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15200 results in ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute

Page 177 of 760

Japan's ASEAN Policy
  • In Search of Proactive Multilateralism
  • Sueo Sudo
  • Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    06 June 2017
    Print publication:
    30 December 2014
  • The central puzzle in the study of Japanese foreign policy has been why Japan has continued to play a passive role in international affairs, despite its impressive economic and political power. Challenging this central puzzle, the core argument of this study is to present an alternative path for the study of Japanese foreign policy. In fact, in recent years Japanese foreign policy has become less dependent on the United States, more strategic towards Asia, and more energetic towards international and regional institutions. One of the main features is multilateralism in Japanese foreign policy, as shown by Japan's active participation in the regional institutions. In pursuing multilateralism, Japan cooperated closely with the only durable regional body in Southeast Asia, to wit, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Given the fact that East Asian regionalism has been driven by ASEAN, it is of utmost urgency to investigate the emerging partnership between Japan and ASEAN. The central thesis of this study is thus to put Japan's ASEAN policy into a proper perspective by asserting that Japan's new policy initiatives towards ASEAN are not reactive, nor are they exceptions in a broader framework of merely reactive foreign policy.

  • The Emergence of Pork-Barrel Politics in Parliamentary Myanmar

  • Renaud Egreteau
  • Book:
    The Emergence of Pork-Barrel Politics in Parliamentary Myanmar
    Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    09 March 2019
    Print publication:
    30 May 2017, pp 1-23

  • Summary

    In representative parliamentary systems, voters normally anticipate that the candidate they pick will not only address their concerns once in office, but also provide them with services and goods that only an official position in a major state institution would help secure. A large body of research has explained why freshly elected officials are therefore first and foremost expected to work for the constituents who elected them, secure new benefits for them, while preventing extant resources from being taken away from them (Fenno 1978; Cain et al. 1987; Mezey 2008, pp. 38–39). Expectations from constituents can thus run very high. More often than not, legislators are held accountable for the tangible benefits they bring to their constituencies rather than their overall legislative effectiveness or role in the scrutiny of other branches of government.

    Among the legislative tools that can help an elected representative provide regular benefits to his/her constituents are district-level development funds and other “pork-barrel” spending programmes. The politics of “pork barrel” describes, in a pejorative way, the process that national-level officials use to obtain special government funds (or “pork”) to finance projects benefiting their own local constituencies. They “pass on pork” by redistributing governmental tax revenues to their home districts and, in the process, hope to build a clientele of loyal voters and win re-election to office. Criticism against distributive politics and pork barrelling programmes abounds worldwide. Pork-barrel spending indeed routinely open avenues for corruption, reinforces electoral clientelism and political patronage, encourages a considerable waste of public money, while keeping politicians away from national policymaking focus.

    Yet, Myanmar has recently rediscovered the practicality and value of such programmes. In 2014, new legislation introducing a Constituency Development Fund (hereafter CDF) was passed by the Union parliament, then dominated by the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP). Once Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) took control of the bicameral legislature after the elections held in November 2015, the new ruling party chose to continue the CDF scheme. Drawing on recent field research and interviews with elected parliamentarians, this paper will investigate initial patterns of “pork-barrel” politics in Myanmar under both the former USDP government (2014–16) and the early NLD administration (2016–17).

    The paper starts with a brief review of the literature on “pork-barrel politics” and the international debates on constituency-level development funds.

  • Foreword

  • Renaud Egreteau
  • Book:
    The Emergence of Pork-Barrel Politics in Parliamentary Myanmar
    Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    09 March 2019
    Print publication:
    30 May 2017, pp v-vi

  • Summary

    The economic, political, strategic and cultural dynamism in Southeast Asia has gained added relevance in recent years with the spectacular rise of giant economies in East and South Asia. This has drawn greater attention to the region and to the enhanced role it now plays in international relations and global economics.

    The sustained effort made by Southeast Asian nations since 1967 towards a peaceful and gradual integration of their economies has had indubitable success, and perhaps as a consequence of this, most of these countries are undergoing deep political and social changes domestically and are constructing innovative solutions to meet new international challenges. Big Power tensions continue to be played out in the neighbourhood despite the tradition of neutrality exercised by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

    The Trends in Southeast Asia series acts as a platform for serious analyses by selected authors who are experts in their fields. It is aimed at encouraging policy makers and scholars to contemplate the diversity and dynamism of this exciting region.

  • The Emergence of Pork-Barrel Politics in Parliamentary Myanmar

  • Renaud Egreteau
  • Book:
    The Emergence of Pork-Barrel Politics in Parliamentary Myanmar
    Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    09 March 2019
    Print publication:
    30 May 2017, pp vii-viii

  • Summary

    EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

  • • Myanmar introduced in 2014 a constituency development fund (CDF) to sponsor small public works and development projects in each of the country's 330 electoral constituencies.

  • • As a form of “pork-barrel” spending, CDF programmes have long remained controversial among international donors, anti-corruption agencies and civil society watchdogs for their potential for corruption, embezzlement, waste of public money, vote-buying and other clientelistic behaviours.

  • • The CDF has however emerged in as an extremely popular instrument for lawmakers, in offering new opportunities for meeting the basic infrastructure and development needs of local communities. The scheme has also fostered more frequent interactions among parliamentarians, local bureaucrats, and citizens. Mechanisms for vetting and monitoring the CDF projects seem also to have grown stronger each year.

  • • Rumours about petty corruption and misappropriation cases have gradually surfaced, particularly since the National League for Democracy (NLD) took control of the legislature in 2016. Yet in the first three fiscal years of its implementation, the scheme did not lead to any known major punitive action.

  • • There is also not yet enough of a record to identify credible linkages between the use of CDFs and the building of an electoral clientele by politicians — another common criticism of “pork-barrel” funding.

The Eurasian Core and Its Edges
  • Dialogues with Wang Gungwu on the History of the World
  • Kee Beng Ooi
  • Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    26 May 2017
    Print publication:
    09 December 2014
  • With China's transformation into a republic after two millennia as an empire as the starting point, Ooi Kee Beng prompts renowned historian Wang Gungwu through a series of interviews to discuss China, Europe, Southeast Asia and India. What emerges is an exciting and original World History that is neither Eurocentric nor Sinocentric. If anything, it is an appreciation of the dominant role that Central Asia played in the history of most of mankind over the last several thousand years.

    The irrepressible power of the Eurasian core over the centuries explains much of the development of civilizations founded at the fringes – at its edges to the west, the east and the south. Most significantly, what is recognized as The Global Age today, is seen as the latest result of these conflicts between core and edge leading at the Atlantic fringe to human mastery of the sea in military and mercantile terms. In effect, human history, which had for centuries been configured by continental dynamics, has only quite recently established a new dimension to counteract these. In summary, Wang Gungwu argues convincingly that 'The Global is Maritime'.

Power Sharing in a Divided Nation
  • Mediated Communalism and New Politics in Six Decades of Malaysia's Elections
  • Johan Saravanamuttu
  • Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    20 May 2017
    Print publication:
    26 September 2016
  • This book argues that Malaysia's electoral politics have historically been premised on a hybridized model of communalism and consociationalism. Beyond this it posits a newer idea of power sharing based on the dynamic and transformative practice of mediated communalism through six decades (1952_2016) of electoral politics. The strategy of mediating communalism is critically explored throughout the book, serving to test its saliency as a distinct approach to power sharing in a social formation which is ethnically, religiously and regionally divided, yet has remained remarkably and tenuously integrated throughout Malaysia's electoral history. The book delves into this question by narrating and theorizing the complexity of communal politics leading to the emergence of new politics which have attempted to put Malaysia on the track of further democratization. It is further implied that new politics has to work in tandem with mediated communalism to transcend the most deleterious effects of an ethnically divided society.

Islamic Post-Traditionalism in Indonesia
  • Rumadi
  • Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    20 May 2017
    Print publication:
    09 September 2015
  • Islamic Post-Traditionalism in Indonesia offers a unique assessment of the development of the phenomenon of Islamic post-traditionalism using Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the largest mass Islamic organization in Indonesia (and the world) as a case study. Post-traditionalism is a term now widely used to describe the often controversial attempts by progressive reformers to reify and legitimize modern intellectual notions, often from non-Islamic sources, by using reference to terminology and ideas drawn from Islamic tradition. This book discusses the discourse of post-traditionalist thought within Islamic thought more widely, before turning to examine the emergence of new currents of progressive thought within NU in Indonesia and the factors that influence that. In particular, the book explores the sometimes fiery struggle between liberal and conservative thought in NU; and the position of post-traditionalist thought in the wider development of intellectualism in Indonesia. It covers in detail new religious discourses that are being developed and offers important insights into the implications and future for post- traditionalist thought among Muslims. The highly influential Indonesian version of this book was originally published as Post Traditionalisme Islam: Wacana Intelektualisme dalam Komunitas NU by the Fahmina Institute, Indonesia, 2008.

Trade, Development, and Political Economy in East Asia
  • Essays in Honour of Hal Hill
  • Edited by Prema-Chandra Athukorala, Arianto A. Patunru, Budy P. Resosudarmo
  • Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    19 May 2017
    Print publication:
    14 November 2014
  • This volume is a tribute to Professor Hal Hill, one of the most distinguished and internationally renowned Australian development economists and the single most important Australian figure in the networks that bind the Australian and Southeast Asian economics professions over the past four decades. The volume contains twelve original contributions by distinguished scholars who are at the forefront of their own subject areas. The contributions are thematically arranged into three parts to reflect Professor Hill's wide-ranging research interests: trade policy issues central to the development policy debate, structural change and global economic integration in East Asian economies, and the political economy of development policy.

The Yudhoyono Presidency
  • Indonesia's Decade of Stability and Stagnation
  • Edited by Edward Aspinall, Marcus Mietzner, Dirk Tomsa
  • Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    19 May 2017
    Print publication:
    13 May 2015
  • The presidency of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (2004–14) was a watershed in Indonesia's modern democratic history. Yudhoyono was not only the first Indonesian president to be directly elected, but also the first to be democratically re-elected. Coming to office after years of turbulent transition, he presided over a decade of remarkable political stability and steady economic growth. But other aspects of his rule have been the subject of controversy. While supporters view his presidency as a period of democratic consolidation and success, critics view it as a decade of stagnation and missed opportunities. This book is the first comprehensive attempt to evaluate both the achievements and the shortcomings of the Yudhoyono presidency. With contributions from leading experts on Indonesia's politics, economy and society, it assesses the Yudhoyono record in fields ranging from economic development and human rights, to foreign policy, the environment and the security sector.

A 14th Century Malay Code of Laws
  • The Nitisarasamuccaya
  • Uli Kozok
  • Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    19 May 2017
    Print publication:
    02 January 2015
  • That is why the impressive results of the fieldwork and subsequent analytical research by the German scholar, Dr. Uli Kozok, are remarkable. By devoting considerable time and funds to his project in the interior of Sumatra, Kozok has produced results that will change the writing of the history of Malay. [...] By conducting fieldwork (Kozok saw the text in Kerinci in August 2002), by following up leads from the colonial literature (Voorhoeve's compilation), by analyzing the text without depending on accepted knowledge and by taking the step of using the latest technology to obtain an empirical perspective about the material, Kozok has succeeded in laying a major part of a foundation for the rewriting of the history of Malay in Indonesia! – James T. Collins

Drifting into Politics
  • The Unfinished Memoirs of Tun Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman
  • Edited by Tawfik Ismail, Kee Beng Ooi
  • Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    19 May 2017
    Print publication:
    15 October 2015
  • This is the unfinished autobiography of Tun Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman, the medical doctor who held key government positions in the first two decades of Malaysian nation building, and who was an important early player within UMNO, the country's dominant political party. Drifting into Politics was found among the private papers that were handed over to the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) in 2005 by Tun Dr Ismail's eldest son, Mohd Tawfik.

    The family has asked for it to be published in 2015, this year being the 100th anniversary of Tun Dr Ismail's birth. This is an apt time indeed to make his reflections on his own life available to the world. This is also the third book to come out of the Tun Dr Ismail papers which are kept at ISEAS Library.
    The Reluctant Politician: Tun Dr Ismail and His Time, the biography written by Ooi Kee Beng and published in 2006 is ISEAS's all-time bestseller, and it brought Tun Dr Ismail back with great impact into Malaysian political analysis and discourse. It has been translated into Malay and Chinese. The second book – Malaya's First Year in the United Nations – has also been welcomed by scholars of Malaysia's foreign affairs and diplomacy. This present volume continues Malaysia's rediscovery of Tun Dr Ismail.

The Life and Times of Gerald de Cruz
  • A Singaporean of Many Worlds
  • Asad-ul Iqbal Latif
  • Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    19 May 2017
    Print publication:
    01 September 2015
  • Gerald de Cruz's life overlapped many of the spheres of Singapore's history after World War II. As a Eurasian, a nationalist, a communist and then a democratic socialist, as a journalist and a writer, he represents the insurgent energies of a truculent time when a nascent nation was seeking the basis of statehood. His commitment to progressive ideas and movements reveals a man of integrity in search of himself in a better world. This book seeks to portray his place in time, particularly for younger Singaporeans who did not live in an era that has inaugurated the history of independent Singapore.

The South China Sea Dispute
  • Navigating Diplomatic and Strategic Tensions
  • Edited by Ian Storey, Cheng-Yi Lin
  • Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    19 May 2017
    Print publication:
    23 May 2016
  • Increasing tensions in the South China Sea have propelled the dispute to the top of the Asia-Pacific's security agenda. Fuelled by rising nationalism over ownership of disputed atolls, growing competition over natural resources, strident assertions of their maritime rights by China and the Southeast Asian claimants, the rapid modernization of regional armed forces and worsening geopolitical rivalries among the Great Powers, the South China Sea will remain an area of diplomatic wrangling and potential conflict for the foreseeable future. Featuring some of the world's leading experts on Asian security, this volume explores the central drivers of the dispute and examines the positions and policies of the main actors, including China, Taiwan, the Southeast Asian claimants, America and Japan. The South China Sea Dispute: Navigating Diplomatic and Strategic Tensions provides readers with the key to understanding how this most complex and contentious dispute is shaping the regional security environment.

The Impact of State Restructuring on Indonesia's Regional Economic Convergence
  • Adiwan Fahlan Aritenang
  • Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    19 May 2017
    Print publication:
    15 June 2016
  • The creation of ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) in 1992 and decentralization in 1999 mark the state restructuring in Indonesia. This book analyses the impact of state restructuring on regional economic development in Indonesia between 1993 and 2010. Regional economic analysis shows persistent and severe regional disparities throughout the period. Particularly, econometrics study found that decentralization has accelerated regional disparities whilst the AFTA effect is insignificant on regional economic growth. Furthermore, historical institutionalism analysis on two cities - the manufacturing industry in Batam and the creative economy in Bandung - shows that past and embedded local institutions provide the capacity to adapt and create new development paths. The book suggests the importance of local-specific policies that embrace local knowledge and institutions to develop regional specialization and competitive advantage. This book fills the gap in Indonesian literature that lacks studies on the integrated impact of decentralization and trade liberalization, both economically and politically.

Deciphering Southern Thailand's Violence
  • Organization and Insurgent Practices of BRN-Coordinate
  • Sascha Helbardt
  • Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    19 May 2017
    Print publication:
    14 August 2014
  • Scholars have given questions about the perpetrators of nameless violence in Southern Thailand little consideration, leaving the motives that drive Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) heavily cloaked in secrecy and speculation. This book offers a rare glimpse behind the veil that shrouds BRN-Coordinate. Using exclusive access to and detailed interviews with BRN-Coordinate members, this book analyses the communicative dimension of the insurgency. It depicts the hidden channels and organized violence that drive the region's enduring rebellion as well as BRN's dichotomous existence between silence and communication.

Institutional Engineering and Political Accountability in Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines
  • Patrick Ziegenhain
  • Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    19 May 2017
    Print publication:
    25 February 2014
  • Political accountability is a crucial element of any democracy since it is a safeguard against power abuse and corruption, both urgent problems of many political systems in Southeast Asia. Based on social science theories, the author analyses from a comparative perspective the ways institutional engineering concerning different dimensions of political accountability influenced the quality of democracy in Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines. By highlighting the successes and shortcomings, this book evaluates the degree these institutional reforms resulted in the deepening, stagnation, or regression of the respective democratization processes in these three Southeast Asian countries.

Southeast Asian Affairs 2015
  • Edited by Daljit Singh
  • Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    19 May 2017
    Print publication:
    19 May 2015
  • 'Southeast Asian Affairs is the only one of its kind: a comprehensive annual review devoted to the international relations, politics, and economies of the region and its nation-states. The collected volumes of Southeast Asian Affairs have become a compendium documenting the dynamic evolution of regional and national developments in Southeast Asia from the end of th 'second' Vietnam War to the alarms and struggles of today. Over the years, the editors have drawn on the talents and expertise not only of ISEAS' own professional research staff and visiting fellows, but have also reached out to tap leading scholars and analysts elsewhere in Southeast and East Asia, Australia and New Zealand, North America, and Europe. A full list of contributors over forty years reads like a kind of who's who in Southeast Asian Studies.

    Regardless of specific events and outcomes in political, economic, and social developments in Southeast Asia's future, we can expect future editions of Southeast Asian Affairs to continue to provide the expert analysis that has marked the publication since its founding. It has become an important contributor to the knowledge base of contemporary Southeast Asia.'
    – Donald E. Weatherbee, Russell Distinguished Professor Emeritus, University of South Carolina

Bilateral Legacies in East and Southeast Asia
  • Edited by N. Ganesan
  • Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    19 May 2017
    Print publication:
    20 July 2015
  • This edited volume examines the concept of overhangs or legacies or negative stereotypical images in international relations and their impact on bilateral relations between geographically proximate states in East Asia. The case studies chosen – Japan-Korea, Japan-China, Vietnam-China, Thailand-Myanmar and Thailand-Cambodia – demonstrate conclusively that bilateral overhangs or legacies have a significant impact on contemporary international relations. Such images are regularly replicated and stoked by a variety of constituencies including state agencies for their own selfish interests. The evidence also points to the fact that such bilateral relationships are relatively self-contained and often operate with their own dynamics. Powerful condensation symbols are appropriated to weave a story of the virtuous self and the stereotypical other. This negative image and its replication is important to an understanding of turbulent bilateral relations in East Asia and also helps to inform how such relations can be brought to an even keel.

Singapore in a Post-Kyoto World
  • Energy, Environment and the Economy
  • Tilak Doshi
  • Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    19 May 2017
    Print publication:
    06 June 2015
  • Singapore had, by the 1980s, emerged as one of the world's great oil refining and trading centres, with the 'East of Suez' region within its sphere of influence. The city-state's policy-making went against the grain in much of its practice of economic development. It ensured that energy products were bought and sold in the domestic market at essentially global prices, in contrast to the common practice in developing countries of subsidizing energy fuels for social equity. Without a drop of oil of its own, Singapore also managed to attract large foreign investments in the capital-intensive oil refining and petrochemical manufacturing sectors in an export-oriented strategy. This was at a time when governments of most newly independent countries were busy trying to promote heavy industry by protectionist trade policies and import-substituting industrialization. The purpose of this book is two-fold. It is intended to introduce a host of energy-related discussions relevant to a wider group of readers who do not 'do energy' for a living, yet are keenly interested in understanding the many complexities of modern industrial societies which need to balance economic, environmental, and security priorities of ordinary citizens. It is also meant to serve as an introductory assessment of key energy-related issues, with a particular relevance for small advanced countries such as Singapore.

Page 177 of 760