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New Naratif empowers Southeast Asians by giving them the information and tools to be fully engaged and participatory citizens.

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New Naratif empowers Southeast Asians by giving them the information and tools to be fully engaged and participatory citizens.

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Highlights

An illustration showing a crowd of protestors with giant yellow rubber ducks.

Artists Respond: Hindsight Is 2020

Ten artists take us on a journey from virtual meeting rooms in Malaysia and Singapore to the streets of Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand. They ponder the intensely personal impact of the pandemic and picture large-scale protests for democracy.
  • Yunroo
  • Sunny Go
  • Afif Slim
  • Julia Hannie
  • Stephani Soejono
  • Richard Mercado
  • Townsunder
  • Ollie
  • Pssyppl
  • Suppachai Vong
comic

Building a Mentally Healthy Community

PJ Thum and Sean Francis Han (Wake Up Singapore) speak to Reetaza "Reetz" Chatterjee, the founder of "Your Head Lah!" about her own experiences with mental illness, her journey in figuring out her role in activism, and about the mental health landscape in Singapore.
  • New Naratif
podcast

“We Have to Hide Our Face”: Cambodia’s Eco-Activists Go Undercover

Environmental advocacy group Mother Nature Cambodia is known for their confrontational videos, with activists exposing crimes against nature. But with three members jailed, and others facing harassment, the group has decided to conceal their identities.
  • Ouch Sony
  • Matt Surrusco
journalism

More

Members only

In Surabaya’s Abandoned Colonial Warehouses, Hundreds Make Their Home

With land and adequate housing out of reach for many working poor in Indonesia’s Surabaya, some have made their home for decades in abandoned colonial-era warehouses. The squatters say it’s not ideal, but it’s what they can afford, and it’s home.
  • Reno Surya
  • Fully Syafi
journalism
Members only

“I Lost My Education”: Refugees in Malaysia Face Widening School Gap

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated disparities in access to quality education around the world. In Kuala Lumpur, an underfunded informal education system for refugee and asylum-seeking youth may soon collapse, leaving their education outlook bleak.
  • Jaw Tu Hkawng
  • Emily Fishbein
  • Benjamin
journalism
A header image showing one hand handing a passport over to another hand. A man is balancing on the passport, leaning away from the approaching hand. Other passports can be seen in the background.

A Mass Trial in Cambodia Points to Far-Flung Anti-Opposition Efforts

A general contractor in Texas who has never set foot in Cambodia is among more than a dozen foreign citizens called up to a mass trial of the banned main opposition party. Their experiences suggest Thai authorities supplied a Cambodian court with their names.
  • Matt Surrusco
  • Ouch Sony
  • Charis Loke
journalism

A Faithful History of Colonisation

Fidellithy Tan, writer and host of the "History of Colonisation" podcast, discusses with PJ Thum and Sean Francis Han (Wake Up Singapore) about her podcast, her goals, and her thoughts on history, colonialism, and education in Singapore.
  • New Naratif
podcast

“ပုရွက်ဆိတ်နှင့်ဆင်တို့တိုက်ပွဲအလား” မြန်မာ့တက်ကြွလှုပ်ရှားကျောင်းသားများဆို

ယခုနှစ်အတွင်း ဒါဇင်နှင့်ချီ ဖမ်းစီးမှုများရှိနေသည့်ကြားက၊ တက်ကြွလှုပ်ရှားသူကျောင်းသားအုပ်စုုငယ်တစ်ခု ရခိုင်ပြည်နယ်တွင်ဖြစ်ပွားနေသည့် လက်နက်ကိုင်ပဋိပက္ခဒဏ်ကို အင်တာနက်ဖြတ်တောက်ခြင်းနှင့် မီဒီယာ များကန့်သတ်ခံရခြင်းကြောင့် နှုတ်ဆိတ်ခံနေရသည့်ဖြစ်ရပ်များအား၊ ခါးစည်းခံနေရသည့်အရပ်သားများကိုယ် စား ထုတ်ဖော်ပြောဆိုကြရန်ဆုံးဖြတ်ထားကြသည်။
  • Kyaw Hsan Hlaing
  • Emily Fishbein
  • Thu Ra Kyaw
journalism

Charles Yeo, the Chairman of the Reform Party

Charles Yeo skyrocketed to fame in Singapore's recent elections and subsequently was elected chairman of the Reform Party. He talks to PJ Thum and Sean Francis Han (Wake Up, Singapore) about his life and political beliefs, immigration policy and the future of the Reform Party.
  • New Naratif
podcast
Members only

“The Queen” Dredging a Fishing Dead Zone

The seas off the coast of Makassar in South Sulawesi used to be filled with fish. In recent times, however, fishermen say the practice of sand dredging for reclamation projects has depleted fish stocks and caused families to go hungry.
  • Eko Rusdianto
journalism

The Universal Periodic Review of Singapore's Human Rights Record

Singapore's next review of its human rights record by the UN is due in mid-2021. Jolene Tan and Emmy Charissa, who contributed to Singapore's civil society reports for previous and upcoming iterations of the review, sit down with PJ Thum to explain the Universal Periodic Review, why it matters and the latest civil society report.
  • New Naratif
podcast
Members only

“Like Ants Fighting Elephants”: Student Activists in Myanmar Speak Out

Despite dozens of arrests this year, a small group of student activists are determined to raise their voices on behalf of civilians in Rakhine State who have been affected by armed conflict, and largely silenced by internet and media restrictions.
  • Kyaw Hsan Hlaing
  • Emily Fishbein
  • Thu Ra Kyaw
journalism

Behind Malaysia’s Drug Laws: A Family’s Ordeal

On this week's episode of Southeast Asia Dispatches, Deborah Augustin speaks to filmmakers Loh Jo Yee and Hidayah Hisham as they delve into Malaysia’s criminal justice system with their upcoming documentary, Ayahku, Dr G (My Father, Dr G), which follows Siti and her 60-year-old father, who faces the death penalty for using medical cannabis to treat his chronic illnesses.
  • Kelly Anissa
  • Deborah Augustin
podcast

The Climate Crisis Is Not Just About the Climate

Annika Mock and Kristian-Marc James of SG Climate Rally join PJ Thum and Sean Francis Han (WakeUp Singapore) to talk about the global, Singaporean, and human contexts of the climate crisis, how structural change can occur, and how people can help.
  • New Naratif
podcast
Members only

Mappanre Tasi: A Tale of Two Fishing Islands

In Sulawesi, two islands are home to the Mappanre Tasi ritual—a celebration of the sea which takes place at Islamic New Year. In recent times, the ritual has become increasingly under threat as conflicting fishing practices and religious fervour begin to endanger its spiritual premise.
  • F Daus AR
journalism

Singaporean Foreign Policy in the Eras of Trump and Biden

Prof Ian Chong, returns to talk about Singapore's place in Trump’s foreign policy; how that will change under Biden; the repercussions of domestic behaviour on international relations; and how the lack of discussion in Singapore on where Singapore's interests lie negatively affects the country.
  • New Naratif
podcast
Raffles Must Fall Header

Raffles Must Fall? The Memory and History of Colonialism

The story of the Raffles statue in Singapore is a story of memory, not history. From its creation in 1887, the statue has been part of an official colonial and later post-independence narrative, created and reinterpreted by successive governments as a basis for civic unity for the island.
  • Gareth Knapman
research
Members only
An image of a five-petaled hibiscus in which mazes and labyrinths are inscribed, representing the immigration system in Malaysia.

Explainer: Undocumented Migrants in Malaysia

What is the difference between a migrant worker, a refugee and a stateless person? Why do migrants come to Malaysia? How do they become undocumented?
  • Katrina Jorene Maliamauv
  • Veshalini Naidu
journalism

An American Political Insider Explains American Politics

Antonio Peronace, the founding Creative Director of the Democratic Caucus in, first, the House of Representatives and then the Senate, answers your most curious questions about the nature of American politics from the perspective of someone who has intimately participated in it for well over a decade.
  • New Naratif
podcast

A Future Rooted in Our Forests

On today’s episode of Southeast Asia Dispatches, Deborah Augustin speaks to Shaq Koyok, a contemporary artist from the indigenous Temuan community about his thoughts on the plan to degazette 97% of the Kuala Langat North Forest Reserve in Malaysia, an area that not only has an important role to play in conserving biodiversity, but is also significant to the indigenous communities who rely on it to survive.
  • Deborah Augustin
podcast
Members only

Tahun Kekerasan Indonesia

Dalam memoar terbarunya berjudul “Romantisme Tahun Kekerasan”, penulis Martin Aleida membongkar penindasan dari stigma yang dihadapi oleh jurnalis di Indonesia pada tahun 1960an.
  • Warief Djajanto Basorie
research
The faces of Putu Oka and Goenawan

Putu Oka dan Goenawan

Putu Oka Sukanta dan Goenawan Mohamad merefleksikan Tahun Kekerasan Indonesia dan persahabatan mereka dengan Martin Aleida. Materi tambahan untuk "Tahun Kekerasan Indonesia".
  • Warief Djajanto Basorie
research