Political characteristics of the region

The end of the colonial era in Southeast Asia marked the beginning of modern forms of statehood that had some similarities with the previous colonial rulers. In the case of Thailand, its monarchy also received a lot of pressure to democratize. Cambodia, Indonesia or Malaysia also encountered complex situations within the dichotomy of monarchy and democratization. This institution continues to have a sybolism that allows it to have more influence than stated in each country's Constitution. Nevertheless, monarchies still having more power than they should are not the only complicated issue in Southeast Asian politics:

Brief overview of Southeast Asian countries' political systems

Malaysia is a federal, elective constitutional monarchy, with the head of government being the Prime minister. It was subject to the British from the 18th century until 1957.

Thailand has been a constitutional monarchy since 1932 and had parliamentary democracy until the recent coup d'état by the Royal Thai Armed Forces in 2014. It has been a de facto military dictatorship ever since, reaching a historic number of lèse-majesté prisoners -sentences for critics to the monarchy- in the last years

Singapore is a unitary multiparty parliamentary republic, although it has been labeled as a "flawed democracy": the same party -the People's Action Party or PAP- has won every election since 1959, it has a low level of press freedom and not a very high degree of civil liberties and political rights (according to Freedom House NGO).

Indonesia is a unitary, presidential republic. It has a multi-party system, and all governments are formed by coalitions.

Cambodia is an elective constitutional monarchy whose head of government is the Prime minister. Its political situation is similar to that of Singapore in the sense that, although it is officially a multiparty democracy, it remains dominated by one party -Cambodian People's Party.

Brunei has a parliament, but the last elections in the country were held in 1962. After the Brunei Revolt occurred that year, the country has been under martial law. The Royal family has no power but maintains a venerated status.

Vietnam was the protagonist of the most mediatic conflict of the 60's. The Vietnam War had a big and polemic involvement of the US, whose government supported South Vietnam, which finally lost the war. Since then, the country is under the rule of the Communist Party.

The Philippines was recognized as an independent state in 1948 and has nowadays a democratic government in the form of a constitutional republic with a presidential system.The Philippines was a Spanish colony until 1989. 

East Timor was part of by Portugal until 1975, and then invaded by Indonesia and annexed as one of its provinces. This caused a decades-long conflict between the Indonesian military and Timorese separatist groups, but East Timor finally became independent in 2002, being the first new sovereign state of the 21st century. As of now, the country is a parliamentary republic.

Laos became independent in 1953 as a constitutional monarchy, but shortly after, the outbreak of the Laotian Civil War ended the monarchy and established a one-party socialist republic. The Lao People's Revolutionary Party, which emerged from the Communist Party of Vietnam, has been in control since 1975.

Burma (Myanmar) is undergoing a really complex situation regarding its domestic politics. Despite the efforts for the country to become a full democracy, the military still has too much influence -the current constitution was drafted by the military, and they obligatorily hold 25% of seats in the parliament. Burma got independence from the British in 1948, but following the coup d'état in 1962, a military dictatorship was imposed, which led to years and years of civil war. Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi was the leader and visible figure of civilians demanding democracy during this period and elected for president after the 2010 general election. However, because of the power that the military still have, she cannot hold office, and holds the charge of "state counselor" instead.