Southeast Asia Globe

In Vietnam, Harris must not ignore human rights for geopolitics

On Monday, August 23, US Vice President Kamala Harris started her diplomatic trip to Southeast Asia on a colourful note thanks to a bouquet of hybrid orchids presented as a gift from Singaporean dignitaries. The new variety of purple flowers was even named after the vice president, ...

CAROLYN NASH

Cambodia risks becoming a hub in the Mekong region’s thriving drug trade

Along Cambodia’s porous 435-kilometre coastline, three major ports support the lucrative shipping industry. Most shipping containers are coming to and from Bangkok and Singapore, but a more illicit business could soon have a major foothold – the region’s booming, multi-billion-dollar drug trade. On a daily basis, ...

JOHN WOJCIK

Thailand’s proposed NGO law will devastate civil society

In 2015, two years before the state-driven collapse of Cambodia’s political opposition, the national government dominated by the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) approved the Law on Associations and Non-Governmental Organisations (LANGO). When the law was first put forward in 2011, it was met with significant opposition, ...

MARK S. COGAN

COVID-19 As virus cases explode, why has the Mekong region success story ended?

Few outings to a nightclub can claim such dire consequences as the early-February gathering at N8, a windowless adult entertainment venue in an unsuspecting district of the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh. Two women, unwitting carriers of the more-infectious B.1.1.7 variant of Covid-19, also known as the ...

Alastair McCready, Wanpen Pajai, and Govi Snell

OPINION: A year since the transient worker Covid crisis: Lessons for Southeast Asia

April marked the one-year anniversary since most countries in the world went into some form of lockdown to curb the spread of Covid-19. The pandemic first and foremost has exposed gaps in current labour practices towards low-skilled transient (migrant) workers across Southeast Asia, particularly in Singapore, ...

FANZURA BANU AND SHEE SIEW YING

As journalists come under fire, Myanmar’s underground media grows

As dawn breaks over a crowded market in Yangon, a student strolls in, browsing casually through the stalls of vegetables, fruit, spices and fish. Picking up an onion to inspect the quality of the produce, he doesn’t stand out in the crowds of people. “One person ...

KIANA DUNCAN

Tech meets tradition: Can digital tools boost Cambodia’s informal workers?

At 62 years old Pak Chhen still rises early, often before the sun is up, to travel the rutted roads to Kampot’s sea salt farms, where she procures bulk packages of the product that is destined for markets across the southern province. And while at first ...

STEW POST

In Cambodia, this village shows even the wealthy are vulnerable to land grabbing

The river view behind the house was broad and serene, a wide expanse of the Mekong flowing just past the newly occupied villa. A pretty sight, and prime real estate too. So when the sand pumping crews showed up just after the housewarming party late last ...

ANDREW HAFFNER

Cambodian education in the time of Covid: Ripping up the textbook

Open, close, open, close – not the instructions for a particularly fiddly front door, rather it is the pattern that schools in Cambodia have followed as the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic continues to throw the system into limbo, forcing educators to rip up the textbook and adapt ...

ALEXI DEMETRIADI

The age of government (dis)information in Thailand

Social media giant Twitter last week blocked nearly one thousand accounts linked to the Royal Thai Army, which were in violation of its policies on manipulation of information. According to a statement released by Twitter, the accounts were “engaging in amplifying pro-RTA and pro-government content, as well ...

MARK S. COGAN

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