Ask the average Indonesian voter what they believe it takes to be a winning legislative candidate and you’re likely get the response: “harus punya duit”—“[they] must have money.” These voters’ intuitions are backed up by plenty of research showing that political campaigns in Indonesia are expensive—and that costs are on the rise. To stand a chance in any legislative election, would-be politicians must pay the salaries of sprawling campaign teams, purchase mountains of campaign paraphernalia, and hand out envelopes of cash to voters on election day. These costs can come to over US$50,000 for a ..read more

This post is an abridged version of an article that appears in a forthcoming special edition of the Journal of Contemporary Asia on “Revolution and Solidarity in Myanmar” (54:5). ______ On 15 June 2024 over 200 prisoners—including 60 women—were transferred from prisons in Mon State and Mandalay to alternative locations in a bid to disrupt anticipated “flower protests”. These were expected in connection with the 79th birthday of Myanmar’s deposed state counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi. On arrival in Daiku prison in Bago Region some of the transferred prisoners discovered their personal items, includ ..read more

Apart from causing widespread suffering, economic collapse and conflict, the February 2021 attempted coup in Myanmar has also brought an upheaval amongst international aid agencies engaged in the country. International NGOs, UN agencies and bilateral donors have long been active in Myanmar supporting humanitarian and development programming. But the military’s attempted takeover has meant that international agencies have had to shift their approach. In the days after the attempted coup, almost all aid agencies ceased their direct cooperation with the new military-controlled State Administrativ ..read more

Large parts of Phnom Penh still showcase French colonial ideas about urban design that were in vogue during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The French introduced European architectural styles, urban design principles, and administrative systems that left a lasting impact on the city’s layout and aesthetics—look, for example, at the areas surrounding Wat Phnom, the city’s main Buddhist temple, and the Royal Palace, where some colonial architectural designs and urban layouts are still present. During colonial times, transformations for Phnom Penh had a dual purpose. They presented the ci ..read more

Visiting troops of the 14th Army along the World War II India–Burma frontiers, Lord Mountbatten, then in charge of South East Asia Command, gave speeches acknowledging that they were called “the forgotten army” on the “forgotten front.” Sometimes he would add a line to make the soldiers laugh: “At home you are not forgotten—they have not even heard of you!” Mountbatten’s point—that you have to know about something in the first place in order to accurately consider it “forgotten”—also applies to present day Myanmar, as the revolution against the coup regime is incessantly being described in the ..read more

On 13 June 2024, a nickel smelting furnace at the Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park (IMIP) in Central Sulawesi caught fire and exploded, sending two workers to hospital. A year earlier, on 24 December 2023, a smelting furnace at the same facility also caught fire and exploded, killing 13 workers on the spot; several others late succumbed to their injuries later in hospital, resulting in the death of 21 workers. Another 39 workers suffered severe burns in the 2023 incident, with some becoming disabled and unable to work. These tragic events expose a major flaw in the Indonesian government’s am ..read more

Under review: Clare Hammond’s “On the Shadow Tracks: a Journey through Occupied Myanmar” published by Allen Lane. “The second Death Railway”: that is how an activist in Dawei in Myanmar’s deep south had described it. No one knows how many forced labourers had died in building it, just as the world doesn’t know the number of—or even remember—the Burmese and other Asian slave labourers who died building the first Death Railway when the Japanese Army attempted to link Burma and Thailand by rail during WWII. Those conscripted workers who had been forced to work alongside the Allied prisoners of ..read more

The disputed existence and legal implications of an unwritten, unpublicised “gentleman’s agreement” between Chinese authorities and former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte regarding the rusting wreck of a WWII-era naval vessel has emerged as the latest flashpoint in the long-standing maritime tensions between the two countries. The boat in question, BRP Sierra Madre, was intentionally grounded in the Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal as a response to China’s occupation of the nearby Mischief Reef in 1995. The Sierra Madre’s continued presence in Ayungin Shoal, alongside with that of the Philip ..read more

When I walked my seven-year-old twins to their school in the East Java city of Malang, we sometimes made a game of counting the cigarette ads we passed during our ten-minute journey. The day in 2016 when we tallied fifty-eight one way, they would have passed over a hundred cigarette ads round trip. We spotted four-metre banners adorning shops, signs erected on poles, and more modestly sized stickers that I also counted. If cigarette companies made these stickers, hired people to post them, and paid taxes on them, then they were surely effective in recruiting smokers. Sticker ads often appear a ..read more

This content is password protected. To view it please enter your password below: Password: The post Protected: Môi Giới Lao Động Nhà Nước Việt Nam Cho Phép Lạm Dụng Người Lao Động Ở Ả-Rập Xê-Út appeared first on New Mandala ..read more