Showing papers in "Sojourn in 2019"

On Liberalism Disavowed: Communitarianism and State Capitalism in Singapore by Chua Beng Huat (review)

Abstract: This book is a major intervention in the debate about how to understand Singapore’s political regime, as it powerfully exposes the limitations of ascendant liberal pluralist critiques of authoritarianism. Those critiques have been heavily weighted towards documenting and lamenting the liberal democratic shortfalls of Singapore’s political regime. Chua Beng Huat, too, is critical of authoritarianism, but challenges the ideological conceptions of liberal individualism and market capitalism as the basis of so many critiques. Culturalist approaches rationalizing authoritarianism are also emphatically rejected. Instead, Chua analyses the interrelated historical, ideological and social bases of the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP). He harnesses this approach to highlight and explain what he depicts as the PAP’s systematic aversion to both liberal individualism and free market capitalism, and to argue that social democracy remains integral to the political success of the PAP. There is no previous book with quite this focus and argument, even though Chua is not the first — and this is not his first work —

Mahathir's Islam: Mahathir Mohamad on Religion and Modernity in Malaysia by Sven Schottmann (review)

Abstract: prisoners. Nevertheless, Hersri also makes fun of the guards by portraying how ridiculous and naïve many of them were. The guards, for instance, were superstitious. When they could not find the two fugitives for a while, they assumed that Heru and Siregar were hidden by the spirits. Hersri was released in 1978, surviving nine years of imprisonment, seven of which were on Buru Island. In 1981, he married Dutch-born Jitske Mulder and lived in Jakarta before moving to the Netherlands. The couple had a daughter, Ken Setiawan, who wrote a touching introduction to this book, explaining how her parents decided to move to the Netherlands not because of fear of repression but for their daughter’s future. Mulder died of cancer in 1989, and Hersri moved back to Indonesia in 2004. Ken Setiawan remembers how her father used to tell her about his experiences on Buru; some were very upsetting, but others were more lighthearted. Indeed, these are the impressions I have from reading this memoir: it is not just a story of sadness but also of strength, of perseverance, and of finding happiness and comedy in the midst of tragedy. Thanks to the painstaking work by a wellknown translator, Jennifer Lindsay, this book is now available in the English language.

Ceasefire State-Making and Justice Provision by Ethnic Armed Groups in Southeast Myanmar

Abstract: Abstract:This article explores the state-making efforts of two ethnic armed organizations in Southeast Myanmar through the lens of justice provision. Engaging with current debates about rebel governance and empirical state formation, the article argues that ethnic armed organizations cannot simply be dismissed as rebels focused on extraction and coercion alone, but are also state-makers who nurture legitimate authority. We add to this debate by introducing the new concept of 'ceasefire state-making' to capture the particular dynamics of contested state-making and constitution of authority in the liminal phase between armed conflict and a pending peace agreement.

Democratic Deservingness and Self-Reliance in Contemporary Myanmar

Abstract: Abstract:How do communities prove themselves worthy to receive aid from the state in contemporary Myanmar? This article explores how 'self-reliance' has become a defining feature of the politics of entitlement since the transition to partial civilian rule. Drawing on sixteen months of ethnographic and survey fieldwork conducted in provincial Myanmar since 2015, it shows how parliamentarians and state officials use ostensibly voluntary contributions of labour and resources by residents to local improvement initiatives as a basis to choose which communities deserve state poverty alleviation assistance. Tracing the moral claims to authorities that village and ward leaders and residents often make before, during and after projects of 'self-reliant' public good provision, the article shows how 'doing it yourself' infuses the way citizens, politicians, civil servants and even stateless people enact and understand 'democratic' duties. It demonstrates that authoritarian-era notions of rights as contingent, competitive and zero-sum are being reinforced rather than undermined via local improvement initiatives despite the civilian-led government's significant spending on poverty alleviation and development. The article exposes how increased state funding for public goods and poverty alleviation can entrench pernicious distinctions between 'deserving' and 'undeserving' poor, highlighting how inequality and exclusion endure despite the end of direct military dictatorship.

Introduction: Coming to Terms with Moral Authorities in Myanmar

Abstract: Abstract:In post-dictatorship Myanmar, authority rests uncertainly on a host of proliferating appeals to morality. It depends on authorities' enactment of moral claims. The claims are not uniform. Nor are the authorities that make them self-evident. For both these reasons, this article foregrounds these moral authorities in its discussion of authority. It asks how religious beliefs and cultural norms inform authoritative work in Myanmar today, and what practices people adopt when relating to moral authorities. Pointing to the articles in this special section, it stresses the variability of moral authority, and the diversity of encounters with it in towns, villages and armed groups' enclaves. The recent ethical turn in anthropology, it suggests, can inform research on moral authorities by drawing out the multiple and seemingly contradictory ways that people come to know and relate to them. In so doing, it invites ethical questions about the study of moral authorities and their relationship to violence in Myanmar, particularly in light of the massive atrocities visited on Muslims in Rakhine State, and widespread anti-Muslim sentiment across the country.

What Happened to Sex Trafficking? the New Moral Panic of Men, Boys and Fish in the Mekong Region

Abstract: Abstract:Activists, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the international media have repeatedly singled out the Mekong region as a hotspot for 'sex trafficking'. Yet, in recent years anti-trafficking campaigns that focus on prostitution have lost momentum, witnessed by a decline in project activity and media attention. This article suggests that a moral panic relating to prostitution has partly been overshadowed by a broader focus on the Thai labour sector, particularly the fishing industry. At the same time, this shift coincides with a discursive reorientation away from 'trafficking' towards 'modern slavery'. This article explores the gendered dimensions of this shifting regime of migration governance which in effect replaces women and girls with men and boys as the central locus for action. Although this change must be understood in light of structural changes within the Thai economy and a broader compassion and programme fatigue, this article points to the similar moral registers that both 'sex trafficking' and 'slavery at sea' invoke. Neoliberal modes of activism coupled with emergent social media help explain why anti-trafficking and modern slavery discourses have gradually redirected attention away from sex to fish.

Towards a Moral Understanding of Karen State's Paradoxical Buddhist Strongmen

Abstract: Abstract:This article considers the role that armed Plong (Pwo) Karen Buddhist strongmen play as moral authorities in their home communities, rather than their coercive and extractive qualities. Based on eighteen months of fieldwork in Hpa-an district, Karen State, it demonstrates that their ability to act as moral authorities in their home communities is embedded in elaborate social notions of interdependency. These are related to the specific formation of Karen personhood and the importance of being 'faithful' (in Plong Karen, thout kyar) to each other. In describing how one strongman and his extractive debt relations are configured according to Plong Karen social ethics, the article demonstrates that a core feature of their moral authority is interwoven in a Buddhist cosmological understanding of moral leadership and the public performance of merit-making activities. It argues that the use of public performances of morality through donation ceremonies play a powerful role in mitigating the ways in which illicit economic activities and extractive debt relations are regarded as incommensurate with Plong Karen values.

The Siamese "Modern Girl" and Women's Consumer Culture, 1925–35

Abstract: Abstract:This article studies the emergence of the Modern Girl as an icon of consumerism and global femininity in print media in 1920s Siam, a phenomenon that has been overlooked in contemporary Thai studies. As the print media industry gained success among the literate middle-classes of urban Bangkok, the sao samai (the Siamese Modern Girl)—who had a shared identity with Modern Girls around the world—made her first appearance among popular audiences. She expressed herself through her appearance: bobbed hair, exaggerated make-up and modern clothing. She was open about her sexual desires and represented Siamese urban modern femininity. In the women's print media industry, Satri thai and Netnari stood out as the most vocal women's magazines of the decade. Using these magazines as source material, this article provides insights into Siamese women's consumer culture of this period and their calls for women's liberation.

Hmollywood Movies: 1.5-Generation Hmong Americans and Transnational Film Production in Thailand

Abstract: Abstract:Hundreds of low-budget Hmong language films—comedies, action films, horror films, historical fiction movies, documentaries and others—have been produced for Hmong American audiences since the 1990s. Most of them have been made by 1.5-generation Hmong American men in Thailand, in collaboration with Hmong Thais who work for Hmong American producers as actors and in various other capacities. Khek Noi sub-district, Phetchabun Province—the most populous Hmong community in Thailand—is the centre of Hmong film-making because of political history, landscape, language, the skills that Hmong at Khek Noi have developed, and because Khek Noi has become a recognizable place for Hmong American film-makers. Indeed, Khek Noi can appropriately be referred to as 'Hmollywood', even though there have been tensions between Hmong American film-makers and Hmong Thai who have worked for them. The American market for Hmong films is, however, facing serious challenges, leading Hmong American film-makers to look for new directions in producing and marketing films. This article engages with the literature on transnational cinema, arguing not only that there are transnational and globalized influences on the Hmong film-making industry, but also crucial place-based ones.

Mirroring Power: Ethnogenesis and Integration among the Phunoy of Northern Laos by Vanina Bouté (review)

Abstract: for domestic workers raises the question of whether or not her analysis may be biased towards experiences that culminate in stepwise trajectory. Also posing a challenge to the applicability of stepwise migration in analysing the migration trajectories of many ‘low-waged’ and ‘low-skilled’ workers are studies that illustrate that migrants’ increasing reliance on intermediaries reduces their migration capabilities, which consequently may also limit their ability to reach aspired destinations. Nonetheless, this is an important book that not only challenges dominant paradigms in migration studies but, more importantly, invites further theorizations of the under-studied phenomenon of multinational migration.

The Ancient City of Mokti in the Tenth to Thirteenth Century CE Bagan Period

Abstract: Abstract:The history of Mokti during the tenth to thirteenth century CE is generally framed by two votive tablets inscribed by officials of the Bagan King Kyanzittha. This article documents additional evidence from Mokti to put the site in the context of other polities in Lower Myanmar, rather than consigning it to a provincial garrison that merited the sending of governors from the distant court. Terracotta votive tablets and stone and bronze objects include Buddhist and Brahmanic styles that reflect local and regional interchange. When understood in relation to the neighbouring polities of Wei Di, Thaton and Tanintharyi, rather than the distant capital at Bagan, Mokti exemplifies the localization of the many sites in Myanmar dating to this period. Taken in aggregate at sites throughout Myanmar, Mokti highlights a variability that is lost when places with objects or structures dating to the Bagan period are homogenized into outposts rather than taken on their own terms and within local networks.

Prince Abhakara's Experiences with Britain's Royal Navy: Education, Geopolitical Rivalries and the Role of a Cretan Adventure in Apotheosis

Abstract: Abstract:Many Thai people today revere Prince Abhakara—a son of King Chulalongkorn and a half-brother of King Vajiravudh—for modernizing the Royal Thai Navy and for his reported feats as a healer and practitioner of saiwet or occultism. They celebrate his remarkable life story, including his time studying naval sciences while a midshipman in Britain's Royal Navy in the 1890s. One outstanding episode from this phase of his life describes his exposure to warfare on the island of Crete in 1898. An apocryphal tale of his survival among war dead now stands in stories about him as the starting point of his two main incarnations, as warrior and as mystic. Similarly, the initial appearance of this fantastic episode in 1974 marked a pivotal time for the Royal Thai Navy.

"Moving in an Endless Single Line": Memory, Exile and History I Cam Diaspora's Narrative Poems

Abstract: Abstract:Cam diaspora history in Southeast Asia spans over ten centuries. The earliest records of Cam migrations date back to the tenth century. However, Cam sources documenting Cam perspectives on their exilic experience remain largely unknown. This paper proposes to examine a set of late eighteenth and nineteenth century Cam narrative poems from Cambodia and southwestern Vietnam that provide a unique point of entry into the Cam exiles' history. In addition, the contribution of these narratives lies in their providing a window into the experience of exile and displacement, as well as Cam identity, memory and history.

The First Vietnamese in America

Abstract: Abstract:The first Vietnamese in America travelled there during the interwar era. Though few in numbers, they ranged from wealthy tourists on globetrotting adventures to poor labourers pushed to the United States by the vagaries of the world economy. Allowing their experiences of the United States to speak for themselves suggests that the broader question of America in Vietnamese culture and consciousness during the late colonial era might benefit from a more explicitly \"Vietnam-centric\" approach to conceptualizing early Vietnamese-American encounters. In other words, their histories are more than avatars of the war to come.

Statistical Report on a Poll in Northeast Thailand on Aspects of Inclusion

Abstract: Abstract:In this research note, I describe the results of a convenience survey, undertaken in November and December 2018, of 553 mainly ethnically Thai Lao people in five cities in Northeast Thailand. The results of the survey, while not statistically generalizable, may be of interest for their indicative nature as to the sentiments of northeasterners regarding the extent to which they feel socially, economically and politically 'included' within the Thai state. As well as the issues that the findings raise, including a strong desire for elected governors and 'self-government', the statistical analysis suggests interesting significant differences worth exploring in future research.

The Appropriation of Religion in Southeast Asia and Beyond ed. by Michel Picard (review)

Abstract: This edited book presents results of a Franco-German research project that investigates how local processes of appropriating the Western concept of religion as a classificatory device have shaped or transformed indigenous cosmologies and local traditions in Southeast Asia and Melanesia. The volume provides a range of rich ethnographic case studies that — together with Michel Picard’s insightful introduction — contribute new perspectives to the study of religion in the Southeast Asia-Pacific region, and, more generally, to the anthropology of religion. Critics like Talal Asad (1993) have problematized the concept of religion as a European historical construction that reflects Christian theological interests. What most of them did not consider was that the Christians had themselves appropriated the term from the Romans and changed its original meaning quite substantially. Missionary and colonial encounters subsequently triggered similar processes of appropriation in other parts of the world, including the Southeast Asia-Pacific region. This is why the category of religion, as Picard suggests, needs to be historicized and treated as an object of study and analysis in its own right. Southeast Asia offers a particularly fertile terrain for exploring how ‘religion’ became a vernacular category used to differentiate certain practices from others. The book’s eight contributors are wellestablished sociocultural anthropologists who draw on long-term fieldwork and historical research to present a multifaceted picture of a complex subject. While the authors do not attempt to establish