Mong has been a blogger since 2004. He is a youth activist and Member of Philippine Parliament representing Kabataan Partylist.
Part 1: Politics and immorality in Southeast Asia written for The Diplomat South-east Asian governments are increasingly censoring ‘immoral’ web content. Do they have political motivations as well? Last February, the Indonesian government dropped plans to filter ‘bad’ content through its Multimedia Content Screening team after the plan met with strong public opposition. Yet, undeterred, [...]
…written for The Diplomat. The Red Shirts’ campaign to force the resignation of Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva got as bloody as it could last month—what could be bloodier than protesters donating 1000 litres of their own blood to splatter on government offices? The protests, by the United Front of Democracy Against Dictatorship, established protest [...]
I’ve written several articles for The Diplomat about the Philippine 2010 elections. Some of them have been reposted in this blog. In the past week, I submitted these short election updates: 1. So Far, Not so Bad 2. Disenfranchised Voters 3. Philippine Elections: The Good, the Bad, and the Funny 4. Replace or Retain Voting [...]
Prita Mulyasari is a 32-year-old mother of two from Indonesia who was recently acquitted of defamation charges filed by the management of a private hospital. The defamation suit was a reaction to an e-mail complaint sent by Prita to her friends and relatives about the bad service she received at Omni International Hospital in Tangerang. [...]
“Immoral” rock concerts were banned in Malaysia. An “immoral” gay group was disqualified from participating in the Philippine elections. Immorality was blamed for the natural disasters that hit Indonesia this year. It seems public authorities are playing the morality card to uphold the dominant social order in many Southeast Asian countries. To protect the morals [...]
Due to its size and location, Singapore sources about half of its water supply from its neighbor Malaysia. It has two major water agreements with Malaysia. The 1961 agreement provides for the selling of 350 million gallons of raw water daily at 3 Malaysian cents per 1,000 gallons. In return, Singapore had agreed to provide [...]
Myanmar’s ruling junta may be the ultimate bad boy in Southeast Asia, but the stubborn attitude of the junta is not always the primordial cause of friction in the region. If achieving unity within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations is almost impossible, Myanmar should not get all the blame. Also worthy of disgust and [...]
