POLITIK: Citizen Participation in SEA

"POLITIK" insightfully analyses and explores different levels and forms of citizen participation across Southeast Asia. Each essay in this issue focuses on a specific local form of participation in one country and analyses the underlying causes that engendered citizen participation. This ranges from the entrenched climate of political apathy in Singapore to the recent rise of youth political activism in Malaysia and Indonesia. The project attributes the differences in the nature and intensity of political participation across states to both pressing contemporary issues and past historical legacies of citizen participation. Looking across the entire region, the team shows that citizen participation is shaped by how governments respond to internal problems. In the absence of strong governmental responses, citizens inevitably find new ways to voice their concerns and desires for change.