Benny Subianto

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto delivered his first State of the Nation address on 15 August 2025. He summarised the achievements from his first 299 days in office, boasting of the country’s low unemployment and poverty rates. Two weeks later, this narrative was debunked by waves of protests in Jakarta that swiftly spread nationwide, with people speaking out against economic inequality, labour insecurity and political complacency.

On 7 August 2024, Thailand’s Constitutional Court ordered the dissolution of the Move Forward Party and banned its executives from holding political office. In doing so the court has positioned itself as the country’s arbiter of truth, ethics and national interests. Move Forward, Thailand’s largest parliamentary party, pledged to reform the lese majeste law — a law that makes it a crime to defame or threaten the Thai monarch in the country’s criminal code.

Bangladesh’s longest-serving prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, resigned and  amid a powerful student movement that gripped the nation in mid-2024. While Hasina initially rose to power through democratic elections in January 2009, her rule quickly morphed into an authoritarian regime marked by manipulation, suppression and human rights abuses. Hasina’s government held three elections during her tenure, each mired in allegations of rigging and manipulation.