Indonesia’s decision to move its capital from Jakarta to a new city in East Kalimantan excluded local and indigenous communities from the planning process. Now, Nusantara—an internal colonial project in disguise—threatens their land, culture and livelihoods.
Category: Opinion
Posted inFeature, Opinion
To Save a Dying Lake, Mekong Nations Must Act as One
Mekong nations must act collectively to preserve Cambodia’s Tonle Sap Lake, its fisheries and the livelihoods that depend on them. If not, human-made problems of illegal fishing, hydropower dams and climate change will spell disaster for millions.
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Posted inBook Review, Feature, Opinion
Myanmar’s Poets and Protesters “Write Democracy in Gore”
A year on from a military coup, a new book of Myanmar poetry and prose captures the rage and resilience of a people locked in a fight against dictatorship.
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Posted inFeature, Opinion
Why Singapore’s Hawkers Should Be Paid S$1 More Per Plate
New data on household budgets in Singapore shows that in order for hawker food culture to thrive, and for stall owners to earn more than a subsistence income, they must be paid about S$1 more per plate.
Posted inFeature, Opinion
Killing Vulnerable People Won’t Protect Singapore From Drugs
Singapore is set to execute Nagaenthran K Dharmalingam in two days. If we don’t succeed in halting his execution, he will be the latest person with a cognitive impairment to be killed in Singapore’s war on drugs.
Posted inFeature, Opinion
The PAP’s Long and Bloody History of Foreign Interference
Singapore’s PAP government has long meddled in the domestic affairs of its neighbours. If the Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Act (FICA) applied to PAP activities abroad, most of its efforts would be illegal. This is hypocrisy of the highest order.
Posted inBook Review, Feature, Opinion
In Suharto’s Anti-Communist Purge, Prisoners Made an Island Bloom
In his 2020 memoir “Pearls on the Prairie, A Survivor’s Story”, the late author Tedjabayu recounts his 14 years as a political prisoner and shares part of Indonesia’s history that government-sanctioned schoolbooks do not tell.
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Posted inFeature, Opinion
Shanmugam’s Stealth Coup in Singapore
The Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Bill will give Minister for Home Affairs K Shanmugam the power to demand information about any Singaporean’s private life and finances, all based on the suspicion of foreign interference—no evidence required.
Posted inFeature, Opinion
Malaysia’s Drug Law Condemns Vulnerable Women to Death
Most women on death row in Malaysia have been sentenced under a strict drug trafficking law that fails to take their vulnerable socioeconomic realities into account. For justice to be possible, this law needs to change, writes Ngeow Chow Ying.
Posted inFeature, Opinion
The Anti-Vietnamese Legacy of Kem Ley
There were two sides to Kem Ley, the beloved Cambodian activist who was murdered five years ago: the calm, insightful public intellectual, and the hyperbolic nationalist who wanted to rid Cambodia of “illegal Vietnamese immigrants”, writes Tim Frewer.