Dr Adam Tyson

Can you give a brief description of your research, work and expertise in Southeast Asia?

In addition to my academic roles at the University of Leeds, I am the Chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Studies UK.

I first visited Indonesia in 2003, five years after the country's democratic transition. I have witnessed incredible changes since then, and it has been a privilege to carry out research on democratisation in Indonesia over the years. Through research activities and academic collaboration I have been fortunate enough to spend time in the highlands of Toraja, the coastal areas of Lombok, the plantations of Riau, and of course the city of Bandung at the heart of Sundanese West Java. In Bandung I was based at Parahyangan Catholic University, and did some work for an NGO called Akatiga.

My research and publications cover a range of issues in contemporary Indonesian politics, including:

• Authoritarian regimes, political dynasty and commemoration.
• The impact of large-scale plantations and land use change.
• Blasphemy trials.
• Elections.
• The genre of 'genocide documentary'.
• Ethnomusicology
• Indigenous (adat) rights and land claims.

Prior to joining the University of Leeds, I worked at the Universiti Utara Malaysia from 2009 to 2011 and have many fond memories from this time. My research in Malaysia focuses on talent, brain drain and migration.

Any anecdote you would like to share?

In 2010 I was lucky enough to secure an interview with former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. Unfortunately on the day of the interview I rather lost my nerve because I had just finished Barry Wain's banned book Malaysian Maverick and was slightly intimidated by some of the stories I read. It seemed unlikely at the time, but Mahathir would rise again, becoming prime minister in 2018 at the age of 93 (a world record)! Politics is indeed a 'never-ending game' (Sophie Lemiere, 2020), and with the re-emergence of the Marcos family in the Philippines, it seems that anything is possible in Southeast Asian politics.