On Tuesday the 6th of December, the Centre for Southeast Asian Social Studies of Universitas Gadjah Mada (CESASS UGM) hosted Eliezar Inigo, a former interning student with qualifications and interests in history and applied linguistics. Discussion within the session centered on the most recent presidential election in the Philippines. The contentious nature of the election in terms of both democratic decline as well as the dubious credentials and lineage of the newly elect President Bongbong Marcus took centre stage. read more

Last Thursday (27/10), Center of South-East Asia Social Studies Universitas Gadjah Mada (CESASS UGM) held a sharing session with international student intern, Zacharie Nichols-Lang from Murdoch University, Australia. Attended by more than 10 people, Zac explained about “Australia, the Monarchy, and the Commonwealth,” where he underlined that after Queen Elizabeth II died, the discourse of shifting to a republican nation state is rising in Australia. 

Zac opened his presentation by explaining about Australia’s political system which is a combination of British Westminster and the United States of America’s influence. In addition, sharing a fun fact about Australian political culture, Zac also mentioned about “Democratic Snags” or “Democratic Sausages,” a sausage wrapped in a slice of bread that later will be given to every voter across Australia when it comes to national election day.  read more

On Tuesday (18/10), Center of SouthEast Asian Social Studies (CESASS) held a sharing session by buddy about Indonesian Fauna. This sharing session was attended by CESASS interns both local and russian. The sharing session was presented by Dinda Bariqul Zahfa and Lyska Coyoga as interns at CESASS. The material is divided into three parts such as; brief history and theories, each characteristic of fauna type along with an example, and their various habitats.

Dinda Bariqul as the first presenter explained the history of the distribution of fauna in Indonesia. The territory of Indonesia was not what it is now, but separated and united with other big continents, namely Eurasia (present-Asia) and Australia. This has an impact on living things, both flora and fauna in Indonesia, which have a high level of diversity. Alfred Russel Wallace made an imaginary line to separate fauna that have Asiatis and Australis types. Max Carl Wilhelm Weber then found that the central part of Indonesia had a special type of fauna and drew an imaginary line again to separate it from Asiatis and called it the “Transitional” area. read more

On Wednesday (09/21), the Center for Southeast Asian Social Studies at Gadjah Mada University (CESASS UGM) held an Indonesian student interns sharing session with Russia MGIMO student interns. In this session, Muhammad Nailul Fathul Wafiq (Universitas Islam Indonesia) and Farah Diana Patcha (Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta) as the International Relations students presented their knowledge about Indonesia’s Foreign Policy, including Indonesia’s role in ASEAN, to other interns. Both presenters shared their opinions and insights on Indonesia’s Foreign Policy, especially on Joko Widodo’s Presidency era. read more