New Mandala
@newmandala.bsky.social
A forum for anecdote, analysis and new perspectives on Southeast Asia since 2006. Want to contribute? See: https://www.newmandala.org/contributing-to-nm/
NEW 🇲🇾 Meredith Weiss reviews Ngu Ik Tien's new history of ethnic Chinese politics in Sarawak, highlighting how its focus on the co-evolution of natural resource industries and social institutions under colonialism help us understand the shape of the state's politics up to the present day.
Timber, tycoons and the making of Sarawak politics - New Mandala
A review of a compelling new political history
newmandala.org
NEW 🇲🇾 Meredith Weiss reviews Ngu Ik Tien's new history of ethnic Chinese politics in Sarawak, highlighting how its focus on the co-evolution of natural resource industries and social institutions under colonialism help us understand the shape of the state's politics up to the present day.
Timber, tycoons and the making of Sarawak politics - New Mandala
A review of a compelling new political history
newmandala.org
NEW 🇦🇺🇮🇩 As Australia counts the cost of a generation of neglect of Asian studies, ACICIS endures. Yet its prominence as a rare survivor of the 1990s "Asia literacy" project only highlights the deterioration of Asian language learning and Asian studies in Australian education since, writes Liam Prince
ACICIS from the Cold War to New Colombo Plan - New Mandala
Reflecting on 30 years of the program
newmandala.org
NEW 🇦🇺🇮🇩 Australia's 'Asia-literate' ambitions span 50+ years of reports, plans and funding bursts—yet study of Indonesia and Indonesian language has declined since the early 2000s. Kirrilee Hughes traces this history to show what makes ACICIS's in-country model a distinctive, enduring intervention.
ACICIS' place in Australia’s Asia literacy - New Mandala
A rare institutional legacy of Keating-era Asian studies
newmandala.org
NEW 🇻🇳 After 51 years in print, Vietnam's Người Lao động newspaper has closed—a casualty of state media recentralisation and the party-state's determination to assert political control as it pursues a new phase of private sector-led growth.
The end of an era for Vietnamese labour journalism - New Mandala
On the demise of Người Lao động
newmandala.org
NEW 🇮🇩 "Balancing the interests of a domestic constituency against the ideologies of foreign partners is the challenge the moderate Islam project has consistently failed to meet."
The backlash against NU’s religious diplomacy - New Mandala
The organisation’s ties with neocons and illiberals abroad angers the grassroots
newmandala.org
NEW 🇹🇭 We are pleased to share a Thai translation of Pasit Wongngamdee's recent essay on the not-so-successful propaganda efforts being mounted under the Thailand's ROTC program.
ณ จุดปะทะทางอุดมการณ์: การปลูกฝังและการต่อต้านในหลักสูตรรักษาดินแดน - New Mandala
นี่คือการแปลบทความที่ตีพิมพ์เป็นภาษาอังกฤษดั้งเดิม
newmandala.org
NEW 🇹🇭 The incumbent’s lead in polling for Bangkok's gubernatorial election reflects a shift towards a local politics of relatively non-ideological managerialism, but there is still the chance of a protest vote against conservative ascendancy at the national level.
Bangkok’s election puts policy competence over ideological cleavages - New Mandala
Chadchart represents the gradual detachment of city politics from national divides
newmandala.org
NEW 🇹🇭 The incumbent’s lead in polling for Bangkok's gubernatorial election reflects a shift towards a local politics of relatively non-ideological managerialism, but there is still the chance of a protest vote against conservative ascendancy at the national level.
Bangkok’s election puts policy competence over ideological cleavages - New Mandala
Chadchart represents the gradual detachment of city politics from national divides
newmandala.org
NEW 🇹🇭 We are pleased to share a Thai translation of Pasit Wongngamdee's recent essay on the not-so-successful propaganda efforts being mounted under the Thailand's ROTC program.
ณ จุดปะทะทางอุดมการณ์: การปลูกฝังและการต่อต้านในหลักสูตรรักษาดินแดน - New Mandala
นี่คือการแปลบทความที่ตีพิมพ์เป็นภาษาอังกฤษดั้งเดิม
newmandala.org
20 years ago today New Mandala published for the first time. Here, the site's current and former editors reflect on what it has achieved, and offer their thanks to those who have had a hand in bringing it to this very special milestone.
20 years of New Mandala - New Mandala
Editors 2006–2026 reflect on the site's importance
newmandala.org
20 years ago today New Mandala published for the first time. Here, the site's current and former editors reflect on what it has achieved, and offer their thanks to those who have had a hand in bringing it to this very special milestone.
20 years of New Mandala - New Mandala
Editors 2006–2026 reflect on the site's importance
newmandala.org
NEW 🇰🇭🇹🇭 Thailand tried to use economic leverage against Cambodia during the 2025 border conflict, but it didn't have its intended impacts. The episode provides a case study in the limits of "geoeconomics" in Southeast Asia.
Cambodia–Thailand economic conflict and the limits of geoeconomics in Southeast Asia - New Mandala
The decline of dependency
newmandala.org
NEW 🇸🇬 via AcademiaSG: By trying to protect Lee Kuan Yew from critical scrutiny, a new exhibition on Singapore's fraught path to independence offers a comforting story instead of an educational one where power, fear race, ambition, and moral compromise led to Singapore's exit from Malaysia.
Singapore’s Albatross File Exhibition is bad history that diminishes Lee Kuan Yew - New Mandala
Comfort trumps scrutiny
newmandala.org
NEW 🇸🇬 via AcademiaSG: By trying to protect Lee Kuan Yew from critical scrutiny, a new exhibition on Singapore's fraught path to independence offers a comforting story instead of an educational one where power, fear race, ambition, and moral compromise led to Singapore's exit from Malaysia.
Singapore’s Albatross File Exhibition is bad history that diminishes Lee Kuan Yew - New Mandala
Comfort trumps scrutiny
newmandala.org
NEW 🇹🇭 Interviews with students and educators show how the conservative indoctrination effort that has become an increasingly key part of Thailand's ROTC program is undermined from within by apathy and quiet defiance.
At the coalface of military indoctrination: the Thai ROTC - New Mandala
Propaganda versus apathy, defiance
newmandala.org
NEW 🇹🇭 Interviews with students and educators show how the conservative indoctrination effort that has become an increasingly key part of Thailand's ROTC program is undermined from within by apathy and quiet defiance.
At the coalface of military indoctrination: the Thai ROTC - New Mandala
Propaganda versus apathy, defiance
newmandala.org
NEW 🇮🇩 The trial of Nadiem Makarim shows how Indonesia's broadly worded anti-corruption laws are facilitating arbitrary prosecutions by increasingly politicised law enforcement agencies, write Simon Butt and Tim Lindsey.
The Nadiem trial and Indonesia’s “rubber” anti-corruption laws - New Mandala
Loose definitions aid questionable prosecutions
newmandala.org
NEW 🇹🇱 24 years since Timor-Leste's independence, the legacies of the resistance against Indonesian occupation in some ways pose challenges for the women’s movement, in the form of a a patriarchal political scene, donor dependency, and deep intergenerational divides.
The Timorese women’s movement continues the struggle - New Mandala
Confronting patriarchs, donors, and generational divides
newmandala.org
NEW 🇮🇩 Teuku Reza Fadeli's doctoral research examined how colonial-era Southeast Asians navigated commercial spaces crafted to convey Western superiority. Consumer markets emerge as "places where people learn, perform, contest, and sometimes refuse the terms on which modern life is offered to them."
Buying, boycotting, and the politics of modernity - New Mandala
Nationalism and consumer culture in colonial Southeast Asia
newmandala.org
NEW 🇮🇩 The trial of Nadiem Makarim shows how Indonesia's broadly worded anti-corruption laws are facilitating arbitrary prosecutions by increasingly politicised law enforcement agencies, write Simon Butt and Tim Lindsey.
The Nadiem trial and Indonesia’s “rubber” anti-corruption laws - New Mandala
Loose definitions aid questionable prosecutions
newmandala.org
NEW 🇹🇱 24 years since Timor-Leste's independence, the legacies of the resistance against Indonesian occupation in some ways pose challenges for the women’s movement, in the form of a a patriarchal political scene, donor dependency, and deep intergenerational divides.
The Timorese women’s movement continues the struggle - New Mandala
Confronting patriarchs, donors, and generational divides
newmandala.org
NEW 🇮🇩 Teuku Reza Fadeli's doctoral research examined how colonial-era Southeast Asians navigated commercial spaces crafted to convey Western superiority. Consumer markets emerge as "places where people learn, perform, contest, and sometimes refuse the terms on which modern life is offered to them."
Buying, boycotting, and the politics of modernity - New Mandala
Nationalism and consumer culture in colonial Southeast Asia
newmandala.org
NEW: Through contemporary artworks and a chance encounter in the Singapore Art Museum, Lukas Fort reflects on how Singapore’s commitment to renewal shapes its cityscape, its visions of youth and ageing, and everyday engagements with technology. www.newmandala.org/city-of-rene...
City of renewal - New Mandala
Notes from the temporary Singapore Art Museum
newmandala.org
OBITUARY: "Vince Rafael exemplified the onset of a long overdue shift in the intellectual centre of gravity in Southeast Asian Studies to new generations of scholars hailing from the region...his work was distinctive in its close attention to identity, ideology, and experience."
Vicente L. Rafael (1956–2026) in memoriam - New Mandala
John Sidel honours his contributions to the study of Southeast Asia
newmandala.org
NEW: Through contemporary artworks and a chance encounter in the Singapore Art Museum, Lukas Fort reflects on how Singapore’s commitment to renewal shapes its cityscape, its visions of youth and ageing, and everyday engagements with technology. www.newmandala.org/city-of-rene...
City of renewal - New Mandala
Notes from the temporary Singapore Art Museum
newmandala.org
OBITUARY: "Vince Rafael exemplified the onset of a long overdue shift in the intellectual centre of gravity in Southeast Asian Studies to new generations of scholars hailing from the region...his work was distinctive in its close attention to identity, ideology, and experience."
Vicente L. Rafael (1956–2026) in memoriam - New Mandala
John Sidel honours his contributions to the study of Southeast Asia
newmandala.org
NEW 🇲🇲 Long before today's post-coup economic crisis examples of Myanmar's rich artistic heritage were already being looted, copied and sold to foreign buyers. Today's market in fake antiquities, gemstones and paintings is simply the latest chapter in a tradition of creative deception.
Buyer beware: fakes, forgeries and fraudsters in Myanmar - New Mandala
A thriving market in counterfeit art and gems
newmandala.org
NEW 🇮🇩 The Netherlands has returned a Qur'an taken from the house of Acehnese resistance leader Cut Nyak Dhien in 1896—but to Jakarta, not Aceh, and under her husband Teuku Umar’s name. The gendered absence built into colonial record-keeping lives on in the efforts to return colonial loot.
Returned, but not home: Teuku Umar’s Qur’an - New Mandala
On the unfinished business of restitution
newmandala.org
NEW 🇮🇩 The Netherlands has returned a Qur'an taken from the house of Acehnese resistance leader Cut Nyak Dhien in 1896—but to Jakarta, not Aceh, and under her husband Teuku Umar’s name. The gendered absence built into colonial record-keeping lives on in the efforts to return colonial loot.
Returned, but not home: Teuku Umar’s Qur’an - New Mandala
On the unfinished business of restitution
newmandala.org