Pasung is the traditional practice of dealing with people with psychological disorders, or those perceived as such. It consists of binding people, often with chains, and locking them in small rooms, cages or sheds. It can last anywhere from a few hours up to many years. Although it was banned in Indonesia in 1977, it is practiced to this day, especially in rural areas.

I must admit that when I heard about pasung for the first time I was quite shocked. It was the cruelty and callousness of people that struck me most. However, the documentary film Breaking the Chains, released in 2015, made me look at the issue from a wider perspective. Its creators did not focus on how brutal people who condemn their loved ones to such fate are, but rather showed how complex their situation is, that is how many elements affect the decision to take such a step. read more

One effort to develop the capacity and performance of an institution is to build cooperation with other institutions. This is also done by the Centre for Southeast Asian Social Studies (CESASS) UGM which started the cooperation with the Department of Southeast Asian Studies, Goethe Universität Frankfurt am Main (7/12/2017). Head of CESASS, Dr.phil. Hermin Indah Wahyuni accompanied by researcher of CESASS, Dr. Agus Suwignyo, Dr. phil. Vissia Ita Yulianto, Andi Awaluddin Fitrah, M.A., Aditya Indra Nugraha, S.Ant, and Fitri Handayani, S.I.P. met the Head of Department of Southeast Asian Studies of Goethe Universität Frankfurt am Main, Prof. Dr. Arndt Graf. read more

As a form of reciprocity towards the process of exchanging knowledge and joint publication, the research team of Centre for Southeast Asian Social Studies (CESASS) Universitas Gadjah Mada visited Germany from the 25th November 2017 till the 8th December 2017. The visit was a response visit, as 2 German professors had initially made a visit, Prof. Thomas Hanitzsch (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitӓt Müchen) and Prof. Judith Schlehe (Albert-Ludwigs University of Freiburg), whom were the visiting professors for the World Class Professor (WCP) program by Kemenristekdikti. read more

In the 12th Jogja-Netpac Asian Film Festival 2017, JAFF collaborated with Centre for Southeast Asian Social Studies (CESASS) Universitas Gadjah Mada to present the “Public Lecture” program. This year’s Public Lecture was special as it included research poster presentations regarding cinemas in Asia which was organized by CESASS UGM. The results, 9 presenters were chosen from Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines that took part in the event.

This Public Lecture program was conducted from the 4th till the 6th of December 2017, at the 2nd Floor Seminar Room in the UGM’s main library. Consisted of six sessions spread throughout the three-days event, which comprised of the; seminar, discussion, book launching, and research poster presentations. The themes discussed within the forum is in line with this year’s theme “Fluidity” taking the example of “Film and Art Performance”, “Indonesian Film Audience”, “Asia Pacific in the Digital World”, “Distribution and Film Funding”, “ASEAN Identity in the Short Films”, and discussion about the book of Film, Ideology and Military written by Budi Irwanto and Cultural Specificity in Indonesian Film: Unity in Diversity written by David Hanan read more

Indonesia is one of the many developing countries located in Southeast Asia. With the level of health, education and income that has not been said to be sufficiently good, the Indonesian people do not appear to have fallen living life as citizens of developing countries with many polemics which often arise from various aspects of life. Even in 2014, Indonesia’s happiness index rose with a considerable percentage difference for a period of one year.

Reporting from the website of the Central Statistics Agency [1], the significant increase in happiness index was 3.17 percent, where in 2013 Indonesia’s happiness index was 65.11 and in 2014 Indonesia’s happiness index rose to 68.28. Based on Dream.co.id’s online newspaper website [2], there is no mention of what percentage of the increase in happiness index of other countries, but with the presence of several countries, especially developed countries, which even fell in rank, the increase in numbers scored by Indonesia could be quite high. read more

Just as the rain stopped, Prof. Cherian George, a professor in the Communication Department in Hong Kong Baptist University, stepped into the office of Centre for Southeast Asian Social Studies (CESASS) Universitas Gadjah Mada (23/11/2017). This visit of a Singaporean Professor in Yogyakarta was as a speaker at the International Seminar on Social and Political Science (ISSOCP) 2017 which is part of the celebration of the 62nd Anniversary of Faculty of Social and Political Sciences (FISIPOL) Universitas Gadjah Mada at University Club UGM on the 23rd-24th November 2017. read more

Knowledge of all sort should not only be passed from universities to the public, but should too be shared between universities as so to learn from one another in order to enhance the capacity and capability as an institution. As the only leading center of excellence (Pusat Unggulan Ipteks Perguruan Tinggi – PUI-PT) in the aspect of social sciences, Centre of Southeast Asian Social Studies (CESASS) Universitas Gadjah Mada received a visit from a representative of Universitas Negeri Malang (UM), Mr. Arda Purnama Putra, M. Pd. The purpose of his visit to CESASS UGM is to study the management of PUI-PT. read more

Notwithstanding the constant efforts to tackle Trafficking in Persons, this form of modern slavery is still widespread in Southeast Asia where all the countries in the region are country of origin, destination or both. It is often argued that strategies to combat trafficking have been focusing more on law enforcement and assistance to victims rather than on prevention, hindering the ability of governments to have a significant impact on the issue. In order to eradicate Trafficking in Persons, a more comprehensive approach is needed and prevention strategies should be prioritised. read more

In the digital era, invasion of fake news and hoax are densely correlated with political interest which has caused uneasiness towards journalist scholars. At this time, the study of investigative journalism becomes suitable to be further discussed in order to asses the ability of the media to criticize in facing fake news and hoax which has spread widely in the media. Such circumstance has caused problem towards journalist activities in this Post-Truth era. Post-Truth era is a phase where the spread of news which seems true, yet it is actually not. In the year 2016, the term Post-Truth became the words of the year by Oxford Dictionary. read more

Our world has been greatly traumatized by war. The history of modernity has begun since the post-medieval era marked by colonialism and imperialism. Modernization of the concept of war itself was evident during the world war in the early 20th century, till the cold war in the year 1960. The word “war” becomes a specter that terrifies and concerns for it to not reoccur. Unfortunately, the rise of numbers of developed countries comes together with the production of nuclear weapons. With the purpose in maintaining security and sovereignty of their country, nuclear is seen as a solid ford to intimidate their counterpart. The matter that is becoming an alarming issue is the fact that nuclear testing program is taking place in countries beyond the territory of the country that created it, thus bringing upon immense damage towards the people within the host country of the testing program. read more