Labor Problems in Southeast Asia

Abstract

THE BASIC problem of Southeast Asia in relation to world affairs is not the political issue of emergence from the colonial stage of Government. It is the problem of the evolution towards self-reliance of communities largely controlled by outside forces in their economic and social as well as in their political life. The political aspects of the problem are narrowing. On the other hand, with the resumption of world trade and the changes promised by air transport, the number of communities under outside economic control and subject to foreign influence in matters of social policy will increase. There is a danger that this control and this influence may be a form of imperialism, unless provision is made for the progressive partnership of the communities in the direction of all parts of their national life and in the shaping of the international policies affecting their national life. This general problem has its important political implications. The wealth and freedom of any community will in the long run be determined by the natural resources of the community as developed by capital and labor. Outside assistance will help to lessen the gap between actual and potential wealth. So long, however, as this assistance remains indispensable, the community will remain a dependency, the imported wealth and culture will tend to be alien and the natural forces of indigenous society will not contribute their full to world security and welfare. Economic and social policies therefore should have regard for the ultimate development of the corporate life of the people. In this sense they are political. Nevertheless, the factor of economic dependence is of main importance. Poverty, ill-directed economic development, ill-health, ignorance, inefficient labor policies, and in general the evils conditioned by the clash of cultures in territories where political control is from abroad will not be abolished by the abolition of that