Seminar: The Government’s Business: Politics, Policies and the Corporate Sector in Malaysia

 

MALAYSIA STUDIES PROGRAMME

About the Seminar

In 2008, when a global financial crisis erupted and brought the world to the brink of economic collapse, a strong critique of poorly regulated capitalism emerged, bringing to the fore debates about models of development that involve the use of government-linked companies (GLCs) to generate growth. Malaysia provides an interesting case of state intervention in the economy to drive economic growth and redistribute wealth equitably. GLCs, which serve as investment funds and savings-based institutions that vary significantly in terms of their size and objectives, have emerged as Malaysia’s leading enterprises with ownership and control of a huge number of companies through complex pyramid-type organizational structures. The government, under different Prime Ministers, has employed these GLCs in the economy and in the corporate sector in different ways.

This lecture provides an historical review of government-business relations in Malaysia, tracing how this nexus shaped the mode of the state’s intervention in the economy and the nature of its politics and policies. Particular attention will be paid to critical historical junctures, when crises precipitated change in models of development and the relationship between management control and public governance of GLCs.

About the Speaker

Edmund Terence Gomez is Professor of Political Economy at the Faculty of Economics & Administration, University of Malaya.  He specializes in state-market relations and the linkages between politics, policies and enterprise development. He has held appointments at the University of Leeds (UK) and Murdoch University (Australia) and served as Visiting Professor at Kobe University, Japan and at the Universities of Michigan (Ann Arbor) and California (San Diego). Between 2005 and 2008, he served as Research Coordinator at the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), in Geneva, Switzerland. Other academic appointments include Visiting Fellowships at the Australian National University, Canberra and at the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, Denmark.

His international book publications include Malaysia’s Political Economy: Politics, Patronage and Profits (Cambridge University Press, 1997); Chinese Business in Malaysia: Accumulation, Ascendance, Accommodation (University of Hawaii Press, 1999); Political Business in East Asia (Routledge, 2002); The State of Malaysia: Ethnicity, Equity and Reform (Routledge, 2004); The State, Development and Identity in Multi-ethnic Countries: Ethnicity, Equity and the Nation (Routledge, 2008); The Politics of Resource Extraction: Indigenous Peoples, Multinational Corporations and the State (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2012); The New Economic Policy in Malaysia: Affirmative Action, Horizontal Inequalities and Social Justice (National University of Singapore Press, 2013); and Minister of Finance Incorporated: Ownership and Control of Corporate Malaysia (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2017).

Registration

For registration, please fill in this form and email to iseasevents2@iseas.edu.sg by 15 August 2017.

 

Seminar: Malaysian GE-14 Election Scenarios: Old and New Terrain

 

MALAYSIA STUDIES PROGRAMME

About the Seminar

Prime Minister Najib Razak must hold the next Malaysian elections by August 2018. The country has started to enter election mode, with the opposition Pakatan Harapan declaring recently its leadership line-up. What are the chances of the respective contenders? What will influence the outcome? This seminar draws on voting behaviour data in earlier elections and field interviews to lay out the different factors that will potentially shape Malaysia’s GE-14 results. While previous elections have revolved around the 3-Ms – media, machinery, and money – this upcoming election will centre on the 3-Ds – deals, data and delivery. Leadership and political parties are being similarly tested in new ways, as electoral system engineering has evolved in a highly contested dynamic.  The key socio-political divides are no longer just along ethnic lines, but involve other social cleavages such as age, region and class, and the political rhetoric is taking on more confrontational tones in what remains a deeply polarized political environment.  Trends point to a fundamentally different contest, but given the unprecedented mobilization of state resources and levers of power on the part of the incumbent leadership, it remains to be seen whether the result will differ from the past.

About the Speaker

Bridget Welsh is a Visiting Professor of Political Science at John Cabot University in Rome, where she will join the faculty full-time this August. She specializes in Southeast Asian politics, with particular focus on Malaysia, Myanmar and Singapore. She has edited/written numerous books including, Reflections: The Mahathir Years, Legacy of Engagement in Southeast Asia, Impressions of the Goh Chok Tong Years, Democracy Takeoff? The B.J. Habibie Period, Awakening: The Abdullah Badawi Years (a Malay edition Bangkit was published in 2014) and The End of UMNO? Essays on Malaysia’s Dominant Party and over fifty chapters and academic articles. Her research reflects a keen interest in democracy and governance in East Asia, especially Southeast Asia. She is a member of the Asian Barometer Survey Southeast Asia team, and is currently directing the survey projects in Malaysia and Myanmar. From 2015-2016 she was a professor of political science at Ipek University in Turkey. Prior to joining Ipek, she taught at Singapore Management University, the School of Advanced International Studies of the Johns Hopkins University in Washington DC and Hofstra University in New York. She received her doctorate in political science from Columbia University, her language training at Cornell University (FALCON) and bachelor’s degree from Colgate University. She is also a Senior Research Associate of the Center for East Asia Democratic Studies of National Taiwan University, a Senior Associate Fellow of The Habibie Center, a University Fellow of Charles Darwin University, a Senior Advisor for Freedom House and a member of the International Research Council of the National Endowment for Democracy.

Registration

For registration, please fill in this form and email to iseasevents2@iseas.edu.sg by 7 August 2017.

 

Seminar: Christianity in an Era of Religious “Conservative Turn” in Indonesia: Is Religious Multiculturalism Possible?

 

INDONESIA STUDIES PROGRAMME

About the Seminar

Christianity has experienced rapid growth in Indonesia in the past few decades. Such proliferation has raised anxiety among some Muslims who fear “Christianisation” due to aggressive proselytising by Evangelical and Pentecostal Christians in majority Muslim areas. This fear – whether real or phantom – has had material consequences, as exemplified by the massive rallies held by hard line Islamists in late 2016 that culminated in the imprisonment of the former Chinese Christian governor of Jakarta. Christians, on the other hand, have also perceived the rising “Islamization” in Indonesia as a menace. The reasons behind this “conservative turn” (Fealy 2006) are multiple and complex. The obvious ones are the opening of the public sphere in the process of post-Suharto democratization, the rising influence of puritanical forms of Islam from the Middle East, and other international factors such as the “war on the terror”. However, Fealy (2006) further argues that this rising conservatism could also be caused by a backlash towards the liberal movement within Islam in their attempt to reform Islam. What may be equally concerning is the concomitant reactionary conservative force within Christianity which works in tandem with the rising Islamic conservatism in Indonesia today.

In light of the current situation, this presentation explores the ways in which Christian Indonesians navigate the multicultural environment of otherness, and the treacherous waters of increasing religious intolerance. Upon giving an overview of the diversity within Indonesian Christianity, the paper discusses the tension and competition between Christianity and Islam, as well as among different denominations in negotiating plurality within Christianity. Finally, the paper examines the possibility of “religious multiculturalism” – a concept that involves an active state in protecting religious minorities and an incorporation of the inclusive Pancasila national ideology – as a framework to accommodate Indonesia’s multi-religiosity.

About the Speaker

Hoon Chang Yau is Director of the Centre for Advanced Research, and Associate Professor of Anthropology at the Institute of Asian Studies, University of Brunei Darussalam. He is also currently Visiting Fellow at ISEAS-Yusok Ishak Institute, and Adjunct Research Fellow at the University of Western Australia (UWA).

In his previous appointment as Assistant Professor of Asian Studies and Sing Lun Fellow at Singapore Management University, Dr Hoon was awarded the SMU Teaching Excellence Award (2012) and SMU Research Excellence Award (2014).

He is the author of the monograph, Chinese Identity in Post-Suharto Indonesia: Culture, Media and Politics (2008, Sussex Academic Press), which has translations in Chinese and Indonesian. He is the co-editor of Chinese Indonesians Reassessed: History, Religion and Belonging (Routledge, 2013), and Catalysts of Change: Ethnic Chinese Business in Asia (World Scientific, 2014). His articles have appeared in refereed journals including International Sociology, Asian Studies Review, South East Asia Research, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Asian Ethnicity and Social Compass, among others.

Registration

For registration, please fill in this form and email to iseasevents3@iseas.edu.sg by 17 July 2017.

 

Seminar: Trade Union Movement and Democracy in Indonesia

 

INDONESIA STUDIES PROGRAMME

About the Seminar

The seminar will discuss the involvement of the Indonesian trade union movement in two different, yet closely related, events in 2010 and 2014, and its future trajectory.

The first was the movement’s involvement in the 2010 social security campaign, which has encouraged the emergence of a new kind of trade union movement in an unprecedented way, manifesting itself in the Action Committee for Social Security Reform (Komite Aksi Jaminan Sosial, KAJS), which is a national alliance of unions pushing for the reforms of the universal social security system.

The second event was its involvement in the electoral politics through legislative and presidential elections in 2014, as well as the opportunities and challenges that accompany it. The presentation will show that in its efforts to become an effective political power, the Indonesian trade union movement has been quite successful in the social security campaign, whereas it generally has not been so successful in its electoral politics experimentation. There was an overestimation of their strength coming on the back of their previous success in the social security campaign. Moreover, the over-dominance of leaders and the sectorial ego has also contributed to the failure.

These two events, nevertheless, show the importance of societal power and the potential of the trade union movement in garnering alternative class political power in Indonesia. Learning from the 2014 experience, the discussion will also touch upon the prognosis of the involvement of the trade unions in the 2019 presidential election.

About the Speaker

Surya Tjandra is public attorney and expert on Indonesian trade unions and labour issues. He is a labour activist-turned academic affiliated with the Jakarta-based organization, the Trade Union Rights Centre, and lecturer on Labour Law at Atma Jaya Catholic University, Jakarta.

Dr Tjandra completed his PhD on “Labour Law and Development in Indonesia” at Van Vollenhoven Institute, Leiden University, the Netherlands, in 2016. He has published extensively on these issues, including “Kompilasi Putusan Pengadilan Hubungan Industrial Terseleksi: 2006-2007” (2008), which was the first compilation of the newly established Industrial Relations Courts’ decisions in Indonesia, and “Makin Terang Bagi Kami: Belajar Hukum Perburuhan” (2006), which provides an alternative socio-legal approach on the labour law studies in Indonesia.

In 2015, Dr Tjandra became one of the top 8 candidates to lead the Corruption Eradication Commission, the anti-graft agency of Indonesia.

Registration

For registration, please fill in this form and email to iseasevents3@iseas.edu.sg by 5 July 2017.

 

Seminar: Assessing Vietnam’s Economic and Political Developments since the CPV’s 12th Congress

 

VIETNAM STUDIES PROGRAMME

About the Seminar

The 12th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) in January 2016 elected a new party leadership and led to the appointment of a new government under Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc three months later. Since then, the Party and its government have taken important steps to fight corruption, strengthen party discipline, and promote economic growth. The seminar will review these political and economic developments and assess their implications for Vietnam’s outlook. It will also discuss the outcomes of the Fifth Plenum of the CPV’s Central Committee (May 2017), in which the Party sacked a Politburo member and adopted important resolutions on the socialist-oriented market economy, the reform of state-owned enterprises, and the development of the private sector.

About the Speaker

Le Dang Doanh is currently a member of the Committee for Development Policy of the UN (2016-2018), a Senior Fellow at the Economic College, Hanoi National University (HNU) and member of the Scholar Board of the Central Institute of Economic Management (CIEM). Before that, he was a senior economist and advisor to the Minister of Planning and Investment until his retirement in July 2007. Dr Le has also been a member of the (advisory) research commission of the Prime Minister of Vietnam from 1993 until June 2006; the president of the Central Institute of Economic Management (CIEM) between 1993 and 2001; vice-president of the CIEM from 1990 to 1993; and the senior economist to the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Nguyen Van Linh from 1989 until 1990. In addition, Dr Le has lectured at universities and academies in Hanoi, and spent time as a visiting professor at the Nihon University in Tokyo. He has served on various boards and committees, including the commission for state-owned enterprise reform; the research group of the Prime Minister for socio-economic and administration reform; the commission for finance and monetary policy; the Vietnam-Japan Research Council; and the commission for finance and foreign exchange in East and South East Asia of the Ministry of Finance of Japan, nominated by Minister Myazawa.

Registration

For registration, please fill in this form and email to iseasevents4@iseas.edu.sg by 12 July 2017.

 

Seminar: The Thai Military’s Civil Affairs Projects: From Counter-Insurgency to Counter-Democracy

 

THAILAND STUDIES PROGRAMME

About the Seminar

Unlike the Indonesian military’s role in the civilian affairs during the Guided Democracy and the New Order periods, the Thai military’s extensive involvement in various civilian affairs projects has attracted little attention from scholars. Within Thailand’s armed forces, the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC) was the main agency charged with carrying out a wide range of civilian affairs projects during the counter-insurgency period. Its activities included rural development, creating mass organisations and mobilisation campaigns, and psychological operations.  However, the demise of communism did not see the winding up of ISOC or the end of its activities. Indeed, after the coup of May 2014 that toppled the elected government led by the Phuea Thai party, ISOC became more active and powerful in supporting the military government of General Prayut Chan-ocha and suppressing its political opponents. These activities have led human rights advocates to brand ISOC “a state within the state”.

The seminar presents the preliminary results of a study of the Thai military’s civilian affair activities. It argues that the power of Thai military lies not only in its use of forces but also in its socio-political and economic arms. These represent a potent tool with which conservative elites can undermine and control electoral democracy.  In this seminar, the speaker will focus on the current extensive duties and power of ISOC, on its origins, development, justification and legitimacy.

About the Speaker

Puangthong Pawakapan is Associate Professor at Department of International Relations, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. She is currently a Visiting Senior Fellow in the Thailand Studies Programme of the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute. Her first fellowship at ISEAS was between July 2014 and January 2015, when she worked on “The Foreign Press’ Changing Perceptions of Thailand’s Monarchy.” Trends in Southeast Asia. (ISEAS, 2015). Between August 2010 and June 2011, she was a Visiting Research Fellow at the Shorenstein Asia Pacific Research Center, Stanford University, when she worked on the publication State and Uncivil Society in Thailand at the Temple of Preah Vihear, (ISEAS, 2013). Between May 1998 and May 1999, she was a Visiting Research Fellow at the Cambodian Genocide Program, Yale University, where she wrote “Thailand’s Response to the Cambodian Genocide”, in Sue Cook (ed.), Genocide in Cambodia and Rwanda: New Perspectives, (New Brunswick: Transaction Books, 2006). Her principal interests are in Thailand’s relationship with its neighbours and contemporary political conflict.

Registration

For registration, please fill in this form and email to iseasevents2@iseas.edu.sg by 30 June 2017.

 

Seminar: The Trump Administration and Southeast Asia: The First 10%

 

REGIONAL STRATEGIC AND POLITICAL STUDIES PROGRAMME

About the Seminar

President Trump and questions about how he and his administration are changing US foreign policy and place in the world dominate front and opinion pages, and many of our social media feeds.  It is still not clear what the Trump administration’s Asia policy is and where Southeast Asia and Southeast Asian states fit within it. The Obama administration’s pivot and rebalance have been declared dead. What will take their place?

Looking at the first five months of the Trump administration, the three panellists will analyse what has and has not changed in US-Southeast Asia relations and what guidance this initial transition period provides for the rest of the current Trump administration’s approach to our region.

About the Speakers

Walter Lohman is the Director of the Asian Studies Center at the Heritage Foundation, the largest, most broadly-supported conservative research and educational institution in the United States, and an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University where he teaches courses on US-East Asia relations. Prior to joining the Heritage Foundation in 2006, Walter was the Senior Vice President and Executive Director of the US-ASEAN Business Council. He has years of experience working on Asian matters in the US Senate.

Joseph Liow Chin Yong is Dean and Professor of Comparative and International Politics at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. From 2014 to 2016, Joseph held the inaugural Lee Kuan Yew Chair in Southeast Asia Studies at the Brookings Institution, Washington DC, where he was also a Senior Fellow in the Foreign Policy Program.

Ian Storey is a Senior Fellow and Editor of the academic journal Contemporary Southeast Asia at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute. Dr Storey specializes in Asian security issues, with a focus on Southeast Asia and the South China Sea dispute.

Registration

For registration, please fill in this form and email to iseasevents2@iseas.edu.sg by 29 June 2017.

 

Seminar: Internationalising SMEs: Case Studies from Indonesia and Malaysia

 

REGIONAL ECONOMIC STUDIES PROGRAMME

 

About the Seminar

The ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) aims to create an integrated market and production space for its ten member states. This expanded market, in principle, should create opportunities for the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the region to grow within a regional context as a first step towards a global market. The focus on SMEs is not without reason: SMEs constitute between 89-99 % of the firms in ASEAN Member States (AMSs), creating between 52-97% of employment and contributing between 23-58% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 10-30% of exports in the region. However, studies have shown that there is generally low awareness of the AEC and the opportunities accorded by the AEC initiatives. The literature tends to focus on the challenges faced by the SMEs in general, especially in internationalizing their operations. Research questions that are frequently asked pertain to the factors that determine their exports or internationalization strategies or the drivers of their internationalization and/or the challenges faced by SMEs in their internationalization efforts. In contrast, there is less focus on how SMEs overcome exisiting challenges to enter markets and extend their reach, especially in ASEAN. The seminar aims to understand how SMEs in Indonesia and Malaysia manage to penetrate the ASEAN and global market, using a case studies approach. In particular, what are the policies and institutions (both in their respective countries and in ASEAN) that are most helpful in their internationalization strategies for ASEAN and beyond ASEAN.

About the Speakers

Tulus T.H. Tambunan is a lecturer in the faculty of economics, Trisakti University in Jakarta, Indonesia. Currently he is also the director and the main researcher of the Center for Industry, Small and Medium Enterprises, and Business Competition Studies in the same university. He has done many studies on various issues related to micro, small and medium enterprises, economic crises, regional trade, and inclusive development. Some of his publications include ASEAN Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises toward AEC 2015 (Saarbrȕcken: Lambert Academic Publishing (LAP), 2015), and SME in Asian Developing Countries (London: Palgrave Macmillan Publisher, 2009).

Tham Siew Yean is a Senior Fellow at ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute. She was formerly Director and Professor at Institute of Malaysian and International Studies (IKMAS), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. Her research interests and publications are in foreign direct investment, international trade, trade policies, and industrial development in Malaysia and ASEAN. Her recent publication includes among others, “Moving Up the Value Chain in ICT: ASEAN Trade with China”, Journal of Contemporary Asia, Vol. 46, No. 4: 680-699; 2016 (with Andrew Jia Yi Kam and Nor Izzatina Aziz).

Registation

For registration, please fill in this form and email to iseasevents3@iseas.edu.sg by 28 April 2017.

 

Seminar: Recent Political Developments in Malaysia and Implications for PRU 14

 

MALAYSIA STUDIES PROGRAMME

About the Seminar 

While the 13th Parliament of Malaysia will automatically dissolve on 24 June 2018, it is most probable that Prime Minister Najib Razak will call the next general elections (GE14) earlier. Many analysts expect the GE14 to be held in October 2017 soon after the Southeast Asian Games in Kuala Lumpur (19-30 August), the double celebration of the 60th Merdeka Day on 31 August and Malaysia Day on 16 September, and the expected Budget 2018 goodies.

There is a lot of dissatisfaction with the BN government, even in the Malay heartland including among Felda settlers, traditionally UNMO’s fixed deposit of votes, due to the Felda Global Ventures debacle. But, however, the serious and seemingly unsurmountable divisions within the opposition parties will make it very difficult for the opposition to wrest control of Putra Jaya. In fact, the opposition’s fractious divisions may help the BN, despite being fairly unpopular, to regain its 2/3 parliamentary majority. I will draw on polling results in PRU 13 as well as in some of the
by-elections to substantiate my arguments.

 

About the Speaker

Dr Jeyakumar Devaraj is a medical doctor who, after completion of 18 years in government service, took on the then MIC President Samy Vellu in the 1999 general elections. Jeyakumar lost in 1999 and again in 2004, but managed to displace Samy Vellu in 2008, and retained the Sungei Siput parliamentary seat in 2013.A social activist since his university days, he is a founder member of the Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) and is currently a PSM central committee member. He has been the secretary of the Coalition Against Privatization of Health Care since its formation in 2004.

Jeyakumar has authored several books including Sucked Oranges (Insan 1989), Logging Against the Natives (Insan 1989), The Marginalised Society (Alaigal 1993 – in Tamil), Speaking Truth to Power (Alaigal 2002), Malaysia at the Crossroads (Parsosma 2009) and Maaf Tuan Speaker (Parsosma 2011 – in Malay).

 

Registration
To register, please fill in this form and email to iseasevents2@iseas.edu.sg by 15 June 2017.