{"title":"Myanmar in 2018: New Democracy Hangs in the Balance","authors":"M. Pedersen","doi":"10.1355/9789814843164-016","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1355/9789814843164-016","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":21900,"journal":{"name":"Southeast Asian Affairs","volume":"27 1","pages":"224 - 241"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-04-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81270805","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Vietnam and Mekong Cooperative Mechanisms","authors":"To Minh Thu, Le Dinh Tinh","doi":"10.1355/9789814843164-025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1355/9789814843164-025","url":null,"abstract":"Regional cooperation in the Mekong Basin has become increasingly dynamic in recent years with the emergence of new mechanisms and the reshuffling of existing ones. During the 1990s, Mekong cooperative efforts were primarily confined to the riparian countries. However, over the past ten years, as a result of its strategic location and growth potential, the Mekong Basin region has attracted the attention of major powers and developmental partners, including the United States, China, Japan, India and the European Union. The cooperative mechanisms both among riparian countries and with external partners have provided platforms for discussion of regional issues, especially water resource management, economic development and integration into the regional and global markets, regional connectivity, and addressing common challenges. In 2018, a series of summits related to the Mekong region took place. In January, Cambodia hosted the 2nd Mekong-Lancang Cooperation (MLC) Summit. In March, Vietnam held the 6th Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) Summit and the 10th Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam (CLV) Development Triangle Area Summit. In April, the 3rd Mekong River Commission Summit took place in Cambodia. This was followed by the 8th Ayeyawady–Chao Phraya–Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy (ACMECS) Summit in Thailand in June and the 10th Mekong-Japan Summit in October. In addition, a number of Ministerial-level meetings were held,","PeriodicalId":21900,"journal":{"name":"Southeast Asian Affairs","volume":"295 1","pages":"395 - 411"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-04-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73320805","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Malaysia in 2018: The Year of Voting Dangerously","authors":"Geoffrey K. Pakiam","doi":"10.1355/9789814843164-014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1355/9789814843164-014","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":21900,"journal":{"name":"Southeast Asian Affairs","volume":"32 1","pages":"194 - 210"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-04-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80374253","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Competing Logics: Between Thai Sovereignty and the China Model in 2018","authors":"Gregory V. Raymond","doi":"10.1355/9789814843164-022","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1355/9789814843164-022","url":null,"abstract":"In September 2018 a quarrel between a Thai border guard and a tourist from the People’s Republic of China at Bangkok’s Don Mueang Airport turned violent. The argument took place after the Chinese visitor was denied entry on the grounds that he could not produce evidence that he would return to China after his trip to Thailand. The incident should be worrying for Thailand, given the country’s increasing reliance on the growing numbers of Chinese tourists since the coup of 2014. Yet this incident is also symbolic of the internal pressure generated within the Thai state as a result of having to manage China’s encroachments on Thai sovereignty. In 2018 the Thai military government struggled to maintain a balance between two opposing policy logics. On the one hand, China has become not just a critical economic partner but also a potential model of governance; on the other, Thailand’s resilient strategic culture and national identity each emphasize sovereignty and independence, requiring judicious diplomacy with the great powers as the primary tool to achieve these ends. Clearly, there is a tension here: while Thailand may find the stability of authoritarian capitalism attractive, it no more wants coercion from China than it does from the United States. In this chapter I assess the extent to which 2018 may have seen the highwater mark of Thailand’s embrace of China and its adoption of the China","PeriodicalId":21900,"journal":{"name":"Southeast Asian Affairs","volume":"83 1","pages":"341 - 358"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-04-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76562511","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Ethnicity, Citizenship and Identity in Post-2016 Myanmar","authors":"M. Thuzar, D. Cheong","doi":"10.1355/9789814843164-017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1355/9789814843164-017","url":null,"abstract":"Myanmar has been experiencing less peaks than troughs in its transformation after Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), which won a landslide victory in the November 2015 polls, took office in 2016. The NLD inherited deep-seated legacies and prejudices, as well as a unique blend of political identity entrenched over seventy years of civil war. From 2016’s promise of being an annus mirabilis under a democratically elected government, Myanmar’s fledgling democracy experienced several challenges, particularly in getting the economy back on track amidst ongoing negotiations on powerand resource-sharing with ethnic armed organizations (EAOs), with whom the NLD’s predecessor administration had engaged in a nationwide ceasefire process. The years 2017 and 2018 were something of anni horribiles for the country. Foremost among the litany of disappointments decried by critics has been the NLD government’s — and particularly Daw Suu’s — reluctance to explicitly condemn violence against the Rohingya in the wake of a disproportionate response by Myanmar’s armed forces, the Tatmadaw, to an armed insurgency in August 2017. The Tatmadaw’s operations in the northern part of Myanmar’s Rakhine State bordering Bangladesh were reported to have included rape, torture, and burning of villages, causing the largest exodus to date of some 700,000 Rohingya residing in Myanmar across the border to Bangladesh. Domestic support for Daw Suu","PeriodicalId":21900,"journal":{"name":"Southeast Asian Affairs","volume":"20 1","pages":"243 - 258"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-04-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76619128","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"An Australian Vision of the Indo-Pacific and What it Means for Southeast Asia","authors":"R. Medcalf","doi":"10.1355/9789814843164-005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1355/9789814843164-005","url":null,"abstract":"Professor rory Medcalf is Head of the National Security College at the Australian National University. His career has spanned diplomacy, intelligence analysis, think tanks, academia and journalism. He is internationally recognized as a thought leader on the emerging concept of the Indo-Pacific. His forthcoming book on the Indo-Pacific concept will be published by Black Inc. (Melbourne). AN AUSTRALIAN VISION OF THE INDO-PACIFIC AND WHAT IT MEANS FOR SOUTHEAST ASIA","PeriodicalId":21900,"journal":{"name":"Southeast Asian Affairs","volume":"38 1","pages":"53 - 60"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-04-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75909655","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Indonesia in 2018: The Calm before the Election Storm","authors":"Natalie Sambhi","doi":"10.1355/9789814843164-010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1355/9789814843164-010","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":21900,"journal":{"name":"Southeast Asian Affairs","volume":"14 1","pages":"122 - 143"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-04-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78406899","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Trump Administration's Free and Open Indo-Pacific Approach","authors":"B. Harding","doi":"10.1355/9789814843164-006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1355/9789814843164-006","url":null,"abstract":"After nearly two years, the Trump administration’s approach to the Indo-Pacific region has finally taken shape. Its objectives are a “Free and Open Indo-Pacific”, in line with decades of U.S. policy in the region, but in a new context of outright strategic competition with China. Its means include familiar tools of U.S. engagement, with some modest improvements for the times. But in Donald Trump’s America, actions often do not support stated goals and, in the case of policy in the Indo-Pacific, President Trump’s personal instincts, in particular his dogmatic approach to trade, have undermined his administration’s best efforts in the region.","PeriodicalId":21900,"journal":{"name":"Southeast Asian Affairs","volume":"26 1","pages":"61 - 67"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-04-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87518395","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Toxic Democracy? The Philippines in 2018","authors":"Nicole Curato","doi":"10.1355/9789814843164-018","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1355/9789814843164-018","url":null,"abstract":"Toxic is the Oxford English Dictionary's word of the year for 2018. It is a word that captures the mood of our time, evidenced by the 45 per cent spike in frequency of people who looked up the term. Used in tandem with the word masculinity , toxic has served as descriptor to emphasize the physical harm, emotional damage and lethal effects of patriarchal power. The same word can summarize the year 2018 for the Philippines. Beyond President Rodrigo Duterte's overt displays of toxic masculinity is a discernible pattern of his administration's aggressive attacks against the integrity of democratic institutions. From attempting to jail opposition figures to forging controversial deals with China that place the Philippines’ sovereignty at risk, the regime has demonstrated the extent to which it is willing to breach the boundaries of state power while evading accountability. This chapter analyses the Philippines in 2018 around the three themes of toxic politics, toxic policies and toxic deals. Each of these themes focuses on specific issues that will draw attention to broader patterns of Duterte's rule, which, as this chapter argues, has assumed a toxic quality for democratic life. Toxic politics focuses on issues of press freedom and the ouster of the Supreme Court chief justice Maria Lourdes Sereno. Toxic policies examines how Duterte's iron-fisted approach to governance shaped the conduct of the Boracay island shutdown and Marawi rehabilitation. Finally, toxic deals focuses on Chinese investment and new tax laws. By identifying these issues, this chapter does not intend to portray a bleak future for Philippine democracy. The final part of the chapter demonstrates how the public has responded to this political trajectory, and prompts reflection on where the nation may be headed. Democracy's Autoimmune Disease There has always been a danger that the populist President Duterte would have a toxic effect on Philippine democracy. Populism, as political theorist Simon Tormey puts it, is a pharmakon , “a powerful substance intended to make someone better, but which might end up killing him or her”. There is no way to know the outcome in advance, he argues, for the toxicity of populism “depends on the dosage and receptivity of the body”.","PeriodicalId":21900,"journal":{"name":"Southeast Asian Affairs","volume":"60 1","pages":"260 - 274"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-04-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78667201","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Singapore–China Relations: Building Substantive Ties amidst Challenges","authors":"Lye Liang Fook","doi":"10.1355/9789814786843-020","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1355/9789814786843-020","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":21900,"journal":{"name":"Southeast Asian Affairs","volume":"35 1","pages":"321 - 339"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-05-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74663667","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}