Asian Studies Commons^™

Screening Southeast Asia: Film, Politics, And The Emergence Of The Nation In Postwar Southeast Asia, Darlene Machell Espena

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

Audit Profession Must Rid ‘Overworked, Underpaid’ Image To Attract Best Talent, Chi Kwan Yuen, Gary Pan, Clarence Goh

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Many accounting graduates are deterred from joining the audit profession because of the perception that auditors are lowly-paid and made to work long hours.

The Effect Of Language On Voter Opinion: Results From A Survey Experiment In Thailand, Jacob I. Ricks

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Politicians have long engaged in marketing themselves by employing distinct speaking styles to signal social standing, competence, or a shared background with their audience. What effect does this use of different language appeals have on voter opinion? Utilizing a survey experiment in Thailand, I test a set of hypotheses about the effect of language on respondent opinions. Relying on three distinct treatments, a formal language register, an informal language register, and an ethnic language, I demonstrate the multiple effects of language on political appeal. The use of a formal register has mixed effects, signaling both high education as well as …

Berita Winter 2019/2020, Dominik M. Müller

Berita

Table of Contents

Letter from the Chair ... 2

MSB Group Events at the AAS Conference 2020, Boston, MA (March 19-22) ... 3–4

Article: ‘A Fresh Look at Fish Through a Brief History of Fish Head Curry’ (Geoffrey K. Pakiam) ... 5–10

Article: ‘‘My Second Home’: An Interview with Rose Chew,Ticketing Officer of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, 1990–2016’ ... 11–13

MSB Member News ... 14

Publications ... 14–16

Job Opportunities ... 16

Call for Applications: M.A. and PhD Programs ... 17–18

Call for Papers ... 18

Editorial Information ... 18

Commentary: What Lies Ahead? Considering The Future Of A ‘New’ Vietnamese Higher Education, Yasmin Y. Ortiga

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In this commentary, Ortiga discusses two main tensions in how the authors in this volume portray the future of Vietnamese higher education. The first tension is the issue of autonomy or how universities must redefine their purpose and role in Vietnamese society as the state loosens its monopoly over higher education. Meanwhile, the second tension is the issue of privatisation or whether for-profit corporations and private agencies should play an increasing role in providing higher education services in the country. In reflecting on the future, Ortiga compares the case of Vietnam to higher education systems in neighbouring countries like the …

Berita Summer 2019, Dominik M. Müller

Berita

Letter from the Chair ... 2

Announcement ... 3

Prizes: John A. Lent Prize 2019 Commendation & Ronald Provencher Grant ... 3–4

Panel Reports: AAS Annual Conference 2019 (Denver, CO) ... 5–12

Article: “To Harmonize or Not Harmonize? Shariah Criminal Law in Malaysia” (Kerstin Steiner) ... 12–14

Article: “Reflections from the Field: On a Quest to Save the Poor: a Day in a “Zakat Camp” (Tímea Gréta Biró) ... 14–17

Article: “A Contemporary Ghost Story: The Tale of the Pontianak” (Rosalia N. Engchuan) ... 17–19

Book Review: Through Turbulent Terrain: Trade of the Straits Port of Penang (Loh, Wei Leng …

There And Back Again: What The Cold War For Southeast Asia Can Teach Us About Sino-Us Competition In The Region Today, Wen-Qing Ngoei

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Expert commentary today typically focuses on the agendas and actions of the two big powers, the United States and China, which misses the bigger picture. During the Cold War, leaders of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) played a critical role in containing Chinese influence, shaping the terms of Sino-U.S. competition and rapprochement, and deepening the U.S. presence in Southeast Asia. The legacy of ASEAN’s foreign relations during and since the Cold War militates against the popular notion that Chinese hegemony in Asia is inevitable.

Dealing With Diversity: State Strategies On Ethnic Minority Management In Southeast Asia, Hansley A. Juliano, Matthew David D. Ordoñez, Enrico Antonio B. La Viña

Asian Review

Southeast Asia’s ethnic, political and cultural diversity continues to pose major policy and governance hurdles in enforcing a common community born out of the post-colonial nationalist baggage of almost all the region’s countries. ASEAN’s “non-interference” clause gives leeway to each member state to respond to its ethnic diversity with nation-building projects through exclusionary governance. With this leeway, each Southeast Asian country’s nation-building policies legitimize a particular, existing ethno-nationalist or “ethno-religious” majority at the expense of democratic accountability. This study proposes a preliminary quantitative model which uses regression analysis to compare Southeast Asian countries’ data on their religious and ethnic populations. …

(S)Expectations Abroad: Male Traveler Interactions With Southeast Asian Economies, Elliot J. Glotfelty, Glenn M. Miles

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

Interacting with locals is a highlight of the tourism experience; however, these interactions may be accompanied by unsolicited propositions for the traveler to participate in the sex industry. Through the lens of Thailand’s largely visible sex industry, this work addresses issues of tourism and travel intertwined with the sex industry in greater Southeast Asia. Governments, a variety of businesses and individuals benefiting financially from a burgeoning sex tourism industry encourage persistence of a viable local sex trade. Although subtleties exist between human trafficking, the sex industry, and sex tourism, each can be intertwined. This article provides an overview of the …

Collaborative Governance For The Sustainable Development Goals, Ann Florini, Markus Pauli

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The advent of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals has refocused global attention on the roles of business and other nonstate actors in achieving global goals. Often, business involvement takes the form of collaborations with the more traditional actors-governments and non-governmental organizations. Although such partnerships for development have been seen before, the scale and expectations are new. This paper explores how and why these cross-sector collaborations are evolving, and what steps can or should be taken to ensure that partnerships create public and private value. The arguments are illustrated with reference to cases of market-driven partnerships for agriculture in Southeast Asia …

Review Of Ang Cheng Guan, Southeast Asia’S Cold War: An Interpretative History, Wen-Qing (Wei Wenqing) Ngoei

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Ang Cheng Guan’s Southeast Asia’s Cold War: An Interpretive History makes a welcome scholarly contribution to the field. As he rightly points out in the introduction to his book, the “voluminous” literature concerned with the Cold War in Southeast Asia has too long centered on the United States, European decolonisation, and/or the Sino-Soviet competition for Hanoi’s loyalty.

Berita Summer 2018, Dominik M. Müller

Berita

Table of Contents

Letter from the Chair ... 2

Announcements ... 3

John A. Lent Prize 2018 Commendation ... 4

Ronald Provencher Travel Grant Commendation ... 4–5

Panel Report: Food, Belonging, and Identity in Colonial and Post-Colonial Malaysia/Singapore ... 7–8

Article: Social Categorization and Religiously Framed State-Making in Brunei... 9

Article: A New Dawn for Malaysia: The Election that Tipped the Balance ... 22

Project Report: Project M: Campaigning with a “Dictator” ... 29

Book Review: Planting Empire, Cultivating Subjects: British Malaya, 1786-1941... 31

Call for Panelists and Book Chapters: Revisioning 2020 ... 32–33

Call for Book Chapters: Malaysian Politics …

The Management Strategy For Stateless Persons In Southeast Asia, Unchalee Srichomphu, Pitch Piyapramote

Asian Review

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) has affirmed the fundamental rights of every person without taking nationality into consideration. However, significant populations world-wide are unable to exercise these rights. Thus, citizenship is a prerequisite to gaining one’s rights within the state. When individuals are unable to register or are rejected from registering as legal persons in the civil registration of any state on earth, this creates problems in terms of individual status certification and renders certain rights to be inaccessible. Although the Asian Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), with …

The Reduction Of Mass Atrocity Crimes In East Asia: The Evolving Norms Of Asean's Prevention Mechanisms, David A. Frank

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

ASEAN member states represent a region that has experienced a dramatic reduction in mass atrocity crimes in the last forty years. Scholars have identified three structural explanations for this reduction: the decrease in the use of mass atrocities as a tool of war, rising incomes, and the spread of democracy. The evolution of complex and contested human rights norms during this same period contributed significantly to the positive role played by the three structural factors in the decline of atrocity crimes. This paper highlights the human rights norms that anchor ASEAN atrocity prevention mechanisms and suggests that the association can …

Doubling Down On Asia Victor D. Cha, Power Play: The Origins Of The American Alliance System In Asia (Princeton University Press, 2016). Michael R. Auslin, The End Of The Asian Century: War, Stagnation And Risks To The World's Most Dynamic Region (Yale University Press, 2017)., Wen-Qing (Wei Wenqing) Ngoei

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

With the Chinese government aggressively militarizing the South China Sea and U.S. President Donald Trump scuttling the Trans-Pacific Partnership, there appears no clear answer to Beijing’s “One Belt, One Road” initiative. In fact, U.S. foreign policy thinkers are casting about for a strategy in Asia. What is to be done? Victor Cha’s Power Play and Michael Auslin’s End of the Asian Century recommends that the United States “double-down,” an expression Cha uses repeatedly, on its time-tested strategy of containing Chinese power in Asia.

The Flow Of Funds In Asean, Philip C. Zerrillo

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In his novel, Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden wrote, “Water can carve its way even through stone. And when trapped, water makes a new path.” Something similar seems to be happening with the flow of funds in ASEAN.

A Wide Anticommunist Arc: Britain, Asean, And Nixon's Triangular Diplomacy, Wen-Qing Ngoei

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

President Richard Nixon’s triangular diplomacy succeeded because a “wide anticommunist arc” of U.S. allies in Southeast Asia had confined the influence of both China and the USSR to the Indochinese states. Beijing and Moscow welcomed détente with Washington in order to accommodate to de facto U.S. hegemony in the region.

Aging In Myanmar, John Knodel, Bussarawan Teerawichitchainan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This spotlight provides an overview of thesituation of older persons in Myanmar, an under-studied country ofover-50-million population. Myanmar is of particular interest to researchersand policy makers, given its overall level of poverty and modestly rapidpopulation aging. Research on older persons, while increasing in recent years,remains sparse. Empirical evidence indicates that Myanmar older persons are inrelatively poorer health compared to those in neighboring countries. Many livein abject poverty and depend on their families for material support.Coresidence is very common and facilitates reciprocal exchanges acrossgenerations. Looking ahead, Myanmar confronts important challenges includingdemographic shifts that reduce availability of family support for older personsand …

Berita Spring 2017, Eric C. Thompson

Berita

Table of Contents

Chair’s Address ... 2

Editor’s Foreword ... 3

John A. Lent Prize Commendation ... 4

Ronald Provencher Travel Grant Commendation ... 5

Announcements ... 5

“Democracy and Development at Risk” – A Panel Report (J. Saravanamuttu) ... 7

Field Report: Kebun Culture (E.C. Thompson) ... 11

Remembering J. Norman Palmer (C.A. Lockard) ... 16

Member Notes ... 17

Towards An Understanding Of Societal Leadership In Southeast Asia: Position Paper, Institute For Societal Leadership

Institute of Societal Leadership Research Collection

In this position paper, we delineate the reasons for examining leadership in the social impact sector and for tackling social issues and wicked problems that we face in Southeast Asia region. We begin by discussing the roles of societal leaders and societal leadership, drawing upon notable examples of efforts and strategies that are employed by leaders to create social impact in the region. The paper concludes with a proposed research agenda for studying societal leadership.

Berita Autumn 2017, Eric C. Thompson

Berita

Table of Contents

Chair’s Address...2

Editor’s Foreword ...3

Announcements ...3

Research Report: Mahathir’s 2018 Campaign ...4

Book Review: Taming the Wild ...9

Call for Papers: AAS 2020 (REVISIONING 2020) ...12

Call for Papers: Performing Citizenship in Singapore ...13

Call for Papers: Malaysian Politics and Peoples ...14

Call for Papers: Database of Religious History ...16

AAS 2018 Conference Panels with MSB Content ...17

Uncertainty, Threat, And International Security: Implications For Southeast Asia, Zachary C. Shirkey, Ivan Savic

Publications and Research

The rise of China is changing the strategic landscape globally and regionally. How states respond to potential threats posed by this new power arrangement will be crucial to international relations for the coming decades. This book builds on existing realist and rationalist concepts of balancing, bandwagoning, commitment problems, and asymmetric information to craft explanations about how states respond when faced with potential threats. Specifically, the book explores the role different types of uncertainty play in potential balancing situations. Particular focus is given to the nature of the rising state’s actions, the balance of forces, and the value of delay. These …

A New Pathway To Enhance The Nuclear Security Regime, Francesca Giovannini

International Journal of Nuclear Security

The paper investigates the approach used by a new set of regional institutions, the Disaster Preparedness and Risk Management Organizations (DPRMOs), in strengthening regional governance and cooperation. It also inquires in what ways these new institutions might indirectly contribute to the establishment of a more cohesive global nuclear security framework. More specifically, through the examination of the case of Southeast Asia, the paper argues that these institutions, albeit without a specific and direct mandate to operate in the nuclear security domain, are fundamentally strengthening states’ capacity to assess risks and threats and to map vulnerabilities in timely fashion. They are …

Berita Autumn 2016, Eric C. Thompson

Berita

Table of Contents

Chair’s Address ... 2

Editor’s Foreword ... 4

John A. Lent Prize ... 5

“After Decolonization” – A Panel Report ... 6

Association for Asian Studies 2017 (Toronto) – Panels with Malaysia-Singapore-Brunei Content ... 8

New Skills At Work: Managing Skills Challenges In Asean-5, Kim Song Tan, James T. H. Tang

Research Collection School Of Economics

The dynamic economies of Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines (ASEAN-5) boasts a growth rate of close to 5% a year despite the sluggish global economy. However, whether ASEAN-5 can grow to be significant players in the global economy will depend critically on their abilities to train workers with relevant job skills required by growth-driving industries. This challenge requires governments and employers to work together and develop coherent policies and targeted incentive structures for workers to acquire general and job-specific skills. The report Managing Skills Challenges in ASEAN-5 provides insights and recommendations on how the ASEAN-5 countries can respond …

Knowledge Cluster Development Through Connectivity: Examples From Southeast Asia, Hans-Dieter Evers, Thomas Menkhoff

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Whereas since the 1990s national and regional planners saw the creation of knowledge clusters as a panacea for gaining a competitive advantage to propel a region or country into a higher stage of industrial development, recent research suggests that connectivity (e.g. through broadband penetration or joint research connections with collaborators elsewhere) is one of the enablers for socio-economic development. This paper will draw on the results of studies on knowledge clusters in Southeast Asian countries (Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore) as well as the relevant current literature to ask the question, whether knowledge clusters really contribute to regional development and if yes, …

Building Participatory Organizations For Common Pool Resource Management: Water User Group Promotion In Indonesia, Jacob I. Ricks

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

States are increasingly striving to create participatory local organizations for joint management of common pool resources. What local conditions determine success of such state efforts? What effect do these efforts have? Drawing on controlled comparisons between three districts in Indonesia and an original survey of 92 water user groups, I demonstrate that local political contexts condition the effectiveness of participatory irrigation policies. When irrigation is politically salient, local politicians pressure bureaucrats to better engage with farmers. The data also show that training programs are not as effective at increasing water user organization activity as frequent contact between bureaucrats and farmers.

Societal Leadership In Southeast Asia: National Landscapes, Challenges And Opportunities To Enhance Societal Impact, Institute For Societal Leadership

Institute of Societal Leadership Research Collection

This study draws its contents from the findings and insights that colleagues from the Institute for Societal Leadership have put together in the form of eleven Southeast Asian Country Insights Labs reports. The Country Insights Labs were undertaken to uncover the critical social issues facing leaders from business, government and civil society in each Southeast Asian country. During the visits to each country, ISL staff also investigated the challenges faced by civil society organisations (CSOs) such as philanthropic organisations, corporate foundations, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), activist groups, social enterprises and impact investment funders. This paper aggregates the background research and key …

Societal Influence, Leadership And Impact: Defining Traits Of Twenty Pioneer Southeast Asian Leaders, Institute For Societal Leadership, Lai Cheng Lim

Institute of Societal Leadership Research Collection

This study focuses on twenty Southeast Asian leaders who have been key players during critical transitions in the social, economic and political development of their country. In asking each of the societal leaders questions concerning their motivation, the cause they were championing and the factors that have led to their success as leaders, the study attempts to draw out common traits they possess and investigates whether the traits that make people effective societal leaders differ across socio-cultural and historical contexts. A grounded theory approach is used in the analysis of the attributes and traits that emerge from the transcripts of …

Understanding Societal Leadership: Strategy And Impact, Institute For Societal Leadership, Lai Cheng Lim, Molly Delaney

Institute of Societal Leadership Research Collection

This study focuses on the construct and discusses the characteristics and factors affecting the phenomenon of societal leadership. Reference is made to many worthy examples of social catalysts, innovators and leaders that the Institute for Societal Leadership (ISL) has encountered in each of the Southeast Asian countries and efforts are made to delineate the strategies that are used by societal leaders to create social impact. The study also discusses the various forms of societal leadership and ways in which effective societal leaders or social impact organisations collaborate across sectors to achieve their goals.