with social restrictions initially affecting urban economies before reverberating through to rural Southeast Asia. In Indonesia, where the virus continues to spread, restrictions on mobility and social gatherings have severely restrained informal systems of wealth transfer and social protection. At the same time, formal governme...

The COVID-19 pandemic has transformed the Asia-Pacific region overnight. Responses to the viral disease have varied substantially across the region, with some countries introducing strong and effective measures while others have experienced rampant disease. The pandemic has tested the public health capacity of countries, as well as the capacity of governments to respond. Accurate evaluation of the...

The nature and extent of risk exposure determines the severity of the effects of a crisis. From the perspective of international trade, this session examines the pre-COVID-19 risk exposure of the ASEAN region, investigates its post-COVID-19 economic effects, and explores possible pathways for Southeast Asia to emerge from the ongoing crisis. As in the case of other regional integration initiatives...

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, various Southeast Asian countries were expected to fare differently. Thailand was seen as the most prepared, while Timor-Leste was seen as the least. Six months on, the Philippines and Indonesia have the highest death rates in the region, while Vietnam has had no double-digit new cases in nearly two months. This talk will focus on government responses across...

Indonesia has one of the highest smoking rates in the world and a poor record for implementing the public health measures needed to see these rates fall. Smoking is estimated to kill more than 225,000 Indonesians per year and contributes to many more deaths. Yet tobacco regulation has been highly contested in recent years. Dr Elisabeth Kramer chats with Dr Thushara Dibley about tobacco regulation...

Despite having a population of over 260 million people, Indonesia has a mere 1,000 psychiatrists and an equal number of clinical psychologists. Funding for mental health care is around 1% of the country's health budget. Under these conditions, providing adequate mental health care is an enormous challenge. Furthermore, just like in many countries around the world, mental illness remains widely sub...

Motor neuron disease (MND), also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), is a devastating disease where the dying-off (degeneration) of motor nerves results in muscle weakness affecting an individual’s ability to move, speak, swallow, perform daily activities and breathe. There is still no effective cure for MND, as there is no clear understanding of why a previously healthy person develops...

Gender-based crimes, especially rape, sexual violence and forced marriage, are extremely common in times of war. The consequences for victims and their communities are devastating. Despite that, these crimes have historically been largely invisible in international war crimes trials. For the last 10 years, Dr Rosemary Grey's work has focused on making gender-based crimes more visible in internatio...

On 6 July 2019, in Baku, Azerbaijan, the Plain of Jars was inscribed as a World Heritage Monument: a unique testimony to a cultural tradition “which has disappeared”. For centuries, thousands of stone jars lay in splendid isolation, admired by villagers and the occasional European explorer. After the initial survey by Dr Madeleine Colani in 1931-1933, only now do we begin to understand the complex...

The Philippines is one of the most natural hazard-prone countries in the world. With the social and economic cost of disasters in the country increasing due to population growth, migration, unplanned urbanisation, environmental degradation and global climate change, disaster resilience and management are more important than ever. Dr Aaron Opdyke chats with Dr Natali Pearson about his work in disas...

Improper pest management has led to significant yield loss in rice and other crop harvests in Cambodia, causing economic losses to farmers and environmental disruption through ill-informed chemical use. The use of broad-spectrum pesticides as a solution to all observed pests is commonplace in the rice and mung bean fields of lowland Cambodia and can be linked to unsuitable sources of agricultural...