Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs最新文献

{"title":"Book Review: Winning by Process: The State and Neutralization of Ethnic Minorities in Myanmar","authors":"Stefan Bächtold","doi":"10.1177/18681034231153897","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/18681034231153897","url":null,"abstract":"In February 2021, the Myanmar military ended a decade of democratic reforms with a coup and deposed the democratically elected government. The generals thus ended a transition process the military itself had initiated, and which comprised not only democratic reforms, but also an opening of the economy, and a peace process to end the world’s longest running internal armed conflict. Two years after the coup, Myanmar finds itself in a dire situation: The military’s violent response to an initially peaceful protest movement has led to a large popular armed uprising that now controls a significant proportion of the country. The military’s violence against protesters and scorched-earth campaigns against civilian populations, and later, continuous fighting pitting the military against ethnic resistance organisations (ERO) and so-called people’s defence forces has left thousands dead; and displaced over a million since 2021. The economy has taken a massive dive, and the practically unmitigated COVID-19 pandemic has probably killed thousands more. Despite the Myanmar military’s history of waging war against its population, the 2021 coup came as a surprise to most observers – had the generals not already secured a constant grip on politics and shielded themselves from being accountable to a civilian government? Or, in the words of Bertrand, Pelletier, and Thawnghmung, had the military not already been ‘winning by process’? While the book doesn’t directly solve this puzzle,Winning by Process draws a compelling picture of Myanmar’s politics on the eve of the coup by providing much-needed background and analysis to both Myanmar’s armed conflicts that have lasted over 70 years, and to the (recent) attempts to end them. This is a daunting task, and the co-authored book manages it very well by drawing on empirical material from extended fieldwork conducted over several years and the relevant literature on the complex histories of Myanmar. Conceptually, the book draws on (classic) studies of civil war and negotiation theory, and proposes to extend existing frameworks of how parties to a peace process can make gains not only by winning through war or through agreement, but also through tilting the peace process itself in their favour. As is already flagged in its title, the book’s main innovation lies in analysing the latter: Bertrand, Pelletier, and Thawnghmung identify","PeriodicalId":15424,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs","volume":"42 1","pages":"286 - 288"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2023-02-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46724900","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Book Review: Communal Intimacy and the Violence of Politics: Understanding the War on Drugs in Bagong Silang","authors":"P. Kreuzer","doi":"10.1177/18681034231153898","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/18681034231153898","url":null,"abstract":"Steffen Bo Jensen’s and Karl Hapal’s “Communal Intimacy and the Violence of Politics” is an excellent in-depth study on the impact of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs on a local community living in barangay Bagong Silang at the northernmost edge of the National Capital Region of the Philippines. The authors focus on three interrelated questions (2): How did the violent campaign become so omnipresent, how will it end and with what consequences, and why did the urban poor areas bore the brunt of the killings? They do this in five empirical chapters for this Barangay that is not only a former resettlement site populated since the late 1970s by urban poor from Manila City, but also the most populous barangay of the Philippines with approximately 260,000 inhabitants. Conscious about this, the authors explicitly “refuse to explore the war or Duterte outside the context of Bagong Silang” (23). Jensen and Hapal argue that understanding how the campaign took hold and was implemented on the local level necessitates an exploration of “how violence and conflict animated communal life before the war, how local politics was carried out, and how the state, notably the police, conducted themselves” (4) in the years before Duterte. They are able to make good on this promise as their first stint of field research dates back to 2009. This allows them to link the pre-Duterte past with the Duterte-present of Bagong Silang. In the empirical chapters they analyse in detail, which aspects of the past became formative for the way the campaign was implemented and how practices of the past were transformed by the way the campaign unfolded in Bagong Silang. In the first chapter Jensen and Hapal unfold their central descriptive and analytical concept: communal intimacy. This is, first, an unavoidable condition of living together in a densely populated area. It also means having extensive knowledge of each other (11) and a specific “style of coping and morality” (18), that enables people to navigate their everyday life under such circumstances. It also forms the backbone of local politics and social control.","PeriodicalId":15424,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs","volume":"42 1","pages":"138 - 140"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2023-02-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45973011","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Indonesia's Relations With China in the Age of COVID-19","authors":"Truston Jianheng Yu, Enze Han","doi":"10.1177/18681034221149751","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/18681034221149751","url":null,"abstract":"Seven decades after the establishment of diplomatic relations between Indonesia and China, the COVID-19 pandemic presents new prospects and challenges for bilateral cooperation. We seek to analyse various traits in China–Indonesia relations since 2020 by examining how Indonesia attempts balancing between such cooperation and maintaining peaceful ethnic relations domestically. By tracking the domestic discourse surrounding COVID-19 and China through Indonesia's domestic news media, the paper analyses the development of the pandemic in Indonesia, its procurement of vaccines, and, most significantly, domestic sentiments concerning Indonesia’s ethnic Chinese Tionghoa citizens, as well as Indonesia's bilateral relations with China in general. The article argues that while the COVID-19 pandemic has created new avenues of cooperation between Indonesia and China, it has also adversely affected the domestic relations between ethnic Chinese citizens and the rest of the population. However, this has not translated into a widespread backlash toward China that might hinder bilateral cooperation.","PeriodicalId":15424,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs","volume":"42 1","pages":"45 - 62"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2023-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47916997","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Book Review: Anthropological witness: lessons from the Khmer rouge tribunal","authors":"Alexander Kent","doi":"10.1177/18681034221144463","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/18681034221144463","url":null,"abstract":"There is now a growing and timely literature on the role of anthropologists as expert witnesses in law courts. The cases in which they testify may range from asylum applications to crimes against humanity. Hinton’s Anthropological Witness, which is based upon his own experience of acting as an expert witness at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) in March 2016, makes an invaluable contribution to this literature. He uses his experience of testifying to address the overarching question of the role anthropology may play in public scholarship in general, and in a high-profile courtroom in particular. Public anthropology, he notes, employs anthropological insights to illuminate issues of public concern, and it uses an accessible writing style to reach a broad readership. Anthropological Witness is an account of how Hinton performed in a public forum to address the question Why Did They Kill? (the title of one his earlier books on the Khmer Rouge). Not only does the book concern theoretical questions relating to the incongruent epistemologies of anthropology and law, but it also carries the reader along with Hinton’s personal journey through a powerful historic moment. The effect is engaging on many levels. In the introduction to Anthropological Witness, Hinton reflects on the pros and cons of agreeing to testify – he is aware that his professional expertise will be aggressively contested. However, he also feels an obligation to the Cambodians who suffered, and a desire to use his knowledge to help prevent the recurrence of atrocities. Ultimately, he therefore agreed to testify. He was then questioned over a four-day period on his knowledge of how the Khmer Rouge treated ethnic Vietnamese, Cham, former Lon Nol soldiers and Buddhist clergy as well as about internal purges. First, Hinton paints the historical background to the ECCC trial at which he testified – Case 002. Case 002 tried Khmer Rouge Brother Number 2, Nuon Chea, and Khmer Rouge Head of State Khieu Samphan for crimes against humanity committed between 17 April 1975 and 6 January 1979. The charges related to the forced movement of people, execution of Khmer Republic soldiers, genocide of Cham and Vietnamese","PeriodicalId":15424,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs","volume":"42 1","pages":"134 - 137"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2023-01-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45018638","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"ASEAN and Great Power Rivalry in Regionalism: From East Asia to the Indo-Pacific","authors":"H. Yoshimatsu","doi":"10.1177/18681034221139297","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/18681034221139297","url":null,"abstract":"The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which serves as the linchpin of regionalism in East Asia, is facing a new challenge of great power politics. This article explores ASEAN's position in and strategy for taking cooperative regional initiatives by referring to the management of confrontational politics between rival states. It explains ASEAN's handling of great power politics theoretically by impartial enmeshment for managing great powers’ material interests and moral legitimacy in developing specific ideational frameworks. This article argues that ASEAN managed great powers’ rivalry by enmeshing them into its regional initiatives impartially and maintaining organisational legitimacy by developing systems of socio-cultural norms. It also contends that ASEAN needs, in envisioning the future of Indo-Pacific regionalism, to extend its strategic reach through alignments with other parties and enhance moral legitimacy by deepening and broadening normative frameworks for advancing collective interests for the Indo-Pacific region.","PeriodicalId":15424,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs","volume":"42 1","pages":"25 - 44"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2022-11-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41870666","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Beyond the Leader: An Ideational-Political Logics Approach to Redshirt Movement Populism in Thailand","authors":"Michael K. Connors","doi":"10.1177/18681034221127041","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/18681034221127041","url":null,"abstract":"By twinning the ideational and political logic approaches to populism, this article offers an original interpretation of the Redshirt movement in Thailand. The article extensively uses pro-Thaksin media sources and booklets to demonstrate how the Redshirt movement in Thailand appropriated the formerly authoritarian Thaksin as an empty signifier. This article fills a significant gap by exploring how ideational elements of the Redshirt movement fostered the emergence of a populist subject that struggled for a liberal constitutional re-foundation of Thai politics.","PeriodicalId":15424,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs","volume":"41 1","pages":"333 - 358"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2022-11-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47821328","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Contesting the ‘Promotion’ and ‘Protection’ of Human Rights: A Critical Understanding of the ASEAN–EU Relationship through Representational Force","authors":"Jamie D. Stacey","doi":"10.1177/18681034221134306","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/18681034221134306","url":null,"abstract":"How do we explain ASEAN – a non-western, traditionally ‘weak’ actor – and the degree to which it has successfully co-opted the EU into accepting its approach to human rights? This article considers the question of human rights in the ASEAN–EU relationship. It does so by reappraising the literature on constructivism and comparative regionalism, embracing the move beyond norm diffusion and Europe to norm contestation and local actors, namely ASEAN. Building on the literature of contestation, it operationalises Mattern's model of Representational Force to analyse the case study of the ASEAN–EU relationship from the 1990s to the establishment of AICHR in 2009 and beyond where we can see contestation in action. Interestingly, through the contestation over the ‘promotion’ and ‘protection’ of human rights, there is significant scope to see how it is ASEAN that has largely co-opted the EU into supporting a uniquely ‘ASEAN’ approach to human rights in Southeast Asia.","PeriodicalId":15424,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs","volume":"42 1","pages":"3 - 24"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2022-11-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45357437","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Book Review: Irregular migrants and the sea at the borders of Sabah, Malaysia: Pelagic Alliance","authors":"Fadiah Nadwa Fikri","doi":"10.1177/18681034221134199","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/18681034221134199","url":null,"abstract":"Irregular migrants in Sabah live in economic precarity and face irreversible consequences when confronted with immigration laws and policies that criminalize their irregularity. The strict enforcement of these laws and policies would often result in raid, arrest, detention, and forced repatriation. In light of this harsh reality, the introductory chapter (chapter 1) of Irregular Migrants and the Sea at the Borders of Sabah, Malaysia: Pelagic Alliance begins by posing a basic question: “Why do deported irregular migrants return, time and again, despite the serious risks of being caught?” (p. 1). The book’s main focus is on irregular migrants from southern Mindanao who selfidentify as Suluk (Tausug), Bajau (Samal), Visayan, Illongo and Cebuano. Despite this main focus, most of the irregular migrants that the author interviewed express mixed maritime heritages, which is indicative of their diverse backgrounds. This diversity is made clear by the author when identifying them in the book. In shedding light on the notion of home, which these irregular migrants found compelling when making the decision to return to Sabah, the introductory chapter notes how it seeks to incorporate “important elements of migrant life amidst ongoing state scrutiny: alliances and networks, both human and non-human, and the ways in which these motivate” them to make that decision (p. 1). The book attempts to demonstrate how the sea, the Sulu Sea, in particular, being an “underappreciated agent” (p. 2), provides refuge and strength to irregular migrants in Sandakan, Sabah who are forced to navigate perilous implications engendered by their irregularity. The author uses the term “pelagic alliances” to refer to the relationship that this group of people has with the Sulu Sea. This approach, which, as the author highlights, “hopes to illuminate the powerful nature of human-nonhuman relations in order to change the way we perceive human mobility amid structural constraints,” is necessary given the heavy emphasis of the existing literature on either the push and pull factors of irregular migration in Sabah or the socio-political implications of such migration (p. 5). The voices of irregular migrants centered in the introductory chapter demonstrates the unique connection that the community has to the sea, which they describe as persekutuan (a country and an ally) (p. 3), while encountering immigration and border policing and its consequences. The introductory chapter of the book, which also situates the migration crisis in Sabah, is followed by four other chapters which embody separate case studies involving various groups of people within the irregular migrant community living in Sandakan, Sabah such as men, women, and youths. These case studies capture the different aspects of irregular Book Review","PeriodicalId":15424,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs","volume":"41 1","pages":"464 - 466"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2022-10-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49113684","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A Philippine Strongman's Legislative and Constitutional Reforms Legacy","authors":"Michael Henry Ll. Yusingco, Ronald U. Mendoza, G. A. Mendoza, Jurel K. Yap","doi":"10.1177/18681034221122265","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/18681034221122265","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines five years of legislation and constitutional reform under former President Rodrigo R. Duterte. An overview of post-1986 republic acts shows administrations being more successful in legislating social and economic laws than political laws. President Duterte is no exception to this, yet his presidency stands out in both legislative productivity and the passage of long-overdue laws. This success is due in part to high presidential approval, a supermajority coalition in Congress, and a unified Cabinet. These strengthen his influence over Congress, raising expectations that charter change can be fulfiled. His administration's failed attempt at federalism then raises questions on his commitment to the policy in the first place. Despite a populist campaign and institutional means at his disposal, Duterte does not appear any different from his predecessors who prioritised economic laws favoured by the business class over deep political reform with broader implications on governance and development.","PeriodicalId":15424,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs","volume":"42 1","pages":"63 - 89"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2022-09-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46932086","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"CSO Networks and Resistance to Forced Displacement in Cambodia","authors":"Sarah R. Rose-Jensen","doi":"10.1177/18681034221116127","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/18681034221116127","url":null,"abstract":"While development-related conflicts are remarkably common in many regions, successful resolution of these conflicts, from the community perspective, is rare. The existing literature shows that early and sustained engagement with civil society has been key in securing better outcomes for communities, however, the activities and interventions of CSO networks that facilitate this are less clear. Based on more than a year of ethnographic field research in two communities engaged in protracted development-related conflicts in Cambodia, I find that through engagement with civil society networks, community members develop new understandings of development and development-related conflicts, particularly the role of the state in resolving or not resolving these conflicts, and awareness of potential solutions to those conflicts as well as of their own agency in seeking resolutions. These new understandings and agency enable community members to remain engaged in protracted conflicts, despite the high costs and barriers which increases the likelihood that the conflict will be resolved in ways that community members consider successful or at least less detrimental. The research indicates that sustained engagement with CSO networks, particularly local and regional CSOs, can help to ensure better outcomes for communities engaged in development-related conflicts in Southeast Asia.","PeriodicalId":15424,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs","volume":"41 1","pages":"440 - 463"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2022-07-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45161706","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}