REGIONAL STRATEGIC AND POLITICAL STUDIES PROGRAMME SEMINAR
About the Seminar
Reflecting the lack of a clear structure to international relations more generally, the Indo-Pacific has become a region where uncertainty has become the main characteristic of relations between Great Powers, as well as between them and smaller countries. The Trump administration has yet to articulate a policy towards Asia and meanwhile it is not clear who speaks for the administration on particular issues, or indeed what are Trump’s priorities in foreign affairs and on China in particular. For example, how far will Trump go in pressing China to toughen its policies towards North Korea, or to change its trade policies? Smaller countries such North Korea and the Philippines have at times openly defied their allies and longtime protectors – China and the US respectively – without adverse consequences. Much vaunted trade deals, such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) have been halted or abandoned. I shall argue, however, that the disorder is more apparent than real. The Great Powers of the region are more focused on domestic issues and these would be imperiled if they allowed mutual antagonisms to grow into major military conflicts. Likewise for the smaller countries, the one major achievement of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which is largely unheralded, is that its member states have also avoided military conflict despite their many deep antagonisms.
About the Speaker
Michael Yahuda is Professor Emeritus of International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where he served from 1973 to 2003. Prior to that he was a lecturer in the Politics Department of the University of Southampton from 1966 to 1973. Since coming to the US in August 2003 he has served as a Visiting Scholar at the Sigur Center for Asian Studies, the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University. He enjoys an international reputation as a specialist on China’s foreign relations and on the international politics of East Asia. He has authored and edited ten books, the latest being, The International Politics of the Asia Pacific (3rd revised edition, 2011) and Sino-Japanese Relations after the Cold War: Two Tigers Sharing a Mountain (2013) He has also written more than 250 scholarly articles and chapters in books.
Registration
To register, please fill in this form and email it to iseasevents2@iseas.edu.sg by 17 April 2017.
REGIONAL SOCIAL AND CULTURAL STUDIES PROGRAMME
Arts in Southeast Asia Seminar Series
About the Seminar
In a post Khmer Rouge world Cambodian culture is often defined by its connection to the past, yet many young Cambodian artists and designers are looking towards the future to create a new understanding of what it means to be Cambodian. This paper examines the role Cambodian contemporary artists play in helping to develop a post Khmer Rouge national identity, through examining the current events, which are transforming the Cambodian art world. Focus over the last two decades, in regards to defining Cambodian national identity, has shifted wildly from control over language, morality, and dress code to implementation of nationalistic business practices, and political reform. Control over the arts has only recently become a topic of public concern, yet for decades the artistic community has struggled with the formulation of a post Khmer Rouge voice. This paper will closely look at what is traditionally defined as “Cambodian”, and will question how contemporary artists choose to represent these elements, or for that matter, to ignore them. These artists are constantly pushing against pre-conceived notions of what it means to be Cambodian, and are striving to show both Cambodian’s and the world that their national identity is filled with more than just sacred temples and Apsara dancers.
About the Speaker
Christine Ege grew up in Northern California, but has spent the last 12 years living outside of the United States. She received her Bachelor’s Degree in Art History from Franklin University in Lugano, Switzerland and her Master’s Degree in East Asian Art from Sotheby’s Institute of Art in London. She has been living in Cambodia for the last six years, where she has been involved on a day-to-day basis with emerging artistic talent. She is currently the Director of The Institute for Executive, Professional, and Community Education and Head of the Digital Arts and Design Department at Zaman University. She teaches many courses in the fields of art and design, with focuses on art history, business practices in art, web design, and animation. She is currently working on research related to buying and selling practices in the Cambodian contemporary art market. Her research focuses on evaluating business practices and market potential to understand how to get Cambodians more active in the local market.
Registration
To register, please fill in this form and email it to <iseasevents2@iseas.edu.sg> by Tuesday, 11 April 2017.
MALAYSIA STUDIES PROGRAMME
About the Seminar
Religious interaction is one of the significant elements in Malaysia-Saudi Arabia relations. There are two important features in Malaysia’s religious interaction with Saudi Arabia. The first feature is on the implementation of Islamic teachings, Islamic jurisprudence in particular, for both countries. Malaysia is traditionally associated with the teaching of the Shafiite school from as early as the 15th century, whereas the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia largely practices the Hanbalite-Wahhabism school. In religiously interacting with Saudi Arabia, Malaysia is certainly dealing with the Kingdom’s Wahhabism ideology which arguably inspired some Islamic movements during the 19th and early 20th centuries ago in the Malay Archipelago. Malaysia, however, to this date, is less receptive of the Wahhabism ideology due to the dominance of the Shafiite school, the government’s ‘guarded’ religious policies and the own-styled of local da’wah movements which differ with Wahhabism approaches. The second feature is, despite differences in the implementation of Islamic teachings, Malaysia has received a number of capital donations from the Kingdom to financially assist the development of socio-economic projects and religious activities. Until today, the interaction between the two countries has been steadily growing stronger and more collaborative projects have been launched to enhance the scope of their bilateral relations in the future.
About the Speaker
Associate Professor Dr Asmady Idris is an International Relations lecturer at University Malaysia Sabah (UMS), Malaysia. He earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in International Relations from University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. Dr Idris has published numerous articles on the Middle East-Asia Pacific relations, such as “Impact of Mutual Interaction between Civil Society and Conditionality by an External Actor on Democratization: Cases of Turkey and Malaysia (co-authored with Irem Askar Karakir, 2016)”, Malaysia’s Contemporary Political and Economic Relations with Iran (co-authored with Remali Yusoff, 2015), “Malaysian
Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and Humanitarian Issues in Gaza, Palestine (2012), “Early Development of Malaysia’s Relations With Saudi Arabia (2003)”, and others. His latest book is Malaysia’s Relations with Saudi Arabia, 1957-2003, published by University Malaysia Sabah (UMS) Press in 2015.
Registration
To register, please fill in this form and email it to iseasevents2@iseas.edu.sg by 29 March 2017.
INDONESIA STUDIES PROGRAMME
About the Seminar
This presentation will review the recent elections for governors, district heads and mayors, looking in particular at the relationship between parties and their most prominent candidates, usually chosen for “electability” above all else. The recent gubernatorial election in Jakarta will be a major focus of the presentation, along with references to other areas. What are the implications for the role of ideology and policy, especially in terms of national political economy, with the steadily increasing strength of “elektabilitas” politics? The presentation will argue that the increasing trend for parties to coalesce specifically around “electable candidates” rather than ideological, programmatic or platform perspectives represents a stagnation in Indonesian party politics. This stagnation represents a deep capturing of these parties by a narrowly defined status quo political economy. It will also argue that on the rare occasions where policy issues or ideology have been important in the recent local elections for bupati, mayors and governors, the policies have been the policies of individuals and not parties and have a strictly local characteristic thereby not effectively countering the status quo capture of the party system.
The gubernatorial elections in Jakarta will be highlighted as a partial exception, resulting from the perception that the elections there are directly connected to the 2019 Presidential elections, which has national implications. However, policy differences of substance still did not become central. Different ideological emphasis around the issue of the role of religion and ‘pluralism’ did emerge but were not reflected in any policy debates.
About the Speaker
Max Lane is a Senior Visiting Fellow (half-time) at ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute and a Visiting Lecturer at the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Gajah Mada University. His most recent books are Decentralization and Discontents: An Essay on Class, Political Agency and National Perspective in Indonesian Politics (ISEAS 2014); Unfinished Nation: Indonesia Before and After Suharto (Verso 2008, 2017); and Catastrophe in Indonesia (Seagull/University of Chicago 2010). In 2016 he published a collection of poems and prose in Indonesia, Poems and Otherwise: Anecdotes Scattered (Djaman Baroe, 2016), which was launched at the 2016 Singapore Writers Festival. He is also the translator of Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s Buru Quartet set of novels and other works of Toer as well as plays and poems of W.S. Rendra. He was the founding editor of Inside Indonesia magazine, has served as a Second Secretary at the Australian Embassy in Jakarta and as a Principal Research Officer for the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade in the Australian Parliament as well as a journalist.
Registration
To register, please fill in this form and email it to iseasevents3@iseas.edu.sg by 23 March 2017.
REGIONAL SOCIAL AND CULTURAL STUDIES PROGRAMME
Arts in Southeast Asia Seminar Series
About the Seminar
Political violence is not uncommon in Southeast Asia. This seminar looks at artistic articulations of political violence in Indonesia and Thailand. Two controversial incidents, namely the Indonesian mass killings of 1965-1966 and the bloodshed on 6 October 1976 in Thailand, were ignited by
anti-communism sentiments and resulted in acts of violence from respective states. The consequences of these two political events are gradually and slowly addressed today but the process of justice and reconciliation is still far from complete.
The seminar will discuss the construction of state narratives and describe how current forms of arts such as documentary films are used to counter the state’s narratives in both countries. These documentaries, directed by foreigners and local film makers, have played significant roles in giving voice to victims and exposing the trivialisation of violence. 40 Years of Silence: An Indonesian Tragedy (2009), The Act of Killing (2012), The Look of Silence (2014), Pulau Buru: Tanah Air Beta (2016), Silence-Memories (2014) and Respectfully Yours (2016) are documentaries revealing the stories and memories of victims and perpetrators from the two incidents.
This seminar will argue that these films have become testimonial artworks in revealing victims maltreatment and exposing how violence and impunity have become the norm. Such artworks are also responsible for paving the way for ‘alternative memories’ for the nation.
About the Speaker
Chontida Auikool is a lecturer from International Studies (ASEAN-China) programme, Thammasat University, Bangkok. She earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Southeast Asian Studies and completed her Master’s Degree in International Relations from Thammasat University. Her research interests include Indonesia, Chinese Indonesian, conflict and violence, and Southeast Asian film. She published articles such as “The Ambivalent of Chinese – Indonesian Position in Medan, Indonesia” in Journal Lakon (Airlangga University), “Ethnic Relations in Transnational Context: The Case Study of Chinese Indonesians-Indonesians in Medan after Suharto” in The Asian Conference on Arts & Humanities proceedings, “Breaking Silence of Indonesian Mass Killings between 1965 and 1966” in TU-UGM Research Seminar Making Southeast Asia and Beyond proceedings and a short article “Indomie: Political Food and Hidden Hugger in Indonesia” in Sarakadee Magazine. She is also a member of Film Kawan, an informal group organising Southeast Asian film events in Bangkok. She also published film reviews for the ASEAN film column in a Thai Magazine, Bioscope. She reviewed films such as Yasmine, Cinta Tapi Beda, As You Were, Sayang Disayang, Lilet Never Happened, The Tales of Waria.
Registration
To register, please fill in this form and email it to <iseasevents2@iseas.edu.sg> by 30 March 2017.
MYANMAR STUDIES PROGRAMME
About the Seminar
With the opening up of the country’s economy in its development drive, reforms in post-2011 Myanmar have linked urbanization with development. In his speech inaugurating Myanmar’s Urban Research and Development Institute (URDI) in January 2012, then Union Minister of Construction Khin Maung Myint expressed his hope that the “URDI will assist the Government’s endeavours of building a new, modern and developed nation.” This fixation on modernization and development is not new for Myanmar, but it has taken on increased urgency since 2011. The country’s leaders have pursued economic integration with ASEAN and adopted a number of international standards, including the UN Millennium Development Goals, as near-term targets. In this drive to catch up with Myanmar’s neighbours and to reconnect with the global economy, these leaders see cities as the engines for economic development. But in the rush to make the country competitive there has been no discussion of what the urban is or what constitutes development. Other cities in the global South and postcolonial countries have encountered similar challenges, leading scholars to question the uncritical application of the tenets of development and neoliberal globalization to so-called developing nations. This seminar will focus on the making of the urban in Myanmar as a contingent and contested process that is increasingly subject to international circuits of authoritative knowledge. In particular, it asks, what is a city if it is not the production of space undertaken by its inhabitants? What are the roles and functions of cities in a reforming Myanmar? And what is Myanmar urbanism in a rapidly globalizing country?
About the Speaker
Jayde Lin Roberts is a spatial ethnographer and interdisciplinary scholar of the built environment. Her book, Mapping Chinese Rangoon: Place and Nation among the Sino-Burmese, was published by the University of Washington Press in June 2016. She is a tenured faculty member at the University of Tasmania and is currently in Myanmar as a Fulbright Scholar. Her ongoing research in Yangon examines discourses of development as presented by the British colonial government and the governments of independent Burma/Myanmar, as well as the current representation of development, which is strongly influenced by international standards and universalized expertise.
Registration
For registration, please fill in this form and email it to iseasevents3@iseas.edu.sg by 23 March 2017.
REGIONAL ECONOMIC STUDIES PROGRAMME AND MALAYSIA STUDIES PROGRAMME
About the Seminar
While Singapore, the US, and Japan have traditionally been Malaysia’s main trading partners, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has been the country’s most important trading partner since 2012. Beyond trade in finished products, commerce between the two countries is based on inputs and parts being sent within production networks operating between the two countries. This same trend is visible in investment flows. From a minor investor, China has now become a significant player in the Malaysian economy, investing RM 11.6 billion in manufacturing projects in 2012-15 – behind only Japan, Singapore and the United States.
Beyond setting up manufacturing operations, Chinese government-linked corporations and private consortiums have been active in the real estate sector. Government-linked corporations have stakes in the Malaysia-Kuantan Industrial Park as well as Bandar Malaysia, which will be the main terminus of the planned High Speed Rail. Large-scale private sector concerns such as Country Garden, R&F, and Greenland have a significant presence in Johor Bahru and Kuala Lumpur.
With regard to infrastructure, government-linked corporations have won contracts for the RM 55 bn East Coast Rail Link, the RM 9 bn Gemas-Johor Bahru dual tracking project, as well as provisions of rolling stock. A consortium of government-linked corporations is positioning itself for the High-Speed Rail project, slated to go to tender later this year. There are also large-scale port projects being planned with PRC involvement, two on the Peninsula’s west coast and another on the east coast.
Looking forward, the PRC presence in the Malaysian economy looks set to increase. In December last year, Prime Minister Najib returned from his visit to China, where he and his counterparts signed 14 agreements totaling RM 144 billion, which represents 12 percent of Malaysia’s GDP. However, this trend has not gone unnoticed by Malaysia’s electorate, with polls indicating a growing sense of unease at the rapid increase in PRC presence in the economy as well as foreign ownership of strategic assets.
This seminar will analyze the trends in PRC investment into Malaysia, particularly in the real estate and construction sectors, as well as key aspects of infrastructure such as railways and ports. From there it will examine trends in public opinion regarding the level and different types of PRC investments in the country.
About the Speakers
Topic: PRC Investment in the Real Estate and Construction Sectors in Malaysia
Loong Chee Wei joined Affin Hwang Capital in April 2015 as the Senior Associate Director covering the construction/infrastructure, property and building material sector. He has been covering Malaysian equities since 1997 (including strategy, banking, construction/infrastructure, property, gaming, oil & gas), and formerly worked for CLSA, Nomura, BNP Paribas, AmInvestment Bank and Hwang-DBS Securities. Mr Loong has been a qualified Chartered Financial Analyst since 1999.
Topic: PRC Investment in the Rail and Port Sectors in Malaysia
G Naidu was, prior to his retirement, a professor in transport economics at the University of Malaya and is currently an independent consultant. His main areas of interest have been in transport, logistics and infrastructure. He has worked as a consultant for the Asian Development Bank, World Bank, Ministry of Transport and number Malaysian port authorities. He recently served as a subject matter expert for the East Coast Economic Region Development Council (ECERDC).
Topic: Evolving Public Opinion Regarding PRC Investment in Malaysia
Ibrahim Suffian is Co-founder and Program Director of Merdeka Center for Opinion Research, a leading public opinion polling and political surveys organization in Malaysia. He presently manages Merdeka Center’s portfolio of clients ranging from political parties, government departments as well as local and international institutions of higher learning. Through Merdeka Center,
Mr Suffian has been organizing surveys in Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Brunei, Singapore and Myanmar. Prior to his role in the Merdeka Center,
Mr Suffian worked as a project finance specialist in a Malaysian investment bank and was project manager in an international development agency.
Registration
To register, please fill in this form and email it to iseasevents3@iseas.edu.sg by 17 March 2017.
REGIONAL STRATEGIC AND POLITICAL STUDIES PROGRAMME
About the Seminar
The standard understanding of Japanese diplomacy is that policy outcomes result from an interaction between three approaches: conservative nationalism (right), liberal pacifism (left), and the centrist line. The balance has now shifted toward the right, rendering the influence of the left virtually ineffective. However, this does not mean that the contestation of differing approaches has disappeared. Rather, there now appears to be a newly emerging line between the two approaches or paradigms of foreign policy, with the rise of China functioning as the point of difference. The lecture will discuss the implications of these changes for Japanese diplomacy toward Southeast Asia.
About the Speaker
Yoshihide Soeya is Professor of international relations at the Faculty of Law of Keio University. His areas of interest are politics and security in East Asia, and Japanese diplomacy and its external relations. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1987, majoring in world politics. Dr Soeya served, in 1999-2000, as a member of the “Prime Minister’s Commission on Japan’s Goals in the 21st Century,” and, in 2010, as a member of “the Council on Security and Defense Capabilities in the New Era,” both in the Prime Minister’s Office. His recent publications in English includes “The Evolution of Japan’s Public Diplomacy: Haunted by its Past History”, Jan Melissen and Yul Sohn, eds., Understanding Public Diplomacy in East Asia (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015).
Registration
To register, please fill in this form and email it to iseasevents2@iseas.edu.sg by morning of 6 March 2017.
THAILAND STUDIES PROGRAMME
About the Seminar
The conventional wisdom holds that “the influence of classical political liberalism is extraordinarily limited” in Southeast Asia (Rodan & Hughes 2014) – and Thailand is no exception. Yet liberalism’s sorry fate in Southeast Asia in general and Thailand in particular has largely been taken for granted by scholars, with few puzzling over its causes or questioning its veracity. An intellectual history of liberalism has therefore yet to be written for Southeast Asia (unlike, say, for South and East Asia). Aiming to add one small piece to the larger regional jigsaw, this talk seeks to answer some basic questions about liberalism in Thailand. Does Thailand have a liberal tradition? To what extent have Western liberal thinkers captured the imagination of Thai intellectuals? Is Thailand now ripe for liberalism? It argues that the history of political thought in Thailand does not contain a well defined liberal “stream” (krasae); that Rousseau is the only Western liberal thinker who has “made it” in Thailand; and that the current political context – defined by intense political polarization, intractable conflict, conservative overreach, and the end of the reign of King Bhumibol – has stimulated some Thai intellectuals to begin laying the ideological groundwork for a (more) liberal future for the Thai nation.
About the Speaker
Tomas Larsson is Visiting Fellow at the Thailand Studies Programme at ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute and Senior Lecturer in the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Cambridge. His research interests include Southeast Asian and especially Thai politics, political economy, and Buddhism and politics. He earned his PhD in Government from Cornell University in 2007, and he won the 2008 American Political Science Association’s Walter Dean Burnham award for best dissertation in Politics and History. He is the author of Land and loyalty: Security of the development of property rights in Thailand (Cornell University Press 2012). His recent articles have appeared in The Journal of Peasant Studies, Asian Journal of Law and Society, Modern Asian Studies, and Asian Politics & Policy. At Cambridge, he teaches courses on democracy and dictatorship in Southeast Asia, comparative politics of religion, and case study research methods. He has followed Thai politics in different capacities for 30 years: as an undergraduate studying Thai at Lund University; as a journalist based in Thailand from 1990 to 2000; and since then as a scholar.
Registration
To register, please fill in this form and email it to iseasevents2@iseas.edu.sg by the morning of 2 March 2017.
MALAYSIA STUDIES PROGRAMME
About the Book
Recent census statistics indicate that ethnic Indians comprise a mere 7.4 per cent of Malaysia’s total population, with Hindus constituting a 84.1 per cent of that figure. However, the Hindu festival of Thaipusam at Batu Caves outside Kuala Lumpur has become the largest single gathering of any religious festival in Malaysia, and is believed to be the most significant Hindu festival to be held outside India.
Thaipusam has attracted the attention of a number of scholars, but with notable exceptions, most observers of this festival have viewed Thaipusam in Malaysia as a sui generis, and have tended to regard the more dramatic and allegedly confrontational elements of the festival as a cultural aberration. Failure to contextualise Thaipusam in terms of the wider Tamil diaspora or to closely examine the inner dynamics of this complex festival in terms of Tamil Hindu traditions have often resulted in interpretations which are both misleading and/or skewed.
This approach will examine Thaipusam in terms of long established cultural and religious traditions, in the particular those of divine kingship and the rituals of Hindu pilgrimage. it will argue that far from being a merely Malaysian phenomenon, Thaipusam is a feature of the wider Tamil diaspora, and is constructed from condensed coded or Tamil history and culture. However, within the Malaysian context, Thaipusam is not only a continuing political and social assertion of Hindu identity, but as a festival sends a variety of signals, some agonistic, to a range of audiences both within Malaysia and beyond.
About the Author & Speaker
Carl Vadivella Belle obtained a BA at the Australian National University, Canberra, and a PhD at Deakin University in 2004. Between 1976 and 1979 served in the Australian High Commission, Kuala Lumpur. He has maintained a long term interest in Malaysian social, political, religious and political issues, especially Hinduism in Malaysia and the histories and traditions of Malaysia’s Indian community. He has also acted as principal consultant to several television and radio productions focusing on the festival of Thaipusam as it is practiced at Batu Caves, Kuala Lumpur. Dr Belle was appointed Inaugural Hindu Chaplain at the Flinders University of South Australia in 2005. He has lectured extensively on both Malaysian politics and society, and on south Indian Hindu traditions, as well as wider religious issues, and has published numerous papers on these topics. His most recent work, Tragic Orphans: Indians in Malaysia, published by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, constitutes a comprehensive general history of the modern Indian presence in Malaysia.
Registration
To register, please fill in this form and email it to iseasevents2@iseas.edu.sg by 28 February 2017.