12 - Civil Society in Southeast Asia

Summary

If one were to apply civil society as the associational space located between the private (that is, family) and public (that is, state) spheres to the Southeast Asian context, then one could certainly say that it existed in pre- colonial Southeast Asia. Civil society forms in the post-independence period were, however, radically shaped by the means and ways the European colonizers initiated and instituted the social, cultural, economic, and political transformations of the indigenous societies. During the colonial period the indigenous, personalized state form in Southeast Asia was transformed, in varying degrees, into the Western depersonalized administrative state. Institutionalization of the colonial administrative state led to the decline of the indigenous political forms and structures, and the élites’ authority and power. Demands of the growing societal and economic complexity led to varying functional differentiation of the state apparatus in the colonies. Educated colonial subjects were recruited and trained to gradually displace the members of the indigenous élites in the business of governing, but as subalterns. The institutionalization of the colonial administrative state thus led to the formation of “a permanent administration and a standing army” which became the public authority with the colonial subjects “under it [as] the public” (Habermas 1994, p. 18). The introduction and institutionalization of the European state form hence resulted in a more defined demarcation of the public–private spheres, albeit varying from colony to colony.

Concurrently, changes to and in the associational space were also taking place. The associational space underwent a fundamental structural change as the notions and boundaries of the public–private spheres became more clearly demarcated. The introduction of the idea that individuals are endowed with rights was to radically reform the indigenous notions and nature of the relations between the ruler and the ruled. Thus while the European colonizers generally limited political participation, there was, nevertheless, a general acceptance of the rights of the colonial subjects to form voluntary associations. Cities and towns, for various reasons, became the nodal places where civil society groups and activities were mostly found. While civic-type associations formed the vast majority of the groups in civil society, ethnic- and religious-based groups were by far the most common. Importantly, the formation of educational, literary, and media establishments was to contribute significantly to the propagation and articulation of new ideas in the colonial societies.