The Myanmar military’s rejection of a duly-elected parliament and their takeover of Yangon’s government in February has plunged the country into crisis, upending years of fragile, democratic reform. Meanwhile, the ASEAN community is once again challenged to respond. But what options do Southeast Asian governments have? And beyond the uncertainty ahead for Myanmar’s people and institutions, what implications might their neighbours’ concerns (or their potential non-intervention) have on ASEAN and its own aspirations?

On Friday, March 19, Asia Society Philippines will host an online forum to discuss these important questions. Esteemed Southeast Asian thinkers, including one of the leading figures for media reform in Myanmar, will comprise a panel that will delve deeper and wider into the nation’s crisis, and its regional implications.

The discussions will be moderated by award-winning Filipino journalist, Roby Alampay, who was formerly executive director of the Bangkok-based Southeast Asian Press Alliance. An Asia Society Asia 21 Young Leader, Mr. Alampay will be facilitating insights from the confirmed  speakers:

Debbie Stothard is the coordinator of the Alternative ASEAN Network (ALTSEAN) on Burma and the Secretary-General of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH).  She is a pro-democracy human rights defender who has been organizing advocacy meetings and campaigns on human rights in Myanmar and other ASEAN countries for more than 30 years.  ALTSEAN Burma is a network of organisations working towards the strengthening of human rights, with a focus on women’s rights business and human rights, democracy and atrocity prevention in Southeast Asia.

Soe Myint, the founder and editor of Mizzima, one of the leading independent news organizations in Myanmar. In 2012, Soe Myint returned to Myanmar, after nearly two decades of exile in Thailand and India. He founded and ran Mizzima as an exile news organization operating out of Kolkata and Chiang Mai, until less than a decade ago, he deemed it safe enough to relocate himself, and re-establish Mizzima, in Yangon.  Today – or at least until the recent coup – Mizzima reached 20 million people, offering a digital newspaper, a weekly business magazine, websites in English and Burmese, and programmes on Mynmar Radio and TV. Their license to broadcast and publish in Myanmar have since been restricted by the military.

Thitinan Pongsudhirak is Professor and Director of the Institute of Security and International Studies at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University. He attended high school and university in California, and completed his post-graduate studies at Johns Hopkins University and the London School of Economics where his PhD was the best UK dissertation in 2002. He has authored articles, books, book chapters and over 1,000 op-eds in mass media such as The Bangkok Post, The Straits Times and Nikkei Asian Review. His sought-after views have appeared in international media including CNN, BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Aljazeera, and others. Thitinan has held visiting positions at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, Stanford University, Yangon University, Victoria University in New Zealand, among others, and serves on several editorial boards of academic journals. Dr. Thitinan is also an Asia Society Asia 21 Young Leader. 

Read some of Prof. Pongsudhirak's opinion pieces: 

1. Myanmar takes lead in autocratic race featured on the Bangkok Post

2. Asean's declining common denominator featured on the Bangkok Post

3. Myanmar coup: Asean's new faultline featured on the Bangkok Post

4. Myanmar coup poses many dilemmas featured on the Bangkok Post

5. South-east Asia's two coups and one-party regimes featured on the Straits Times

6. Who's culpable for Myanmar's coup? featured on the Bangkok Post

7. Myanmar's military will struggle to hold on to power featured on Nikkei Asia

The discussion will be open for the public on Asia Society Philippines’ Facebook on 19 March 2021 at 11 AM (PHT)