This paper examines the evolution of underwater cultural heritage (UCH) legislation in Southeast Asia. Legislation in every country differs, with some reflecting great cultural awareness and some signalling neglect. It seems that some countries regard shipwrecks and their cargoes as resources rather than cultural heritage. Thailand is the only ......
Amidst rising trends of nativism and xenophobia throughout Southeast Asia, a related yet distinct movement framed around altogether different notions of Indigeneity is occurring among various long-oppressed ethnic minorities. These groups and their distinct claims of Indigeneity and linkages with the regional and global Indigenous movements are ......
China suffers from a trust deficit in the region, and Southeast Asian countries have adopted hedging strategies, at varying degrees, aimed at diversifying their economic and strategic interests from Chinese investments and influence. Cambodia considers China as an important strategic and economic partner in providing performance legitimacy and as ......
"Islam in the Malay world of Southeast Asia or Islam Nusantara, as it has come to be known, had for a long time been seen as representing the more spiritual and Sufi dimension of Islam, thereby striking a balance between the exoteric and the esoteric. This image of 'the smiling face of Islam' has been disturbed during the last decades with ......
Malaysia has employed an extensive, constant and embedded Bumiputera preferential regime for several decades, but in recent years, the Bumiputera Economic Transformation Programme was introduced, aimed at building capable and competitive Bumiputera businesses, and reaching out to disadvantaged Bumiputera students. Official rhetoric and public ......
This first-ever book about the Lisu brings their ironic worldview to life through vivid, often amusing accounts of individuals, communities, regions, and practices. One of the smallest and last groups of stateless people, and the most egalitarian of all Southeast Asian highland minorities, the Lisu have not only survived extremes at the crossroads ......
Written by the highly regarded diplomat Marty Natalegawa, former ambassador and foreign minister of Indonesia, this book offers a unique insider-perspective on the present and future relevance of ASEAN. It is about ASEAN's quest for security and prosperity in a region marked by complex dynamics of power. Namely, the interplay of relations and ......
In Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi is often not called by her name. Instead, she is just ""The Lady"", an honorific nickname that signifies her place in the collective imagination of her country. And from global human rights icon to Myanmar's de facto leader, she is certainly a towering figure. But The Lady's reputation has only tarnished in recent ......
This volume is a book of reflections and encounters about the region that the Chinese knew as Nanyang. The essays in it look back at the years of uncertainty after the end of World War II and explore the period largely through images of mixed heritages in Malaysia and Singapore. They also look at the trends towards social and political ......
