17 Sep 2014
The political opposition in Singapore: Challenges in its work towards a two-party system
Dr. Jason Lim
In a celebratory statement issued in 1983, the Central Executive Committee of the PAP declared that ‘if there were no PAP there would be no Singapore as we know it today’. The historiography of Singapore remains overwhelmingly about the social, economic and political achievements of the PAP. Little is known about the opposition parties in Singapore over the last 50 years. Officially, there are 29 registered political parties in Singapore with the PAP at the apex of the country’s political system.
In a political system with the PAP as the dominant party, the opposition has accused the PAP of constantly changing the rules through detention without trial under the Internal Security Act (ISA), gerrymandering, creation of Group Representation Constituencies (GRC), control of the print and broadcast media, and filing of lawsuits against opposition party members. The opposition has demanded greater transparency in government decisions, greater respect for human rights and the need to care for less well-off Singaporeans. There are calls for a more democratic political system with some parties advocating a two-party system. Singaporeans have consistently returned the ruling party to power in every General Election (GE) since 1959. The opposition parties were largely ineffective. However, fifty years after independence, the opposition parties have made themselves an indispensible part of the Singapore political scene.
Migration and Family Relationships: The Case of “Gay Indonesia” in Paris
Mr. Wisnu Adihartono
State and national identity are formed on the basis of mutual unification of thoughts and ideas through the process of representation and social imagination. Through these two processes, people determine what is good and not good, including the issue of homosexuality. There is a “sexual script” in which sexuality is produced, shared, and enforced as a social norm and made a blueprint for correct behaviour. Many Indonesians consider homosexuality abnormal and against religion. Homosexuals in Indonesia have little or no power and limited legal access to fight for their rights. In the end, in order to survive, they are forced to hide their sexual orientation, or in extreme cases, they move to other countries. As long as these push factors do not change, migration will become the “natural way” for them to avoid being mistreated. Because the Indonesian state has been unwilling or unable to ensure and protect the basic human rights of its citizens, I consider the migration of Indonesian gays to be a state failure. Drawing on face-to-face interviews with Indonesian gays who live in Paris, this paper examines why they decided to migrate to there.. It also looks into whether they maintain relationships with their family back in Indonesia and the main features of such relationships. Using qualitative methodology, this paper will introduce some of their narratives.
04 Aug 2014
Dr Puangthong Pawakapan
Abstract
31 Jul 2014
Mr Suhardiyoto HARYADI and Prof Peter CAREY
Abstract
13 May 2014
Dr Prajak KONGKIRATI
The Rise and Fall of Electoral Violence in Thailand: Changing Rules, Structures, and Power Landscapes, 1997-2011
This paper examines how patterns of electoral violence in Thailand from 1997-2011 were shaped by the rise of the Thai Rak Thai Party and Thaksin, the changing roles and status of provincial elites, the 2006 coup, and the emergence of the Yellow Shirt and the Red Shirt movements. The main focus is on the combination of factors that led to increasingly widespread violence in the 2001 and 2005 elections, and the decrease in electoral violence in 2007 and 2011. The major goal is to identify the mechanisms, patterns, and consequences of violence in electoral politics and why it erupted in 2001 and 2005 and dissipated in 2007 and 2011.
30 Apr 2014
Dr Carol G. S. TAN
How Dewi Became a Litigant: Migrant Domestic Workers as Litigants in Hong Kong
When migrant domestic workers feature in the press in Hong Kong, they are likely to be portrayed as victims of exploitation or as law breakers. This has been particularly evident in the past year and a half. 2013 was the year in which several domestic workers 1 were detained for infringing the live-in rule that requires them to live in the households of their employment. 2 2014 has so far seen many press reports on the case of Erwiana Sulistyaningsih, whose employer is now charged with a number of crimes perpetrated against Erwiana. 3 In addition to being victims at the hands of their employers, domestic workers are also portrayed as the victims of employment agencies to whom they owe large sums of money for debts incurred in the process of coming to Hong Kong to work. What might be praised as 'enterprising' – domestic workers selling phone cards or clothing – can, in this discourse of victimhood, be invoked as evidence of the activities domestic helpers are driven to because of these debts. 4 It is in this discourse too that the press also provides expression, however well-intentioned, of the need for medical surveillance masquerading as 'protection'. 5 The same, well-meaning, call for 'protections' for domestic workers characterised as a 'vulnerable' group is sometimes present even in more enlightened commentary. 6
29 Apr 2014
Prof Hans-Dieter EVERS
Governing Maritime Space: The South China Sea as a Mediterranean Cultural Area
Whereas many institutions are in place to govern urban and rural land, maritime areas are less well covered. This situation of a “governance void” has led to uncertainty and conflicts. Thus the South China Sea has become a contested maritime space. In this paper the cultural theory of Oswald Spengler will be applied to stress the importance of conceptions of space as a basis for maritime governance. By comparing it to other maritime spaces, like the Baltic and the Mediterranean Sea, lessons will be drawn from the “longue durée” of history, as analysed by French historian Fernand Braudel. Embedded in this larger theoretical framework special attention will be placed on the Malay and Javanese Nusantara conception of maritime space and its implication for governing the South China Sea.
2 Apr 2014
Dr Eric Vincent C. BATALLA
Political Consequences of Policy Decisiveness in Southeast Asia
Policy decisiveness reflects a unity of purpose among veto players, or formal approving authorities, in a political system. In international negotiations, the ability of states to adopt policies quickly is desirable so that they could begin work on mutual goals and concerns. However advantageous for international agreements, policy decisiveness can bring about regime instability, especially if “strong” governments neglect informal domestic ratification constraints. This paper examines the political consequences of policy decisiveness in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines with respect to bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs).
18 Feb 2014
Mr Philip BOWRING
Liberalism, Free Trade and Empire: The Diverse Roles of John Bowring in Asia
This paper looks at the impact of various strands and contradictions of western liberalism and imperialism through the career of Sir John Bowring, 1792-1892. Bowring was a hyperactive poloyglot and polymath, a liberal writer, trader and entrepreneur who was deeply engaged with democratic reform movements in Europe, a radical member of parliament in Britain and supporter of Chartism, a pioneering advocate of free trade, became consul in Canton and then governor of Hongkong, a peace advocate who started a war with China but also negotiated the Bowring Treaty with King Mongkut which proved a crucial event in Southeast Asian history. His career not only spanned the 60 years of Britain's global pre-eminence from the defeat of Napoleon to the rise of the US and of united Germany but was engaged with several of its key issues in Britain, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. The paper will place his roles in China and Hongkong in a wider context than normally viewed by historians of Hongkong.
17 Feb 2014
Dr Robin BUSH
Muhammadiyah and disaster response: innovation and change in social welfare
Over the past 20 years, Asia in general and Southeast Asia in particular has been the site of some of the worst natural disasters in recent history. At the same time, many Southeast Asian nations are now “middle-income countries” and for a variety of political reasons, their governments increasingly decline to request humanitarian aid through traditional channels coordinated by UN agencies. This has opened the door for a more active role to be played by domestic and international NGOs (INGOs). Meanwhile, over the past two decades, and again often due to political factors, Muslim INGOs are playing an increasingly important role as providers of humanitarian and disaster relief in much of the Muslim world. Muhammadiyah, Indonesia’s second largest Muslim organization, is one of the country’s largest and oldest social welfare organizations – running thousands of schools, clinics, hospitals, and universities. Over the past decade however, its identity as a social welfare focused organization has been problematized, by changes in service provision for the poor both on the part of Muhammadiyah, and the Indonesian state. Since the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, Muhammadiyah has developed a relatively new element of social welfare provision, by becoming one of the country’s most active private disaster relief agencies, responding subsequently to the Yogyakarta earthquake (2006), Sumatra earthquake (2009) and Mt Merapi eruption (2010). Muhammadiyah’s leading role in the area of disaster and humanitarian assistance in Indonesia has furthermore brought it into international political discourses on humanitarian aid. Muhammadiyah is the Indonesian representative on Humanitarian Forum International, a London-based coalition of Islamic and non-Islamic aid agencies seeking to remove the stigma of Islamism from international aid agencies like Islamic Relief, Muslim Aid, etc, and to contribute to greater understanding and collaboration between Islamic and non-Islamic aid organizations. Muhammadiyah, through its MDMC (Muhammadiyah Disaster Management Center) has played a leading role in organizing other religious groups in Indonesia to bring their weight to bear on the issue – both inside Indonesia and globally. With this context as a backdrop, this paper will examine MDMC and Muhammadiyah’s disaster response activities as representing innovation and the direction of the future both for international humanitarian assistance, and for Muhammadiyah internally. International politics of disaster response
18 Sep 2013
Mr Yukinori HARADA
The Strategic Significance of the Scarborough Shoal Standoff and China’s “Aggressive Legalism”
China’s assertive behavior has been gaining considerable attention recently and many scholars and diplomats are increasingly concerned about the possibility of war as China continues its rapid military build-up. Although its military modernisation is noteworthy, since China submitted a second note verbale against the Philippines on April 14 2011 (Beckman 2011, Swaine & Fravel 2011), Beijing has also been engaging in “aggressive legalism” to legitimate its sovereignty claims in the South China Sea (Chen 2012, Dutton 2008, Kotani 2011). Some scholars have noted that China believes the South China Sea dispute will be brought to the International Court of Justice in the future. Thus, Chinese scholars are conducting research in search of judicial precedents and examining maritime shipping in the contested waters in an attempt to legitimate China’s sovereignty claims in accordance with international law. As mentioned above, China has attempted not only to modernize and develop its military but also explore legal enforcement for legitimating its sovereignty claims in accordance with international law. The author attempts to show in this study that China’s new maritime strategy involving the activities of maritime institutions and fishers has been strongly influenced by the standoff with the Philippines over the Scarborough Shoal in April 2012. Moreover, the paper highlights China’s motives and the possibility of Beijing going to war by examining comments from Chinese government officials and scholars. A critical evaluation of the situation reveals that China is attempting to legitimate its sovereignty claims by adhering to international law and since People’s Liberation Army (PLA) officials and Chinese scholars have adopted a cautious stance towards using force, the possibility of the country going to war seems limited.
11 Sep 2013
Prof Mark R. THOMPSON
Does the Watchdog need Watching?
Transitional Media Systems in Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia may offer a distant mirror on the media-democracy nexus in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) as several countries in the former region have recently undergone democratic transitions and a major narrative in the press during this transformation has been the need to root out corruption and improve governance. In the transitional states of Southeast Asia, an alternative media helped mobilize support for popular uprisings against authoritarian rule. New media systems established during democratic transitions in Southeast Asia appear to have a strong “Liberal Model” flavour in Hallin and Mancini’s (2004) terms: though newspaper circulation has been limited and elitist, there was initially little overtly partisan journalism and a strong norm of the media neutrality with journalists emphasizing their role as “watchdogs” in a strongly commercialized media landscape without state censorship (aside from the special case of strict lèse majesté laws in Thailand).
2 Sep 2013
Prof Paul CAMMACK
The Inter-American Development Bank in the Face of the Global Financial Crisis, Working Papers Series: The Multilateral Development Banks and the Global Financial Crisis, No. 5
This paper reviews the response of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to the ‘global financial crisis’, against the background of its analysis of regional development priorities prior to the crisis. Between 2003 and 2009 the Bank developed a focus on ‘productive development’: ‘industrial’ policies for open national economies in an integrated world economy, with an emphasis on productivity-enhancing social and labour-market reforms. Its response to the crisis reflected the fact that as far as Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) was concerned, it was short-lived, and gave way to a phase of global rebalancing in which conditions for renewed growth were largely benign (with easy access to capital and strong demand for commodities), but at the same time variable in their impact, and fraught with risk. The period between 2008 and 2013 was as much one of opportunity as crisis; production and trade were as significant as finance, though there were financial risks that needed to be managed; and intra-regional variation was as important as ‘global’ impact. The Bank consistently stressed the need to be ready to restore and maintain the momentum of productive development once the world economy as a whole emerged from the crisis period. In 2013, as the crisis drew to a close, the Bank again highlighted long-running problems of low productivity and domestic savings, and identified the prevalence of informal labour and inefficient firms as the principal obstacles to sustained growth. It argued, therefore, that policy should focus on the reallocation of resources, the elimination of perverse incentives, and the promotion of productivity-enhancing structural reform.
