NUS Press Research Articles

Southeast Asia. Questioning modernity in Indonesia and Malaysia Edited by Wendy Mee and Joel Kahn Singapore and Kyoto: NUS Press with Kyoto University Press, 2012. Pp. 257. Index.

Questioning modernity in Indonesia and Malaysia Edited by WENDY MEE and JOEL KAHN Singapore and Kyoto; NUS Press with Kyoto University Press, 2012. Pp. 257. Index. Modernity as a foundational analytic concept has so far received inadequate attention in Southeast Asian Studies. This collection of essays is a long overdue reiteration of efforts to rethink the concept of modernity, particularly in relation to Indonesia and Malaysia. It offers fascinating case studies that demonstrate the complexity of the notion of the modern. The themes highlighted in this multi-author volume include the deep cultural roots of many contemporary developments; the intercivilisational foundations of modernity (as opposed to being of purely Western origin); the emphasis on the darker side of modernity (as opposed to the tendency to celebrate its progressive aspirations); and the importance of ethnographic and phenomenological views. It is no accident that these themes are germane to co-editor Joel Kahn's earlier works (Constituting the Minangkabau: Peasants, culture, and modernity in colonial Indonesia, 1993; Culture, multiculture, postculture, 1995; Modernity and exclusion, 2001; Other Malays: Nationalism and cosmopolitanism in the modern Malay world, 2006), and that the contributors are his close associates and former students. The introductory chapter is persuasively argued. It is admirable for its clear exposition, cogent argumentation, strong empirical support and theoretical and conceptual sophistication. Echoing the idea popularised by Bruno Latour (We have never been modern, 1993), that even the West did not live up to the conceptual definition and normative expectations of the modern, this chapter suggests that the persistent East/West divide misleads, and the sense of a 'modernity deficit' that unduly pressures many countries to play a catch-up game with the West, often with adverse consequences, is wrong-headed and unnecessary. It insists that contemporary developments in Asia are 'fully modern' (p. 1). The editors also assert that modernity must be understood not as an objective reality, but rather as an 'objectifying story that self-designated moderns tell about themselves and their societies' (p. 7). Kahn's chapter ('Islam and capitalism in the frontiers and borderlands of the modern Malay world') shows the intercultural or intercivilisational roots of modernity and capitalist practices in the Malay world. By highlighting the features of commercial or entrepreneurial practices of 'modernist' Muslims, it argues against the longstanding perception of Islam's incompatibility with or aversion towards capitalism and modernity. The picture that emerges is that of dynamic intermixing or interaction between the old and the new, and Western and Eastern or local elements. Goh Beng Lan's chapter ('Dilemma of progressive politics in Malaysia') offers a penetrating analysis of the manifestations and roots of the dilemma of liberal politics in Malaysia. The exposition effectively conveys the gravity and complexity of the problem as it highlights progressive politics occupying a key position in the ambiguous and problematic nature of modernity. Thung Ju-lan's piece ('Ethnicity, nation-state and citizenship among Chinese Indonesians') extends or applies a number of Kahn's ideas (Culture, multiculture, postculture, 1995) to the case of the Indonesian Chinese, particularly the 'culturalisation of everyday life' (p. 149). As in the chapters by Goh and Kahn, it shows that cultural difference cannot be outside of, or opposite to modernity, but rather it is a constituting element of modernity as clearly manifest in the state-formation process. …

Temiar Religion 1964–2012: Enchantment, Disenchantment and Re-enchantment in Malaysia’s Uplands by Geoffrey Benjamin (review)

Reviewed by: Temiar Religion 1964–2012: Enchantment, Disenchantment and Re-enchantment in Malaysia’s Uplands by Geoffrey Benjamin Sandra Khor Manickam Temiar Religion 1964–2012: Enchantment, Disenchantment and Re-enchantment in Malaysia’s Uplands Geoffrey Benjamin Singapore: NUS Press, 2014. 480 pp., ISBN: 978-9971-69-706-8 Temiar Religion by Geoffrey Benjamin is an unconventional book. The material ranges from the 1960s to the 2000s, it contains Benjamin’s 1967 PhD thesis and letters between Benjamin and Edmund Leach, and it ends in the contemporary period with chapters that can stand on their own. Yet it is precisely this variety of material on Temiar religion that makes the book an insightful and compelling read. Temiar Religion not only discusses the religions and religious practices and beliefs of an Orang Asli community in Malaysia through the better part of 50 years, it is also a compilation of thinking about the sociology of religion, a history of anthropology of the Orang Asli (the general term for Malaysia’s indigenous people of which Temiar is the largest group) (p. 20), and a document that traces change in Temiar society. It is the sort of book that professors put on their required reading list for first-year undergraduate classes on anthropology, religion and/or Malaysia with the realization that it should stand in students’ bookcases at least until some of them undertake a PhD and long after. In his foreword to the book, political scientist and anthropologist James C. Scott aptly describes the book as a ‘sustained, scrupulous, long-term observation and analysis’ of religions among Temiar of Malaysia (p. ix). Scott points out that Benjamin has reformulated thinking about the Orang Asli several times over: moving scholars away from thinking about the presence of different indigenous groups as due to successive migration waves (the layer cake theory) to differences brought about due to in-situ hybridization in the Malay Peninsula;1 and from understanding labels such as ‘race’ as primarily [End Page 161] biological differences to more of an indication of specific lifeways and cultural matrices.2 The book is the earlier basis of much of his later (though earlier published) work. Benjamin’s study is a thoughtful and considered study of Temiar and their religious practices and beliefs, as well as the process of studying and writing about them. The unity of the chapters lies in the analysis of Temiar religious practices and beliefs as part of wider Malaysian society, but nonetheless readers will notice the varied tone and purpose of the chapters which illustrate writings and analyses separated by nearly 50 years of research. The book may be divided into two parts: the first part comprises the 1967 PhD thesis and associated chapters based on fieldwork in the 1960s, while the second part is scholarship based on newer ethnological fieldwork from the 1960s until 2012. The earlier section comprises detailed research on the underlying beliefs and practices of Temiar religion which reflects not only the amount of time Benjamin was able to devote to the study of Temiar religion in the 1960s, but also how much of his initial fieldwork was groundbreaking for trying to seriously understand Temiar animism as religion, not superstition. This first section also refers to the term ‘enchantment’ in the book’s subtitle, referring to Max Weber’s ideas of religious change in society which I will return to when discussing the second part of the book which corresponds to ‘disenchantment and re-enchantment’. Benjamin’s 1967 doctoral thesis (based on fieldwork in 1964/6) (p. 41) comprises Chapters 3–8, ending with Chapter 9 which reproduces letters written to Benjamin by notable British anthropologist and Benjamin’s supervisor Edmund Leach. Chapters 3–7 on the cosmos, species, souls, and spirit mediumship (respectively) correspond to the component parts of Temiar religious beliefs which Benjamin argues link to an overall logic or conceptual system of religion in which the cosmic (Temiar ideas of a celestial axis from sunrise to sunset), mundane (everyday prohibitions and values attributed to seasonal fruits, other foods and how they link to the village and the forest), and personal levels (the emphasis on souls possessed by humans which corresponds to the opposition between...

Heroes and Revolution in Vietnam 1948–1964 by Benoît de Tréglodé (review)

Reviewed by: Heroes and Revolution in Vietnam 1948–1964 by Benoît de Tréglodé Ruhanas Harun Heroes and Revolution in Vietnam 1948–1964 Benoît de Tréglodé Singapore: NUS Press, 2012. 243 pp. ISBN: 978-9971-69-554-5 This book, which was originally published in French in 2001, offers an insight into the phenomenon of the ‘new hero’ created by the state in Vietnam since 1948. It is an account of how the Communist Party of Vietnam strove to create new political and revolutionary elite from the towns and villages of the country to serve as the model for the nation in the time of the war against external aggression. In Chapter 1, ‘Heroism in Vietnam’, the author examines the role of the Vietnamese heroic figure throughout its history. Vietnam inherited many Chinese cultural traditions. One was the Confucian hierarchical principles, which included the principle of submission such as the submission of the inferior to his superior, which would ensure the cohesion of the social whole. In this social hierarchy, all men were not born equal, and this meant that they also had different duties. As explained by the author in this chapter, a leader’s greatest responsibility was to be a model of virtue to his people. The hero was a sort of barometer of patriotic virtue, and was connected to his nation by a filial link. He represented a certain social order, but not the heart of the system. In Vietnam the hero was created by the ‘fatherland’ and was the best possible servant to his nation, the inferior to a superior being (p. 13). On what the new hero is all about in Vietnam, the author cited Truong Chinh, a well-respected leader of the Communist Party of Vietnam. According to Truong Chinh, ‘the hero is oriented towards the party, dedicated to serving the people. He does not oppress the people and takes part in the liberation of the masses. Most heroes are workers and peasants. For the good of the masses, the hero is a dedicated volunteer, exemplary in production and labour. The hero follows the political line of the Vanguard Party and the government… (p. 28). The author goes on to explain the criteria of the new man in Vietnam in the political, technical and social aspects. He is loyal to the party, has combative or productivist qualities, and comes from and remains in close contact with [End Page 179] the masses. As this was the period of the revolution in Vietnam, and with the Vietnamese remaining strongly attached to their culture and tradition, heroism became a product of a mixture and adaptation of the past idea of Confucian principles and the new conditions in the country. The state needed heroes to carry out the spirit of the revolution as enjoined by the Party. It was against this background that the Vietnamese state proceeded to create the ‘new hero’. In Chapter 2 the author explains the goals of this programme, known as ‘patriotic emulation’, aimed at creating the new hero or the new man. He is the product of an ‘emulation process’ which connects him to the institutional apparatus of communism. The goals of this patriotic emulation programme, according to Ho Chi Minh and as cited by the author were ‘to fight famine and poverty, to fight ignorance and to fight foreign invaders. The way to do this is to rely upon the people’s forces.’ To introduce the programme to the people, the government carried out intensive activities in the patriotic emulation campaign. In the first campaign, in the spring of 1948, one of the activities was mobilization. But it did not receive much attention from the population and not many turned out to support this programme’s activities. So the state had to devise a strategy to attract the masses to support the Viet Minh. It was called the ‘patriotic emulation competition’, which involved competition with patriotic feeling in everything one does in order to achieve good results (p. 44). The goals of this campaign were fourfold: political, economic, cultural and military. The political goal was to establish and strengthen the party and establish political authority. Economically it would mean...

The Annotated Malay Archipelago by Alfred Russel Wallace (review)

Reviewed by: The Annotated Malay Archipelago by Alfred Russel Wallace Timothy P. Barnard The Annotated Malay Archipelago Alfred Russel Wallace, edited by John Van Wyhe Singapore: NUS Press, 2014. xvii, 801 pp. Maps, illustrations, bibliography, index. ISBN 978-9971-69-820-1 First published in 1869, The Malay Archipelago is a classic work on Southeast Asian society, nature and imperialism. It is a memoir filled with the observations and thoughts of Victorian naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace and describes his travels in Southeast Asia between 1854 and 1862. Within its pages are a number of interlocking texts—scientific treatise, travelogue and history filled with ethnographic observations and tales of flora and fauna—all of which make it appealing to not only scholars of a range of disciplines in Southeast Asia but also scientists throughout the world. At its most basic The Malay Archipelago is a travelogue. Wallace arrived in the Melaka Strait in 1854 and proceeded to explore the islands of Southeast Asia, ranging from Sumatra to New Guinea, with a considerable amount of time spent in eastern Indonesia. In a crisp, clear writing style, Wallace described peoples, landscapes and nature with particularly exquisite chapters on birds of paradise and Singapore being personal favourites of mine. While these tales are fascinating, the reason the book remains an important piece of literature with a global impact is what occurred to Wallace intellectually while in Southeast Asia. During his journey, he took note of geographical distribution of animals throughout the archipelago. Wallace slowly came to a realization that led to the development of one of the most revolutionary ideas in history: a basic understanding of evolution through natural selection. Readers of this journal, however, already know most of this information. After all, anyone with a passing interest in Wallace, Malaysia, nineteenth-century Southeast Asia, or natural history already owns the book. This leads to more pertinent questions with regard to any new ‘annotated’ edition. These questions include: has the editor added anything new to our understanding of the work, or Wallace?; and, should this version replace the one on your shelf?. The answers to these questions are ‘quite a bit’ and ‘yes’. This edition of The Malay Archipelago is a product of the larger work of its editor, John van Wyhe, who has spent the past decade developing and operating the Wallace Online website (www.wallace-online.org). Any visitor to the website can peruse the entirety of the writings of the Victorian naturalist, from letters to notebooks to illustrations, something van Wyhe accomplished [End Page 183] earlier with the writings of Charles Darwin. With such a background, van Wyhe brings his wealth of knowledge about Wallace, and nineteenth-century natural history, to this edition. The result is not only the classic text, but also additional information that deepens our appreciation of the work. Van Wyhe begins the hefty tome—it was originally a two-volume work—with a 43-page introduction, which outlines Wallace’s background and lays out the details surrounding his travels in Southeast Asia, as well as the publication and reception of The Malay Archipelago. He even provides a detailed itinerary of Wallace’s travels. This introduction and accompanying footnotes in the text are more than simply additional notes, however. Van Wyhe provides the context that an informed reader needs to better appreciate the work, thus enhancing our understanding of the journey and its ultimate impact on science, imperialism and society. After this introduction, the remaining 700 pages of the book contain Wallace’s original text. Van Wyhe provides numerous footnotes that further supplement the text, particularly for a twenty-first-century audience. These notes include contextualization for nineteenth-century quotes, backgrounds of individuals mentioned in anecdotes and even the historic context of events described. These footnotes also provide the modern names of species of animals and plants mentioned in the text as well as their updated scientific names, many of which have been changed since Wallace observed them. The book ends with a bibliography to this edition, which allows the modern reader to explore other considerations of Wallace and his impact on science and society. This new edition of The Malay Archipelago should replace the dusty volume on...

Tamils and the Haunting of Justice: History and Recognition in Malaysia’s Plantations by Andrew C. Willford (review)

Reviewed by: Tamils and the Haunting of Justice: History and Recognition in Malaysia’s Plantations by Andrew C. Willford Henry S. Barlow Tamils and the Haunting of Justice: History and Recognition in Malaysia’s Plantations Andrew C. Willford with the collaboration of S. Nagarajan Singapore: NUS Press, 2014. xviii, 318 pp. ISBN 978-9971-69-839-3 The main author, Andrew Willford, an associate professor of anthropology at Cornell University, has previously written extensively on the subject of [End Page 184] the treatment of Indian estate communities by the Malaysian government. This book focuses on the plight of Tamil communities in Selangor, displaced and threatened by displacement when estates, which had been established in many cases over a century ago, are closed down and the land used for housing development. Given the extraordinary speed with which development has taken place recently, this is a timely exposé of problems which have been encountered by the Indian community in Malaysia’s most prosperous state. It is fair to assume that similar problems and pressures, albeit to a lesser extent, face most Indian estate communities along the length of the west coast of the Peninsula. Although Malaysians of Indian ethnic origin comprise less than 10 per cent of the population of Malaysia, they have been concentrated on the west coast of the Peninsula, from the time rubber estates were introduced there in the boom years of the early twentieth century. Since the Malays were reluctant to work on the estates, British estate owners recruited labour from whole villages of impoverished Tamils in southern India to undertake this work. It is the plight of the third and fourth generations of these migrants which is the subject of this book. Like other isolated migrant communities, they have in many cases retained the traditional customs of their original communities with extreme fidelity: so much so that those studying such communities in India have been known to visit the Malaysian Tamil villages to obtain some idea of the customs in India a century ago. Religion observances are therefore fundamental to the life of the community, focused round the temples, in many cases over 100 years old. Moreover, the structure, social fabric and cohesion of the community depend on ties of marriage and peer pressure, which can only be weakened when the community dispersed. The first significant disposals of estate land for development took place in the 1970s and 1980s. In these cases, the author shows that because the intrinsic value of the land, even with conversion permission for housing, was relatively low, well-organized communities were reasonably successful in obtaining alternative housing in areas where the majority of the community could continue to live in fairly close proximity, bringing with them their temple gods. More recent conversions of estate lands for housing have had significantly less satisfactory outcomes for the Tamil communities thus displaced, partly because the underlying value of the land has increased very substantially. There is thus extreme reluctance by either the estate or the developer to set aside land for low-cost housing for displaced workers. Added to this is the strong perception within the Tamil community that those responsible for such large new housing developments wish to reflect a middle-class Islamic culture: hence the building of many mosques and surau, and the extreme reluctance of developers to accommodate any un-Islamic (in this case, Hindu) places of worship. [End Page 185] The legal compensation payable to displaced estate workers is modest and quite inadequate, on its own, to enable the purchase of alternative low-cost accommodation. However, by a process of trial and error, estate communities threatened with displacement, assisted by NGOs and lawyers working pro bono, have learned to use the law to its full extent to delay their eviction. This tactic of exacerbated delay together with the threat of publicity adverse to the developers appears to be the only way by which the displaced Tamil communities can force developers into any sort of reasonable settlement, which takes into account the many years they and their forebears have worked on the land, thus contributing to the prosperity of the country. Deep concern and resentment were also expressed by many Tamils in...

Tamaki Endo. Living with Risk: Precarity and Bangkok's Urban Poor. Singapore: NUS Press in association with Kyoto: Kyoto University Press, 2014, 360p.

Tamaki Endo. Living with Risk: Precarity and Bangkok's Urban Poor. Singapore: NUS Press in association with Kyoto: Kyoto University Press, 2014, 360p.

Museums, History and Culture in Malaysia by Abu Talib Ahmad (review)

Reviewed by: Museums, History and Culture in Malaysia by Abu Talib Ahmad Cynthia Chou Museums, History and Culture in Malaysia Abu Talib Ahmad Singapore: NUS Press, 2015. xiii, 328 pp. ISBN 978-9971-69819-5 (paperback) Museums and the museumizing imagination are both well-known and powerful instruments that have been used for purposes of nation building. Cultural memory and understanding of heritage have been shaped by carefully crafted museum exhibits to articulate messages about national identity. Abu Talib Ahmad’s book, Museums, History and Culture in Malaysia provides an analysis of the way museums in Malaysia narrate history within the context of a defined nationalist agenda that accords primacy to Malay Muslim values. The book opens with an introduction that situates the analysis within the wider discussion and debates revolving around the role of museums. There are altogether five chapters plus an Introduction cum Conclusion that make up the book. Maps and photographs of museum exhibits evoke relevant visual images for readers not only to follow but also to see the issues under discussion. Malaysia’s National Museum provides the focal point for the inquiry into the tensions in the state’s national narratives as expressed in museum displays and designs. A close scrutiny of the National Museum shows the trajectories of change that it has undertaken or been subjected to in order for it to represent the nation’s official history and culture. With its origins as a general museum, the National Museum once served as a repository for displays of natural history specimens and a place that narrated the colonial experience. Following Malaysian independence, the Museum has undergone extensive transformation as it is now tasked with an obligation to promulgate a particular story of national history and culture. Using the case studies of other museums and memorials in Malaysia, comparisons are made to examine how these museums narrate stories of alternative histories that are not necessarily always in acquiescence with the national history as portrayed by the National Museum. Selected museums throughout the country—in Penang, Kedah, Perak, Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Sabah, Kelantan and Terengganu—as well as three memorials dedicated to national heroes (such as former Prime Ministers Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Abdul Razak Hussein, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, and film and recording artist P. Ramlee) are brought to the fore in this discussion. Based on diverse data obtained from visits to museums, interviews with museum bureaucrats past and present, archival research and textual analysis of museum publications that include annual reports and issues of the Federation Museums Journal, the dynamics of changing museological approaches are examined [End Page 119] together with the tensions they express or engender concerning Malaysia’s history and culture. This is a meticulously detailed historiography. It is a bold and thought-provoking work that shows the extent to which numerous other museums in Malaysia contest the National Museum’s account of the country’s historical experience. Cogent arguments are made concerning how the politics of knowledge comes into play in the way different museums have contesting stories to tell in regard to a swathe of subjects that are highly sensitive, if not controversial, in Malaysia. These include the country’s pre-Islamic past, the history and heritage of the Melaka Sultanate, memories of the Japanese occupation, the country’s national cultural policy, and the cultural variances between the Federation’s constituent states. This study unveils how exclusions and silences cover aspects that are deemed politically and religiously incorrect. Concluding with a caution that glossing over aspects of Malaysia’s history and culture would only serve to exclude segments of the nation’s pluralistic population and hence impact negatively upon visitor interests, a challenge is posed to museums to change the way they organize their displays to address the kind of nation building that is needed in Malaysia today. This absorbing read is the direct result of Abu Talib Ahmad’s rigorous scholarship and ability to present his work in a clearly written and thus easily comprehensible style. This book is highly recommended not only to specialists in museum studies, but to anyone interested in understanding the dynamics that shape the history and culture of Malaysia. Cynthia Chou University of Copenhagen Copyright © 2015...

Gerard Sasges (ed.). It's a Living: Work and Life in Vietnam Today. Singapore: NUS Press, 2013. 313 pp.

Gerard Sasges (ed.). It's a Living: Work and Life in Vietnam Today. Singapore: NUS Press, 2013. 313 pp.

Southeast Asia. The memoirs and memorials of Jacques de Coutre: Security, trade and society in 16th- and 17th-century Southeast Asia Edited by Peter Borschberg and translated by Roopanjali Roy Singapore: NUS Press, 2014. Pp. 453. Plates, Illustrations, Abbreviations, Glossary, Bibliography, Index.

Southeast Asia. The memoirs and memorials of Jacques de Coutre: Security, trade and society in 16th- and 17th-century Southeast Asia Edited by Peter Borschberg and translated by Roopanjali Roy Singapore: NUS Press, 2014. Pp. 453. Plates, Illustrations, Abbreviations, Glossary, Bibliography, Index. - Volume 46 Issue 2

Indonesia. Islam, nationalism and democracy: A political biography of Mohammad Natsir By Audrey R. Kahin Singapore: NUS Press, 2012. Pp. 235. Maps, Plates, Notes, Bibliography, Index.

Indonesia. Islam, nationalism and democracy: A political biography of Mohammad Natsir By Audrey R. Kahin Singapore: NUS Press, 2012. Pp. 235. Maps, Plates, Notes, Bibliography, Index. - Volume 46 Issue 2

Thailand. Living with risk: Precarity and Bangkok's urban poor By Tamaki Endo Singapore: NUS Press; Kyoto: Kyoto University Press, 2014. Pp. 333. Tables, Figures, Plates, Notes, Bibliography, Index.

Living with risk: Precarity and Bangkok's urban poor By TAMAKI ENDO Singapore: NUS Press; Kyoto: Kyoto University Press, 2014. Pp. 333. Tables, Figures, Plates, Notes, Bibliography, Index. Living with risk is an exploration of the precarious lives of Bangkok's urban poor. Tamaki Endo argues that the urban poor are not only defined by their income levels, but perhaps more importantly, also by the nature of their lives and the texture of their livelihoods. So the issue is not just a quantitative one determined and demarcated by a money-centric view of poverty, but also a qualitative one where we need to ask questions and collect evidence regarding the quality of working conditions and living arrangements among Bangkok's marginal and marginalised 'poor'. The book is impressively rich in empirical terms and the discussion is supported by a host of footnotes, tables and figures, scores of photographs, nine appendices, three bibliographies.... This is a fact- and evidence-rich exploration of Bangkok's poor. To pursue her argument, Endo embraces three entry points for her discussion. She is interested, to begin with, in the spatial configurations of low income communities, as distinct and discrete slices of Bangkok's urban space. Second, she is interested in the social containers that are to be found within these spaces and, in particular, households/families and 'communities', and how individuals sit within these social units. And third, Endo is interested in the social dynamics of change, in particular through the analysis and interpretation of life course and intergenerational relations. A final organisational theme in Endo's book is an interest in two types of risk: fire risk and employment risk. It is these twin risks which provide the author with the scope to embed her discussion within debates over 'precarity'. For someone wishing to find out more about the living conditions of Bangkok's poor this is a wonderful place to start; Living with risk can be mined for a host of material. But I thought that the density of the discussion and material presented sometimes meant that the argument Endo develops became a little lost from sight. There is simply so much going on, and so many different perspectives, that it is hard to see the wood for the trees. That is a shame because the underlying argument is an important one and worth hearing. As Endo puts it, 'This book attempts to understand the contemporary urban lower class and their community [in Bangkok], the state of its employment and living conditions, and its stratification, from the perspectives of individuals who live in the community' (p. …

Vietnam. The Khmer lands of Vietnam: Environment, cosmology and sovereignty By Philip Taylor Singapore: NUS Press, 2014. Pp. 316. Maps and Figures, Plates, Notes, Bibliography, Index.

Vietnam. The Khmer lands of Vietnam: Environment, cosmology and sovereignty By Philip Taylor Singapore: NUS Press, 2014. Pp. 316. Maps and Figures, Plates, Notes, Bibliography, Index. - Volume 46 Issue 2

Nature Contained: Environmental Histories of Singapore . Edited by Timothy P. Barnard. Singapore: NUS Press, 2014. 328pp. Illustrations, maps, tables, graphs, notes, bibliography, and index. Paper $32.00.

<i> Nature Contained: Environmental Histories of Singapore </i>. Edited by Timothy P. Barnard. Singapore: NUS Press, 2014. 328pp. Illustrations, maps, tables, graphs, notes, bibliography, and index. Paper $32.00.

Anthony Reid. 『To Nation by Revolution: Indonesia in the 20th Century』 Singapore: NUS Press, 2011, 348p.

To Nation by Revolution: Indonesia in the 20th Century Anthony Reid Singapore: NUS Press, 2011, 348p.To Nation by is a collection of articles written by Anthony Reid, who has been praised not only for his seminal book Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce, but also for important works on diverse themes that have been critical in the formation of Indonesia. At first glance, the book looks quite disoriented: the 12 chapters were written over a quite long time span, and the topics of the chapters appear to be rather fragmented. However, reading through the entire book, readers find that these seemingly fragmented chapters are interconnected through the mediating role of the Revolution and sociopolitical transformations linked to it.Reid sees the Indonesian as more analogous to the French than to the Russian and in this book the term is used to represent a kind of political phenomenon. However, the is not confined to the Indonesian struggle (1945-49) for independence against the Dutch. As Reid himself states, this book is rather about the manner in which Indonesia entered the modern community of nation-states, through political (p. viii). In light of this perspective, the here does not merely denote political changes, but also connotes sociocultural transformations Indonesians have experienced for a longer period of time beyond the 1940s.The themes of the chapters testify to the wide thematic scope of the Revolution, and of the changes resulting in and from the Revolution. The majority of the chapters analyze topics directly or indirectly related to the Revolusi (1945-49) and adjacent time period. Yet some chapters deal with themes, temporally or thematically far away from the Revolusi. The most interesting cases are chapter 2 (The Late Death of Slavery), chapter 3 (From Betel to Tobacco), and chapter 12 (Chinese and the State). These issues appear to have nothing to do with other chapters on political changes in Indonesia in the mid-twentieth century. They are, however, not unrelated to others in that they explore transformations that led to a break with past tradition in Indonesian society. Subsequently, these paved the way for the Revolution and the emergence of a nationstate, baptized with a new zeitgeist such as modern knowledge and new political system. Yet, the Revolusi in the 1940s did not come without any preliminary symptoms: revolutionary social transformations in the colonial period such as the abolition of slavery and the replacement of betel by tobacco were among those factors that contributed to the political revolution in the midtwentieth century.In this regard, I think that chapter 5 (Merdeka: The Indonesian Key to Freedom) is pivotal in linking the two seemingly unrelated phenomena-sociocultural transformations (chapters 2 and 3) and political changes-analyzed in other chapters. Merdeka, originating from Sanskrit maharddika (eminent, wise, illustrious), came to legally mean non-slave status in Malay, and, with the introduction of the Western political concept, it came to take on the meaning of freedom and functioned as a key political term in anticolonial movements (pp. 107, 116). In the context of the Revolusi, Merdeka signified the ultimate freedom: independence (p. 120). Thus, considering the etymological history of the term Merdeka, research on the Indonesian should also pay attention to diverse social reforms (such as land reforms and labor movements) against the backdrop of political upheaval. …

Singapore. Nature contained: Environmental histories of Singapore Edited by Timothy P. Barnard Singapore: NUS Press, 2014, Pp. x, 328, Figures, Plates, Tables, Bibliography, List of Contributors, Index.

Nature contained: Environmental histories of Singapore Edited by TIMOTHY P. BARNARD Singapore: NUS Press, 2014, Pp. x, 328, Figures, Plates, Tables, Bibliography, List of Contributors, Index. doi: 10.1017/S0022463414000770 This is an extraordinarily absorbing book. On starting my first reading I had not thought that there would be much of interest for me. Having read the outputs of, and for a brief time been involved in, Peter Boomgaard's pioneering, wide-ranging and ambitious Leiden-based EDEN project (Ecology, Demography and Economy in Nusantara) from 1993, it seemed that Singapore, as a developed world city, would have little to offer in environmental terms. How could any consideration of the environmental history of this small island state match the achievements of Boomgaard and his team in understanding the complexities of the Indonesian environment and its mutual human and environmental transformations? Well, of course it can't. But what Barnard's edited volume does is provide a fascinating introduction to what were important environmental moments and events not only in the history of Singapore, but also to its influence on the environmental history of other parts of Southeast Asia. As we might expect, in any consideration of Singapore, due attention is given to the sustained exploitation of nature for the purpose of capitalist development and the insertion of Singapore into a global economic system; the British colonial study, control, classification, and display of the natural world in the interest of furthering scientific understanding, and expressed in museums, research institutions, and learned societies; and the postcolonial construction of Singapore as an integrated and disciplined urban and 'garden' space. I very much liked the editorial device of commencing each chapter with a relevant extract from 'documents, interviews, and accounts of the events that influenced the chapters' (p. 5). So, for example, the chapter on Alfred Russel Wallace is prefaced with an excerpt from his The Malay Archipelago-, and the chapter on the Raffles Museum is preceded by extracts from The Annual Reports of the Raffles Museum and Library, newspaper accounts, and visitors' memories. The volume addresses many issues which have suffered from relative neglect in accounts of Singapore's history or have been influenced by uninformed conceptions of modern Singapore. Tony O'Dempsey examines environmental change in Singapore during the nineteenth century, reminding us that Thomas Stamford Raffles did not start with a clean slate. The island was already home to indigenous fishing communities; but more importantly Chinese Teochew farmers had settled there from the late eighteenth century and begun to cultivate gambier and pepper, which had enormously deleterious effects on the tropical rainforest in that both crops required substantial amounts of timber for processing and their cultivation resulted in soil exhaustion. The importance of this activity should not be understated in transforming the island's environment, and early colonial attempts at addressing the situation resulted in the establishment of a Forestry Department in 1884 to protect and reserve forests, by which time much damage had already been done. Habitat change also led to an upsurge in the number of human and domestic livestock and animal deaths from tiger attacks, a subject addressed in a chapter by Timothy Barnard and Mark Emmanuel. …

Southeast Asia. Popular culture co-productions and collaborations in East and Southeast Asia Edited by Nissim Otmazgin and Eyal Ben-Ari Singapore: NUS Press; Kyoto: Kyoto University Press, 2013. Pp. 276. Bibliography.

Southeast Asia. Popular culture co-productions and collaborations in East and Southeast Asia Edited by Nissim Otmazgin and Eyal Ben-Ari Singapore: NUS Press; Kyoto: Kyoto University Press, 2013. Pp. 276. Bibliography. - Volume 46 Issue 1

Malaysia. The New Economic Policy in Malaysia: Affirmative action, ethnic inequalities and social justice Edited by Edmund Terence Gomez and Johan Saravanamuttu Singapore: NUS Press. 2013. Pp. xviii + 393. Map, Notes, Index.

The New Economic Policy in Malaysia: Affirmative action, ethnic inequalities and social justice Edited by EDMUND TERENCE GOMEZ and JOHAN SARAVANAMUTTU Singapore: NUS Press. 2013. Pp. xviii + 393. Map, Notes, Index, doi:10.1017/S0022463414000745 In combining the findings of two research groups at Universiti Malaya and the National University of Singapore, this edited collection represents the most comprehensive assessment to date of the efficacy of Malaysia's New Economic Policy. The grand aim of the NEP after 1971 was to correct ethnic economic imbalances in Malaysia, particularly through propelling Malays and other 'indigenes' into the modern industrial and commercial sphere. This affirmative action programme involved unprecedented state intervention in Malaysian economic life, and it has gained admiring emulation in Fiji, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and India. As the editors point out in their introduction, there is no disputing the reduction in poverty levels and restructuring in corporate equity holdings that the NEP induced. But, there have been downsides, which all the contributors point to. As Ragayan Haji Mat Zin tells us, poverty eradication has not been spatially uniform--Kedah, Kelantan, Perlis, Terengganu, Sabah, and Sarawak continue to experience higher incidences of poverty than the rest of Malaysia, given less access to education, lower levels of foreign investment, and limited industrialisation. Meanwhile, the 'disloyalty' of electorates towards the ruling coalition, in the east-coast peninsular states and the East Malaysian territories, has been punished by the withholding of federal largesse. There also remains an ethnic concentration of poverty amongst Malay/bumiputera and Indian communities. In the countryside, the divide between the 'haves' and the 'have-nots' has been accentuated by development initiatives. This is brought home in Maznah Mohamad's excellent micro-study of villages in northwest Kelantan--over the longer term, the NEP did not succeed here in making the Malay poor any less deprived, highlighted by the phenomena of reverse urban-rural migration after the 1997 crash, the dislocations of youth unemployment and drug abuse, the disadvantages for women and the large number of single-parent families, and the tendency for the Malay village to remain an 'exclusive [ethnic] enclave' (p. 81). The failures of the NEP in small and medium-scale enterprises are brought out by Gomez's own chapter, where he argues that affirmative action in business and an over-concentration on 'race' rather than 'merit' has contributed to Malaysia's economic exposure to the vicissitudes of the global economy and has suppressed genuine entrepreneurship. A similar story emerges in Andrew Aeria's study of Sarawak: the NEP has been used to increase wealth accumulation by a few well-connected elite bumiputera politicians and businessmen, backed by a clique of astonishingly rich ethnic Chinese entrepreneurs. In this rampant rent-seeking and cronyism, the costs of infrastructure projects have been artificially inflated, leaving even less funding for projects directed at sustainable poverty alleviation. Turning to the public sector, Chan Chee Khoon admits that Malaysia's public healthcare system is remarkably comprehensive for a developing-world country. But the recent tendency for the government and parastatals to buy into private providers is leading to a two-tier system, potentially leaving a 'decrepit public sector for the marginalised lower classes' (p. 167). As Lim Hong Hai emphasises, increased Malay domination of the civil service has run completely contrary to the prime 'race-blind' objective of the NEP to eliminate the association of ethnicity with economic function. …

Southeast Asia. Interactions with a violent past: Reading post-colonial landscapes in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam Edited by Vatthana Pholsena and Oliver Tappe Singapore: NUS Press, 2013. Pp. 300. Maps, Tables, Plates, Notes, Bibliography, Index.

Interactions with a violent past: Reading post-colonial landscapes in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam Edited by VATTHANA PHOLSENA and OLIVER TAPPE Singapore: NUS Press, 2013. Pp. 300. Maps, Tables, Plates, Notes, Bibliography, Index. doi: 10.1017/S0022463414000691 'When a memory is recalled like a car part from storage, there is no scientific certainty as to how it is put back, probably not as it was.' Norman M. Klein, The history of forgetting: Los Angeles and the erasure of memory (Verso, 1997). Echoing Klein's work Ian Baird explains, 'We need to see memories as experiences that are not simply recalled, but rather produced and reproduced over time, and entwined with agency, so that in the end people are not simply recalling past acts, but are considering past productions and reproductions of the past' (p. 243). Within academia, there is a substantial amount of work on collective memory, but very little on how conflict areas shape it. This collection of essays addresses the lacuna by looking at the fluid process of collective memory for those who live in the post-conflict landscapes of Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. Each essay provides details into the way that war-torn places become sites of memory, what Pierre Nora calls lieux de memoire. In this way, the collection provocatively showcases the symbiosis between people's identities and their war debris. Krisna Uk writes about artists and craftsmen who attribute new meanings and functions to war relics and their memories. The 70-year-old Cambodian funerary painter Keulagn Beuragn transforms horrifying memories of the bombing plane into aesthetic remembrances of those who died by it (pp. 223-8). Not only memories of the war, but war-riddled landscapes change in the post-conflict era. Vatthana Pholsena's account of Route 9 in southern Laos provides powerful descriptions of the lives of Sepon villagers who lived through the US war in Vietnam and its aftermath. Vietnamese soldiers and Royal Lao Army prisoners repaired the road in the postwar period, converting sites like a 'reeducation camp' where prisoners were tortured into an exhibition centre. Pholsena argues that beyond these governmental endeavours is a local social component. Villagers in Sepon see the reconstruction of the road as a marking of progress, civilisation, and development. In this way, they situate their own narrative within the road restoration 'in a historical timetable that followed their own recovery from the war' (p. 172). In her chapter on war debris in Vietnam, Christina Schwenkel writes about the international tourism that has developed for demilitarised zones (p. 149), but also notes the cultures that develop between 'professional' deminers and 'hobby' deminers who collect war debris at their own peril (p. 147). Here, people are not only redefining meaning with the war debris; in this example, war debris is part of the process in which people are redefining themselves. Perhaps one of the more physical and horrific examples of this comes from Susan Hammond's accounts of Agent Orange in Vietnam. The negligent manufacturing of the herbicide by US companies like Monsanto and Dow led to the devastation of thousands of people in addition to their ecology. …

Asia. China as a sea power 1127–1369: A preliminary survey of the maritime expansion and naval exploits of the Chinese people during the Southern Song and Yuan periods By Lo Jung-Pang. Ed. and commentary by Bruce A. Elleman Singapore: NUS Press; Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2012. Pp. xx + 378. Maps, Bibliography, Index.

China as a sea power 1127-1369: A preliminary survey of the maritime expansion and naval exploits of the Chinese people during the Southern Song and Yuan periods By LO JUNG-PANG. Ed. and commentary by BRUCE A. ELLEMAN Singapore: NUS Press; Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2012. Pp. xx + 378. Maps, Bibliography, Index, doi: 10.1017/S0022463414000666 Anyone who has studied China's maritime history owes a lot to the late professor of Chinese history at UC Davis Lo Jung-Pang (1912-81) and it is truly a blessing that this manuscript, which was completed in 1957, has been published. Every page breathes Lo's characteristic passion for China's maritime legacy. We should also be grateful to Bruce A. Elleman for his efforts in bringing this manuscript to the attention of the public. Its publication is also timely, given China's contemporary maritime policies aimed at re-establishing itself as an Asian and global maritime power (see Thomas M. Kane, Chinese grand strategy and maritime power, 2002; Yves-Heng Lim, China's naval power: An offensive realist approach, 2014). Lo painstakingly describes the historical ascendancy of China as a commercial and naval maritime power. He particularly focuses on the Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties, a period of roughly 500 years during which China's maritime activities experienced an unsurpassed boom. In the initial chapters Lo charts the ancient foundations on which later maritime exploits were built. He does not consider China's maritime activity as a static and isolated phenomenon, but carefully examines the range of factors which played a decisive role in its development and which foreshadowed the unprecedented boom in sea power during the Song dynasty. Useful tables display such aspects as the rise in the number of cities and demographic transformations within China, and help chart shifts in mentalities. In part 2 the author analyses the intertwined phenomena of the boom in commerce and the build-up of the navy during the Song dynasty, and examines developments in shipbuilding as well as firepower technology. Part 3 deals with the rise of China as an expansionist commercial and naval power under Mongol rule. The author also highlights naval expeditions which have largely remained unexamined. By bringing together the most relevant sources, Lo reconstructs, sometimes on a daily basis, the stories of the main battles that were fought by the multiethnic Yuan navies in wars against Japan, Vietnam and Java. …

Singapore. Singapore and the Silk Road of the Sea, 1300–1800 By John N. Miksic Singapore: NUS Press, 2013. Pp. xi + 491. Maps, Illustrations, Images, Bibliography, Index.

Singapore and the Silk Road of the Sea, 1300-1800 By JOHN N. MIKSIC Singapore: NUS Press, 2013. Pp. xi + 491. Maps, Illustrations, Images, Bibliography, Index. doi: 10.1017/S0022463414000769 The precolonial history of Singapore is an area of wilful ignorance and self-denial among many residents and scholars of the nation-state. To acknowledge that the island has a history prior to the landing of Thomas Stamford Raffles and the English East India Company in 1819 would open the door to numerous contestations that do not fit neatly into the dominant state narrative of a small, insignificant fishing village that British guidance and the modern developmental state has willed into modernity, and has been largely ignored in official accounts and textbooks in the nation-state until recently. With this work, John N. Miksic--an archaeologist who has worked throughout Southeast Asia from a base in Singapore for over thirty years--has meticulously presented a history of Singapore prior to 1819 that places it within larger networks of trade as well as given it a prominence that will influence Singaporean and Southeast Asian historiography for decades to come. Following an introduction that outlines archaeological research in Singapore since 1819, Miksic divides the book into three sections. The first section consists of four chapters that summarise much of the research on coastal Southeast Asian trade ports prior to 1300 and then focuses on what is known about Singapore through ancient historical texts. This section makes up the first half of the book, and provides much needed context, as early Singapore was part of this network of trade ports that linked East and South Asia with Southeast Asia. In this section, Miksic argues that these early maritime trade routes were vastly more important than the more reknown 'Silk Road' as it allowed for an exchange of more trade goods at much higher volumes. Despite its importance, little is known about this trade route, however, as the water and humidity of island Southeast Asia has left few traces of the vast network that was built of easily destroyed wood and fragile trade products. Miksic also provides a valuable survey of sites--with a particular emphasis on summarising the finds of recent marine archaeological sites--as well as a general history of what can be understood from the available record about trade and urbanisation of early Southeast Asia that explains why there are various tales about Singapore and how they fit into the larger economic and cultural history of precolonial Southeast Asia. The following section of the book--consisting of three chapters--focuses on archaeological evidence from Singapore. Archaeological digs, often under the supervision of the author, have taken place in Singapore since 1984. In the first of these chapters Miksic discusses each major excavation, and provides details of the sites and what was discovered. …