On 9th February, 2023, an intern, Yumna Amalia Maghfirah, presented about the Philippines Beauty Pageant industry and how it helps the country itself diplomatically and economically, and how the Filipinos support the beauty pageants. SEA CHAT #38 was attended by 13 Indonesian interns and 3 international interns from Myanmar and the Philippines. 

The speaker started the presentation by explaining how the beauty pageant emerged from the ancient Greek and 19th century until the 21st century through different major shifts year by year. Later in the 1950s, this developed as decolonisation and rising nationalism. When the beauty pageant became an example of “women empowering women”, and with the purpose of using femininity to represent world issues and raising awareness for culture, the Philippines also applied this as national aspiration.  read more

On Friday (24/02/2023), a student from Myanmar shared her presentation about “Reflection on Childhood” in sharing session as a part of intern’s activity in CESASS office. Her name was Phoo Wai Yan Myint, an international student majoring International Relation in Gadjah Mada University and she shares her opinion about how childhood experience has an impact on behaviour of an adult. This sharing session attended by Indonesian interns and 4 international students from Myanmar and Phillipines. read more

On January, 24th 2023 (GMT +7) Center of Southeast Asian Social Studies (CESASS) Universitas Gadjah Mada held the agenda called SEA CHAT. The #SEACHAT37 entitled ‘If I Was the Director: Breaking the Eurocentric in Postcolonialism and Transnational of Film De Oost’ was presenting by Syfa Amelia as internship student at CESASS from Master Program in Communication Science, Universitas Gadjah Mada.

The discussion was started from Syfa that explained the synopsis of the movie De Oost (The East). This movie was directed by Jim Taihuttu and released in 2020 but it’s still interesting to be discussed until today. Syfa explained the critics from her perspective as a part of post-colony country. Those, from her analysis the movie De Oost (The East) was glorifying the white perspective which made the movie looks un-relevant to the history. Further, cited from Syfa’s explanation she found that there were some scenes that stereotyping Indonesia. Other than that, Syfa choose the movie De Oost (The East) because it is still has its correlation to the Southeast Asian country, especially Indonesia. read more

Tuesday (17/01), the Center for Southeast Asian Social Studies (CESASS) held an academic discussion forum, 36th Southeast Asia Chat (SEACHAT). On this occasion, a graduate of the Department of Sociology Universitas Gadjah Mada, Ilham Ramadhan D. Arifin, presented his findings about sugar commodities in the Dutch East Indies era on Caribbean and Java islands. To open his presentation, Ilham played a video about the development of sugar cane during the Dutch East Indies era when sugar became the main global commodity from 17th until 19th century. read more

The Center For Southeast Asian Social Studies of Universitas Gadjah Mada (CESASS UGM) continues to hold the 35th Southeast Asian Chat (SEACHAT) on 23 of December 2022.  This panel discussion was presented by Muhammad Izam Dwi Sukma, CESASS UGM Student Intern from Islamic University of Indonesia. On this occasion, Izam presented his research titled “Reflecting The Role of Yang Di Pertuan Agong to Settle the Political Uncertainty After Malaysia 15th General Election.”

The discussion began with an overview of Malaysia. Starting from its Monarchy government and the political structure. Then he continued to elaborate the conditions of the Malaysian Government prior to the holding of the 15th General Election (GE) on 19 November 2022, after the parliament suspension and the resignation of previous Prime Minister (PM), Ismail Saabri Yakob. Izam underlined that before the 15th GE was held, Malaysia’s political condition could be considered unstable, because there have been three changes of prime ministers in the last 4 years. read more

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