Thai Monuments Are Disappearing in the Dead of Night
This week’s student protests are part of a backlash against a monarchist elite trying to erase Thailand’s democratic history.
‘Allah doesn’t care if you are transgender’: the Indonesian school fighting a backlash
An Islamic boarding school for transgender people in Yogyakarta is providing a safe haven amid a harsh crackdown on LGBT rights.
The Fall of Aung San Suu Kyi, Democracy Icon
Turning “The Lady” into a secular saint only helped Myanmar’s junta.
After Ahok: Indonesia Grapples with the Rise of Political Islam
For decades, Indonesian society has experienced a slow process of Islamization. In 2017, the pace picked up.
The Past Isn’t Past
Lumphat seemed forsaken by time. Stretched out along a bend of the Srepok River, this former town was now little more than a village, a mere sprinkling of civilisation in a landscape of red earth and pantone blue skies.
Ghosts of Pogroms Past Haunt Indonesia
After the jailing of Jakarta’s former governor, Chinese Indonesians find themselves caught between age-old prejudice and fears of a rising China.
Myanmar refugees find a foothold in North Carolina
For the Myanmar residents of Chapel Hill, hopes of a return home are tempered by fears of continued ethnic tensions
What a High-Level Sacking in Vietnam Reveals About Communist Party Rifts
Vietnam’s campaign against corruption notched a significant victory earlier this month with the removal of a top Politburo official for “very serious mistakes and violations” while he was chair of PetroVietnam, the state-owned oil and gas company. But analysts say that there is a more complicated story behind the rare Politburo sacking—just the fourth in...
Cambodian Democracy Makes Its Last Gasps
An indifferent United States and assertive China have emboldened one of Asia’s longest-serving leaders to embrace outright authoritarianism.
Welcome to the Post-Human Rights World
Geopolitical realignments and the rise of populist nationalism have unleashed a global backlash against human rights.
Power and Democracy
The late historian Benedict Anderson once reflected that voting was a peculiar form of political action.
Reading Burma
On four new books that complicate the international image of Burma’s emergence from a half-century of military rule.
