On this week's episode, PJ Thum speaks to Dr Paul Tambyah from the Singapore Democratic Party. They discuss his vision for Singapore, healthcare, the role of non-Singaporeans in the country and other pressing issues. This interview was originally recorded live on The Online Citizen Asia's Facebook page.
On this week’s episode of Southeast Asia Dispatches, Adam Bemma speaks to Myanmar’s trailblazing podcaster, Nandar. Last year, Nandar started the G-Taw Zagar Wyne podcast along with members of her Purple Feminists Group in Yangon to amplify women's voices in the country. The name G-Taw Zagar Wyne comes from a nickname Nandar was given growing up in Shan State. It means a woman willing to speak up to share her ideas and begin a dialogue.
Kokila Annamalai, Ngiam Shih Tung, and Gan Theng Wei sit down with PJ Thum to talk about all the issues surrounding Singapore's elections, and in particular the ways in which it is not free and unfair. This podcast was recorded in April 2019.
In Southeast Asia, poverty is often associated with rural communities. As a result, conversations around urban poverty have largely taken a backseat in public discourse. On this week's episode of Southeast Asia Dispatches, Deborah Augustin speaks to Prof. Datuk Dr. Denison Jayasooria, chair of the Asian Solidarity Economy Council and Pete Nicoll from Reach Out Malaysia, an organisation that works with the rural and urban poor. We discuss their experiences in working closely with this community and the misconceptions surrounding this multifaceted subject.
Feroz Khan and Al Lim, authors of "Educating for a Climate-Crisis World", talk about our need to transform the fundamental values we teach ourselves and our children in order to adapt to the ongoing climate crisis.
In the age of COVID-19, family dynamics have understandably shifted. As a result, we’ve seen more parents openly talk on social media about their struggles with balancing work, child care and self-care during this time. But children in particular may respond to this stress differently. On this week’s episode of Southeast Asia Dispatches, our Editor-in-Chief Aisyah Llewellyn spoke with Louis, a science teacher based in Medan, Indonesia about how parents can help children cope with the changes brought by this pandemic.
PJ Thum speaks to Hallam Stevens and Monamie Bhadra Haines, professors at Nanyang Technological University, about the TraceTogether app, and more broadly about Citizen Science, and the broader societal implications of using such technology to address deeply contentious and difficult political issues.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, society’s most vulnerable are at risk in several ways. Refugees and migrants in particular, whether documented or undocumented, face challenges such as having inadequate access to healthcare, reduced income and overall increased precarity. It becomes even more complicated when their host countries do not recognise their rights. On this week’s episode of Southeast Asia Dispatches, membership engagement manager, Deborah Augustin speaks to a journalist, writer and observer about the rise in xenophobia in Malaysia towards migrants and refugees. We’ve kept our guest’s identity anonymous out of concerns for his safety.
PJ Thum speaks about freedom of expression and the media in Singapore with Dr James Rowlins, previously a lecturer in film and media studies at the Singapore University of Technology and Design from 2012 to 2018.
Today is World Press Freedom Day. In Southeast Asia, journalists face both legal and financial challenges when reporting. But now more than ever, quality journalism is important to keep people informed and many journalists across the globe continue to do that despite the threat of the current pandemic. On today’s episode, our Membership Engagement Manager Deborah Augustin speaks to Aisyah Llewellyn, our Editor in Chief about what it’s like to be out in the field when most people are being told to stay home.
PJ speaks with Zakir Hossain Khokan, a migrant worker from Bangladesh and founder of "Migrant Writers of Singapore", who is currently ill with COVID-19 (but recovering), and Jay and Michelle, two Singaporeans who volunteer with his organisation, about their work and other initiatives; about the ongoing COVID-19 crisis among migrant workers; and about broader structural and systemic issues facing migrant workers in Singapore
Globally, lockdowns are a key tactic to combat COVID-19. Phrases like ‘Stay Home, Stay Safe’ are used on social media to encourage people to stay indoors during this pandemic. But what happens when home isn’t a safe place for some people? On this week’s episode of Southeast Asia Dispatches, membership engagement manager, Deborah Augustin looks at what happens when survivors of domestic abuse are forced to stay home with their abusers during a lockdown. She is joined by Tan Heang Lee, the Communications Officer of the Women's Aid Organization in Malaysia and Patricia Sue-Lin Knudsen, who is a co-producer and host of The Pool, a podcast series about and for domestic abuse survivors in Malaysia.
PJ Thum talks to two young Singaporean Climate Strikers about their strike, themselves, their activism, their goals, and their hopes for the future.
On this episode of Southeast Asia Dispatches: our Editor-in-Chief Aisyah Llewellyn talks to Effendy Aritonang, the National Director of Yayasan Fondasi Hidup - an Indonesian NGO based in Medan, North Sumatra. The foundation was created in Indonesia after the devastating 2004 tsunami, and today it works to address all forms of human poverty through education, healthcare and disaster risk reduction. As part of our Covid-19 coverage, Effendy talks to Aisyah about the work his foundation does and how you can help apply some of their methods to work in your local community.
Thum Ping Tjin talks to Tan Wah Piow about childhood, his time in the University of Singapore, his activism, his fraudulent conviction and the PAP government's attempted abuse of the National Service Act, his subsequent flight and exile from Singapore, all the people who helped him along the way, and his reflections on Singapore’s politics and political activism today.
In August 2018, Febriana Firdaus (via skype) and Thum Ping Tjin sat down with Benny Wenda to interview him about his life, his people's struggle for freedom, the Free West Papua Movement, and his hopes for the future.
A recording of a conversation between sociologist and author of This Is What Inequality Looks Like, Teo You Yenn, and New Naratif's Editor-in-Chief, Kirsten Han, about their writing process, and what it's like to do the work they do in Singapore.
Adam Bemma speaks to a Thai democracy and human rights activist about his arrest under the country’s lese majeste law and Victoria Milko looks at the difficulties of reporting on the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar and Bangladesh.
Dr PJ Thum discusses Singapore's economic model, in particular the impact of state and foreign capital, and domestic political competition, on economic strategy. Through this, he explains political, social, and economic control in Singapore, unpacks common myths and misunderstandings surrounding the country, and offers lessons for a post-Brexit Britain.
In Singapore, young people have stepped up to take action, whether it's pressuring their university to reform its sexual harassment policies, or take part in organising the country's first ever climate rally. What is the the role of youth activism in society? What is the state of student activism in Singapore?
