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Southeast Asian Studies Programme
presents

Vietnam’s Development and the Problem of Development Doctrine
by

Dr Adam Fforde
Senior Fellow, Southeast Asian Studies Programme

Wednesday, 25th October 2000, 3.30 p.m. - 5.00 p.m.
SEA Studies Programme Seminar Room 2, AS3 #06-04

Abstract

Perhaps like some other countries in SEA, Vietnam offers a puzzle: profound and ‘successful’ economic change without as yet clear or sustained compliance with any particular development doctrine, where doctrine is understood as an authoritative guide to state developmental practice. Attempts have been made to realise various models, such as neo-Stalinism and ‘Big Bang’ market-oriented reforms, yet these ideals have generally been corrupted, in the technical sense. This puzzle is of wider interest, since global development doctrines remain, as they perhaps always have been, driven by certain Western concerns, about things like "progress" and the meanings of "modernity". They are also globally prescriptive. Yet the modern neoclassical development economics that is the contemporary orthodox guide to state policy, appears, for most intents and purposes, exotic both in many countries of SEA as well as in much of the rest of the developing world. This is perhaps more obvious in Vietnam, ruled as it is by a Leninist and naturally interventionist Communist Party. My presentation will discuss some implications of these issues for the relevance of occasions, such as the 1980s, when Vietnamese development doctrine arguably became for a while, through a specifically Vietnamese notion of the shift from plan to market, local. Such considerations point towards factors ordering the contemporary emergence of a Vietnamese developmentalism that is clearly post-Stalinist, but not as yet so obviously post-Leninist. This is of added interest given that this is occurring under global conditions quite different from the emergence of the classic interventionism of NE Asian ‘developmental states’.

The Speaker

Adam Fforde is a development economist, currently Senior Fellow on the SEA Studies Programme, NUS. He studied Vietnamese in Hanoi during 1978/79 and was a Visiting Scholar at the National Economics University, Hanoi, in 1985-86. He lived in Vietnam from 1987 to 1992 whilst working as an advisor to the Swedish aid program, and in Australia from 1992 to 1999, where he was a Visiting Fellow at the ANU and Chairman of Aduki Pty Ltd. He has published on topics including the economic development of North Vietnam prior to 1975, agricultural cooperatives, and the transition from plan to market. He is currently working on class formation and the emergence of factor markets in the 1990s, industrial reform since the early 1960s, and Vietnamese development doctrine. He holds an MA in Engineering Science and Economics (Oxford), an MSc in Economics (London) and a PhD in Economics (Cambridge).

Convenors: Drs Niti Pawakapan, Priyambudi Sulistiyanto

Enquiries: 874-6337

ALL ARE WELCOME

Southeast Asian Studies Programme
presents

Race in Texts: Enunciating "Chineseness" in the Late-nineteenth and Early-twentieth Century Singapore

by

Ms Kwee Hui Kian

Wednesday, 11th October 2000, 3.30 p.m. - 5.00 p.m.
SEA Studies Programme Seminar Room 2 (AS3 #06-02)

Abstract

While the history of the Chinese in Singapore at the turn of the twentieth century can only be derived from available written texts, existing studies have accepted uncritically any mention, description and discourse of the "Chinese" in these texts as the feelings, doings, dispositions of actual "Chinese" persons in the past. The presentation seeks to introduce an alternative way to look at the history of these Chinese by studying the historical texts with sensitivity to the specific parties responsible for the enunciation of "Chinese" and the context of their particular depictions of these people. The texts studied included the Straits Chinese Magazine and Lat Pau, two earliest publications by Chinese persons, as well as colonial and Qing government documents and works. The speaker argues that the conceptualisation of the Chinese in these texts is embedded in a power play among these various groups of authors. In the presentation, some implications of this perspective of history of the Chinese in the racialised context of contemporary Singapore will also be raised.

The Speaker

Kwee Hui Kian is working on the history of Singapore Chinese and has just submitted her Master’s dissertation at the History Department, National University of Singapore.

Convenors: Drs Niti Pawakapan, Priyambudi Sulistiyanto

Enquiries: 874-6337

ALL ARE WELCOME

Southeast Asian Studies Programme
presents

Thai Political Reform: Real or Imagined?

by

Dr John Funston
Senior Fellow, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies

Wednesday, 27th September 2000, 3.30 p.m. - 5.00 p.m.
SEA Studies Programme Seminar Room 2 (AS3 #06-02)

Abstract

Thailand often gets an unflattering international press. Recent Far Eastern Economic Review editorials (22 June and 21 September) have described it is a mai pen rai ("never mind") country - it leaves until tomorrow the imperatives of today, and hasn’t followed through on promises in areas as diverse as banking reforms, corporate restructuring, or election reforms. The Review has also featured a series of articles arguing that corruption is getting worse than ever, and that rural unrest is rising, fuelling street protests and threatening a conservative backlash. Similar articles have appeared in other international publications and the local Thai media as well.

Such views raise fundamental questions about the direction of Thai politics in the wake of the recent economic crisis. Are Thai claims of political reform mere sophistry? Are things getting worse rather than better?

The Speaker

John Funston is a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, with a PhD from the Australian National University on Thailand's foreign policy. He has worked on Southeast Asian political issues for three decades (almost half in the region); taught Southeast Asian history and politics at universities in Australia, Malaysia and Brunei; and covered Southeast Asia in the Australian public service. His research interests focus on domestic politics in Malaysia and Thailand, Thai foreign policy, and ASEAN. His publications include Malay Politics in Malaysia: A Study of UMNO and PAS, and numerous articles on Malaysian politics, Thai politics and Southeast Asian regional issues.

Convenors: Drs Niti Pawakapan, Priyambudi Sulistiyanto

Enquiries: 874-6337

ALL ARE WELCOME

Southeast Asian Studies Programme
and
History Department
jointly present

The historical destiny and the cultural identity of a community

by

Ms Tran Thi Thanh
Lecturer, Ho Chi Minh University of Education

Wednesday, 20th September 2000, 3.30 p.m. - 5.00 p.m.
SEA Studies Programme Seminar Room 2 (AS3 #06-02)

Abstract

The speaker will discuss the links between historical destiny and issues of cultural identity in the Vietnamese experience.

The Speaker

Ms Tran Thi Thanh is a Lecturer at the History Department, Ho Chi Minh University of Education. She is currently visiting the NUS on the ASEAN Distinguished Professors/Lecturers Programme. She has a Master’s degree in Vietnamese history from the Hanoi University of Education.

Convenors: Drs Niti Pawakapan, Priyambudi Sulistiyanto

Enquiries: 874-6337

ALL ARE WELCOME

Southeast Asian Studies Programme
presents

East Timor’s Popular Consultation:
An Observer’s View

by

Dr Anthony L. Smith
Fellow, The Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore

Wednesday, 13th September 2000, 3.00 p.m. - 5 p.m.
SEA Studies Programme Seminar Room 2 (AS3 # 06-02)

Abstract

Just over a year ago, the territory of East Timor voted in an historical referendum to decide on whether it would remain in Indonesia or become independent. This seminar will look at the actual conduct of the Popular Consultation and the experiences of the speaker who was an official observer at the time. While great pains were taken to ensure that the referendum was free, fair and secret, pro-Indonesia militia groups tried to undermine the process from the start culminating in wholesale violence by September 1999. However violence and intimidation had been part of the militia strategy from early 1999, which ironically may account for the overwhelming rejection of Indonesia’s rule. This seminar will look at the background to the vote which was the beginning of East Timor’s slow path to full independence.

The Speaker

Anthony L Smith is a Fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore. In August 1999 he was an official observer with the Popular Consultation in East Timor. He was previously a lecturer in International Relations at the International Pacific College, Palmerston North, New Zealand. He holds a doctorate in Political Studies from the University of Auckland. He has published a number of articles on Indonesia and East Timor, including the recent monograph "Strategic Centrality: Indonesia’s Changing Role in ASEAN" (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2000).

Convenors: Drs Niti Pawakapan, Priyambudi Sulistiyanto

Enquires: 874-6337

ALL ARE WELCOME

Southeast Asian Studies Programme
presents

TORTURED BODY, BETRAYED HEART:
State Violence in the Narratives of Ex-Political Prisoners of the "1965 Affair" in Post-Suharto Indonesia

by
Mr Budiawan Purwadi
PhD student, Southeast Asian Studies Programme

Wednesday, 30th August 2000, 3.30 p.m. - 5 p.m.
SEA Studies Programme Seminar Room 2 (AS #06-02)

Abstract

The fall of Suharto has opened up a public space for various groups to express their silenced voices. One of the social groups enabled to articulate their silenced voices publicly is the ex-political prisoners of the "1965 Affair"-- the killing of the six top army officers on September 30, 1965 which brought about Suharto’s rise to power. Many in Indonesian society are apprehensive that this self-representation could turn into a historical revenge. However, by exploring how the ex-political prisoners narrate their memories of violence when they were imprisoned, this paper argues that such apprehension is illusory rather than real. This is not because of the "success" of Suharto’s "New Order" regime to "re-educate" the ex-prisoners. Rather, it is the result of the very effects of the tortures they experienced and/or witnessed during their imprisonment. Beyond the Baconian perspective of torture, this paper suggests that torture should be grasped as a regime of control, rather than as a technique of "discovering" the truth. Under this regime of control, the sense of resentment to the torturers caused by the infliction of pain is de-concentrated.

The Speaker

Budiawan is a PhD student at the Southeast Asian Studies Programme, NUS. He is working on the popular discourse of anti-communism in post-1965 Indonesia.

Convenors: Drs Goh Beng Lan, Niti Pawakapan

Enquires: 874-6337

ALL ARE WELCOME

Southeast Asian Studies Programme
presents

RECONSTRUCTING THE ECONOMIC REGIME IN INDONESIA: WHAT SORT OF MARKETS?

by

Professor Richard Robison
Professor of Asian and International Politics and Director, Asia Research Centre, Murdoch University

Wednesday, 23rd August 2000, 3.00 - 5.00 pm
SE Asian Studies Programme Seminar Room (AS3 #06-02)

ABSTRACT

The dramatic collapse of Indonesia's economy in the wake of the Asian economic crisis appeared to signal a fundamental watershed in the organisation of economic life in Indonesia and the way in which the state imposed its authority on the market. The government has been forced to agree to an extension reform agenda by the IMF. Yet, the reform is proceeding slowly and in some areas making no headway. Two questions emerge. What sort of market economy are we likely to see emerging in Indonesia and what are the forces that are shaping the new economic regime? I will examine these questions in relation to the struggles to reshape Indonesia's banking system, its system of corporate governance and the relationships between the state and the private sector. I will argue that Indonesia is not moving towards liberal markets but towards a system where forms of political control of markets are becoming more diffuse and disorganised.

THE SPEAKER

Richard Robison is Professor Asian and International Politics and Director of the Asia Research Centre at Murdoch University. He has held several senior appointments at Murdoch University including Dean of the School of Humanities. He is a member of the Australian Government's Foreign Affairs Advisory Council and Aid Advisory Council. Professor Robison has authored or editored thirteen internationally published books and collected volumes including Indonesia: The Rise of Capital; Southeast Asia in the 1990s; Authoritarianism, Democracy and Capitalism; The New Rich in Asia: Mobile Phones, McDonalds and middle-class revolution; and most recently, The Political Economy of Southeast Asia. Prof. Robison is also a current or past member of the editorial Boards of The Australian Journal of International Affairs, Pacific Review, The Australian Journal of Asian Law, and Australian Journal of Political Science.

Convenors: Drs Goh Beng Lan, Niti Pawakapan

ALL ARE WELCOME

Southeast Asian Studies Programme
and
the Department of Sociology
present

SOCIAL MOBILITY AND SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION IN INDONESIA

by

Professor Hans Dieter Evers
Professor and Chairperson, Sociology of Development Research Centre, University of Bielefeld, Germany

Friday, 14th April 2000, 2.00 - 3.30 pm
SE Asian Studies Programme Seminar Room
(AS3 #06-02)

ABSTRACT

Indonesian society is currently undergoing fundamental changes. Employment in agriculture has dropped below 50% of the labour force in the early 1990s, whereas employment in industry is rising. Consumption patterns and life-styles are changing with the growth of a bureaucratic middle class, and a democratisation of the authoritarian, military dominated state has been put on the political agenda. The paper will be concerned with social mobility, i.e. the rise and fall in social status between generations. A cohort analysis of mobility data from Java and Sumatra will provide a long term perspective on the social transformation of segments of Indonesian society from the 1940s through the 1990s. The role of the civil service will be highlighted and the persistent social unrest and racial strife linked to patterns of mobility.

THE SPEAKER

Hans-Dieter Evers, a Distinguished Visiting Professor of Sociology at NUS, is Professor and Chairman, Sociology of Development Research Centre, University of Bielefeld, Germany. He received his D.Phil. degree from the University of Freiburg in 1962 and subsequently taught at Monash University and at Yale University, where he was Director of Graduate Southeast Asian Studies. From1971 to 1974 he was Professor of Sociology and Head of the Department of Sociology, University of Singapore. He held long-term visiting appointments at Universitas Indonesia, Universitas Gadjah Mada and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. His books 'Modernisation in Southeast Asia' (OUP) and 'Sosiology Perkotaan' and 'Kelompok-Kelompok Strategis', published in Jakarta, have seen several editions. His most recent book "Southeast Asian Urbanism" is scheduled for publication in 2000 with Lit Verlag/St Martins Press and ISEAS. He is currently engaged in research on social and cultural dimensions of knowledge societies and the role of experts and consultants in Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia.

Convenors: Drs Philip Kelly, Goh Beng Lan, Ananda Rajah and Nirmala PuruShotam

ALL ARE WELCOME

The Graduate Students' Group of the Southeast Asian Studies Programme
presents

Graduate Student Seminar Series

AGAINST ALL ODDS: HOW THE INDONESIAN TELEPHONE OPERATOR COPES WITH MODERNITY

Idham B. Setiadi
MA student (by Coursework) of SEAS-NUS

Saturday, April 8, 2000, 11.00 am to 12.00 noon
AS1 / 02-09

ABSTRACT

Established in 1991, yet inheriting the legacy of more than 100 years of telecommunications in Indonesia, PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia Tbk. (TELKOM) is a "strange" company. It is a "state limited liability company", in the words of the Governmental regulation. Since November 1995 TELKOM has offered its shares at stock exchanges. Simultaneously, it has been facing hegemony of the World Bank, ambiguous respones of the Indonesian government to the World Bank's hegemony, an urge to strengthen the identtiy of the "TELKOM people", and a dissatisfied, fragmented customer base. In short, it faces the challenges of the changing Modern World-System. Therefore I found it most useful to see TELKOM as a broker of modernity. It is not simply concerning the corrupt system, marked by collusion and nepotism. It requires a broader framework than business administration to understand its performance. One of the simple facts that prohibits us from using this approach is the very existence of the company itself. By applying theories of modernity and identity by Jonathan Friedman, boundary management by Fredrik Barth, coporate society by John McDermott, in addition to the Modern World-System analysis (especially Chase-Dunn's "resistance of the semi-periphery"), I attempt to examine the surviving question of TELKOM in its "dynamic" environment as a broker.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Idham Bachtiar Setiadi is an MA (by coursework) student at the Southeast Asian Studies Programme, NUS. He has been serving various organisations in Indonesia, including telkom, as communications consultant (1989-1999); he was also involved in designing human resource development programs. He obtained his Sarjana degree from the Department of Anthroplogy, Universitas Indonesia.

Convenor: Budiawan

ALL ARE WELCOME

Southeast Asian Studies Programme
1999/2000 Seminar Series
present

THAI WORKERS IN SINGAPORE: THE IMPACT OF THE ASIAN ECONOMIC CRISIS

by

Dr. Porntipa Atipas

Friday, 7th April 2000, 3.00 pm
SE Asian Studies Programme Seminar Room
(AS3 #06-02)

ABSTRACT

The presentation will discuss the preliminary results of the survey on Thai workers in Singapore conducted between June and August 1999. Data will be compared with the results of two previous surveys conducted during the pre-crisis years. Not unexpectedly, economic "push" and "pull" factors replaced the social network as the dominant motivation for migration during the crisis. Other aspects of migration in terms of recruitment, training, job, working condition, and labor relations, saw relatively little change.

It would have been reasonable to expect that Thai workers would find it more costly to enter Sinagpore. However, our data did not show that Thai workers experienced the higher "costs" - in monetary, psychological and social terms. Initial cost-benefit analysis reveals that the "benefits" outweighed the "costs". Remittances by Thai workers were comparable to the pre-crisis years. In order to understand the migration pattern during the crisis, the internal factors at play within Thailand and Singapore, the effort of Singapore government to boost the construction industry and the competition among recruitment agencies will be discussed.

THE SPEAKER

Dr. Porntipa Atipas holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She has been teaching Sociology at three institutions of higher learning: the Engineering Department at NUS, the Singapore Institute of Management, and the Temasek Polytechnic. Much of her research experience has focussed on minorities in Asian societies and migration. She had conducted research on Vietnamese and Laotian refugees, hill-tribersw along the Thai-Myanmar borders, and the Chinese as a minority in Thailand. Her present research examines Thai workers in Singapore.

Convenors: Drs Philip Kelly, Goh Beng Lan
Enquiries: Ms Lucy Tan, 8746337

ALL ARE WELCOME

Southeast Asian Studies Programme
and
the Department of History
presents

MOTHER SPAIN, UNCLE SAM, AND THE HEROES OF '96: THE MAKING OF A FILIPINO NATIONAL NARRATIVE

by

Prof. Reynaldo R. Ileto
Reader, Faculty of Asian Studies, ANU

Friday, 31st March 2000, 3.30 pm
SE Asian Studies Programme Seminar Room
(AS3 #06-02)

ABSTRACT

Using photographs of the centennial "Grand Parade" of 12 June 1998 as illustrations, Dr Ileto examines the genearl features of the Philippine national narrative, how it reaches a climax in 1896 with the revolution against Spain, and how the saga of progress continues in the 20th century under United States tutelage. He explains why the war against the US is unheralded in the grand parade, and how this absence points to other narratives that contest the official one. Finally, Dr Ileto focuses on the main characters, or heroes, generated by this narrative and how Filipino heads of state attempt to identify with them, sometimes with ironic implications.

THE SPEAKER

Dr. Renaldo C. Ileto is currently Reader with the Centre for Asian Histories and Societies, Faculty of Asian Studies, Australian National University. A distinguished scholar of history and culture of the Philippines, Dr. Ileto has been the recipient of several awards, including the Philippine National Book Prize for History in 1999 and the Benda Prize in Southeast Asian Studies from the Association for Asian Studies, U.S.A., in 1985. He has taught at various universities in the Philippines, Australia and the United States of America. He is also a contributor to the Nation Building in Southeast Asia monograph series, edited by Wang Gungwu, to be published by ISEAS, Singapore. His publications include: Filipinos and Their Revolution: Event, Discourse, and Historiography (Quezon City: Ateneo University, 1998; Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1999); Pasyon and Revolution: Popular Movements in the Philippines, 1840-1910 (Quenzon City: Ateneo University, 1979, 4th printing 1997 with University of Hawaii Press); and Magindanao, 1860-1888: The career of Datu Uto of Buayan (Ithaca: Cornell Southeast Asia Program, 1971). Dr Ileto obtained his BA from the Ateneo de Manila University and his PhD from Cornell University.

Chairperson: Dr Philip Kelly
Convenors: Drs Philip Kelly, Goh Beng Lan

ALL ARE WELCOME

Southeast Asian Studies Programme
and
the Centre for Advanced Studies
1999-2000 Seminar Series
presents

PROBLEMATICS AND PARADIGMS IN HISTORICIZING TRANSNATIONAL MIGRATION IN A GLOBAL CONTEXT: THE CHINESE DIASPORA IN THE NINETEETH- AND TWENTIETH-CENTURY STRAITS AND BURMA

by

Dr. Michael Walter Charney
Centre for Advanced Studies, NUS

Tuesday, 21st March 2000, 3.30 pm
SE Asian Studies Programme Seminar Room
(AS3 #06-02)

ABSTRACT

Part of the heritage of the colonial and post-independence periods in Southeast Asia has been the reading of contemporary (and anachronistically, pre-modern) history through political borders. Much of western Southeast Asia's social, economic, and cultural development, however, cannot be properly understood using the nation-state in defining the boundaries of the case study. Major contributions were made, for example, by 'transnational' groups, such as the Overseas Chinese, and via 'transnational' intersections of migrants, goods, relationships, ideas, and culture. Rather than intra-national activity defined by national boundaries, we see instead the overlapping of flexible zones of interaction. We can also see that many current investigations of many migrant (or diasporic) groups such as the Overseas Chinese have either collected together 'artificial' communities (the 'Chinese in Malaysia,' is one example) or have conceptually bifurcated connected migrant groups along national lines. The author will outline some of the major problems for comparativists involved in historicizing transnational migrants and transnational intersections and, utilizing new approaches by Professor Wang Gungwu and Professor Hamashita Takeshi to understanding regionalization in East and Southeast Asia, seek to offer a more useful paradigm for understanding 'transnational' migration in a global context.

THE SPEAKER

Michael Walter Charney is currently a postdoctoral fellow with the Centre for Advanced Studies at NUS and is an active participant in the Migration and Diasporas in the Asia Pacific Region and Asian Business Networks study groups. He received his PhD in Asian history at the University of Michigan and has published articles in the Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, Oriens Extremus, the Journal of Asian History, the Journal of Burma Studies, and chapters in several forthcoming volumes. He is currently conducting research on transnational migration in the context of globalization and the history of Chinese diasporic communities and business networks in the Straits and Burma.

ALL ARE WELCOME

Southeast Asian Studies Programme
1999-2000 Seminar Series
presents

STATE-SPONSORED CAPITALISM IN PROVINCIAL THAILAND: ITS HISTORICAL ROLE AND HISTORIOGRAPHICAL IMPORTANCE

by

Dr. Michael J. Montesano
SEA Studies Programme, NUS

Friday, 24th March 2000, 3.00 pm
SE Asian Studies Programme Seminar Room
(AS3 #06-02)

ABSTRACT

State-owned or -sponsored enterprise has been a basic feature of the economic, political, and social life of Thailand since the 1930s. Those state-sponsored firms that have operated primarily in provincial settings have, however, received little attention from students of Thai affairs. This presentation notes the poverty of prevailing understandings of the place of the provinces in twentieth-century Thai history and politics. Considering a number of firms active in three provinces, it argues for the historiographical value of attention to state-sponsored capitalism in developing a richer understanding. The presentation also discusses the role of provincial state capitalism in the context of broad patterns in the social, political, and commercial history of twentieth-century Thailand. It devotes special attention to Field Marshal Phibun's attempt, launched in 1940 and unique in the history of Thai state capitalism, to establish in every province of the country trading companies run by and for Thai nationals.

THE SPEAKER

Michael Montesano teaches history in the Southeast Asian Studies Programme, NUS. He earned his doctorate in Southeast Asian history from Cornell University with a dissertation on commerce and society in Trang, southern Thailand, since the 1930s.

Convenors: Goh Beng Lan and Philip Kelly

Enquiries: Ms Lucy Tan, 8746337

ALL ARE WELCOME

Southeast Asian Studies Programme
1999-2000 Seminar Series
presents

MALAY LEXICAL ELEMENTS IN THAI

by

Dr. Titima Suthiwan
SEA Studies Programme, NUS

Friday, 17th March 2000, 3.00 pm
SE Asian Studies Programme Seminar Room
(AS3 #06-02)

ABSTRACT

Due to their geographical proximity, the Thai and Malay peoples have been in contact for many centuries. This close relationship has resulted in considerable cultural interinfluencing. One interesting aspect of Malay influence on Thai culture has been linguistic, specifically in the field of lexical borrowing. This seminar will discuss various aspects of Malay loanwords in Thai, including the period of borrowing, semantic field, the nativization process, sociohistorical context, genre, dialectal origin, and dialectal point of entrance. The analysis will be based on a large data set derived from Thai versions of the Javanese epic Panji cycle, which were translated into Thai via Malay. These Thai versions contain a substantial number of Malay words which were left untranslated, a peculiar fact which has not been properly explained until now.

THE SPEAKER

Dr Titima Suthiwan received her BA (Hons) in Thai language and literature from Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, and her PhD in Linguistics from University of Hawaii. She now teaches in, and coordinates, the Thai language programme in the Southeast Asian Studies Programme, NUS.

Convenors: Goh Beng Lan and Philip Kelly

Enquiries: Ms Lucy Tan, 8746337

ALL ARE WELCOME

Southeast Asian Studies Programme
1999-2000 Seminar Series
presents

HOMOGENIZATION AND DESTABILIZATION OF THE CULTURE AND ARCHITECTURE OF SOUTHWESTERN SUMBA ISLAND, INDONESIA

by

Associate Professor Joanna Mross
Texas Tech University

Friday, 3rd March 2000, 3pm
SE Asian Studies Programme Seminar Room
(AS3 #06-02)

ABSTRACT

The evolving culture and architectural practices of southwestern Sumba Island, Indonesia, exemplify both slow and rapid change for local identity. The clan-house of the indigenous people is a time-honored vernacular pattern based on ancestral practices, expressing a tight fit of form and content. Nonetheless influences of the Indonesian government, Christianized indigenous people, foreign investors and Indonesian entrepreneurs are challenging the traditional building practices of the Sumba people. This talk looks at how these globalizing influences of spiritual, cultural, and economic transitions provide both opportunities and tensions for the island's architecture and people.

THE SPEAKER

Joanna Mross is Associate Professor of Architecture at Texas Tech University. She has previously taught at the University of Southwestern Louisiana, Kansas State University and Institut Teknology MARA, Malaysia. Her research focuses on architecture and settlement on Sumba Island, Indonesia.

Convenors: Drs Philip Kelly, Goh Beng Lan

Enquiries: Ms Lucy Tan, 8746337

ALL ARE WELCOME

Southeast Asian Studies Programme
1999-2000 Seminar Series
presents

MEDICINE AND CULTURE IN ANCIENT CAMBODIA

by

Dr. Rethy K. Chhem
Faculty of Medicine, NUS

Friday, February 18th, 2000, 3 pm
SE Asian Studies Programme Seminar Room
(AS3 #06-02)

ABSTRACT

The concept and practice of medicine are determined by its cultural environment. The purpose of this lecture is to review the foundation of medicine in ancient Cambodia. The relationship between medicine and different components of Khmer culture will be discussed. These include religions, language, scriptures, mathematics, astronomy, mythologies, music and arts. The practice of medicine at the royal court of Angkor, in the buddhist monasteris and in the Khmer village will be described.

THE SPEAKER

Rethy K. Chhem is currently Associate Professor of Radiology at the Faculty of Medicine, National University of Singapore. He holds a MD degree from the University of Paris and a PhD in Education from the University of Montreal. He taught for 10 years at the University of Sherbrookie and McGill University in Canada. He is currently conducting an independent research project on the history of education and medicine in ancient Cambodia.

Convenors: Goh Beng Lan and Philip Kelly

Enquiries: Ms Lucy Tan, 8746337

ALL ARE WELCOME

Southeast Asian Studies Programme
1999-2000 Seminar Series
presents

THE AMERICAN COLONIAL GENESIS OF PHILIPPINE MUSLIM SEPARATISM

by

Dr. Thomas M. McKenna

Monday, February 14th, 2000, 3 pm
SE Asian Studies Programme Seminar Room
(AS3 #06-02)

ABSTRACT

This paper traces the development of Philippine Muslim (or Moro) identtiy to a previously unacknowledge source - the policies and practices of American colonial administrators. The 13 Muslim ethnolinguistic groups of the southern Philippines (which together compose about five percent of the Philippine population) have always been separated from one another by very significant geographic and linguistic distance. Numerous commentators on the Muslim Philippines have supposed that a tarnscendent Moro ethnic identity was forged over the course of 300 years of resistance to Spanish aggression against the Muslim polities of the South and tempered by Muslim resistance to American colonial rule. Little historical evidence exists, however, to support this hypothesis of Moro ethnogenesis. I deploy historic and ethnographic evidence to argue that the Muslim nationalist identity that undergirds the contemporary movement for Muslim separatism - a movement that describes itself as Islamic and anticolonial - originated only during the American colonial period (1899-1946) with the active encouragement of American colonial authorities. While contemporary separatist leaders have manifestly rejected the underlying goal of American colonial policy toward Philippine Muslims - to integrate them into a unified, Christian - dominated, postcolonial state - they have embraced the concept of a transcendent Philippine Muslim identity, making "Morohood", and the presumed cultural essentials it referenced, the fundament of their political ideology. I illustrate my argument by delineating the remarkable passage of a twentieth century Muslim notable from American colonial ward to Philippine military officer to Muslim separatist leader.

THE SPEAKER

Thomas McKenna received his Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of California at Davis in 1990. He has been a faculty member in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham since 1991 where he presently holds the rank of Associate Professor of Anthropology

He has conducted ethnographic research in the southern Philippines since 1985 and has been awarded research grants from the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Council of Learned Societies.

Professor McKenna's research to date has focused on armed separatism, popular Islam, cultural politics, terror and resistance, urbanization and economic development, and American colonialism. He has reported the results of his research in various scholarly journals as well as in a 1998 book published by the University of California Press entitled Muslim Rulers and Rebels: Everyday Politics and Armed Separatism in the Southern Philippines. He is currently working on a second book - an anthropology biography of a contemporary Philippine sultan.

ALL ARE WELCOME

Southeast Asian Studies Programme
1999-2000 Seminar Series
presents

WHEN MEMORY CHALLENGES HISTORY: PUBLIC CONTESTATION OF THE PAST IN POST - SUHARTO INDONESIA

Friday, January 28th, 2000, 3.30 pm
SE Asian Studies Programme Seminar Room
(AS3 #06-02)

ABSTRACT

Serving to legitimate the power of a political regime, official history is usually radically questioned, as the regime collapses. So is the case in Indonesia after the downfall of Suharto. Yet, unlike most other countries which have experienced the transition from authoritarian/totalitarian rule to democracy, post-Suharto Indonesia is witnessing an ambiguous critique of past official narratives, especially concerning the "September 30, 1965 affair," i.e., the killing of six top Army officers by a regiment of Presidential guards which brought about Suharto's rise to power. On one side, there is public query over who was really the mastermind of the killing, and on the other, reactionary responses towards the claims of victimization among ex-"communist" political prisoners as they articulate their experiences of the historical tragedy. This paper attempts to explore the current controversy over the narratives of the September 30, 1965 affair through a discussion of the paradox of memory and the ambivalent relationship between memory and history.

THE SPEAKER

Budiawan is a PhD candidate at Southeast Asian Studies Programme, NUS. This presentation is a part of the research project of his thesis.

ALL ARE WELCOME