New Mandala

In this podcast we revisit Radio UNTAC. The podcast presents the work by the UN-established radio station in Phnom Penh and their role in informing millions of Cambodians en route to casting their ballot in the much-anticipated 1993 election to create a new internationally recognised government.

The Boundary of Our Rights, Radio UNTAC August 1993. សិទ្ធិមានត្រឹមណា by New Mandala

In this podcast episode (in Khmer), we dive deep into archives of the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia and its UNTAC Radio with selected key events on the promises and the challenges from the signing of the Paris Peace Agreement on October 23, 1991 to the UNTAC supervised general election in May 1993 and beyond. The episode reflects on the challenges of disarming four well-equipped conflicting military factions, combatting ethnic hate speech and responding to violence against ethnic Vietnamese, the return of Cambodian refugees, the pre-election inflammatory political rhetoric, and failed attempts at secession by CPP officials after electoral defeats.

Thailand has been in a deep political crisis since the royalist-military coup against the Thaksin government in 2006. A second coup, in 2014, ushered in a hard-line military dictatorship. The passing of King Bhumibol Adulyadej in 2016 and accession to the throne of his son and heir, King Vajiralongkorn, has further transformed Thailand's political landscape. When the military junta organized new elections in 2019, most Thais expected the military to engineer the military-backed party into government. What no-one expected was the remarkable electoral success of a new, liberal, progressive political party, Future Forward. But within two years the Constitutional Court had dissolved the party and banned its leadership from politics for ten years. Duncan McCargo and Anyarat Chattharakul have analysed the stunning rise and fall of this party in their co-authored book, Future Forward: The Rise and Fall of a Thai Political Party (NIAS Press, 2020).

U Dhammaloka is now the subject of a fascinating new book, The Irish Buddhist: The Forgotten Monk Who Faced Down the British Empire (Oxford University Press, 2020) cowritten by Alicia Turner, Laurence Cox, and Brian Bocking. Beyond the story of this intrepid Irishman, this book is also a social history of British Burma at the height of European imperialism.

Anyone who has taken any interest in the politics of Thailand at all in the last two decades could not help but have noticed the part that the country’s judiciary has played in them. Whereas before the 2000s the courts had at best a peripheral role in political life there, in recent years judges have at times weighed in dramatically on high-stakes conflicts. The causes and consequences of these judicial interventions are the subjects of a new book by Duncan McCargo, Fighting for Virtue: Justice and Politics in Thailand (Cornell University Press, 2019). McCargo sets as his task to explain who Thai judges are, how their minds work, and why they became so invested in politics from 2006 onwards. He critiques the courts in Thailand as suffering from what he calls hyperlegalism, while also offering sympathetic portraits of judges he met and observed at work. His abiding concern is with the relationship of the bench to the crown, and with how by taking a virtuous position in defence of the monarchy judges lost opportunities to contribute to a more progressive and just society. Duncan McCargo has also recently published Future Forward: The Rise and Fall of a Thai Political Party (NIAS Press, 2020), with Anyarat Chattarakul. Like this interview? If so you might also be interested in: Tyrell Haberkorn, In Plain Sight: Impunity and Human Rights in Thailand Samson Lim, Siam’s New Detectives: Visualizing Crime and Conspiracy in Modern Thailand Nick Cheesman is a Fellow in the Department of Political & Social Change, Australian National University. He co-hosts the New Books in Southeast Asian Studies channel and hosts the New Books in Interpretive Political & Social Science series on the New Books Network.

Singapore’s history has generally been represented through a linear, upward trajectory “from Third World to the First,” in the words of the postcolonial state’s founding father Lee Kuan Yew. In his book Singapore: A Modern History (Bloomsbury, 2020), Michael D. Barr synthesizes a story that complicates this progress narrative and critiques the foundational timeline of the state-sponsored history known as the ‘Singapore Story.’ At the center of the Singapore Story is modernization through good governance and outstanding leadership that set it apart from the rest of the region. This book re-positions Singapore’s history vis-à-vis peninsular Malaysia and the world, while re-considering its claims to exceptional governance. In this interview, we discuss the problematics of the “Singapore Story,” how we can reposition figures like Raffles and Lee Kuan Yew when we step back from a great man narrative, the relationship of colonialism with modernity, the elimination of the political left in Singapore and the prospects of sustaining a Singapore exceptionalism. Michael D. Barr is Associate Professor of International Studies at Flinders University in Australia. He was recently elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and is an associate editor of Asian Studies Review. Faizah Zakaria is an assistant professor of history at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. You can find her website at www.faizahzak.com or reach her on Twitter @laurelinarien.

The tail end of the twentieth century was a good time for constitutional lawyers. Leapfrogging around the globe, they offered advice on how to amend, write or rewrite one state constitution after the next following the collapse of the Soviet Union and with it, the communist bloc. Largely overlooked in the flurry of constitution drafting in this period, officials in Myanmar worked away on a new constitution without any experts from abroad—or, for that matter, many of those at home. Soldiers watched over them, dictating terms for what became the 2008 Constitution of Myanmar: the document that lays the parameters for formal political contestation and representation there today. As the country gets set to go to the polls in November 2020, in this episode of New Books in Southeast Asian Studies, Melissa Crouch discusses her The Constitution of Myanmar: A Contextual Analysis (Hart, 2019; shortlisted for the book award of the Australian Legal Research Awards), and with it, the constitutional drafting process, its output, and its implications for politics in Myanmar now and in the foreseeable future

Repost: Roman David and Ian Holliday join us on New Books in Southeast Asian Studies to talk about limited liberalism in Myanmar and beyond, about trust in government and the Coronavirus pandemic, prospects for transitional justice, and about doing survey and interview research on politics in Myanmar in the 2010s. Like this interview? If so you might also be interested in: • Astrid Noren-Nilsson, Cambodia’s Second Kingdom: Nation, Imagination and Democracy • Helen Rosenblatt, The Lost History of Liberalism: From Ancient Rome to the Twenty-First Century

In this last episode of the second series of Philippines beyond clichés, Associate Professor Nicole Curato talks to sociologist Dr Mary Racelis to unpack the idea that major cities like Manila should be decongested by moving the urban poor out and moving highrise developments and private capital in. Who has the right to live in the city and what role can facilitated community organisation that engages all residents of the city play in determining the shape and life of a the city?

In the penultimate episode of our second series, Dr Nicole Curato of UC's Centre for Participatory Democracy and Global Governance takes a look at a topic very close to her heart, when she talks to Dr Teresa Melgar about participatory governance. While the practice attract cynicism in many quarters, Dr Melgar's comparative sociological research in Porto Alegre in Brazil and Naga in the Philippines has helped to understand how local democracy unfolds in post-authoritarian settings, and the role that  institutionalising participatory processes can play in this.

In this fourth episode from New Mandala's second series of podcasts looking at the Philippines beyond the clichès, Associate Professor Nicole Curato from University of Canberra's Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance sits down with Wataru Kusaka to discuss the widespread notion that populist voters are deluded. Wataru Kusaka's extensive ethnographical work with urban poor communities has helped him develop an empathetic and deep understanding of their motivations. From this experience, Kusaka emphasises the importance of recognising populist voters as concrete individuals, rather than abstract others, in the pursuit of truly deliberative democracy.

Sara Davies joins us for a coronavirus pandemic special on New Books in Southeast Asian Studies to talk about health security and political sovereignty; the revised International Health Regulations; experiments with SARS and the avian influenza; surveillance of and reporting on contagious disease in Southeast Asia; democracy, transparency and trust in the wake of outbreaks; how endemic diseases risk being neglected and relatively unfunded in the wake of epidemics; and, the responses of China and Singapore to coronavirus, so far.

Ep3: Tambay by New Mandala

In this second episode of our second series of the Philippines beyond clichés, the topic of discussion is sexism. Is the Philippines a sexist society? Associate Professor Nicole Curato of the University of Canberra's Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance speaks with Dr Maria Tanyag,  a research fellow in the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, in order to unpack the complexities of this question. How can we "understand or disaggregate gender equality issues based on multiple overlapping issues of inequality based on class, religion, sexuality, ethnicity, and also geographic locations" and consider the potential of intersectionality across marginalised groups in Filipino society?

In this first episode in New Mandala's second podcast series Philippines beyond clichés, Associate Professor at Western Sydney University speaks to Nicole Curato from the University of Canberra about television entertainment and celebrity culture, revealing how this important field of study can tell us more about the perpetuation and performance of inequality, injustice and power dynamics in broader society.

Sumit K. Mandal, "Becoming Arab: Creole Histories and Modern Identity in the Malay World" by New Mandala

Reposting the February episode of the New Books in Southeast Asian Studies channel: In her book Sovereign Women in a Muslim Kingdom: The Sultanahs of Aceh, 1641-1699 (Cornell University Press, 2018), Sher Banu Khan provides a rare and empirically rich view of queenship in early modern maritime Southeast Asia. Four women ruled the Muslim realm of Aceh in succession during the second half of the seventeenth century. Their reign – with the acquiescence of the religious elite in the kingdom – was remarkable in a society where women were not seen as natural rulers, and where in more recent history, public leadership by women was discouraged. Writing against extant historiography that depicts this era as a period of decline, Khan argues instead that the queens of Aceh enabled diplomatic and trading networks to prosper and asserted Acehnese sovereignty in encounters with European powers. In our conversation, we discuss the challenges in multi-lingual archival work, how studying queens can help us to reframe the idea of decline, the gendering of authority and leadership as well as the place of female authority in the Muslim world. Sher Banu Khan is an associate professor of Malay Studies at the National University of Singapore. Faizah Zakaria is an Assistant Professor of History at Nanyang Technological University. She is completing her first monograph on dialectical relationships between landscape and religious conversions in maritime Southeast Asia. You can find her website here or on Twitter @laurelinarien

ANU's Prof Hall Hill interviews Thomas Lembong, chairman of Indonesia's Investment Coordination Board (BKPM). Recorded during the 2019 ANU Crawford Leadership Forum. Transcript available at www.newmandala.org/qa-thomas-lembong-on-indonesias-economy

New Mandala's Philippines editor Dr Nicole Curato speaks with Yves Aquino, a doctor and bioethicist who is completing his PhD in Department of Philosophy and the Research Centre for Agency, Values and Ethics, Macquarie University. They discuss the cliché that "in order to be beautiful in the Philippines, you have to look like Pia Wurtzbach".

New Mandala's Philippines editor Dr Nicole Durato speaks with ANU's Dr Hannah Bulloch about how her research on the island of Siquijor calls into question the cliché that Filipinos look to America for ideas about economic and social progress. Read Hannah Bulloch's "In Pursuit of Progress: Narratives of Development on a Philippine Island" (University of Hawai'i Press, 2017)https://www.uhpress.hawaii.edu/title/in-pursuit-of-progress-narratives-of-development-on-a-philippine-island/

"Whither academic freedom in Thailand? The criminal case against Dr Chayan and four others" Discussion recorded at the Australian National University, 23/8/2018. Speakers: Dr Craig Reynolds | Australian National University Dr Tyrell Haberkorn | University of Wisconsin-Madison Prof Anthony Connolly | Australian National University Chaired by: Dr Nick Cheesman | Australian National University This event was co-hosted by the Department of Political & Social Change, ANU College of Asia and the Pacific, and the Centre for International & Public Law, ANU College of Law. See also: Scholars at Risk—https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/

New Mandala's editor Liam Gammon talks to Assoc Prof Bridget Welsh about how the institutions Pakatan Harapan inherits from BN complicate reform efforts, and ANU's Dr Ross Tapsell talks to Prof Shamsul AB about the social and ideological constants that GE14 didn't change.

New Mandala's Philippines editor Dr Nicole Curato speaks with Dr Clarke Jones from the Australian National University (ANU) about what real-world effects the Philippines' "tough on crime" mentality has in the prison system. Clarke Jones is a criminologist based at the ANU's Research School of Psychology, specialising in ethnographic, longitudinal and participant observation research. As part of the Australian Intervention Support Hub, Dr Jones works closely with communities that are often marginalised, hard-to-access and at-risk. This includes terrorist offenders and prison gangs in the Philippines, as well as work with specific marginalised and vulnerable communities in Australia. He is the co-author along with Dr Raymund Narag of "Inmate Radicalisation and Recruitment in Prisons" (Routledge, 2018), which draws on their ethnographic research inside the Philippine prison system.

What's changed about how politics and policy are reported on after GE14? ANU's Dr Ross Tapsell talks with Boo Sy-Lyn (Twitter: @boosulyn) and Zurairi Abdul Rahman (Twitter: @zurairi , news editors and columnists at the Malay Mail. Podcast produced with the support of the Malaysia Institute at the ANU's College of Asia and the Pacific.

Part 1 of a new series of podcasts on post-GE14 Malaysia. New Mandala editor Liam Gammon talks to Prof Meredith Weiss about whether Malaysia is witnessing 'democratisation through elections', and ANU's Dr Ross Tapsell speaks with Dato' Ambiga Sreenevasan about how civil society can hold the new government to its promises of reform. This podcast is produced with the support of the Malaysia Institute at the Australian National University's College of Asia and the Pacific.

Our Philippines editor Dr Nicole Curato sits down with Assoc Prof Ronald Mendoza, Dean of the Ateneo School of Government, Ateneo de Manila University, to talk about the idea that political dynasties engender poverty in the Philippines. In the previous instalment in this series of podcasts, Nicole talked to Assoc Prof Jayeel Cornelio about what it means to label The Philippines as a 'Catholic Country': https://soundcloud.com/newmandala/the-philippines-beyond-cliches-catholicism-with-jayeel-cornelio

Our Philippines editor Dr Nicole Curato sits down with Assoc Prof Jayeel Cornelio from Ateneo de Manila University to scrutinise the idea that 'The Philippines is a Catholic country'.

Public Lecture | Australian National University | 21 May 2018 Assoc Prof Bridget Welsh, John Cabot University Photo: Lim Huey Teng, Malaysiakini

Panel discussion recorded at "Cambodia on the Brink: Towards the 2018 Elections", a public conference hosted on 9 March 2018 by the Australian National University's College of Asia and the Pacific with support from the Tifa Foundation. SPEAKERS Preap Kol | Executive Director, Transparency International Cambodia Julia Wallace | Journalist Billy Chia-Lung Tai | Human rights consultant MODERATOR Assoc Prof Sango Mahanty | Australian National University

As Malaysians head to the 14th General Elections (GE14), the stakes have seldom been higher. The nature of the nation is now fiercely contested. While many Malaysians see the GE14 election season as another fraught debate over the core economic issues of the cost of living, inflation, and health and education infrastructure, there are also renewed fissures over the roles of religion and culture in determining Malaysia in the 21st century. And all of these issues arising at a time of great uncertainty in the region, as China rises and the United States retreats. In this discussion, recorded at an ANU Malaysia Institute—New Mandala public forum in Kuala Lumpur on 8 February 2018, Merdeka Center’s Ibrahim Suffian, Universiti Malaya Professor Edmund Terence Gomez, Malaysia Muda convener and lawyer Fadiah Nadwa Fikri, and ANU historian Dr Amrita Malhi unravel some of these themes with the latest available data and analyses with New Mandala Contributing Editor Kean Wong. You can also listen to an interview with New Mandala's Kean Wong and ANU's Amrita Malhi on Malaysia's BFM radio: http://bit.ly/2Chzvx Follow @GE14NewMandala on Twitter for more updates on New Mandala's coverage of Malaysia's election season.

Panel discussion recorded at "Cambodia on the Brink: Towards the 2018 Elections", a public conference hosted on 9 March 2018 by the Australian National University's College of Asia and the Pacific with support from the Tifa Foundation. SPEAKERS Leng Thearith | Phd Candidate, UNSW @ ADFA Elaine Pearson | Australia Director, Human Rights Watch Prof Gareth Evans | Chancellor, Australian National University MODERATOR Aaron L. Connelly | East Asia Program, Lowy Institute