JUST-ISTAC first Annual Lecture series featuring pro-Palestine Israeli historian, Prof Ilan Pappé. Prof Pappé outlined some of the biggest challenges and identified solutions to the Palestinian issue. One of it is of the need to change the language and the conversation. For example, the term "peace process".  For decades, the US has dominated the so-called "peace process" and talked about compromises and the need for both sides to "compromise", but Pappé argues that the framing of the issue is wrong. Peace process to Israel is colonisation by other means. And getting legitimacy without international rebuke. But what is the reality on the ground? Life became more difficult for the Palestinians after the "peace process". More Palestinian lands were grabbed, houses demolished, and more illegal Israeli settlements were built after the so-called peace process (the 1993 Oslo Accord). There is no peace process between a coloniser and the colonised. ...

ISTAC Special Forum: Panglima Awang@Enrique de Malacca September 2019 is a significant moment in the history of global circumnavigation. It marks the 500th anniversary of Ferdinand Magellan's first circumnavigation of the earth expedition (1519), which was also participated by his right hand man cum navigator and interpreter, Enrique@Henry the Black@Panglima Awang - the famous Malay slave taken from Melaka  (Some claimed that Awang was from Sumatra, but most authoritative sources agreed that he was a native of Melaka). Some historical context or prelude to the mission: 1492 marked the end of the Muslim rule in Spain. This soon led to the Treaty of Tordesillas which literally divided the world into two; Portuguese and Spanish (The other expedition was led by Columbus, who "founded" the "New World").  20 years later, Melaka fell to the Portuguese colonisers in 1511. A few years later Awang (his real name is unknown. Awang is regarded as a common Malay na...

According to latest polls by CSIS and Litbang Kompas (via Jakarta Post), Joko Widodo or "Jokowi" is currently leading Prabowo Subianto by 9 percentage points and he looks almost certain to be reelected as president - unless some miracle happens. Here's a rough guide or a simple breakdown of the voting pattern across Indonesia's major provinces and islands. This is by no means a perfect generalisation of the Indonesian election, but I just thought it would be interesting to dissect the voting pattern.  Some groups are not included as their political inclination vary according to religious identity e.g. the Muslim Moluccans overwhelmingly voted for Prabowo while the Christian Moluccans voted for Jokowi. For Jokowi: The Javanese, Balinese, Bataks, Dayaks, Papuans, Lampungese, Minahasans, Flores For Prabowo: the Acehnese, Minangs, Malays, Sundanese, Bantenese, Buginese, Banjarese, Gorontaloan . (Pic: Prabowo won in West Java) #pilpres2019

There is a famous saying that the oldest profession in the world after prostitution is spying and espionage. The traditional idea of spying is basically to steal secret information and bring it home to your national spy agency. The internet has fundamentally changed that.  Julian Assange's Wikileaks is like James Bond but with a twist - he dumped all of the stolen secret/classified information on his Wikileaks website for a global audience. So finally, after "hiding" for nearly 7 years in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, Julian Assange, the self-declared "information anarchist", widely described by the media establishment as a narcissist, was arrested.  Whatever your views about Assange or Wikileaks, the fact is that he and his Wikileaks outfit have succeeded in exposing the US war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan, exposing gigabytes of diplomatic cables documenting thousands of reports/diplomats' conversations, which amongst others confirmed and reaf...

Here's an excerpt from my upcoming book chapter on Media and GE14 (14th General Election). The gist of the chapter is basically in the final paragraph. -- GE14 was reportedly to have scored a series of records in the history of Malaysian election, such as the first ever electoral win by the opposition, the oldest Prime Minister elected – and re-elected – into office, the first woman Deputy Prime Minister and the youngest cabinet minister. Apart from that, the other record was the rise of opinion polling and political forecasting “industry”. Unlike the United States, where one can easily find dozens of opinion polling results and forecasts by the media and research institutions, the trend of conducting opinion polls during election picked up rather late in Malaysia or that some of the polling conducted were only meant for internal consumption, such as those prepared by government agencies and political parties. According to Malaysia’s leading scholar in public opin...

This is an excerpt from the dean's speech which I have prepared during the MedCom 2018 conference in Bangkok, Thailand. --- Navigating the Opportunities and Challenges of Communication Technologies in the Century of the 4th Industrial Revolution John Culkin, a contemporary of the great communication scholar Marshall McLuhan, was once famously quoted saying, “we shape our tools and, thereafter, our tools shape us” (1967). Nothing is truer than that. We are living in an interesting period of time in the course of our human civilisation: a period of accelerating technological change, where a lot of revolutionary changes are rapidly taking place driven largely by information and communication technologies. And they in turn have produced tremendous amount of effects within our society today; from the way we consume our news and information, the way we connect and communicate with our families and friends, to the way we work, shop and play; communication technologies have fundam...

Apart from books and coffee, I'm also quite a fan of maps. I grew up with a world map up on my bedroom wall. So it came naturally that I enjoyed and aced Geografi in school. But this map is a special one. It is not just a map, but a reminder. A reminder of the longest illegal occupation and subjugation of an entire group of people in modern history. A reminder of 'Al Nakba' or the depopulation (read: ethnic cleansing) of Palestinians from their towns and villages in 1948, followed by the occupation of East Jerusalem, West Bank and Gaza in 1967, until today. Donald Trump's latest decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel would only make things worse for peace and stability. I mean things are already bad for the Palestinians. How long should the Palestinians be expected to live under the Israeli Military Occupation? Can we have a timeframe, at least? Or alternatively, can the Palestinians be given Israeli citizenship? Unfortunately, Israel is onl...