Oliver Pye and Jayati Bhattacharya, eds. The Palm Oil Controversy in Southeast Asia: A Transnational Perspective. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies Publishing, 2013, xxi+283p.

Abstract

(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)The Palm Oil Controversy in Southeast Asia: A Transnational Oliver Pye and Jayati Bhattacharya, eds. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies Publishing, 2013, xxi+283p.This book of 12 chapters demonstrates effects of rapidly growing oil industry in Southeast Asia a variety of angles: geographically (Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, and Europe); that of background of authors (academics, industry, policy analysis, and NGOs Asian and European countries); and at different levels (from local to transnational). This book arose out of a workshop the Palm Oil Controversy in Transnational Perspective that was held in Singapore, March 2-4, 2009.The first part of book describes development of oil industries in each country of Malaysia, Indonesia, and Philippines. Chapter 2 is about Malaysia, in which Teoh Cheng Hai explains and national development of plantation industry of Malaysia. It discusses 1) phase brought about by European companies, especially UK, in late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries for rubber, oil, and others; and 2) a national phase where foreign ownership and head offices were transferred to Malaysia 1970s leading to growth of Malaysian companies in 1980s; and finally 3) a new phase in which now developed Malaysian corporations expanding both upstream, especially in Indonesia, and downstream, especially in Europe, as well as emergence of mega oil corporations like Sime Darby Bhd. and Wilmar International Ltd. (figure 2.1 in p. 23). Through these phases, Malaysian corporations developed and have now become strategic players in Southeast Asia's oil industry. Chapter 3 deals with Indonesia. The author, Norman Jiwan, explains political ecology of Indonesian oil industry since it was imported by Dutch colonialists in 1848, and large scale and commercial plantation development that started in 1911. Key players in Indonesian oil industry also shifted national to transnational. After independence, Sukarno nationalized foreign plantation companies, and state fostered oil industry in Indonesia. Industry was significantly liberalized during and after Asian financial crisis, with involvement of International Monetary Fund (IMF), as well as through foreign investment (especially by Malaysian corporations), and state allowing maximum foreign ownership in both domestic and foreign investments with Investment Act. Indonesian states, as well as UK, Netherlands, and Malaysia, cooperated setting up and enabling policy frameworks for biomass and biofuels production (pp. 52-55). The author concludes that through these national and developments, the oil political economy system fails to deliver economic prosperity to people working in industry on ground (p. 50). Chapter 4 deals with Indonesia, through a case study Riau. Junji Nagata and Sachiho W. Arai mark out directions of change in indigenization and from external to internal expansion in local oil industry. Chapter 5 turns to Philippines, a country strongly promoting oil though smaller in scale when compared to Malaysia and Indonesia. The Philippine adopted a pro-palm oil policy, and Mary Luz Menguita-Feranil argues that transnational investment Malaysia is a key factor and that palm oil investment has received a new boost through biofuels policies of government (p. 97).The second part of book shifts focus to labor migration in context of oil industry. In Chapter 6, Johan Saravanamuttu discusses how Malaysia has become largest importer of foreign migrant labor in Southeast Asia and suggests that migrant labor in Malaysia is a flexible labour regime (p. …