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.
The Myanmar Mirage: How the West got Burma wrong
Just few years ago, Myanmar (also called Burma) was widely seen as an international success story.
Thai Politics Has a Princess but No Storybook Endings
With elections coming, the junta still fears the specter of Thaksin Shinawatra.
Turning east
By most accounts, the past few years have been anni horribiles for human rights and democracy in Southeast Asia.
Cambodia Becomes the World’s Newest One-Party State
With strong Chinese support, Prime Minister Hun Sen has effectively destroyed all opposition to his autocratic rule.
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.
Suharto Museum Celebrates a Dictator’s Life, Omitting the Dark Chapters
Indonesia’s former dictator looms in bronze over the entrance to the small museum set amid the palm trees and rice fields of central Java.
Welcome to the Post-Human Rights World
Geopolitical realignments and the rise of populist nationalism have unleashed a global backlash against human rights.
Pankaj Mishra on the Violent Transition to Modernity
At the center of gravity shifts east, Pankaj Mishra argues that the West’s own fateful experience of modernity is playing out globally
Power and Democracy
The late historian Benedict Anderson once reflected that voting was a peculiar form of political action.
