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By Andrew Haffner • May 21, 2020
Southeast Asia's booming narcotics industry has only been given a helping hand in recent months as governments turn their attention to combating Covid-19. With prices dropping and potency rising, the drug trade could be set to hit the region harder than ever
By Alexi Demetriadi • May 20, 2020
In the Philippines, the future of ABS-CBN remains uncertain as a decision on whether to allow it to return to air meanders through the nation's political system. But in the newsroom, one of the network's few branches still operating, news chief Ging Reyes says there is a renewed drive and energy
By Alexi Demetriadi • May 15, 2020
In keeping with ASEAN's recent history of divided responses to regionally important issues, the bloc's collective efforts to combat Covid-19 have proved far from unified. But an institution in which individual members are placed above the collective, should observers have anticipated any different?
By Andrew Haffner • May 14, 2020
In 2017 Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen announced a crackdown on narcotics in the Kingdom. Three years on, rights group Amnesty International says the campaign has been a failure, resulting in rampant rights abuses and overcrowded prisons
With the closure of the Philippines largest television network ABS-CBN this week, press freedom looks at its weakest since the Marcos era. Dr Tom Smith argues that the move has merely cemented what many suspected – Rodrigo Duterte has embraced dictatorship
By Tom Smith • May 07, 2020
As we mark World Press Freedom Day 2020, the world's media outlets are struggling under the pressure of Covid-19 crackdowns. But while the tools available to censors have never been so great, the same is true of the innovative tools available to circumvent them
By Miriam Deprez • May 04, 2020
Dams, economic interests and political power are just some of the factors contributing to the over-exploitation of the mighty Mekong. With several competing transnational bodies established to oversee its development, will any of them halt the river’s decline?
By Andrew Haffner • Apr 23, 2020
With Covid-19, errors have been made in the public health responses of many countries. Darshan Joshi of Malaysian think-tank REFSA argues that if past failures on climate change and inequality are any indication of what is to come, we might be in a lot of trouble
By Darshan Joshi • Apr 22, 2020
In Thailand, the ruling monarchy has long been protected by some of the harshest lèse-majesté laws in the world. But the behaviour of the controversial King Maha Vajiralongkorn during the pandemic has opened him up to a flurry of online backlash
By Sarah Kim • Apr 21, 2020
In Cambodia, a recently passed bill has handed the government the ability to enact sweeping emergency powers during times of crisis. Is this simply a necessary move to combat the pandemic, or are fundamental human rights under threat?
By Alexi Demetriadi • Apr 18, 2020
Covid-19 is perhaps the most politicised virus in human history, and in Indonesia it's no different. Political analyst Yohanes Sulaiman explains how President Jokowi's economic aspirations, combined with opposition scheming, have resulted in a weak response to the crisis
By Yohanes Sulaiman • Apr 10, 2020
Five years ago on March 23, Singapore's former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew passed away at the age of 91. Professor Michael Barr discusses the enduring legacy of the city-state's founding father
By Michael Barr • Mar 23, 2020