Cambodia’s Schools Reopened, but Rural Students Stay at Work
After COVID-19 closed Cambodia’s schools on and off for nearly two years, some students in the nation’s countryside were forced to find work to help their families through the pandemic. Now that schools have reopened, some may never step into a classroom again.
LATEST
Max Loh on the Unseen Labour of Comics
Two comic artists discuss the unseen work that goes into non-fiction comics, what it should be worth, and how comics are more than the sum of text and image.
Under-Protected Abroad, Domestic Workers Find Ways to Resist
Southeast Asian domestic labourers often migrate to wealthier countries where they are excluded from labour protections and left vulnerable to abuse. While COVID-19 has made labour conditions worse, some migrant workers have found their own ways to resist.
“Save Nagaenthran”: Advocates Call for Death Sentence Pardon in Singapore
PJ Thum speaks to activists Emmy Charissa, Kokila Annamalai and Mila Rockey—sister of death row prisoner Syed Suhail—about Nagaenthran K Dharmalingam’s case, the courts’ failure to accommodate his disabilities and the death penalty in Singapore.
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.
TOPICS
- Freedom of Expression
- LGBTQIA+
- Human Rights and Freedom from Tyranny
- Transparency and Accountability
- Freedom of Association
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FEATURES >
After Reporting Rape of Her Kids, Indonesian Mother Branded “Delusional”
A mother reported to Indonesian authorities that her civil servant ex-husband had raped their three children. After a two-month investigation, East Luwu Police dismissed her claims, and evidence of a possible crime. Instead, authorities found her “delusional”.
Her Name Is Untac: UN Peacekeepers’ Forgotten Children in Cambodia
Thirty years ago, a peace treaty officially ended the war in Cambodia and brought thousands of United Nations peacekeepers to the country. The now adult children they fathered and abandoned still face poverty, discrimination and family strains.
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.
COMICS >
Growing Together: A Guide to Collective Care
In the struggle for equality and justice, collective care among peers can save lives and make our activism work more sustainable.
RESEARCH >
The False Scarcity in Singapore’s Meritocracy
Meritocracy is marketed as a system for the management of scarce resources but is in fact the imposition and justification for scarcity. This article examines university education in Singapore as the prime site for the production of meritocratic ideology and considers the consequences more generally on the Singapore polity.
PODCASTS >
Can Malaysia’s Cycle of Statelessness Be Broken?
Deborah Augustin speaks to Haijan Omar, Dr. Vilashini Somiah and Wong Kueng Hui, one of the many stateless people in the Malaysian state of Sabah, about his decade-long legal battle to gain citizenship in Malaysia.
VIDEOS >
VIDEO: UN Peacekeepers’ Forgotten Children in Cambodia
Thirty years ago, a peace treaty officially ended the war in Cambodia and brought thousands of United Nations peacekeepers to the country. The now adult children they fathered and abandoned still face poverty, discrimination and family strains.
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.
As Cambodia Sheds Factory Jobs, Family Farms Lose a Lifeline
Hammered by years of debt, drought and desperation, Cambodia’s smallholder farmers have long supported themselves by sending family to work in Phnom Penh factories. But the pandemic has upended the arrangement, forcing unemployed workers back to failing farms.
Stateless Fishers Cast Out by Cambodia, Shut Out by Vietnam
Long marginalised and stateless, ethnic Vietnamese fishers in Cambodia have once again been evicted from their floating dwellings on Phnom Penh waterways. Now, hundreds have tried to migrate to Vietnam, but amid the pandemic, they have been left adrift.
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