Southeast Asia
Student politics: Indonesians confront China prejudice
Marsha Harini is an Indonesian student who has lived in China for the past seven years. She graduated from one of the international schools in Shanghai, spent a year learning …
Cambodia: to vote or not to vote?
In less than three months’ time, Cambodians will head to the polls to cast their ballot in the national election. Already faced with the difficult choice of which party and…
Australia can help Indonesia kick the habit
Australia is an undisputed world leader in tobacco control. From massive wins with plain packaging to widely enforced bans on smoking in public places, it is easy to see why…
Quitting cigarettes in Indonesia
Nearly two-thirds of Indonesian males smoke. This is said to be the highest rate in the world, and includes the notorious case of the two-year-old with a forty-a-day…
Broad strokes: Indonesian art and 20 years of Reformasi
This month, Indonesia commemorates 20 years since the fall of strongman Suharto and two decades of the Reformasi era. Today, the strife of 1998 serves as inspiration for the…
Helping the UN help Myanmar
Last month, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres announced the appointment of Swiss diplomat Christine Schraner Burgener as his Special Envoy on Myanmar, marking the…
Indonesia: a concrete block and a hard case
It was an astonishing sight. Nine women dressed in batik sarongs and wearing the traditional, conical hats of Indonesian farmers sat on the edge of the road in front of the…
Surabaya and the ISIS family
Indonesia has again exploded in a paroxysm of terrorist violence, but with a new twist: family suicide bombers. This may be the first time in the world that parents took…
Malaysia: what now?
Malaysians have rejected Barisan Nasional so overwhelmingly that the electoral system designed to protect its rule has been overcome. The party received its lowest popular…
Did an election just cause Malaysian democratisation?
What a difference an election makes. Malaysia’s 14th general elections on Wednesday were understood by all observers to be a close-fought battle between the long-ruling Barisan…