The province, situated on Sumatra island, has witnessed a surge in arriving boats, predominantly carrying Rohingya refugees from southern Bangladesh, where many sought refuge in 2017 following military attacks on the persecuted Muslim minority in Myanmar.

According to the Indonesian Navy, a coast guard vessel identified a boat believed to be transporting Rohingya refugees entering Indonesia’s waters on Wednesday. Subsequently, a navy ship’s helicopter located a wooden vessel nearing Weh island in north Aceh province writes the AP.

The navy ship, KRI Bontang-907, located the boat approximately 63 nautical miles (72 miles) off the Indonesian coast and escorted it out, as stated on the navy’s website: “ensuring that the boat did not return to Indonesian waters.”

Indonesia has appealed for international assistance and has intensified patrols in its waters due to a significant increase in Rohingya refugees leaving overcrowded camps in Bangladesh since November. Over 1,500 Rohingya have arrived in Aceh, facing some hostility from fellow Muslims.

In a disturbing incident on Wednesday, a group of students attacked the basement of a local community hall in Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province, where approximately 137 Rohingya were seeking shelter. Footage obtained by The Associated Press showed a large group of refugees, primarily women and children, being forcibly placed on the back of trucks by individuals wearing university green jackets.

This incident has drawn strong criticism from human rights groups and the U.N. refugee agency, which noted that the attack left the refugees shocked and traumatized.

It’s noteworthy that Indonesia, like Thailand and Malaysia, is not a signatory to the United Nations’ 1951 Refugee Convention and is not obligated to accept Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh. Nevertheless, refugees in distress have received temporary accommodations thus far.

While Indonesia has historically tolerated such landings, there has been a surge in anti-Rohingya sentiment this year, particularly in Aceh, where residents accuse the Rohingya of poor behavior and creating a burden. This growing hostility has pressured President Joko Widodo’s government to take action.

Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi acknowledged the complexity of the issue, stating, “This is not an easy issue, this is an issue with enormous challenges,” in response to the rising tensions between locals and Rohingya refugees.

The Rohingya crisis, stemming from a brutal counterinsurgency campaign by Myanmar’s security forces, has resulted in approximately 740,000 Rohingya seeking refuge in Bangladesh. Efforts to repatriate them have faltered due to concerns about their safety.

The Rohingya face widespread social discrimination and are largely denied citizenship rights in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, where international courts are examining allegations of genocide and other grave human rights abuses committed by Myanmar authorities.

The post Indonesian Navy Forces Rohingya Refugee Boat Back Out first appeared on The Postcolonial.

Population numbers of the critically endangered Irrawaddy dolphin in the Mekong River have plumped for decades, dropping from 200 in 1997 to around 90 today due to habitat loss and uncontrolled fishing.

In an attempt to save the species, Cambodian premier Hun Sen ordered the implementation of conservation zones in the Mekong River on Monday, according to the AFP. The initiative comes after several dolphins have been found dead in the past year.

“The Mekong River, which is home to near-extinct dolphins and fish species, must be well managed so that dolphins will not die from entanglement in gillnets,” said Sen. “The dolphin areas must be protected completely.” Gillnets are nets placed along parts of the river to snare fish.

Authorities will set up floating markers around protection zones at the river, which will indicate an “absolute ban” on all fishing in designated areas.

Irrawaddy dolphins are known for their bulging foreheads and short beaks. They are an essential asset for locals that offers tour guides for foreigners to spectate the dolphin in its natural habitat.

Changing waters

The Mekong River, which also borders Laos, has long gone through human developments that make it difficult for the dolphins to survive. Other than illegal fishing that unintentionally catches the mammal, hydropower dams funded by Chinese involvement in partly state-owned enterprises tamper the river’s ecosystem.

“[A] big number of fish that need to move upstream for breeding and spawning are unable to pass the dam barrier during the dry season. This leads to reduced fish stock in the transboundary deep pool habitats that would affect dolphin prey and have affected daily food consumption of people of both countries,” Seng Teak, country director for WWF Cambodia, told The Third Pole.

The consequences have been enormous, as the last Irrawaddy dolphin was confirmed dead in 2022 declaring the species extinct in Laos. The same fate could reach dolphins in Cambodia’s territory.

“The numbers in the [transboundary] pool have plummeted over the last few years, due to multiple threats,” said Lan Mercado, Asia-Pacific director of WWF in a 2022 statement. “Including hydropower dam construction causing disruptions to river flow and reduced fish abundance, drowning in gill-nets, and the use of damaging fishing practices such as electrofishing and overfishing.”

Alarm raised after deaths

Cambodian premier Hun Sen orders come just a week after conservationists raised concerns after three Irrawaddy dolphins died within 10 days of each other.

According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), such deaths of healthy dolphins in a brief timeframe indicates ”an increasingly alarming situation and the need for intensive law enforcement be urgently conducted in the dolphin habitats,” it said on Monday last week writes the AP.

It is believed that the deaths stemmed from entanglement in an illegal fishing line. The WWF urged law enforcement to help save the species.

WWF said that a total of 29 dolphins have died in the past three years. 11 of them in 2022 alone.

What is believed to have been the last Irrawaddy dolphin located in Cambodia’s northeastern region of the Mekong River was found dead in February 2022. It had reportingly been seen tangled in a fishing net about a week earlier.

The mammals are usually found in packs of 6 members.

The post Cambodia orders Mekong conservation zone to save endangered dolphins first appeared on The Postcolonial.

With numerous female characters in a great variety of movies spanning in a period of almost 90 years, Disney has finally put a Southeast Asian heroine in the lead of the company’s latest hit movie attempt.

Raya and the Last Dragon will portray a fictional world with great inspiration from Southeast Asia, a region of 11 countries and a total population estimated to 673 million people.

But not everyone seems pleased with this proposition. Roughly dividing the region into mainland and archipelago Southeast Asia and including influence from different European countries during colonialization into the equation, portraying a common Southeast Asia identity can seem impossible.

An Indonesian Twitter user told the BBC, that she felt the movie should have ‘focused on a certain culture’ rather than attempting the ‘impossible’ task of representing all of Southeast Asia.

From reality to fiction

Southeast Asia is a cultural melting pot, with each 11 nations hailing their own history, customs and identity in spite of been historical intertwined in certain developing phenomenon’s spanning from kingdoms to religion.

Raya and the Last Dragon is set in Kumandra that homes five tribes. Each tribe have their own distinctive culture inspired by places in Southeast Asia. Kumandra as a fantasyland imagines what the region might have looked like thousands of years ago.

‘[For example] the scene where Raya’s father is making her soup – you know, as Southeast Asians, so much of our love is shown to us through food..[so that was] something that really touched me’

Adele Lim

co-scriptwriter

The team behind the film visited selected countries in the region for research before production, namely Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. Members from the team stated that they did not focus on obvious cultural appearances for instead creating ‘depth’ to the movie.

‘When you talk about cultural inspiration, it wasn’t just like “Oh, we like how this looks, [so we] put it in”. It was much deeper than that,’ Adele Lim co-scriptwriter for the movie told the BBC.

‘[For example] the scene where Raya’s father is making her soup – you know, as Southeast Asians, so much of our love is shown to us through food..[so that was] something that really touched me,’ she said.

The colonial legacy

Using food or sociological structures to define a clear picture of what Southeast Asia is, does not seem likely to satisfy much of the region’s residents.

‘The question of what constitutes Southeast Asian identity is still being deliberated by Southeast Asians themselves,’ David Lim, an associate professor at the Open University Malaysia said to the BBC.

‘I think the history of colonialism has to a certain extent shaped the way we look at ourselves and what cultures we aspire to be more like, and who we identify as.’

David Lim

Associate professor at the Open University Malaysia

Western colonization in the region also ads to the way Southeast Asian countries are shaped by. Vietnam was colonized by the French and Indonesia by the Dutch Mr. Lim points out as examples.

‘I think the history of colonialism has to a certain extent shaped the way we look at ourselves and what cultures we aspire to be more like, and who we identify as.’

‘I suspect some in Southeast Asia will know less about their regional counterparts [than their colonisers]. Those in Vietnam for example, might know more about France than Thailand,’ he said.

Extracting the Southeast from Asia

Adding more into complexity, the time seems mature to do justice on how ‘Asian’ is defined. Being the largest continent on the planet, the area houses countries bordering Europe and Australia. Yet, it has often been East Asia representing this vast definition in the likes of China, Japan and South Korea.

The Guardians film critic Steve Rose asks if it is ‘time to retire “Asian” as a category’ in the movie industry.

‘As an adjective that applies to 60% of the world’s population, from Turkmenistan to India to China, it’s not exactly fit for purpose. Was it ever?’ he writes.

While the movie focuses on elements from Southeast Asia, most of the voice cast are of Chinese and Korean descent. A Californian university argued that Raya did not serve ‘real representation’ of the Southeast Asian community in an open letter send to Disney.

There is no doubt that Disney is, yet again, entering new territory with Raya and the Last Dragon. While being partially under fire for not fully embrace representation of Southeast Asia, we can see this movie as a vital first step towards a better understanding of what it means to be part of that specific region.

‘As an adjective that applies to 60% of the world’s population, from Turkmenistan to India to China, it’s not exactly fit for purpose. Was it ever?’

Steve Rose

Film critic at The Guardian

‘The burden of [representing] the whole of Southeast Asia… who can carry that burden? I think if you start to impregnate the film with too many ideas that you project onto it, then it’s rather unfair,’ Mr. Lim said to the BBC.

‘[But instead] look at the film as a way in to talk about Southeast Asia, to trigger conversation about the region.’

The post Disney’s Southeast Asia first appeared on The Postcolonial.