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The unwanted election Aung Naing Soe
February 2026
The unwanted election
Aung Naing Soe
The Myanmar military hopes that an election will give their rule a veneer of legitimacy, but a vote largely rejected by the people as a sham will hardly soothe tensions.
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Latest issue

The unwanted election Aung Naing Soe

February 2026

Aung Naing Soe

The Myanmar military hopes that an election will give their rule a veneer of legitimacy, but a vote largely rejected by the people as a sham will hardly soothe tensions.

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  • Moving beyond

    Soobin Kim

    By making Kintsugi, Lim Ji-soo found a way to tell her story of surviving sexual assault.

  • Spaces

    Robert Wood

    Ranjit Hoskote’s practice is one of art world curation, poetry, translation, and cultural theorising.

  • Power and conquest

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    Ferdinand Magellan was a famous explorer, but Diaz makes it clear that his film isn’t some graceful portrait of the man.

  • Trading words for bullets

    Oliver Raw

    There’s poignancy in the idea of artistic ambition sacrificed for something as fundamental as war. And Myanmar embroiled in civil war, it’s perhaps only natural that poets, like many of their countrymen, have taken up arms.

  • The tracks of history

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    Sri Lanka’s railways aren’t just conveyances with spectacular views; they’re also an integral part of the country’s story.

  • LANGA

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    A short story by Ruhaini Matdarin, translated from Malay by Pauline Fan.

  • New springs

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    We don’t know how history will remember or talk about the Milk Tea Alliance. But it isn’t the only recent manifestation of transnational solidarity with the youth at its core.

  • Quiet persistence

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    Kashmir has lived many seasons of erasure: newspapers censored, cable channels muted, voices disappearing overnight. But books linger in the physical world longer than speeches or tweets.

  • Ambivalent hope

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    Reflections on hope.

  • To the Timor Sea

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    A trip across Timor-Leste turns into a lesson on its history, its people, and its hope for the future.

  • Straight outta Kutaraja

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    In Aceh, hip-hop is more than just a genre; it’s also an opportunity to express pride in one’s homeland and pay homage to tradition.

  • “I am Chinese”

    Frankie Huang

    Tyrus Wong’s extraordinary 106 years on earth, told in meticulous detail by Karen Fang, is a story of resilience and triumph.

  • A borderlander’s reckoning

    Wavie Hu

    “The mountains are high and the emperor far away.” Reckonings from a borderland—on walls, my friend J, and choosing a life in diaspora.

  • Street cries

    Phạm Thu Trang

    Street cries in Vietnam are more than simple calls of commerce; they form an urban soundscape—a way of sensing time, place, and season.

  • Let them sing

    Tashny Sukumaran

    The documentary Araro Ariraro traces the history of Tamil plantation labour in Malaysia through folk songs.

  • The right treatment

    Ratu Yousei

    A short story by Ratu Yousei.

  • Small things

    Paul French

    With When Sleeping Women Wake, Emma Pei Yin takes her place in a long-running and constantly evolving tradition of Chinese female-centred historical fiction.

  • Pragmatic idealism

    Isaac Neo

    An idealistic and highly personal approach to foreign policy is what sets Tommy Koh apart from many of his fellow luminaries in Singapore’s diplomatic sphere.

  • Yin Yang

    Rianka Mohan

    A poem from Rianka Mohan

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Notebook

From the archive

Multitudes

Aditya Narayan Sharma

Saadat Hasan Manto knew that it was not for him to analyse the multitudes people contain, and that often spill out from us without warning.

The unwanted election

Aung Naing Soe

The Myanmar military hopes that an election will give their rule a veneer of legitimacy, but a vote largely rejected by the people as a sham will hardly soothe tensions.

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Illustration: Oslo Davis