Inside Asia – CAD Podcasts (Archive)
Episode 2023.10 - Inside the 2024 Bangladesh Election
Drs. Shahab Enam Khan and Geoffrey Macdonald join the pod to spotlight the stakes of Bangladesh's upcoming January 2024 election. It is a tense pre-election period, with the primary opposition party vowing a boycott over allegations of electoral manipulation on the part of the incumbent Awami League and some violence in the streets. What are the likely outcomes of this political strategy? And could political instability impact the country's economic growth and even levels of political violence? Khan and Macdonald set the stage for the coming key month in Bangladesh's politics.
Episode 2023.09 - Inside the Abe Assassination, Religion, and Japanese Politics
Dr. Levi McLaughlin joins the podcast to discuss how religion's role in Japanese politics factored into the 2022 assassination of Shinzo Abe. Grievances against a controversial religious movement motivated Abe's assassin, and subsequent legal fallout. McLaughlin discusses how the killing prompted public outcry about close relationships between political parties and various religious movements in the country, including ongoing legal challenges facing the Unification Church in the country.
Episode 2023.08 - Inside Muslim Institutions and Indian Democracy
Dr. Taha Rauf joins the podcast to highlight the importance of local religious infrastructure in Indian democracy. Rauf is the new Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Asian Democracy, which he joined after recently completing his PhD at the University of Michigan. His research focuses on the religious institutions associated with India's ~200 million member Muslim minority. He contrasts the political and economic effects of Sufi Khanaqah's from those associated with local madrasas. Debates about religion in Indian politics frequently highlight national political leaders, but Rauf's research reminds us that all religious politics is local!
Episode 2023.07 - Inside Pakistan's 2024 Election
Dr. Niloufer Siddiqui joins the podcast to spotlight the stakes of Pakistan's recently announced January 2024 election. There is much uncertainty over the elections, most prominently the legal status of ousted populist leader Imran Khan. The country continues to confront a persistent economic crisis, and political violence remains a threat. Just before our taping, dozens died in terrorist attacks on religious observances in the country. Siddiqui helps make sense of the links between elections, violence and religion in the country.
Episode 2023.06 - Back Inside the Deterritorialized Tibetan Nation
Dr. Ishani Dasgupta, Andrew W. Mellon HILLS Postdoctoral Fellow in Anthropology at Case Western Reserve University, joins the podcast to update us on her recent fieldwork among Tibetan communities in India. Dasgupta recently completed her term as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Asian Democracy, which supported her Summer 2023 return to the field. The conversation covers political changes within the community since the Covid-19 pandemic, the impact of the China-India relationship on Tibetan politics, and how her book manuscript, tentatively titled Refugee Nation: Citizenship, Resistance, and the Deterritorialized Tibetan Polity, evolved during her year at CAD.
Episode 2023.05 - Inside the 2023 Thailand General Election
Dr. Janjira Sombatpoonsiri joins the podcast to give us the inside scoop on the dynamics shaping Thailand's upcoming election. On May 14, 2023, voters in Thailand head to the polls for national elections. These elections mark the latest stage in the country’s turbulent politics, pitting military allies against opposition parties, most prominently the Pheu Thai Party, linked to exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Newer parties, especially the Move Forward Party, will try to break through this polarization with appeals to urbanized, younger voters.
Episode 2023.04 - Inside Lessons Learned from Democracy in Afghanistan
Jawad Patwal joins the podcast to reflect on the legacy of Afghanistan's period of democracy before the country's return to Taliban rule. Jawad Patwal was a Fulbright Scholar, and worked for a decade on democracy and governance in Afghanistan. This included staff work for a range of NGOs and international programs aiming to build good governance, rule of law, and gender equality in the country, as well as governmental work for the Office of the President and National Security Council.
Episode 2023.03 - Inside Digital Repression in Asia
Steven Feldstein, the winner of the 2023 Grawemeyer Award for World Order, joins the Inside Asia Podcast to discuss his book The Rise of Digital Repression: How Technology is Reshaping Power, Politics, and Resistance. Feldstein is a former State Department official, and currently Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. In The Rise of Digital Repression, Feldstein documents how advanced digital tools bring new dimensions to political repression. This episode focuses on Asian cases in his research, especially Thailand, the Philippines, and China. The conversation also touches on the Biden Administration's Summit for Democracy, which was in progress while we spoke.
Episode 2023.02 - Inside the 2022 Malaysia General Election
In late November 2022, Malaysia held its general election. The landmark result brought longtime opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim to power, although leading a complex coalition. Dr. Meredith Weiss of SUNY-Albany discusses what happened on election day, and the result's implications throughout the region.
Episode 2023.01 - Inside China's 2022 Protests
In late November 2022, a deadly apartment fire in China’s Xinjiang province touched off contentious protests throughout the country, focusing primarily on China’s continued COVID-19 lockdowns. Dr. Darren Byler, Assistant Professor of International Studies at Simon Fraser University, joins the podcast to discuss the protest dynamics and governmental response. We discuss the intersection of ethnicity with protest, the role of technology in the protests’ spread, and the implications of this episode for the broader stability of Communist Party rule.
Episode 2022.4 - Inside Taiwan's Local Elections
On November 26, 2022, Taiwan held local elections commonly referred to as its "midterms." Dr. Kharis Templeman of the Project on Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific at Stanford University's Hoover Institution joins the podcast to explain the results. We discuss the implications for the balance between the governing DPP and the opposition KMT, the country's rejection of an amendment to lower the voting age, and the implications for cross-strait relations.
Episode 2022.3 - Inside the Nepal Election
On November 20, 2022, Nepal will hold its national election. Dr. Jeevan Sharma, Director of the Centre of South Asian Studies at the University of St. Andrews, joins the podcast to talk about the stakes of this race. We discuss the fragmentation of Marxist parties in the country, the role of Hindu nationalism, the consolidation of democratic institutions under the country’s new constitution, and the politics of gender and affirmative action.
Episode 2022.2 - Inside Online Historical Memory in the Philippines
The Center for Asian Democracy hosted Prof. Sheila Coronel for our Annual Lecture. Prof. Sheila Coronel is the Director, Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism at the Columbia University School of Journalism. Coronel addresses the recent election of Ferdinand "Bongbong" Romualdez Marcos Jr., and what that means for the Philippines, and democracy, disinformation and the struggle for historical memory across Asia and around the world.
Episode 2022.1 - Inside the Deterritorialized Tibetan Nation
CAD’s newest Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr. Ishani Dasgupta, joins us to discuss democracy, citizenship, and refugee status among the transnational Tibetan community.
Inside Asia Talking Politics #1 - Talking the UK/Brexit Vote
University of Louisville Political Science Department professors, Dr. Jason Abbott, Dr. Andrew MacDonald, and Dr. Tim Weaver discuss the recent vote in the UK to exit the European Union.
Inside Asia Number 13 -- Inside the recent Philippine election
On Monday May 9th a record 40 million Filipinos went to the polls in elections to determine the Presidency, Vice Presidency, the Senate and Congress. The results were a blow to the country’s ruling elite as maverick independent Rodrigo Duterte defeated his closest rival by over 6 million votes. Dubbed ‘the Punisher’ Duterte has pledged to introduce the controversial death squads that he used to reduce crime when mayor of the city of Davao nationwide vowing to kills tens of thousands of criminals. Many have pointed to the similarities between Duterte and the candidacy of Donald Trump in the United States Presidential election. Duterte like Trump has won support with his populist appeal and tough-talking, foul-mouth tirades against his opponents. Duterte even attacked Pope Francis in a country that remains staunchly Catholic. Joining me to discuss these election results and their significance is Professor David Buckley, the Paul Weber Chair in Politics, Science and Religion and specialist in Filipino politics.
Inside Asia Number 11 -- Inside March Madness Meets Asian Democracy
What do you get when you cross Asia-Pacific Democracy with March Madness? You get the Asia-Pacific Democracy Tournament 2016. Once again we’ve got a full bracket of 64 countries, using the widest possible definition of Asia, and we’ll have you vote on the match-ups to see who is the most democratic -- and we’ll give you some good stories along the way about how democracy is working, or not, in some of these countries. Voting will begin soon, in the meantime, we’ve brought you a podcast to explain the method behind our madness.
Inside Asia Number 8 -- Inside the democracies of Malaysia and Singapore
With the world watching Myanmar's process of democratization with the elections in early Nov., Malaysia appears to be going in the opposite direction. Join us as we talk with Dr. Surain Subramaniam from UNC-Asheville about the current state of democracy in Malaysia and in Singapore.
Inside Asia Number 7 -- Inside the Actvism of Wai Wai Nu
Earlier this year a humanitarian crisis took place across Southeast Asia, as upwards of 25,000 Rohingya tried to escape from Burma by cramming onto boats bound for Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. The Rohingya are an ethnic group of some 1.3 million from Rakhine (Arakan) state in western Burma. Despite the fact that most Rohingya have lived in the country for generations the majority are denied citizenship and not recognized as one of the country’s official minorities. This crisis, however, was only the latest episode of ethnic violence in Myanmar. Since independence in 1948 Myanmar has been wracked by violence against the country’s myriad ethnic groups often resulting in civil conflict and insurgency. While the Rohingya crisis is the latest example of this there have been orchestrated campaigns against other groups including the Chin, the Kachin, the Karen, and the Shan.
One of the most vocal proponents of rights for the Rohingya during this recent crisis has been the 29-year-old activist Wai Wai Nu. Despite her relative youth, Wai Wai spent seven years in jail as a political prisoner in Burma’s infamous Insein prison between 2005 and 2012. Her crime was that her father was Kyaw Min, a member of the Committee Representing the People's Parliament, a group of MP-elects from the 1990 vote led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. In a closed trial Wai Wai’s father was sentenced to 47 years in jail, while Wai Wai herself received 17 years. Released in 2012 as part of the prisoner release program that accompanied the beginnings of reform in Burma Wai Wai founded the Women's Peace Network Arakan, to promote better understanding between Burma’s ethnic groups and Justice for Women, a network of female lawyers providing legal aid for the women of Burma.
Inside Asia Number 6 -- Inside Louisville's Asia Institute-Crane House
Bryan Warren is the Executive Director of Louisville’s Asia Institute-Crane House (AICH), an organization that promotes understanding of Asian culture and heritage through education, outreach, and the arts. In this week’s Inside Asia, we talk with Bryan about the Asian population in Louisville, about the inspiration of AICH’s founder Helen Lang, the programs of his organizations, and some of his favorite exhibits they’ve had there recently, including our collaboration showing the cartoons of Malaysian political cartoonist Zunar.
Inside Asia Number 5 -- Inside the Rohingya Refugee Crisis, Part 2
In September 2007 Alex Bookbinder set up a Facebook page to coordinate support for the Buddhist monks in Burma who had begun to protest against the regime. That group would grow exponentially over the next few weeks and become the principal platform for the coordination of an international day of protest in over 27 countries worldwide. Five years later Alex returned to Burma as a freelance journalist where he has written for a variety of media outlets on the political changes underway in the country. Most recently he has turned his focus to the plight of the Rohingya minority and visited the internal displacement camps to which over 160,000 have either fled or been relocated. In today’s Inside Asia I talk to Alex about what he found in those camps and following on from the previous episode’s interview with Mark Farmaner discuss with him his analysis of this ongoing human tragedy.
Inside Asia Number 4 -- Inside the Rohingya Refugee Crisis
Over the past few weeks a humanitarian crisis has taken place across Southeast Asia as upwards of 25,000 Rohingya have tried to escape from Burma by cramming onto boats bound for Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. So far at least 300 have died in these crossings while recently discovered shallow graves in Malaysia and Thailand suggest many more have died at the hands of human traffickers. This crisis, however, is only the latest episode in what some have claimed is an orchestrated campaign of ethnic cleansing by the Burmese government against the country’s Muslim minority. Noticeable during this crisis, as well as during ethnic violence in 2012 and 2014, has been the failure of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi to condemn the repression. In this week’s Inside Asia we interview Mark Farmaner, director of the Burma Campaign Group UK to discuss these issues and more.
Inside Asia Number 3 -- Inside Indonesian social media and politics
According to a Pew study Indonesia has some of the highest levels of social media use in the world with more Indonesians using the Internet than listening to radio or reading newspapers. What are the social and political consequences of this and how are traditional media companies responding? To address these, and other questions, we are joined by Dr. Ross Tapsell (B.A. Sydney, PhD Wollongong) from the Australian National University.
Inside Asia Number 2 -- Inside Philippine democracy, the Catholic Church, and Manny Pacquiao
Manny Pacquiao is not just a boxing superstar but he is also an elected Congressman in the Philippine House of Representatives. Join UofL Political Science Professor David Buckley (B.A. Virginia, M.A. Queens University Belfast, PhD Georgetown) as he talks to CAD Director Jason Abbott about personality and populism in the Philippines, the role and influence of the Catholic Church and the prevalence of political violence.
Inside Asia Number 1 -- Inside the Chinese economy with Center for Asian Democracy Post-Doctoral Associate Dr. Andrew MacDonald
How big is the Chinese economy? Is it really the largest economy in the world today? Can China’s rapid economic growth continue unabated, and is the economy heading for a slow down? Join Andrew MacDonald (BA Stanford, DPhil Oxon), Post-Doctoral Research Associate at our own Center for Asian Democracy, as he gives his thoughts on these an other questions to CAD Director Jason Abbott.