🪖🇲🇲 On the ground for Myanmar's election - Southasia Weekly #100

This week, we’re sending out our 100th issue of the Southasia Weekly newsletter to over 15,000 subscribers! Across 100 issues, this newsletter has traced a region in motion – from people’s protests in Nepal to seismic drama rocking Bangladesh’s politics and the growing importance of women’s cricket. Week after week, we have followed the rise of communal hate and nationalism, the fallout of border tensions, and the devastating impact of foreign-aid cuts and new tariffs on already fragile economies. 

You might think there’s a giant team behind putting together this newsletter, but in fact there’s just two of us, editorial fellow Lydia Smith and I, who read through reports, statements and eyewitness accounts, searching for stories that cut through the noise. New experiments have emerged which you’ve loved, including Snap Southasia, our segment that spotlights striking Southasian photography. And of course, Gihan de Chickera’s insightful cartoons capture the essence of the big headlines of the week. One hundred issues in, Southasia Weekly remains a commitment to slow, careful, cross-border journalism – and an invitation to keep watching this region together. Thanks for reading, and please consider joining the Himal Patron programme to support our newsroom. 

This week in Himal

In a ground report from Yangon, Ben Dunant writes that low voter turnout and military intimidation have left Myanmar’s citizens with few hopes that the election will lead to democratic transition.