Catatan Hang Tuah

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Panels & Abstracts
16-18 SEPTEMBER 2016
SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL AND AFRICAN STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF

LONDON
ASEASUK Conference 2016
Disclaimer: Panel and abstract details are current as of 30 May 2016. While every effort has been made to
ensure the completeness of this information and to verify details provided, ASEASUK, SOAS, and the
organisers of this conference accept no responsibility for incorrect or incomplete information. Additional
updated versions of this book of abstracts will be made until mid-August 2016 at which time a final hard copy
will be printed for distribution at the conference.
Panels Listing
PANEL 1
The Political Economy of Inclusion: Current Reform Challenges in
Indonesia 5
PANEL 2
Contentious Politics: Southeast Asia in Times of Polarization 8
PANEL 3
Religion and the State in Southeast Asia: New Issues and Approaches 16
PANEL 4
Southeast Asia Political and Economic Change 22
PANEL 5
Forging and Forgiving: Identity, Community, and Heritage in Southeast Asia 27
PANEL 6
Voice, Trust and Memory: Performance and Reconciliation in Southeast Asia 31
PANEL 7
The Unexpected Role of Southeast Asian Armies Abroad, 1910s to 1990s 35
PANEL 8
Land and Maritime Border Disputes in Southeast Asia 39
PANEL 9
(Im)mobility in Motion Cultural Constraints and Social Stasis
in a Region of Mass Migration 42
PANEL 10
Transformation in Burma/Myanmar: Economic, Social and Spatial Changes 45
PANEL 11
Politics, Identity and Minority Groups in Multicultural Society 49
PANEL 12
Mass Media, Politics and Social Change in Southeast Asia 54
PANEL 13
Innovations in Multi-Level Governance and Delivering Improved
Societal Outcomes in Indonesia 59
PANEL 14
The Instrumentalisation of Cultural Heritage in Southeast Asia 63
PANEL 15
Politics of Tastes in Southeast Asian Cinema 68
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PANEL 16
Politics and Religion in Southeast Asia 72
PANEL 17
Women in Southeast Asia’s Economy, Politics, and Society 75
PANEL 18
New Research on the Economic History of Southeast Asia 78
PANEL 19
Shadow Puppet Theatres of Southeast Asia 83
PANEL 20
South East Asian Manuscript Studies 93
PANEL 21
Discovery, Purchase and Plunder: European Collecting in South East Asia 103
PANEL 22
Southeast Asian Visual and Aural Experience in History and Today 108
PANEL 23
A New Cold War History from Southeast Asian Perspectives 113
PANEL 24
Islam and Security in Southeast Asia 118
PANEL 25
The Tai of the Shan States and the Shan Diaspora 121
PANEL 26
Curating Southeast Asia 125
PANEL 27
Migrants in Southeast Asian Societies 131
PANEL 28
The (Post)colonial Archive: Re-imag(in)ing Southeast Asia 134
PANEL 29
Public History and Popular Memory in Southeast Asia 138
PANEL 30
Education, Diversity and Development in Contemporary Indonesia 145
PANEL 31
Intersections of Religion and Ethnicity in South East Asia 149
PANEL 32
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Children, Families, and Mobility in Southeast Asia 152
PANEL 33
The Bigger Picture: Contemporary Art and Intermediality in Southeast Asia 158
PANEL 34
Education in Southeast Asia 161
PANEL 35
Border Governing and the Landscapes of Motions along Thailand-Myanmar
Frontiers 164
PANEL 36
Political Ecology of Southeast Asia 167
PANEL 37
Inside and Outside the Archipelago: Negotiating Political Relationships
in Indonesia 169
PANEL 38
Leadership and Perceptions in Modern Indonesia 172
PANEL 39
Relics, Icons, and Religion in Contemporary Thailand and Laos 175
PANEL 40
Constitutional Politics and Law 177
PANEL 41
Emerging Trends in Southeast Asian Literatures and Screen Cultures 180
PANEL 42
New Constellations, New Spaces for Action: Social and Labour
Movements in Southeast Asia 187
PANEL 43
Southeast Asian Elite Photographies 192
PANEL 44
Conflict, Power, and Politics in Indonesian Foreign Policy 195
PANEL 45
Cold War Cultural Networks: The Construction of Southeast Asia as a
Regional Art Scene 195
PANEL 46
The Popular Traditional Music in Malaysia 195
PANEL 47
Social and Political Disruptions in Burma and Southeast Asia from the
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Late 1930s to the 1950s 195
PANEL 48
Beneath the Constitution: Everyday Conceptions and Practices
of Thai Law and Social Ordering 195
EUROSEAS 2017 (Oxford) Conference Announcement 196
4
PANEL 1
The Political Economy of Inclusion:
Current Reform Challenges in Indonesia
Achieving inclusivity for the whole population by sharing the benefits of modernization, is a
key economic and political challenge in contemporary Indonesia. It requires sustaining a
path of economic growth that reaches vulnerable and marginal groups while, at the same
time, protecting and managing a young legacy of decentralization and direct democratic
participation. This happens in a context of widespread informality, a growing lower-middle
class, budget constraints, a slowing economy and unequal regional capacity. This panel
addresses key challenges related to Indonesia’s quest for inclusive growth and participatory
governance. It delivers an update and assessment of poverty and inequality estimates, and the
current administration’s social policy agenda. Further, it considers the impacts of
decentralization on welfare, examines questions of access to social policy provision and
explores Indonesia’s recent struggle with defending direct local elections.
Chairs:
Andy Sumner and Lukas Schlogl (King’s College London)
Trends in Poverty and Income Distribution: the Suharto Era and Beyond
Anne Booth (SOAS)
How Inclusive has Growth been in Indonesia?

Arief Yusuf (Universitas Padjadjaran) and Andy Sumner (King’s College London)
Is Indonesia going through an Inclusive or Illusional Structural Transformation?

Andy Sumner, Kyunghoon Kim (King’s College London) and Arief Yusuf (Universitas
Padjadjaran)
Decentralisation and Distribution: A Multi-dimensional Taxonomy of Indonesian

Districts
Dharendra Wardhana (King’s College London)
Has Inequality in Indonesia been Transmitted over Generations?

Diding Sakri (King’s College London)
How do new middle classes respond to fuel subsidy reform? Evidence from the
Indonesian social media sphere
Lukas Schlogl (King’s College London)
Trends in Poverty and Income Distribution: the Suharto Era and Beyond
Anne Booth (SOAS)
In the mid-1960s, the available evidence shows that poverty and malnutrition were
widespread in Indonesia, although the Sukarno government appeared to be in denial about
the magnitude of the problem. To the extent that the government had any solution to the
problem in Java/Bali/Lombok of "too many people and not enough land" it was to move
people from Java to the supposedly empty lands in Sumatra, Kalimantan and parts of Eastern
5
Indonesia. When Suharto assumed power, successive development plans also placed
emphasis on transmigration, as well as on improving yields in Java, and creating more jobs
in non-agricultural sectors of the economy. Although there were debates about the extent to
which these policies really were helping the poor in the years from 1966 to 1976, by the
latter part of the 1970s, the evidence did suggest that poverty was declining, at least in the
sense that numbers living below the official poverty line were falling. But in the 1980s and
1990s, debates about the way poverty was measured and the numbers in poverty intensified,
even before the severe growth collapse in 1998. This paper reviews these debates, and also
examines the more recent evidence on poverty in Indonesia as measured by the Indonesian
government, and by international agencies including the World Bank and Asian
Development Bank. Two key issues are discussed: the way in which poverty lines are set,
and the reliability of the survey data on which the estimates are based.
How Inclusive has Growth been in Indonesia?

Arief Yusuf (Universitas Padjadjaran) and Andy Sumner (King’s College London)
In this paper we consider different approaches to assessing inclusive growth in Indonesia

from 1994 to the present day. We discuss the growth incidence curve, changes in the poverty
headcount by the national monetary/consumption poverty line, and changes in inequality
indicators. We then develop a measure of inclusive growth based on multidimensional
poverty that expands the lens to include not only education, health and household assets, but
employment too. We discuss trends in Indonesia across the three approaches for each
administration and provide a baseline for assessing the new administration. We note that the
reduction of poverty by the national poverty line is matched by the impressive reduction in
education and health poverty and expansion of household assets. However, some basic
problems remain in terms of school completion and vaccination coverage and progress on
employment related poverty in our assessment of inclusive growth is minimal in the last
decade. We argue the use of multidimensional poverty to assess the inclusivity of growth
draws attention to the successes of administrations in providing public goods and also the
enormous remaining challenge of providing sufficient employment opportunities.
Is Indonesia going through an Inclusive or Illusional Structural Transformation?

Andy Sumner, Kyunghoon Kim (King’s College London) and Arief Yusuf (Universitas
Padjadjaran)
The Indonesian economy’s future relies on successful structural transformation. Externally,

prices of natural commodities, which have been Indonesia’s major export goods, began to
decline rapidly from 2014 and internally, the Jokowi government’s industrial policies aim to
stimulate manufacturing and construction sectors. In this paper, we analyse whether the
factors of production, namely capital and labour, released by decelerating industries have
been absorbed by other sectors. Structural transformation without an appropriate shift of
factors of production may mean that it is primarily led by decelerating industries rather than
by accelerating industries. Further, we analyse whether the structural transformation has
been inclusive. Structural transformation is inclusive, if (i) it provides opportunities to a
broad spectrum of economic agents, and (ii) if those opportunities are sustainable and hence
provide a path towards a virtuous cycle. While it is too early to conclude whether the current
structural transformation is inclusive or not, this paper aims to provide a framework for
future analysis. Also, further research can be conducted to see whether these factors can be
used as “leading indicators” of changes in poverty and income inequality. The paper
concludes that while smooth inter-industry shift of factors of production is important, the
6
success of structural transformation will ultimately depend on raising productivity.
Decentralisation and Distribution: A Multi-Dimensional Taxonomy of Indonesian

Districts
Dharendra Wardhana (King’s College London)
Indonesia has put in place a system of fiscal decentralisation to the district administrative
level. However, most districts are still heavily dependent on the central government to fund
their expenditures. A single formula currently determines allocations and fiscal gaps for
every district. We develop a taxonomy of Indonesia’s districts using the World Bank’s
INDO- DAPOER dataset and a Cluster analysis based on: (i) economic growth; (ii) human
development; (iii) the quality of governance; and (iv) local autonomy. We consider the
current allocation of central resources and an alternative based on the taxonomy developed.
Has Inequality in Indonesia been Transmitted over Generations?

Diding Sakri (King’s College London)
Having risen for the last twenty years, economic inequality in Indonesia has reached
unprecedented levels today. The Jokowi administration has inherited this problem and has
designated it as one of its main policy targets. Despite the wealth of extant research on
inequality in Indonesia, one question has not yet been addressed: has inequality been
transmitted over generations? This intergenerational study focusses on the (lack of) change
of the distributional pattern of socio-economic indicators between a parents’ generation and
that of the adult children’s generation. Drawing on five rounds of IFLS household surveys, it
explores panel data covering a twenty-one years’ time span (1993-2014). The aim of the
paper is to stimulate a new area for the discussion and exploration of inequality in Indonesia.
How do New Middle Classes Respond to Fuel Subsidy Reform? Evidence from the
Indonesian Social Media Sphere
Lukas Schlogl (King’s College London)
A politically controversial issue, fuel subsidy reform has seen extensive reverberations in
Indonesia’s social media. This paper draws on data from Twitter to explore the content,
polarity and popularity of Indonesian online discourse about fuel subsidies between 2013 and
2015, focusing on key phases of subsidy reform. It analyses how discourse on subsidy
reform has evolved and, based on novel data from an online survey, identifies geo-
demographic and socioeconomic determinants of online engagement about fuel subsidies.
We find that Twitter serves as a powerful platform for venting negative sentiments towards
fuel price hikes and that there are no signs of a large-scale shift in attitudes towards
acceptance of reform. This confirms the results of representative opinion surveys but
contrasts an increasingly more favourable tone of media reporting. Social media activism,
arguably, complicates fuel subsidy reform and provides a looming potential for unrest in the
event of price hikes. Twitter discourse helps to better understand the (drivers of) grievances
among the motorized Indonesian middle class and could serve as early warning indicator for
the mobilization of this politically vocal group.
7
PANEL 2
Contentious Politics: Southeast Asia in Times of Polarization
In recent decades, a number of countries in Southeast Asia have experienced heightened
political polarization: extreme elements of both democracy and authoritarianism have co-
existed in the same or consecutive time periods. Populations have been mobilised through a
variety of mechanisms including mass street protests, electoral populism and the rise of
social media. Meanwhile, entrenched elites have sought to retain power through military
crackdowns, media campaigns and top-down projects to prop up their legitimacy and so
ensure the continuation of their rule. This panel aims to examine relevant issues and themes
in a range of countries where contentious politics have come to the fore, including Burma,
Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand.
Convener:
Professor Duncan McCargo (University of Leeds)
Session 1 POLARIZATIONS
Chair:
Polarization, Partisanship and Political Culture: Southeast Asia

Dr. Kai-Ping Huang (National Taiwan University) and Dr. Bridget Welsh (Ipek University),
Theorizing Polarization and the Political in Thailand and Malaysia

Dr. Carlo Bonura (SOAS)
Rumour, Fantasy and Fraud: De-Legitimizing the Jokowi Presidency

Dr. Adam Tyson (University of Leeds)
The Secular Versus the Religious: Challenges to Religious Freedom and the Rise in
Inter-Ethnic Tensions in Malaysia
Ms. Saleena Saleem (Nanyang Technological University)
Session 2: TRANSITIONS FROM AUTHORITARIANISM
Chair: Dr. Adam Tyson (University of Leeds)
Myth, Rhetoric and History: The Legitimation of the Marcos Regime

From War to Peace in Timor-Leste: When Democracy Prevails?

Dr. Izabela Pereira Watts (Charles Darwin University)
How Awe, Gratitude, and Other Moral Emotions Helped Sustained the Burmese Pro-
Democracy Movement, from 1988 to 2015
Dr. Seinenu Thein-Lemelson (UC Berkeley)
8
Navigating an Inhospitable Peace: The Role of Civilian Ceasefire Monitors in Burma
Mr. Erin Kamler (independent scholar)
Contentious Politics in Myanmar’s Democratic Transition

Mr. Chit Win (ANU)
Session 3: THAILAND’S TRAVAILS

Chair: Duncan McCargo (University of Leeds)
The Problem of Party Finance in Thailand: Lessons Learned from the Political Parties
Development Fund (PDF)
Dr. Punchada Sirivunnabood (Mahidol University)
Thailand after the Coup: The Expansion of the Bureaucratic State

Ms. Arunee Santhitiwanich (Ubon Ratchathani University)
The Party and the People: Thailand’s Redshirt Movement after the 2011 Election
Mr. Khajornsak Sitthi (University of Leeds)
Oppositional Space under Military Rule in Thailand: A “Thai Style” Dictatorship?

Professor James Buchanan (City University of Hong Kong)
Political Pragmatism: Making Sense of 'People's Politics' under the Military Rule
Ms. Narut Wasinpiyamongkhon (Ubon Ratchathani University)
Session 1
Polarization, Partisanship and Political Culture: Southeast Asia

Dr. Kai-Ping Huang
(National Taiwan University)
Dr. Bridget Welsh

(Ipek University)
In the past decade Southeast Asia has witnessed increased political polarization, with the rise
of opposition parties, and contestation over regimes. From gains made by opposition parties
in Cambodia, Malaysia, and Singapore to the confrontation between the colored camps in
Thailand and sharp divisions over military rule in Myanmar, political polarization has
become a prominent feature of political life in Southeast Asia. In this paper, we trace such
developments to underlying differences in partisanship and political culture, arguing that
party affinities and value changes help us understand political polarization. Using the latest
data from the fourth wave of the Asian Barometer Survey (2014-2016), and where available
earlier data from earlier waves stretching from 2000, this paper traces the relationship among
political polarization, political culture and partisanship in seven Southeast Asian countries,
Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. The
findings reveal that polarization is indeed tied to values and engagement in political life, and
that there are significant divides within Southeast Asian countries with regard to political
culture and political engagement. We look further at how an understanding of the synergies
9
between polarization, political culture and partisanship will impact democracy in Southeast
Asia in the future.
Theorizing Polarization and the Political in Thailand and Malaysia

Dr. Carlo Bonura
(SOAS, the University of London)
For more than a decade politics in both Thailand and Malaysia have become increasingly
polarized. Thailand’s politics since 2001 has experienced a “systemic” polarization across
opposed political establishments characterized by mass mobilizations, military intervention
and political violence. In Malaysia, by contrast, such polarization is institutional, taking the
shape of an “electoral” polarization structured across opposing electoral coalitions. These
coalitions have increasingly become more fragile as the country’s political crisis has
intensified. The first half of this essay will examine on-going political crises in Thailand and
Malaysia as a means to develop a conceptualization of polarization that may allow for a
more nuanced understanding of contentious politics more generally. Whereas polarization
itself is the product of more precise political dynamics, its discursive and political effects
play a substantial role in constraining political outcomes and consolidating the power of
political elites. Most importantly, polarization results in the creation of new forms of
political enmity. In the second half of this essay I will analyse such enmity in terms of a
fundamental crisis of political community or “the political” in each case.
Rumour, Fantasy and Fraud: De-Legitimizing the Jokowi Presidency

Dr. Adam Tyson
(University of Leeds)
This paper explores how rumour and fantasy were used in an attempt to de-legitimize the Jokowi
campaign at the height of the presidential race in 2014. Libellous reporting and attempted character
assassinations were designed to undermine Jokowi’s presidential bid and continue to haunt the
president during his time in office. One document at the centre of the campaign against Jokowi was a
16-page report entitled ‘Capres Boneka’ [The Puppet Presidential Candidate] published by Obor
Rakyat on 5 May 2014. It is alleged that the chief editor of Obor Rakyat, a former Tempo journalist,
was recruited by rival candidate Prabowo Subianto. The Obor report portrays Jokowi as Megawati’s
deferential puppet (boneka) and has come to typify the growing criticism of Jokowi’s reliance on
Megawati’s political party (PDI-P), as well as her inner circle of elite powerbrokers, during and after
the 2014 presidential campaign. Jokowi was portrayed as a deviant Muslim with Chinese ancestry
and communist sympathies. Such highly-polarizing and offensive messages were distributed to
networks of Islamic boarding schools and mosques (including Nahdlatul Ulama strongholds)
throughout the island of Java. The paper finds that the implausible claims and rumours that emerged
in 2014 are having a lingering effect on an already contentious and polarizing presidency.
The Secular Versus the Religious: Challenges to Religious Freedom and the Rise in
Inter-Ethnic Tensions in Malaysia
Ms. Saleena Saleem
(Nanyang Technological University)
Several high-profile disputes framed around religious freedom in the past decade were
pursued both in the Malaysian civil and Islamic court systems. However, instead of resolving
disputes over the application of one’s constitutional right to religious freedom, the courts
themselves have become “principal sources of tension” that not only exacerbates existing
inter-ethnic tensions, but also deepens the secular-versus-religious polarizing dynamic in
10
society. This paper analyses the factors that contribute to the secular-versus-religious
polarizing dynamic in Malaysian society; examines how certain types of disputes adjudicated
in the court systems pose challenges to religious freedom that exacerbates societal tensions;
and considers an alternative mechanism to mediate these disputes that would otherwise fall
in the overlapping jurisdictions of the civil and Islamic courts.
Session 2:
Myth, Rhetoric and History: The Legitimation of the Marcos Regime

Professor Duncan McCargo
This paper explores how the regime of Ferdinand Marcos (1966-86) sought to deploy
particular readings and constructions of Philippine history in order to legitimate authoritarian
rule in the guise of “indigenous” constructions of identity. This involved a series of projects,
notably the monumental Tadhana, a multi-volume history of the Philippines supposedly
written by Marcos himself, but actually ghostwritten by a team of prominent academics.
Other elements in the project included Marcos’s myth making around the figure of the ‘New
Filipino,’ and his related attempts to appropriate the language of ‘revolution’ to form the
rhetorical basis of an extremely tendentious ‘New Society’. The paper examines the
grandiose ambitions that underpinned these projects, which eventually collapsed under the
weight of their own incoherence.
From War to Peace in Timor-Leste: When Democracy Prevails?

Dr. Izabela Pereira Watts
(Charles Darwin University)
Timor-Leste exemplifies how contentious politics can be in Southeast Asia in times of

polarization. The paper explores how elections and the demilitarization of politics and
transformation of rebel into political parties represented crucial aspects towards the building
of a new legitimized country based on the principle of self-determination of the people. The
newest independent country of the 21st century is a precious case of analysis on how
herculean is the task of state building, nation building and democratization after 24 years of
violent armed conflict. From war to peace, elements of both democracy and authoritarianism
may co-exist. When the civil war ends, choices for peace might undermine the foundation of
democracy. And, vice-versa, the fight for democracy can become highly violent and
precipitate a return to conflict. Whether expressed as from ‘war to peace’ or from ‘non-
democracy to democracy,’ the conundrum resides on the transition from how to go from one
to another and, more importantly, on how to make it right in terms of state-building or
nation-building in the shadow of civil war. The paper focuses on understanding the tensions
and contradictions in post-conflict functions; the challenges facing interim governments and
the role of the international community during the transitional phase in Timor-Leste.
How Awe, Gratitude, and Other Moral Emotions Helped Sustained the Burmese Pro-
Democracy Movement, from 1988 to 2015
Dr. Seinenu Thein-Lemelson
(University of California, Berkeley)
In Burma, a political movement that began in 1988 finally reached fruition on November 8,
2015 when candidates from the National League for Democracy (NLD) and those who
11
supported them—individuals who had been advocating for democracy for over two
decades—were victorious in a landslide victory against the ruling military-backed political
party. Leaders of Burma’s pro-democracy movement—many of whom had spent long
stretches in the prisons and had lost friends and family members over the many years of
struggle—had realized the fulfilment of a cause that they had advocated for almost their
entire adult lives. Mass movements have propelled social and political change across many
societies, defining pivotal moments in history, ushering in reforms, and reshaping societal
structures. Those who participate in contentious collective action, especially over long
stretches of time, often sacrifice their physical, financial, and emotional safety in order to
further a cause that typically runs counter to prevailing norms and existing power structures
in their society. While historical, social, and political change is often determined by the force
of mass movements, there is relatively little known about the emotional lives of those who
participate in collective action—particularly the relationship between leaders and those who
support them. The current paper considers how moral emotions, such as awe and gratitude,
shaped and sustained the decades-long struggle for democracy in Burma. Conversely, by
considering the cultural and psychological mechanisms through which pro-democracy
leaders and activists were able to successfully sustain their political movement, the paper
necessarily grapples with why the military and its political party (the USDP) were unable to
gain political and moral legitimacy within Burma, despite devoting vast financial resources
to winning support both within the country and among international interlocutors.
Navigating an Inhospitable Peace: The Role of Civilian Ceasefire Monitors in Burma

Mr. Erin Kamler
Since the advent of Burma’s transition to democracy in 2012, peacebuilding practitioners

have begun implementing a new approach to monitoring the nascent ceasefire agreements
between ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) and the Central Government. This approach,
which engages the participation of community members, is known as Civilian Ceasefire
Monitoring (CCM). Though lauded by an international community eager to see Burma’s
development goals realized, CCM has not yet gained acceptance by EAOs or the
Government’s armed forces. Caught in these crossfires are civilian "monitors" – citizens who
have only known conflict, yet are mandated to maintain nonpartisanship in Burma’s march
toward peace.
How do ethnic civilian monitors negotiate their vulnerable roles and work to advance
their social justice aims? Drawing on ethnographic field data gathered in five ethnic states, in
this paper I argue that Burma’s civilian monitors must navigate an “inhospitable” landscape
in which contentious opposing political forces act upon them to advance a peacebuilding
project that may or may not serve the goals of communities themselves. Engaging critical IR
theory, I suggest that the demands of the international peace building apparatus sit uneasily
with the realities of Burma’s tenuous ceasefire agreements, forcing ethnic monitors to
manage ongoing instability, dependency and risk.
Contentious Politics in Myanmar’s Democratic Transition

Mr. Chit Win
(Australian National University)
Scholars regard contentious politics as a common byproduct of the volatile and complex
processes of democratic transition. This paper explores the character of contentious politics
in Myanmar during the period of greater openness since 2011. Empowered by a relatively
free press and social media tools, millions of Myanmar people have tested the limits of their
12
new freedoms. Changes in Myanmar society have created new resentments while reinforcing
old ones. In general, state institutions have struggled to cope with these new realities and
their responses have sometimes reverted to familiar repressive techniques. Communal
violence between Buddhists and Muslims has even undermined some of the positive
reception of the ongoing reforms. Based on three different types of contention — (i)
communal violence, (ii) land grabbing cases and (iii) student protests — this paper looks at
how stakeholders involved in contentious politics have become more sophisticated. I argue
that contentious politics increasingly help to constitute Myanmar’s state institutions as they
grapple with the challenging transition to more democratic rule.
Session 3
The Problem of Party Finance in Thailand: Lessons Learned from the Political Parties
Development Fund (PDF)
Dr. Punchada Sirivunnabood
(Mahidol University)
After political reforms in 1997, for the first time in its history Thailand introduced state
subsidies for political parties. The “Political Parties Development Fund (PDF)” was
intended to reinforce the internal coherence of parties and encouraging democratic functions.
More importantly, designers hoped that this party financing would be an effective means of
curbing illicit fund raising, particularly during times of electoral campaigning. However, in
the past 15 years, the PDF has not led to the strong party organizations. While the state
provides a great amount of financial support for political parties every year, many parties
receiving funding are still weak and unable to compete effectively in elections. Utilizing data
from focus groups and extensive interviews with politicians, election commission officers
and party members, we demonstrate that financial deficiencies and a weak system of public
finance allocation encouraged many political parties – particularly those without
parliamentary representation – to access these new state resources. Instead of helping to
sustain the development of political parties, the PDF became an alternative source of income
for those parties. Furthermore, parties have intensified their efforts to exploit such funding
using questionable means. Consequently, public party financing has actually contributed to
an increase in corrupt practices in Thai party politics rather than strengthening the party
organization.
Thailand After the Coup: The Expansion of the Bureaucratic State

Ms. Arunee Santhitiwanich
(Ubon Ratchathani University)
Since 2014, Thailand has been under a military government, led by General Prayut Chan-o-
cha. For many, the return of the military government is also seen as the return of Riggs'
bureaucratic polity. Without mass support, the government has to rely on the bureaucrats for
their assistance on policy making and effective implementation. A much closer connection
between the military personnel and civilian bureaucrats has as a result been established. To
understand this on-going change, this paper examines the role of the bureaucrats during the
military government and how the bureaucrats have benefited from the military government,
such as increased budgets and salaries, more government positions and offices, and newer
state functions. In this paper, I argue that with greater role of bureaucrats and the expansion
of bureaucracy, the 'reforms,' which are promised by the junta, are not likely to take place.
And with the expanded powers and greater roles of the bureaucrats, it is quite possible that
13
the recent political crisis, which is partly caused the unaccountable Thai bureaucratic system,
will continue to haunt Thailand for a long time.
The Party and the People: Thailand’s Redshirt Movement after the 2011 Election
Mr. Khajornsak Sitthi
This paper examines how two strands of ‘network Thaksin’, the Pheu Thai Party and the
Redshirt movement, have been negatively affected by elections since 2011. Although general
elections had been instrumentally valuable for pro-Thaksin parties (which have won all of
those held since 2001), the paper shows that the 2011 election held after the May 2010
crackdown generated serious internal conflicts within pro-Thaksin forces, both in the
parliamentary and extra-parliamentary wings. There was intense contestation among redshirt
leaders who sought to be adopted as parliamentary candidates by Pheu Thai. These conflicts
were further intensified during local elections in 2012, especially in the Northeast, where
many candidates proclaimed themselves the authentic representatives of both the party and
the redshirt movement. Following its successes in the 2011 election, relations between the
Pheu Thai Party and pro-Thaksin voters became strained as the party sought to compromise
with the ruling elites. This significantly weakened relations between the Pheu Thai Party and
the ordinary people who formed the bedrock of its support.
Oppositional Space under Military Rule in Thailand: A “Thai Style” Dictatorship?

Professor James Buchanan
(City University of Hong Kong)
This paper discusses the extent to which oppositional space has been available under military
rule in Thailand. Since the coup of 2014, observers have rightly condemned the deterioration
of political and civil rights in the kingdom, pointing to the oppressive atmosphere created by
the junta, which has outlawed political gatherings, detained activists for “attitude
adjustment” and awarded itself sweeping powers in the shape of Article 44, often dubbed the
“dictator’s law”. However, at times the junta has been surprisingly weak, especially
compared to authoritarian regimes elsewhere. Numerous small but well-publicised anti-junta
protests have occurred since the coup. If and when arrests are made, activists are usually
detained only for a short time and then released, often to demonstrate again soon after. Also,
contrary to press cliches of a junta which is “tightening its grip”, the amount of opposition
space available in Thailand is actually widening, as evidenced by the recent expansion of
Red Shirt activities at their base in Bangkok’s Lad Prao district. A more nuanced
understanding of the current situation in Thailand is therefore necessary and suggests that the
junta’s position may be more precarious than previously imagined. Will the opposition take
advantage of the available space to stage a mass mobilisation against it or will the junta’s
delicate balancing act of oppression and toleration ultimately make it more resilient?
Political Pragmatism: Making Sense of 'People's Politics' Under the Military Rule
Ms. Narut Wasinpiyamongkhon
(Ubon Ratchathani University)
This paper explores the pragmatic political strategy of Thai ‘people’s groups’ by examining
their changes of role and position in politics both before and after the 2014 coup. It argues
that these changes are not a result of ideological inclination, but rather pragmatic calculation
of local conflict situation. Back in the 1990s and early 2000s, the people’s groups were
14
portrayed as ideology-driven, pro-democracy movements. They successfully mobilized
thousands of mass supporters to several anti-government-project campaigns. But this
explanation of ideological motive began to be questioned as many of these group switched to
side with the anti-Thaksin camp, which comprised conservative and pro-establishment
groups. Many from the people’s groups have publically supported the military takeovers. But
after the 2014 coup, the military government have continuously pushed forward many
environmentally unfriendly policies as well as have given the green light to private
companies to aggressively pursue profits in mining businesses, regardless of socio-economic
and health problems in local communities. These government policies, as a result, forced the
groups to reconsider their position.
15
PANEL 3
Religion and the State in Southeast Asia: New Issues and
Approaches
This panel reflects on the changing dynamics of the interaction between religion and the state
in Southeast Asia, in the context of politically contested processes of democratisation,
globalisation, and transnationalisation. These papers present and analyse new empirical
material that shed light on evolving relations between religious and political authorities,
moralities, and modalities of governance and power, and which in doing so make significant
interventions in ongoing debates that engage scholars across the social sciences.
Panel co-conveners:
Dr. Iza Hussin (University of Cambridge)
Dr. Tomas Larsson (University of Cambridge)
Session 1
Between Co-optation and Resistance: The State and Religion in Malaysia and Southern
Thailand
Mr. Walid Jumblatt Abdullah
(King's College, London and National University of Singapore)
Migdal’s (2001) state-in-society model introduces two aspects to the state: the image of a
coherent unit, and the various actors that make up its different parts. In a similar vein, I
introduce a “religion-in-society” concept to explain how states deal with ‘religion’ in their
policies. Just like the state, there are two sides to religion: the image of a coherent set of
beliefs and rituals, held by both onlookers and adherents to the faith alike, and the variety of
interpretations and differences in theology, jurisprudence and political beliefs of the
multitudes of followers. This paper investigates how the Malaysian and Thai states attempt
to manage Islam in their countries. In managing religion, the ‘state’ often – somewhat
paradoxically – considers Islam to simultaneously be a monolithic religion, and yet
acknowledges the diversity within it, giving preference to some religious groups over others.
This paper focuses of the role of the ulama (Islamic religious scholars) whose importance are
often ignored. States devise policies that range from co-opting ulama to outright suppression,
though usually, the policies oscillate between the two extremes. The “religion-in-society”
model then guides my main arguments: firstly, the ulama appropriate different Islamic
concepts in various manners, which would then guide varying political actions; and
secondly, the ulama display agency in the relationship they have with the state, regardless of
how overbearing the state is.
Law, Gender and Personal Status in Malaysia: Circulations and Networks

Dr. Iza Hussin
(University of Cambridge)
Malaysian laws governing Islam have generally been understood to derive from common law
precedents, and the system of Islamic courts to be modelled on its common law counterpart.
Against the backdrop of a historical discussion on the ways in which personal status laws
16
have come to govern the limited realm of family law, this paper uses landmark cases
involving women and Islam in Malaysian courts to trace new networks of training,
scholarship and citational practice in Malaysia since the 2000s. It indexes the changing
meaning and place of gender, women and the family through an evolving global network of
reference and citation, whose nodes no longer end in Calcutta and London, but stretch to
Damascus, Cairo and Washington D.C., and whose appearance is mediated through the
Malaysian experience. Through these citational practices, this article explores how
Malaysian judges, lawyers and legal activists are re-constituting the Muslim woman, her
place in the Malaysian family, and her importance in efforts to articulate an authentic Islam
in Malaysia.
Budgeting for Buddhism: The political economy of religious bureaucratisation in

Thailand
Dr. Tomas Larsson
Over the past few decades, an ever-increasing number of states have established religious-
affairs ministries or departments. The causes and consequences of such "bureaucratisation"
of religion are poorly understood. This essay seeks to contribute to our understanding of the
drivers of the bureaucratisation of religion. Taking note of the perhaps obvious fact that
religious bureaucracies can be more or less well funded, it analyses variation in government
spending on the religious bureaucracy in Thailand from 1960 to 2015. It shows that such
spending has increased dramatically, in both absolute and relative terms, but also that the
pace of growth fluctuates dramatically. Why has the religious bureaucracy experienced this
political windfall? And why does government spending on the religious bureaucracy grow
particularly rapidly in some periods, while staying flat or even falling in others?
Theorising and Practicing Democracy in Theravada Buddhist Southeast Asia

Dr. Matthew J Walton
(St Antony's College, University of Oxford)
Democratic trends in Theravada Buddhist countries in Southeast Asia have shifted markedly
in recent years, with Thailand once again coming under military rule while Myanmar has
increased the scope of its civilian governance, albeit with its military continuing to play a
strong role in politics. All of the Theravada countries in the region (including Laos and
Cambodia) display some democratic processes and institutions, alongside some persistent
non-democratic practices. But when we begin to examine the ways in which political figures
in these countries have understood and theorised about democracy, a complex picture
emerges of notions of democracy that have been strongly influenced by moral ideas
connected to Theravada Buddhism. This range of conceptions of democracy has included
liberal rights-based democracy, leftist variants of democracy, "disciplined" democracy, and
other less-easily categorised variants. I argue that all of these notions can be positioned in
relation to a fundamental ambivalence in Theravada Buddhist political thought: are human
beings capable of moral perfection and self-rule or is their characteristic self-centredness
inevitably in need of a stronger authority, provided by either religious or political leaders?
Session 2
Women and Life After Divorce in Indonesia: Their Socio-economic Status and
Engagement with Islamic Faith
17
Dr. Dina Afrianty
Postdoctoral research fellow
(Institute for Religion, Politics, and Society (IRPS) Australian Catholic University)
Marital dissolution among Indonesian Muslim couples has always been common. The
traditional practice has largely been for Muslim husbands to pronounce triple talak to
repudiate their marriages, as regulated in Islamic law. It was only with the enactment of
Indonesian Law No. 1 of 1974 on Marriage that Muslim women became entitled to divorce
their husbands. Legal reform, particularly in the case of Indonesia’s Islamic Religious
Courts, has been instrumental in improving judicial access for women. While religious
doctrine, issues relating to social status, legal and procedural requirements, and economic
hardship have all deterred women from seeking divorce, a significant number of women still
pursue the option. This paper discusses the experiences of Indonesian Muslim women in
legalising their divorce, as well as the impact their decision to dissolve their marriage has
had on their lives. The paper will discuss insights into what this phenomenon means for the
status of women, and for their engagement with the majority faith and their social-economic
status within the state system. It will seek to identify how women perceive the benefits of
divorce, as well as the hardships they encounter as divorcees in Indonesian society.
Reading Rawls in Asia – Political Liberalism and Indonesia

Dr Stewart Fenwick
(Australian Catholic University)
Indonesian courts and legislative bodies are increasingly accommodating toward Islamic
law. Indeed, Indonesian law seeks to both protect faith and promote freedom of religion – a
balancing exercise that carries many challenges. This approach is consistent with the
expectations of citizens, who maintain a commitment both to faith and democracy.
However, an overarching respect for the place of religion can restrict the diverse forms
religious pluralism takes, particularly because it exists both as an inter-faith and an intra-faith
experience. Through a case study of Indonesia’s Blasphemy Law, the paper explores the
contribution Rawls’ thinking can make to understanding the evolution of constitutional
democracy in the world’s largest Muslim nation. Specifically, prosecutions of ‘deviant’
Muslims in Indonesia reveal a complex and pervasive interaction between ‘official’ national
Muslim scholars (the Majelis Ulama Indonesia) and state agencies. They also demonstrate a
convergence of the authoritarian mindsets held among religious scholars and representatives
of the state. These tendencies are not consistent with the aspiration of political liberalism
and Rawls’ public reason, which provide a framework for managing diverse worldviews in a
democracy.
Dominating Public Discourse: Islamism and Local Public Sphere in Yogyakarta and
Solo
Dr. Syahrul Hidayat
(Honorary Research Fellow, Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter;
Department of Political Science University of Indonesia)
Although the conception of secular public sphere is not dominant in the Islamic world, there
have been indications that Muslims are embracing a similar version in some places. Studies
in Iran, Egypt and Turkey by Bayat and Ismail have revealed a new approach to modernity
by Muslim community marked with the term of post-Islamism. However, this new tendency
is also accompanied by the rise of conservatism that brings some aspects of stricter Islamic
18
interpretation to the public. Differently from the former version of more peaceful and
flexible of Muslim expression in the public sphere, this version tends to dominate the public
with a particular interpretation and confronts others bluntly. A similar tendency can also be
found in Indonesia as some Islamic groups are trying to dominate the public by means of
intimidation and violence on some occasions. Nevertheless, the public sphere that is more
open in contemporary democratic Indonesia also provides the opportunity for local symbols
to rise. In some regions with strong local symbols, the two forces are contravening each
other. In the case of Yogyakarta and Solo, as this study reveals, the clashes occur in more
indirect ways, though. Islamic groups in both cities are in a position to criticise the local
sultanates, but with less intention to challenge their cultural and symbolic power directly. It
is a quite different approach than to other issues such as dealing with Islamic minority
groups, such as Ahmadiya and Shia. On the other hand, the palaces in the two cities also tend
not challenge these Islamic groups. Instead, the Sultan of Yogyakarta who has the power of a
governor alows groups to use the local public sphere as a place for their public expression in
the form of demonstrations or parades as long as they are conducted in a peaceful manner. In
Solo, with no power in their hands and less prominent before the public, the palace has
relatively no agenda to deal with these Islamic groups and a number of royal members even
join the Islamic parade. In some ways, the local public sphere is dominated by the Islamic
groups as a means of expressing their interpretation publicly, including showing their
demand for sharia implementation. However, this study argues that as a public sphere is also
a domain for other members of society in cities, a democratic approach and rule of law have
rendered these expressions into a narrative and symbolic appeal to attract public support,
leaving behind any of the violent approach and potentially shaping the groups’ approach
with less violence.
The Response of Contemporary Indonesia Islamic Parties towards Pluralism

Dr. Firman Noor
Indonesia is a plural country in which its inhabitants are derived from various primordial
backgrounds. Even though Islam is the largest religion in Indonesia, there are at least six
important religions formally acknowledged by the state and hundreds of ethnic groups in this
country. Although Islamic parties since the early stages of Indonesia’s existence have shown
a determination to defend pluralism, some people still regard them as having less
commitment in establishing and honouring pluralism. They consider that Islamic parties at
heart would only prioritize Islamic communities’ interest. To some people, some Islamic-
based parties still have a hidden agenda to support Islamic law implementation as a reflection
of Islamic state establishment. Pluralism in this article is related to the acknowledgment of
differences among people, in terms of primordial and beliefs, and the willingness to relate
and tolerate other people. To measure Islamic parties’ commitment to pluralism, this article
would explore some issues namely (1) the main purpose of party establishment, (2) the
concept of the ideal form and foundation of a state, including the vision of Pancasila (3)
attitudes towards minority groups, including the non-Muslims, Ahmadiyah, Syiah and any
other minority group (4) policies related to religious concerns, including the right to have
religious education, Syariah Law establishment at the local level, and radicalism, (5)
compliance to develop political cooperation with secular and non-Muslim parties. The
discussion will also touch upon the reasons behind the response towards pluralism as well as
addressing the question of whether the response towards pluralism is based on pragmatic
interests or Islamic idealism. By exploring the ideals and practical aspects of this party, this
article wants to show the nature of Islamic parties’ views and attitudes in answering political
diversity that in the long run indicates the real position of this party in pluralism in politics.
19
Discussion on this response of the Islamic parties will also reveal the gradation and level of
commitment of the Islamic Parties to pluralism.
Session 3
The Limits of “State Intervention” in the Promotion of a Singaporean Muslim Identity

Ms. Tuty Raihanah Mostarom
(Department of Theology and Religious Studies, King’s College London)
According to a 2014 study on religious diversity conducted across 232 countries conducted
by the Pew Research Center, Singapore scored the highest on the Religious Diversity Index.
In a city-state with a population of more than 5 million, the maintenance of religious and
racial harmony is a task headed by a self-proclaimed secular government. The one-party
dominant government is also characterised for its paternalistic and interventionist ways. With
the CMIO (Chinese-Malay-Indian-Others) model, legacy of the British colonial ‘divide-and-
rule strategy’, forming the basis of state management, religion and ethnicity are often
conflated in official discourse and reflected in government policies. Muslims make up
approximately 14% of the population, with a substantial proportion made up of ethnic
Malays. Focusing primarily on the official Singapore Muslim Identity (SMI) project run
under the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (MUIS), a government statutory board,
this paper aims to explore the limits of perceived state intervention in the construction and
promotion of a national Muslim identity.
The paper is part of an ongoing PhD research project due for completion by the end
of 2016 that focuses on the role of the traditional religious leaders, locally known as the
asatizah and the ulama, in the construction of a national Muslim identity in Singapore.
Through the application of the Essex School of discourse analysis as a key aspect of the
theoretical framework for this dissertation, the research compares the input from both official
and non-official levels, privileging the perspective of the traditional religious leadership
fraternity.
Constitution and Personal Law Realm: Multiculturalism, Autonomy, and Freedom of

Religion
Dr. Naoko Kuwahara
(Fukuyama City University)
This paper explores the constitutional issues arise from the religious personal law, under
which individual is religiously defined by law and is bound by the laws of his/her religious
communities, and theoretical approaches. The personal law has not been sufficiently
discussed from the perspective of constitutional law except mainly critiques by feminists,
because it has been regarded as issues within private law such as family law, or as a legacy
of colonial rule. However, as Mallat stated, ‘citizens defined as part of unevenly rights-
endowed communities’ is not consistent with ‘the secular logic of individual equality at the
basis of modern Western constitutionalism’, and such mutually exclusive logics survived
after independence in many Muslim-majority countries. In addition, the personal law
constrains individual autonomy as a result that it usually gives individuals little choice about
the laws that govern them and accepts dominant understanding of group norms. Highly
publicised and controversial Malaysian judicial cases relating to Islam and the personal law,
including Lina Joy, should be read in these contexts. This paper offers comparative study on
constitutional framework on personal law, considering how the logic of personal law
accommodates or conflicts with the secular and modern logic of Western constitutionalism.
20
It also provides a typology of constitutional and institutional design on personal law system
based on the degree of autonomy exercised by each community. Then, this paper examines
the constitutional issues arise from the personal law realm in Malaysia, Lebanon and India.
Lebanon, like Malaysia, is a divided society and has kept personal law system with high
degree of autonomy. Although India is not a Muslim-majority country, but shares common
law tradition and tackled similar constitutional issues relating to the personal law with
different approaches from Malaysia.
Ahmadiyah and Shia Resistance: Ahmadiyah, Shia and Counter-hegemony in Post-

New Order Indonesia
Mr. A'an Suryana
(Australian National University)
The Indonesia post-New Order era saw anti-heresy campaign against Ahmadiyah and Shia
was on the rise. Instead of protecting Ahmadiyah and Shia congregations, the government
officials often were complicit to the violent protests perpetrated by the vigilante groups, who
demanded the disbandment of the two minority congregations. I found that the local State
officials – under the pressure of the vigilante grouping – developed variety of hegemonic
instruments and even resorted later to domination to allow for the subaltern groups to
conform to beliefs of majority. The social and political stability were the main goal of the
local State officials. The paper presents Ahmadiyah and Shia resistance against penetration
of power committed against them by the state officials and the vigilante groups. The
resistance was performed through the material and moral co-optations. The resistance was
effective in Ahmadiyah, in a sense that it undermined the state’s penetration to Ahmadiyah.
However, Shia’s resistance faltered due to the absence of material co-optation and less
institutional support from the society. Despite the different outcomes, nonetheless the two
case studies show that the subordinate minorities were not just merely passive objects of the
state oppression, but in contrast to the Gramsci’s theory on hegemony, the minorities were
able to demystify the prevailing ideology being penetrated against them by the ruling class.
The paper is based on almost three months fieldwork in Manislor, and another four months
in East Java province, including Sampang regency in 2013.
21
PANEL 4
Southeast Asia Political and Economic Change
This panel aims to provide an update on Southeast Asia’s political and economic change.
The end of the Cold War opened up a major space for democratization to flourish. Western
countries no longer adopted a pragmatic policy towards authoritarian regimes that have a
strong anti-communist stance. The so-called third wave of democratization promoted
political change across the globe. Southeast Asia has not escaped from this trend either.
Southeast Asia is considered to be a latecomer in regard to what Samuel Huntington has
described the ‘third wave of democratization’, a striking rush of political change that started
in Southern Europe in the 1970s, Latin America in the 1980s, and the former Soviet Union
and Eastern Europe countries in 1989/1990 (Heiduk 2014A, 1). This wave of political
change did not occur until the second half of the 1980s (The Philippines), the early 1990s
(Thailand), and the late 1990s (Indonesia and Timor-Leste) (Heiduk 2014A, 1). Today, the
region consists of countries that have implemented full democratic systems, semi-
authoritarianism, and authoritarianism.
For economic change, this panel positions the 1994 ASEAN Economic Ministers’
agreement to accelerate ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) implementation as the starting
point for the analysis. Initially, ASEAN launched the Common Effective Preferential Tariff
(CEPT) agreement in 1992, which became the foundation for the AFTA. Following the
agreement, ASEAN member states have gradually implemented tariff reduction on a
voluntary or unilateral basis. The ratification of the ASEAN Charter in the 13th ASEAN
Summit in Singapore 2007 has further strengthened the AFTA agreement as member states
pledged their commitment to the implementation of the ASEAN Community which is the
umbrella for the AFTA. AFTA aims to increase the competitiveness of ASEAN countries’
products in the world market and to attract more foreign investment to the member states.
The implementation of the ASEAN Community, it is is hoped, by accelarating the AFTA by
further integrating ASEAN States, for example by eliminating tarrif barriers, creating an
open air policy, and fostering security cooperation.
In the last decade, Asia has undergone economic and political changes, particularly
due to the rise of China and India as well as the 2008 Global Financial Crisis. Southeast
Asian countries also did not escape from the influence of these changes. The situation is also
exacarbated with the United States’ pivot strategy to Asia Pacific region and the recent
dynamics in the Middle East with the Arab Spring as well as the terror of the Islamic State of
Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS). Not to mention the mounting political economy competition
between China and the United States, which has been surrogated with the establishment of
the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP).
All of these political and economic changes in the region deserve close examination.
In order to provide a rigorous analysis, this panel proposes four guiding questions.
Each presentation in this panel will address one of these questions. Presenters may also add
their own questions in order to deepen their presentation’s analysis: (1) What have been the
triggers of political and economic change in Southeast Asia since the 1990s? (2) What is the
current status of those changes? (3) How have extra-regional actors influenced the
architecture of Southeast Asia’s political-security and economy building? (4) How does the
ASEAN Community influence political economy change in ASEAN member countries?
Panel
Chair:
22
Professor Hideaki Ohta
(Graduate School of International Relations, Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto)
Capital Account Liberalization and Capital Controls in Indonesia: the Effectiveness of

Management/ Controls in the Post-IMF Program
Prof. Hideaki Ohta (Ritsumeikan University)
The Foreign Economic Policy of Vietnam Towards the ASEAN Economic Community
2015
Ms. Quynh Huong Nguyen (Ritsumeikan University)
The Political Economy of Regionalism in ASEAN and Its +3 Partners: Contemporary

Changes in the Automotive and Electronics Production Network
Mr. Riza Noer Arfani (Ritsumeikan University)
The Effects of Foreign Capital Inflows on Domestic Savings, Economic Growth and
Employment in the Lao PDR
Ms. Kinnalone Phimmavong (Ritsumeikan University)
Rethinking the Source of Political Change in Thailand, Myanmar, and Thailand

Ms. Adhi Priamarizki (Ritsumeikan University)
The Military in Motion: Indonesia’s Defence Diplomacy in the Yudhoyono Years

Mr. Muhamad Haripin (Ritsumeikan University)
Out of the Shadows of the Past: Challenges to a Full-fledged ASEAN Political-Security

Community
Dr. Agus Trihartono (Ritsumeikan University)
Willing Suspension of Disbelief: ASEAN and the Commitment to Human Rights

Protection in West Papua
Ms. Nino Viartasiwi (Ritsumeikan University)
Capital Account Liberalization and Capital Controls in Indonesia: the Effectiveness of

Management/ Controls in the Post-IMF Program
Professor Hideaki Ohta
(Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto)
This research analyzes the effects of policy changes in Indonesia after the IMF program
since 2004 and compares them with that of the previous period of liberalization and the
regime under the IMF program in the 1994-2003 period. The vector autoregressive
regression (VAR) model is used to analyze the effects of capital inflows (FDI, portfolio,
other capital) on the real economy (GDP growth and production) as well as foreign exchange
and financial markets. The results of impulse response function and Granger causality tests
based on the VAR model indicate that the capital inflows, especially ‘other investment’
inflows have positive effects on the real economy and less volatility in the foreign exchange
and financial market, in terms of money stocks (M2) and interest rates, as well as real
effective exchange rate after 2004. The overall results confirmed that capital controls have
actually worked to minimize the effects of volatility on capital inflows and to stabilize the
23
economy and the monetary and financial markets, and that could be achieved by the
independence of economic policy after the termination of the IMF program in 2004. I will
update the research undertaken a few years ago and confirm the significance of the capital
and financial controls and management in Indonesia.
Foreign Economic Policy of Vietnam Towards the ASEAN Economic Community 2015
Ms. Quynh Huong Nguyen
(Ph.D. student, Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto)
Vietnam has transformed its economy remarkably in the first thirty years (1986-2015) of Doi
Moi (renovation). Vietnam became a member of ASEAN in 1995 and gradually improved its
political and economic status in the region as well as its global position. Since the
Communist Party of Vietnam aims to maintain political stability as the prerequisite of
economic development, the country nowadays keeps its doors open to foreign trade and
investement. This presentation focuses on some foreign economic changes in some policies
for manufacturing labour in Vietnam in response to the ASEAN Community 2015 and
explains the role and influence of ASEAN to Vietnam.
Political Economy of Regionalism in ASEAN and Its +3 Partners: Contemporary

Changes in the Automotive and Electronics Production Network
Mr. Riza Noer Arfani
The official implementation of AEC (ASEAN Economic Community) in 2016 shall add long
lists of topical debates on how member countries finalize ASEAN economic regionalism.
The presentation hence adds to these lists by offering the cases of automotive and electronics
industries as the two sectors’ major players have been struggling with contemporary changes
in global and regional production networks. Driven by major leading firms that originated
from ASEAN+3 countries (China, Japan and Korea), ASEAN automotive and electronics
industries are notable examples of how political economic relations among related
stakeholders have further shaped its regional economic integration.
The Effects of Foreign Capital Inflows on Domestic Savings, Economic Growth, and
Employment in the Lao PDR
Ms. Kinnalone Phimmavong
Since the economic reforms from a centrally planned to a market-oriented economy in 1986,
foreign capital inflows into the Lao PDR, allocated to finance the savings-investment gap,
have increased notably. Foreign capital, foreign direct investment (FDI) and official
development assistance (ODA) play a paramount role in advancing Lao’s socio-economic
development. However, depending heavily on external funding sources includes the
possibility of jeopardizing the country’s development sustainability. This study attempts to
examine the effects of foreign capital inflows on domestic savings, economic growth, and
the employment rate in the Lao PDR in order to find policy recommendations for effectively
utilizing foreign capital in fostering sustainable economic growth, employment generation,
and domestic savings.
Rethinking the Source of Political Change in Thailand, Myanmar, and Indonesia

Mr. Adhi Priamarizki
24
Thailand, Myanmar, and Indonesia have experienced political change. However, the three
countries produced different outcomes from one another. This presentation aims to explain
the mixed results of political change by comparing the three case studies. Furthermore, the
presentation would like to identify the triggers as well as explain the emergence of political
change in Thailand, Myanmar, and Indonesia. It argues that elite disunity plays a bigger role
in promoting political change compared to other elements. Therefore, instead of producing a
full-fledged democratic system, political change gave way for the rise of hybrid regimes and
served the prevailing faction’s interests.
The Military in Motion: Indonesia’s Defence Diplomacy in the Yudhoyono Years

Mr. Muhammad Haripin
(Ph.D student, Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto)
This paper discusses the recent development of Indonesia’s defence diplomacy. The aim is to
provide a systematic assessment on the context of military’s growing attention towards
diplomatic affairs. This growing attention signalled important dynamics within the military
structure, Tentara Nasional Indonesia (TNI), in terms of organization (e.g. proliferation of
new offices) and geopolitical thinking (outward-looking). Likewise, this trend also appeared
to sustain Indonesia’s rising profile in international fora.
Out of the Shadows of the Past: Challenges to a Full-fledged ASEAN Political-Security

Community (APSC)
Dr. Agus Trihartono
(R-GIRO Researcher, Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto)
ASEAN is formally moving to a new stage of political and security community by the end of
2015. As the most significant ASEAN security pillar, the APSC is institutionally designed to
effectively manage the security challenges of the association's members. This paper aims at
addressing ASEAN’s road to a full-fledged political security community and underlines the
most current challenges of both traditional and non-traditional security issues. It suggests
that it is time to match the APSC’s rhetoric to deeds. ASEAN members need to deal with the
core issues that lie in ASEAN’s shadow of the past, namely national sovereignty and non-
interferences, and focus on the balance of the regional security order and the security of the
people in the ASEAN security framework.
Willing Suspension of Disbelief: ASEAN and the Commitment to Human Rights

Protection in West Papua
Ms. Nino Viartasiwi
(Ph.D student, Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto)
One of the principles of ASEAN Charter is the establishment of a human rights body to
uphold the principle of respect to human rights. The ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission
on Human Rights (AICHR) is the mandated body to organize and provide a framework for
human rights promotion and protection in the region. As the leading country in ASEAN,
Indonesia is a keen supporter of AICHR. However, Indonesia faces domestic trouble due to
allegations of human rights violations in one of its troubled regions, West Papua. This article
aims to see how AICHR addresses the indictment of human rights violations in West Papua.
The study argues that AICHR gives very limited attention to the allegation of human rights
25
abuses in West Papua. The study finds that as the AICHR members are governments’
representations, their views are also the views of the ASEAN member states that also deal
with their own human rights violations’ allegations. Waiting for ASEAN’s strong voice on
human rights protection in West Papua, therefore, is an unrealistic wish due to the national
political challenges of each of its member countries.
26
PANEL 5
Forging and Forgiving: Identity, Community, and Heritage in
Southeast Asia
[An independent papers panel]
Independent papers panels are formed from individual paper proposals that deal with a
related theme. As these panels were not pre-convened, the presenters were not asked to deal
with a particular issue, but instead are free to explore their topics more broadly. The
convener for the panel will be listed in the final programme. In the meantime, any queries
should be directed to Professor Michael W. Charney (mc62@soas.ac.uk).
Bornean Dayak Kantu’ and Taman Articulations of Heritage

Dr. Johan Richard Weintré
(International Indonesian Forum for Asian Studies and Andalas University)
Diversity is a historically enshrined element in Indonesia’s state ideology and regional

autonomy legislation. Those are aimed to raise prospects of local representation and
indigenous resource access. This presentation is designed to explain and contribute to an
understanding of the divergence between values in social political and economic theory and
the reality that is experienced by Dayak communities. The combination of specific past
historical intervention, cultural tradition and local emotions, natural resources, human skills
and a traditional governance base, have created a different path of opportunities for the
diverse Dayak communities. One of the most striking differences on first sight of the
communities researched was that the Kantu’ Dayak had abandoned the long house tradition,
while the Taman Dayak have remained attached to the communal sharing of the veranda and
privacy of their family unit bilk (compartment) in their long houses. These living conditions
among less striking matters illustrate the diverse cultural social and economic aspects of
society. Empirical evidence has shows both Kantu’ and Taman Dayak have commitments to
tradition, but also a willingness for new inputs to shape future articulations of heritage by the
Dayak sub-national groups.
Contemporary Indonesian Fashion: Clothes That Tell a Story

Dr. Alessandra Lopez y Royo
(Centre for Media Studies, SOAS)
There has recently been some interest in Indonesian fashion and particularly in busana
muslim (muslim fashion or, as known in an Euro-American context, modest fashion). This
is, however, only a strand of Indonesian contemporary fashion that, on closer scrutiny,
reveals a high degree of complexity and multi-layering. Histories of communities, as
reflected in their textile traditions of batik making and ikat weaving, are mingled with the
personal trajectories of designers to create ‘clothes that tell a story’. This paper, based on
recent ethnography in Jakarta, provides an overview of Indonesian fashion and its related
issues. It will focus primarily on the designers and the presentation of fashion through
fashion weeks and other events, proposing that, ultimately, Indonesian contemporary fashion
can be held up as a mirror through which current globalising and hegemonising fashion and
beauty discourses can be scrutinised.
Motives to Forgive Following a Violation of a Community Norm
27
Dr. Sylvia Huwaë
Dr. Juliette Schaafsma

(Tilburg Center for Cognition and Communication, Tilburg University)
We examined how members of a Moluccan community in the Indonesian archipelago, 'the

Moluccas’, responded to the violation of an important community norm and whether their
motives to (not) forgive the transgressor varied as a function of the cultural setting. This
community, which is called ‘pela’, is a traditional alliance that Moluccan ancestors from one
or more villages formed with people from other villages and grew up between the fifteenth
and sixteenth century. An important social norm of pela is marital prohibition, which
stipulates that descendants from and inhabitants of one village are forbidden to marry
descendants from or inhabitants of a pela-allied village. When marital prohibition has been
violated, people may forgive the transgressor because they seek to reduce stress (i.e.,
intrapersonal motives), because they empathize with the transgressor, and/or because they
want to maintain a relationship with him or her (i.e., interpersonal motives). However, when
people feel that the norms and values of the group or the identity of the group have been
threatened or they want to preserve harmony within the group (i.e., community motives),
they may be reluctant to forgive the transgressor. We examined how community motives
with regard to this transgression are important to pela members in the Moluccas, relative to
intrapersonal and interpersonal motives. We also investigated how pela members would
respond to the transgression when they have migrated to another cultural context.
Participants were members of a pela alliance, living either in the Moluccas or in the
Netherlands. We found that Moluccans valued community motives more than Dutch
Moluccans and that this was mediated by the role that pela still plays in the daily life of
Moluccans. However, we also found that Moluccans valued interpersonal and intrapersonal
motives more than Dutch Moluccans. Interestingly, within-culture comparisons showed that
Moluccans valued interpersonal and intrapersonal motives more than community motives.
Dutch Moluccans valued interpersonal motives more than intrapersonal motives. These
findings suggest that, while community membership may be particularly important to those
who live in collectivistic settings, in the end, community members, regardless of the cultural
context they live in, may value interpersonal and intrapersonal motives to forgive more in
their everyday worries than community motives.
Invoking the Cultural Imaginary: Digital Re-Presentations of Cultural Heritage

Professor Harold M. Thwaites
(Sunway University)
This presentation provides an overview of the information design process applied to the
preservation and re-presentation of cultural heritage via digital media. It applies principles of
communication, media design and research creation in new ways in order to create a matrix
of intangible cultural heritage content. The concept of “re-presenting heritage” is discussed
within the context of the panel theme. The cultural imaginary is the embodiment of the
intangible nature of much of the world’s heritage. It resides in the minds and hearts of those
from whom it originates and is passed down generation to generation. How that can be
preserved and how it becomes codified into digital form for the future are key questions for
heritage science to consider in this latter half of the twenty-first century. This talk offers an
overview, via various research-creation exemplars, of the materiality of the digital, its
embodiment, agency and performativity applied to a variety of intangible heritage and the
resulting impact on the audiences it seeks to inform.
28
Expressions of Resistance: Social Realist Artworks of the Yiyanhui and the Equator Art
Society
Dr. Emelia Ong Ian Li
(University of Malaya)
During the 1950s, a social realist art movement emerged in Singapore featuring themes such
as over-population, unemployment, exploitation of labour and various social ills. I argue that
these social realist artworks may be read as expressions of resistance against a colonial
discourse which represented Chinese identity in Malaya as opportunistic, untrustworthy,
materialistic and susceptible to communist tendencies. The artworks may be viewed as a
conjunctural response to the crisis within British Malaya after the war. These artists
highlighted the inequalities of the colonial regime at a time when it was vulnerable and saw a
possible path towards transformation that would lead to independence. Their anti-colonial
stance and alignment with the other ethnic communities was consistently demonstrated
through the repeating of non-communal themes in subject matter based on the working
classes. As counter narratives, these artworks can thus be seen as strategies employed by a
diasporic community to gain political agency and reconstruct Chinese identity within the
Malayan nationalistic discourse.
Caught in the Middle: the Heritage Coalition and Vernacular-heritage Nexus in

Yangon
Mr. Mark Heng
(Department of Geography, University College London)
The ‘heritage coalition’ is a temporary alliance for combined action for heritagisation
through opposing modes of producing urban space. This concept captures and renders
simpler the complex dynamics of contemporary heritage conservation as a contested set of
more-than-cultural landscape practices, in terms of key leitmotifs in the literatures on
heritage politics and urban coalitions. My investigation of the arena of the ‘vernacular-
heritage nexus’ – the nexus of relations between the ‘heritage coalition’ and the vernacular
city – in the context of Yangon showed how heritage actors are seemingly caught in the
middle between dual and contradictory tendencies. I suggest that ‘heritagisation’ is taking
place in Yangon through the collaboration of urban stakeholders in a ‘heritage coalition’
across sectorial boundaries. As Yangon’s heritage actors are not only concerned with
heritage per se, their broader aims inflect how they understand Yangon as a heritage city, and
the Janus-faced character of heritage becomes evident in how they understand the challenge
of negotiating with the ‘vernacularisation’ of Yangon’s colonial buildings by current
dwellers and existing socio-spatial practices. Therefore, I posit that contestations and
negotiations will emerge between heritage actors as they seek to realise ‘heritagisation’
processes in the face of the ongoing ‘vernacularisation’ of the city.
Rock Art Management: A Case Study from Kanchanaburi province, Western Thailand
Ms. Victoria N. Scott
(Department of Anthropology, University College London)
Southeast Asian rock art has received renewed archaeological interest in the last decade.
There is a rich corpus of rock-art present in Southeast Asia, in particular it has been claimed
that Thailand boasts the largest number of rock art sites compared to its Southeast Asian
counterparts (Tan & Taçon, 2014). Some rock art sites in Thailand have been opened to
29
tourists, however, such sites do not draw in the same number of visitors or generate the same
interest compared to more “monumental” archaeology – which is often used as a tool to
promote national identity that is rooted in skilled, powerful and centralised ancient cultures.
This paper will look at the rock art sites of Kanchanaburi province, western Thailand, as a
case study to explore existing approaches to the management of rock art sites for touristic
purposes and explore how the “commoditisation” of the art, unlike other better known local
attractions found within the province, has failed to achieve similar touristic success. Rock
art, as a part of the archaeological record of Thailand is an important field of study to gain an
insight into Thailand's cultural past. The benefits and possible detrimental effects of opening
these rock art sites for touristic endeavours at a local and regional scale will be examined.
Border City Development: Cooperation Versus Competition?

Dr. Pechladda Pechpakdee
(Faculty of Architecture, Urban Design, and Creative Arts. Mahasarakham University)
This paper is a study of urban development and policy in Thailand. It shows the problematic
issues regarding the idea of urban development arising from the policy of modern-state
bounded space when the ASEAN economic community (AEC) was implemented in 2015.
Many border cities in Thailand were created out of territory as a constructive tool for
encountering other cities of neighbouring countries. Urbanisation through the construction of
infrastructure and the promotion of economic factors has been found in many border towns
to be the basis for attractive cities and investments. The argument’s focus is on the urban
system and the hierarchy of cities in the government policy as related to the AEC. The major
issue is that the border cities not only have to contend against other neighboring countries,
they also compete with other cities in their own country. Partly, some border cities might be
developed, successfully. Partly, some cities might fail due to overgrowth or undergrowth
relative to development. Accordingly, the competitive advantage and cooperation based on
the urban system among the cities and countries should be concerned with better cooperation
to sustain the balanced condition of development among cities.
30
PANEL 6
Voice, Trust and Memory: Performance and Reconciliation in
Southeast Asia
Performance activates the voices that have been silenced by the authority and/or the power
holder. It also provides a space for challenging the fabricated discourse and memory
developed to displace the marginalized and disenfranchised community from the dialogue.
Collaborating traditions and cultural practices, performance forms a communicative space
between the community, the public and the power holder. To break the silence, for example,
various performances conducted by the survivors and the family members of the 1965
communist purge in Indonesia. As a form of collective endeavor, performances help
community members to reconstruct the meanings of trauma, resilience and create their ways
of healing. Through participatory theater, dances, songs, poems and puppetries, the stories of
oppression and violence teach the public the lessons of resilience. This panel proposes to
look at the future of performance as an alternative voice and identify the key challenges in
making performance a space of symbolic expression and interventions. It offers a critical
discussion of how performance could translate community voices and create changes.
Panel
Chair: Dr Dyah Pitaloka (National University of Singapore)
Puppet Theatre and Healing the Traumatic Wounds of Past Atrocities

Dr Tri Subagya (Sanata Dharma University)
Muddies Memories: The Politics of Lapindo Mudflow Commemoration

Mr. Anton Novenanto (PhD candidate, the Institute of Anthropology, Faculty of Behavioural
and Cultural Studies, Ruprecht Karls Universität Heidelberg)
Kinship Mosque-Church: Cultural Performances and Forest of Cultural-Interreligious

Symbols in the Malukan Religious Hyphenation
Dr Izak Lattu (Satya Wacana Christian University)
Performance and Re-Construction of Spaces: Narratives of Healing and Resilience of

the Survivors of the Indonesia 1965 Mass Killings
Dr Dyah Pitaloka (National University of Singapore) & Prof Mohan J.Dutta (National
University of Singapore)
Performing Trauma: Chinese Indonesian Artists and Collective Memory in Post-

Suharto Era
Dr Charlotte Setijadi (ISEASGYusof Ishak Institute, Singapore) & Dr Wulan Dirgantoro
(Lasalle College of the Arts, Singapore)
Puppet Theatre and Healing the Traumatic Wounds of Past Atrocities

Dr Tri Subagya
(Sanata Dharma University)
Performance has become a popular medium for releasing the traumatic burden of the past. In
some countries that experienced civil war or violent conflict, they used traditional theater,
31
story telling and other cultural activities to help survivors to tell the truth and relate
experiences in which they could release the burden of the traumatic tortures, intimidation and
detention without trial. In the post authoritarian Indonesia, several groups of people such as
local artists, NGOs and other civil society elements tried to articulate victim voices of the
past violence. Their efforts have appeared in the establishment of victim organizations and
their several activities while the government has not yet handled over the problem of past
human rights violations seriously. Besides social gatherings for victims and the
dissemination of their stories, their activities are apparently important for healing after
trauma. The Papermoon Puppet Theatre has been a popular dramatic performance among the
youth audience. Two of their performances tell the story about the effect of the 1965 tragedy
and allowed people to reinterpret the history of a past that had been abused by the dominant
stories of the perpetrators. Moreover, the performance also reunited some people who have
been separated for more than forty years after the violence. In this regard, the Papermoon
Puppet Theatre enables the articulation of truth from the victim’s perspective. By means of
the performance, however, people could learn a different version of history than that which
has been co-opted by the past-authoritarian rulers. Justice values that so far have been
monopolized by the rulers are beginning to be realized as not only the nation’s responsibility
but also the individuals’ in their communities. Performing the victims’ marginalized stories
is an effective means of listening to the living aspirations and truths in society. This paper
examines how the art performance–puppet theatre in contemporary Indonesia can be media
for the relation of healing from trauma by the survivors of the past atrocities.
Muddies Memories: The Politics of Lapindo Mudflow Commemoration

Mr. Anton Novenanto
(PhD candidate, The Institute of Anthropology, Faculty of Behavioural and Cultural Studies,
Ruprecht Karls Universität)
Resistance has become a topic of the study of power relations for it shows the exercise of
power by the seemingly “powerless” actors and designates their existence in society.
Obviously, in the wake of environmental disasters victims are frequently understood as
powerless parties who depend on the help of others. This paper intends to argue how disaster
victims are not as powerless as most people and scholars would think. Instead, they are very
creative in developing their own agency referring to specific cultural narratives that allow
them to present their own interpretation of their situation. Data used in this paper was
gathered from multifaceted fieldwork among some Lapindo mudflow victim groups in
Porong, Sidoarjo, Indonesia ranging from 2009 until 2014. The mudflow has been very
intriguing for there are two conflicting arguments of what had initiated the eruption:
anthropogenic or natural. Quite unexpectedly, in the course of the fieldwork I discovered that
the anthropogenic claim is supported also by some preexisting cultural narratives in Javanese
mythology of environmental disasters holding that mudflows are never entirely natural
events. To some extent these cultural narratives have empowered victims in preserving the
claim of anthropogenic disaster and by performing commemorations of the mudflow
eruption they have become powerful— instead of powerless—actors of the Lapindo case in
Indonesia.
Kinship Mosque-Church: Cultural Performances and Forest of Cultural Interreligious

Symbols in the Malukan Religious Hyphenation
Dr. Izak Lattu
(Satya Wacana Christian University)
32
The paper examines religious shrines as the site of cultural performance and symbols
Christian-Muslim relationships in Maluku. In the social-cultural context, Malukan religious
sanctuaries -- mosque and church -- have become interreligious spheres that perform cultural
memory and display shared symbols. Although the shrine stands for a specific religious
ritual, in the cultural sense the building is the responsibility of interreligious community who
are intertwined in a shared cultural identity (pela). This research explores church and mosque
as symbols and performative sites of interreligious hyphenation. In the local dynamic of
Christian-Muslim engagement, the shrine conveys the collective memory of kinship (rasa
orang basudara) among Malukan Muslims and Christians. Using an interdisciplinary
approach -- Christian-Muslim engagement in the sociology of religion and collective
memory in folklore studies -- this paper explores Malukan church-mosque as the
representation of the total system of indigenous culture in five islands in Maluku. I employ
ethnographic research -- interviews and participant observation along with the study of
secondary data -- to comprehend the underneath meaning of the hyphened cultural
performance and symbol. This paper concludes that the religious shrine is one of the
“collective representations” symbolizing the formation of shared identity and the reclaiming
of cultural performance for Christian-Muslim engagement in Maluku.
Performance and Re-Construction of Spaces: Narratives of Healing and Resilience of

the Survivors of the Indonesia 1965 Mass Killings
Dr. Dyah Pitaloka
(National University of Singapore)
Professor Mohan J. Dutta

Performance, to the survivors and the descendants of the survivors of the Indonesia 1965
mass killings becomes a space to re-construct alternative narratives of healing, survival, and
resilience. As a form of collective endeavours, performance in its many different forms
enables the survivors and the family members to enact agency and make a change. Through
songs, the chronicles, the stories of violence bear witness so the public can never forget, but
at the same time teach the public the lesson of resilience. Through pictures and photovoice
activities, survivors and the family members paint the erased traces of a violent history, but
at the same time invite the public to build together new narratives and possibilities. Through
theatre and puppetry, survivors and their descendants enact performances that challenge
stigmas and dominant narratives. Through dialogic moment, each performance takes the
audiences to “unlearn” their privileges and together with the survivors and their descendants,
co-construct spaces for alternative narratives and create a new entry point to transformations
of oppressive conditions.
Performing Trauma: Chinese Indonesian Artists and Collective Memory in the Post-
Suharto Era
Dr Charlotte Setijadi
(ISEASG Yusof Ishak Institute, Singapore)
Dr Wulan Dirgantoro
(Lasalle College of the Arts, Singapore)
The post-Suharto era that began in 1998 ushered in a revival of Chinese Indonesian identity
politics. After the abolition of the New Order’s assimilation laws, Chinese Indonesians were
33
once again able to express their culture and identity, as well as revisit their history in ways
previously prohibited or limited. Taking advantage of these newfound freedoms, a number of
Chinese Indonesian visual artists began exploring themes of trauma, memory, violence, fear,
and injustice in their works. Drawing on both personal and collective memories about past
anti-Chinese discrimination and violence, these Chinese Indonesian artists ‘remember’ and
present alternative views of Chinese Indonesian history. By discussing the works of Tintin
Wulia and FX Harsono, we examine how Chinese Indonesian History and trauma are
remembered and performed by ethnic Chinese artists in the post-Suharto era. We argue in
this paper that the works of these Chinese Indonesian artists need to be understood within the
contexts of the Indonesian contemporary arts scene and attempts to revisit historical ‘truths’
in the post Suharto era.
34
PANEL 7
The Unexpected Role of Southeast Asian Armies Abroad, 1910s
to 1990s
The role of the army in Southeast Asian politics has been widely recognised by keen
observers in Southeast Asian studies. The army’s involvement in domestic affairs has
overshadowed its conventional role of defence in historical perspective. Scholars have
argued that armies in Southeast Asia were created in the prewar era for the purpose of
domestic consolidation and control, for example, in the case of Thailand, which arguably
goes back to the era of King Rama V. This claim is difficult to dispute given the extent of the
role that armies have played in domestic politics in the region in the postwar era such as in
the case of Indonesia and the Philippines. Nevertheless, the army has played an important
role in relation to foreign policy that should not be neglected in deference to the army’s role
in domestic politics. By travelling back in time and examining Southeast Asian military
participations abroad from the First World War until the end of the Cold War, we can
identify the far-reach and might of some Southeast Asian armies in the international arena.
The panel seeks to address the history of the Southeast Asian army from the First World War
to military operations and tactics applied against communism during the Cold War era. The
central objective of this panel is to discuss, illuminate, and explicate the association of
Southeast Asian armies abroad in comparative perspective.
Convener:
Mr. Peera Charroenvattananukul (Cambridge University)
The Siamese Volunteers of the First World War: an Experience of a “Bureaucratic

Bourgeoisie” in Europe (1917 – 1920)
Din Buadaeng
(Graduate student (Master 2), Paris-Diderot University)
After the declaration of war with the Central powers on the 22 July 1917, Siamese elites, in
response to the request of the Allies, sent supporting troops including drivers, pilots and
doctors. On 30 July 1918, 1,280 Siamese soldiers arrived by ship at the old port of Marseille,
in the south of France. They were volunteers, mostly from the “bourgeoisie” in the
hierarchical bureaucracy that had developed at the end of the nineteenth century. Most were
civilians with only a couple of months of basic military training before arriving in France.
Once in France, the Siamese troops were further separated into groups and sent to different
schools of aviation and driving before going to the front. In the end, most did not have a
chance to go to battle since the war ended only a couple of months after their arrival. The
Siamese troops participated in the victory marches in Paris, London and Brussels in 1919
before returning to Siam. Three Siamese representatives were also present at the Peace
Conference, making Siam one of the founding countries of the League of Nations. In the
context of colonial hierarchies, the central concern for the Siamese elites was the place of
Siam and of the Siamese in the world, especially in relation to the dominating European
nations. In the case of World War I, Siam was one of the few “independent” Asian countries
that participated in the war in Europe. World War I was one of the rare occasions in which
the Siamese “bureaucratic bourgeoisie”, represented by the soldiers participating in the war,
had direct interaction not only with European cultures but also in Europe itself. The
35
experience of the Siamese soldiers in Europe will be the main focus of this paper. A few
memoirs written by the soldiers provide an important insight into the soldiers’ worldview,
aspirations, and expectations that may or may not differ from those of the Siamese and
French authorities. The sources from the French military archives also provide significant
details about the soldiers’ everyday lives, such as aspects of food and accommodation.
Moreover, cultural conflicts can be clearly seen, especially from the French perspective:
“sensitivity,” “self-loving,” and “excessive pride” of the Siamese troops caused many
misunderstandings with the French authorities. In the end, the victory of the war looks to be
a triumph of the Siamese foreign policy.
Thai Cadets in European Military Academies in the Early Twentieth Century-Interwar

period: the Preliminary Results of their Experiences and Models for Thai Military
Organization
Mr. Pran Jintrawet
(M.A. Student at Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies, Waseda University)
As a result of the humiliation of the Franco-Siamese crisis in 1893, the government of Siam
(renamed Thailand in 1939) increasingly sent many of their young cadets on missions to
certain countries in Europe, namely England, France, Prussia, and so forth, to acquire
knowledge of Western military science and organization for modernization and the survival
of Siam as an independent state. These cadets included princes, the sons of Rama V, and
ordinary people who earned scholarships from his royal highness to study abroad. These
cadets’ influence and impact on Thai politics were widely explored and deliberated by many
academic works and studies. However, their experiences during their studies in Europe and
congruence to models for Thai military organization is understudied and there is still room to
explore. This study suggests that experience in Europe was one of the significant factors
affecting these cadets’ political decisions later on, which consequently led to the reformation
of Thai military organization. In doing so, this study focuses on Thai cadets who graduated
from France and Prussia as these were the only European countries allowing Thai cadets to
study at the officer level. The findings suggest that Prussian and French models drastically
influenced the plans for national army reformation and strategic practices, particularly after
the 1932 Revolution. Thus, exploring experiences in Europe will provide better
understandings of Thai military during the early stages of its formation and subsequently on
Thai politics.
The ‘Four provinces’; Phibunsongkram, Champasak, Lan Chang and Battambang

under Thai Administration and Afterwards, 1940s – 1950s.
Ms. Preeyaporn Kantala
(PhD student, Waseda University, Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies)
This paper focuses on the administrative process of the case of ‘the Four Provinces’;
Phibunsongkram, Battambang, Champasak and Lan Chang, starting with the Franco-Thai
conflict of 1940, followed by the cession of military-occupied territories to the Thai
government, and to the time when these territories were returned to French Indochina in
1946. This paper also aims to understand how the Thai government and military attempted to
create the Thai national sentiment within these territories, while the Cambodian and Laotian
nationalist movements emerged. My conceptual framework draws upon historical and
postcolonial approach to build a better understanding of how state and indigenous people
acknowledged a ‘national consciousness.’ This research utilises various archival materials in
Thailand, Laos, and France. The analysis of social, economic and political processes will
36
contribute to understanding regional conflicts in relation to the rise of indigenous nationalism
among Cambodians and Laotians after the Second World War.
The Silent History: Thai Military in the Shan States during World War II
Ms. Wasitthee Chaiyakan
(PhD student, School of Oriental and African Studies)
The annexation of parts of the Shan States, Kengtung and Mongpan during World War II
appears to be another chapter in a silent history. This is even more remarkable considering
the fact that the invasion was one of the most important missions of the Thai military outside
the country. In these newly annexed lands, the Thai military was heavily involved in their
‘occupation’ and ‘administration.’ These parts of the Shan States were under British rule
since the late 19th century, however they were culturally similar to the northern part of
Thailand. The Phibun government (1938-1944) also considered people living in these areas
as Thai people. This was largely the consequence of the Pan-Tai ideology that heralded the
idea of a future that would unite the Tai people and the Thai lost territories in order to build
‘The Great Thai Empire.’ This was the clear aim of the Phibun government. With the help of
the Japanese military, Thai troops invaded and annexed Kentung and Mongpan and
incorporated them into Thailand. These areas were named the ‘Saharat Thai Doem’ or the
old Thai state, and were controlled by the Thai military from June 1942 to September 1944.
However, the actual effects of the annexation and administration proved futile. The
annexation was simply not worth the number of troops and resources that had been wasted.
After the end of World War II, the Thai government had to return Kengtung and Mongpan to
the British, and the Thai military simply had to retreat to Thailand in humiliation. The
entirety of the annexation of the Shan States was the culminating response to the territorial
expansionist project of the Phibun government. Its subsequent failure and the loss of such
territories meant it was forgotten from Thai history.
Paramilitarism as a Strategy in Small Wars Against the Communist Party of Thailand

During the Cold War 1965-1982
Mr. Tassapa Umavijani
In the Cold War era, The Kingdom of Thailand was striving against the devastating threats
from communist movements in Southeast Asia. Internally, it had to quell the Communist
Party of Thailand (CPT) as known as Communist Terrorists’ activities in rural areas. There
were serious insurgencies conducted by the CPT guerrilla fighters, especially in the
Northeastern and Northern regions of the country where the Thai armed forces constantly
suffered casualties in protracted small wars with the Leftist guerrillas. With the misconduct
by police forces and military units themselves, the circumstances were aggravated.
Consequently, Thai officials began to seek to win the hearts and minds of the local populace
with development aid provided to locals. In addition to this, the authorities created semi-
official paramilitary units recruited from the locals and civil volunteers to respond to and
deter the CPT’s attacks and intimidation effectively. This paper observes the birth and
development of “paramilitarism” as a strategy in counterinsurgency in Thailand between the
years 1965 to 1982 including the organization and development of paramilitary forces as an
element of Thai military culture since the nation-building era.
A Comparative Study of Thailand’s Military Role in Foreign Policy from the First
World War to the Cold War
Mr. Padej Kumlertsakul
37
(Reader Adviser – The National Archives, Kew)
Since the beginning of the Cold War, the role played by the armed forces of Southeast Asian
nations has been dominated by domestic, political, and military interventions. In a country
such as Thailand, civil-military relations were highly politicised, especially since the Inter-
war period and throughout the Cold War and beyond. However, the wars Siam/Thailand
participated in, either directly or indirectly, remain largely unknown outside of academia.
From the first decade to the last quarter of the twentieth century, Siam - now Thailand -
participated in many major conflicts from the First World War to the Vietnam War, as well
as many border conflicts, including the Malayan Emergency and the Communist Insurgency
in the 1960s, the Thai–Laotian Border War in 1980s and, more recently, the Cambodian–
Thai border dispute of 2008. In this paper, I will highlight the role played by the
Siam/Thailand Armed Forces from the First World War, when the country was under the
absolute monarchy, to the Cold War, when the country was for the most part under military
rule. By using primary sources held at The National Archives, I will examine
Siam/Thailand’s military influence in foreign affairs during these wars. I will also address
the history of Siam/Thailand as an anti-communist ally during the Cold War era.
38
PANEL 8
Land and Maritime Border Disputes in Southeast Asia
While the territorial disputes in the South China Sea have been in the international spotlights
in the last years, other dangerous territorial rows have attracted less attention. The aim of this
panel is to analyze the reasons for the various current land and maritime border disputes in
Southeast Asia, be it the Preah Vihear temple conflict (Thailand and Cambodia), the Phu
Quoc/Koh Tral dispute (Vietnam and Cambodia) or the South China Sea dispute. The origins
of most conflicts can be traced back to Colonial times and the sometimes artificial drawing
up of borders in a region where the notion of sovereignty and fixed borders was not common
before the arrival of the Europeans. However, current domestic politics and nationalist
sentiments need to be covered as well in order to demonstrate the complexity of the border
disputes. In addition to examining the historical reasons for the disputes and their current
dynamics, the existing bi- and multilateral conflict management and resolution mechanisms
will be addressed. The policies of two important external actors in Southeast Asia, China and
Taiwan will be examined as well in the context of the South China Sea dispute.
Conveners:
Dr. Maria Strasakova (Metropolitan University Prague)
Dr. Alfred Gerstl (University of Vienna)
Panel
Chair:
Dr. Maria Strasakova (Metropolitan University Prague) and Dr. Alfred Gerstl (University of
Vienna)
Sovereignty and Borders in Southeast Asia: Defending the Principles of “Westphalia”

Dr. Alfred Gerstl
(Department of East Asian Studies, University of Vienna)
Space for Tribute Among the Ten Thousand Stones – The South China Sea as Space in
the Chinese Tributary System and its Future Perspectives
Ms. Padraig Lysaght
(PhD candidate at the Department of History, University of Vienna)
Unreliable Evidence and the South China Sea Problem

Mr. Bill Hayton
(Associate Fellow Asia Programme, Chatham House)
Japan and Vietnam Hedging China in the South China Sea

Dr. Maria Strasakokva (Department of Asian Studies, Metropolitan University Prague)
Taiwan and the South China Sea Dispute

Mr. Filip Kraus
39
(PhD candidate at the Graduate Institute of Social Research and Cultural Studies, National
Chiao Tung University, Taiwan)
Sovereignty and Borders in Southeast Asia: Defending the Principles of “Westphalia”

Dr. Alfred Gerstl
(Department of East Asian Studies, University of Vienna)
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and its members are ardent advocates
of the principles of sovereignty, non-interference and territorial integrity. In order to keep
Pandora´s box closed the regimes of the newly independent multi-ethnic nation-states
accepted the (sometimes artificial) Colonial borders. Despite the prevalence of the ASEAN
Way norms, various border disputes occurred, notably about Phu Quoc (Koh Tral) island
between Vietnam and Cambodia since the 1950s, between Indonesia (konfrontasi) and the
Philippines vs. Malaysia in the 1960s and Thailand and Cambodia over Preah Vihear temple
in the 1960s and again since 2008. The ongoing disputes are usually overshadowed by the
unresolved South China Sea conflict, involving Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam,
China and Taiwan. This presentation will highlight the reasons for ASEAN´s strict
adherence to the principles of Westphalia. It will thereby critically question the applicability
of the Association´s dispute management mechanisms (the High Council, foreseen in the
Treaty of Amity and Cooperation of 1976) in case of the South China Sea and Preah Vihear
disputes. Comparing these two territorial rows, it will also scrutinize whether there is a
fundamental difference between land and maritime borders in Southeast Asia.
Space for Tribute Among the Ten Thousand Stones – The South China Sea as Space in
the Chinese Tributary System and its Future Perspectives
Padraig Lysaght (PhD candidate at the Department of History, University of Vienna)
The South China Sea question is one of the most significant ongoing conflicts in Eastern
Asia, directly involving China, Taiwan, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.
Apart from security questions especially the maritime dimensions of space and borders pose
challenges to scholars from a number of disciplines. The Chinese tribute system was an
integral part of the international society in Eastern Asia. This presentation asks whether
modern Chinese foreign policy takes steps towards its reestablishment and how space is
assessed within its framework. The unique qualities of this question are explored against the
backdrop of the South China Sea conflict. Historical and English School arguments are used
to examine the close connection between space, border and tribute system and what elements
of these concepts are revived today.
Unreliable Evidence and the South China Sea Problem

Bill Hayton
(Associate Fellow Asia Programme, Chatham House)
There has been a rapid expansion of published writing on the South China Sea disputes but
relatively little exploration of the disputes’ historic roots. Recent archival research has
unearthed evidence that casts doubt over much of the received wisdom about the emergence
of territorial claims there in the first half of the twentieth century. A close examination of the
sources and references of many of the standard works on the disputes suggests that they are
unreliable bases from which to draw reliable conclusions. A dependence on Chinese official
sources and Chinese newspaper articles published long after the events they describe led
authors to mistake a number of tendentious assertions as historical fact. Most of the accounts
40
rely on a relatively small number of works published in the 1970s and 1980s. These reflect
the state of knowledge about the issues at those times. The consequence is that contemporary
debates about the disputes are being framed by the parameters set forty years ago.
Japan and Vietnam Hedging China in the South China Sea

Dr. Maria Strasakova
(Centre for Indo-Pacific Studies, Metropolitan University Prague)
Despite the fact that Vietnam and Japan became strategic partners in 2006, the two countries
failed to deepen their cooperation (apart from the economic realm) due to a series of internal
and external limitations. However, since 2011 and especially 2014, the two states have sped
up cooperation in security and strategic spheres and upgraded their ties to the level of
Extensive Strategic Partnership for Peace and Prosperity in Asia due to their shared concerns
stemming from the changing security environment. The single most unifying factor are
concerns over the long-term ambitions of China, as its economic growth, rising confidence in
the international arena, as well as its rapid military modernization and its assertiveness in the
South and East China Seas disputes have created not only new challenges, but also
convergent (if not congruent) interests of both countries. Thus, the objective of this paper is
twofold: first, to shed light on the two countries´ interests in the South China Sea and their
partnership as a hedge against Chinese assertiveness in the dispute and, secondly, to
scrutinize the implication of their cooperation on the security environment in Southeast Asia.
Taiwan and the South China Sea Dispute

Filip Kraus
(PhD candidate at the Graduate Institute of Social Research and Cultural Studies, National
Chiao Tung University, Taiwan)
This presentation is aiming to understand the contemporary scholarly debate about the South
China Sea (SCS) as it took place in the Republic of China (Taiwan). To fulfill its aims, the
paper is first providing a short introduction of Taiwan’s historical role in the SCS dispute;
second explaining a broader context of Taiwan foreign policies toward the SCS; and finally
mapping contemporary scholarly discourse about the SCS dispute as it took place in the
Taiwanese academic environs. Basically, the Taiwanese claims in the SCS are identical with
those of the PRC, but an overdependence of Taipei’s government on the U.S.´ political
support, gradual democratization of the island’s politics and its relative political isolation
from the international arena, leads to a more transparent and pragmatic approach to the
problem allowing, or requiring, more concessional stance towards the main issues and others
claimants in the SCS dispute. Naturally, this is reflected in the Taiwan academic discussion
about the problem that is centered around the so-called historical rights; applicability of the
United Nation Convention on the Law on the Sea (UNCLOS); but also focused on claims of
others claimants – especially Vietnam and Philippines.
41
PANEL 9
(Im)mobility in Motion
Cultural Constraints and Social Stasis in a Region of
Mass Migration
Long viewed as a zone of tradition and intransigence, the past two decades have given rise to
a broadening recognition that Southeast Asia is a region on the move. In countries
throughout the area, the advent of foreign investment and a growing modern sector have
underpinned a transformation in livelihoods, as rural households come increasingly to
depend upon labour migration and remittances to survive. Categories such as “rural” and
“urban”, and even national boundaries in many cases, are losing their definition, as migration
systems expand and increase in complexity. Even amidst this churning movement, however,
continuities persist, as advantages and inequalities demonstrate their adaptability to novel
circumstances. Though opportunity abounds throughout the region, the ability to access it
remains tightly constrained by the longstanding structural features of class, hierarchy and
gender. Indeed, long associated with agrarian traditions, these features are not losing their
relevance in an increasingly marketised and mobile continent. Rather, via differential
remittances, gendered labour norms, and exclusive information networks, they are
continuing to shape its future in subtle but identifiable ways. Immobility, the evidence
suggests, is on the rise.
Conveners: Sabina Lawreniuk and Laurie Parsons (Kings College)
Discussant
Catherine Allerton, Department of Anthropology, London School of Economics
Failed Plans: The Limits of Flexible Citizenship as a Demotic Strategy in the

Philippines
Deidre McKay, Department of Geography, Keele University
Viscous Cycle: Linking Systematic Viscosity to the Immobility of Highly Mobile Cyclo
Riders in Phnom Penh
Laurie Parsons, Department of Geography, King’s College London
Barriers to Social Mobility: Transport a Critical Component

Ken Parker, Faculty of Engineering and Computing, Coventry University
Seeing like the Stateless: Race, Place and Mobility Amongst Cambodia’s Semi-
documented Vietnamese
Sabina Lawreniuk, Department of Geography, King’s College London
Discussant
Catherine Allerton, Department of Anthropology, London School of Economics
Failed Plans: The Limits of Flexible Citizenship as a Demotic Strategy in the

Philippines
Deidre McKay
(Department of Geography, Keele University)
42
This paper examines the frustrated expectations of the emergent global middle class among
migrants from the Philippines. Though migrants and their families may acquire multiple
citizenships and places of residence, they struggle to attain the social mobility they
anticipated migration would provide. Migrants who work overseas in low-skilled jobs
become investors at home, but they do not necessarily experience ‘improvement’ in their
status, finding their attempts to acquire political power, social respect or long-term livelihood
security often frustrated. Despite the benefits of remittance income and global skills, they
perceive themselves as stuck in the ordinary middle classes. Analyzing case study data from
the northern Philippines and the UK, I explore the efforts of migrant Filipinos to enact
flexible citizenship (Ong, 1999) to leverage social mobility. Then, by thinking of class
identities in migration as a set of multiple and contradictory processes (Gibson, Law and
McKay, 2001), locate migrants’ sense of failure. I show how, rather than challenging long-
entrenched social hierarchies created by land-ownership and preferred access to education
and employment, their flexible citizenship strategies effectively reinforce social
stratification.
Viscous Cycle: Linking Systematic Viscosity to the Immobility of Highly Mobile Cyclo
Riders in Phnom Penh
Laurie Parsons
(Department of Geography, King’s College London)
As an almost permanent fixture throughout a century of political upheaval and social change,
Phnom Penh’s cyclo riders occupy a unique position within the symbolic landscape of the
capital. They are at once highly mobile in their occupation and static in their symbolism; an
enduring icon of fading colonial and post-colonial eras. Moreover, it is not only the work
that endures, but its occupants also: cyclo riders are amongst Cambodia’s oldest and longest
serving migrant workers, completing an average of almost twenty years of monthly
migration cycles between village and city, in order to satisfy the demands of family and
farm. Ageing, weak and increasingly poor, they are nevertheless inextricably entrenched in
mobility cycles that are unresponsive to the declining livelihoods of their occupation. This
paper uses the concept of viscosity, described by Davidson (2015: 250) as ‘the variable
degree of resistance or facilitation offered by structural context’, to highlight how
impediments to movement affect not only populations and individuals characterised by low
(or no) mobility, but also highly mobile groups. Thus, using the “cyclo” riding paratransit
workers of Phnom Penh as a lens, it is suggested here that groups of this sort are trapped in
high mobility cycles. The combination of pressures which impel this movement and prevent
its cessation, it is argued here, constitute the components of a circular, or mobile, viscosity.
Barriers to Social Mobility: Transport a Critical Component

Ken Parker
(Faculty of Engineering and Computing, Coventry University)
Transport is an important issue for the development of people and a nation. If you have to
spend more than an hour travelling to and from work and education each day, it does not
leave much time for personal development to get increased job prospects. The implication is
that societies need to create lots of job opportunities close to where people live or have lots
of affordable and accessible homes in city centres.
Those in poverty are not progressing in social development as well as the rest of the
main population. One can liken social mobility to physical mobility – the popular saying ‘no
43
money, no talk’ is quite common across South-East Asia and can be interpreted as ‘no
money, no transport’. Regrettably, many societies do not empower those citizens with
disability and the increasing costs of transport, nowadays rickshaws & pedicabs (that have
become appealing to foreign tourists), the Thai tuk-tuk and the rise of taxis and buses and
rail/tram systems have become unaffordable for poor people. People prefer to travel safely
and in comfort but this means that fewer low cost travel alternatives become available.
Transport provision should be considered holistically such that, for example, bus stops
should be conveniently located and accessible, the buses accessible (irrespective of physical
and sensory disability) and affordable, etc. Unfortunately, females are sometimes further
down the family finance’s pecking order for funding their education, or travel to education,
and are given the task of fetching water, looking after other family members and doing
domestic chores. Also, some transport has less female-friendly spaces. So there is a triple
whammy (disability, poverty, female – maybe a quadruple whammy if one includes “caste”
(and certain cultural norms and religious beliefs) and the way it stymies ambition and puts
lower expectations in the minds of individuals. Useable and affordable transport is therefore
key to improving social mobility for all sectors of modern societies.
Seeing Like the Stateless: Race, Place and Mobility Amongst Cambodia’s Semi-
documented Vietnamese
Sabina Lawreniuk
(Department of Geography, King’s College London)
Extending through centuries of alternating cooperation and antipathy, Cambodia’s shared

history with Vietnam is as complex as it is intimate. The epochal rise and fall of each side
has seen both conquered, dominated and reclaimed, re-drawing both the boundaries which
separate them and the nationalities they contain on each occasion. In principle, such political
arrangements are cleanly undertaken, but the social and cultural reality differs: villages and
districts on both sides of the Cambodia-Vietnam border are culturally and linguistically
mixed, often dominated by speakers of their neighbouring state’s tongue. Moreover, the
cultural integration of these boundary regions is complemented by extensive mobility; border
crossings are porous, lenient, or easily circumvented. In this fluid and dynamic environment,
documentation has generally been viewed as of secondary importance.
However, as Cambodia’s urban economy has boomed during the past two decades,
ethnic Vietnamese migrants from both sides of the border have begun to feel the
disadvantage of their informality. Even for many of those born in Phnom Penh, the difficulty
of obtaining paperwork without documented parents constitutes a major barrier to the
Kingdom’s primary migrant employer, the garment industry. Consequently, many of
Cambodia’s ethnic Vietnamese now occupy a shadow economy characterised by informality,
marginality, and movement. Though pushed to the fringes of the capital - where they line
Phnom Penh’s waterways in boats and temporary homes - undocumented Vietnamese
migrants retain a high level of mobility. Moreover, like the work they do, their migration
systems have emerged in response to their disadvantages; a discrete, marginal, and informal
sub-system within the wider phenomenon of labour migration in Cambodia.
44
PANEL 10
Transformation in Burma/
Myanmar: Economic, Social and Spatial Changes
Since the 2011 reforms, widespread positive (and not so positive) changes are taking place in
Burma/Myanmar. The rapid transformation and fragile shift from the political dominance of
the military has brought consequences of an unprecedented magnitude. What is more, the
shift continues. The international community, international organizations and foreign
investors are eager to reengage in projects with Burma/Myanmar and a new social dynamism
is being established through deeper engagement with globalization. The political reforms
implemented over the last several years have triggered changes in all parts of the country; it
is not clear, however, how these changes will impact on diverse social groups and across the
national space
In out panel we want to take a “top to down” perspective on transformation in
Myanmar. By confronting various perspectives from researchers in diverse fields and from
different countries, we want to discuss Myanmar's transformation from various angles –
“outer” (theoretical, analytical) and “inner” (from the point of view of their inhabitants) and
try to compare it to see the wider picture. Firstly, we will analyze economic reforms and
socio-economic transformation in Myanmar from two economic points of view: of modes of
transformation and of the role of foreign trade and investment. Then we will compare it with
two case studies on the ground – one from country’s centre (Yangon and its metamorphoses
in the economic transition) and another one from Myanmar’s periphery (Karen State and its
health care). Finally, we will analyze how foreign-backed “transformation policy” from a
country with long ties with Burma and similar transformational experiences is being
implemented in Burma/Myanmar and how it fits with local conditions. This will help us to
answer some questions – how reforms in the country are working on the ground? How the
economic changes are being transferable to society’s everyday life? How Myanmar’s
(re)integration leads to emergence of new civil societies? What is development/humanitarian
assistance and how these are understood in Myanmar? How environmental and human
welfare are implicated by reform process? Is transformation experience really transferable?
Our papers come from diverse disciplines and perspectives on the economic, environmental,
social, spatial and political aspects of the transformations evolving in Myanmar. This
diversity helps to look at Myanmar’s transformation from various points of view.
Our first aim through this session is to stimulate exchanges amongst researchers with
an interest in Myanmar. Our second aim is to enhance knowledge and understanding of the
changes that are taking place, their likely consequences and their impacts on the diverse
groups within Myanmar. Our third aim is to develop a research network of individuals with a
focus on Myanmar in order to facilitate further exchanges and potential research
collaborations.
Conveners:
Dr. Michal Lubina, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland; and
Dr. Marion Sabrie, Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Paris, France
Panel
Chair: Dr. Michal Lubina, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland
45
Between Shock Therapy and Gradual Approach: the Dilemma of Myanmar’s
Economic Transformation
Dr. Michal Lubina
(Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland)
&
Dr. Andrzej Bolesta
(Individual Researcher, Bangkok)
The Role of Foreign Trade and Investment in Transition – Application of East Central
European Experiences to Myanmar
Dr. Ágnes Orosz
(Institute of World Economics of the Centre for Economic and Regional Studies of the
Hungarian Academy of Sciences)
&
Dr. Ágnes Szunomár
Yangon City Metamorphoses Since 2010: Toward a Possible Sustainable Development?

Dr. Marion Sabrie
(Center for Southeast Asian Studies,Paris, France)
From Humanitarianism to Development? Health Care and The Shifting Perceptions of

Eastern Myanmar’s Borderlands.
Christiane Voßemer
Department of Development Studies, (University of Vienna, Austria)
Is Transformation Experience Really Transferable? The Case of the Czech Support

Programme TRANS in Burma
Dr. Miroslav Nožina
(Institute of International Relations, Prague, Czech Republic)
Between Shock Therapy and Gradual Approach: the Dilemma of Myanmar’s

Economic Transformation
Dr. Michal Lubina (Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland) and Dr. Andrzej Bolesta,
(Individual Researcher, Bangkok)
Since 2011, Myanmar has been undergoing unprecedented systemic transformation. In

addition to the political liberalization, it has been going through a process of post-socialist
economic transition. Politically the transformation links extremes – public will, expressed in
free elections, with secret, behind-the-scene deals. In economic-institutional terms, Myanmar
has been undergoing transformation from a centrally planned, state-command, socialist
economy, to an open, market-based, capitalist economy.
Although each post-socialist economy is different and thus each systemic
transformation requires different instruments and policies, the general categorization of post-
socialist economic transformation distinguishes two modes of transition, namely, the shock
therapy and the gradual approach. Although not without controversies this division illustrates
the very difference between European and Asian transitions. The story of Myanmar is
different. Although the systemic reforms had commenced in 1988 and the authorities had
46
employed a gradual approach at that time, the initial efforts came to a standstill due to
political reasons and were eventually reversed. It was only in 2011 that the transformation
process was reinstated.
This paper looks at Myanmar transformation from both economic and political
perspectives and argues that in the years 2011-2015, Myanmar’s policy maker while
transforming the country faced a dilemma. As a post-socialist late-comer and thus in a
position to study previous experiences, throughout the reform period the government has
faced the dilemma; whether to employ the shock therapy or whether to embark on gradual
changes. The state authorities tried to combine aspects of both these policies, but eventually
settled for a gradual approach. Nevertheless, the dilemma, clearly visible in the changing
dynamics of post-socialist economic laws and institution formulation, continues to face
Myanmar policy makers in the new post-election environment.
The role of foreign trade and investment in transition – application of East Central
European experiences to Myanmar
Dr. Ágnes Orosz
&
Dr. Ágnes Szunomár
The paper discusses the applicability of East Central European (ECE) transformational
experiences in Myanmar by focusing on foreign trade and FDI as catalysts promoting
economic growth and integration of transition countries with the world economy. The
authors analyse the costs and challenges of transition as well as changes in trade and FDI
patterns of the ECE and CLMV region with a special emphasis on Myanmar. After
reviewing and comparing the initial steps, challenges and characteristics of structural
transformation in the ECE region and Myanmar, respectively, the authors discuss the main
similarities and differences among them in order to generate lessons for Myanmar. Finally,
the applicability of economic decisions of the respective countries is discussed.
Yangon City Metamorphoses Since 2010: Toward a Possible Sustainable Development?

Dr Marion Sabrie
(Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Paris, France)
Since 2010 and the accelerated economic openness of Myanmar, changes are taking place in
the country. Those metamorphoses are particularly visible in Yangon landscape, which
remains the economic capital and the national entry door. Yangon's population is growing,
its metropolitan and suburban areas are expanding, and their limits are not well defined yet.
In response to the urban pressure and to the increased flow of Myanmar people from other
regions, of investors and businessmen, the metropolization is anarchic: scattered construction
of new skyscrapers, larger malls and supermarkets, destructions of green spaces, construction
on empty lands, gentrification of the Central Business District, etc. Resulting from the new
economic legislation, which has allowed a massive import_ of affordable cars, Yangon is
also faci ng many other issues: inadequate road system, severe traffic congestion, lack of
parking, noise and air pollution, etc. Although the mobility of Yangon inhabitants is not high
compared to other Asian Cities’ inhabitants, the Yangon City Development Committee
(YCDC), assisted by the Japanese International Cooperation Agency, are preparing an urban
47
transport plan of the Greater Yangon to implement. Can the YCDC control all the urban
planning and the rapid changes that the city and its metropolitan area are facing? Although
environmental, cultural and costs seem to be high, to what extend do Yangoners get benefits
from the economic openness? Based on interviews of local and international actors living in
Yangon and data mostly collected in 2014 Census, my paper will analyse the metamorphoses
of the city in the economic transition.
From Humanitarianism to Development? Health Care and the Shifting Perceptions of

Eastern Myanmar’s Borderlands.
Christiane Voßemer
(Department of Development Studies, University of Vienna, Austria)
The changing political climate in Myanmar and its diplomatic rehabilitation" by the western
community of states have brought new international attention to the “development" of the
country - not only in economic regards but comprising the realm of social services, in
particular education and health care. For the latter, the promotion of Universal Health
Coverage" is guiding the efforts of new alliances between the Ministry of Health and
different international organizations to expand the reach and accessibility of the health care
system, also into Myanmar’s conflict-shaped eastern border areas with Thailand. These areas
and the situation of ethnic minority populations living there have long been approached by
international actors as a humanitarian emergency requiring humanitarian rather than
development interventions. The presentation inquires into the transforming space of actors in
reproductive health in Karen State in order to point out concrete dimensions of Myanmar’s
transformation regarding the shifting perceptions of its eastern borderlands from a
humanitarian towards a development imperative. It explores how the differently positioned
actors engage in and struggle with the arising changes in their concrete work and raises
wider critical questions regarding the implications of the current health coverage
development project in Eastern Myanmar’s borderlands
Is Transformation Experience Really Transferable? The Case of the Czech Support

Programme TRANS in Burma
Dr. Miroslav Nožina
(Institute of International Relations, Prague)
The concept of the Czech foreign policy approved in 2011 includes the support of human
rights and democratisation processes in the world. The basic idea of the so-called
“transformation policy” is to transfer the experience of the democratization of society in the
Czech Republic, as a post-communist country, to other countries, where totalitarian systems
still exist. A special government programme called TRANS was created for this purpose.
One of the key countries of the programme is Burma/Myanmar, a country with a long-time
tradition of mutual relations with the C.R. The C.R. has actively supported the Burmese
dissent after the military coup in 1988, and in recent years, in the framework of the TRANS
programme, it focused on the building of civic society in Burma. In the course of the
existence of the programme, many positive results were achieved. On the other hand, though,
it became clearly visible that the transfers of ideas, concepts and democratisation strategies
between the two culturally different societies have many limits that should be discussed and
revised.
48
PANEL 11
Politics, Identity and Minority Groups in Multicultural Society
This panel discusses issues that arise as the inevitable consequences of multicultural society.
Identity issues such as ethnicity, religious tolerance and endangered language become an
interesting topic of discussion. The domination of certain religion and ethnic group over the
others add additional layers to the existing problems. Some of the key questions that worth of
discussion are (1) How does the diversity survive? (2) What are some problems faced by
society living in such multicultural setting? (3) How the minority survived and coped with
problems such as intolerance, inequity and inequality? (4) How the minority preserves their
uniqueness, including languages and traditions? (5) How the media provides an equal
dialogical space for the minority groups? (6) These questions are highly relevant against the
backdrop of Southeast Asian countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and others, which
are mostly multicultural.
Convener: Wijayanto (Leiden University)
Panel 1:
Chair : Syahril Siddik (Syahril Siddik, Leiden University)
The Radicalization of Indonesian Muslims in Dakwah Broadcasting in the

Contemporary Indonesia (Syahril Siddik, Leiden University)
Language Policy and The Position of Endangered Languages in Indonesia: The Case of
Woirata Language on Kisar Island, Southwest Maluku
(Nazarudin, Leiden University)
Demography, Marriage Patterns and Cultural Resilience: a ‘Traditionalist’ pathway to

modernity in contemporary Maluku (Roy Ellen, University of Kent)
The Role of Papuan Youth in Creating Local and National Identities During the Special
Autonomy Era (Hipolitus Yolisandry Ringgi Wangge, Marthinus Academy, Jakarta)
The Radicalization of Indonesian Muslims in Dakwah Broadcasting in the

Contemporary Indonesia
Syahril Siddik
(Leiden University)
Indonesia has celebrated a well-known peaceful and tolerant Muslim activism since its
independence. In spite of being the Muslim majority country, Indonesia is not an Islamic
state. Instead, it has embraced other religions under the constitution which regulates all the
believers to live side by side. The democratization marked by the end of the authoritarian
regime and press freedom in 1998 has expected to maintain the peace and tolerance among
religious believers in Indonesia. However, the fact after a decade of the democratization has
betrayed this expectation. The democratization have opened the gate for radical and
conservative Muslims to occupy the Indonesian mass media and public sphere. This study
delves into the radicalization in dakwah broadcasting in the contemporary Indonesia: how
dakwah programs on the Indonesian television have been radicalized and how this radical
49
movement has challenged the well-established the religious authorities in the country. I
would argue that the failure of the radical and conservative Muslim activism in political level
has caused them to fight for socio-cultural level through mass media (television).
Language Policy and The Position of Endangered Languages in Indonesia: The Case of
Woirata Language on Kisar Island, Southwest Maluku
Nazarudin
(Leiden University)
Woirata is an endangered language on Kisar Island, Southwest Maluku, Indonesia. Based on

several studies, the numbers of Woirata speaker are decreasing significantly from fifteen
hundred speakers (De Jong 1937) into less than eight hundred speakers (Nazarudin 2013).
The issues on language endangerment in Indonesia began to receive some serious attention,
especially for the Indonesian government. Therefore, Indonesian government starts to build a
constitution on 2009 regarding this matter. Blommaert acknowledges (2009, p. 263) that
language is the “architecture of social behavior itself.” This research investigates how social
architecture is designed, engineered, and regulated through explicit and implicit language
policies. How do minority speech communities exercise agency in the face of oppressive
language policies? This research will focus on the Indonesian language policy through the
new Undang-Undang (UU) ‘constitution’ Number 24 in 2009 and its explanation on
Peraturan Pemerintah (PP) ‘Government Rules’ Number 57 in 2014. Next to that, this
research also describes how those policies apply within the ethnic minority, Woirata.
Demography, Marriage Patterns and Cultural Resilience: a ‘Traditionalist’ Pathway to

Modernity in Contemporary Maluku
Roy Ellen
(University of Kent)
The Nuaulu people of Seram (Maluku, Indonesia) have proved to be a demographically

resilient cultural population over the last fifty years. In 1970, when the author first began his
ethnographic fieldwork in the area, Nuaulu language and traditional culture was widely
considered ‘endangered’. Various factors, including population growth, minimal conversion
to major religions, and the political consequences of Indonesian ‘reformasi’ have all
contributed to the present situation in which despite changes in the material basis of their
lives, Nuaulu have projected a strong independent identity and organisation. This paper
shows how these factors are interrelated, and in particular the part played by marriage
patterns between clans.
Autonomy Era
Hipolitus Yolisandry Ringgi Wangge
(Marthinus Academy, Jakarta)
The end of Indonesia’s New Order under Suharto marked a dramatic change in the paradigm
of how the country addressed regional-based conflicts, including in Papua. Accordingly, the
central government designed a special autonomy law in 2001. Ideally, one objective of this
policy is to create among Papuans a national identity as part of Indonesia. However, what
actually happened on the ground is different. The special autonomy law instead strengthened
local identity which is distinguished from national identity. This fact raises a question: Why
can’t special autonomy amplify Papuan identity to become a national identity? To address
50
this question, this paper will focus on the role of Papuan youth in responding to three
elements of building an identity in the era of special autonomy: a good education,
governance recruitment, and human rights. I will argue that since the special autonomy law
cannot bring about equal access to good education for local youth Papua youth or a fair
governance recruitment process; and also as continued human rights abuses are perpetrated
by security apparatus, distrust of the central government among Papuan youth will amplify
and lead to the strengthening of local identity as Papuans rather than national identity as
Indonesians.
Session 2
Chair: Julia
The Changing Faces of Chinese Indonesians in Popular Media in the Post Suharto Era
Julia (Leiden University)
Autonomy Era Hipolitus Yolisandry Ringgi Wangge (Marthinus Academy, Jakarta)
Expressions of Resistance: Social Realist Artworks of the Yiyanhui and the Equator Art
Society (Emelia Ong Ian Li, University of Malaya)
Whose Empowerment is it? Exploring Contemporary Indonesian (inter)national

Identities and Multi-cultural Intricacies
Elena Burgos-Martínez (Durham University)
Undergraduate Filipino Learners’ Perspectives on the ASEAN Community Marie Rogel

(Durham University)
The Changing Faces of Chinese Indonesians in Popular Media in the Post Suharto Era
Julia
(Leiden Institute for Area Studies, Leiden University)
For Chinese Indonesians, the end of the Suharto’s authoritarian “New Order” regime (1966-
1998) marked the beginning of a new Chinese identity politics. Chinese Indonesians have
more freedom now to express their political opinions and social critique through creative
outlets such as writing, music, art and film. This study showcases Chinese Indonesians who
are included in the mainstream mass media. It demonstrates how Chinese Indonesians played
an active role in shaping society during regime changes. This is also about how they found
creative and constructive ways to deal with the situations by participating in the popular
entertainment. In this study, I aim to complement the literature with a new perspective:
showing that Chinese Indonesians have shown active agency. I will present individuals or
groups of Chinese Indonesians featured and circulated in Indonesian popular media. I will
then explore how Chinese Indonesians are deeply embedded in local processes and how they
shaped important trends in society.
Expressions of Resistance: Social Realist artworks of the Yiyanhui and the Equator Art
Society
Emelia Ong Ian Li
(University of Malaya)
51
During the 1950s, a social realist art movement emerged in Singapore featuring themes such
as over-population, unemployment, exploitation of labour and various social ills. I argue that
these social realist artworks may be read as expressions of resistance against a colonial
discourse which represented Chinese identity in Malaya as opportunistic, untrustworthy,
materialistic and susceptible to communist tendencies. The artworks may be viewed as a
conjunctural response to the crisis within British Malaya after the war. These artists
highlighted the inequalities of the colonial regime at a time when it was vulnerable and saw a
possible path towards transformation that would lead to independence. Their anti-colonial
stance and alignment with the other ethnic communities was consistently demonstrated
through the repeating of non-communal themes in subject matter based on the working
classes. As counter narratives, these artworks can thus be seen as strategies employed by a
diasporic community to gain political agency and reconstruct Chinese identity within the
Malayan nationalistic discourse.
Whose Empowerment is it? Exploring Contemporary Indonesian (inter)national

Elena Burgos-Martínez
(Durham University)
In the context of post-New Order and contemporary Indonesia, I wish to explore the
implications of different 'empowering' paradigms that target minority communities in
multicultural settings. In order to do so, I will examine not only the influence of foreign
conceptualisations of the environment and 'the global' on fostering processes of structural
violence but also the relevance of Indonesian senses of 'the indigenous' and national identity,
if we are to understand contemporary 'empowering paradoxes'. In addition, I intend connect
such reflections with the socio-ecological impact of different 'empowering' strategies and
initiatives undertaken by regional governments and related institutions, in the context of
Nain Island (North Sulawesi, Indonesia). Nain Island comprises four different 'kampong',
with each of these featuring different socio-political orders, economic systems, languages
and ecological relations. However, it was only recently that Nain Island was granted
autonomy as a four-village island, having always been considered a one-village island for
administrative purposes. Illustrative ethnographic examples will place the safeguarding
of (multi) cultural identity at stake, under a systematic de-centralisation of powers and the
influence of urban-centric perspectives and understandings of 'the rural other'.
Undergraduate Filipino Learners’ Perspectives on the ASEAN Community

Marie Rogel
(Durham University)
Survey data on ASEAN citizens’ knowledge, attitudes, practices and perceptions regarding
the three-pillared ASEAN Community are scarce. The paucity of such findings hampers the
creation of sound instruction, research and extension initiatives, which are needed to inform
ASEAN citizens and engage them in regional community- and identity-building efforts. This
study explored undergraduate Filipino learners’ perspectives on the ASEAN Community and
the socio-demographic factors that influence such. Based on data collected through a self-
administered survey in Laguna, Philippines, the results indicate that undergraduate Filipino
learners had poor knowledge (<7) of and positive attitudes (>37) towards the ASEAN
Community. The overall mean scores for knowledge and attitudes were 6.47 + 1.63 and
37.05 + 15.97, respectively. They also exhibited poor practices (<17) with an overall mean
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score of 9.21 + 4.80. Among the socio-demographic variables, only the research participants’
field of study influenced their knowledge, attitudes and practices. These findings reflect the
need to incorporate courses on the ASEAN Community in the higher education curriculum,
especially since current undergraduate Filipino learners will soon transition from students to
professionals in a region that is rapidly changing economically, politically and socio-
culturally.
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PANEL 12
Mass Media, Politics and Social Change in Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia has been one of the most dynamic regions in the developing world. Economic
change in the region has been accompanied by many other attributes of modernization,
including the widespread availability of education, modern transportation, and the mass
media during the post-Independence era. In the political aspect, some of the countries in the
region have also experienced democratization process from the authoritarian regimes into the
democratic ones. This panel will discuss about the current state of mass media in South East
Asia and how it reflects the dynamics of the region, such as: how the mass media reflect the
regime’s change and the democratization process in the area, the representation of the
minority and marginalized group, the process of Islamization, and the re-framing of anti-
communism campaign and other issues. The discussion will cover not only to "conventional
media" such as newspaper, TV, books, and film, but also social media, such as blogs, twitter,
you tube and Facebook.
Conveners:
Wijayanto (Leiden University)
Dyah Pitaloka (National University of Singapore)
Session 1:
Chair: Wijayanto (Leiden University)
“Polite Watchdog”: Kompas Daily Newspaper’s Coverage on Corruption in 50 Years,

1965-2015 Wijayanto (Leiden University)
Political Participation Through Hip-hop Performances: an Indonesian Context

Mubarika D. F. Nugraheni (Leiden University)
POST, LIKE, COMMENT, SHARE: The Critical Role of New Social Media in the
Post-Texting Philippine Society Hadje Cresensio Sadje (University of Groningen)
Struggling for Professionalism: The Never-ending Battle of Journalists in Southeast

Asia Emilie Tinne Lehmann-Jacobsen (University of Copenhagen)
Session 2:
Chair: Ms. Dyah Pitaloka (National University of Singapore)
Monarchy and Mass Media in Contemporary Thai Society: the Case of King's Speech
Book
Dr. Kittisak Sujittarom (Waseda University)
Southeast Asian Community and Identity Building by Way of Crowdsourcing Images

Mr. Kristian Jeff Cortez Agustin (Hong Kong Baptist University)
54
Social Media and the Transformation of the Thai Controversial Child Angel Dolls
Dr. Wankwan Polachan (Mahidol University International College)
Session 1 Abstracts
“Polite Watchdog”: Kompas Daily Newspaper’s Coverage on Corruption in 50 Years,

1965-2015
Wijayanto
(Leiden University)
It is widely known that there is no media freedom under authoritarian political regime, which
makes the media merely act as a lapdog instead of watchdog of the power holder. This
situation raises a question: what happens to the media when the political system has radically
changed into a more democratic one? Will the media automatically change as a watchdog?
This paper aims to answer those questions by using Kompas, the biggest and the oldest daily
newspaper in Indonesia as a case study. As a method, this study uses content analysis on the
newspaper’s coverage on corruption in fifty years, since the time when the newspaper lived
under authoritarian regime (1965-1998) until the current democratic era (1998-2015). This
study found that despite the regime changes, there is no different in the way the newspaper
covers corruption by mainly framing it in the legal as well as in the anti corruption campaign
theme. Furthermore, the news sources of the coverage are mainly legal apparatus as well as
government official. In summary, the newspaper doesn’t really function as a watchdog,
which exposes the wrong doing of those in power.
Political Participation Through Hip-hop Performances: an Indonesian Context

Mubarika D. F. Nugraheni
(Leiden University)
The use of music in political campaigns in Indonesia is not new. However, political
campaigns using hip-hop music took place in 2014. In the midst of immense political activity
and excitement of the presidential campaigns in Indonesia, two members of the hip-hop
crew from Yogyakarta, Jogja Hip-hop Foundation, Kill The DJ and Balance, created a
momentous song, “Bersatu Padu Coblos Nomer Dua” (Hand in hand to vote number two).
The distribution of the song and the way it was received, through social media, television,
video and live performance created various ways of communication between the artists and
the audiences different to previous campaigns. The social media allows those who can access
the song to respond immediately, allowing an important process of political participation.
The data for this research was gathered through participation observation at live
performances, videos on Youtube, websites and SoundCloud. There has been very few
written work on hip-hop music in Indonesia and how it is used as medium of political
participation. Therefore, this study aims to contribute towards it.
Post, Like, Comment, Share: The Critical Role of New Social Media in the Post-Texting
Philippine Society
Hadje Cresensio Sadje
(University of Groningen)
In the post-texting Philippine society, social media is a mixed blessing. A mixed blessing in
the sense that it not only gives Filipino the opportunities to further his/her capabilities and to
advance their common interest but also to protest, silent, destroy and marginalize other
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interests. This paper finds that the new social media creates a public space or a platform for
political campaign, tool for exposing corruption, public awareness of disaster management
and to serve as relief operation drive. This paper will discuss the following points. First, the
coming 2016 national election in the Philippines; facebook, tweeter, and instagram become a
political platform for the Filipino political candidates. In short, new social media are used to
influence, indorse, criticize, and become a site for celebrification of the Philippine politics to
shape public voting behavior. Second, the new social media serves a public space for
Filipino exposing and fighting the corruption from the national to local government offices
in the Philippines. Lastly, the new social media become an important means for public
awareness a relief operation drive during the catastrophe of Typhoon Ketsana (Ondy) and
Haiyan (Yolanda).
Struggling for Professionalism: The Never-ending Battle of Journalists in Southeast

Asia
Emilie Tinne Lehmann-Jacobsen
(University of Copenhagen)
Journalism as a profession is under pressure. That is not least true in Southeast Asia where
the professionalization process is being contested by constantly changing market conditions,
increasingly more demanding audiences and different degrees of authoritative states that
hold the media in a tight grip. As this paper will show, the massive expansion of the Internet
poses even further challenges as new online actors are invading on the journalistic field and
blurring the lines between amateurs and professionals. The paper compares the role
performances of journalists in Singapore and Vietnam by looking into the different
expectations journalists are met with. Based on qualitative interviews and drawing on a
combination of role theory and Pierre Bourdieu’s field theory, the paper demonstrates how
journalists in Singapore and Vietnam despite the countries’ differences share many of the
same challenges. Even though journalists continue to feel most conflicted about conforming
with the state’s expectations to their profession, online actors are beginning to have a
progressively bigger impact on the field. On the one hand they may help to push boundaries
and set the media agenda, but on the other hand they could pose a serious threat to the
professionalization of journalism in the region.
Session 2 Abstracts
Monarchy and Mass Media in Contemporary Thai Society: the Case of King's Speech
Book
Dr. Kittisak Sujittarom
(Waseda University)
Royal media has been overwhelming in Thai society since the 1990s. For example, the
King’s Speech was reproduced again and again through various mass media. How do we
understand the relationship between the monarchy and Thai society through royal speech in
printed media? Rather than analyze the content of the king’s speech in a specific context, this
presentation will historically analyze their form and process in term of production,
reproduction, and consumption in books. Given the change of the king's speech books, it can
arguably be divided into three phases categorized by type and publisher: (1) the cremation
books of prominent persons in the palace circles since the 1950s; (2) the official books
produced by the Office of His Majesty’s Principal Private Secretary— OHMPPS and
government; and (3) the contemporary phase or a phase of the mass market since the 1990s.
56
Moreover, this study aims to show how mass media constructed the image of the Thai
monarchy by examining the complex relations of printed media, monarchy, and socio-
economy in the contemporary phase in which the ‘personality cult’ of the monarchy has been
constructed via the discourse of 'Father of Nation'. It is argued that in the meantime, the
urban middle-class has developed rapidly, and it is one of the factors that will make the
‘mass monarchy’ grow. Middle class sentiments such as love, humor, and happiness will be
investigated as well. Not only will this presentation lend itself to an understanding of the
history of the royal speech book itself, but also of the contemporary political crisis.
Southeast Asian Community and Identity Building by Way of Crowdsourcing Images

Mr. Kristian Jeff Cortez Agustin
(Hong Kong Baptist University)
In Southeast Asia, social media platforms are becoming tools of community and identity
building. While it is no longer a surprise to see statistics proving that it is in Southeast Asia
where the greatest number of ‘selfies’ are taken and posted online by the hour, perhaps what
is unique to the region is its use of social media in community and identity building. This
prevalent ‘selfie’ culture is evident in various national tourism campaigns and international
photography contests that have recently engaged the Southeast Asian public in
crowdsourcing images. By way of visual culture—photographs, illustrations, pastiche
images, and even selfies and videos—Southeast Asia is contemporaneously and historically
(re)imagined; its collective memory (re)constructed. This paper looks into the overlapping
roles of the region’s elite and the general public in community and identity building by
accounting for the different ways legacy and new media are used in Southeast Asian
regionalisation. More importantly, this paper intends to demonstrate how the region’s
community and identity building is becoming more of a public discourse and less of an elite-
driven discussion, as it used to be.
Social Media and the Transformation of the Thai Controversial Child Angel Dolls
Dr. Wankwan Polachan
(Mahidol University International College, Thailand)
Luuk Thep or the child angel dolls is the Thai controversial phenomenon. The contemporary
Thai obsession with the life-like dolls is attached to the superstition similar to that of the
Kuman Thong or the golden baby boy amulets that have been part of Thai beliefs for four
hundred years, since the Ayuthaya era. The current faith is that one must treat the dolls as
actual children, if they are blessed from the monks or by a Hindu god. As a result, good luck
and wealth will be brought to the owners. The phenomenon goes to the extreme where many
owners purchase brand-name clothes, buffet meals and plane tickets for the dolls. The dolls
have been around for several years. However, they have just increased in popularity in the
last few months with the help of mass media. Social media especially Facebook has become
the main mechanism that transform the child angel dolls subculture community into the
mainstream norm. Facebook has changed the Luuk Thep’s obsession from small-scale forms
of collective identity into the popular practice of Thai society within one-month’s time. This
study investigates the power and influence of social media and its dynamic strategic usage in
creating and transforming the child angel dolls from subculture into the dominant popular
culture in Thai contemporary society.
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58
PANEL 13
Innovations in Multi-Level Governance and Delivering
Improved Societal Outcomes in Indonesia
This panel focuses on decentralization and multilevel governance in particular policy areas in
Indonesia. Indonesia is proceeding with a variable model of multilevel governance, with
different legal and policy arrangements between the national and municipal levels of
government depending on the policy area. The hope is that the process of decentralization
may bring government closer to the people and deliver better policymaking, resulting in
improved societal outcomes for citizens and the building of a sustainable society for the
future. Perhaps at times in particular policy areas, decentralization and innovation have
achieved these lofty goals; at other times the loss of control and steering from Jakarta may
have resulted in a loss of expertise from the center. Here we present on-going research by
PhD candidates who are all either existing national civil servants in various ministries in
Indonesia or lecturers at leading Indonesian universities. The research is focused on the
economy, including foreign direct investment and regional integration; the role of municipal
institutions in addressing income, education and health inequality; and the impact on
municipal governments in joining transnational municipal networks to learn good practices to
locally confront environmental challenges and climate change.
Chair:
Professor Ronald Holzhacker (University of Groningen, Spatial Sciences, Planning and

Environment, and International Relations)
Panelists:
City Network in Environmental Governance? Inquiring the Theoretical Basis of

Current Global-City Research in International Relations
Ms. Annisa Paramita Wiharani (Ph.D. candidate, Department of International Relations and
International Organization (IRIO) of the Faculty of Arts, University of Groningen)
Local Government in International Political Arena: Examining Local Government–

Multinational Companies (MNCs) Relations under
Multilevel Governance System in Indonesia
Mr. Kuswanto (PhD candidate, Department of International Relations and International
Organization (IRIO) of the Faculty of Arts at RUG)
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and Inclusive Growth in Indonesia: Considering

Society’s Political Preference at Municipal Level
Ms. Pande Nyoman Laksmi Kusumawati (PhD candidate, Department of International
Relations and International Organization (IRIO) of the Faculty of Arts at RUG)
Political Economy of ASEAN Economic Integration: A Study of The Automotive

Industries as Interest Groups in Regional Economic Policy Formulation
Mr. Prayoga Permana (PhD Candidate, Universitas Gadjah Mada) m.p.permana@rug.nl
Health Staff Configuration and Efficiency Performance: an Evidence of Primary

Health Care Organization in Indonesia
59
Ms. Suwatin Miharti (Ph.D Candidate, University of Groningen)
City Network in Environmental Governance? Inquiring the Theoretical Basis of

Current Global-City Research in International Relations
Ms. Annisa Paramita Wiharani
(Ph.D. candidate, Department of International Relations and International Organization
(IRIO) of the Faculty of Arts, University of Groningen)
In the past decade, global environmental governance is shifting from top-down, state-centric,
low-political issue to a more pluricentric network governance. Global environmental
governance (GEG) has been transformed into a global paradigm with strong political
obligations, high-participation of diverse actors and a wide range of advocacy levels.
Remarkably, the city is emerging as one of the principal actors for GEG. Furthermore, the
city has created a new form of cooperation in combating the environmental problem through
the transnational city network. In particular, this paper will explore the influence of local
action toward environmental policy through this network. This paper aims to develop an
approach to understanding this changing reality of multilevel environmental governance. It
explains the complex dynamics of multilevel environmental governance while demonstrating
a deeper understanding of the role of the sub-national level within the International Relations
discipline. The paper offers an analytical tool to understanding the interaction of GEG multi-
stakeholders initiatives through examining three hypotheses: the institutional setting, global
cities, and power relations. Therefore, in-depth participatory observations were undertaken to
capture this, in two main GEG multi-stakeholders forums both at the global level
(Conference of the Parties 21, 2015) and at the regional scale World Cities Summit 2016
(Cities, Transnational Municipal Networks and Mayor Summit in Southeast Asia).
Local Government in International Political Arena: Examining Local Government–

Multinational Companies (MNCs) Relations under
Multilevel Governance System in Indonesia
Mr. Kuswanto (PhD candidate, Department of International Relations and International
Organization (IRIO) of the Faculty of Arts at RUG)
The government’s attitude toward Multinational Companies (MNCs) has gained significant
attention from many international political economy scholars, through the study of
international business and government relations (IBGR). After being dominated by a series
of conflicts between MNCs and the Government in the 1960s, the relationship has become
more cooperative recently, and the local government (LG) has become an important actor in
the negotiation process. Contributing to that theory, this paper tries to examine the
relationship between local governments (LGs) and MNCs under the multi-level governance
system in Indonesia. Using Banyuwangi and Surabaya city as case studies and employing the
Political Bargaining Model (PBM), this paper analyzes the negotiation process between the
LG and the MNCs in the selection of inward FDI projects in Indonesia. The PBM is used to
analyze the outcome of the negotiation between the two actors in determining inward FDI
projects by looking at goals, resources, and constraints possessed by each actor. From this
examination several finding are revealed. First, we found that under the current multi-level
governance system, the relationship between the LG and the MNC is less conflictual.
Secondly, under the current system, local government has gained more power in the
international relations arena to negotiate with the MNCs. However, due to some institutional
constraints, the local government remains less powerful than the MNCs. Thirdly, the
60
institutional quality of a local government can significantly increase the power of local
government in ahead of the MNC.
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and Inclusive Growth in Indonesia: Considering

Society’s Political Preference at Municipal Level
Ms. Pande Nyoman Laksmi Kusumawati (PhD candidate, department of International
Relations and International Organization (IRIO) of the Faculty of Arts at RUG)
After entering the era of decentralization in 2001, Indonesian municipal governments had
more authority in managing their regions. Based on regulations, municipal governments have
significant roles in driving FDI to inclusive growth at all stages of the public policy process
(planning, implementation, and controlling). The multilevel governance theory suggested
that the participation of society in public policies is one of the governance aspects required to
distribute the benefits of FDI equally. Since the Law No.32/2004 on local government was
enacted, the political participation of society is increasing as they can elect directly the head
of the local government and their representatives in parliament. As the participation of
society in politics is increasing, it is interesting to examine the effect of FDI on inclusive
growth considering the heterogeneity of society’s political preferences. The composition of
political parties in local parliament can be used to represent the society’s political
preferences at the municipal level. This study will employ a quantitative method to estimate
the effect of society’s political preferences in driving FDI-led inclusive growth. So far, there
is no study examining this topic, hence this study will contribute to the literature.
Political Economy of ASEAN Economic Integration: A Study of The Automotive

Industries as Interest Groups in Regional Economic Policy Formulation
Mr. Prayoga Permana
(PhD Candidate, Universitas Gadjah Mada)
Regional economic integration is not a given; it requires political precedents. This study
attempts to discuss policy formulation process that leads to regional economic integration in
ASEAN Economic Integration. Moravczik's two stages approach in Liberal
Intergovernmentalism perceived economic integration as a rational choice of national
leaders to respond to powerful domestic constituents as well as a mechanism of the state to
secure commercial advantages from producers. With regard to the case of the automotive
industry and its pursuit of regional economic integration, Indonesia has directed its sectoral
loyalty towards the industry as a means to secure wealth and political support through
economic policy. The interaction between state and non-state actors partly shaped policy
preferences in trade policy. Before the economic crisis, Indonesia showed its cautious
response against regional trade arrangements of the automotive industry to protect its
national economic interest. Nevertheless, interest groups gained their momentum as the
economic crisis hit Southeast Asia in 1998. The emergence of intensive bargaining among
ASEAN states for deeper integration to address the impact of the crisis has brought the
politics back. ASEAN states agreed to deregulate their automotive markets with supports of
the major regional automotive industries. This study suggests that economic interest groups
have traditionally been privileged for their access to ASEAN's economic decision-making
mechanisms. ASEAN's regional corporatism allowed the business community to prevail in
conveying their demands in regional policy making.
Health Staff Configuration and Efficiency Performance: an Evidence of Primary

Health Care Organization in Indonesia
61
Ms. Suwatin Miharti
(Ph.D Candidate, University of Groningen)
Primary health care organizations are designated as the first stop of the health care service
institution that the community may consult when they have health problems. Since the
primary health care is the system created to provide immediate care close to the community,
it is required that the primary health care organization provide health care that is compatible
to the local community’s health needs and characteristics. Considering the importance of
responsiveness to the community health needs, the Indonesian central government delegated
health autonomy to the level of districts and organizations, namely the Community Health
Center (CHC) in the primary health care system since 2004. This autonomous delegation was
intended to facilitate the districts and CHCs organizations becoming more responsive to local
health needs that varied between regions. As a result, both district and CHCs’ organization
may have been initiated to create more functions to the PHC organization, and to innovate
the way they provide health care to the community. In turn, there is variation in the CHCs’
functions and size. The study covered 337 primary health care practices of CHCs from 19
local governments in Indonesia. This study contributes to both empirical studies on health
staff mix literature and the function mix of the CHCs. The present paper fills the gap in
studies of health staff and performance by converging the function and sizes of health
profession. This study provides information for policy makers in the health sector and
managers in health care public organization. We use Fuzzy-set analysis to explore the
variation of CHCs’ configuration and analyze both the configuration and the circumstances
that had a close association in efficiency performance.
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PANEL 14
The Instrumentalisation of Cultural Heritage in Southeast Asia
This panel seeks to explore how culture and cultural heritage is being instrumentalised by
different actors for different agendas and purposes, in different socio-political contexts, in
Southeast Asia. It seeks to understand how cultural heritage is deployed in different
circumstances, how it is essentalised by different actors in particular socio-economic
contexts, and the different impacts of this instrumentalisation. Cultural heritage is a loaded
and ambiguous term, broadly defined as the perception of the past in the present, it is shaped
by power relations and embroiled in wider political struggles concerning identity, ethnicity,
self-determination, representation and resource access. Due to its nebulous character, culture
and heritage may be mobilised strategically by different groups for different purposes. While
international agencies and national governments have drawn on the positive roles that culture
and cultural heritage play in development, little research has been conducted to substantiate
these claims or to examine alternative appropriations and articulations of heritage by
subnational groups.
Comparative Studies of the Instrumentalisation of Cultural Heritage in Angkor and Sri

Ksetra
Dr. Keiko Miura
(Waseda University)
Regarding the commonality of the cultural heritage of Angkor in Cambodia and Sri Ksetra in
Myanmar, it can be said that both sites are ancient capital cities and ‘living’ heritage sites
with many local inhabitants and vibrant religious activities. Both sites are also the first
World Heritage Sites nominated in the respective countries in post-conflict periods. The
nature of instrumentalisation, however, differs greatly between the two sites with distinct
scale, international and national significance, and shifts in heritage management priorities
with the lapse of twenty-two years in the period of nomination (1992 and 2014 respectively).
The Angkor heritage was created by the Khmer – the dominant ethnic group in present
Cambodia, while Sri Ksetra is one of the cities of Pyu kingdoms, and no Pyu ethnic group
exists today. This paper explores the nature of instrumentalisation of the two World Heritage
sites in Southeast Asia taking into consideration international, regional, national, and local
actors and the mobilisation of cultural heritage for power relations, representation, identity,
resource access, ownership and rights.
Instrumentalising Indonesian Objects: Performing Identities in the Dutch Postcolonial

Context
Drs. Pim Westerkamp
(Curator Southeast Asia, National Museum of World Cultures)
This paper explores Indonesian objects from my family – both Dutch and Indo-European -
and compares these with similar objects held in an ethnographic museum, the
Tropenmuseum. By closely looking at the biographies of several of these objects from my
family and at the narrative associated with them in the Indonesian context and the Dutch one,
I will show that these objects were instrumentalised differently within various social-political
contexts, to both confirm and otherwise question the family’s status as Dutch and non-Dutch,
both in Indonesia and Holland. My exploration focusses on the ways that these objects
function in performing the social and ethnic identity of the family through several
63
generations. I trace the objects biographies from Indonesia to the Netherlands starting in
1914 and look at how they were deployed in everyday family-life, to create the home as
narrative space where Dutch (colonial) and Indo-European identities were performed. I am
interested in the articulation between how objects work – are instrumentalised - similarly or
differently within the context of heritage institution in relation to the family setting. Being a
curator of the Tropenmuseum I take myself as an implicated subject in both these spaces.
The Ruteng Puu Megalith Village Site and the Campaign of The Bupati’s (Head of
Regency) Candidate of West Manggarai, Flores, NTT, Indonesia
Dr. Tular Sudarmadi
(Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Cultural Sciences
Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia)
The shift from the Indonesian centred government in the New Order (1965-1998) to the era
of regional autonomy in Reformation (2000) brought a fundamental change in the cultural
heritage management practice of the Indonesian government. While the Indonesian
government in the Reformation era enhanced decentralisation and multiculturalism, the local
government’s official role in cultural heritage management was challenged and contested by
a growing interest, and claiming of cultural heritage by indigenous people. Using the
campaign of the head regency of the West Manggarai in Ruteng Puu megalith village, I
delineated the way in which indigenous cultural heritage is re-invented, fabricated,
manipulated and contested not only by the local regency officials and local elite leaders, but
also by the communities. Therefore, the campaign in Ruteng Puu megalith village, not only
provided an insight into the intimate relationship between the cultural heritage site and
contemporary dynamics of culture, social, historic, economic and political relations, but also
reflected the role of local politicians who systematically manipulated, controlled and
produced such a megalith village site meaning for their own purposes. In response to such
power, the villagers formulated a simulacrum meaning production that claimed and contested
their own ancestor history and their authentic traditions.
Playing with Flames: Counter-State Ideas in the Preservation of Majapahit’s Heritage

Dr. Rita Padawangi
(Senior Research Fellow, Asian Urbanisms Cluster, Asia Research Institute, National
University of Singapore)
Dr. Adrian Perkasa

(Lecturer, Universitas Ciputra, Surabaya, Executive Director, Indonesian Heritage Trust)
When used to fuel nationalism, the official heritage discourse often obscures a diversity of
subnational social and cultural experiences. Nevertheless, the over-arching interpretation of
national heritage of a particular locality is continuously exposed to the local context that
contains its place-based dynamics and aspirations. This paper examines the appropriation of
cultural heritage that is distinctive from the national discourse by several groups in
Trowulan, East Java. Many scholars believe that Trowulan is the former capital city of
Majapahit, an ancient kingdom in Java Island that had been constructed as a symbol of
national identity of Indonesia. The centrality of Majapahit in the political construction of
national identity is also reflected in Indonesia’s national slogan “Bhinneka Tunggal Ika”
(literally means unity in diversity), which is derived from a Majapahit-era poem. In recent
years, several non-state groups are proposing the awakening of Hindu, believed as native
Majapahit religion, alongside the reconstruction projects. However, it brings resistance from
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the majority Muslim population of the area. Their ideas are distinct from the state-driven
interpretation of unity from the ancient past, even though they are inseparable from national
discourse of Majapahit supremacy.
Heritage and Diversity in the Indonesian Mentawai Archipelago

Ms. Maskota Delfi
(Andalas University)
With a nation comprising more than three hundred ethnic groups spread over a geographical
area similar in size to Europe, the Indonesian government has implemented regional
autonomy. The political shift implemented in the year 2001 was to pursue a community
based inclusive development and increase the quality of Indonesia’s human capital at
regional levels. The ensuing political transformation has brought about a power shift in the
sparsely populated Mentawaian archipelago. The overwhelming agrarian indigenous
population and predominately commerce driven migrant population is currently enduring
socio-political struggles never seen before. Those straining conditions have touched their
own identity, ethnicity, self-determination, political representation and resource access. Due
to the politically loaded character of regional autonomy, culture and heritage has been
mobilised strategically by different actors for different social and economic purposes. This
paper explores the key challenges to achieve an inclusive development for the diverse
community groups. It is suggested, a balanced indigenous and migrant representation and
address the dimensions of ethnic harmony, gender and a social economic equability. It then
highlights the extent to which education and reconciliation can contribute to promoting an
inclusive social cohesion in the Mentawai archipelago.
Making the Past (Dis)appear: Presentations of Cultural Heritage and Histories in

Luang Prabang, Laos
Ms. Phill Wilcox
(PhD Candidate, Department of Anthropology, Goldsmiths College, University of London)
Based on ethnographic data from Luang Prabang, this paper argues that the Lao authorities
employ a dual focus towards the royal heritage in Luang Prabang. On one hand, the National
Museum (formerly the Royal Palace) forms a major part of the cultural landscape of the
UNESCO World Heritage City. This in turn makes it impossible for the authorities to
sideline the issue altogether. At the same time, by being extremely selective about the
messages given out about the Lao monarchy both in the National Museum and city
generally, this allows the issue of royal heritage to be presented more as part of a distant,
imagined past than recent, detailed, historical narrative. Accordingly, the royal cultural
heritage in Luang Prabang is presented officially in more general terms and is interpreted to
fit the political climate, which still requires that swathes of the population who supported the
Lao monarchy in the run up to the revolution disappear almost entirely from the official
discourses of Lao history. While heritage is always a politicised term, it remains particularly
so in Laos. This paper demonstrates that in and around Luang Prabang, cultural heritage is
utilised to create one of very few spaces in Laos where the Lao monarchy are visible, but
moreover to both create and emphasise a central master narrative while marginalising
alternative and dissenting voices simultaneously.
Performing Culture, Negotiating Identities: The Instrumentalisation of Indigenous

Cultural Heritage in Sabah, East Malaysia
Ms. Yunci Cai
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(PhD Candidate in Heritage and Museum Studies, UCL Institute of Archaeology)
Based on a multi-sited ethnography study of indigenous communities in Sabah, East

Malaysia, I demonstrate how indigenous cultural heritage is instrumentalised for different
political agendas and purposes by different actors, including the Malaysian government,
cultural brokers, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and the indigenous people
themselves. Specifically, I demonstrate how the Malaysian government draws upon
indigenous cultural heritage to project an inclusive Malaysian society premised on the
celebration of Malaysia’s multi-cultural heritage, amidst the pro-Islamic ‘bumiputera’ (sons
of the soils) policy that marginalises the indigenous people as second-class ‘bumiputeras’,
and a government-endorsed environmentally-destructive resource extraction and dam
construction programme in Sabah. I seek to show how the Malaysian government’s
hegemonic stance is contested and negotiated by local NGOs, cultural brokers and the
indigenous people themselves, who draw upon global discourses of indigeneity and their
indigenous cultural heritage for indigenous activism to reassert their rights to traditional
lands, resources and territories. I show how these complex processes of instrumentalisation
are made possible by the malleability of cultural heritage, and how a static understanding of
cultural heritage is strategically essentialised by different actors, which are at odds with the
lived experiences of the indigenous people that conceive cultural heritage as dynamic and
constantly evolving.
'We Owe a Historical Debt to No-one': The Instrumental Use of Photographic Images
From a Museum Collection by Diasporic Kachin Youth
Ms. Helen Mears
(PhD candidate, School of Arts and Humanities, University of Brighton)
In a 2014 music video the Kachin artist Bawmwang Ja Raw ('Kaw Kaw') appeals to the
nationalist sentiment of her listeners, presumed to be Kachin youth. The video to the track
Labau hte nga ai amyu ('a race with history') includes footage of dancers in traditional
Kachin clothing at a showground built for the largescale Kachin manau festival in Mangshi,
southern China, near Laiza on the Burma/China border, headquarters of the Kachin
Independence Organization. In making her claim for being ‘a race with history' the artist
makes use of historic photographic images of Kachin people created by a British colonial
officer. These images, which appear in the video as a backdrop to the singer who performs in
rap/hip-hop mode, were taken by James Henry Green, a recruiting officer for the Burma
Rifles and an amateur anthropologist. His collection is now in the care of Brighton Museum
& Art Gallery (UK). Bawmwang Ja Raw insists in the song's lyrics that Labau hka kadai hpe
mung nkap ('we owe a historical debt to no-one'). This paper will explore how politically-
engaged Kachin youth from Burma now living in diaspora are making strategic use of
cultural resources such as those held at Brighton Museum to forge new transnational
identities.
Examining the role of Cultural Heritage in the Processes of Social Change in Burma:
Focusing on the Kachin
Mr. Gumring Hkangda
(PhD candidate, SOAS, University of London)
The Kachin are an ethnic group living in northern Burma. For the Kachin, cultural heritage
(Hkringhtawng) can be regarded not only as a social and cultural phenomenon but also as an
important factor in politics and identity. While Hkringhtawng (Cultural Heritage) and
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Htunghkring (Culture) are socio-historically significant they are also crucial in ongoing
socio-political contests. In this paper, I will firstly present the role of intangible cultural
heritage from an indigenous perspective. I will draw attention to the concept of cultural
heritage and its characteristics using ethnographical analysis, i.e. how the community (or
individual) sees the role of cultural heritage and which kinds of activities are engaged in
terms of conserving the heritage. Secondly, I will attempt to discuss the ‘development
interventions’ and internal politics in Burma in relation to cultural heritage. Herein, from an
angle of cultural analysis I will particularly highlight how a dominant ideology rooted in the
post-colonial era is still impacting upon the current Burma community.
Hipsters, Nostalgia and Heritage Branding in Singapore

Dr. Shzr Ee Tan
(Ethnomusicology, Royal Holloway, University of London)
In the past five years, Singapore has seen a spate of cultural revivals ranging from building
conservation campaigns to dialect-based festivals, largely spearheaded by young, Gen Y
activists eager to “intervene in state narratives” (Goh 2014) of heritage and tradition. While
many of these social projects present counter-discourses to previously dominant and
government-imposed schema for local history and nationhood, they are also “uncannily
contemporary” in their rewriting of culture through the lenses of restorative as well as
reflective nostalgia (Boym 2007). The past is romanticised and rebuilt as a fashionable
hipster movement, with the coyness of vintage branding playing as key a role to social re-
imagining as the movement’s trendy, market-underwritten values are dissonant with the
directives of a civic enterprise. This paper examines the conflicted messages musicians and
performers articulate in several case-studies of cultural revival: viral music videos made on
behalf of the aggressively-marketed Teochew Festival, soundscapes of urban-regenerated
coffee shops in Tiong Bahru, and rising youth wings of traditional nanyin groups.
State versus Art: Nostalgia and the Formation of Identity in Singapore

Mr. Jarrod Sim
(Independent Scholar, Department of Anthropology, University College London)
Given its rapid pace of development as an independent nation-state, one can assume that
Singapore’s cultural heritage is still in an amorphous state. Within different outlets, one is
able to find an assortment of narratives that allude to different ways of self-identification;
this includes contemporary visual art and government-run campaigns both promoting
contrasting agendas. A primary component to these practices is the use of nostalgia to create
a sense of rootedness and belonging to the country. Taking art and state-led campaigns as
subjects of inquiry, I will argue for nostalgia existing not merely as a reminiscing of “simpler
days”, but as a tool with the potential to alter cultural sentimentalities and influence nation
making. By using Peter Fritzsche’s definition of nostalgia as a “symptom of erratic cultural
stress due to social complexity and rapid change” (Fritzsche 2001:1591), I will argue that
this “social complexity” and “rapid change” possesses an agency to potentially alter the
formation of cultural identity and hence, directly influence the future. This research will aid
in the inquiry of Singapore’s disparate sense of identity through the instrumentalisation of
heritage as it is made tangible through contemporary art projects and state-led campaigns;
thus presenting the potentialities of a nostalgic approach in the context of Singapore.
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PANEL 15
Politics of Tastes in Southeast Asian Cinema
“Taste classifies, and it classifies the classifier. Social subjects, classified by their
classifications, distinguish themselves by the distinctions they make, between the
beautiful and the ugly, the distinguished and the vulgar, in which, their position in the
objective classification is expressed or betrayed” ((Bourdieu 2010, xxix).
Tastes, according to Pierre Bourdieu, are socially and culturally constructed (Bourdieu 2010,
xxv) since “…art and cultural consumption are predisposed, consciously and deliberately or
not, to fulfil a social function of legitimating social differences “(Bourdieu 2010, xxx). If we
apply these statements to analyze Southeast Asian films, one can see so many tastes battles
among stakeholders and various interest groups, from the government, cultural elites, to film
distributors, film producers, film exhibitors, and also to film enthusiasts and film fans. In
this panel, Politics of Tastes is defined as any strategy or means run by a group of people
with the same interests and goals--including their efforts to influence, form coalitions, and
negotiate to other parties-- who want to achieve their desired outcome related to their tastes
preferences of particular cultural and commercial products. The papers on this panel want to
investigate how various kinds of politics of tastes interplay, influence and negotiate each
other, and to what extent the processes affect the production, distribution, exhibition, and
consumption of Southeast Asian cinema.
Organizers:
Mr. Ekky Imanjaya (PhD Candidate, School of Art, Media, and American Studies;
University of East Anglia)
Mr. Tito Imanda (PhD Candidate, Department of Media and Communication; Goldsmiths,
University of London)
Negotiating Regional Geopolitics through Global Taste Cultures: Apichatpong

Weerasethakul in the International Film Festival Rotterdam Archive
Ms. Wikanda Promkhuntong
(PhD Candidate, Department of Film, Theater, and Television Studies, Aberystwyth
University)
Over the last twenty years, South East Asian film directors have gained significant attention
at international film festivals through various funding platforms, film programming and
commissioned projects. This phenomenon is similar to the wave of interest given to newly
discovered territories including the Latin American Cinema around the same time. Conscious
of the geopolitics between the Western supporters and previously marginalised directors,
works on Latin American cinema and film funding have cautiously warned of the potential
perpetuation of the neo-colonial ideology (Halle, 2010; Ross, 2011). Funded films supported
by European developmental organisations and governmental subsidies have to follow
specific criteria such as shooting the film in the director’s country of origin, and unwritten
rules such as highlighting exotic elements that attract the interest of Western audiences. Does
South East Asian cinema fall into similar situation?
Through the case of Apichatpong Weerasethakul and the International Film Festival
Rotterdam, archival materials related to the director reveal the way in which potential neo-
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colonial elements associated with global art cinema favoured by Western film festivals and
critics have been consciously problematized through the discourse on taste culture.
Apichatpong’s first feature Mysterious Object at Noon (2000), co-funded by the IFFR’s
Hubert Bals fund, has been positioned as a mysterious treasure discovered by the festival. At
the same time, the film is described as being consciously impure; crossing over between a
drama, a fantasy story with aliens and flying balls and a road movie documentary. Another
feature film Tropical Malady (2004), supported by the IFFR through the co-funding platform
Cinemart, features sensual elements of human tiger and homoerotic content. Yet, the festival
is conscious in framing the film as minimalist and poetic in order to avoid being seen
through the trope of sensationalist Asian gay films.
By being able to fit in with all kind of film traditions, Apichatpong’s films have been
cited on many occasions to help the festival negotiate their position as a democratic
supporter of innovative cinema. In recent years, as the festival has been criticised for losing
sight of art cinema by programming all kinds of movies and art exhibitions (Young, 2015),
the success of Apichatpong’s multi-platform project Primitive, which comprises of an art
installation, short films and a feature film Uncle Boonmee who can Recall His Past Lives
(2010), have been referred to in various occasions to highlight the IFFR’s insight into the
future of cinema that intersects with all kinds of taste cultures from a political movie, a ghost
story, a television soap to a sci-fi spaceship.
The (Taste) Buds of the Amateur

Ms. Viola Lasmana
(PhD Candidate, Department of English, University of Southern California)
This paper posits an articulation of the notion of the “amateur” as a transformative way of
rethinking a politics of taste that stratifies and classifies groups of people based on social and
cultural classes. Following Pierre Bourdieu’s statements about how cultural consumption act
as “legitimating social differences,” I take the practices of what one would classify as
“amateur-ish” as having the ability to overturn oppositions between high and low, expert and
unskilled, and so on. As Roland Barthes writes in Roland Barthes by Roland Barthes, “the
Amateur renews his pleasure (amator: one who loves and loves again); he is anything but a
hero (of creation, or performance)…”
By examining a few Indonesian films that have been made with an eye toward the
“amateur,” I point to how an amateur mode of filmmaking mobilizes collectives through its
revolutionary form of imagination through such practices. I will focus on the ways in which
films such as Putih Abu-Abu: Masa Lalu Perempuan and Plantungan (films that speak back
to the 1965 genocide in Indonesia) transgress spaces where taste divides and classifies, and
instead take us to reinvigorating spaces of new ways of thinking about how knowledge gets
visually produced, and how this knowledge travels (or not) depending on the politics of taste.
For instance, what are the politics of taste that ensures the legitimacy of certain films, such as
The Act of Killing, and not others? I argue that these Indonesian films deploy what Edward
Said calls a spirit of amateurism, “the desire to be moved not by profit or reward but by love
for an unquenchable interest in the larger picture, in making connections across lines and
barriers.” Indeed, these films reveal how the different receptions on national, international,
and transnational levels are directly connected to a politics of taste that may still work as a
stratifying tool.
The Paradoxes of P. Ramlee: Appropriating and Consuming a Malaysian Film Music

Icon
Dr. Adil Johan
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(Department of Performance & Media, Sunway University, Malaysia)
In Malaysia, the late actor, director, singer and composer, P. Ramlee, is an omnipresent
cultural icon. This paper will analyse the politics of taste in the production, consumption and
appropriation of Ramlee’s film and music in Malaysia from the 1960s to present day.
Beyond his death in 1974, Ramlee’s film and music have been appropriated by different
actors with different agendas. In the 1960s, Ramlee’s films and music represented the
modern and urban taste of the times; classy suits, cabaret halls and jazz music. The mid-
1960s saw a shift toward youth culture and rock & roll –a genre that Ramlee attempted in
some of his film music during the period. However, as the conservative nation-state of
Malaysia reacted negatively to youth culture, Ramlee also experienced a declining
appreciation of his films and music among Malay youths. He presented a speech at a
congress on national culture in 1971 that urged the need to uphold and preserve traditional
Malaysian music. Past his death, Ramlee would be iconised as a symbol of Malaysian
national tradition in the arts. A documentary by Shuhaimi Baba, P. Ramlee: A Biography
(2010), highlights Ramlee’s conservative views and tragic circumstances; effectively
promoting a hegemonic state culture. In stark contrast to that, in the same year, a tribute-
compilation album produced by Malaysian indie-rock musicians, P. Ramlee: Satu
Indiepretasi (An Indie-pretation) was released. In 2015, Samsung sponsored an online
miniseries about Malaysian youth-musicians called The Road To Ramlee, to promote the
Galaxy Note 4 mobile phone. Through analysing these shifting politics and contexts of taste
across time, I argue that the appropriation and consumption of P. Ramlee in Malaysia by
different actors is paradoxical in its articulation of postcolonial independence, state-
sanctioned cultural hegemony, youth counterculture and neo-liberal capitalist consumption.
Representing the Taste of Education in the Films Laskar Pelangi and Di Timur
Matahari
Ms. Shadia Pradsmadji
(Independent Scholar)
This paper will discuss how the films Laskar Pelangi (Rainbow Troops, 2008) by Riri Riza
and Di Timur Matahari (The Sun Shines from the East, 2012) by Ari Sihasale regard the
constructed taste of education as a significant method towards self-betterment and societal
development through their own ways. Laskar Pelangi shows the education disparity that
occurs in Belitong Island that the students of SD Muhammadiyah Gantong—the Laskar
Pelangi themselves—experience and how they fight to maintain the existence of and also
keep accessing the formal education. On the same track, Di Timur Matahari also shows the
education disparity that occurs in Papua, where in this case the students are seeking for
formal education, but there is no access towards it, so they have to seek education through
alternative ways. Although both films have the same taste towards education, both films
represent it differently, therefore creating different approaches and outcome: in Laskar
Pelangi the plot and the characters’ goal are shaped toward the existence of education,
whereas in Di Timur Matahari, those elements are shaped toward the nonexistence of
education.
Countering the Backlash: Reading Islam in Islamic Movies, From Ayat Ayat Cinta To
99 Cahaya di Langit Eropa
Ms. Muria Endah Sukowati
(Department of Communication Studies, Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta)
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The boom of Islamic movies in Indonesia in the post new order has the mission to construct
Islam and its values to the audience. The 9/11 incidents and the threat of terrorism affected to
the negative image of Islam. Islamic movies in portraying Islam brought the spirit to
challenge its stereotype. In the beginning periods of the emergence of Islamic movies,
represented by the phenomenal Islamic movie, Ayat Ayat Cinta, Islam was depicted as
tolerance, respect to others, especially from values, which was identical to the West. This
movie was success in performing the harmony of Islamic and western values in its narration
and visual aesthetic. The difference image of Islam was represented in Islamic movies
produced recently. In 99 Cahaya di Langit Eropa, which was also success in attracting
amount of audience, Islam has an ambition to conquer the west. This movie attempted to
position the greatness of Islam compared to the west. Instead of promoting the victory of
Islam over the west, this movie showed the inferiority of Islam towards the domination of
west. This paper will compare the construction of Islam in the face of the west in Ayat-Ayat
Cinta and 99 Cahaya di Langit Eropa.
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PANEL 16
Politics and Religion in Southeast Asia
Selling God and Race for Votes: An Argumentation Analysis of the Print and Online
Editorials and Columns During the 13th Malaysian General Election (GE) Campaign
Dr. Siti Nurnadilla Binti Mohamad Jamil
(Loughborough University)
Malaysia, a country that has been ruled continuously by a single coalition since its
independence in 1957, held its 13th general election (GE13) on May 5, 2013, a contest
between two coalitions: the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) and the opposition Pakatan Rakyat
(PR). Although the country has witnessed previous battles for political (or personal)
supremacy, GE13 was Malaysia’s most crucial election in decades. After the emergence of
PR during the 2008 election when PR unexpectedly denied BN its two-third majority in the
parliament for the first time, at stake during the GE13 was the entire political system that had
been built and steered by United Malay National Organization (UMNO), the dominant party
in BN. This system was premised on the centrality and dominance of Malay political power
that was ‘shared’ (See Mahathir, 1970) with the other communities (particularly the Chinese
and Indians) through their ethnic-based parties. And although PR was not ideologically
rooted to Malay hegemony, political reality would eventually, one way or another, force
them to defend the dominance of Malay political power and simultaneously Islam, especially
when Malay-Muslims constitute the majority of the population. My project concerns the
politicized Malay and Islam which may be a subtle alley in gainsaying political repression.
Religion, according to Calvert and Calvert (2001), can be “a mobiliser of masses, a
controller of mass action…an excuse for repression [or] ideological basis for dissent” (p.140)
which I believe to be the same case with race, ethnicity and belonging. The principle aim of
this paper is to apply argumentative discourse theory to the genre of editorials and columns
in print and online Malaysian newspapers during the 15-day election campaign period. The
Pragma-dialectical theory of argumentation (Van Eemeren & Grootendorst, 2004) is applied
as a model for explaining and understanding arguments made to protect the Malay-Muslims
in Malaysia (or to protect those in power for their own (or their party’s political mileage and
status quo)). The functional, contextual and interactive features of argumentative discourse
are also emphasised. Data is drawn from doctoral research in progress.
Universality of Sacred Lotus as Heritage Diplomacy, Religious Manifestation and

Indonesian Nationalism
Dr. Hee Sook Lee-Niinioja
Hindu mythology tells that the creation was symbolized by the growth of the holy lotus from
the waters of eternity. In the Borobodur temple (Indonesian World Heritage site), the lotus in
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variety signifies ideal beauty, supernatural power, and the abstract notions of Dharma.
However, on the arrival of Islam in Java in the fifteenth century, the motif was transferred
from temples to mosques, due to Javanese Muslims’ love for traditional heritages and
syncretic Islam, imbued with animism and Hindu-Buddhism. For them, the round lotus bud
meant “oneness in Allah” as Muslims’ perambulation of the holy Kaa’ba. When orthodox
Islam became dominant in the 19-20th centuries, the lotus was linked to the Koran 53:18,
representing the Prophet’s highest wisdom by the blessing of God. After Independence
(1945), President Sukarno symbolised himself as the lotus, the Creator god, with an ideology
to unify the vast regions and different races towards the international stage. Temples proved
the nation’s supremacy; the lotus prevailed in architecture and design. Universality of the
lotus in heritage-religion-politics testifies to Indonesians’ flexible, tolerant, sustainable, and
communicative attitudes. Tradition in commonness is the first to be concerned than religion
and politics. My paper discusses the lotus as a mediator for heritage diplomacy if conflicts
arise.
The Role of Interreligious Leaders to Promote Peace in Strengthening Societal and

Political Cohesion in ASEAN
Dr. Nuraeni
(Department of International Relations, Universitas Padjadjaran)
Religion and Politics have always been one of the debatable subjects in international
relations. We should not neglect that religious motives have been triggering the most and the
worst wars, such as the Thirty Years War in Europe - which was finally ended by the
Westphalian peace. However, It is equally impossible to forget these people: Gandhi, Dalai
Lama, or in Indonesia, Abdurrahman Wahid (Gus Dur). They are highly notable religious
leaders who promoted peace and transcended religious boundaries. They relentlessly remind
us of the universal foundation of every religion, i.e. love, the ultimate recognition for the
existence of the ‘other’. The Phenomenon provides us the evidence of the importance of
religious leaders in promoting peace. ASEAN would be a good sample for the study, as a
well known regional society, and the dynamic of the religious issues there is very
challenging. Besides Indonesia, apparently, other ASEAN members have their own problems
related to religious issues, for example, the Philippines with the Moro and Myanmar with the
Rohingya. This research is going to see in what aspects inter-religious leaders in ASEAN can
contribute to the promotion of peace especially in relation with conflict resolution and
societal trust building across multicultural groups in the region. Furthermore, we want to see
how the sub-state actors and international/regional organizations can cooperate in the context
of peaceful dispute settlement without infringing sovereignty. The significance of this
research relies on the importance of societal characteristics including religious identity to
build a strong cohesion among the people in ASEAN.
Stereotyping the other – Buddhist, Muslims, Christians and Hindus and Their
Perception of the Other in Contemporary Myanmar
Dr. Madlen Krueger
(Westfaelische Wilhelms-University Muenster, Faculty of Protestant Theology)
The rising tensions between different religious groups in Myanmar, particularly after 2012,
has led to interfaith dialogue being established as a tool to negotiate and build peace and
harmony between the religions. The number of interfaith dialogue groups and councils
supported by the government have increased. Conferences as well as workshops of faith-
based groups are taking place throughout the country. Therefore, interfaith dialogue is
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generally seen as an instrument to discuss similarities and to create a common ground
between religions. I argue that the dialogue setting not only shapes the approach toward
religious diversity, it rather constitutes narrations in which a certain religious history in
relation to each other is presented. This paper outlines the religious and hierarchical
structures of several leading interreligious dialogue groups centered in Yangon. Based on the
thesis that interfaith dialogue groups are significantly influencing the presentation and
depiction of religions and their followers within the discourse on religious diversity,
interreligious dialogue is seen not only as a tool to negotiate peace but as a system which
determines how Buddhists, Muslims, Christians and Hindus are describing themselves and
their respective other. As part of a discourse on religious diversity in Myanmar interfaith
dialogue has its rules and boundaries and produces religious stereotypes. The paper answers
the following questions: How do different groups conduct interfaith dialogue? What topics
are discussed and what are the rules and structures of picturing the other? Are there taboos
and limitations in presenting themselves and the other? What kind of stereotypes are
produced and established in the process?
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PANEL 17
Women in Southeast Asia’s Economy, Politics, and Society
with a particular issue, but instead are free to explore their topics more broadly.
Convener
Dr. Carmencita Palermo
New Wine in an Old Bottle: Female Politicians, Family Rule, and Democratization in
Thailand
Dr. Yoshinori Nishizaki
(Dept of SEA Studies, National University of Singapore)
Thailand, one of the most male-dominant countries in Southeast Asia, has seen a growing
number of women, including the recent Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, get elected to
Parliament in recent decades. Yet, very little empirical research has been done on who these
women are and how they affect the quality of democratization. I attempt to fill this lacuna.
My argument is not sanguine. Drawing on a comprehensive examination of hitherto
untapped Thai-language primary sources, I argue that the sizeable majority of female
members of Parliament elected since 1975 have contributed to entrenching family-based rule
and stunting the growth of political pluralism in Thailand. I base this argument on the finding
that most female MPs are related, by blood or marriage, to former male MPs. These women
from political families constitute one part of the long historical process through which
Thailand has lapsed increasingly into a family-based patrimonial polity since absolute
monarchy gave way to constitutional monarchy in 1932. The importance of families remains
undiminished in Thai politics over time; the advent of electoral politics has only accentuated
it by bringing more women with powerful family connections into Parliament.
Siamese Modern Girl and Women’s Consumerist Culture in Siam 1920-1935

Dr. Natanaree Posrithong
(Mahidol University International College)
This paper studies the emergence of the Modern Girl as an icon of consumerism and
femininity in Siam from 1920 to 1932. This final decade of the Siamese absolutist monarchy
marked the rise of female literacy and the remarkable increase in the number of women’s
magazines and newspapers. The Modern Girl Around the World Research Group studied that
the period between 1925 and 1935, was when the Modern Girl became popular in Asia.
While the Modern Girl icon, as a popular symbol of femininity, emerged as a global
phenomenon: the same icon, sao samai (modern woman) in the Siamese print media, has
been overlooked in current women’s study. Therefore, the key focus of this paper is to
discover the consumer trends and the definitions behind the images of sao samai that
portrayed in the women’s magazines and newspapers during the period of Siam’s social and
political transitions. From the preliminary survey, the period between 1925 and 1933 was the
most flourishing period for the publications of women’s magazines. From the records at the
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National Library of Thailand, there were as many as ten magazines that emerged during the
decade before the revolution in 1932. This paper is based on analysis of these sources.
Through considering these historical materials, this study reveals trends and the significance
of women’s consumerist culture in Siam’s pre-revolutionary period.
Women’s Work and Capitalism: Housewifisation and Home-based Labour in

Indonesian Context
Dr. Fathimah Fildzah Izzati
(Indonesian Institute of Sciences)
Women have been constructed in a patriarchal way as housewives with life “nature” in
around reproductive work such as household chores and childbearing. This construction is
used by capitalism as a chance to increase capital accumulation strategy as well as using
“home” as a space for the strongest contestation of the gender division of labour and also to
make woman’s work invisible work. The discourse of “work and family balance” hence
emerged and its existence puts women in a difficult position. Furthermore, capitalism also
uses the patriarchal construction to exploit women in the contract and outsourcing work
system in which the job comes from factories but is done at home, known as home-based
labour. Companies take advantage of the daily economic pressure in Indonesia on women to
contribute to their household financially. As a result, women, especially housewives, are
willing to work under contract in an outsourcing working system from the factories with
unlimited working hours, very low wages and lacking job security.
Women in Maritime and Agriculture: Study Regarding the Figure of Dewi Sri and Ratu
Kidul
Mr. Aulia Nainunis Izza
(University of Indonesia)
This study examines the relationship between figure of Dewi Sri and Queen of the South
Coast (Ratu Kidul) in Java into two opposite but inseparable figures. This study provides a
new approach to revealing maritime and agricultural life and characteristics by examining
the woman who became symbols of the maritime world and agriculture. Both Dewi Sri and
Ratu Kidul are equally portrayed as a woman and as rulers in their respective places. The
problems will be assessed using the theory of binary opposition expressed by Ferdinand de
Saussure. This theory will reveal the meaning of the two figures discussed and connect it
with the characteristics of the maritime and agriculture community. Data used will be
archaeological data from the form of the objects relating to either to the figure of the Dewi
Sri or to Ratu Kidul. This study discusses several issues: (1) opposition binary coastal and
inland areas, (2) the meaning of the figure of Dewi Sri and Raty Kidul in public life, (3) a
review of maritime and agricultural community life in Indonesia.
Identifying Visual Trait for Indonesian Women in Shampoo Commercial

Dr. Berti Alia Bahaduri
Young Indonesian women have to deal with the mainstream beauty standard in public
workplace. The media has pervasive role in showing the preferable beauty standard. This
study will look at shampoo commercials that claim to display Indonesian beauty. These
commercials were regularly shown on television and the social media. This study will look at
the comparison between three major brands that used Indonesian women shown working in a
public workplace. These hair products targeted the same age and demography group. The
76
main ideas in both commercials are the display of working Indonesian women. This study
will look at the response from young Indonesian women age 19 – 23 as a target, whether
they could identify Indonesian traits shown in the commercials. Moreover, this study will use
visual analysis to identify the visual traits shown as components of Indonesian beauty.
Back to the 'Sacred' Roots; Balinese Women Towards Contemporary Performance.

Dr. Carmencita Palermo
(Post-doctoral Researcher, "L'Orientale" - Universita' degli Studi di Napoli)
Balinese religion represents an expression of Bali’s lack of assimilation into the surrounding
Islamic world of the Indonesian archipelago, as well as a vehicle through which to promote
tourism to the island. In the 1970s, a new category of the ‘sakral’ was created in order to
preserve dances, which were part of religious practice, from the perceived threat of
profanation posed by tourism. Where once there was no real separation between daily life
and religious practice, Balinese learned to think and talk dichotomously in terms of the
sacred and the profane for the sake of preserving the purity of their religious and cultural
practices from external attacks. Partially as a response to the need to demonstrate the
sacredness of performance practices, old texts explaining their cosmological functions have
been published in Indonesian. These texts reinforce the sense of how Balinese performers
embody that cosmology. The emphasis on the religious function of the performer's body has
acted as a constraint upon dancers, who have seldom successfully explored dance techniques
beyond tradition.
This lack of success in the domain of contemporary performing arts is in marked
contrast to the position enjoyed by several Balinese visual artists, who are well established in
the contemporary art scene. What is the reason for this absence? Is it that traditional dance-
drama is a constraint? Or that the embodied cosmological principles are an impediment to
explore the domain of the modern world? Are Balinese audiences interested in non-
traditional performances? We can attempt to answer these questions by looking at those
examples of non-traditional performances appreciated by Balinese audiences. In this paper I
aim to show how some women explore the domain of so-called contemporary performance
by using those cosmological principles that are commonly considered as an impediment “to
being contemporary” in the domain of dance-theatre in Bali. Specifically I'll focus on the
work of choreographer, and performer Dayu Arya Satyani inspired by writer, director,
dramaturg and performer, Cok Sawitri. Their work based of the roots of Balinese cosmology
provides not only an interpretation of what it can be considered in Bali “contemporary
performance”, but also provides an alternative image of the woman in performance and
literature.
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PANEL 18
New Research on the Economic History of Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia has been, and continues to be, a region rich in natural resources. From the mid-
nineteenth century onwards, productive economic activity in the region has been typically
characterised by bulk commodity exports within the region and beyond. However, the harnessing of
this natural wealth has not always translated into commensurate gains for various local actors and
producers. This panel addresses this puzzle through a number of case studies touching on what are
known today as the polities of Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. Thematically, the
majority of the papers presented here focus on an assortment of economic products, including
leather, petroleum, rice, and vegetable oils. These commodity-driven approaches are complemented
by broader macroeconomic analysis, and in-depth examinations of state-business relations. This
reflects both the diversity and vitality of research methods available to economic historians today.
The papers in this panel are particularly concerned with how indigenous participants and
local circumstances have played pivotal roles in shaping economic change. They pay attention to
how these elements have intersected with broader imperial and international developments of the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries. While recognising the long-standing importance of state actors,
colonialism, and other institutions in influencing economic outcomes, this local focus helps to
redress the relative neglect of other economic phenomena, such as trader intermediaries, artisans,
smallholders, animals, ecology, as well as material culture itself, all of which have played arguably
crucial roles in determining the trajectories of Southeast Asia’s different economies, as well as the
fortunes of its inhabitants.
Conveners:
Dr. Thomas Richard Bruce (SOAS)
Mr. Geoffrey Pakiam (SOAS)
Panel
Chair: Professor William G. Clarence-Smith (SOAS)
Lesser-Known Resources: A History of Cattle, Leather and Shoes in Thailand, 1850-1997

Dr. Thomas Richard Bruce (SOAS)
The Irony of Indonesian Resource Nationalism: The Pertamina Crisis of 1975 and the
Collapse of a National Oil Company, 1975-1978
Mr. Norman Joshua (Northwestern University)
Markets, States and Networks: Rice Trade between Siam and Singapore, 1855-1921
Ms. Apicha Chutipongpisit (National University of Singapore)
The Economic History of Thailand 1941-1950

Ms. Panarat Anamwathana (University of Oxford)
Between Two Trees: Smallholder Involvement in Oil and Coconut Palms in British Malaya
Mr. Geoffrey Pakiam (SOAS)
Pouring Tax Revenues Down the Drain: the Bangkok-Korat Railway Dispute Revisited
Dr. Supruet Thavornyutikarn (TIARA, Thammasat University)
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Dr. Bhumindr Butr-Indr (Thammasat University)
The Nattukottai Chettiars in French Indochina

Dr. Natasha Pairaudeau (Research Associate, Centre for South Asian Studies, Cambridge
University)
The Students of the Ecole Pratique de Saïgon, Technological Know-how and Colonial
Entrepreneurship, Vietnam, 1897-1943
Dr. Erich de Wald (University Campus Suffolk)
Abstracts
Lesser-Known Resources: A History of Cattle, Leather and Shoes in Thailand, 1850-1997

Dr. Thomas Richard Bruce
(SOAS)
One of the sectors leading Thailand’s late twentieth-century export boom was its footwear industry.
The industry grew to put the country among the world’s top footwear manufacturers. While much of
this boom was explained by the new transnational-brand manufacturing, the athletic shoe
ascendancy and the relative cheapness of Thai labour, an ‘endogenous’ core of home-grown leather
shoe manufacturers also profited during this period and indeed may have done much to initiate it.
Yet their expansion was limited by deficiencies in domestic leather supply. This paper examines the
historical backdrop to the boom and the possible reasons for these deficiencies, further upstream, in
the country’s cattle and tanning industries. It examines the historical development and
characteristics of one of the country’s lesser known natural resource endowments, and highlights the
way the exploitation of such resources may be shaped by institutional, political and cultural,
constraints, as well as factor pricing and climate.
The Irony of Indonesian Resource Nationalism: The Pertamina Crisis of 1975 and the
Collapse of a National Oil Company, 1975-1978
Mr. Norman Joshua
(Northwestern University)
Established on August 20, 1968, Pertamina is the only Indonesian state-run oil and gas company. As
a state-owned enterprise, Pertamina operated as the key representative of the Indonesian government
in all activities in the oil and gas sector. In 1975, Pertamina fell into a debt crisis, forcing the
Indonesian government to bail out the company. Discussions regarding the Pertamina Crisis of 1975
have focused excessively on corruption as the decisive factor for the failure. While I agree that
corruption contributed to the failure, I am afraid that emphasizing corruption alone may obscure the
fact that other factors were also in play. Hence, I argue that Pertamina’s underperformance resulted
from a combination of the nature of the Indonesian oil and gas industry, bureaucratic incompetence,
corrupt practices, overexpansion, and the state of the global financial market during the 1970s oil
boom. Delving into Indonesian primary sources, this paper does not only seek to balance the well-
exploited topic regarding Indonesia’s national oil company during Suharto’s New Order but also
examines the failures of Indonesian resource nationalism by exposing its self-imposed
vulnerabilities.
Markets, States and Networks: Rice Trade between Siam and Singapore, 1855-1921
Ms. Apicha Chutipongpisit
79
This presentation will look at the rice trade between Siam and Singapore after the signing of
Bowring Treaty between Siam and British in 1855 up to the end of the First World War. This period
witnessed important changes in rice production in Siam from production for internal markets and the
China market to commercial production for new distribution ports such as Singapore and Hong
Kong. This period also saw a change in the role played by Chinese and Western traders whose ways
of business significantly encouraged the expansion of rice trade between Siam and Singapore until
the First World War.
Prior to 1855, Teochew and Hokkien traders played the role of middlemen and acted as royal
traders on behalf of the Siamese court. After 1855, once the royal monopoly was abolished these
Chinese merchants became rice traders and traded as private merchants. The British and German
also took advantage of the changed economic situation and tried to dominate with their new
technologies and large capital. They also challenged Chinese traders with their advanced firm
operations and the Western-style management strategies. The Chinese now had to adapt themselves
by following the Western footsteps while they retained their organizational forms of family business
and used transnational trade connections with Singapore. Eventually, the Chinese replaced the
British and German firms and dominated Siamese rice trade by the late nineteenth century.
The rice trade between Siam and Singapore was not only the competition between Western
and Chinese traders, but also business collaboration to achieve mutual interests by setting up trade
associations. In addition, the adaptation of Chinese rice traders witnessed the relationships between
traders and other experts which were beyond kinships, dialects, native-place ties and nationalities.
This presentation will look at the factors behind the success of the Teochew and Hokkien
traders. It will take the story up to the decline of their rice business in the First World War. The
Trade War and state policies on rice after the end of the war obstructed their ways of doing business
and finally led to the slump of rice trade between Siam and Singapore during 1919-21.
The Economic History of Thailand 1941-1950

Ms. Panarat Anamwathana
(University of Oxford)
This dissertation aims to provide the first economic history of Thailand between 1940 and
1950. That decade is of prime historical importance because during the World War II Japanese
occupation Thailand suffered a dramatic reversal in GDP; because under the fascist Prime Minister
Phibunsongkram Thailand suffered an upsurge in racism and anti-Chinese policies; and because the
material privations of the war and its aftermath reinforced an agenda for industrialization and
government involvement in the economy that has since charted the course of Thai history.
The study will use the methodologies of economics and econometrics combined with
historical textual criticism to accomplish three main aims. One is to quantify and analyse falls in
GDP and, linked to these, resource transfers to Japan both as goods it extracted for shipment home
and occupation costs levied to pay for troops and administrators in Thailand. Second, the
dissertation will evaluate the effects of the war and post-war shortages on the welfare of Thailand’s
population. Overall birth rates dropped and infant mortality rose sharply, while many were shipped
for work on the Siam-Burma railway. Third, by locating the period 1940 to 1950 firmly in the
context of Thailand’s pre- and post-war histories, the dissertation aims to fill an historical gap and so
enable a much fuller understanding of Thailand’s history.
Between Two Trees: Smallholder Involvement in Oil and Coconut Palms in British Malaya
Mr. Geoffrey Pakiam
(SOAS)
80
Humanity’s recent ability to feed and clean itself affordably relies in large part on vegetable oils
produced from a variety of plants, of which oil and coconut palms were amongst the most important
sources during the twentieth century. Smallholders have generally produced a significant proportion
of these vegetable oils from the tropics. Yet, detailed historical accounts of smallholder involvement
in these two tree crops in British Malaya have tended to be either virtually non-existent, or written
from the perspective of plantations. This paper seeks to redress this deficiency by reviewing the
colonial-era history of these agricultural activities from the angle of smallholders themselves. In
doing so, it becomes possible to tell a story about the Malay Peninsula that reinforces, qualifies, and
contradicts previous narratives of its economic and social past.
Pouring Tax Revenues Down the Drain: the Bangkok-Korat Railway Dispute Revisited
Dr. Supruet Thavornyutikarn (TIARA, Thammasat University)
Dr. Bhumindr Butr-Indr (Thammasat University)
Bangkok-Korat Railway is the milestone for Thailand’s (then Siam) modernisation, despite the fact
that its construction had been haunted by an international legal dispute. Resulting in the hefty
compensation made to the contractor, this Dispute is usually explained through the contemporary
colonial discourse – Siam was under constant threats from then-superpower; the tension had been
escalated through the attempt of Siam to use German railway director-general as a leverage against
the British interests and British contractors; and Siam had no experience in building any mainline
railway as well as in handling any international lawsuit. The Railway features an interesting pattern
of course of events. This pattern has been continuously repeating in the construction of public
utilities projects since 1890s until now.
The pattern is as follow: an initiation by a governmental department who has a responsibility
to deliver a certain public utility; an open and competitive public bidding is made and usually a
foreign company is a winning bidder; the construction, then, starts and eventually a substantial delay
emerges; the delay triggers contractual fines and results in a legal dispute between the State and the
contractor; as a normal practice, the contract specifies the use of arbitrator to resolve the dispute;
most of the times, the government loses; at the end, the significant sum of its budget to complete the
project on its own which usually far exceed the original budget and completion timeframe.
This dDispute could serve as the hallmark of how the Thai government consistently pours
the taxpayers’ money up down the drain. Prior to the auction, there was a dramatic competition
between the German and the British firms to build the line in which the British – George Murray
Campbell – won. During the construction, there were quarrels between the Siamese Railway
Department Director-General Karl Bethge, who was a German, and the contractor where significant
delays were mounting. After 5 years, the railway has not been completed as planned. Several legal
battles using two arbitral tribunals as well as high-profile diplomatic meetings involved Lord
Salisbury, Gustave Rolin-Jaequemyns, and Tobias Asser. The actual construction cost went over
twice of its estimate and the almost 4 additional years to complete the whole line.
The progress of the construction has been revisited and many anomalies in various aspects –
distance, elevation, time, and expenses – revealed. The most disturbing preliminary finding is that
the British contractor seemed to have an absolute disadvantage to the new-born railway department
of Siam. After the contractor’s dismissal, the progress had improved considerably. In term of
distance, the progress was 5 times faster; in term of elevation, it was three times faster. All of these
were seemingly impossible. Therefore, the colonial discourse failed to explain what went wrong. It
is worth considering what actually was happening during the time of the whole construction
including prior to the award of contract and after the dispute has been settled. Something that is
unique to Thailand should have consistently played a key role in such a wasteful investment of
public utilities and it must be exposed.
81
The Nattukottai Chettiars in French Indochina
Dr. Natasha Pairaudeau (Research Associate, Centre for South Asian Studies, Cambridge
University)
Much has been written about the Nattukottai Chettiars (Nagarathers) in Burma, their
principal area of operation in Southeast Asia, while their presence in Malaya-Singapore and
to some extent Sumatra and Hong Kong have also received due attention. Yet the activities
of this mobile South Indian banking caste in French Indochina remain relatively unknown.
This is despite their significant role from the 1870s in urban and agrarian lending, especially
in Cochinchina where their hand in financing the expansion of rice cultivation in the Mekong
Delta meant that loan foreclosure during the Great Depression brought a third of paddy land
in the Delta into Chettiar hands. This paper aims to present some of the specificities of
Chettiar financial activities in French Indochina in contrast to better-known conditions under
British rule, including their position vis-a-vis French colonial courts, and late 19th and early
20th century controversies and crises over usury and debt bondage (contrainte par corps). It
will address French handling of the effects in Indochina of the economic crash of the 1930s,
and in particular efforts to expulse the Chettiars in light of their role as intermediaries
channeling western capital into Indochina. The paper will equally examine Chettiar relations
as creditors and financiers to local people and migrant populations and how nationalists in
Indochina addressed the issue of foreign economic domination in their reactions to the
Chettiar presence.
The Students of the Ecole Pratique de Saïgon, Technological Know-how and Colonial
Entrepreneurship, Vietnam, 1897-1943
Dr. Erich de Wald (University Campus Suffolk)

From its founding in 1897 until its wartime closure in 1943 the Ecole Pratique
(Technical School) of Saigon graduated more than a thousand boys with qualifications
to work in industry. Yet the number of students who enrolled but failed to graduate
was ten-fold greater. Its adjunct, the Ecole Pratique des Mécaniciens Asiatiques
(Technical School for Asian Mechanics), suffered from an even lower rate of
completion, with fewer than one in fifteen students completing their courses of study.
While colonial administrators understood this lack of attainment as a symptom of an
un-industrious and apathetic Vietnamese culture, the records of the school and details
of the automobile industry in southern Vietnam in the early twentieth century reveal a
different story. For many young men who worked in and expanded the mechanics’
trade in Saigon in these years, a period of time studying at—and absconding from—the
technical schools in the city formed an essential part of a peculiar colonial
apprenticeship. By exploiting the colonial education system, many of these young men
gained know-how and access to networks that enabled them to became important
everyday entrepreneurs and technical experts in a society that was quickly
mechanising. In this paper I will consider the history of these mechanic–entrepreneurs
to examine the relationship between colonial technical formation, indigenous
enterprise and the conditions for Vietnamese capital formation in mechanical trades in
the late-colonial period.
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PANEL 19
Shadow Puppet Theatres of Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia has a rich heritage of inter-related shadow puppet theatre forms that date back
at least a millennium. While in some parts of the region, traditions are etiolated and
considered endangered, there are also signs of renewal, including radical reinterpretations.
Shadow puppet theatre is finding new audiences through installations, intermedial and
intercultural artistic collaborations and online platforms. While in the recent past such
innovations took place in isolation, there is increasingly a sense of a shared culture in the
region due to the establishment of international puppetry organisations, festivals and groups
and individual travel. This panel proposes to look at the past, present and future of shadow
puppet theatres of Southeast Asia. How do the residues of past practices (puppets in
museums, manuscripts, temple engravings etc) inform us about how shadow puppetry was
performed and conceptualized historically? And how are these past traces being configured
today as cultural heritage in dialogue with present-day society? How does shadow puppet
theatre relate to regional and national identities today? What are the emerging trends in
shadow puppet theatre in Southeast Asia and what opportunities and challenges do
practitioners confront in their travels in the region and globally? What are the latest
technological and aesthetic developments in Southeast Asian shadow puppet theatres? How
are traditional puppets being used in both traditional and non-traditional ways? This panel
coincides with an exhibition of the shadow puppets of the British Museum curated by the
panel organizers, including Javanese puppets of the Raffles collection from circa 1800 (the
earliest systematic collection of puppets in the world); puppets from Kelantan, Malaysia
made by the innovative puppeteers Hamzah and Awang Lah in the mid-twentieth century;
Balinese puppets gifted to Queen Elizabeth II; and a special set of modern Thai shadow
puppets from the 1960s and 1970s that reference contemporaneous fashions, trends and
global pop culture.
Conveners:
Professor Matthew Isaac Cohen (Royal Holloway, University of London)
Dr. Alexandra Green (British Museum)
Session 1: Wayang and Visual Art
The Art of/and Wayang

Ms. Marianna Lis (PhD candidate, Institute of Art, Polish Academy of Sciences)
Hybridities and Deep Histories in Indonesian Wayang Manga Comics

Ms. Meghan Downes (PhD candidate at The Australian National University’s College of
Asia and the Pacific)
The Puppet Illustrations in Hikayat Purursara

Ms. Mu'jizah (Agency for Development and Cultivation Language , Ministry of Education
anda Culture of Indonesia
Post-wayang: Shadow Puppets Within Contemporary Art

Ms. Leonor Veiga (PhD candidate, Leiden University)
Session 2: Heritage and shadow puppets in museums
83
Between Intangible Cultural Heritage and Islam: Wayang Kelantan
Professor Kathy Foley (University of California Santa Cruz) kfoley@ucsc.edu
Collecting and Exhibiting Wayang Puppet Theatre From Colonial Times Until the
Present: The Case of the Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam
Dr. Sadiah Boonstra (Independent curator)
The British Museum Collection of Shadow Puppets in Context

Dr. Alexandra Green (The British Museum) AGreen@britishmuseum.org
Southeast Asian Shadow Puppets in International Museums and Collections: Some

Preliminary Considerations
Professor Matthew Isaac Cohen (Royal Holloway, University of London)
In Search of the Oldest (Javanese) Wayang Figures: Style Analysis, Style

Characteristics and Innovations in Java and Bali
Professor H.I.R. Hinzler (Leiden University)
Session 3: Crossing Borders: New interpretations of Southeast Asian Shadow Theatres
Wayang Puppet Collaboration in Indonesia and Beyond

Professor I Nyoman Sedana (Indonesian Arts Institute, Denpasar, Bali)
Shadows on Fire: Creating the ASEAN Community through Puppets

Dr. Jennifer Goodlander (Indiana University)
Transformation of Panji in the Invention of Wayang Sandal Japit (Wangsit)

Ms. Dinda Intan Pramesti Putri (General Manager of WBM Community, MA student in Arts,
Festivals and Cultural Management at the Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh)
Wayang Jantur - Revival, Innovation, and Transformation of a ‘Marginal’ Shadow

Play Tradition in Java
Dr. Lydia Kieven (University of Bonn)

Sukasman's Wayang Ukur; the Performance Structure of Lakon Chilaf
Ms. Sietske Rijpkema (Independent researcher)
Session 4: New and old in Southeast Asian shadow theatres
Flickering Shadows in Old Javanese Texts: Literary Reflections of Wayang Kulit in

Kakawins
Dr. Jiri Jákl (Independent Scholar)
Bima’s Quest for Purity: The Game and the Ride

Professor Bernard Arps (Leiden University)
The Art of Computer Mouse & Human Touch: Issues Related to Wayang Kulit
Kelantan Puppetry Survival
84
Dr. Dahlan Abdul Ghani (Universiti Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian Institute Information
Technology)
Politics of Shadow: Nang Talung in the Time of Thai Political Crisis

Dr. Jirayudh SINTHUPHAN (Chulalongkorn University) jirayudh.S@chula.ac.th
Abstracts
Bima’s Quest for Purity: The Game and the Ride

Professor Bernard Arps
(Leiden University)
Gaming is huge in Indonesia but the game development industry still in its infancy. In this
paper I discuss the making of an Indonesian videogame, Dewa Ruci: Quest for the Water of
Life. I compare this (unfinished) game’s mode of worldbuilding, in particular its religiosity,
with an amusement park ride themed after the same story. Bima and the Dragon opened in
Jakarta in 1991 but went up in flames five years later. The game was designed as part of a
Master’s course in design and visual communication, in a programme that builds on
traditional artforms. The designer did not know wayang, but for game and backstory he
researched the famous Javanese narrative of Bima’s search for purity and the mise-en-scène
of wayang. Its two-dimensional format inspired the type of game: a side-scrolling platformer
like Super Mario Bros. Through this game Indonesian youth could get to know a part of their
heritage which they barely know. Both game and dark ride downplayed the religious aspects
of the story. Yet, as discussions of quest games elsewhere make clear, the very structure of
the quest has transcendental connotations. What sort of experiences could its completion
generate in a player or passenger who has become immersed in the storyworld?
Collecting and Exhibiting Wayang Puppet Theatre from Colonial Times Until the
Present: The Case of the Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam
Dr. Sadiah Boonstra
This paper demonstrates the entanglement of colonial and postcolonial power structures,
collection and exhibition legacies of the colonial past, and contemporary heritage discourse
and performance practices. It does so by tracing the collection and exhibition practice of
wayang puppets in the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands from colonial times
until the present. The paper will show that from the moment wayang puppets entered the
museum’s collection there has been continuous interaction between collecting and exhibition
practices and performance practice. The paper will give insight in how they have affected
each other and continue to influence each other in a dialectical relation, referring to each
other, building on each other, and authorizing and re-authorizing each other. In this sense
collection and exhibition policies and practices contributed to a dominant and static
understanding of wayang that continues to resonate in discourses of wayang as heritage
today. In turn, dominant heritage discourse, such as UNESCO’s influence the way in which
dalang create their performance practice.
Southeast Asian Shadow Puppets in International Museums and Collections: Some

Preliminary Considerations
Professor Matthew Isaac Cohen
(Royal Holloway, University of London)
85
Symbolic violence is enacted on shadow puppets removed from Southeast Asian
performance contexts and remoored in international museums and private collections. A
puppets stops being a performing object in a complex performance apparatus of other
puppets, screen, lamp, musical instruments, temporary staging, performers, sponsors,
spectators, vendors, attending spirits and others actants. Instead, the puppet becomes an
object for visual contemplation and ethnographic study. With their extraction and resituating,
museumified puppets come to offer things that puppets encountered ‘in the wild’ typically do
not. First, larger collections (such as the Angst collection of Indonesian wayang) allow for
taxonomies to be drawn up through systematic comparisons. Second, as their dates of
collection are generally known and they are rarely significantly altered after collecting, these
puppets provide period snapshots and can be used to trace the evolution of forms. Third, as
their iconography often is distinct from the standard styles of today, they have the potential
to be resources for Southeast Asian puppet makers who wish to revive or take inspiration
from older styles. Fourth, on display and available for close scrutiny, they can likewise
inspire international artists, some of whom might not have the opportunity to see live
performances. Shadow puppet exhibitions can serve as well as contexts for performances and
participatory workshops in museums. Over the last years, I have had opportunities to work
with a number of significant public and private collections of Southeast Asian shadow
puppets in Europe and North America as a visiting performer, consultant, curator and theatre
historian. In this presentation, I would like to offer some preliminary thoughts on my visits to
these museumified puppets, discussing provenance; issues in collecting, storage and
conservation; exhibition strategies; and cultural programming in conjunction with
exhibitions. My intention is to get beyond narratives of expropriation to think about the
potential of these entangled objects to fuel creative expression, collaborative scholarship, arts
diplomacy and multi-national cooperation.
The Art of Computer Mouse & Human Touch: Issues Related to Wayang Kulit
Kelantan Puppetry Survival
Dr. Dahlan Abdul Ghani
(Universiti Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian Institute Information Technology)
Wayang Kulit Kelantan is the most popular and oldest shadow puppet entertainment in
Malaysia. Unfortunately this heritage entertainment is slowly being extinct. Even though
with the current updated technologies, globalisation and digital native’s era, efforts are
essential to ensure that Wayang Kulit will survive with this current scenario. Using 3D
computer animation is considered one of the most unique Computer Generated Imagery
(CGI) technique to create Wayang Kulit visual styles. Therefore, this paper would like to
discuss several issues on implementing 3D computer animation Wayang Kulit by comparing
with the traditional or original visual styles of Wayang Kulit entertainment.
Transformation of Panji in the Invention of Wayang Sandal Japit (Wangsit)

Ms. Dinda Intan Pramesti Putri
(General Manager of WBM Community, MA student in Arts, Festivals and Cultural
Management at the Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh)
Wangsit is the new invention of wayang art-form by Wayang Beber Metropolitan

Community (WBM), based in Jakarta, Indonesia. It is an emerging contemporary wayang
that was inspired by the tales of Panji’s cycles and values. This research will trace the
invention of Wangsit by its historical value and interpreted by the current conditions; the
symbolic meaning behind the story, the use of sandals and the characters; and how it is
86
played in wayang performance. Wangsit is not only about recycling sandals, but also the
meaning of the word itself as ‘a message’. It raises the issue of socio-cultural, political and
environment because the community believes that wayang is developed consistently with the
changing of the era. This new contemporary art form of Wayang is inseparable from
criticism, but many people also consider it as a new wave of creative movement by the
youth.
Hybridities and Deep Histories in Indonesian Wayang Manga Comics

Ms. Meghan Downes
(PhD candidate at The Australian National University’s College of Asia and the Pacific)
Since the late 2000s, the Indonesian comic world has witnessed a boom in local comics that
are based on traditional Hindu-Javanese wayang (shadow-puppet) tales, yet stylistically
emulate Japanese manga aesthetics. This paper analyses these comics and their online fan
communities, exploring how artists and audiences characterise and value both the manga and
wayang aspects of these hybrid forms. In doing so, I offer new insights into questions of
social capital and changing circuits of distribution and consumption in the Indonesian
mediascape, with particular focus on inter-Asia popular culture flows. In addition, I suggest
that the aesthetic syncretism featured in wayang manga comics is not a new phenomenon but
has been a key feature of both Indonesian comics and of traditional wayang shadow-
puppetry performances throughout history. Ambivalent public reactions to wayang manga’s
hybrid characteristics should therefore be understood as deeply enmeshed in deep histories of
how mimicry, hybridity, and foreign influences are both celebrated and contested in
Indonesian visual cultures.
Between Intangible Cultural Heritage and Islam: Wayang Kelantan

Professor Kathy Foley
(University of California Santa Cruz)
This paper situates wayang kelantan in the larger sphere of wayang of the Indonesian-Malay
world and notes the varying impacts of heritage designations and religio-political flows that
have lead to its valuation as a unique cultural heritage of Malaysia taught (in modified
versions) in KL in the same moment that it's traditional practice is increasingly in question in
its home area. In a period where a Chinese Buddhist Malay (Pak Chu) is the only dalang
who can use traditional mantra with impunity, the youngest fully active dalang nears fifty,
and training models in place are not really exposing youth to the whole tradition, the form is
in flux and its continuity in question. Islamic concerns about the use of Hindu-Buddhist and
animist elements are not new, but the Islamic revival and elections that brought PAS to
control state government have created a situation that puts this tradition's future in question.
Will there once again be initiations in the traditional form? Has the Ramayana and the Kala
story any place in the current repertoire? As Intangible cultural heritage conventions seek to
separate traditions off from Indonesian or Southern Thai puppetry, what is the prognosis for
a mixed form that shows relation to arts of this wider region?
Shadows on Fire: Creating the ASEAN Community Through Puppets

Dr. Jennifer Goodlander
(Indiana University)
In 1967, leaders of different Southeast Asian countries met in order to imagine Southeast
Asia as an innovative regional community—ASEAN became recognized as one of the most
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successful intergovernmental organizations in the developing world. Thirty years later,
ASEAN revitalized those original principles in a plan called ‘ASEAN Vision for 2020’
based on the ideals of political security, economic cooperation and development, and a
strong regional identity grounded in shared heritage and culture. Culture, especially as
expressed through the performing arts, has played a key role in achieving the goal of a strong
regional identity, as describes in ASEAN’s motto, “One Vision, One Identity, One
Community.”
This paper examines how shadow puppetry in Southeast Asia, both traditional and
contemporary, is being utilized to perform ASEAN community. The lens of transnationalism
through puppetry, will provide vital insight into the embodiment of identity and the
formation of community as ASEAN articulates and executes Vision 2020. My paper focuses
on the puppet exchange in Cambodia that brought several shadow puppet forms together to
create part of the One ASEAN performance—this segment was called “Fire.” I use this
performance as a case study to problematize the relationships between performer and puppet,
shadows and bodies, tradition and modernity, regional and community identities—how do
puppet artists negotiate the power dynamics of variety in order to articulate artistic and
political communities? What do traditional and contemporary forms of shadow puppetry
offer the formation of an ASEAN Community?
The British Museum Collection of Shadow Puppets in Context

Dr. Alexandra Green
(Henry Ginsburg Curator for Southeast Asia, The British Museum)
The British Museum holds 700 puppets from Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand that were
collected in the early 19th and the mid 20th centuries. None of these collections presents a
comprehensive view of shadow theatre of the time, leading to questions about collecting
practices and cross-cultural exchange. These should be explored in relationship to how the
British Museum defines and has defined itself, as well as the role museums play in the 21st
century when grounded in such 19th century intellectual frameworks as the imperial archive
and the universal museum. Equally, the role of local networks of exchange and, if possible,
specific interactions that enabled the current shape of the collections must also be examined.
Finally, the relationships between the shadow puppets and the other Indonesian, Malaysian,
and Thai collections must be established in order to comprehend how the puppets contribute
to the presentation of Southeast Asia at the British Museum.
In Search of the Oldest (Javanese) Wayang Figures: Style Analysis, Style

Characteristics and Innovations in Java and Bali
Professor H. I. R. Hinzler
(Leiden University)
The present paper is a result of research in Java, Bali (wayang gambuh collection Puri
Blahbatuh), and Europe: collections in Germany, in particular the collections in Munich
(puppet from Pater Orban), and the Walter Angst Collection, Swiss (the Barrell Collection),
The Netherlands, and England (the Raffles Collection). The aim of the research is: How can
we make style charts / maps in order to show the local styles and style development?
There exist references to puppets and puppet play in inscriptions and literary texts in
ancient Java and Bali from the end of the ninth and beginning of the tenth century
respectively, but they do not give us information on the outward appearance of the puppets.
Data on puppets and puppet play in travelogues from East Asia, South-East Asia and Europe
give some information on puppet play, but no details about the outwards appearance of
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figures. The stone reliefs on temples in East Java from the 14th and 15th century, and reliefs
and sculptures in Central Java from the 15th century and later give us some information
about style and style developments. Further research on genealogies of puppet makers and
puppet players, oral histories, and the quest of old drawings and photographic material needs
to be done. Wayang figures in private collections and museums in Indonesia and abroad have
to be documented and photographed. Since 2011 there is the Wayang Data Bank Project,
which started in Leiden, with participants in Java and Bali.
Questions to be considered are: Where do we find old wayang figures? Which
material? How can we date the figures? How do we know from which area or region the
figures originate? Who ordered the production of figures? What about the origin of puppet
play? (India? South India?) Who made the designs and the design / style criteria of the
figures?
Flickering Shadows in Old Javanese Texts: Literary Reflections of Wayang Kulit in

Kakawins
Dr. Jiri Jákl
For long scholars have recognized multiple and fruitful links between wayang kulit and Old
Javanese kakawins, court poems composed in Java between the 9-15th century CE, and
during the last four or five centuries also in Bali and Lombok. Both traditions draw heavily
on Old Javanese prose, especially on the Old Javanese version of the Mahabharata. In their
foundational scholarship Stein Callenfels and Ras have demonstrated persuasively that
modes of performance typical for shadow theatre have left deep imprint on the way kakawins
are structured, and possibly also on the mode of kakawin oral performance in the past.
Moreover, it has been suggested that some texts, such as the Ghatotkacasraya by Mpu
Panuluh (12th century CE), may have been originally written as a lakon for a court theatrical
performance. Much less known, however, is the fact that the practices associated with the
wayang kulit performance are reflected in the kakawin literary imagery, oftentimes in
surprisingly rich detail. These literary references, dispersed in a number of texts dating to
between the 9-17th centuries CE, represent a very rich corpus that can shed light on the
history of Javanese and Balinese shadow theatre, especially on the social and ritual aspects
of wayang kulit performance.
This contribution aims to take a fresh look on the function and meaning of the shadow
theatre imagery attested in Old Javanese texts, particularly in kakawins authored on Java. I
analyse eight important passages (selected out of some 200 passages known to me), taken
from three texts (Hariwangsa, 12th c. CE; Bhomantaka, 12th c. CE; Sumanasantaka, 13th c.
CE). Next, I contextualise these literary references with infrequent, but important, evidence
on wayang kulit in Old Javanese (9-15th c. CE), and Old Balinese (9-12th c. CE) inscriptions.
Finally, I discuss literary imagery based on a puppet called in modern Javanese kayonan.
Intriguingly, in a number of kakavins we encounter an image of a luxurious tree (or a clump
of trees) which appears suddenly, as poets say “from nowhere,” to introduce a new setting of
the next scene. I propose that this literary device, left so far uncommented by scholars of Old
Javanese literature, may be traced back to the (specific) function of the kayonan (tree-of-life)
puppet in pre-Islamic shadow theatre.
Wayang Jantur - Revival, Innovation, and Transformation of a ‘Marginal’ Shadow

Play Tradition in Java
Dr. Lydia Kieven
(Department of Southeast Asian Studies, University of Bonn)
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Traditional Javanese shadow puppet theatre has forms and lakon (story plots) which are
distinct from the well-known classical Ramayana- and Mahabharata based plays. One of
such ‘marginal’ traditions, nearly fallen into oblivion, is the Wayang Jantur. It is rooted in
rural culture, outside of the glamorous court arts. The folk-like character is reflected in the
story plots of daily life of peasants, in the simplistic shapes of the puppets, and the
performance practice in a village environment. A new enactment of Wayang Jantur by a
dalang in Central Java stands in the context of the recent revival of the tradition of Panji
stories; these stories go back to the pre-Islamic Majapahit time and are manifest in temple
reliefs, mask dance, and wayang forms, many of them being nearly extinct. The folk-like
character of the tales relating Prince Panji’s struggles in travelling around the countryside is
adopted and transformed into the newly created Panji story Panji Udan and its performance
in the Wayang Jantur tradition, thematizing problems of rural environment. The paper
discusses this innovative form as an example of enacting cultural heritage as a living
tradition and the opportunities and challenges of its transformation, beyond mere
conservation and preservation.
The Art of/and Wayang

Ms. Marianna Lis
(Institute of Art, Polish Academy of Sciences)
Wayang kontemporer, contemporary wayang, going beyond the traditional form of shadow
theater, opens the space for the research conducted by the artists representing various fields
of art. In my paper I would like to discuss new interpretations/reinterpretations of wayang by
three visual artists creating in Yogyakarta: Heri Dono (among others Wayang Legenda), Eko
Nugroho (Wayang Bocor) and Samuel Indratma (Wayang Rokenrol and Wayang Papet).
Besides designing puppets, which, as in the case of Heri Dono was preceded by studies of
wayang puppet-making with dalang Sukasman, Eko Nugroho joins the whole creative
process, and Samuel Indratma is dalang himself. For each of them wayang is also an
important source of inspiration for their paintings, sculptures, installations, or the reception
of reality.
Is wayang, moved into the field of contemporary art, giving artists the chance to find
a new way of communication with the audience, or rather an attempt to find a new audience?
How to receive their works that are often shown in the gallery space – as installation,
happening, performance? Critical potential of wayang combined with traditional and non-
traditional ways of using puppets becomes the chance to create a new language of expression
for artists, representing a challenge not only artistic, but also aesthetic and formal.
Sukasman's wayang ukur; the performance structure of lakon Chilaf

Sietske Rijpkema
(Independent scholar)
Wayang ukur is a contemporary form of wayang which was created by Ki Sigit Sukasman, a
fine artist from Yogyakarta who studied modern art and design in Yogyakarta and the
Netherlands. He created the puppets and stage equipment for the performances and wrote the
initial scripts. The performances are a form of pakeliran padat (short performances of
approximately 2 hours), involving a wide array of perfomers, among them three puppeteers,
four narrators, four dancers and a stage manager. However the performance of wayang ukur
differs from other pakeliran padat; it the result of collaboration between artists from
different fields, where other forms of pakeliran padat tend to involve artists specialized in
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wayang. Each of them was influenced by their social context and the problems and issues in
their respective fields of arts and thus shaped the performance structure.
Sukasman tried to innovate wayang and 'distorted' the wayang puppets so it became
more realistic. It was not untill 1986 he thought about performing, and when he wrote his
first script and designed the stage. Both were influenced by theatre practice as he had seen in
the Rotterdamse Schouwburg when he worked there. He then gave his script to Bambang
Paningron, who had a background in theatre and changed most of the original monologues to
dialogues. After this, the main dalang Mardoko and gamelan musician Trustho became
involved, who wrote the musical accomponient and split the original 4 acts into 7 jejer. The
final result was a lakon which showed influences of western theatre and fine art visually, had
influences form theatre in the dialogues, but it's performance structure and sabetan looked
mostly like traditional wayang.
The Puppet Illustrations in Hikayat Purursara

Mu'jizah
(Agency for Development and Cultivation Language, Ministry of Education anda Culture of
Indonesia)
Hikayat Purusara is one of the puppet stories of Betawi. The manuscript from the early 19th
century preserved in the National Library, Jakarta, Indonesia (Ml. 178) is unique for its 15
illustrations of the text. These images present characters and scenes in the story, such as
Sentanu, Purusara, Rara Amis, gods, clowns and battle scenes. The story and illustrations
show Betawi cultural distinctiveness with Betawi language; a set of clowns (panakawan)
named Angliak, Garubuk, Petruk, and Semar; and a distinctive interpretation of Arjuna.
Arjuna in Betawi became Bambang Janawi. Illustrations in the Hikayat Purusara are
reminiscent of the shadow puppet of Betawi which is almost extinct today. This oral tradition
only lives in rural areas and is very rarely staged. This paper discusses the puppet
illustrations in Hikayat Purusara, identifying characters and their function in the story. In
addition, the link between the illustration of puppets in the written tradition and the puppet in
the oral tradition is also discussed. This study uses a structural approach with a focus on
character and characterization and comparative studies.
Wayang Puppet Collaboration in Indonesia and Beyond

Professor I Nyoman Sedana
(Indonesian Arts Institute, Denpasar, Bali)
This paper discusses selected wayang collaborations in Indonesia and overseas in terms of
the concept/design, funding, etc. Challenges arise in cross-cultural theatre production, be
they between different ethnic traditions in Indonesia or between Indonesian dalang and
international artists. Collaborators must find a meeting point that allows preserving
traditional elements and exploring new artistry. How can we be "true" to tradition yet
included new globalised culture capital? Although wayang collaborations took place earlier,
this analysis begins with two significant l994 productions. The first was my comparative
research with Dru Hendro, a Solo puppeteer focusing on Arjuna’s Wedding while I was the
Puppetry Chairman at ISI-Denpasar: a Bali-Java wayang collaboration. The second
production involved important puppeteers and composers from Java and Bali who
collaborated on “Visible Religion” in the US. This project included dalangs I Made Sidia and
Sri Djoko Rahardja along with director Kent Deveaux and composers Tonny Prabowo and
Jarrad Powell. This work explored the stories of Bima Suwaga, Dewa Ruci, and Dante's
Divine Comedy—all trips to the netherworld. More recent work including a 2008 Tempest by
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Larry Reed and innovations of Dalang Joblar in Bali will be referenced. Issues of funding
and how it informs the project, artistic choices, and documentation will be addressed.
Politics of Shadow: Nang Talung in the Time of Thai Political Crisis.

Dr. Jirayudh SINTHUPHAN
(Department of Speech Communication and Performing Arts, Chulalongkorn University)
Nang Talung is a popular form of Thai shadow puppet theatre that is constantly adapting
itself to changes over time and space. It occupies a space in Thai society where traditions
meet new inventions, and where rural interest collides with urban politics. Contemporary
Nang Talung shamelessly incorporates up-to-the-minute performative elements to centuries
old conventions, and effortlessly moves between live and technologically mediated
performance. As a result, this puppet form has secured an ongoing popularity that spreads
from the southern provinces to the northeastern region of the country where it is known as
Nang Pramotai. During the height of Thai political crisis of 2013-2014, Nang Talung had an
interesting presence in political rallies organised by different political fractions. It was used
both as a political allegory and as an ideological tool to win support from Thai media and
population. This paper will provide an analytic description of Nang Talung performances
during the political conflict of 2013-14 and during the military junta period that followed. It
will also elucidate the change in content and aesthetics of the form, as well as its role in
contemporary Thai socio-political sphere.
Post-Wayang: Shadow puppets within contemporary art

Ms. Leonor Veiga
(PhD candidate, Leiden University Centre for Arts in Society (LUCAS) Promotor: Prof.
Kitty Zijlmans)
In Indonesia, the local Javanese epic of the Panji, came to personify graciousness of
character. For this reason, the mask became associated with virtue, good morals and
correctness of character. This ‘invented tradition’ would later be utilised for the legitimation
of political agenda, such as the Javanisation promoted by Suharto’s regime (1965-1998).
The situation would endure in the Reformation era: because the Indonesian
government invests in the past and encourages traditional forms in order to counter new
ones, artists exploit the situation, expressing their thoughts without really spelling them out.
So, different kinds of wayang are used as allegorical vehicles to praise and criticise the
community life and public figures.
This talk will exemplify post-wayang practices since 1988, when Heri Dono
conceived Wayang Legenda, a shadow-puppet theatre, up until 2013, when Indonesian artist
Eko Nugroho made an installation against the normalisation of Indonesian culture through
Javanese constructs in Venice Biennial. It will refer to FX Harsono, Arahmaiani, Entang
Wiharso, and Jummadi, to demonstrate the wealth of wayang references within
contemporary art discourses
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PANEL 20
South East Asian Manuscript Studies
The panel aims to provide a collegial and stimulating forum for researchers working on
diverse aspects of manuscript studies. Topics may include the codicology of manuscripts,
including research on illumination and illustration, bindings, inks and paints, calligraphy and
palaeography; philological studies of texts in vernacular or sacral languages; and the overlap
between manuscript studies and epigraphy, looking at inscriptions in wood, stone or
metal. Historical, literary or cultural studies based on manuscript materials will also be
welcome, as well as researches on the production and use of manuscripts in historical
perspective.
Conveners:
Ms. Jana Igunma (British Library)
Dr. Mulaika Hijjas (SOAS)
Panel:
Professor Vladimir Braginsky, SOAS

Dr. Angela Chiu, SOAS
Professor Tatiana Denisova, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
Mr. Jos Estevez, University of Münster
Dr. Annabel Gallop, British Library
Professor Hashim Musa, Universiti Putra Malaysia
Ms. Jana Igunma, British Library
Dr. Jiri Jakl, University of Queensland
Professor Justin McDaniel, University of Pennyslvania
Mohamad Nasrin Nasir, ATMA, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
Giuseppina Monaco, University of Naples ‘L’Orientale’
Professor Nor Hashimah Jalaluddin, ATMA, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
Dr. Andrew Peacock, University of St Andrews
Ms. Jessica Rahardjo, SOAS
Professor Peter Riddell, Melbourne College of Theology/SOAS
Dr. Rozita Che Rodi, Universiti Putra Malaysia
Ms. Virginia Shih, University of California, Berkeley
Roberta Zollo, University of Naples ‘L’Orientale’
The Problem of Recensions of Sejarah Melayu Revisited

Professor Vladimir Braginsky
(SOAS)
The problem of recensions of the celebrated Malay chronicle Sulalat al-Salatin = Sejarah
Melayu (SM), as well as the time and place of their origin and their political agendas is still
opened to discussion. My earlier position on these issues substantiated in 1982 and presented
in English in Braginsky, The heritage of traditional Malay literature (2004: 92-103), is
somewhat reconsidered in this paper. There are four principal recensions of SM. (a) The
oldest recension W published by Winstedt in 1938, which may partly originate from the
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Sultanate of Malacca era, is presented in the manuscript Raffles Malay 18. Winstedt dated it
from the 1530s. I accepted this debatable date and quoted additional arguments in its favour.
Valuable data that points in this same direction were also cited by Wolters in The fall of
Śrivijaya (1970: 108-154) and Robson in ‘Java at the crossroads’ (1981: 279). (b) The Johor
recension B composed by Tun Seri Lanang in 1612, which is a substantially reworked
version of W. At present some idea of this recension can only be gained from its summary in
Al-Raniri’s Bustan al-Salatin composed in 1638 for the Sultan of Aceh Iskandar Thani. This
section of Bustan (see Jelani (ed.), Bustan al-Salatin 2004: 318-37) was written to confirm
the Sultan’s origin from Iskandar Zulkarnain through the male and the female line and, thus,
to legitimate his claim on Johor, Pahang and Perak. This agenda determined the nature of the
abbreviation of B in the summary. A comparison shows that two later SM’s recensions are
traceable to B (Braginsky, Heritage, 2004: 133-5, note 11, points 3, 6-18). These are (c) the
short recension A published by Abdullah Munsyi in 1831, of which the earliest extant
manuscript dates 1798 (Revunenkova (ed.) Sulalat-us-Salatin, 2008: 13) and (d) the long
recension L, of which the earliest MS dates 1808 (Samad Ahmad, Sulalatus Salatin, 1986:
xii). A that precedes L may have been composed between the late seventeenth and mid-
eighteenth century and probably reflects the pro-Minangkabau agenda of its compiler. As to
L, which originates from the court of Bugis viceroys of the Johor-Riau Sultanate (cf.
Roolvink, ‘The variant versions of the Malay Annals’, 1967: 312), it may have been
composed in the late eighteenth century. Being more extended and embellished version of B
than A, L also differs from A by a number of significant episodes that show its pro-Bugis
agenda.
Materials for Merit: Views of Buddha Statues in Northern Thai Manuscripts

Dr. Angela Chiu
(SOAS)
For six centuries palm-leaf manuscripts have been produced by Buddhist monks and others
in the Lanna region centered in today’s northern Thailand. While these texts have long been
mined as resources by scholars of Thai history, Buddhist Studies and anthropology, the
manuscripts’ potential as resources for art history has hardly been explored. In fact, a
number of northern Thai manuscripts recount the creation and histories of specific Buddha
statues, making these texts, indeed, what we may call art histories. These manuscripts and
others provide insight into how the people of the past regarded and understood Buddha
images. Among other aspects, the descriptions of even very famous and supernaturally
powerful Buddha statues reflect statues’ significance as items of financial value entering the
monastic economy. Attention is drawn to the roles of donors, monks and craftsmen and to
materials and iconography, which contribute to the ‘commoditization,’ to use Kopytoff’s
term, of Buddha images. The manuscripts also provide interesting contrasting examples in
their descriptions of bodily relics of the Buddha. Indicating the importance of visuality to
northern Thai Buddhist devotion, these descriptions draw into question a common scholarly
assumption of the greater legitimacy of bodily relics over images as presences of the
Buddha.
The Early History of Islam in Malay Muslim Historiography: an Attempt at

Interpreting One Legend From Hikayat Raja Pasai
Professor Tatiana Denisova
(University Technology Malaysia)
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The sources of the Malay-Islamic historiography from the 13th to 19th centuries contain
interesting information regarding the early history of the Islamization of the Malay world.
Almost every text describes the first ruler who converted to Islam, his teachers, where he
came from, how and when the conversion happened etc. The information regarding these
matters became one of the most important arguments to proof the legitimacy of power of the
ruling sultan and his dynasty. Some of these statements are based on real historical events
that could be accepted as a historical report, while others, bear quasi-historical information.
Specialists in Malay history used to focus only on events which they can consider
historically proven or at least ‘sounds’ like real history. Those colleges whose interest is in
mythology and culture usually dig the mythological aspect of Malay written tradition without
any interrogation regarding its veracity or possible link to the real history. Meanwhile
chronicles usually contain both kinds of messages; for example in Hikayat Raja Pasai we
can find the message which looks like a historical report (regarding the ship from Mecca) as
well as a totally quasi-historical passage regarding the miraculous dream of Merah Silu and
his conversion to Islam. The comparison and content analysis on these two messages are
written in one text, which represents the earliest Malay historical work, allowing us the
opportunity to understand them better, as well as to guess/extrapolate the function of myths
in the Malay Muslim historiography.
The Lanten Manuscripts: Intergenerational Ritual Transmission and the Dynamics of

Knowledge Reproduction Among the Lanten (Yao Mun) in northern Laos
Mr. Jos Estevez
(University of Münster)
The Lanten, a population also known as Lao Huay or Yao Mun and living in the highlands of
continental Southeast Asia, have been exposed for centuries to conflicts and processes of
marginalisation, ranging from clashes with the Chinese Dynasties from the 12th Century
onwards to their involvement in the Indochina Wars from the 1950s to the 1970s. These
forced them to undertake long migrations that brought them from their native land in China
to Vietnam and Laos. In the face of these vicissitudes, the Lanten society has displayed an
extraordinary resilience. In this respect, the Lanten belief system and particularly the roles
performed by the Lanten ritual experts and their Daoist manuscripts are of essential
importance. This paper aims to present and to analyse the socio-historical background of
these manuscripts, some of them dating back to the 15th century, their means of production
and transmission, and their current ritual use. Furthermore, it introduces the on-going state of
the project in northern Laos to digitalise a selection of Lanten manuscripts, Endangered
Archives Programme EAP791.
The Collection of Malay Manuscripts in the British Library

Dr. Annabel Teh Gallop
(The British Library)
The British Library holds a relatively small but important collection of Malay manuscripts,
numbering some 100 volumes and about 250 documents and letters. The current collection
derives from two major sources, the first being the collection of 136 Malay, Javanese and
Bugis manuscripts belonging to John Crawfurd acquired by the British Museum in
1842. The second is Malay manuscripts from the estate of John Leyden which were acquired
by the East India Company following his death in 1811, and which entered the British
Library in 1984 as part of the India Office Library and Records. This paper will explore the
origins of the Crawfurd and Leyden Malay manuscripts, with a particular eye to regional
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origin, and will attempt to distinguish between Malay manuscripts commissioned by
European patrons and those known to have been used within Malay communities.
The Ryukyu/Okinawa Findings and the Reassertion of the Legacy of Hang Tuah as
Malaysian National Hero and Saviour
Professor Hashim Musa
(Universiti Putra Malaysia)
The recent publication of the book Hang Tuah: Catatan Okinawa (2015: Hashim Musa &
Rohaidah Kamaruddin), proving the existence of a historical Hang Tuah has rekindled the
interest of Malaysian political leaders to reassert the role of Hang Tuah as a Malaysian
national hero and savior. His praiseworthy character was highlighted, firstly as a valiant
warrior and defender of the sovereignty and dignity of the Malaccan Sultanate and the Malay
people, as well as a brilliant diplomat, conversant in 12 languages and also as a maritime
entrepreneur involved in expanding the Malay maritime trades. His absolute loyalty, sense of
responsibility and self-sacrifice towards his King and his people, are seen to be the much-
needed attributes to be imbibed into the Malay society in particular and the Malaysian nation
at large. For that purpose all the 4000 delegates of UMNO 2015 Annual Convention were
supplied with free copies of the book and an exhibition of the character of Hang Tuah as the
national hero was highlighted during the 2-day UMNO 2015 Annual Convention and also
during the 3-day Malaysian 2015 Annual Book Fair. This paper will analyze the
Ryukyu/Okinawa findings of primary evidences of the existence of a historical Hang Tuah
and the impact of his brilliant legacy among the current Malaysian political leadership.
The Mystery of the “Naughty Monks” in Thai Manuscript Illustrations of Phra Malai
Ms. Jana Igunma,
The British Library
Phra Malai, the Buddhist monk known for his legendary travels to heaven and hell, has long
figured prominently in Thai religious treatises, works of art, and rituals – particularly those
associated with the afterlife. The story is one of the most popular subjects of 19th-century
illuminated Thai manuscripts. The earliest examples of these Thai manuscripts date to the
late 18th century, though it is assumed that the story is much older, being based on a Pali
text. In 19th-century Thailand, it became a very popular chanting text for funerals and
memorial services.
The legend describes Phra Malai’s visits to heaven and hell by the powers he
achieved through meditation and great merits. Afterwards he teaches the laity and fellow
monks about the karmic effects of human actions, which he learned about when meeting
Buddha Metteya in heaven. It was through these narratives that the Buddha’s message of
hope for a better rebirth and for attaining nirvana was conveyed. Phra Malai manuscripts
were frequently produced and donated to Buddhist monasteries as acts of merit on behalf of
a deceased person.
One particular illustration from Thai manuscripts containing the legend of Phra Malai
has fuelled controversial views among scholars. The illustration shows four Buddhist monks
who, in real life according to Thai Buddhist tradition, attend the home of the family of a
deceased person on the night that person has passed away for the ngan huang di ceremony.
During the ceremony they chant a selection of Pali texts and give their blessings to the
deceased and the family of the deceased before the family, friends, neighbours and distant
relatives continue with a “wake”. In some Thai manuscripts, however, these four monks are
not depicted in a serene manner, but they look like naughty children, clowning around,
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playing games, indulging in sweets, betel, drinks and cheroots – behaving against all
conventions for Buddhist monks. The question arises whether these illustrations are a result
of the introduction of artistic realism in Thai painting, or evidence of growing freedom of
artistic expression, or evidence of the use of manuscript art as propaganda.
The Format of the Folding Book: the Book Culture of Pre-Islamic Java
Dr. Jiri Jakl
(University of Queensland)
The book culture of pre-Islamic Java has received hitherto only a limited attention. The
major contributions are Zoetmulder (1974), Gallop and Arps (1991), and Hinzler (2001). It is
generally accepted that a dominant book format in Java before 1500 CE was represented by
the palm leaf book, a bundle of stacked processed palm leaves secured together by the
string(s) passed through the perforation(s) bored through the leaves, typically provided with
a set of cover boards. Two distinct types of palm leaf writing support – and two distinct
writing techniques – have been documented. The leaves of the Palmyra palm (Borassus
flabelifer), called commonly lontar, were inscribed on with a (metal) stylus, while the
processed leaves of the gebang palm (Corypha utan) were written on with ink applied by a
pen or a small brush.
The Old and Middle Javanese literary record documents, however, the existence of
yet another book format in premodern Java. It is my aim to demonstrate that the Old
Javanese term ləpihan refers to the folding book, a book format consisting of a long strip of
writing material compacted by folding in a concertina fashion. Made most probably from the
bark cloth, Javanese ləpihan continued to be produced well into the 17th century CE, as
testified by a few rare specimens which have survived in European and Indonesian libraries.
In addition to the textual evidence, I provide a detailed codicological analysis of a
manuscript LOr 11.092, a specimen of the Javanese folding book dating to the late 16th or
early 17th century CE, kept now in the Leiden Library. Furthermore, I propose that Javanese
folding books shared the same writing technology with the gebang palm leaf manuscripts, as
well as with the much better known Sumatran tradition of the folding book.
TITLE TBC
Uli Kozok
(University of Hawai’i)
New Discoveries in Siamese Manuscript Collections in the United States

Justin McDaniel
(University of Pennsylvania)
When travelers from Europe, North America, and Japan among other places started
exploring Southeast Asia, they often brought back manuscripts to their own museums and
homes. Manuscripts are portable, beautiful, exotic, and informative. This talk will look at the
collecting practices of American travelers, missionaries, and collectors like Emilie Royce,
Victor Godon, Sarah Bekker, and others who brought Siamese manuscripts back to
Baltimore, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, among other places. This talk will
describe the collections and looking closely at three very rare manuscripts including the only
known copy of internal court meeting minutes by King Rama III in the 1820s, a rare early
manuscript of the famous Thai poem, Aphaimani and an early Thai translation of a section of
the Christian Gospel of Matthew.
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An Analysis and Reflection on Malay Medical Manuscripts found in Malaysian
Libraries
Mohamad Nasrin Nasir
(Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia)
This paper includes a comparison with Galenic-Avicennan Medicine and show how there are
similarities between the two. The paper situates the kitab tibb genre within the literary
system which is found in the Islamic civilization which is a continuation of that highly
advanced unani medicine system instead of viewing the Kitab Tibb as a mere past-time or
hotch-podge remedy concocted from old wives' tales and superstitious beliefs which
unfortunately is how it is viewed by many. In my study of 80 plus writings which can
roughly be classified under Tibb I have found that many are just notes. There are hardly any
similarities in regards to prescriptions. In my study of prescriptions for four types of diseases
or illnesses I have found that very-very few exhibit similar prescriptions between the 80plus
Tibb works in Malay. How are we to interpret such data? If these are just the scribe’s notes
and that scribe is the medical practitioner then what are we to make of such data? According
to Sweeney (1980), Malay writings are mainly reproduction of the oral tradition then what
are we to make of these findings? Various studies has been advanced in the past such as by
Gimlette, Werner, Harun Mat Piah, Taib Osman etc and they have all contributed towards
our understanding of the Tibb from various perspectives. Gimlette for instance had compiled
a list of prescription from Malay medicine in his dictionary (1923); Taib Osman had
furnished us with an understanding of Malay worldview which he argued is influenced by
Hindu-Buddhist as well as Islamic teachings. Werner’s work is quite interesting for his
interest lies in alternative medicine and he had dedicated his life into documenting and
writing about various alternative remedies and prescriptions given by aboriginal medicine as
well as Malay medicine. His main contribution to Malay medicine is his book documenting a
Malay medicine practitioner Che Dir who was also the Sultan of Kelantan’s family doctor.
Werner had documented and translated Che Dir’s notebook and within I we get a near
contemporary understanding of Malay medicine as it was practiced at the court of a twentieth
century state. It is in his documentation that we find many interesting points that contribute
towards a better understanding of Malay medicine as it was and still is being practiced in
Malaysia. In my own study that looks at Malay medicine mainly from manuscripts of the
nineteenth century, I have come to a few conclusions. First the texts and prescriptions within
them are varied even when it is for the same illness or ailment e.g. stomachache. Second the
texts are varied and are mainly notes. I have found only a handful that deal with the nature of
medicine and explanation on how to become a medicine man. Most of the other manuscripts
deal directly with prescriptions one after another. Thirdly the influence of Quranic verses as
supplementary methods of treatment are immense that one would discount even the influence
of Hindu-Buddhist from many of the manuscripts. I will try and explore some of these in the
paper as well as present an overview of the 80 plus manuscripts that I have encountered.
The Study of a Batak Manuscript and its Poda Language

Giuseppina Monaco
(University of Naples ‘L’Orientale’)
This paper will provide a description of the difficulties faced in the effort to compile a
diplomatic and a critical edition of a Batak manuscript and propose a description of a special
language used in some Pustaha, the Poda language. The manuscript is unreleased and
belongs to the Hamburg collection deals with the strongest Batak offensive magic, that is the
pangulu balang. In my attempt to transcribe and describe this Pustaha I propose two
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different editions of this manuscript. The diplomatic edition has the purpose to replicate as
far as possible the configuration of the text and to reproduce faithfully the text in latin script.
This edition becomes the basis for the critical edition where I add the punctuation, I divide
the text in paragraphs and attempt to provide a translation in accordance with the EYD
(Ejaan yang disempurnakan, “Enhanced Indonesian Spelling System”).
The compilation of this critical edition was the starting point to reflect on some
features of the language used in the manuscript and try to describe it. The pustaha, or bark
tree manuscripts, were edited only by magician-priests (datu) and their students (sisean) with
the aim of preserving the esoteric and mystic knowledge of magic, divination and medicine.
Van der Tuuk (1971) called the language used in a number of bark tree manuscripts bahasa
poda but never elaborated on its meaning nor described its features. The word poda means
“advice”, but in the MSS this word has a meaning closer to “instruction”. This poda
language is in fact an archaic dialect coming from the southern group of Batak languages
that became the common language used for these kind of magic texts regardless of the origin
of the datu writing the manuscript.
Only the datu were familiar with this archaic dialect, as they were the only depository
of this huge knowledge. Nevertheless the spelling of these Batak manuscripts is nowhere
regular since each datu was probably coming from areas where the pronunciation was
different from this archaic dialect. Given the difficulty to understand the origin of the
manuscript the only key is to analyze the language used by the datu. Inconsistencies in
writing the same word with different spelling in the same text can be useful to understand the
origin of the datu and therefore of the manuscript. As the number of scholars of Batak
languages is dwindling, it is possible that the content of these manuscripts will soon be
inaccessible and forgotten. Those manuscripts are not only the mirror to an old culture but
also they represent the last trace of this ancient language that is no longer used.
The Concept of Space in Malay Folklore

Nor Hashimah Jalaluddin
(Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia)
The civilisation of the Malay literature that began as early as the sixteenth century has
witnessed oral and written traditions through the great works of the Malay scholars. Those
rich with implicit meanings are meant not for entertainment alone but intended for advice
and philosophical considerations to the keen eyes of the readers. One interesting aspect is
space. Space is a significant element that becomes a manifestation to social relationships,
time and thoughts. Implication is conveyed when an addresser uses fauna as an object but at
the same time is able to clearly extend the concept of space to the addressees. Apart from
that, space in the Malay society is not just within physical states; in fact it reaches beyond
social space as well as temporal space. At other times, the concept of space may share
functions within two different domains. For instance, physical space concept may also
explain the concept of temporal space. This article examines and analyses the element of
fauna in Cerita Anggun Cik Tunggal that reveals the concept of space in Malay folklore. A
total of 31 data on faunas relating to space were found in this text. An observation on the
implicit meaning of fauna will be discussed based on the data, the theory, and the speaker’s
cognitive as well as culture. Apparently, the finding demonstrates not only the Malay
wisdom but also reflects the Malay philosophy behind the use of a lexical. The outcomes
show that the lexical choice of fauna in Cerita Anggun Cik Tunggal relates space with
power, physical size, strength and distance. The use and selection of fauna lexical also show
sensitivity of the Malays towards their surroundings.
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The Arabic Correspondence of the Banten sultanate
Dr. Andrew Peacock
(University of St. Andrews)
This paper examines the seventeenth century Arabic epistolography of the sultanate of
Banten in Java. Adressed to the English kings James I and Charles II, and preserved in the
National Archive, Kew, this is the most substantial corpus of diplomatic correspondence in
Arabic to survive from early modern Southeast Asia. The letters show considerable variety in
their language and form, including one letter that is illuminated in accordance with Malay,
but not Middle Eastern, conventions. The paper will discuss the diplomatics of these letters,
their historical importance and consider the signficance of the use of Arabic in them in the
context of what is known more generally of the Banten court's patronage of Arabic
manuscripts.
Dreaming of the Prophet: Conversion Narratives in the Hikayat Raja Pasai and Sejarah
Melayu
Ms. Jessica Rahardjo
(SOAS)
In Hikayat Raja Pasai, the sultan of Pasai, Maliku’l-Saleh (d. 1297), dreams of the Prophet
Muhammad; upon awakening, he discovers that he is circumcised and is magically able to
recite the Qur’an. A similar narrative appears in Sejarah Melayu, retelling the conversion of
Sultan Muhammad Shah (r. 1424–1444) of Malacca. While these narratives may offer little
by way of history (in the western sense) of the spread of Islam in the Malay Archipelago,
they reveal ways in which conversions of rulers are perceived and mythologised. This paper
revisits Russell Jones’ (1979) study of Indonesian conversion myths and relates these dream-
visions (al-ru’ya al-saliha) to larger Islamic traditions of dream narratives and
interpretations.
Camb. MS Or. Gg.6.40: A Window into Marvellous and Miraculous Events

Professor Peter Riddell
(Melbourne School of Theology/SOAS)
In 1629 the Cambridge University Library acquired six Malay manuscripts that had belonged
to the late Dutch Arabist, Thomas Erpenius. All six were probably purchased in the
Sumatran Sultanate of Aceh between 1600-1610. These manuscripts are thus among the very
oldest surviving from Islamic Southeast Asia. In 1600 the Sultanate of Aceh was the most
prominent centre of Islamic thought in the Southeast Asian region. The dominant school at
the time was heavily influenced by the Ibn ʿArabī tradition of waḥdat al-wujūd. Many works
attributed to this period (but only surviving in later MS copies) show the influence of the
wujūdī multiple grades of divine manifestation.
Studies have been undertaken of the six Erpenius Malay manuscripts. However, one
manuscript which has not seen the light of day fully is Camb. MS Or. Gg.6.40. It includes
within its folios five works; one as yet unstudied work is of particular interest. Majmūʿ al-
gharāʾib wa al-ʿajāʾib fills 70 pages of this Malay manuscript and contains a cosmogony,
addressing the origin of the universe. It begins with a reference to the Pen and then devotes
the remainder of its discussion to a lengthy exposition on the significance of the Pen. Ibn
ʿArabī, who wielded such influence in Aceh around the time of the composition of this
manuscript, identified the Pen as the First Intellect (al-aql al-awwal) in his magnum opus, al-
Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya. A close study of Majmūʿ al-gharāʾib wa al-ʿajāʾib will provide further
100
insights into the influence of Ibn ʿArabī in the Sultanate of Aceh and of the religious life of
the Sultanate in general.
The Counsel of Al-Raniri to the Malay Rulers: A Legacy Still Very Relevant Today
Rozita Che Rodi
(Universiti Putra Malaysia)
Two advices of Nurud’din Al-Raniri to the Sultan of Aceh in his Bustanu al-Salatin are
chosen to relate their relevance to current condition in the country:
Nasihat (1): Sayogianya bagi segala raja minta pengajar daripada segala masyaikh seperti
kelakuan Raja Harun ar-Rasyid, dan mengambil insaf akan dirinya daripada menengar
nasihat itu. Dan jangan ia lalai dengan dunia yang fana ini ini.
In this advice, al-Raniri insisted that all rulers need to heed wise counsels of their ministers
and advisers, and not to be carried away in their decision, by the priorities of worldly gain,
and that rulers need to be surrounded by wise and learned advisers who can give appropriate
opinions based on their deep knowledge, expertise and wide experience, given without fear
or favour. On the other hand, ill advices have brought catastrophe to the country, in the
forms of economic disaster, disunity, and political turmoil and social unrest, as currently
pravalent.
Nasihat (2): Wajib atas segala hamba Allah mengerjakan amar bi’l-ma`ruf wa’n-nahi
`ana’l-munkar. Dan tersangat wajibnya atas segala raja-raja dan segala orang yang
berpenguasaan.
In this advice, al-Raniri emphasized that it is incumbent upon everyone more so among those
in power, to advocate good deeds and prevent evil deeds. If this is not done, then there will
be abuse of power and trust by those who are in authority. This paper will analyze several
other advices of al-Raniri, a legacy that are considered to be relevant to the current economic
and political condition prevalent in the country, and a general discussion of their relevance
and application will be done.
Digitizing the Swift Family Collection of Palm Leaf Manuscripts, 1782-1898 at the
University of California, Berkeley
Ms. Virginia Shih
(University of California, Berkeley)
This presentation will provide a preliminary overview of the provenance of the Swift Family
Collection (19 palm leaf manuscripts and 4 folded paper manuscripts) in various South and
Southeast Asian scripts and how the collection was digitized as a pilot project. It will discuss
the various challenges in curating this special collection in collaboration with the Library
Preservation Department for conservation treatment; the Bancroft Library for physical
description and cataloging description; the Library Applications and Publishing Unit, and
Digital Imaging Lab for digitization support within the guidelines of the Online Archive of
California. External faculty scholars were consulted for collection appraisals at various
stages before the collection was made available for free public access. This collection was on
library exhibition display over the years to promote publicity of the Berkeley
South/Southeast Asia special collections.
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Reading and Analysing a Pustaha, a Window Into Batak Belief
Roberta Zollo
(University of Naples ‘L’Orientale’)
The aim of this paper is to reflect on the state of the art of the study of Batak tree-bark
manuscripts (pustaha), which are preserved in European and American museums and
libraries. Unfortunately, very few have been transcribed and analysed and much needs to be
done. Specifically, this paper concerns an analysis of contents and issues related to one
unpublished manuscript belonging to the Berlin collection. The relevance of Batak
manuscripts is remarkable at least from two different points of view. First, the material of
these manuscripts, that is bark-tree and their shape, a concertina's fashion, are very peculiar
features in the whole tradition of South-East Asian manuscripts. Secondly, the themes
contained in Batak MSS are completely different from other writing tradition from South-
East Asia. If in the other writing traditions the content deals mostly with law or literature, in
Batak manuscripts these themes are completely absent. In fact the Pustaha contain the
knowledge of the Batak people on magic, medicine and instructions for divination practices.
I will discuss one manuscript that provides an interesting and in-depth description of
the origin and the specific features of the gods according to the Batak people. This
manuscript is a one-of-a-kind because of its content; in fact only another manuscript that
deals with cosmogony and cosmology has been recorded so far. Cosmogony and cosmology
of Batak people are actually highly controversial and still obscure subjects for which it has
not been possible to propose a exhaustive and reliable study. One important and useful
reference about this topic is “The Toba Batak High God: Trascendence and Immanence” of
Sinaga (1981). Therefore it can be assumed that the study of this manuscript and its
translation will shed light on historical and religious elements that are largely unknown.
About the manuscript itself, its state of conservation appears to be one of the most
complex problems, because some of its parts are nearly unreadable. The reading,
transliteration and translation of its text are a truly challenging enterprise. In some cases the
syllables have become completely unreadable and required a long and complex work of
reconstruction in order to understand the meaning of the words. Last but not least, a
noteworthy element that deserves to be mentioned for its remarkable interest is the presence
of numerous and detailed illustrations in this pustaha, that may represent a starting point for
further research.
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PANEL 21
Discovery, Purchase and Plunder: European Collecting in
South East Asia
Museums and archives in Europe hold rich collections of South East Asian material,
amassed from the beginning of European trading contact in the region to the period of
high colonialism and beyond. While some items in these collections have been the object
of academic study for generations, the processes by which the collections themselves
were formed, and the effect of their presence in Europe and their absence in South East
Asia, have attracted little attention. Recent scholarly work examining collecting as an
activity in other world regions (Jasanoff 2005, Barringer and Flynn 2012) suggests that a
similar approach may be productive in the case of South East Asia.
In 1824, Raffles loaded the ship Fame for his return to England with the priceless
fruits of twenty years’ collecting in South East Asia. As described by Munsyi Abdullah,
Raffles’ collection included taxidermied taxidermised birds and animals, snakes and
centipedes preserved in gin, coral and seashells, manuscripts, musical instruments, and all
manner of precious objects: the raw data for Raffles’ scholarly writings. As is well
known, the ship caught fire and sank only a day’s sail from Bengkulu, and the
collection—which, in Abdullah’s words, Raffles “loved more than gold or diamonds”—
was lost. Other examples of European collectors in South East Asia include Alexander
Dalrymple, who captured Spanish navigational texts during the 1762 British occupation
of the Philippines and used them to postulate the existence of the continent of Australia,
and the naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, whose specimens from Borneo and eastern
Indonesia informed his developing theories of evolution. It is the intention that this panel
will also address collecting by less well known well-known individuals, including those
whose collections do not survive (such as Rumphius’ natural history specimens and
Valentijn’s manuscripts).
In the same way that Raffles did not distinguish between different kinds of
objects, so this panel takes an omnivorous approach. The included scholars work on
European collecting in South East Asia of (inter alia) natural history and ethnographic
specimens, manuscripts, maps, religious objects, lexicons, textiles, weapons, musical
instruments, and people. Among the topics of interest are studies of how the European
collections were constituted or consolidated, what informed the collecting policies or
proclivities of the Europeans, what effect this had on developing fields like evolutionary
biology, the influence of these collections on European understandings of South East
Asia and later South East Asian understandings of itself, plundered objects and
provenance trails, objects seized by one European power from another in the region,
colonial collections which remained in South East Asia, and textual or visual
representations of this collecting activity.
Conveners:
Dr. Mulaika Hijjas (SOAS) and Dr. Cristina Juan (SOAS)
Panel
Dr. Cristina Juan, SOAS

Dr. Fiona Kerlogue, Horniman Museum
Dr. Miranda Bruce Mitford, SOAS
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Dr. Mulaika Hijjas, SOAS
Dr. Jessica Ratcliff, Yale-NUS College
Ms. Mirjam Shatanawi, Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam / Museum Volkenkunde, Leiden
Dr. Christina Skott, Cambridge University
Of English Manors and Auction Houses: Tracing Stories of Plunder from the
British Occupation of Manila in 1762
Dr. Cristina Juan
(SOAS)
cj14@soas.ac.uk
When the Central Bank of the Philippines bought the Niño Dormido from an auction
house in the 80’s, the lingering myths about the “Draper Loot” all of a sudden became
gloatingly real. This opulent museum piece of a canopied sleeping Christ made of solid
ivory, and gold cloth (tisu d’oro), allegedly emerged from the heirloom collection of Col.
William Draper, the commander of the British expedition that occupied the Philippines in
1762. Many wondered how much else of that legendary loot was out there.
The “British Plunder of Manila” is both a political and literary trope that surfaces
often in texts produced around the Occupation of Manila from 1762-64. There are
archives of memos, court proceedings, and journal entries from the British admirals and
the East India Company men, and numerous counter-narratives from the Spanish - all
providing a dizzying exchange of accusations of “despicable acts of looting,” narrations
of incalculable wealth, constant diminution from the British, the non-payment of the war
ransom as justification for plunder, tallies of looted inventory, and even haggling over the
value of this Augustinian remonstrance or that golden chain grabbed from “a distant
relative.”
This paper is an attempt to trace these narratives into the present. Who are the
major characters in these plunder stories and what motivated them? What types of
objects were said to have been taken, and how were their values measured? And lastly,
which of these stories of displaced treasures have become demonstrably true?
Collecting Experience: Mmaking Mmemories Mmaterial in the Dutch East Indies

Dr. Fiona Kerlogue
(Horniman Museum)
This paper focusses on a substantial group of objects collected in Indonesia by Charlotta

Ruszena Urbanova, now in the National Museum in Prague. The collection includes
material from Bali, Java, Sumatra, Sulawesi and Borneo. While the collection reflects
some aspects of the lives of the local population, in this study the various items are
examined rather as means to consider the context in which the traveller found herself, and
to reflect on what items were both attractive and available to visitors during that period
(1938-41).
Drawing on the objects themselves, documents and photographs which survive
relating to her life and travels, and other evidence such as accounts of other travellers
during that period, the paper explores in particular the affective motivations for
collecting, how they might have influenced the selection of objects in the collection, and
how they relate to the range of experiences undergone by travellers in the region in the
period leading up to the Second World War.
This paper focusses on a substantial group of objects collected in Indonesia by
Charlotta Ruszena Urbanova, now in the National Museum in Prague. The collection
104
includes material from Bali, Java, Sumatra, Sulawesi and Borneo. While the collection
reflects some aspects of the lives of the local population, in this study the various items
are examined rather as means to consider the context in which the traveller found herself,
and to reflect on what items were both attractive and available to visitors during that
period (1938-41). Drawing on the objects themselves, documents and photographs which
survive relating to her life and travels, and other evidence such as accounts of other
travellers during that period, the paper explores in particular the affective motivations for
collecting, how they might have influenced the selection of objects in the collection, and
how they relate to the range of experiences undergone by travellers in the region in the
period leading up to the Second World War.
Pursuing a Passion: Tracing the Collection of Thomas Stamford Raffles (1781-1826)

Dr. Miranda Bruce Mitford
(SOAS)
Thomas Stamford Raffles amassed a large collection of objects, manuscripts, paintings

and natural history specimens during his years in Malaya, Java and Sumatra. Although a
great deal has been written about Raffles, his collection is little known and parts of it are
extremely difficult to trace. In my research, I discuss Raffles as collector: his love of
natural history and language, his motives for collecting and his intentions for the
collection. I explore the collection itself and address the question of what he hoped it
would reveal about the Malaysian Archipelago at the time of his administration. I am
attempting to compile a database of the entire collection so that it can be viewed as a
whole despite having been divided up among various institutions. There are problems
with this goal as the natural history specimens are particularly difficult to track down, so
it may not be possible to provide a complete catalogue of items.
Bibliotheca Marsdeniana Malaiensis: William Marsden’s collecting of Malay

manuscripts
Dr. Mulaika Hijjas
(SOAS)
In a seminal article, Proudfoot noted the enormous influence of nineteenth-century

European collectors upon the current understanding of the Malay manuscript tradition,
and called for more attention to “how manuscripts were collected and collections
formed” (2003: 3). This paper will examine the manuscript collecting of William
Marsden (1754-1836), author of The History of Sumatra (1784) and A Dictionary and
Grammar of the Malayan Language (1812). Marsden’s collection forms the core of
SOAS’ insular South East Asian holdings, having been transferred from King’s College
London on the establishment of SOAS in 1906. Marsden was a representative of the East
India Company in Bengkulu, west Sumatra, between 1771 and 1778 and may well have
begun collecting manuscripts there. But while his History mentions obtaining zoological
specimens in Sumatra, it says nothing about how he came by his Malay manuscripts. It
appears that most of them were obtained after his return to England, as part of the
astonishing bibliophilic drive that resulted in the vast library of rare books and
manuscripts catalogued in the Bibliotheca Marsdeniana Philologica et Orientalis (1827),
in which South East Asian manuscripts fill a mere handful of the books’ over 300 pages.
Some Malay manuscripts may have been given to Marsden by British contacts in South
East Asia. Several, for example, came via William Fitzwilliam Owen (1771-1857),
including one which Owen obtained when he participated in the sack of the Palembang
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kraton in 1812. Kratz (2006) has shown how another manuscript was sent as a gift by
Marsden’s brother John’s Sumatran wife, left behind in Bengkulu, to John and their
children in Europe. These two different means—plunder, on the one hand, and gift
through intimate but unacknowledged connection, on the other—are perhaps flip sides of
the same colonial coin. A closer look at how Marsden assembled his collection may shed
light on this relationship, and on the effect of European collecting on our picture of the
Malay manuscript tradition in its final flowering.
Natural History and the Right of Conquest: Collecting at the East India Company
during the Napoleonic Wars
Dr. Jessica Ratcliff
(Yale-NUS College)
At the turn of the nineteenth century, at its headquarters in the City of London, the East
India Company established a new museum and library. By mid-century, the museum had
grown to contain one of Europe’s most extensive collections of the natural history, arts
and sciences of Asia. This paper uses the early history of the Company’s Museum,
focusing on its natural history collection, to explore the material relationship between
scientific practice and the imperial political economy.
A major part of the collection was gathered in the wake of military campaigns,
trade missions or administrative surveys that accompanied territorial expansion. In this
talk, I will first describe some of the ways in which the early decades of the Company’s
collections were shaped by military engagement during the Napoleonic War particularly
the British invasion of Dutch Java in 1811. I will then use these examples of wartime
acquisitions in natural history to raise some questions about how contemporaries may
have then understood and engaged in collecting as a philosophical, politically strategic
and economic activity.
To Collect or Not to Collect: Indonesia’s Islamic Heritage and the Legacy of Dutch
Ccollecting (1850-1950)
Ms. Mirjam Shatanawi
(Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam / Museum Volkenkunde, Leiden)
At the height of its colonial empire, the Netherlands ruled over a large Muslim population
in Indonesia. Yet despite a long history of imperial collecting and the vast collections
resulting from it, Dutch museums hold very few little Indonesian objects of Islamic
origin. In this paper, I will argue that this legacy of ‘absence’ has a lasting impact on
Dutch museum representations of Indonesian art and culture, which remain dominated by
colonial paradigms. While the reasons behind the colonial disregard of Indonesian
Islamic art and material culture seem to be evident (the fear of political Islam, the
perception of Indonesian Islam as only superficially rooted, the fascination with Hindu-
Buddhist heritage), I will delve deeper into the motivations of collectors –both in the field
and at home- to collect or not to collect Islamic material. Focusing on different types of
collectors, in particular army officers G.C.E. Van Daalen and Th. Veltman and civil
servant F.W. Stammeshaus, I will try to explain the emphasis on certain regions (Aceh)
and object types (e.g. manuscripts) when Islamic material did make its way into museum
collections, as well as to account for its absence in other domains.
‘Ordering the World for Europe’: Clas Fredrik Hornstedt, Collector in Batavia,
1783-4
106
Dr. Christina Skott
In 1782, the Swedish scientist Clas Fredrik Hornstedt was recruited by the Batavian
circle of amateur scientists sometimes referred to as the ‘Indies Enlightenment’, to work
as curator for the collections of the newly founded Bataviaasch Genootschap van
Kunsten en Vetenschappen. During his time in Java, Hornstedt not only classified and
collected naturalia for the society, he also managed to acquire impressive collections for
himself and for his associates in Sweden. These collections included not only botanical
and zoological specimens, but also minerals, materia medica, ethnographica and other
objects. Unlike the collections themselves, Hornstedt’s extensive journals and reports
from his time in Batavia have survived. Examining these, this paper situates Hornstedt’s
frantic collecting within its European, scientific context but also considers the local
circumstances which enabled him to gain access to these wide ranging collections.
Trained in the taxonomy and scientific system of classification established by his
countryman Carl Linnaeus, Hornstedt was strongly driven by the principles of the wider
Linnaean project, with the aim of describing and classifying the natural world on a global
scale. This idea, the paper claims, was here extended to people and forms of knowledge.
Hornstedt’s detailed and systematic recording of customs, practices, history and literature
of Java, much resembles his determination of species and genera in the natural world,
and consequently constitutes a unique source of empirical information on life and
society in late eighteenth-century Java. The paper also addresses wider issues of ‘native
agency’, arguing that it ultimately was Hornstedt’s ‘Swedishness’, his position as an
outsider, which facilitated his access to local knowledge and information.
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PANEL 22
Southeast Asian Visual and Aural Experience in History and
Today
Building a Map of the Complex Soundscape of the Kasunanan Palace in Surakarta,

Central Java
Mr. Jonathan Roberts
(Oxford University)
This paper presents work in progress on a project seeking to produce and analyse a detailed
map of the complex sound environment of the Kasunanan palace in Surakarta, Central Java.
The nobles and servants who populate and move through the palace, along with birds,
animals, and trees, produce sound in a variety of ways, some designed for public
consumption and others directed solely at the spiritual world. The passage of time is marked
by Dutch clocks, bells, enormous drums, and the call to prayer. Heirloom gamelan
instruments are played inside and outside the palace at regular times to entertain guests,
represent the Sultan at religious festivals, or maintain the functioning of the cosmos. On the
eve of Friday’s communal prayers unique melodic variants on Islamic prayers and canonical
Javanese poetry are recited. In the linguistic sphere palace functionaries use a specialised
vocabulary that interlocks with the honorific systems of standard Javanese to provide further
levels of distinction and camaraderie. These predominantly traditional sounds are joined by
more contemporary equivalents. The porters while away their shifts watching international
football matches, and mobile phones belonging to younger royals and servants generate a
stream of electronic noise. Silence is, however, also an important part of the sound world,
with the high walls of the palace enclosure protecting it from the bustle of the city outside.
At Javanese New Year this silence is taken out into the city as the court processes through
streets lined by hushed crowds. Many of the individual components of the palace’s sound
world have been studied separately but this study seeks to consider them in combination in
order to understand the significance and power of the sonic sphere as a site for generating
and asserting meaning, authority, and influence in Surakarta.
A Study of Mon Ancient Musical Instruments from the Palm Leaf Scripture
“Kyaj Che Nu Swo”
Dr. Jarun Kanchanapradit
(Khon Kaen University, Thailand)
Palm leaf scriptures are ancient documents that have appeared in many countries in
Southeast Asia. They usually consist of Buddha’s teaching and the essential knowledge of
Buddhism, known as Tripitaka, but may also record significant regional wisdom such as
chronicles, astrology, pharmacopoeia, and folk tales. Southeast Asian palm leaf scriptures
are inscribed in local languages using Khmer, Dhamma-Lanna, Burma, and Mon alphabets.
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With regard to Mon music, the principal palm leaf scripture with valuable information is
called “Slapat Kyaj Che Nu Swo” (‘Buddha coming down from Tavatimsa heaven’). It was
composed circa 1847 by a Mon poet in a Mon village in the Ye district, of Mon state of
lower Burma, who knew Buddhism and Mon music very well. The beauty of this literature
lies in its harmony between musical content and Buddha’s biography. The description of the
musical instruments played by the angels accompanying the descent of Buddha from
Tavetimsa Heaven is of particular interest. The important Mon musical knowledge written
down in these documents records the name, sound, and meaning of sound of 32 Mon musical
instruments during the eighteenth to nineteenth centuries, consisting of 14 membranophones,
6 idiophones, 8 aerophones, and 4 chordophones.
Cristina Wistari Formaggia and the “Preservation” of Balinese Gambuh Court Dance-
Drama
Dr. Margaret Coldiron
(E15 Acting School/University of Essex)
In the 1970s, Cristina Formaggia travelled first to India to study kathakali and then to Bali,
where she became a respected professional in Balinese topeng masked dance drama and took
the name Wistari. However, the defining focus of her life became her passionate dedication
to transforming the dwindling fortunes of the court art of gambuh which she sought to
accomplish through the Gambuh Preservation Project funded by the Ford Foundation. In the
course of this work she drew a range of Balinese artists into the project, initiated
collaborative interactions with Eugenio Barba and Odin Teatret and made the previously
moribund and obscure art of Balinese gambuh into an international concern. In 2015, seven
years after her death, gambuh was among the nine Balinese dance forms designated as
“Intangible Cultural Heritage” by UNESCO. To what degree was this foreign interloper
responsible for the international recognition of this arguably obscure and rarely performed
dance drama? This paper will present a critical examination of the work of Cristina
Formaggia, the Gambuh Preservation Project and its/her legacy, exploring the complex
interaction of the international artistic and academic community with the purveyors of
traditional culture on “the paradise island.”
Offering Music in Khmer Traditional Rituals and Theatre

Ms. Francesca Billeri
(SOAS)
The Khmers consider music as an offering, in the same way as an incense stick or a bouquet
of flowers placed in a sanctuary. Music, dance and theatre are intrinsically connected to the
divine sphere not only because music is performed in every ceremony but also because of its
beauty that makes it sacred and favored to the divinity. However, not all kinds of music are
considered to be infused with a sacred sphere but only the classical genre pin peat and
wedding music phleng kar which is the focus of my PhD research. Wedding music is
performed across different contexts and interrelated to different genres. It is played as an
offering to deities and supernatural spirits in healing ceremonies and in some pre-
performance rituals in two kinds of popular theatre: lakhon bassac and lakhon yike’. In the
theatre perfoming context, wedding music as well as theatre music is offered to the spirits
living in the surrounding area to ask permission to build the stage and to ensure actors and
musicians a good performance. Rituals of offering music are also performed to worship
instruments, in particular drums, which are considered to be deities. This talk aims to show
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the intrinsic relationship of music, rituals and Khmer religious beliefs across different
perfoming contexts.
Anthropology of Dance in the Malay World

Mr. Soultari Amin Farid
(University of Roehampton)
The research explores contemporary practice and discourses by practitioners of an

Indonesian Malay dance from North Sumatra, Serampang Dua Belas, which was
choreographed and popularised during the early years of Indonesian statehood. The name
Serampang Dua Belas pinpoints to a major component of the dance: the term Dua Belas is
the number twelve in the Malay/Indonesian language and this non-contact dance comprises
of 12 sets of movements arranged in a sequence to symbolically portray the process of
courtship between a young man and a woman. The research is based on ethnographic
fieldwork done in two cities in the island of Sumatra, Indonesia: Medan in the province of
North Sumatra; and Pekanbaru in the province of Riau. This anthropological study
investigates how Malay practitioners of this dance understand its relevance today in modern
Indonesia. In addition, it will examine how these discourses elucidate gendered constructs
and maintenance within the dance and how it challenges the boundaries of ethnicity.
Rebel Karaoke: Propaganda and Practice in Myanmar’s Kachin Insurgency

Mr. David Brenner
(PhD Candidate, LSE)
This paper traces the emergence of a new youth social movement in Myanmar’s restive
Kachin borderlands through the lens of visual politics. It first explains how the propaganda
arm of the insurgent Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO) has utilised karaoke music
videos, propagating ethnonational revolution, as part of their effort to recruit a new
generation of rebels among the local youth. In a second step the paper analyses similar music
videos that were produced by independent Kachin musicians. Tracing the evolution and
emancipation of these visual politics helps to conceptualise insurgency as an embodied social
practice rather than a phenomenon that is analytically separate from the fabrics of Kachin
society. This helps to further our understanding of a social youth movement that, while co-
created by the insurgency, has emerged as a powerful revolutionary force itself, developing a
momentum of its own in driving wider dynamics of conflict and peace in the Kachin
borderlands.
The ‘Golden Era’ of Thai 16mm Cinema: Between Tradition and Modernity, the Rise
of a Popular Cinematic Culture in Thailand from 1945 to 1970
Dr. Aliosha Herrera
(University of Paris 3 – Sorbonne Nouvelle, Department of Cinema and Audiovisual
Studies)
In the aftermath of the Second World War, the introduction of silent 16mm celluloid stock
gave rise to a very popular form of cinematic culture in Thailand. This local film production
developed in close relation with is largely rural audience and ended at the beginning of the
1970s, when the practice of shooting films in 35mm Cinemascope regained momentum. This
paper proposes to retrace the historical context of emergence of Thai 16mm cinema,
considered as a significant horizon of cultural expression. It intends to explore how these
low-budget melodramatic fictions, initially interpreted by professional dubbers called nak
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phak in live performances, can be characterised as ‘attractions’ firmly embedded in the
paradigm of an oral tradition derived from older practices of folk drama, such as the khon
masked dance [โขน], the like, and, mostly, the shadow theatre that prospered for a long time
in South East Asia, locally known as nang talung. This film phenomenon appears as an
interesting case to examine how the cultures of postcolonial South East Asia responded to
the Cold War. The recent building-up of a collection of artifacts from the 16mm era at the
Thai Film Archive and its gradual bringing into light also invite to observe, on a wider scale,
the promising development of film archives and film historiography in the South East Asian
region.
Siam (Cinematically) Mapped: European Images of Thailand in the 1960s-70s

Professor Adam Knee
(University of Nottingham Ningbo China)
The fact of Thailand never having technically been colonized is a significant point of pride
for the country—though it is widely understood by many within Thai area studies that the
country has nevertheless often existed in a quasi-colonial relationship with various foreign
powers. Certainly in the images of Thailand to be found in films produced by other
countries, there is the sense of a colonial and/or touristic gaze upon it, an apprehension of
Thailand as a resource to be consumed. This can, for example, be seen with films from
Europe, home of course to many former colonial powers, some with colonies in Asia. This
presentation will look at such a representational regime (and its attendant narrative patterns)
as it emerges within a 1960s-70s trend of European films set in Thailand—mostly spy and
heist films and eventually some sexploitation productions as well. The spatial and narrative
conception of Thailand suggested in these films is a remarkably cohesive one, the country
almost always arrived at by way of the Bangkok airport, narratively connected in turn to
roads which lead to the downtown business area and in turn to a range of identifiable city
tourist attractions, such as Democracy Monument, the Grand Palace, and Yaowarat
(Chinatown)—sites which end up defining the nation in the films’ combined visual
vocabulary. Again and again it will be seen that the locus of activities, the realm of
experience, the narrative focalization primarily point back to an imperial-touristic subject,
conditioned to apprehend the Thai environment as one of leisure, exoticism, beauty, and
pleasurable adventure; at the same time the presentation will highlight a significant level of
anxiety that exists at the edges of this European enjoyment, in the form of persistent
hindrances and dangers that lurk along the way.
Ambiguity and Identity of the Young Audience of Indonesian Islamic Films

Dr. Hariyadi
(Jenderal Soedirman University, Purwokerto, Indonesia)
My paper discusses Islamic films in Indonesia that have been a phenomenon since 2008
when Ayat-Ayat Cinta (Verses of Love) broke a new record for ticket sales, surpassing any
other films, including Hollywood box offices productions. It is reported that Islamic films
have been consciously produced to propagate Islamic lessons to the Muslim youth. The
paper challenges the notion that young adults are passive recipients as proposed by some
popular culture theorists. The concern of scholars that Indonesian youth become consumers
of Western popular culture is, sometimes, exaggerated. The paper argues that young people
did not merely become the object of ideologies injected by filmmakers, and their responses
were not an unquestioning acceptance. I interviewed and observed Indonesian Muslim young
adults to examine how they perceived Islamic films, and how they make use of them to
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construct their identity. I found that some Muslim youths have been ambiguous toward the
emergence of Islamic films; they saw Islamic films are indifferent to non-religious films,
merely entertainment with a different style to Hollywood and Bollywood. Others praise the
bravery of the directors since few Islamic films address a couple of controversial issues such
as polygamous marriage, pluralism, and women’s position in Islam. I also discovered that
watching movie for Indonesian youths is an important way to construct identity, and they
feel that there is a sense of religious ritual involved in film viewing, especially with Islamic
messages. I argue that Islamic films help Indonesian young people to develop their own
distinctive identity, being new reference apart from parents, formal education and friends. In
this regard, my paper explores the emergence of a new identity among Indonesian Muslim
youths, as they want to be both, modern and pious at the same. The paper also endeavours to
address the shortfall in scholarly accounts of Islamic pop culture within Indonesian studies.
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PANEL 23
A New Cold War History from Southeast Asian Perspectives
The Cold War in Southeast Asia is still an understudied field both in the general Cold War
and Area studies, partly due to the lopsided attention given to the Vietnam War and East
Asia as well as owing to the persistent global superpower-centre binary views toward the
War. Stepping away from the conventional views, this panel will showcase the current
research trend by bringing forward the locally narrated experiences and role of Southeast
Asian countries like Thailand and the Philippines during the second half of the twentieth
century. The panel will also bring a Southeast Asian perspective on the origin and outcome
of this globally staged war by placing the Southeast Asian countries as an active factor
instead of mere recipients and victims of the Cold War. By pursuing evolving local
perspectives on the global power competitions, this panel will insert new perspectives to the
general Cold War studies and set new trends of research in the Southeast Asian area studies
field for the years to come.
Conveners:
Dr. Ralf Emmers (S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang
Technological University (NTU), Singapore)
Dr. Sinae Hyun (Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore)
Session 1
Chair:
Dr. Ralf Emmers (S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang
Technological University (NTU), Singapore)
On ‘periodisation’ and the antecedent of the Cold War in Southeast Asia

Dr. Cheng Guan Ang (S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang
Technological University, Singapore)
Containment without Isolation: ASEAN and the Roots of Sino-U.S. Détente

Dr. Wen-Qing Ngoei (Nicholas D. Chabraja Center for Historical Studies, Northwestern
University)
Feeding Society, Building Community: The Role of Fishery Experts and Scientific
Networks in Cold War Asia, 1946-1952
Mr. Anthony David Medrano (Ph.D Candidate, Department of History, University of
Wisconsin-Madison)
The End of the Cold War and Decolonisation of the Philippines, 1991-1992
Dr. Daniel Wei Boon Chua (Research Fellow, S. Rajaratnam School of International
Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore)
Session 2: Thailand
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Chair:
Dr. Sinae Hyun, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Global Asia research cluster, School of
Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU),
Singapore
Interwar roots of the Cold War in Southeast Asia: The case of the Siamese anti-
communist policies
Alexandre Barthel (Ph.d Candidate, Department of History, Université de Caen Normandie)
The Making of ‘Free World’ Space in Cold War Bangkok

Dr. Matthew Phillips (Department of History and Welsh History, Aberystwyth University)
America’s Cold War, Thailand’s Cold War: Indigenization of the U.S. Anticommunist
Nation-Building
Dr. Sinae Hyun (Postdoctoral Fellow at the Global Asia research cluster, School of
Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU)
Session 1 Abstracts
On ‘Periodisation’ and the Antecedent of the Cold War in Southeast Asia

Dr. Cheng Guan Ang
(S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University,
Singapore)
This paper takes a leaf from Antony Best who noted that most Cold War historians of post-
war British diplomacy generally write as if the Cold War only arrived in the mid to late-
1940s without any pre- history. This paper argues that to understand the Cold War in
Southeast Asia, it is necessary to delve into the inter-war years (1919-1945). In the words of
Best, “surely if one is to make the case that the Soviet Union provided a profound challenge
to the certainties of the Western model of modernity based on liberal capitalism and that this
competition was primarily fought in Asia and Africa, it is necessary to give serious
consideration to how the non-communist world perceived the Bolshevik government and the
Comintern threat in the years before 1945. Only by undertaking such a venture can one
understand the ways in which the Soviet threat came to be seen in the early years of the
Orthodox Cold War era”. This argument is true for Southeast Asia as well. The paper thus
challenges the periodisation of the Southeast Asia Cold War drawing out the continuities
from 1919 to the early post-World War Two years.
Feeding Society, Building Community: The Role of Fishery Experts and Scientific
Networks in Cold War Asia, 1946-1952
Mr. Anthony David Medrano
(Ph.D Candidate, Department of History, University of Wisconsin-Madison)
At a regional meeting of fishery experts in Manila in 1952, Jose S. Camus, Philippine

Secretary of Agriculture and Natural Resources, remarked: “It is by the abundance of food
that my people and your people could be safe from the threatening tentacles and ugly sinews
of communism.” For the fishery experts who attended the fourth conference of the Indo-
Pacific Fisheries Council, Camus’s faith in fish reflected the growing significance of the
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ocean as a strategic domain in the early years of the Cold War. And yet, as Thomas
Robertson reminds us, “the environmental history of the Cold War is an understudied aspect
of both Cold War studies and environmental history.” This is an especially curious oversight
given that the industrialization of Asian marine fisheries was a Cold War project. What is
more, this project was directly linked to the organizing of a regional fisheries body in
Singapore in 1946, the founding of the Indo-Pacific Fisheries Council in Baguio City in
1948, and its annual meeting in Manila in 1952. This presentation thus considers the role of
fishery experts in building an ideological community of local scientists that exploited the
waters of Cold War Asia to new, unprecedented levels. By charting a history of the Indo-
Pacific Fisheries Council from 1946 to 1952, it traces how these experts were mobilized to
keep society and nature safe from the “sinews of communism.” Drawing on archival sources
from Manila and Singapore, the paper argues that the ocean, its fisheries, and the scientists
who studied them were instrumental in shaping the spatial contours and ideological
attachments of Cold War Asia in the mid-twentieth century. In this respect, the presentation
aims to open up the field of Cold War studies by connecting the histories of science and the
environment to the workings of politics and development.
The End of the Cold War and Decolonisation of the Philippines, 1991-1992
Dr. Daniel Wei Boon Chua
(Research Fellow, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological
University, Singapore)
The United States granted independence to the Philippines in 1946 but maintained control of
American military bases during the Cold War period. The existence of U.S. bases cast doubts
over true Filipino independence. With the expiring of the Military Bases Agreement and the
end of the Cold War conflict in 1991, the Philippine Senate cast the monumental vote to
cease American military presence in the country. The loss of bases in the Philippines, it was
feared, would lead to a complete withdrawal of American presence in Southeast Asia, which
was beginning to see greater Chinese influence in the region. Based on an analysis of records
from the U.S. and the Philippines, as well as oral accounts of Filipino officials, this paper
examines U.S. strategic thinking during the closing years of the Cold War, and how it
meshed with the political climate in the Philippines. By analysing American influence on
Philippine decision-making during the Cold War, this research argues that U.S. military
presence and alliance with the Philippines kept the latter dependent on U.S. defence
protection, and the complete withdrawal of U.S. forces after the Cold War marked the final
decolonisation of the Filipino people.
Session 2: Thailand Abstracts
Interwar roots of the Cold War in Southeast Asia: The case of the Siamese anti-
communist policies
Mr. Alexandre Barthel
(Ph.d Candidate, Department of History, Université de Caen Normandie)
The roots of the Cold War in Southeast Asia are traditionally situated in the second half of
the 1940’s. In the case of Siam, the November 1947 coup d’état and the return to power of
Marshal Plaek Phibunsongkhram the following year, are both perceived as corresponding to
the establishment of Siamese anti-communist policy. However, Siamese anti-communist
policies date back to the early 1920s. They provide an antecedent for post-World War II
“containment” measures. This article proposes to expose the aspects of the anti-communists
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policies in Siam during the interwar period and to evaluate its influence on the political
evolution of the kingdom. The first point of this study concerns the attitude of the “old
regime” toward the issue of the spread of “bolshevism” in the kingdom. The anti-communist
orientation of the absolute monarchy is observable at both internal and external levels. It
appeared in a context where European powers expressed real apprehension toward the
activities of the Communist International. Siamese anti-communism was apparent through
increasing repression, legislative measures, and collaboration with regional colonial powers.
The second point will deal with the influence of anti-communism in after June 1932
“revolution”. It will expose how instrumental the accusation of communism was in the
struggle between the supporters of the royal prerogatives and the supporters of the new
regime. It will also consider how anti-communism affected the practice of power of the
“revolutionary” People’s Party in the years between 1932 and 1937. The last point examined
here will be the apparent decline in importance of the communist issue from 1937 onward.
The last years before the invasion of Southeast Asia by Japanese forces were dominated by a
dramatic strengthening of the relations between Bangkok and Tokyo. The purpose of this
third part of the paper will be to study how the anti-communist policy of the Siamese
government was linked to its own pro-Japanese orientation.
The Making of ‘Free World’ Space in Cold War Bangkok

Dr. Matthew Phillips
(Aberystwyth University, UK)
From 1958, the Thai state mobilised cultural resources to secure an alliance with the United
States. As a sphere of peace, one part of this campaign was the assertion that it was in the
interest of Bangkok’s consumers to defend the country against communism. To achieve this,
spaces were created that suggested a relationship between the promotion of Thai culture and
‘Free World’ membership. The proliferation of art galleries, tourist spectacles, handicraft
showrooms, hotels and shopping centres all provided new spaces from which to understand
the Cold War. This paper will explore these spaces as important sites of an emerging ‘Free
World’ culture globally. It will consider how these spaces provided pathways through the
city, upon which various forms of diplomatic engagement associated with Free World
membership might occur.
America’s Cold War, Thailand’s Cold War: Indigenization of the U.S. Anticommunist
Nation-Building
Dr. Sinae Hyun
(Nanyang Technological University, Singapore)
Thailand was one of the closest wartime allies of the U.S. from the late Pacific War years
and their special relationship continued throughout the Cold War. As a beneficiary of the
American Cold War nation-building programs underpinned by modernization and
counterinsurgency policies, Thai ruling elites actively utilized this collaborative mechanism
to prepare the basis of their own power domination. This presentation therefore looks at the
Thai collaborating elite’s “indigenization” of the American anticommunist nation-building
programs to better understand the ways in which the U.S. government’s intended foreign
policies entailed unintended consequences in Thailand and largely in Southeast Asia during
the Cold War. For a sharper analysis, it examines the context, conduct and consequence of
the Thai military elite and royal family’s transformation of the American “development for
security” policies in to their own nation-building programs between 1957-1973. Based on the
analysis, I will argue that the American Cold War system effectively served the Thai ruling
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elite’s agendas of consolidating Thai nation-state under royalist nationalism. In this way, the
presentation challenges the conventional Cold War binarism and highlights the significance
of including the narratives of locally practiced Cold War system into the general Cold War
studies. (195 words)
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PANEL 24
Islam and Security in Southeast Asia
ISIS: A new threat to ASEAN and Southeast Asian government policies?

Dr. Javier Gil Perez
(Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. Universidad Pontificia de Comillas. Madrid,
Spain)
This paper analyses and explains the current impact of Islamic state in Southeast Asian
countries and the response implemented by ASEAN. The goal of this paper is to assess the
intensity of the threat and analyse the policies implemented by ASEAN and other affected
countries in the region. ISIS has become a new factor of instability in Southeast Asia. We
already witness the present of old insurgencies in countries like the Philippines and Thailand
or Islamic terrorism in Indonesia. And the rise of ISIS has put into question even more the
security architecture of ASEAN to combat this transnational threat showing the internal
weaknesses of this organization.
Political Islam and Islamism in Southeast Asia: The Rise of ISIS

Ms. Neda Jebelly
(Asia Pacific University)
The political influence of Islam is increasing in South East Asia. Despite the fact that
Southeast Asian Islam is broadly a moderate strain, but in the past decade political Islam in
this region has been accompanied by militancy and radicalism. In fact Southeast Asia has
experienced dangerous terrorist groups such as Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines and Jammah
Islamyah in Indonesia. In 1995, Abu Sayyaf group killed more than 50 people in Southern
Philippines. In 2002 and 2005, The Bali terrorist attacks caused more than 200 dead. These
terrorist operation plus a dozens of other Al Qaeda-alleged attacks are evidence that Islam in
Southeast Asia is prone to get influence of Middle East radicalism.
The rise of ISIS on the other hand has represented a new chapter of radicalism and
extremism in Southeast Asia and has raised new security concerns in Southeast Asia
particularly for those with Muslim majority population. According to the official reports
more than 200 Southeast Asian jihadists have already joined ISIS in Syria and Iraq. In
addition, several local radical Islamic groups which were previously inspired by al-Qaeda
publicly pledged their allegiance to the Islamic State. The similarities between the former
challenge of Al Qaeda and the threat of ISIS has increased awareness among Southeast
Asian authorities over devastating terrorism legacy of ISIS. In compare with Al Qaeda, ISIS
is more organized, well founded and more sophisticated so its ideology could be more
appealing in Southeast Asia. Therefore earlier decade of militant activities in Southeast Asia
has left some radical networks which can be activated now by ISIS sympathizers. The
current research strives to examine and evaluate the threat of ISIS in the region with focusing
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on Malaysia and Indonesia as two majority Muslims countries in the region.
ISIS and Southeast Asia? – not so quickly, We Won’t Get Fooled Again
Dr. Tom Smith
(University of Portsmouth based at Royal Air Force College Cranwell)
In the years after 9/11 Southeast Asia was portrayed as the vulnerable second front in the war
on terror. A small but influential and committed groups of media savvy academic authors,
security experts and journalists told a willing audience in the region and elsewhere, that Al
Qaeda were supposedly using various Southeast Asian Muslim rebellions as sanctuaries or
breeding grounds for their global jihad. While many of these claims were unfounded at the
time they were made, and have been well criticised by an important few willing and able to
challenge the status quo of the second front, they never the less remained ‘truths’,
transmitted by traditional media outlets under the guise of credible authors with government
support. Despite criticisms of the method many ‘academics’ sought to connect the region to
particularly western fears After Bali, the claims that have become ‘culturalized’ and the
jihadists in paradise idea persists.
Fifteen years later (though there has been little lull in this trend) the same claims of a
global jihadist menace active in the local insurgencies of Mindanao in the Southern
Philippines and Thailand’s Deep South amongst others are been renewed. This time ISIS
replaces Al Qaeda as the in-vogue terror network. Many of these claims are made again and
by the very same individuals, using the same flimsy evidence, and often on the same media
outlets.
Over this period new media and social media has presented both a challenge and an
opportunity for the parties involved. The second front proponents maintain credibility by
using the traditional press while also branching out into their own new media platforms,
notably Maria Ressa and her company Rappler regularly claim ISIS connections to the
region. While these claims are still unsubstantiated, some research is beginning counter that
communities who live amongst this conflict do not share these same fears. On social media
the frames of reference to Mindanao have largely been local and while the portrayal of
international jihadists is inescapable, new media ecologies offer communities an outlet to
express their rejection of this portrayal and their own interpretation.
Islamic Vigilantes in Indonesia: A Threat for Religious Pluralism or a Spent Force?

Dr. Tomáš Petrů, Research Fellow (Oriental Institute, Czech Academy of Sciences)
Quasi-official political vigilantism is a well-known and deeply rooted phenomenon is

Indonesia. It has been in place since as early as the Soekarno era and reached its apex during
the Soeharto regime, when the state usurped the monopoly of power. After the downfall of
Soeharto, liberalization of the political space followed and the state lost the total power grip.
As a result of that, the gangsters-cum-vigilantes known as preman ceased to be agents of
state and have become a power tool of competing interest groups. In recent years, these have
been successful in gaining influence drawing on a new trend among the more sophisticated
entities to affiliate themselves with strongly religious or ethnic identities. This has given
them a degree of legitimacy and a new modus operandi. Thus, Indonesian civil society has
been facing actions and threats from the well-organized and well-connected gangsters in
Muslim robes such as the Islamic Defenders´ Front (FPI) or the ethnic-based Betawi
Brotherhood´s Forum (FBR). On the other hand, after quite a few years of their operating in
public space almost uncurbed, the long-silent public attitude has begun to change, for their
aggression against minorities has both exceeded the limits and poses a clear threat to
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Indonesia´s pluralism and religious tolerance. Also, the shift in attitude might be reflecting
on the change among Indonesian leaders, including the president of Indonesia himself, Mr
Joko Widodo, who intentionally surrounds himself with colleagues from non-Muslim and
even non-pribumi communities, possibly paving a path for a new trend in Indonesian
politics. The question to be resolved therefore is whether this pluralist stream receives more
overall support (it is getting some e.g. from NU circles who promote the concept of Islam
Nusantara) and manages to maintain Indonesia´s character as a religiously tolerant country
or whether this effort will be rolled over by the ongoing ultra-conservative, anti-pluralist
wave. This pattern has already come to the fore in provinces like Banten or West Java, the
result of which is a high degree of intolerance towards religious minorities such as Shi´i
Muslims and Ahmadis in these regions.
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PANEL 25
The Tai of the Shan States and the Shan Diaspora
The Shan are a Tai people living in the Shan states of Burma (Myanmar). Many live in
exile in neighboring countries in Asia or are part of a wider diaspora in Europe, North
America and Australia. This panel looks broadly at Shan history, religion and culture.
Papers focusing on contemporary political and religious issues facing the Shan in the
Myanmar of 2016 will be welcome. Papers that make comparisons with neighboring Tai
cultures in Laos, south-west China and north Thailand will also be considered.
Convener: Susan Conway
Drums, Frogs and the Imagined Khün Nation: the Celebration of Songkran Festival
at Chiang Tung
Klemens Karlsson
(Konstfack, University College of Arts, Crafts and Design, Stockholm)
This paper highlights the importance of the drum, the frog and guardian spirits in the
culture of Chiang Tung. It will describe the Songkran festival from observations made
during the years 2011, 2013 and 2016. Songkran is a celebration of New Year throughout
Southeast Asia but in Chiang Tung is also a manifestation of place, belonging and ethnic
identity. Prominent in the four-day festival is a twenty-four-hour drumming session by
the Tai Loi minority group that takes place in the town of Chiang Tung and the making of
a female spirit-frog prepared from clay and mud by the riverbank. These events express
the history of the nation, and a desire for independence, sovereignty and financial
security in a desired Tai nation. It also highlights connections between Songkran and
fertility.
Shan culture and traditions in Old Shan script

Professor Sai Kham Mong
(Director of the Centre for Tai Studies, Taunggyi Administrative Headquarters, Shan
State)
Old Shan script has 18 consonants and 8 vowels but there are insufficient tone marks for
the 6 tones used in Shan speech. Scribes called Maw Khwam developed a writing system
to overcome this deficiency. It was their role to read the texts during religious
ceremonies. Texts were written in rhyme and included religious doctrine and Jataka
stories and histories of the Shan people, Shan poetry, folklore, astronomy, cosmology and
medicine. They were recorded in folding manuscripts (parabaik) and on paper scrolls and
kept in Buddhist monastery libraries and commissioned for reading in private houses.
When the British arrived in Shan state in the 1890s they discovered vast collections of
manuscripts and paper scrolls in every part of the country and recorded that the Shan
were a book-loving people. Maw Khawm continued to read and write old Shan script and
the government supported its use. In the 1960s a new Shan script was introduced and
adopted by university and college educated Shan. This caused a split between the
promoters of old and new Shan script and the government eventually banned the use of
both scripts. However, in rural communities educated Shan teachers have continued to
use new Shan script. This has led to old Shan writing culture and old Shan words fading
from use. The abandonment of old Shan script is a great loss to Shan culture and
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tradition.
Hindu Culture in Burma: 3rd to 11th Century

Sai San Aik
(Shan Literature & Culture Association, Yangon, Myanmar)
This paper examines the history of Hindu culture in Burma from the 3rd. to 11th century.
Evidence of Hindu presence comes from 11th century Hindu temples in Bagan. Hindu and
Pali words were in common use from that time, for example the word (Iravati river)
comes from Hindu God’s elephant name. The migration of Hindu people to Ta-Kong,
Ha-Lin, Vishnu, and Sri Ksetra is recorded in ancient Burmese chronicles. Burmese
manuscripts contain Hindi words like ျပ (Puru), as found in Burmese history books.
The Burmese king Anuruddha’s capital had thirteen royal titles including
ျပ ဂါရာမ (Puru Garama). There is one more Pu-Gam (Puru Garama) a Hindu
village settlement over one hundred miles north of Mandalay in Shan state. Puru Garama
literally translates as Puru Village and called Anya Pu-gam in Burmese language. The
author visited three towns that have Puru names (ျပ ), established before the 11th
century in the regions of Homalinn, Sagaing and Data-Oo.
A Shan Ritual
Suriya Smutkupt
(Chiang Mai University)
This paper examines a Shan ritual that involves a spool of female hair tied under a white
umbrella during the poi san long (ordination ritual) that took place in a Tai monastery in
Northern Shan State during the period of 26 March 2015. I have learned that this spool
of hair belonged to a village lady. I interviewed her at her village house. She cut off her
long hair and offered it to Lord Buddha during the ordination ritual. As a poor women in
poor health, she hoped for mang-lha-la (merit) be free of a painful disease. She had no
money to donate towards the ordination ritual and used her hair instead. I also found
spools of long hair behind senior monk chairs in the main ritual hall of two village
monasteries. Two spools of hair were left from the ordination ritual of the previous year.
This paper explores the reasons why Tai women cut off their hair to offer to Lord Buddha
and if it is an act of Tai feminism.
Representing the Spirits: Iconography of Shan and Lan Na Supernaturalism

Dr. Susan Conway
(Centre of Southeast Asian Studies, SOAS)
Spirits are often thought of as mystical entities without form. A desire to go beyond the
level of abstraction has led to a tradition of tangible images that inspire emotional
responses. They include awe and fear, desire and love, fascination and repulsion. In
Southeast Asia spirits are represented in sculpture and painting and relevant to this
research, in supernatural formulae in mulberry paper manuscripts. This paper will focus
on iconography in Shan and Lan Na (northern Thai) manuscripts and explore belief
systems that underpin the representation of mystical entities. It will demonstrate how
artists draw on the iconography of Buddhism, and astrology and cosmology combined
with numerology and “magic” chants written in local scripts.
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Understanding Local Practices of ‘Collecting’ Focusing on Shan Musical
Instruments at the British Museum (BM)
Gumring Hkangda
(PhD candidate, SOAS, University of London)
The Shan collection at the British Museum (BM), which number nearly 500 items and
includes objects of daily use, textiles, religious objects, weaponry, miniatures models and
musical instruments, are significant in various aspects. Focusing chiefly on Shan musical
instruments this paper will argue that these objects are valuable in their ability to
highlight aspects of local practices of ‘collecting’, particularly in reference to household-
scale family activities. The analysis here will present how the activities of daily living
can inform specific forms of object ownership and perceptions of value. It will also
demonstrate that examining the related cultural activities such as festivals and
celebrations can elicit more about object information, in terms of analysing accumulation
of family heirlooms and diverse modes of object circulation.
A Town, a Myth and a Shan Manuscript: Connecting Links

Dr. Jotika Khur-Yearn
(SOAS, University of London)
Many Shan folk stories have connection with certain geographic regions and some of
them even have archaeological sites involving heroic characters, landmarks and beliefs.
Here, I would like to pick a popular Shan folk story, which can be possibly considered as
a myth or a semi-true story, for a case study. There is a town called Mong Pan, which is
located in southern Shan State of the Union of Myanmar/Burma. And, there is a story
entitled Nang Yi Hseng Kaw, which has geographical links with a few places in the
surrounding areas of Mong Pan. Then there is a Shan manuscript on the story of Nang Yi
Hseng Kaw, which is one of the treasures in the holdings of SOAS Library. With a gold
gilded beautiful cover, the manuscript is now being exhibited in the Brunei Gallery of
SOAS, University of London. This paper examines the links between the town, the myth
and the manuscript above, and will also discuss local beliefs and cultural practices related
to the myth of Nang Yi Hseng Kaw as found in the manuscript and other sources.
The Magic Square in Malay Manuscripts

Dr. Farouk Yahya
(Leverhulme Research Assistant (Islamic Art and Culture, Ashmolean Museum of Art
and Archaeology, University of Oxford)
The magic square is a grid whereby the sum of the numbers in each row and column total
the same amount. It is believed to have originated from China and later spread to South
and Southeast Asia, the Islamic world and Europe. Malay magic and divination
manuscripts contain many instructions on how they can be used for healing, protection
and sorcery. This paper will look at the magic square in Malay manuscripts, and
investigate any possible connections with other cultures of Southeast Asia such as the
Shan.
Composing Sound Identity in Shan Long Drum

Oradi Inkhong,
(Department of Anthropology, Cornell University)
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This paper explores the construction of identity of Shan migrants from Burma in Chiang Mai
Province, northern Thailand through their music, specifically focusing on puje drum, a Shan
long drum that is generally played in Shan religious and cultural festivals. Puje drum plays a
vital role in creating sounds that distinguish the Shan from other ethnic groups. The drum
sounds also evoke memories of place, which remind Shan migrants of their motherland.
Apart from signaling Shan-ness, puje drum performances are also defined by the Shan
migrants as a part of Thai-Lanna (northern Thai) culture. As ethnographic evidence shows,
the similarities between Shan and northern Thai languages and cultures create the perception
that they are ethnic kin or cousins. However, Shan migrants still have experienced
discrimination and exploitation. They are treated as “aliens” and serve as low-wage and
lower-skilled labourers by the Thai. This complex and contradictory relationship between the
Shan and the Thai has profoundly affected how Shan migrants construct their identity. On
the one hand, Shan migrant identity as represented through music could signify an attempt at
assimilating with the host land; meanwhile, the acknowledgement of cultural borders could
also create feelings of alienation and antagonism to some extent. This study seeks to answer
how Shan migrants perform their music to construct their identity in ways that negotiate
subjugating discourses in the host land. Ultimately, this paper will provide a deeper
understanding of the complexity of migrant identity constructions in a transnational context.
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PANEL 26
Curating Southeast Asia
Objects move between different spaces at different times in their lives. In Southeast Asia
what start out for example as meritorious gifts made by a donor to a temple, may later
become part of a state museum collection. The meaning of these objects shifts in accordance
with the dominant narratives that are constructed in these difference spaces. A rich biography
develops around these objects, although much of this remains undocumented, relegated to
the realm of oral history. The polysemic nature of objects remains a challenge to curators
working in conventional museums. As Ivan Gaskell notes in the movement of ritual objects
to secular spaces: “…art museums have proved to be very effective means of expunging the
sacred quality of objects” (Gaskell 2003: 149). Different people are responsible for these
movements, including artists, donors, ritual specialists and temple keepers, art dealers and
the expanding range of curators including institutional and independent curators and artist-
curators. These agents engage collectively in a cycle of inter-related activities involving the
production, reproduction, collection, ritual accumulation, care, veneration, display and
interpretation of objects as well as places. What can this diverse set of cultural activities say
about the nature of curating in and of Southeast Asia? What kinds of spaces do these
activities take place in and how do these shape curatorial decision-making? Additionally,
what are the implications of this for the way meaning/s are generated and received? This
panel seeks to contribute to new museologies that look beyond conventional museum and
curatorial parameters. Comparative museologies that have emerged in recent years eg.
Christina Kreps (2003) and Shaila Bhatti (2012) are a starting point. This broad approach
includes curators, academics, contemporary artists, archivists and cultural mediators working
in Southeast Asia or with Southeast Asian collections.
Convener:
Ms. Heidi Tan (PhD candidate, Department of History of Art and Archaeology, SOAS)
Panel Chair:
Professor Ashley Thompson, Hiram W. Woodward Chair in Southeast Asian Art,

(Department of History of Art and Archaeology, SOAS)
Discussant:
Dr. Louise Tythacott (Pratapaditya Pal Senior Lecturer, Department of History of Art and
Archaeology, SOAS)
I. MULTIPLICITY and MATERIALITY
Curating the lives of the “Alodawpyi Buddha” in Myanmar

Ms. Heidi Tan
(PhD candidate, Department of History of Art and Archaeology, SOAS)
This paper explores an image of the Buddha in Myanmar that has come be known as the
‘Alodawpyi’ (wish-fulfilling) Buddha’. The image rose to prominence through a replica that
was installed in the temple of that name in Bagan. This 11th century building was restored in
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the early 90s through the patronage of a high-ranking politician and a charismatic monk, who
inspired a large following of Buddhists. Replication of sacred images is not unusual in the
Buddhist tradition, but the ways in which it has been undertaken in Myanmar has been little
studied. The motivations for making replicas as a curatorial strategy that extended across
both museum and temple in Bagan, is the starting point for this paper. Who facilitates the
replication and why? What happens to the original, when images proliferate to nationwide
proportions? Can we speak of “the Alodawpyi Buddha” any longer? To ask these questions
is to trace the journeys of these images through different contexts - artist’s
workshop/temple/museum/souvenir shop/domestic shrine. The replica and the many
reproductions that it later spawned, share a common identity, but their own lives take on new
meanings. What does it mean to speak of the multivalent nature of an (original) object, if its
biography includes endless replications? This paper is based on recent fieldwork conducted
as part of a postgraduate research project on curating the sacred and the evolving context of
the pagoda museum in Myanmar.
Curating Cham Art: Contextualizing Replicas as Substitutes for Devotional Icons

Ms. Duyen Nguyen
(Educator, Da Nang Museum of Cham Sculpture; PhD candidate, Department of History of
Art and Archaeology, SOAS)
The biography of an object is not simply confined to being "an account of its birth” (David,
1999: 11), but rather the sum of the whole process of its production, exchange and
consumption (Kopytoff, 1986). Religious objects, throughout the different stages of their
existence and through the context of how they connect with their observers during these
stages, acquire different connections, meanings and significances that make up their
biographies (Gosden and Marshall, 1999: 170). From this perspective, my paper examines
the art historical and museographical lives of two of the statues in the holdings of the
Museum of Cham Sculpture (also known as the Cham Museum): a bronze female deity
discovered by chance at the Đồng Dương Buddhist monastery; and the sandstone Ganesha
excavated at the Hindu temple of Mỹ Sơn B3. Both the original statues are considered as
devotional icons as well as star exhibits at the museum, which caused the birth of two
replicas that this study discusses. The replica of the bronze deity is exhibited at the very
center of the Dong Duong Buddhist gallery while that of Ganesha stands on a plinth in the
museum’s courtyard for public worship. On the basis of these two case studies, I would
argue that any religious object has accumulated a unique biography from the time of its
fabrication, consecration, and later transferal to a museum for the purpose of safekeeping,
preservation, artistic contemplation and religious veneration. I hence question the role of
curators in making/shifting the meaning(s) of objects in the museum setting and in creating
replicas to replace religious objects. That the Cham Museum exhibits replicas of the most
revered objects, reflects the importance given to conservation and their educational value.
However religious significance and the spiritual needs of viewers have become increasingly
important curatorial considerations.
The Materiality in the Art of Sopheap Pich: a Matter of Authenticity

Ms. Stéphanie Xatart
(Independent Researcher, Singapore)
By focusing on the materiality of the art of Sopheap Pich, this presentation examines issues
surrounding the negotiation of fluid identities, and proposes to reappraise materiality as a
salient art historical concept. In particular, I discuss the various ways materiality can be
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envisaged and reappraised as a cogent tool for the art historian and for the curator interested
in the art produced today and in the recent past in Southeast Asia. It examines materials,
artistic processes and aesthetics as generative of meaning as well as strategic tools for the
artist to subvert and defy overly simplified categorisation. A critical reading of materiality
questions the notion of authenticity, and permits to produce multiple subjectivities by
slipping between the categories of tradition, national, global and indeed the authentic. Since
1989 commonly acknowledged as the “global turn”, hopes to transcend identity crisis have
been formulated, but as a recent study has shown, branding and stereotypes still loom large
in the global art world as well as at the national level. How Pich employs ubiquitous
materials such as bamboo, rattan and wire in his native Cambodia to negotiate the burden
and expectations that fall onto him as one of Southeast Asia's most prominent artists is
considered.
Session II. REPATRIATION
Returning “Home”: The Journey and Afterlife of Repatriated Southeast Asian Art
Dr. Melody Rod-ari
(Department of Art and Art History, Loyola Marymount University)
Art museums big and small, private and public, ethnographic or encyclopedic in nature all
contain within them objects that were made long ago and often far away. Increasingly,
museums in the West have been asked to return objects to their places of origin. The call for
repatriation of such objects are often couched in language intending to restore cultural
heritage and to unite fragmented works of art to one another or to their original sites;
however, the desire for their return is often politically motivated. This paper examines the
full life of selected Southeast Asian artworks — such as the recently returned Prasat Chen
sculptures from the Norton Simon Museum, The Metropolitan Museum, the Cleveland
Museum of Art and Sotheby’s, as well as the Ban Chiang pottery raids in Southern
California of 2008. Specifically, this paper will examine these objects from their ritual lives
at “home” to their journey to Western collections during the colonial and post-colonial
periods, and their later exhibition in museums as objects of art and for education. The paper
concludes with their repatriation and new functions as "national treasures."
Reinterpreting Narratives: Khmer Sculptures and Contemporary Art Practices

Ms. Loredana Pazzini-Paracciani
(Independent Curator – Southeast Asian Contemporary Art)
When Cambodia was plunged into civil war between 1967 and 1975, the country was
heavily looted of its national treasures, among these, sculptures from the Koh Ker
archaeological site. Such objects of historical and religious significance to the Cambodian
people, displaced from their ‘place of origin’, entered different contexts in museum and
private collections. This paper examines how the multiplicity of narratives of cultural objects
can contribute to their contemporary reinterpretations, taking as a point of departure the
Prasat Chen sculptures that were recently repatriated from the Metropolitan Museum of Art
in New York. Tracing the conceptual translation of these objects, this paper focuses on artist
Leang Seckon’s Indochina War series, produced for and recently shown in a group
exhibition of contemporary Southeast Asian art in New York. Inspired by the sculptures’
passage from New York to Cambodia, and coinciding with the artist’s journey from
Cambodia to New York for the exhibition, Seckon interweaves the dominant interpretation
with his own of the sculptures as the locus of history. More specifically this paper offers a
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dual approach to reinterpreting narratives, on the one hand, giving “voice” to the artist as the
mediator between his creative process and, in this case, the return home of the sculptures.
This will be done in the panel through a video recording of Seckon’s presentation of his
works. On the other hand, by featuring Seckon’s contemporary reinterpretation of the Prasat
Chen sculptures in the New York show this paper explores the curator’s role as negotiator of
meanings. This paper foregrounds issues of multiple narratives and the iconic, as well as any
intrinsic significance that “reinterpreted relics” may hold in the setting of the art gallery,
possibly stretching the parameters of traditional museum interpretation.
Apa Jika, The Mis-Placed Comma

Dr. Erika Tan
(Artist, Curator and Lecturer, 4D Pathway, BAFA, Central Saint Martins, University of the
Arts London)
“When men die, they enter into history. When statues die they enter into art. This botany of
death is what we call culture.” (Statues Also Die, Resnais et al. 1953).
Taking as a starting point the opening lines of the film Statues Also Die, the presentation
uses the figure of a forgotten Malay weaver, Halimah Binti Abdullah, who participated in the
1924 Empire Exhibition in Wembley. A minor figure in the exhibition histories of Malaya,
she exists as a series of footnotes, gaining historical attention only for the act of a premature
or untimely death, in London and away from home. Her remains are located in an unmarked
grave in Brockwood, Woking. The product of her labour may potentially be amongst the
collections held at the Victoria & Albert Museum, and an incomplete textile on an
incomplete loom may hold the record to her last creative act. The presentation explores
Halimah’s status as both object and subject, and the possible forms of repatriation that might
occur in the re-use and re-visiting of a minor historical figure, through the appropriating acts
of an artist today. Apa Jika, The Mis-Placed Comma is a film commission for the National
Gallery Singapore. Initiated as part of the Gallery’s inaugural launch in 2015, the work seeks
a symbolic ‘repatriation’ of Halimah, (and of weaving and pre-colonial cultural production)
attempting to insert her into the discourses of modernity that have so far excluded her.
Finding a ‘home’ for Halimah, or a mechanism to re-home her becomes the focus of the art
work and The National Gallery Singapore becomes a strategic site in which to do this. The
question as to her status as exhibition object (statue/art) or historic subject (men/history)
returns us to the quote above and questions the repatriation endeavour.
Interpretation of overlapping spaces through the mise-en-scène of Arin Rungjang’s

“Mongkut”
Ms. Marisa Phandharakrajadej
(PhD candidate / Université Paris 3 Sorbonne Nouvelle)
The multimedia installation "Mongkut" was part of Satellite 8 “Enter the Stream at the
Turn”, a seasonal curatorial programme that included works by four artists from South East
Asia. Curated by Erin Gleeson, this took place in 2015 at Maison d’art Bernard Anthonioz,
Nogent sur Marne, France. The artist Rungjang was inspired by an unknown event in the
history of Franco-Thai diplomatic relations in which a royal gift in the form of a crown was
presented by King Rama IV to Emperor Napoleon III in 1861. Rungjang reproduced a new
crown based on a three-dimensional scan of a replica crown which had been preserved at
Château de Fontainebleau. This replica had been made by an artisan in 2015 who was King
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Mongkut's great-great-great-grand-daughter. The double meanings of "Mongkut" are
relevant to the crown (known as mongkut in Thai) and King Rama IV (also known as King
Monkut). The crown became the centre-piece of the exhibition along with two video
installations, a poster of the original crown and a collection of decorative replica crown
fragments. This part of the history of Thailand raises questions about today’s complex
foundation of Thai-ness. The exhibition, hence, leads us to reflect on our self-identity
through the virtue of temporal and cognitive spaces. This paper aims to analyse various
levels of discourse that have been produced in terms of texts, images, gestures and
scenography employed in the display of the socio-politico art object in this show.
Session III. SPACE AND PLACE
The Periodical as Space of Aesthetic and Political Contestations

Dr. Chương-Đài Võ
(Researcher, Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong)
Before the development of galleries, museums and universities in Vietnam, the periodical
served as the main platform for the construction of ideas about literature and visual art. As
the most established of the artistic practices, literature held prominence and the periodical
was a meeting ground wherein writers and artists constructed, debated and refined their
positions about modern and contemporary art and literature. This paper compares Nhân Văn
(Humanities) and Sáng Tạo (Illumination), two periodicals that were published in 1950s
Hanoi and Saigon, respectively. Published after the Geneva Accords and the official split of
Vietnam into North and South, these periodicals offer a window into how writers and artists
vigorously debated the meaning and direction of the arts and the humanities, the relationship
between aesthetics and politics, and the role of artists and writers in nation-building.
Tambay – ‘hanging out’

Ms. Dayang Yraola
(Independent Curator, Manila and postgraduate student, Department of Cultural Studies,
Lingnan University)
In 2014, my curatorial platform, Project Glocal embarked on a short-term residency program

called Transi(en)t. Transi(en)t program has two editions —in Penang, Malaysia in August
and Escolta, Manila (Philippines) in November. Both venues are heritage sites. Both editions
were participated in by 5 to 15 local and foreign artists. Artists were either assigned to
activate an abandoned space (eg: installation or performance in a ruin); do an open studio in
an active space (eg: illustrator in a postcard shop); interact with an active space (eg:
installation in an office building); and as an assignment for everybody — they should bring
in something from or about the heritage site or the heritage of the site in their work. Since the
beginning of Project Glocal in 2011, the project was aimed towards finding out how artists
would respond to the situation of communal art production (and later in Transi(en)t program,
this was extended to their living conditions too). Inspired by “tambay” (hanging out or
informal gathering, usually without purposeful objective, and usually in common areas or
public places) observed in cities and towns in Southeast Asia (particularly in the Philippines,
Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar, Indonesia and Malaysia), Project Glocal later challenged the
idea of a solo author for artworks and the solitary studio practice, as it favoured collaborative
and/or conversing production. Transi(en)t program therefore is an exercise for contemporary
inter/multi/new media artists to “tambay” in heritage sites. This program is an exercise on
how else heritage sites can be placed in the current creative conversation besides
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contributing nostalgia. Further the program emphasized the idea of negotiation as the artists’
studios extended to the lived streets and spaces of these heritage sites, with all possible
demographics contributing to (or at least observing) their production. The proposed
presentation will contain experiences in inquiring about artists production with particular
reference to the situation of “tambay”. “What would artists produce when they are in
“tambay”?” And by extension, “Can artists produce art in “tambay”?” and “What kind of art
is produced in “tambay”?”
Curating and Collecting Contemporary Southeast Asian Art: A Case Study of Entang
Wiharso
Ms. Christine Cocca
(Director, Yogyakarta Open Studio)
Dr. Mary-Louise Totton

(Associate Professor of Art, Frostic School of Art, Western Michigan University)
Entang Wiharso lives and works literally just a couple of rice fields away from the grand
ninth-century Hindu temple complex of Loro Jonggrang in Prambanan, Central Java,
Indonesia. A graduate of the Indonesian Institute of Arts, Yogyakarta, Wiharso’s work melds
his Javanese heritage with the outlook of a progressive and worldly thinker. Wiharso’s
challenge has been to successfully engage with the local, national, and international art
worlds, which have often required him to navigate outside the parameters of museums —
crisscrossing the globe to show his work — in order to ultimately have his work “land” in
museum collections. Analysis of Entang Wiharso’s career illustrates how Southeast Asian
artists of today must assimilate into the furious pace of the current global art world. This
paper intends to compare how Wiharso’s work has been collected, curated, exhibited,
performed, and received in various parts of the world. We will look at the practice of
exhibiting in private and public museums and how artists are selected to participate in
biennales and art fairs. Outside of museums, how gallerists, curators, art critics and other
adjudicators function to aid the careers of Southeast Asian artists will be also be considered.
Entang’s own studio practice is critically at the hub of all of this activity. Art making and
supervision and planning with assistants and artisans who help with production must be
coordinated with promotion, publicity, publications, plus packing and shipping of the work
around the world. Social and business interactions with art professionals and fellow artists
are balanced alongside contract and proposal preparations, archiving and record keeping.
Artwork may be shown in several venues around the globe prior to its purchase by a museum
or collector. The two authors of this paper have been friends and colleagues for more than
twenty years and both have known Entang since 1994. Our collaboration on this study is
meant to highlight the highs and lows of dealing with the busy career of a prominent
contemporary Southeast Asian artist — with a special focus on his interactions with
museums around the world.
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PANEL 27
Migrants in Southeast Asian Societies
with a particular issue, but instead are free to explore their topics more broadly.
Convener:
Dr. Yi Li (SOAS)
Playing with Words: The Construction of Refugee ASEAN

Irawan Jati
(Universitas Islam Indonesia)
Ms. Emily Sunderland

(University of Queensland)
ASEAN is playing with words among migrant, immigrants, asylum seekers, trafficked
people, and smuggled people to describe the immense forced human movement from
Myanmar. It is unfortunate to see ASEAN unwillingness to entitle the term refugee where all
of the necessary aspects are fulfilled. ASEAN has taken too cautious political linguistic
measure by evading the word “refugee” in their political dictionary. This article would like
to examine the questions: what is the construction of refugee in ASEAN politics? Why is
ASEAN reluctant to entitled refugee status for the Rohingyans? And what are the political
consequences, if any, for ASEAN to bare if it were granted the status? The discussion of this
paper will be presented in Constructivist perspective approach. It argues that the construction
of refugee in ASEAN is greatly influenced by its values that construct its collective identity.
In this respect, ASEAN is neglecting its role identity as the defender of human rights. As the
consequence, ASEAN will lose its credibility to comply with international human rights
regime.
Friends or Foes: Perception of the Thais Towards Indochinese Refugees During the
Cold War
Dr. Morragotwong Phumplab
(Faculty of Liberal Arts, Thammasat University)
At the dawn of the Cold War the relations between Southeast Asian countries were
dramatically shaken. They separated into three sides consisting of neutral countries, the U.S.
alliances, and the Soviet and Chinese allies. Thailand supported the U.S. and played a
significant role as a base for U.S. troops. Similar to the Philippines, Thai soldiers were also
sent to Indochina. An almost thirty-year-protracted war in Indochina caused numerous dead
of civilians and soldiers. In 1975, the Phnom Penh, Saigon and Vientiane governments all
fell to the Communists. This led to the emigration of tremendous numbers of Indochinese
evacuees travelling to many countries where Thailand was one of the first destinations. At
the state level, the Paliamentary proceedings from 1975 to 1980 showed huge debates
between members of the House of Representative regarding on how Thailand should position
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herself relative to this problem. In the public sphere, the newspapers also wrote about Thai
opinion regarding aiding these people after the influx of consecutive human waves from
Indochina. Interestingly, the debates regarding refugee assistance have always been a hot
issue in Southeast Asia, besides the current issue of the Rohingya refugees. This paper
presents perceptions of refugees and the huge debate in Thai society both at the
governmental and popular levels regarding how Thailand should position itself regarding
humanitarian assistance to the refugees along the borderlands and maritime boundary after
the fall of Saigon, the fall of the Lao Kingdom and the emergence of the Khmer Rouge. It
historically recalls the crossroads of thoughts in Thai society that point to the survival or
tragedy stories of these refugees.
Baseline Study On Human Trafficking Crimes Case Study: Mapping Human

Trafficking Crimes in East Java Province, Indonesia.
Ni Komang Desy Arya Pinatih, MSi
(Brawijaya University)
Transnational crime is a crime with “unique” feature because the activities benefit the lack of
state monitoring on the borders so dealing with it can’t be based on conventional engagement
but also need joint operation with other countries. On the other hand with the flow of
globalization and the growth of information technology and transportation, states become
more vulnerable against transnational crime threats especially human trafficking. This paper
would examine transnational crime activities, especially human trafficking in Indonesia.
With the case study on the mapping of human trafficking crime in East Java province,
Indonesia, this paper would try to analyze how the difference in human trafficking crime
trends at the national and sub-national levels. The findings of this research were first, there’s
difference in human trafficking crime trends whereas at the national level the trend is rising,
while at sub-national (province) level the trend is declining. Second, regarding the decline of
human trafficking number, it’s interesting to see how the method to decrease human
trafficking crime in East Jawa province in order to reduce transnational crime accounts in the
region. These things are hopefully becoming a model for transnational crimes engagement in
other regions to reduce human trafficking numbers as much as possible.
Uncharted Ordeals: Trials and Tribulations of Refugees from East Pakistan

Dr. Sravasti Guha Thakurta
(Jogesh Chandra Chaudhuri College, Kolkata)
Aristide R. Zolberg has remarked, “The formation of new states”, is a “refugee – generating
process”. Minorities, whether linguistic, religious or ethnical, are made to feel that they have
suddenly been catapulted to the ‘wrong’ side of the border. The creations of new nations
invariably result in a large number of people suddenly finding themselves in countries that
no longer consider them as their own rightful citizens. They are suddenly beset with the
option to seek refuge in another unknown land or linger amidst a hostile atmosphere. The
Partition of India into India and Pakistan in 1947 on the basis of religion saw millions of
people stranded in, and faced with such insoluble problematic situations. Furthermore, as
Sankaran Krishna has pointed out in his book Post Colonial Insecurities: India, Sri Lanka,
and the Question of Nationhood: “Unsurprisingly, nothing, but nothing has been solved by
Partition, all across the sub – continent, its legacy lives on in dismembered families, forced
migrations, material and cultural dispossessions, ethnic ghettoization and enclaves,
communal riots, so – called illegal immigration, wars and the continued state of insecurity
from low – intensity conflicts.” Millions of Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims fled on both sides of
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the newly demarcated borders, leading to an exodus unparalleled in history. As T. K. Oomen
points out in his book Citizenship and National Identity: “The emergence of the Indian state
occurred through the Partition of British India into India and Pakistan on the basis of religion
... leading to a large scale and, in fact, one of the biggest population transfers in human
history.” In the western side of India, in the state of Punjab, between August and December
1947, roughly fifteen million people crossed the borders in both directions, in roughly equal
numbers. On the eastern side, in the state of Bengal, millions of Hindus crossed over from
the newly created East Pakistan into the Indian states of West Bengal, Assam and Tripura.
Muslims, although in far lesser numbers, crossed over to East Pakistan. The plight of these
refugees, especially the experience of the Bengal refugees, is an important and interesting
area of study which has, till date, remained largely neglected and calls for comprehensive
and concentrated study. In my paper I propose to attempt an in depth study of the
multifarious complexities of refugee life as represented in selected short stories from India. I
propose to concentrate more on texts from Bengal, as this is an area that has been, for the
most part, overlooked and under-represented.
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PANEL 28
The (Post)colonial Archive: Re-imag(in)ing Southeast Asia
Colonial archives have historically been centralised and exclusive in spatial as well as
ideological terms. Digitalisation paved the way for the decentralisation and democratisation
of institutional archives as digital proxies have become accessible to wider and
geographically disperse audiences through different online platforms. This online presence
as well as the possibilities for user interactivity and repurposing of content that Web 2.0
offered has opened new channels and networks for the critical examination of the colonial
archive, its ontology, politics and power. This panel seeks to investigate novel readings of
the colonial photographic archive in the digital era. The included papers reflect on how the
concept, content and taxonomy of colonial and postcolonial archives in Southeast Asia have
been used, challenged, appropriated and repurposed by contemporary artists, curators and
academics, within western and nonwestern explorations of ethnicity, identity, history and
memory. We are particularly interested in the ways that these new interpretations, located on
or disseminated through the Web constitute an expanded postcolonial archive that may
afford us a reimagining of Southeast Asia.
Conveners:
Dr Alexander Supartono (Edinburgh Napier University)
Dr Alexandra Moschovi (University of Sunderland)
Panel
Chair: Dr Alexandra Moschovi (University of Sunderland)
Contesting colonial (hi)stories: (Post)colonial imaginings of South East Asia

Dr Alexander Supartono (Napier Edinburgh University) and Alexandra Moschovi
(University of Sunderland)
Dis-(re)membering and Enchantment: Singapore artists and the Colonial Archive

Dr Adele Tan (National Gallery of Singapore)
Visual Archives and Visual Methodology in Indonesian Studies

Professor Adrian Vickers (The University of Sydney)
Colonial Archives and the Quest for Evidence of Atrocity: Photography and the
Indonesian War of Independence
Dr Susie Protschky (Monash University)
The Elephant in the Dark Room: Colonial Photography and Environmental History in
British Burma
Dr Jonathan Saha (University of Leeds)
Contesting Colonial (hi)stories: (Post)colonial Imaginings of South East Asia

Dr Alexander Supartono
(Napier Edinburgh University) &
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Alexandra Moschovi
(University of Sunderland)
In lieu of an introduction to the panel, this paper seeks to explore the impact of digital
technologies upon the material, conceptual and ideological premises of the colonial archive
in the digital era. This analysis is pursued though a discussion of the findings of an
international, multidisciplinary artist workshop in Yogyakarta, Indonesia that used the digital
colonial archive to critically investigate the ways national, transnational and personal history
and memory in the former colonies has been informed and shaped by the colonial past. We
specifically focus on how their use of digital media contests and reconfigures the use, truth
value, and power of the colonial archive as an entity and institution. Case studies include
Thai photographer Dow Wasiksiri, who questions the archive’s mnemonic function by
replacing early twentieth century, handcrafted montage with digital manipulation; Malaysian
artist Yee I-Lann, who adopts a speculative photomontage to represent onto the same picture
plane different historical moments and colonial narratives; and Indonesian photographer
Agan Harahap, who recomposes archival photographs into unlikely juxtapositions that he
then disseminates through social media. Recontextualised and repurposed online on different
platforms, this work becomes part of the expanded post-colonial archive and proposes a
reframing not only of the politics of colonial representation, but also of the validity and
veracity of the photographic image as evidence and historical record. We further argue that
the transition from the material colonial archive of the twentieth century to the immaterial
post-colonial archive of the twenty-first century also makes possible a shift in power
relations allowing formerly colonised subjects to have unprecedented access to and control
over the representation of their history.
Dis-(re)membering and enchantment: Singapore artists and the colonial archive

Dr. Adele Tan
(National Gallery of Singapore)
This paper looks at specific works by contemporary artists from Singapore—Erika Tan
(Come cannibalise us, why don’t you?) , Liana Yang (May It Be, with Purpose and Desire)
and Ho Rui-an (Solar: A Meltdown)—in order to examine why they have become invested in
the colonial, and how their convergence upon and appropriation of colonial archival imagery,
retrieved from ever-expanding digital repositories, are cut up and reassembled via
installation, photography and performance-lecture respectively, so as to put pressure upon
the assumed latent objectivity and natural taxonomy of colonial records themselves. These
efforts can also be read against the Singapore Memory Project
(http://www.singaporememory.sg/ or http://www.iremember.sg/), a governmental nation-
wide initiative to collect memories of the country from individuals to organisations, a
paradoxical gesture in itself when loss and change are constants in the country and where
official discourse blurs the distinction between memory and history. As access to archival
records from the colonial past greatly improves with better digitisation / web technologies
and search engines, these artists have harnessed both the radical indeterminacy of internet
circulation and the authoritative register of the colonial archive, so as to simultaneously
weave narratives and wrench away meanings from where and how one reads national
identity in the context of Southeast Asian geopolitical histories.
Visual archives and visual methodology in Indonesian Studies

Professor Adrian Vickers
(The University of Sydney)
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Visual sources are often treated as illustrations of text, but the opening up of recent archives
of Indonesian historical photography and Balinese painting have demonstrated new
possibilities for approaches to research. The Dutch collector Leo Haks was responsible for
assembling a number of different archives during his career. One of those, of colonial
photographs, is now in the Australian National Gallery. Access to much of that material is
now available via ANG, and preliminary research on that collection has been published.
Likewise, the Haks collection of Balinese paintings has been used as one of the bases of a
Virtual Museum of Balinese Painting that I have constructed. Both of these archives show
how the ordering of images and demonstration of relationships between them reconfigures
and remaps our understandings of agency and connections in Indonesian colonial contexts.
This paper also seeks to demonstrate the utility of digital tools in research.
Colonial archives and the quest for evidence of atrocity: Photography and the
Indonesian War of Independence
Dr. Susie Protschky
(Monash University)
We appear to be inhabitting the moment when the long-standing allegation that Dutch
military forces committed atrocities during the Indonesian War of Independence (1945–49)
has become broadly accepted, not just among historians but also a wider international public.
Such claims have circulated in the public sphere since 1969, but have been hotly contested
ever since, and it is only in recent years that the Dutch nomenclature around the conflict has
shifted from ‘police actions’ (politionele acties) to ‘colonial war’ (Luttikhuis and Moses
2014). A new historical study using autobigraphical sources—veterans’ accounts—presents
further, compelling proof of Dutch atrocities having been widespread, if not systematic
(Oostindie 2015). Photographic evidence is now circulating in the public sphere to illustrate
this latest iteration of a ‘history war’. Last year, Dutch national newspapers published
photographs of a summary execution of Indonesian rebels alongside stories reporting new
evidence of systematic atrocities (Volkskrant, NRC 2014). That photograph and others like it
have since been disseminated in other news and social media and at a major musuem
exhibition (Verzetsmuseum, Amsterdam 2016). Such photographs come from colonial
archives, mostly situated in the Netherlands, that have long been known to professional
historians, and that are in fact partly digitised. In this paper, I ask why it is that historians
and/or the larger public have been blind until now to the photographic evidence of atrocity in
colonial archives from the Netherlands East Indies/Indonesia during the War of
Independence. Drawing on recent historical scholarship on photography and violence (Bijl
2015, Lydon 2012), as well as new evidence from my own archival research, I demonstrate
that it is not a dearth of photographic evidence that has made atrocity in this war invisible,
but rather, the dominance of competing discourses that have made atrocity unrecognisable in
the public sphere.
The Elephant in the Dark Room: Colonial Photography and Environmental History in
British Burma
Dr. Jonathan Saha
The British in colonial Burma found elephants to be highly photogenic mega-herbivores.

Globe trotting tourists, colonial officials and employees of imperial firms all took snaps of
them in the early-twentieth century. They were photographed working in timber yards
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manipulating enormous teak logs. They were also photographed lifeless and prostrate at the
feet of the sportsmen who killed them. This paper locates photographs of elephants within
the history colonial relations with the pachyderms. It excavates the meanings of these images
for the photographers and their audiences. It then goes on to consider how these
photographs—many of which are increasingly available online—might be used in the
postcolonial present to foster debates about environmental justice.
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PANEL 29
Public History and Popular Memory in Southeast Asia
Public history has come to be seen both as a legitimate avenue of communication for
professional historians and a place where people can access their past, through museums, art
installations, and virtual spaces. Yet those who control the past shape the way in which the
past is collectively remembered. Images of former leaders may be torn down and their self-
aggrandizing versions of the national narrative with regime change. Similarly, an entire
ethnic group’s participation in a revolution may be removed from schoolchildren’s textbooks
by a colonial authority so as to maintain the state narrative of benevolent intervention. This
panel examines the extent to which the elite and the popular voice in Southeast Asia have
been able to articulate memory through public history. Papers range from eras that have been
deliberately glossed over, comparison of state-shaped or diaspora memory with that of other
populations, and people whose contributions have been minimized or removed altogether, to
what is considered to be a valuable historical resource for future generations and the
challenges that practitioners of public history face in preserving the past.
Convener:
Dr. Trude Jacobsen (Northern Illinois University/London School of Economics)
Panel
Chair: Dr. Trude Jacobsen (Northern Illinois University/London School of Economics)
Session 1: Constructing ‘National’ Histories
La Maddukelleng in Bugis and Indonesian Historiography

Dr. Kathryn Wellen
(Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies)
Brewing a National Icon: Phraya Bhirombhakdi, Singha Beer and Thai Biographical
Writing
Dr. James A. Warren (Mahidol University International College)
The Age of National History: Translations and the Recreations of National Narrative
Dr. Theara Thun (National University of Singapore)
The Making of a National Past: Public History and the Early Years of the Burma
Historical Commission, 1955 – 1960
Dr. Maitrii Aung-Thwin (National University of Singapore)
Session 2: Forgotten Voices
The ‘Lost’ Queens of Cambodia: Modernity, Misogyny, and Selective Memory

Dr. Trude Jacobsen (Northern Illinois University/London School of Economics)
What’s An Anglo-Burman? The Forgotten European Ancestors in Burma

Dr. Katrina Chludzinski (Northern Illinois University)
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Pursuing Cold War Legitimacy: The Role of Huot Sambath in Cambodia’s Nation-
Building Projects and Foreign Policy Objectives, 1955 – 1970
Dr. Ron Leonhardt
(George Washington University)
Session 3: Remembering Genocide in Indonesia and Cambodia
Representing the Past, Representing the Age: Museums and the Narrative of the 1965
Tragedy in Indonesia
Dr. Ghamal Satya Mohammad
(Leiden University)
Controversy of the Khmer Rouge Genocide Memorials

Dr. Socheat Nhean
(Documentation Center of Cambodia)
Image and Perception of Communists in Indonesia: An Almost Unchanged (Hi)story

Dr. Elsa Clavé
(Goethe University-Frankfurt)
Everyday Experiences of Cambodian Survivors in the Landscape of Violence

Dr. Savina Sirik
(Kent State University)
La Maddukelleng in Bugis and Indonesian Historiography

Dr. Kathryn Wellen
(Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies)
This paper looks at the national hero program in Indonesia through the window of La
Maddukelleng. It compares the manners in which this eighteenth century Bugis militant is
portrayed in modern popular Indonesian historiography and more traditional Bugis
historiography. Particular attention is given to two manuscripts in the Leiden University
library. The first details a trial at which La Maddukelleng was tried for various crimes and
exonerated on the basis of a very flimsy defense. The second recounts a later trial of La
Maddukelleng in absentia at which his violent acts were condemned in no uncertain terms.
The historiography suggests the tendency of public historians to gloss over violence in order
to serve a national purpose is chronologically and geographically widespread.
Brewing a National Icon: Phraya Bhirombhakdi, Singha Beer and Thai Biographical
Writing
Dr. James A. Warren
Singha beer is one of Thailand’s most famous brands: the beer is sold across the globe and
has won numerous international awards. Besides producing alcoholic beverages, the Singha
Corporation is involved in a plethora of other industries, including fashion, packaging and
real estate. The founder of the original parent company, Boon Rawd Brewery Co., Ltd., and
the business dynasty that continues to own and manage it today, was Boonrawd Setthabut
(1872-1950), more commonly known by his noble title-cum-surname Phraya Bhirombhakdi.
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In newspaper articles, popular history pocketbooks and ‘how to’ business manuals, he is
portrayed as a visionary pioneer and one of the preeminent Thai businessmen of the
twentieth century. He is also celebrated for his efforts to conserve Thai culture and the sport
of kite flying, in particular. This paper will examine how these biographies create a
mythology about Bhirombhakdi through the repetition and omission of certain elements in
his life story and establish him in a pantheon of Thai national heroes. Indeed, these narratives
form part of a broader trend in official and popular Thai historiography that deifies members
of the Thai royal family and elite for their achievements, without critically considering how
their backgrounds were instrumental in their success. As this paper will show, the initial
viability of Boonrawd Brewery was largely due to Bhirombhakdi’s royal connections, which
helped secure a preferential rate of taxation on beer production for the company and a
substantial loan from the Privy Purse as part of its start-up capital. Overall, these
hagiographical narratives reinforce and legitimize the existing socio-political order in
present-day Thailand.
The Age of National History: Translations and the Recreations of National Narrative
Dr. Theara Thun
Cambodia during the 1940s can be seen as the era of national history in the making. Under
French colonial rule, on the pages of the state-sponsored and most popular scholarly
magazine, the Kampuchea Sauriya (Cambodia Sun), local nationalist intellectuals began
publishing many historical texts in Khmer. While a few of these texts were actually authored
by those intellectuals, the rest were translations of writings by French colonial officials and
scholars and Thai nationalist historians. Thus the ways in which Cambodian scholars adapted
and appreciated those sources were as significant as their utilizations of the contents to serve
their own agendas. These texts were transformed into national narratives used for reinforcing
their worldviews, creating historical plots, promoting and strengthening national identity and
culture, and emphasizing themes of national pride and struggle. In this paper, I attempt to
examine the original historical writings and works of translation produced by Cambodian
intellectuals during the 1940s. Seeing strong parallels between the production of history and
the emergence of nationalistic thought, I argue that while individual intellectuals played the
dominant role in producing and shaping the contents of new national historical narratives,
their national history projects depended heavily upon translation and not just the production
of original knowledge.
The Making of a National Past: Public History and the Early Years of the Burma
Historical Commission, 1955 – 1960
Dr. Maitrii Aung-Thwin
John Smail’s seminal essay on an “autonomous” history (1961) portrayed national history
writing as an intellectual response that fell short of its intentions to realign colonial
constructions of the Southeast Asian past. Nationalist narratives were seen to be hewn from
the same stone, merely shifting the ‘moral perspective’ of colonial narratives to a position
more sympathetic to local sensitivities. Until recently, nationalist histories were criticized for
producing accounts that were more hagiographic than historical, more celebratory than
critical, and more likely to commend than complicate the nation’s past. For many in our
field, nationalist history was and has not been ‘good to think’. This paper explores the early
years of the Burma Historical Commission, a small group of scholar-officials who were
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sanctioned to create an authoritative history of the country and establish key institutions of
knowledge production. A re-examination of the commission demonstrates their connections
to global perceptions of the discipline and intellectual networks within and without their
borders. Their deliberations illustrate the personal stories, everyday challenges, and
immediate priorities of those producing this “public history” of the nation; a story of
knowledge production that was obfuscated by the very histories they wrote or ignored by
scholars within a field they helped shape. This paper seeks to reposition nationalist history in
Myanmar/Southeast Asian Studies by exploring the contexts within which many of these
narratives were produced. It considers the approaches and potential of public history as a
means to reengage these projects of the nation.
The ‘Lost’ Queens of Cambodia: Modernity, Misogyny, and Selective Memory

Dr. Trude Jacobsen
(Northern Illinois University/LSE)
Between the seventeenth and twentieth centuries, a handful of royal women wielded
impressive political power in Cambodia. Not all of them were ethnically Khmer; indeed, one
was a Cham Muslim and two others Nguyen princesses brought to the court as marriage
alliances. One broke away from her husband’s court and established her own, complete with
retainers and elite supporters. Another became queen after the death of her father and
remained unmarried. Her sister resisted the Vietnamese grip on Cambodian political, social,
and economic life, and died for her actions. Yet the names of Neang Hvas, Ang Cuv, Ang Li
Kshatra, Sijhata, Ang Mei, and Baen – as well as other women known only by their titles –
do not feature in school textbooks. Those seeking to instill a greater sense of gender equality
in Cambodia do not hold them up as examples. There is no awareness in Cambodian society
at large that any of these women ever existed, except in the case of Ang Mei, whose support
by the Nguyen dynasty remains an example of the perils of female leadership in the
collective consciousness of Cambodians. Why have these powerful queens been erased from
the popular memory of Cambodia? This paper attempts to restore the names and
personalities of these women to the historical record, and suggests some reasons why they
have been deliberately ‘lost’ to history.
What’s An Anglo-Burman? The Forgotten European Ancestors in Burma

Dr. Katrina Chludzinski
(Northern Illinois University)
Of the many effects of European colonization in Asia, mixed race populations that would not
have existed without imperialists are a critical consequence. While the offspring of European
colonists and native populations have been given various names over time—including
Eurasian, metis, or half-caste—scholars have realized the importance of studying the effects
these groups have had throughout the European empires. Even though the examination of
mixed race populations in Asia is a growing field, studies of Anglo-Burmans have been
largely excluded. Although ‘half-castes’ in colonial Burma remained a relatively small
population from 1885-1962, since they were largely employed within the government and
contributed to British redefinitions of ethnicity, they are a critical population to examine.
How is it then that historians have overlooked this population of partial Asian and European
descent? This paper will examine the shifting perceptions of Anglo-Burmans in the mid
twentieth century as well as present-day understandings of the population. Conference papers
from the 1940s, memoirs published posthumously, as well as non-academic brochures about
the history of Anglo-Burmans will reveal that the elimination of Anglo-Burman as an ethnic
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category within Burma in 1948 has shaped the way this community has been understood in
the twenty first century.
Pursuing Cold War Legitimacy: The Role of Huot Sambath in Cambodia’s Nation-
Building Projects and Foreign Policy Objectives, 1955 – 1970
Dr. Ron Leonhardt
(George Washington University)
After pledging allegiance to Prince Norodom Sihanouk’s Sangkum Reastr Niyum (People’s
Socialist Community) movement in 1955, Huot Sambath helped Cambodia establish itself as
an important member of the Non-Aligned Movement in the 1960s. As Cambodia’s Minister
of Foreign Affairs and Ambassador to the United Nations, Sambath represented Cambodia in
its disputes with Thailand over the ownership of Preah Vihear. He also pushed for the formal
diplomatic recognition of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in 1969, which was an
intentional violation of the West’s Hallstein Doctrine. In response to the United States’
border intrusions into Cambodia, Sambath met with influential United States, Republic of
Vietnam, and Democratic Republic of Vietnam officials about both protecting Cambodia’s
sovereignty and finding diplomatic solutions to the regional and international conflicts taking
place in Indochina. This paper will examine how both Huot Sambath’s support for Prince
Sihanouk’s “Khmer Socialist” ideology and his involvement in the United Nations and the
Non-Aligned Movement helped shape Cambodia’s Cold War foreign policy. Although an
influential Khmer elite within Prince Sihanouk’s inner circle, the instability of the Khmer
Republic (1970-1975) and Sambath’s subsequent execution in Tuol Sleng prison by the
Khmer Rouge in 1976 have overshadowed the importance of his earlier political
contributions. As a result, this paper will not only examine Huot Sambath’s contributions to
Cambodia’s first postcolonial government, but it will also provide insight into a period of
Cambodian history that both the Lon Nol regime and the Khmer Rouge actively suppressed.
Representing the Past, Representing the Age: Museums and the Narrative of the 1965
Tragedy in Indonesia
Dr. Ghamal Satya Mohammad
(Leiden University)
In Indonesia and elsewhere, the museum serves to give a narrative of the past. Usually, a
single museum will suffice to give a narrative of the past that it tries to represent. But how do
several museums convey different stories about a single period in the past? Why would
distinctions in narrative occur? This paper is about the contestation of the 1965 narratives
during contemporary Indonesia. It examines the role of Monumen Pancasila Sakti created
during the New Order and two temporary museums: Museum Bergerak 1965 and Rekoleksi
Memori created during the Reformasi period in Indonesia. The article looks upon the
development of these museums and the way they articulate the 1965 tragedy. I argue that
each museum has its own particular strength, but temporary museums still lack the capacity
to convey the narrative due to their inactive period after the end of exhibition. I suggest that
there is a need to establish a permanent museum for the 1965 tragedy.
Controversy of the Khmer Rouge Genocide Memorials

Dr. Socheat Nhean
(Documentation Center of Cambodia)
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After the collapse of the Khmer Rouge regime (1975-1979), which caused the death of
nearly two million Cambodians, memorial stupas were built across the country to house
skulls, skeletons and other remains of the dead. Those memorial stupas have played
important roles as the site of Buddhist ceremonies for the dead. The Documentation Center
of Cambodia, a research institute aimed at documenting crimes committed during the Khmer
Rouge regime, found that at least 80 memorials had been constructed with local efforts
during the 1980s. The memorial stupas have presented been a controversial issue, in whether
to cremate the bones of the deceased or to preserve them. Approximately 95% of
Cambodians are Buddhists. According to Buddhism, the dead would not rest in peace and
would never be reborn if the skulls, bones and other remains are not cremated. In 2001 and
the following years, the late King Norodom Sihanouk requested that the bones be cremated
in nationwide religious ceremony, so that the souls of the deceased could find peace and
serenity. The request was challenged by Prime Minister Hun Sen, the leader of the overthrow
of the Khmer Rouge regime in 1979. Hun Sen believed in the importance of preserving the
bones and skulls, both to provide proof of the Khmer Rouge atrocity and to provide
important evidence for the Khmer Rouge tribunal. This paper will analyze the controversies
of Buddhist cremation of the deceased’s bones, and the preservation of bones for evidence
and educational purposes to resolve such controversies.
Image and Perception of Communists in Indonesia: An Almost Unchanged (Hi)story

Dr. Elsa Clavé
(Goethe University-Frankfurt)
On the 1st October 1965, the so-called Coup d’Etat by the Indonesian Communist Party
started with the kidnapping and the execution of six generals and one lieutenant. A few hours
later, the Indonesian army, headed by the General Suharto, crushed the self-declared
“Movement of 30 September” (Gerakan 30 September). This “hero” of the nation sized
political power shortly after to re-establish order. This New Order, as his regime was named,
controlled the country for the following 32 years. The massacres – between 500 000 to 1
million victims - that accompanied the rise of Suharto were presented in national public
history as necessary acts to save the country from the threat represented by the communists.
To legitimize the atrocities, lies were spread about the dangerous hypersexualized
communist women and their male counterparts, violent and rude atheists. These modern
myths were carefully built and transmitted through film, history books, magazines and
memorials. Despite the fall of Suharto in 1998, the Reformasi movement that followed, and
the production of books, movies and magazines showing that the history of 1965 has been
distorted, the past narratives remain present in mind and very effective. Despite a new
version of the 1965 events, the image of communists remains largely negative in Indonesia.
In this paper, I will argue that the impact of national public history has been so important on
mentalities that people remain imbued, seventeen years after the end of the dictatorship, in
the stereotypes transmitted by this history. An analysis of cultural productions and discourse
will support this thesis.
Everyday Experiences of Cambodian Survivors in the Landscape of Violence

Dr. Savina Sirik
(Kent State University)
This research examines the experiences of survivors who live in an unmarked site of mass
violence in Cambodia, i.e., the former Khmer Rouge prison site of Chamkar Siv in Kandal
Province, during and after the Democratic Kampuchea regime (1975-79). Based on oral
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history interviews with survivors, this paper constructs narratives of survivors' experiences in
the landscapes of violence. The findings from this study are twofold. First, individual
narratives are important in providing a more complete understanding of the production of
violence and acts of commemoration at the local level, despite the fact that memories of past
violence have been politicized and constructed to fit within the present dominant narrative.
Second, although there are variations among individual experiences, survivors' narratives are
constructed in a way that corresponds to the larger historical narratives.
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PANEL 30
Education, Diversity and Development in Contemporary
Indonesia
Unity-in-Diversity is the philosophical underpinning of Indonesia’s state ideology,
suggesting diversity is at the core of nation building. With a population of about 250 million,
comprising more than three hundred ethnic groups and cultural backgrounds, embracing
different religions and beliefs, and spread across thirty-four provinces, Indonesia is indeed a
highly diverse nation. One of the ways that the Indonesian government strengthens social
integration is through its education system. Education reforms have recently been taken in
place in order to pursue inclusive development and further increase the quality of Indonesia’s
human capital. This panel explores the key challenges to achieving inclusive development
brought about by the diversity Indonesia possesses. It takes a deliberately broad view of
diversity, addressing the dimensions of ethnic harmony, religion, gender and socio-economic
background. It then highlights the extent to which education can contribute to promoting
social cohesion and national development in Indonesia.
Conveners:
Ms. Tracey Yani Harjatanaya (University of Oxford)
Ms. Dorothy Ferary (UCL Institute of Education)
Panel
Chairs:
Mr. Erlangga Agustino (University of Bristol)
Ms. Putu Geniki Natih (University of Oxford)
The Role of Education in Promoting Inter-Ethnic Harmony between Chinese and non-
Chinese in Indonesia
Ms. Tracey Yani Harjatanaya
Unemployed Higher Educated Women in Indonesia; a Wasted Economic Potential?

Ms. Dorothy Ferary
(UCL Institute of Education)
Inclusive Development in Indonesian Higher Education Reform post-1997

Ms. Elisa Brewis
The Rights of People with Disability and Inclusive Education in Islamic Educational
Institutions in Indonesia
Dr. Dina Afrianty
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Intersections of Gender/Sex, Multiculturalism and Religion: Young, Muslim Minority
Women in Contemporary Bali
Ms. Lyn Parker
University of Western Australia
The Role of Education in Promoting Inter-Ethnic Harmony Between Chinese and Non-
Chinese in Indonesia
Ms. Tracey Yani Harjatanaya
During the Suharto era (1966-1998), Chinese culture was systematically repressed. The
minority was forced to assimilate to become ‘more Indonesian’. After the New Order
regime, and with the proliferation of new openness and democracy in the public sphere, the
Chinese began to re-discover their ethnic identity. Since then they have been actively
reconstructing their identity in relation to their citizenship and national identity as
Indonesians. As a site of character building and identity (re)production, schools have great
potential in shaping the ways young people act and think. But how do schools do this? Is
there a difference in promoting respect and acceptance to diversity in an ethnically-diverse
compared to a homogeneous school environment? Looking at the ethnically-diverse city of
Medan, the paper discusses how head teachers and teachers in three private schools – each
with different ethnic compositions (majority Chinese, majority non-Chinese and mixed
ethnicity) – respond to and act upon attempts to build harmonious inter-ethnic relations. It
argues that schools with Chinese students have demonstrated conscious, planned initiatives
to promote harmony, whereas the non-Chinese school sees that the assimilation policy
should be re-enacted, suggesting the first move in promoting inter-ethnic harmony needs to
come from the government.
Unemployed Higher Educated Women in Indonesia; a Wasted Economic Potential?

Ms. Dorothy Ferary
With a growing population of young people and the implementation of the ASEAN
Economic Community (AEC), employment issues are becoming more relevant than ever for
Indonesia. One of the ways to increase Indonesia’s human capital is through education,
particularly higher education. Higher education is seen to yield more significant economic
gain compared to other levels of education by offering higher employability rates and
income earnings. According to the Indonesian Central Bureau of Statistics (2013), over
400,000 (5,88%) of unemployed workers are higher educated, with women’s unemployment
rate higher than men. This research explores the various reasons for the unemployment
among higher educated women in two provinces in Indonesia; East Java and West Java. It
examines how higher education benefits their current life. This paper concludes that although
they do not have any earnings, their higher education experience plays an important role in
their life, and their contribution to their family, and to some extent, society, can be
economically valued.
Inclusive Development in Indonesian Higher Education Reform Post-1997

Ms. Elisa Brewis
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In low and middle income countries, national higher education (HE) systems are increasingly
pitched as ‘powerhouses of development’ (Naidoo 2011). The Government of Indonesia
(GoI) has expressed particular interest in mobilizing Indonesian talent in the areas of
infrastructure, food security, and water and energy sectors. Education is further utilised for
strengthening social cohesion in a politically, religiously and ethnically diverse nation. Since
the fall of the Suharto regime in 1997, the GoI has passed several education reforms to
pursue these aims of inclusive development. They reveal both strong statesteering strategies
(UU 20/2003, UU 12/2012) as well as marketization strategies (PP 63/1999, BHP 9/2009).
Overall, they demonstrate how the GoI has defined educational improvement in terms of
both human capital and human capability (Sen 1999). Using qualitative content analysis of
the reforms, the paper illustrates how diverse elements such as neoliberal economic
strategies, civil society ideals, significant commitments to public expenditure on education
and fair access to education for poor students are reconciled under the rhetoric of pancasila –
the state ideology. Preliminary analysis of qualitative data from a pilot study investigating
university practitioners’ experiences of these reforms will also be presented, suggesting
directions for future research.
The Rights of People With Disability and Inclusive Education in Islamic Educational
Institutions in Indonesia
Dr. Dina Afrianty
Indonesia has made good progress towards increasing enrolment at schools and in higher
education. Yet, it still has a long way to go to improve equity – especially for people with
disabilities. Stigma, lack of supportive polices, physical barriers and exclusive academic
curricula continue to keep most Indonesians with disabilities locked out of education. This
paper will discuss how Islamic educational institutions promote inclusive education and how
they have provided access to people with disabilities. Islamic educational institutions have
been seen, historically, as among the worst performing institutions in this field despite the
fact that they comprise 30% of Indonesia’s education sector. This paper scrutinises
Indonesia’s government policies in promoting access to education for the disabled in Islamic
educational institutions due to their special needs and relative status in the community. This
paper will also discuss to what extent that Islamic texts can be used to justify and promote
inclusive educational policies within Islamic educational institutions, and contribute to
changing discriminatory attitudes.
Intersections of Gender/Sex, Multiculturalism and Religion: Young, Muslim Minority

Women in Contemporary Bali
Ms. Lyn Parker
(University of Western Australia)
This paper examines the experience of Muslim female students in senior high school in Bali.
Since the religion of the vast majority of the population of Bali is Balinese Hinduism, these
women are part of a Muslim minority – unusual in Indonesia. Some of the students attend a
state senior high school, where they are in the minority, and some attend a private Islamic
school. The paper uses data obtained through interviews and ethnographic fieldwork
conducted in schools in Bali. Most of the data were elicited from the students, but teachers
and parents were also consulted. Research participants identified the choice of school and the
wearing of the jilbab (Islamic head-scarf) as an issue for them in their everyday lives in Bali.
The paper uses data on school choice and the many meanings of the jilbab to them as the
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way into an exploration of their religious and gender identity. To theorise the findings, I
borrow Modood’s idea that multiculturalism should be based on a double-barrelled idea of
equality (2010). The first is what he calls equal dignity, and this refers to appeals to
universalist ideas of humanity and/or to appeals to common membership in a group, such as
citizenship. The second is equal respect, and this refers to the differences that membership of
a minority entails – that Charles Taylor and other multiculturalists insist must be recognised.
I use the data from the young women to examine the difference that gender makes to
Modood’s double-barrelled idea of equality.
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PANEL 31
Intersections of Religion and Ethnicity in South East
Asia
South East Asia has historically had a reputation for religious pluralism, syncretism and the
propensity to absorb new ideas and practices. At the same time, some of the most influential
academics of South East Asia have emphasised the region’s ethnic diversity and fluidity,
from Edmund Leach to James Scott. Yet religion and ethnicity have too often been treated as
separate categories and analysed independently, resulting in incomplete or superficial
research. In addition, both have been the target of primordialist research for political agendas
in South East Asia, resulting in further misunderstanding. This multidisciplinary panel
reveals the interconnectedness of religion and ethnicity by exploring how they have
historically changed, overlapped, and influenced one another – and continue to do so. From
the politics of identity, hierarchy and exclusion to the grounds for military conflict and
government contestation, the papers on this panel will expose the influences of and on
religion and ethnicity in important social phenomena in South East Asia.
Convener:
Mr. Seb Rumsby (University of Warwick)
Panel
Chair:
Dr. Mandy Sadan (SOAS)
The Intersection of Religion, Ethnicity and Education among the Vietnamese minority
in Cambodia
Mr. Charlie Rumsby (Coventry University)
“Becoming Like Us”: From Nomads to Padi-Farmers at Long Beruang, Sarawak East
Malaysia
Ms. Valerie Mashman (Unimas Sarawak)
The Changing Dynamics of Millenarian Movements in the Ethnic Politics of South East
Asia
Mr. Seb Rumsby (University of Warwick)
Seeking Samin Identity between Javanese and Islam Religion Contestation, and its
Relations with the Indonesian Government
Mr. Musa Maliki (Charles Darwin University)
Becoming Arab and Indonesian with Local Particularities and Global Visions
Mr. James Edmonds (Arizona State University)
The Intersection of Religion, Ethnicity and Education among the Vietnamese minority
in Cambodia
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Mr. Charlie Rumsby
(Coventry University)
The poor ethnic Vietnamese live on the margins of Cambodian society. Unlike other ethnic
minority groups in Cambodia, the Vietnamese are thought to be unable to assimilate into
Cambodian society, and often seen in the Khmer political imagination as land grabbing
opportunists. Most Vietnamese hide their identity from fear community reprisals, however a
missionary-established school located in the community of Phear Thnov acts as a space
where Vietnamese holidays are observed and celebrated. This also includes expressions of
Vietnamese cultural Christianity. This paper explores the intersection between religion,
ethnicity and education and how Vietnamese culture and language is translated and
reinforced into the classroom. The Vietnamese staff at the school bring with them
Vietnamese education practice and their teaching of Christianity embodies the form practised
in mainland Vietnam. This is turn reinforces 'Christian Vietnamese-ness' and a cross-border
affiliation which is powerfully imagined into a form of citizenry with a place only few ethnic
Vietnamese children born and living in Cambodia have visited.
“Becoming Like Us”: From Nomads to Padi-Farmers at Long Beruang, Sarawak East
Malaysia
Ms. Valerie Mashman
(Unimas Sarawak)
This paper presents a case study from Sarawak, East Malaysia. It describes the relationship
between settled Christian Kelabit padi-farmers of Long Peluan and a group of semi-nomadic
Penan who are encouraged “to become like us” to settle as their neighbours at Long Beruang
and become Christians and farmers of hill-padi. The paper focuses on the factors that
encouraged the Penan to settle and the consequences of their becoming settled for the
relationships between the two communities
The Changing Dynamics of Millenarian Movements in the Ethnic Politics of South East
Asia
Mr. Seb Rumsby
(University of Warwick)
Millenarian movements have generally been regarded by academics as native reactions to

enormous social disruptions caused by colonial intrusion, doomed to failure and at best a
step on the way to more ‘modern’ forms of collective social resistance. In fact,
millenarianism has both pre-dated and outlasted colonialism, and continues to feature
prominently in ethnic politics to this day. An analysis of past and present Hmong millenarian
movements shows how their progressions – from pan-ethnic to mono-ethnic and from violent
to peaceful – reflect historical trends of ethnicization and territorialisation in South East
Asia. It is equally important to consider how and why millenarian activity is remembered
and interpreted by different participants and onlookers, as highlighted by the varying
portrayals of recent events in northern Vietnam gathered from online reports and interviews.
Millenarian movements continue to play an important role in voicing social discontent,
challenging power structures and moulding ethnic relations in South East Asia, but they need
to be examined and understood in their new socio-political contexts.
Seeking Samin Identity between Javanese and Islam Religion Contestation, and its
Relations with the Indonesian Government
150
Mr. Musa Maliki
(Charles Darwin University)
Since Reformasi era, the citizens of Indonesia have been celebrating freedom of expression
as well as the development of a strong political cultural expression in society. This research
will examine a Javanese local community movement called the Samin community, who are
struggling with their identity and belief system. Reformasi era has brought Samin
community to express their belief system after being repressed by Soeharto regime. The
paper will explore further into the Samin community’s philosophical foundation, historical
thought and its contribution to the struggle of Indonesia independence. The Samin movement
is one of the oldest Javanese movements and many researchers argue this movement
developed from the Ratu Adil (‘Just King’) millenarian movement. The aim of this paper is
to provide the description of the interaction between the Indonesian government and the
Samin community under democratization and globalization circumstances, and to understand
the Samin communal identity between Javanese and Islamic religious contestation.
Becoming Arab and Indonesian with Local Particularities and Global Visions
Mr. James Edmonds
(Arizona State University)
Habib Syech bin Abdul Kadir Assegaf’s is a sholawat performer in Java who brings tens of
thousands of people together in fields, parks, and streets with twenty-four hours’ notice. His
father has roots in both Saudi Arabia and Yemen, and his mother is Javanese. He is fluent in
Indonesian, Arabic, and Javanese often stringing them together to give advice on issues such
as proper Islam practice, the legality of banking, and the constellations composing global
Islam. In this paper, I will demonstrate how Habib Syech’s ethnicity enables him to appeal to
multiple streams of Islamic life in Indonesia. I posit that his ethnicity gives his performances
and advice on legal, philosophical, and ritual aspects of living Islamicaly in the world,
power. However, Habib Syech cultivates an ethnic ethos that can be either/or but also
ambiguously hybrid. This cultivation of ambiguity opens up a space for thinking about the
changing dynamics of Islam as it is locally practiced in Southeast Asia with visions towards
global solidarity.
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PANEL 32
Children, Families, and Mobility in Southeast Asia
In contemporary Southeast Asia, neoliberal economic regimes have led to a rise in
transnational labour, and an accompanying surge in family fragmentation. Social and
geographical mobility has also increasingly become a crucial factor in the trajectories to
adulthood for many young people in Southeast Asian societies. In this era of intensified
global mobility, the separation of children and young people from their parents has become a
taken-for-granted way of life for some families in the region. For young people, the
opportunity to migrate independently, or the reality of having to live separately from their
parents for extended periods, may be compelling for some, and deeply traumatic for others.
This panel explores the variety of mobilities children and young people experience, revealing
the ways contemporary economies intersect with young people’s everyday realities. We
explore how children respond to shifts in family connections; from engaging with new social
networks arising from transnational labour migration, to dealing with increasing family
fragmentation and instabilities in the domestic domain. We seek to give voice to the affective
experiences of children and their families, and to explore what their insights can tell us about
wider dominant discourses at the level of culture, state, and the Southeast Asian region.
Conveners:
Dr. Harriot Beazley (Department of Geography, School of Social Sciences,

University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia)
Dr. Leslie Butt (Department of Anthropology, University of Victoria, Canada)
Discussant:
Dr. Karen Wells (Birkbeck College, University of London)
Panel:
Dr. Catherine Allerton (Department of Anthropology, London School of Economics)
Dr. Kabita Chakraborty (Department of Children’s Studies, York University, Toronto)
Ms. Mandie Miller (University of the Sunshine Coast)
Ms. Carol Chan (University of Pittsburgh)
Ms. Gita Nasution (Australian National University)
Professor Jessica Ball (University of Victoria, Canada)
Ms. Sarah Moselle (Aga Khan Foundation)
Dr. Roy Huijsmans (Institute of Social Studies, The Netherlands)
Dr. Harriot Beazley (University of Sunshine Coast, Australia)
152
Dr. Leslie Butt (University of Victoria, Canada)
Dr. Deirdre McKay (Keele University)
Dr. Anne-Meike Fechter (University of Sussex)
Rural Mobility and Urban Immobility: Comparative Perspectives on Migration,

Movements and Children’s Lives in Flores and Sabah
Dr. Catherine Allerton
(Department of Anthropology, London School of Economics)
This paper contrasts the mobility of young people in two different ethnographic contexts:
those born in rural west Flores, eastern Indonesia, and those born in urban Sabah, East
Malaysia to parents from east Flores. It describes an unexpected and paradoxical situation:
whilst in rural villages in west Flores, children’s mobility is central both to productive family
life and to educational aspiration, in urban Sabah, the children of Indonesian migrants
experience their lives largely in terms of immobility and feeling ‘stuck’. In Sabah, children’s
opportunities are defined by their parents’ original migration across Southeast Asian borders,
even whilst their own lives lack such cross-border movements. As the Malaysian migration
regime has gradually become harsher, migrants and their families have lost opportunities
both for transnational and social mobility, separating some children from their siblings, and
leading to educational exclusion. By contrast, in west Flores, youthful mobility has long been
connected with the pursuit of schooling, and migration within Indonesia offers avenues for
temporary adventure. The paper concentrates, in particular, on the affective experiences of
the children of migrants in Sabah, and their ambiguous sense of connection to a largely
imagined ‘homeland’.
“It Hurts to Know you are Always on the Outside”: Young People’s Experiences
Migrating from Plantations to Towns in Malaysia
Dr. Kabita Chakraborty
(Department of Children’s Studies, York University, Toronto)
Plantation communities around Southeast Asia are in flux. While plantation work continues
to thrive in some areas, in semi-rural Malaysia oil palm plantations are a sunset industry. For
thousands of Tamil families working in this sector the transition out of the plantations into
teloks (towns) has been a family affair. Entire families make the shift out of spaces which
they have occupied for over a hundred years. The movement as a joint family is a protective
strategy, often undertaken to safeguard children from emotional distress. However, once in
teloks children find themselves negotiating modern town life with little understanding from
families at home. This paper maps the transition of a handful of young people from the
planation into towns, and how this transition impacts friendship and family life. I show how
young people strive to be cool and accepted into peer circles which often exclude them.
Young people’s own strategies to fit in will be detailed, and how these strategies are
influenced by the racial politics of Malaysian society will be explained. I also explore how
young people manage family members who are suddenly viewed as overbearing and
overprotective in the teloks. Overall the paper provides a youth-centred perspective of rapid
social and economic transitions within the oil palm plantation industry in Malaysia.
The Effect of Tourism on the Geographies and Identities of Children in Siem Reap,
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Cambodia
Ms. Mandie Miller
(Department of Geography, University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia)
In 1992 the Angkor Archaeological Park was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site, with
internationals visitors to the local town of Siem Reap rising from 7,000 in 1992 to 2.1
million visitors in 2015 .In recent years high levels of youth migration have occurred in
Cambodia due to a rapid growth in the tourism and industrial sectors, with 2.5 million people
aged between 15 and 29 now classified as internal migrants. To date tourism geographies
have generally overlooked the experiences of children and young people in developing
country contexts, whose lived worlds have been created, moulded and structured by global
market forces in the form of tourism, including voluntourism and orphanage tourism. This
paper examines the multiple factors that created a wave of migration of children and young
people to Siem Reap in the past twenty years. By utilising participatory research approaches
in Siem Reap between 2013 and 2015 with young people between the ages of 14 and 24, the
study describes young people’s experiences from their own perspective. Research
participants included children and young people working on the streets of Siem Reap in the
tourist areas, and children who were the subjects of orphan tourism and voluntourism
initiatives.
“Child” and “Youth” Migrants are Caregivers Too: Case Studies from Central Java,
Indonesia
Professor Carol Chan
(Department of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh)
In 2014, six million Indonesian labor migrants sent USD 8.55 billion in remittances.
Approximately sixty percent of them are women in domestic and factory work in Gulf
Cooperation Countries (GCC), East and Southeast-Asian countries. It is an open secret that
many of these women are under the national legal minimum age of eighteen for migrants,
and twenty-one for domestic workers. Many young migrants circumvent these laws by
traveling with “false-but- legal” documents. Yet these migrants are seldom considered “child
laborers” by migration scholars, NGOs, and government officials. Yet these young women,
regardless of their age, are often treated as child-like persons who require adult instruction,
protection, and advice.
This paper draws on case studies from thirteen months of ethnographic fieldwork in
Jakarta and Central Java, Indonesia. Through women’s narratives of migration and return, I
show how, through discursive, performative, and practical strategies, they resist
infantilization and governance as “children” or “child-like.” Many embark on journeys
explicitly in order to care for their parents, siblings, or other kin. By suggesting that many
female labor migrants may be understood in terms of child or youth migrants, I build on
scholars who interrogate assumptions that children “left behind” are passive victims of
parents’ migration. I show how children are not only recipients of care by adults, but in fact,
often migrate out of desires or obligations to provide care for their adult kin. Such mobilities
often contribute to reifying filial piety and the primacy of the parent-child bond.
Simultaneously, they prolong and remake meanings of childhood, adolescence, and
parenthood.
New Infrastructure for Urban Families: Negotiating Life as a Babysitter in Jakarta

Msa. Gita Nasution
(PhD Candidate, Department of Anthropology, School of Culture, History and Language,
154
College of Asia and Pacific, Australian National University)|
The new phenomena of child rearing by a babysitter has been remarkable in Jakarta,
particularly among the busy and relatively wealthy households. Babysitters have become a
signpost for new middle class family in Jakarta where they are regularly observed attached to
families and children in public places: kindergarten or schools, swimming pool, restaurants
and shopping malls. Many young female Indonesian from rural areas, often with limited
formal education are increasingly seeking to migrate to urban areas finding work as domestic
workers and/or babysitters. In cities they are trained in children’s health and development by
domestic worker agencies, dressed with uniform like a nurse, and work as live-in child
carers. As babysitters they can also be paid relatively higher wages than fellow workers
under domestic work sector.
My research seeks to understand the economic and cultural practices associated with the
relatively new work category of the babysitter. I would like to understand how babysitters,
who are normally young female, negotiate the work that combines a quasi-parental role and a
contracted professional care. I want to know how these women interact with their peers
between their busy and demanding child caring jobs, and how they experience urban life and
modernity as a result of the tasks they perform. Based on an ethnographic research in South
Jakarta, I argue that babysitters are the infrastructure of Indonesian middle class family to
function. They are demanded to be the educators at home, regardless their age, level of
education and skills. At the same time, Indonesian middle class family are also the medium
for babysitter to perform their work and skills, and more importantly, it is a tool to negotiate
between class status and experience urban lifestyles.
Liminal childhoods: Meaning-making, developmental and migration trajectories of

Myanmar youth living as forced migrants in Thailand
Dr. Jessica Ball
(School of Child and Youth Care, University of Victoria)
Ms. Sarah Moselle

(Aga Khan Development Network, Kyrgyzstan)
While migration and refugee studies have elaborated upon themes of voice, subjectivity, and
agency of mobile adults, the voice and subjectivity of forced migrant children have been
comparatively neglected. This paper explores developmental experiences and resettlement
aspirations of youth growing up as undocumented, forced migrants outside of their parents’
countries of origin. During decades of armed conflict and economic collapse in Myanmar
resulted in millions of forced migrants living in Thailand, China, and Malaysia. The paper
focuses on forced migrant youth from Myanmar who have grown up along the northwest
border of Thailand. They are often stateless and disconnected from their families,
communities, and cultures of origin and excluded from institutional affiliations, living
perched on the edge of society in a liminal state. The paper explores the psychological
ramifications of growing up in conditions of extreme marginalization, and contributes to a
nascent discourse about children on the move as actively engaged in meaning-making and as
carriers of globalization. We identify key sources of vulnerability for these children as well
as evidence from preliminary research of resilience and strength, challenging the victim-
agency binary and foundation theories of child development. With an almost universal
ceasefire agreement between the quasi-democratic government of Myanmar and ethnic
minority groups, there are external pressures to resolve the liminal status of forced migrant
youth. This paper points to evidence that children not only have the right but also the
155
capacity to contribute meaningfully to deliberations about how to resolve their displaced and
undocumented status in terms of repatriation, assimilation into a host country or resettlement.
Unequal Childhoods and Youth in a Cross-border Economy: A Lao-Thai Case Study

Dr. Roy Huijsmans
(Institute of Social Studies, The Hague)
Challenging the national scale as an unquestioned analytical frame in much of the children
and youth studies literature, I adopt in this paper a trans-border perspective that centralises
borderlands. In doing so, I focus on a Lao-Thai borderland and draw on ethnographic
research conducted in this areas since 2007. Borderlands I conceptualise as ambiguous
spaces shaped by flows and interruptions, similarities and differences, relations and
contestations, and histories and futures. In these borderlands young people move across the
border continuously, overtly and for various reasons (despite its political sensitivity). This
includes work, leisure, love, and petty trade. These flows, I argue, are at least in part
produced by the very different ways in which childhood and youth are constituted on both
sides of the border. This is particularly evident in relation to work. Work is an intrinsic part
of young lives on the Lao side of the border, whereas on the Thai side this has largely been
displaced by schooling (including private tuitions after regular day school). At the same
time, widespread demand for young Lao labour on the Thai side of the border has given Lao
youngsters access to significant amounts of cash to realise rural Lao modernities,
accentuated generational and agrarian relations on the Lao side of the border, but also
initiated young Lao villagers into migrant endeavours further into Thailand. Young Lao
villagers’ cross-border mobilities, thus, simultaneously reinforce existing relations of
inequality whilst reconfiguring social life in these borderlands in novel ways.
‘Like it, Don’t Like it, You Have to Like it’: Children’s Emotions and Absent Parents
in Migrant Communities of Lombok, Indonesia
Dr. Harriot Beazley
(Department of Geography, University of the Sunshine Coast)
Dr. Leslie Butt

(Department of Anthropology, University of Victoria)
This paper explores the experiences and emotions of children and young people whose
parents have migrated for work overseas, leaving them behind at home with relatives or
community members. The complexity of children’s emotions is placed at the forefront,
addressing a legacy of scholarship which has at times oversimplified or diminished
children’s experiences in debates about the cultural logic and traditions of family migration
in Southeast Asia. The paper contributes to a growing body of work that emphasises
children’s own agency in constructing their own experiences in the context of longstanding
family experiences of transnational migration. Through a child-centered research approach
carried out in 2014, we reveal the emotions and experiences of children of migrant parents
from three ‘migrant-sending’ villages in rural east Lombok, Indonesia. Focussing on their
reactions to community expectations that children should accept absent parents as an
unavoidable challenge and a necessary part of life, we describe the complex and deep
feelings children articulate around expectations that, ‘like it or don’t like it’, they have to
accept their parents’ absence. By concentrating on children’s own views and experiences, we
contribute to burgeoning debates about the affective implications of migration in the
Southeast Asia region.
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A Good Global Childhood: Child Rearing and Social Mobility in Filipino Translocal
Families
Dr. Deirdre McKay
(Department of Geography, Keele University)
Fostering and extended family arrangements for childrearing have a long history in Southeast
Asia. These arrangements have continued in the age of migration. Migrants’ children
continue to be raised by extended kin, but may now move back and forth between parents
overseas and kin in sending communities. Families intend these mobile and networked
arrangements to provide their children with a ‘good’ childhood. This paper examines how
people define the elements of this ‘good’ childhood. I use case study material from Filipino
migrants in the UK and families in the northern Philippines to examine ideals for child-
rearing practices. Through this material, I explore how these ideals increasingly serve as
markers for - and strategies of - broader social mobility. Finally, I describe how these same
strategies are geared to raise ‘global Filipinos’ as opposed merely national citizens and how
this global imaginary is appropriated and mobilized by the neoliberal state.
Between Privileged Mobility and Poverty: Children of International Aid Workers

Dr. Anne-Meike Fechter
(Dept of Anthropology, University of Sussex)
Contemporary research on children affected by migration in Southeast Asia has been

concerned with the impact of mobility on their life chances, choices, and overall welfare.
Extending this concern, this paper seeks to address these questions in the context of
privileged migration. Specifically, it asks how the mobility of children whose parents work
for aid agencies in low-income countries shapes the way they understand and negotiate
experiences of privilege, as well as their everyday encounters with poverty. Based on
ethnographic research with young people and their families in Cambodia, the paper suggests
that both parents and children envisage their international mobility as a chance for personal
growth, specifically as manifest in the form of ‘open-mindedness’. Such positive discourses
are complicated, however, by a simultaneously engendered sense of superiority towards
those who are less mobile. They are also intertwined with practices of ‘bracketing’ possible
moral tensions arising from their interactions with children of local elites. While the young
people’s proximity to poverty provides opportunities for locally-based service-learning
activities, connections with their parents’ work can remain abstract. The paper therefore
suggests that this form of international mobility may not in itself enable a critical
engagement with poverty, or with their own and others’ privilege.
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PANEL 33
The Bigger Picture: Contemporary Art and Intermediality in
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia provides a rich historical terrain in which artistic genres have rarely been
entirely discrete categories. Interminglings of aesthetic and symbolic systems through
architecture, painting, textiles, ceramics, dance, and music provide context for the
contemporary period, in which we see conceptual concerns tracing and conflating forms such
as calligraphy, installation, painting, performance, video, and photography. These examples
afford a more nuanced analysis of what is often referred to as multimedia practice to instead
focus more specifically on the condition of intermediality, those crossings between forms,
between objects, events, and representations. These encounters are often indicative of a more
profound transaction between the artist and the historical, social, and political. This panel
considers the nature of “intermediality” as a productive discursive term that engages the
historical within the contemporary, contemplating the digital age and its insertions within
modes of artistic representation, but also such technologies of communication as systems of
writing. The slippages and translations across mediums and media that frequently occur in
Southeast Asia therefore offer rich opportunity to give further density to the concept of
intermediality as a generative interstitial aesthetic and experiential phenomenon. The panel
topics include case studies from the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam and Cambodia to
provoke deeper inquiry into this dimension of analysis.
Convener:
Dr. Pamela N. Corey (SOAS)
Chair and Discussant:
Dr. May Adadol Ingawanij (University of Westminster)
Panel:
Ms. Eva Bentcheva (SOAS)
Dr. Amanda Rath (Goethe University, Frankfurt)
Ms. Joanna Wolfarth (SOAS)
Dr. Pamela N. Corey (SOAS)
‘Philippine Intermediality’? Multimedia Practice, Polyvocality and the Making of New

Realities in Norly Lalo’s Miracle City (2002)
Ms. Eva Bentcheva
(SOAS)
The 1990s marked a shift in visual art in the Philippines. Best exemplified in works by
Manuel Ocampo and Emmanuel Garibay, the 1990s saw an increasing number of Philippine
artists convey critical stances towards socio-political affairs via multiple media, site-specific
art and performance, and allusions to earlier aesthetic practices in Philippine art. Jonathan
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Beller has employed the term ‘syncretic realism’ to describe the importance of these new
conceptual constellations and multiple perspectives as definitive features of ‘intermediality’
in Philippine visual art since the 1990s. My paper explores the video-performance Miracle
City (2002) by Norly Lalo as an expression of intermediality in Philippine ‘syncretic
realism’. Filmed inside the disused swimming pool of the Mowelfund Film Institute in
Manila, Miracle City echoed the wider shift towards multiple media through its use site-
specificity alongside self-made costumes, singing, performance, lighting, and video-
recording. More crucially, however, Miracle City gave voice to the concerns and practices of
the artists’ collective ‘New World Disorder’ (of which Lalo was a founding member).
Members of New World Disorder, Mideo Cruz and Racquel de Loyola, not only appeared as
central performers, they also wore costumes from their previous experimental performances
addressing issues of consumerism, religious conservatism, and gender roles in the
Philippines. I would argue that Cruz and Loyola’s presence invokes a critical understanding
of ‘intermediality’ not only as material practice, but also as expression of multiple
perspectives and realities. Their participation alongside Lalo’s numerous other aesthetic
forms, metaphors and allusions, render Miracle City an artistic ‘making of a new reality’ (to
borrow the phrase from theatre scholar Peter M. Boenisch) in which the ‘miracle city’,
Manila, appears at the crossroad between disillusionment, consumerism, and fantasy, in the
wake of the 21st century.
In Close proximity: Art of Renewal and the Concrete in early Contemporary art of
Indonesia
Dr. Amanda Katherine Rath
(Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany)
During the 1970s, a series of so-called rebellious acts emerged from within art institutions in
Indonesia. Carried out by mainly young male students, they called for reforms in arts
education and entered the larger debate over the uses of culture in Indonesia as legitimating
elements of national culture. They did not reject the idea of a national culture but rather,
borrowing from John Clark’s conception of (1998) an Asian avant-garde, entered into the
ongoing debate about the authority to choose what was relevant to the local discourse’s
needs. As such, a constellation of strategies emerged that were geared toward redefining and
transcending prevailing assumptions by blurring aesthetic boundaries and combining
technologies. This newly emerging consciousness and critical attitude advocated creating
new structures in the work of art considered more ‘communicative’, capable of initiating
different kinds of social relations. The ‘work’ that art does, as well as conceptions of
audience, take on new importance in the new work. What today is called installation,
conceptual, and performance art in Indonesia emerged from this fertile yet peripheral stream
of artistic practice. Most readers of Indonesian contemporary art might associate the new
modes of artistic practice with the Indonesian New Art Movement (Gerakan Seni Rupa Baru
Indonesia, active 1975-1979), with its strategies of combining technologies, forms, and
traditions across what at the time were bounded fields of the visual arts. However, the
Movement was one group among a wider rebellion consisting of heterogeneous sites of
exchange, acting from a shared emerging consciousness. A number of experiments were
publicised across the visual arts, theatre, poetry, traditions of recitation, sound, music, and
other modes of transmission. In my paper, I take a cross section of this wider development as
a means to further embed the New Art Movement necessarily in this larger development and
the critical discourse that surrounded it. In this regard, I discuss works and practices in close
proximity to what at the time were posited under conceptions of ‘pembaruan’ and
‘kekonkretan’ or renewal/innovation and concreteness. Each of these critical concepts
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possess a moral and ethical imperative that are crucial in understanding early developments
of contemporary art in Indonesia.
Multi-Mediums in Contemporary Cambodian Portraiture

Ms. Joanna Wolfarth
(SOAS)
In the immediate aftermath of the death of Norodom Sihanouk on October 15, 2012, portraits
of the King-Father flooded the visual landscape of Cambodia. Photographs were displayed in
public places and photo-montages were purchased and shared across the country and in the
aterritorial spaces of the internet. Gathered together in montages, these digitally altered
photo-portraits are indicative of a slipperiness between the categories of photography and
painting. This mingling of media – photography, digital manipulation, collage, archive and
found materials – is further echoed in the work of contemporary artists in Cambodia. In his
large mixed media collages, Leang Seckon incorporated found objects and archive images
into his royal portraits, collecting, reworking, commemorating and giving presence to the
king in a manner not dissimilar to that of the photo-montage producers and consumers. More
than an intermingling of media, these aesthetic practices also serve to overlap and blend
histories, temporality and representations.
Object Script: Image and Textuality in Vietnamese Calligraphic Painting

Dr. Pamela N. Corey
(SOAS)
In the first decade of the new millennium, a group of Hanoi-based artists banded together
under the name of The Zenei Gang of Five to collectively assert a mode of painterly
expression grounded in the calligraphic presentation of Nôm (chữ nôm). Historically a
vernacular script that rose in the 18th and 19th centuries alongside Literary Sinitic to serve as
a vehicle of Vietnamese poetry and literature, it was displaced by the Romanized alphabet
(chữ quốc ngữ) in the twentieth century. Today Nôm is considered a “dead” script whose
study is largely preserved at the Institute of Hán-Nôm Studies in Hanoi, where most of the
members of The Zenei Gang of Five have studied or taught. The Zenei painters have sought
to recuperate the vestiges of this historical script in order to reinterpret its value in the
present. For some, excerpts of poetic and musical verse in Nôm indexes the rich repertoire of
early modern through modern Vietnamese art and literature. However, the Zenei painters
draw upon and confuse the function of writing as a technology of communication and
representation, a media imbricated in the hyper-textual graphic regime of late Socialist
Vietnam. The Nôm characters become pictorial and verbal signs that for most viewers, are
illegible. The use of ink to craft form and ground into a field of textual and imagistic
interplay places their work in dialogue with the eponymous avant-garde calligraphy
movement in post-WWII Japan or with the Arabic-based calligraphic modernism of artists
spanning Indonesia to Africa. As such, the intertextuality of their paintings constellates
historical script, modern language, and transnational art historical praxes to comment upon
media and medium considered obsolete in contemporary Vietnam.
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PANEL 34
Education in Southeast Asia
Private tutoring Institutions Shape New Values in Education

Dr. Pattaka Sa-ngimnet
To be accepted into a prestigious university is the goal of many young people and this is
especially true of young people in the developing countries of the world. Often this goal is
encouraged or even demanded by parents as well. People in these developing countries tend
to approach value differently from those in the more industrialized world. The reputation or
status of the university is often of more importance to the perspective students and their
parents than the actual quality of the education itself. For this reason, many of the most
respected universities have demanding entrance examinations and procedures that tend to
favor those who can afford the special tutoring that is needed to pass the entrance
examinations. This, in turn, leads not only to increased use of private tuition but also to a
devaluation and lack of respect for the traditional public or private school. These traditional
schools teach set curricula and encourage a well rounded education. Private tuition schools,
on the contrary, specialize in teaching for the entrance exam with a narrow focused program
and demanding schedule. Those that are successful in producing students who pass entrance
examinations to prestigious institutions will be in greater demand. This leads to higher prices
for tuition and a further concentration of students from wealthy families in the most
respected universities. This paper provides a case study of private tuition in Thailand where
students compete for limited places in three prominent universities: Chulalongkorn,
Thammasat and Mahidol. Acceptance into these universities has become a status symbol for
Thai students and their families. So families of potential students invest vast sums of money
to provide the private tuition needed for entrance into one of these institutions. Only the very
rich can afford this and so these universities have become elitist but not for reasons of
education. Focusing on the growth and expense of private tuition institutions, this paper will
examine the value placed on education by students and their families as measured against the
status value of admittance into a prestigious university.
Institutionalization of The Education: Kraton Yogyakarta at The Hamengku Buwono

VIII’s Era
Dr. Mutiah Amini
(Department of History, Universitas Gadjah Mada)
This paper discusses the decision of Sultan Hamengku Buwono VIII (at Kraton Yogyakarta)
in sending his crown prince on the European school and living with a European family when
he was 5 years old. Traditionally, the crown prince will study in the palace and get special
care of the special nanny (abdi dalem pengasuh). In this way, the understanding of the crown
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prince of the Javanese culture can be obtained as a whole. HB VIII's decision to break the
chain of parenting is how HB VIII understands modernization. An anomaly that ensued, in
which education has a strong influence on a crown prince is released from the interference of
the court, either through formal education or through the palace courtiers caregiver
education, delivered in Europe. In such conditions become important to study the idea
behind this condition. In this case, HB VIII is an actor of change. Institutionalization of the
historical studies carried out by utilizing the colonial and the palace sources, as well as
memoirs were written.
A History of the Ideas in Education on Geronima T. Pecson 1920-1957

Ms. Bella Joy Q. Bardollas
History became a witness of the emergence of thinkers who honed important events in their
time. These thinkers became movers of society and laid the foundation of different
institutions that are still useful until today. This study focuses on Geronima Tomelden
Pecson of Pangasinan, the first woman senator of the Philippines, as an educator, a politician
and a thinker. It deals with the history of her educational ideas which provided the
foundations of the educational system in the Philippines. Using her diary, speeches, personal
letters, articles and books, the researcher identified patterns of her thought that lead to
classify her personal ideas in education. By using the framework of History of Ideas,
proposed by Arthur O. Lovejoy and Portia L. Reyes, the researcher identified the unit ideas
that will represent the totality of her ideas in education. The study also tackles on the process
of contextualizing her thought according to her time or period (1920-1957), her status in the
society, system of education in the Philippines, and her gender. The researcher believes that
contextualizing her thoughts can determine important events that shaped her ideas in
education. This study led to the conclusion that the principles of fundamental education,
education for all, and peace education were recognized as her personal ideas in education.
These ideas were also used to develop the educational system in the Philippines. These
educational ideas, which focus on the development of education-for-life, and were used by
Geronima Tomelden Pecson, were products of her personal experiences and has long been
used by her as an educator and a politician.
The Discovery of an Unkown Continent: ISI-Indexed Publications on Africa from

Indonesian Higher Education, mid-2000s-
Professor Arndt Graf
(Goethe University of Frankfurt)
For historical reasons, research on Africa was never very prominent in Indonesia as well as
other Southeast Asian countries, at least in numerical terms. Since the mid-2000s, however,
this has been changing drastically. Dozens of research publications on Africa are now being
published every year by scholars from Southeast Asia, including Indonesia, and vice versa.
This paper examines Indonesian publications on Africa as a case study, comparing them with
those of other Southeast Asian countries. The main questions raised include specific thematic
focuses and interests in particular countries. The study is based on research articles covered
by the Web of Science (ISI). As a similar trend can be observed in Africa with a sudden rise
of ISI-indexed publications on Southeast Asia since the mid-2000s, the overarching question
is whether this new trend of a quest for the discovery of unknown continents is an indicator
of greater changes in the horizons of Indonesian (and African) Higher Education.
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Internationalization and the History of Thai Higher Education
Mr. Douglas Rhein
Globalization and the internationalization of higher education have become important areas
of research. This paper explores the history of higher education in Thailand and argues that
from the onset higher education in Thailand has been based on international models in scope
and nature. The impact of colonization across South and East Asia created the pressures
necessary for Thailand to establish a higher education program. Thus, a chronological
description of the international nature of Thai higher education begins with the initial
formation of higher education institutions in the mid nineteenth century and concludes with
the changes taking place in 2015. The finding of this paper is that from the nineteenth
century formation of palace schools to the rapid growth of international higher education
programs today, the system has been designed and adapted to assist Thailand in the
development process through educational social and economic modernization while
maintaining and recreating concepts of Thai-ness. The process of internationalization
continues to date and one can expect ASEAN integration to further accelerate this trend.
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PANEL 35
Border Governing and the Landscapes of Motions along
Thailand-Myanmar Frontiers
Thailand-Myanmar frontiers are currently experiencing cross-border economic booming,
mass migration, infrastructural connectivity as well as a multiplicity of regulations. Within
the “landscapes of motions,” on the one hand, the issue of how state regulating regimes
shape border practices is pivotal in understanding the persisting roles of the state in
controlling such movements. On the other hand, there are spaces at the state’s political
margins where local, trans-border activities oftentimes influence, if not determine, state
policies and practices through motions, which are ungovernable.
This panel brings together conceptual and ethnographic studies from Thailand-
Myanmar frontiers to depict how cross-border activities challenge and shape state regulating
regimes. Through case studies of the dynamics of governing refugee camps, cultural
materials and their mobility, the multiplicity of categories in border regulation, the networks
of commodity and consumption, as well as the displacement and replacement of cultures, the
panel suggests that borders, as a landscape of motions, allow us to rethink not only on state
relations but also the wider contributions of transborder motions that shape the region.
Understanding the changing landscape of border activities will enhance our knowledge of
how Southeast Asia as a region is continuously formed based on multiple internal borders of
the region.
Convener and Chair:
Dr. Jakkrit Sangkhamanee (Chulalongkorn University)
Panel:
Conceptualising Southeast Asian Borders and Boundaries: The Contrivance and

Multiplication of Issue, Concept, and Methodology
Dr. Jakkrit Sangkhamanee (Chulalongkorn University)
Dynamics of Governing Refugee Camp along the Thailand-Burma borderlands

Ms. Jiraporn Laocharoenwong (University of Amsterdam)
Cross-border Mobilities and Bordering Practices on the Thailand-Myanmar Frontier

Dr. Prasert Rangkla (Thammasat University)
Border Trade, Consumption, and Flexible Regulations in Thailand-Myanmar Border

Dr. Niti Pawakapan (Chulalongkorn University)
From Border to Cosmopolis: The Narrative of Karenni Displaced Persons and the
Quest of Culture
Dr. Sorayut AiemUeaYut (Chiang Mai University)
Conceptualising Southeast Asian Borders and Boundaries: The Contrivance and

Multiplication of Issue, Concept, and Methodology
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Dr. Jakkrit Sangkhamanee
(Chulalongkorn University)
This paper will tackle gaps in existing border and boundary studies. On the one hand, it tries
to examine the development and presence of Southeast Asian borderlands focusing on multi-
sites of national borders that expand to cover distinctive nationalities and ecological terrains.
The aim is to shed light on some of the key debates, approaches and methodologies in the
studies of Southeast Asian state-based borderlands. On the other hand, it seeks to identify the
multiplication of boundaries persisting in our present society. This is to take a critical review
of the processes of social division employing different sets of social criteria (such as
ethnicity, nationality, knowledge and belief, political ideology, and economic status) and
apparatus (such as map, media, bureaucratic system, people identification, and migration
control) and how these processes create consequences for people with different status and
backgrounds. The study will be contextualised as part of the debate over the intricate notion
of ‘boundary’.
Dynamics of Governing Refugee Camp along the Thailand-Burma Borderlands

Jiraporn Laocharoenwong
(University of Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Refugee camps are often seen as spaces of exception. However, the Karen refugee camps
along the Thailand-Burma border, existing for more than 30 years, show characteristics of
self-governing at camp management level. Owing to an absence of Thai government
presence at the beginning period of setting up the camps, refugees started to organize and
manage the camps by themselves. The Thai government controls mobility and security of the
camp population while maintaining a low involvement on the camp organization. The Thai
state, although not obliged to be responsible for those refugees from Burma, allows them to
stay and organize themselves for a long period of time. Why is this so, and how does it
manage and govern the camps and its inhabitants? How do refugees maintain their autonomy
in management of the camp?
To understand the governing regime of refugee camps, this paper explores power and
other relationships among Thai government, humanitarian agencies, ethno-political/armed
groups and refugees, both inside and outside of the camp realm. It argues that camp
governing and organization comes forth from an intricate dynamics of governing at local
levels, the state, and refugees themselves. With this, the paper attempts to contribute to a
partial understanding of power and border regimes in the Southeast Asia region.
Cross-border Mobilities and Bordering Practices on the Thailand-Myanmar Frontier

Dr. Prasert Rangkla
(Thammasat University)
This article explores the way nation-state’s borders are enacted through practices and
representation in the movement of people and commodities. Rather than seeing borders as
lines bounding and separating nation-states, I approach them as social practices and
‘performative acts of translation’ (Belcher et al 2015). Bordering practices produce
categories of mobility and instantiate partitions that consequently create social relations and
trace fields of possibilities. A number of river piers in the Thai northwestern border with
Myanmar are sites where people and material objects are on the move. These mobilities
imply the process of borders’ inscribing, erasing and redrawing as they become social
practices embodied by heterogeneous bordering mechanisms. The Thai border regime
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encodes these activities as ‘smuggling’ in order to capture undisciplined movement and to
create new partitions. The state’s bordering practice acts upon the others’ possible actions.
Inevitably, it generates border struggles that are discordant to the categories encoded by the
state. The paper argues that multifarious bordering practices and translation regimes
constitutively reinforce nation-state borders in spite of the claim of a borderless world.
Border Trade, Consumption, and Flexible Regulations on the Thailand-Myanmar

Border
Dr. Niti Pawakapan
(Chulalongkorn University)
This paper focuses on the growing border trade and consumption in Thailand’s northwestern
border area. Although there have been movements across the border in this region since the
nineteenth century, those movements were not regulated until recently due to political and
security reasons. Border trade was often a risky activity. Because of Thailand’s economic
growth in the last two decades, border trade in this area has increased rather steadily. The
growing border trade also brings a new consumption to the local people who live on both
sides of the border. This paper will, firstly, demonstrate how border trade is connected to the
trading and goods networks beyond the border, and secondly, how it is related to the new
consumption. It will argue that government officials at the local level on both sides of the
border do not always follow the state regulations. They are not reluctant to facilitate the
border trade, which not only generates income and employment, but also brings supplies to
the locals.
From Border to Cosmopolis: The Narrative of Karenni Displaced Persons and the
Quest of Culture
Dr. Sorayut AiemUeaYut
(Chiang Mai University)
This paper examines the problem of Thai cultural homogeneity through an investigation of
Karenni displaced persons who escaped to Chiang Mai from a temporary shelter on the
Thailand-Burma border. All of them, the hope seekers, are voluntary displaced persons even
though they are granted temporary asylum in the camps on the basis of humanitarian reasons.
They use social media to stay connected to their multi-ethnic networks in the host country
(Burma) and to find strategies to survive in Thailand as illegal migrant workers. Living
alongside mainstream Thai culture, they redefine themselves as they become one of many
faces in the cosmopolis. Their narrative expresses the cosmopolitan identity that challenges
the notion of homogeneity on three points, which I refer to as the imaginary of displaced
culture. Firstly, their mobilities in friction reflect the networks across borders that formulate
their flexible lives. Secondly, they possess multiple cultural symbolic competencies. They
are multilingual and use skills of code switching as a strategy in different situations. Finally,
they value other cultural forms and embrace the others by using technology as a tool for
establishing familiarity with other places, materials and people.
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PANEL 36
Political Ecology of Southeast Asia
“Community Based Water Supplies in Cikarang, Are they Sustainable”
Dr. Raden Ajeng Koesoemo Roekmi
(Deakin University, Faculty of Science Engineering and Built Environment)
Community based water supply (CBWS) is an alternative of water source solution for
communities without piped water supply services. It is an important alternative for
developing countries to ensure improved water access to the citizens and also an example of
users’ institution effort to manage water source as common pool resources (CPR). This
alternative seems good that donors’ institutions encourage recipients for implementing it. In
Indonesia alone, national and local government regularly allocate funds from donors and
own budgets to build CBWS in non-public piped water services areas. The CBWS
programme usually appears as a program to build a water supply distribution system using
groundwater as the source and is organized by community institutions. Then the question is,
how sustainable can this alternative be? This research aims to evaluate the sustainability of
five CBWS in Cikarang, Indonesia. The evaluation will be done by assessing the
sustainability of the institutions with Ostrom’s eight CPR design principles, the achievement
of safe water quality delivered by comparing to government standard and assessing the
groundwater withdrawal impact to environment. In terms of institutional sustainability, the
result shows that all of the CBWSs followed certain principles to sustain users’ institutions,
except the last principle. In terms of sustainability for the consumer and environment, the
CBWSs perform low due to their limitations in technical knowledge among regulators. The
quality of water that is distributed by the CBWSs does not follow government drinking water
standards in some parameters, especially in terms of the bacteriology standard. In one
CBWS, the water quality was so low that consumers can notice the salinity of the water.
Additionally, there are no significant efforts from the CBWS to ensure the sustainability of
groundwater withdrawal, for example by monitoring the groundwater deposit and by
recharging groundwater, despite their experience of low water debit during long dry season
last year. Both are unsustainable practices exist because the regulators know nothing about
improving water quantity or maintaining groundwater deposit. Therefore, to ensure the
sustainability of the CBWSs, they should be supported by local government or other
institutions, especially in the provision of technical support to improve their water quality
and to maintain groundwater deposits.
Culture and Collectivity in Times of Floods: Community Experiences and Resilience

Building to Flood Disasters in the Greater Surakarta Area, Indonesia
Mr. Rizki Fillaili
(Ph.D. student at Department of Anthropology, Australian National University)
The fact that floods have become the highest disaster occurrence at the global level (The
World Disaster Report, 2015) and has repeatedly occurred in many places, requires much
attention from us. Indonesia, particularly, the Greater Surakarta area of Central Java
Province, is one of the case. Having the longest river in Java, the Bengawan Solo River, the
area was hard hit by flood in 2007 and the river basin has been flooded almost yearly since
then. Though floods are a common occurrence, knowledge about how people, particularly in
different communities’ contexts, cope with repeated floods, is still unknown. This paper
explores how different communities are able to maintain their social system and continue
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living under hazard situation. It specifically examines the functioning of social cohesion in
shaping community resilience and adaptive capacity to floods. This paper also illustrates
how cultural practices, risk perception, and individual experiences are collided and present
dynamics to community resilient to floods and community conception in general.
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PANEL 37
Inside and Outside the Archipelago: Negotiating Political
Relationships in Indonesia
The Pre-Colonial Southeast Asian International Society: The Mandala Culture of

Anarchy
Mr. Pandu Utama Manggala
(National Graduate Research Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS), Tokyo, Japan)
Throughout the years, study on pre-colonial Southeast Asian international relations has not
garnered major attention because it had long been seen as an integral part of the China-
centred tribute system. It is often said that under the Chinese hierarchical order, Asian
international relations was seen as stable and regional order had been achieved until the
arrival of the Western powers in the 19th Century (Kang 2007). However, pre-colonial
Southeast Asian countries were far from peaceful and stable under the tribute system. Fierce
competition for survival and domination had characterized the balance of power politics
throughout the pre-colonial era (Shu 2012b, p. 46). This paper contributes to the pre-colonial
Southeast Asian literature by examining the interplay that had existed between pre-colonial
Southeast Asian empires and the hierarchical East Asian international society, in particular
during the 13th-16th Century. The paper argues that Southeast Asian international relations in
pre-colonial time were characterized by complex political structures with the influence of
Mandala values. In that structural context, the Majapahit Empire, one of the biggest empires
at that time had its own constitutional structures of an international society, albeit still sought
close relations with China. Therefore, the paper debates the nature of hierarchical China’s
tributary system in pre-colonial Southeast Asia. In policy terms, the findings of the article
indicate that the interactive dynamics within the subsidiary system created norms that are
rooted in the cultural memory of a region. This helps to explain, for example the conduct of
Indonesian foreign policy in the Southeast Asia. The method of this paper is cross-
disciplinary studies that combine the finding of area studies and international relations theory
to provide a deeper understanding of the process of socialization and mutual adaptation
between the Southeast Asian and the East Asia international society.
Explaining Indonesia’s Foreign Policy Toward Papuan’s Issue in Pacific Region

Dr. Hipolitus Y.R Wangge
(Marthinus Academy Jakarta)
The continuing human rights abuses, as well as the politically and economically marginalized
condition in Papua since it was integrated into Indonesia in 1969, have prompted Pacific
countries, which include a group of ethnic Melanesian countries, to pay close attention to
Indonesia’s two most eastern provinces. In 2015, the Melanesian Spearheaded Group (MSG),
a Melanesian sub-regional political and trade bloc, granted observer status to the United
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Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULWP), a group which represents Papuan
independence groups at the international level. Since then, Jakarta-based elites have started to
worry. The important question, however, is why, over the years, the Indonesian government
seems to have been unable to defuse the internationalization of the Papuan issue, particularly
at the regional level.
Drawing from the classical debate between realism and constructivist concepts of
international relations, this paper highlights three factors that contribute to the ineffectiveness
of Indonesia’s foreign policy toward the internalization of Papua’s issue. These factors are a
lack of coordination between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as a main actor, and other
related ministries; a lack of priority regarding the Pacific region on the Indonesia’s foreign
policy construction; and the ignorance of the Indonesian government about Papuan elites, both
in Papua and in exile, to coordinate their campaign for independence. The contribution of this
paper is not merely to understand the role of foreign policy in addressing the local conflict but
also to discuss Pacific regional politics in what appears to be deemed a relatively less
important region.
Whose Empowerment is it? Exploring Contemporary Indonesian (Inter)national

Dr. Elena Burgos-Martínez
(Durham University)
In the context of post-New Order and contemporary Indonesia, I wish to explore the
implications of different 'empowering' paradigms that target minority communities in
multicultural settings. In order to do so, I will examine not only the influence of foreign
conceptualisations of the environment and 'the global' on fostering processes of structural
violence but also the relevance of Indonesian senses of 'the indigenous' and national identity,
if we are to understand contemporary 'empowering paradoxes'. In addition, I intend connect
such reflections with the socio-ecological impact of different 'empowering' strategies and
initiatives undertaken by regional governments and related institutions, in the context of
Nain Island (North Sulawesi, Indonesia). Nain Island comprises four different 'kampong',
with each of these featuring different socio-political orders, economic systems, languages
and ecological relations. However, it was only recently that Nain Island was granted
autonomy as a four-village island, having always been considered a one-village island for
administrative purposes. Illustrative ethnographic examples will place the safeguarding
of (multi) cultural identity at stake, under a systematic de-centralisation of powers and the
influence of urban-centric perspectives and understandings of 'the rural other'.
Transmigrasi and Power Contestation in Local Indonesia: The Case of Lampang

Mr. Arizka Warganegara
(School of Geography, University of Leeds)
Oliver Fristch
(Lecturer at School of Geography, University of Leeds)
Paul Waley
(Lecturer at School of Geography, University of Leeds)
This article reveals the impact of transmigrasi (transmigration) on local power contestation
in Indonesia. In short, Transmigrasi has changed the demographic pattern in Lampung, from
the native Lampungese forming the majority in the 1930s to them becoming a minority
ethnic group in 2010. Due to demographics and democratization issues in Indonesia, the
Transmigrasi has subsequently affected the elite contestation in the local power, for instance,
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the issue of a coalition between the Lampungese (local natives) and Javanese due to the
impact of shifting demographics. These issues are important in understanding local power in
Lampung. This article claims that Transmigrasi has been changing the political landscape in
Lampung. The process of the Transmigrasi programme has resulted in the process of
Javanisation in the context of the local politics in Lampung. For instance, in the Soeharto
era, no Lampungese were appointed as governor. In contrast, currently, the Lampungese are
able to dominate the local power contestation. According to data from Pemilukada from
2005 to 2014, in Lampung, the natives dominate local politics. Lampungese pairs won six
positions of head of district and city mayor whilst nine winning pairs were coalitions
between Lampungese and Javanese. Furthermore, this article also tries to fill the gap in the
study of Trasmigrasi and Power and how Gramsci’s theory on power can be used to analyse
and explain elite contestation over recent years. The author therefore claims that the
changing political landscape in Lampung is due to the cultural, political and economic
domination of the Lampungese.
Anarchism in Java
Mr. Irwan Ahmett
(Independent Artist)
Anarchism is an ideology resists the ruling class. A power should be emerged from the
crossing of various orders. Anarchism emphasizes movements of love, mutual aid and
mutual beneficial cooperation. Its tradition prioritizes simpleness and closeness to nature.
The final product of this project is intended to be a conceptual art solo exhibition which most
probably would be held in Jakarta. It's a self-initiative art project which attempts to reveal
the ideology turmoil in Javanese structural class that's been there forever resourcing from the
classic Javanese chronicle and history of the land of Java based on the oldest manuscript
published in 1811. The manuscript tells about the arrival of the first wave of European to
Java along with the European colonialism power to the Far East. The project also has a role
as an alternative scenario and ideology to Javanese people if Indonesia experienced a great
shock from a political factor or a natural disaster as what once had happened when Krakatoa
erupted.
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PANEL 38
Leadership and Perceptions in Modern Indonesia
The Orchestra of Complexity: Exploring Ethical Organisational Behaviour in the

Indonesian Mining Industry
Dr. Unang Mulkhan
(Management, Work and Organisation, (Stirling School of Management, Stirling University)
There is a growing interest in discussing and formulating the idea of ethics at the
organisational level (e.g. Johnson, 2016; Ladkin, 2015; and Schwartz, 2013). Business ethics
is often presented in relation to ethical theories: deontology (Bowie, 1999; 2002),
utilitarianism (Hartman, 1996; Snoeyenbos & Humber, 2002), the social contract (Hasnas,
1998; Dunfee & Donaldson, 2002), stakeholder theory (Freeman, 1984; Donaldson &
Preston, 1995), and virtue ethics (Solomon, 1992; Moberg, 1997). However, there are
relatively few conceptual and empirical research approaches to apprehend ethical issues in a
context-sensitive manner. Given the lack of research on specific contexts, the present
exploratory research into the nature of Indonesian culture does provide that richness of
context. This presentation will begin with a discussion of how companies’ ethical concerns
result from the characteristics of an industry or organisation, in this case the Indonesian
mining industry, as having an environmentally concerned focus, and as resulting from its
governance structure (public or private). The findings are that ethics is embedded in a Geo-
cultural situation as well as at the level of an industry or organisation. In addition, in
Indonesia, the aspects of paternalism, collectivism, religiosity and ethnicity are central for
the mining companies investigated. The question is how ethical theories can determine
ethical behaviour in those organisations when ethics is understood in these particular ways.
Can these aspects, with ethical theories, create a symphony of ethical behaviour together?
A Tale of Two Governors: Vigilantism, Leadership and Uncivil Society in Jakarta

Mr. Lubendik Sigalingging
Militant societal organizations in Jakarta have strongly opposed the recent inauguration of
Basuki Tjahaya Purnama (Ahok), the first ethnic Chinese Christian to be appointed as
Governor of the City. These protests are driven by a transformation in patronage relations
that these groups have historically enjoyed with previous Jakarta Governors. The dispute
between these organizations and Ahok is thus indicative of the broader struggle to deepen
forms of democratic governance in Indonesia, and the ways in which identity based politics
is starting to matter less in an increasingly civilized society. Significantly, faced with the
erosion of elite patronage, those groups that oppose Ahok have become less prone to violent
protest. Instead, they now mimic Jakarta government, and have installed an unofficial
governor of their own as an alternative to Ahok. Through interviews with key actors, and
discourse analysis of policy statements, documents and online media, the study shows that in
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an era of democratic transition era, a strong government and law enforcement as shown in
Ahok’s administration can control vigilante activities conducted by ethno religious groups
and, critically turn them performatively into more democratically inclined civil society
actors.
Changing the Perception of Ojek Riding through Emotional Appeal: A Case Study of
Gojek Indonesia.
Ms. Diandra Khalishah
Ms. Karina Ghozali

(University of Indonesia)
This paper is a study of the importance in using emotional appeal to change the perception of
public transportation use. It focuses on the case study of Gojek, a digital app-based
transportation company that provides ojek – mode of public transportation which uses
motorcycle as the vehicle – which used an emotional appeal as marketing public relations
strategy to improve the image of ojek-riding to be more friendly and empowering to the
drivers. The focus of research is on Gojek’s Instagram campaign called #RealDriverStories,
where the stories of Gojek drivers were being exposed. Through qualitative methods, this
research aims to explain how emotional appeal in Gojek’s public relation campaign changes
the perception of people in using ojek as one of their choices of transportation. Our findings
show that the stories covered by the #RealDriverStories shift their perception towards ojek
riding correlated to driver’s image towards a more positive light, which most of the
interviewees now have more respect, empathy, and appreciation toward the ojek driver that
makes the experience of riding ojek to be more meaningful. This paper concludes that
emotional appeal is an effective tool to stimulate positive feelings thus shifts people’s
perception towards ojek riding while at the same time, of course, shaping a good image of
Gojek’s brand.
The Business and Government Relationship in Post-Soeharto Indonesia

Dr. Asih Purwanti
(Brawijaya University)
This paper emphasizes the change in business and government relations in post-Soeharto
Indonesia. After the reformasi in 1998, Indonesia experienced a dramatic change in
economic political atmosphere. Under Soeharto’s Orde Baru regime, business and politics
cannot be separated. Most Indonesian politicians dominated economic and business sector
and most of Indonesian businessmen had a link with politicians. However, although the
political economic atmosphere in Indonesia post-reformasi has changed, the relationship
between business and government remains the same. This means that whoever runs business
still needs a close connection with authority to gain success and the politicians as well as the
bureaucrats need the financial support of business to maintain their political activity and
personal interest. Indonesian experience is typically occurred in developing countries. To
explain this business and government in post-Soeharto Indonesia, I will try to elaborate by
having a thorough understanding at the characteristic of bureaucratic politics and political
culture in Indonesia. The result is although Indonesia experienced a political change but as
the connection between politicians and business elites have been established for such a long
time in Indonesia. Therefore this kind of relation is hard to be erased this is because a long
personal network has been deeply rooted in all the aspects of business and politics in
Indonesia.
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The Innocent Man by John Grisham and Rahsia Perindu by Ramlee Awang Murshid:
A Comparative Study of Western and Eastern Crime Fiction
Dr. Halimah Mohamed Ali
(Universiti Sains Malaysia)
Ms. Nur Izwani Md. Nor
This paper is a comparative study of Western and Eastern crime fiction. This research will
look at the mind of the Eastern criminal and the Western criminal. The pattern of the
criminal’s mind: local and international will be analysed from the works of two authors;
Ramlee Awang Murshid and John Grisham. The criminal characters in their novels will be
analysed to look at the way they think. It will be determined whether there is a difference
between the Western criminal’s mind as compared to the Eastern criminal’s mind. It will
also look at whether the characters are portrayed as stereotypes. The Innocent Man by John
Grisham an American author and Rahsia Perindu by Ramlee Awang Murshid a Malaysian
author will be the two texts used in this essay. The theoretical framework that will be used to
read the two texts will be formulated using the works mentioned below, is Crime and
personality by Juliet Cheetham and Crime and the Mind: an outline of psychiatric
criminology by Walter Bromberg. Crime, race and culture: a study in a developing country
by Howard Jones and The color of justice: race, ethnicity and crime in America by Samuel
Walker, Casia Spohn and Miriam DeLone. The framework will determine and point out the
difference between the mind and character of the Western criminal and the Eastern criminal.
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PANEL 39
Relics, Icons, and Religion in Contemporary Thailand and Laos
Practicing dhamma: Constituting Selves, Communities, and a Network of Buddhist

Materiality Through Relic Veneration
Ms. Kelly Meister
(University of Chicago)
The relic of the Buddha at Wat Phra Mahāthāt Woramahāwihān in Nakhon Si Thammarat,
Thailand functions as a nexus of Buddhist power. As this power radiates outward, nearby
items and people are infused with its potency. These almost countless statues, images,
shrines, stūpas, and more, all function as supplemental nodes of Buddhist potency and
potentiality, which mutually reinforce each other, and create an expansive network.
Importantly, this entire relational network is sustained through the meanings it is invested
with by practitioners via veneration, pact making, and righteous self-cultivation. As such, lay
people, through the maintenance of precepts, keeping their commitments promised during
pact making, and in projects of self-cultivation, are continually reinvesting in and bolstering
this complex network of power that serves to preserve and sustain Buddhist teachings
(dhamma) and tradition (sāsana), as well as continually reaffirm the relic’s significance.
Making Gods: Ganesa in Contemporary Bangkok

Dr. Ruchi Agarwal
Ganesa has long been known to people in Thailand but increasingly evident are his cults
flourishing in Bangkok. In the process, the deity appears to be acquiring new roles and
functions. Long regarded as a patron of fine arts, Ganesa now serves in a number of other
capacities as well. For some, he is a ‘fixer’, a deity of last resort that can help devotees to
overcome obstacles in their business transactions and daily lives. Within the local
transgender community, he is also a protector, a ‘love god’ of good fortune. Not
surprisingly, the growing popularity of the deity is reflected in a rapidly expanding trade in
Ganesa images and icons, displayed in shopping mall exhibitions in a variety of forms,
colors, shapes, and sizes. Readily available at most of Bangkok’s major retail outlets,
Ganesa icons are now traded online via social media. In this paper I attempt to explore this
phenomenon, both by examining some of the shifting belief practices associated with Ganesa
locally and by looking at how these shifts are reflected in the evolving trade in Ganesa
iconography and imagery. Considering both together, I hope to show that Ganesa is
presently the focal point for a number of separate cults, each with its own unique approach to
the deity, his powers and his representation.
American Bones and Bombs: Debris of War and the Aesthetics of Ruin in Laos
175
Mr. Chairat Polmuk
(PhD student in Asian Literature, Religion, and Culture, Cornell University)
American air raids during the Second Indochina War (1961-1975) made Laos the most
heavily bombed country per capita in history. However, this violent episode of Lao history is
virtually absent from international and national commemorative communities. Laos’s
peripheral position within dominant narratives of Vietnam–American War partially
elucidates this historical amnesia while the country’s socialist modernity explains the
absence of local memorializing practices. Nonetheless, these explanations remain inadequate
in understanding how the Lao people cope with historical trauma both at collective and
individual levels. This paper investigates an unprecedented genre of literary and visual
witness of wartime violence in testimonial accounts (Fred Branfman’s Voices from the Plain
of Jars), short stories (Bounthanong Xomxayphol’s American Bones), and films (Kim
Mordaunt’s Bomb Harvest and The Rocket) to take into account the ways in which traumatic
experiences shape collective and individual memories in Laos. Focusing on how trauma is
intimately tied to the remnants of war such as unexploded ordnances and excavated bones of
war victims, this paper offers a renewed attention to an affective entanglement between the
human subject and objects. This mode of analysis is also informed by Buddhist conceptions
of temporality and materiality that aim to shed light on historically and culturally specific
experiences of trauma in Laos.
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PANEL 40
Constitutional Politics and Law
Vietnamese Legal Ambiguities as a Socio-spatial and Governing Tool

Dr. Zoe Tan
Analyses of the legal systems in Southeast Asia have predominantly focused on the
constitutional level with a broad normative approach to rights vis-a-vis the state. In the case
of Vietnam, Socialist conceptions of law are brought into the mix in an attempt to deepen the
description and our understanding. Yet, what law means for and to the Vietnamese person is
little explored. In a doctoral empirical field research on wastewater management practices in
industrial zones, I observed a bureaucratic reflex of ritualistic references to the law, despite
and because of its ambiguities. Local bureaucrats justified their (in)actions by pointing to
administrative or organisational operating boundaries. I also observed similar socio-spatial
structuring effects of law and how they formed cognitive frameworks for the commoner-
civilian. Vietnamese law sticks people and places in particular spots in administrative
hierarchies. This is unsurprising but for the usually missing or vague content of the laws. Are
these spaces of ambiguity accidental and signs of state weakness, or perhaps a sophisticated
governing tool? The latter could imply that sub-provincial hierarchical structures are an
important element of social control by the Vietnamese state. This paper should interest
Vietnam scholars who have gone from national to local in their analyses.
Constitutional Politics and Social Movements: Case Study of the Campaign to Amend
Section 436 of the Constitution of Myanmar
Dr. Nyi Nyi Kyaw
(School of Law, National University of Singapore)
Myanmar’s present constitution and its democratic shortfalls have consistently been among
the most debated topics in Myanmar since post-2011 significant political changes or
liberalizations in the Southeast Asian country. Prevention of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi from
becoming President of Myanmar (Section 59 f), occupancy of a quarter of the parliamentary
seats by non-elected military representatives (Sections 109 b & 141 b) and extremely rigid
requirements for any significant amendments (Section 436) are among the constitutional
provisions most frequently highlighted as undemocratic by critics. All of these plus many
other non-democratic provisions were interpreted by the larger political opposition as
constitutional handicaps. Thereafter, by choosing Section 436, widely believed to be the
‘constitutional gatekeeper’, the National League for Democracy and the 88 Generation
(Peace & Open Society), then two most popular political opposition forces in Myanmar,
launched in 2014 an unprecedented social movement pressurizing the sitting parliament to
amend that particular section. The social movement mainly included constitutional talks by
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leading political figures such as Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and Min Ko Naing, a nationwide
signature campaign and protests. Although the movement did not result in amendment of
Section 436 as demanded, it was a significant endeavor because it successfully mobilized to
an unprecedented level the populace of Myanmar. This paper addresses an important
question by asking why it was the case. By drawing upon the social movement literature, the
paper argues that the anti-Section 436 constitutional movement was brought about by a
combination of rational (urgency on the part of the political opposition to challenge the
Thein Sein administration), structural (opportunities for contentious politics provided by
liberalizations) and culturalist (construction of the constitutionally provided pervasive role of
military as a threat to collective political identity of Myanmar as a whole) factors.
Policy Practise in a Community Driven Development in Papua Province, Indonesia

Ms. Yulia Indri Sari
(PhD Candidate, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University)
A Community Driven Development Program (CDD), aiming to facilitate community

planning and decision-making process leading to block grants to fund villager’s self-
prioritized needs, has emerged as a new paradigm for delivering services in the aid
development community. Despite CDD’s popularity, many evaluation studies are
inconclusive, suggesting CDD delivers less than promised. This research makes a
contribution to a much-neglected aspect of Community Driven Development studies: the
process that leads to the outcome. In this research, I employ an actor-oriented approach with
an emphasis to understand actor’s practises in relation to their larger context combined with
actor’s interface analysis by Norman Long. I focus on the case of state led CDD in Papua
Province, Indonesia, to unfold the practises and interactions of diverse actors, ranging from
villagers, facilitators, officials (at the central and provincial level) and aid agency. This
research demonstrates how the cumulative effect of diverse actors' strategies has narrowed
down and reduced its multi-faceted policy intentions and objectives into a single outcome:
the building of physically present but underutilized local infrastructures in one budgetary
year. Actor’s practises are not driven primarily by a CDD policy, but by a complex
relationship and are limited by a number of institutional and structural contexts such as
administrative focus to project management, kinship-based electoral politics and perception
of Papua Nationalist.
Reconceptualizing Constitutional Culture in Cambodia

Mr. Benjamin Lawrence
(PhD Candidate, University of Victoria)
Cambodia’s Constitution is widely misunderstood, by scholars and practitioners in the

country and abroad. Despite the fact that the language of constitutionalism is prominent in
contemporary political discourse in the country, Cambodia is often perceived to be lacking a
“constitutional culture.” This, I argue, is the result of an overreliance on formalistic and
Eurocentric notions of constitutionalism, which focus exclusively on the written word and
the work of courts to “render... constitutional law synonymous with the law of a supreme
court.” Instead, a more nuanced interpretation of actually-existing constitutionalism in
Cambodia demands that we employ socio-legal, even ethnographic, methods to expand the
horizons of constitutional study beyond its traditional “court-and-institution-centric” terrain.
Noting the extent to which this trend is increasingly characterizing work on constitutionalism
in Southeast Asia, then, this paper will ask whether a more culturally-grounded and context-
specific model is in fact made possible by the pluralistic and pliable nature of constitutional
178
practice in the region. Hence, after a brief explanation of the predominant modes for
conceptualizing constitutionalism – namely, the legal and political models typified by
systems in the U.S. and U.K. respectively – this paper will survey models of “hybrid,”
“transitional,” and “cultural” constitutionalism that have emerged from scholarship on
Southeast Asia. I then go on to explore the particularities of the Cambodian context, based
on my ongoing fieldwork, to suggest that it is only by employing socio-legal methodologies
to look at constitutional discourse “from below” that we can fully capture the pliable, plural
and multi-sited nature of constitutionalism in the country. Doing so, I will explain, can allow
us to escape the dependence on western models and preoccupation with state institutions that
is implicit in assessments of “constitutional culture” in Cambodia, whilst also avoiding the
ominous risk of essentialism and reification that a turn to “culture” can often signify. Hence,
while this paper will be of particular interest to those with an interest in legal and political
developments in Cambodia, it will also engage with conversations taking place elsewhere in
the region, and in neighboring academic disciplines.
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PANEL 41
Emerging Trends in Southeast Asian Literatures and Screen
Cultures
How are regional, national, transnational and minority identities being constructed in SEA
literature and screen cultures? How is new media allowing cultural production to be targeted
at specific and niche audiences? What kind of political engagements are being taken up by
writers and filmmakers? How is the internet stimulating creative experimentation by South
East Asian artists, directors and writers? How do literary websites, online forums and artists’
blogs augment the traditional literary canon? To what extent does the internet challenge or
disrupt traditional mechanisms of state management and censorship of culture?
Conveners:
Ben Murtagh (SOAS), Dana Healy (SOAS), Felicia Hughes-Freeland (SOAS)
Session 1
Chair: Dr. Dana Healy (SOAS)
The Production of the Poor in Southeast Asian Cinema: Brillante Mendoza’s

‘Slum’Trilogy in Global Circuits of Exhibition and Reception
Dr. Elmo Gonzaga (National University of Singapore)
Nation as Non-Place: Cultural Amnesia in Contemporary Singapore Cinema

Mr. MaoHui Deng (University of Manchester)
Singapore Dreaming; Paved with Good Intentions for the Good Life
Dr. Regina Lee (SIM University)
Screening the Past: Exorcising the Evils of Southeast Asian History through Films
Ms. Darlene Machell de Leon Espena (Nanyang Technological University)

Ms. Wikanda Promkhuntong (Aberystwyth University)
Session 2
Chair: Dr. Ben Murtagh (SOAS)
The Televisual Senario of Race and Nation

Mr. Luqman Lee (SOAS)
From Urban Society to Urban Literature: The Case of Vietnamese Literature by

Young Writers in Ho Chi Minh City 2000 – 2015
Professor Tran Tinh Vy (Hamburg)
The Dynamics of Vietnamese Literature and Publishing in the Age of the Internet
Dr. Dana Healy (SOAS, University of London)
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Yogyakarta, an Emerging Film Industry
Mr. Tito Imanda, (Goldsmiths, University of London)
My Name is Ratu Kidul: An Art-Anthropology Collaboration

Dr. Felicia Hughes-Freeland, (SOAS, University of London)
The Production of the Poor in Southeast Asian Cinema: Brillante Mendoza’s ‘Slum’
Trilogy in Global Circuits of Exhibition and Reception
Dr. Elmo Gonzaga
This paper will analyze how the production of the identity of the poor is entangled with the
evocation of the setting in Southeast Asian films about urban poverty. Situating the
controversial award-winning work of Filipino auteur Brillante Mendoza within larger
transnational networks of film production, circulation, and reception, I will examine the
institutional, cultural, and aesthetic norms that shape the cinematic representation of a
‘mega-city’ in the Global South. The focus will be a series of films, Tirador (Slingshot)
(2007), Serbis (2008), and Kinatay (Butchered) (2009), which, notable for their construction
of a vivid ‘slum’ milieu, brought Mendoza international critical acclaim and the Best
Director award at Cannes. Departing from the humanist social realism of celebrated Filipino
filmmaker Lino Brocka, Mendoza characterizes his work as striving for authentic realism
through uncompromising provocation. To be able to communicate the realities of everyday
life in a ‘Third World mega-city’, his objective is to shock the audience through abrasive
sensory excess. My paper will briefly contrast the depictions in recent Hollywood
blockbusters and independent art films of futuristic East Asian global cities (Transformers:
Revenge of the Fallen (2009) and Pacific Rim (2013)) and dystopian Southeast Asian mega-
cities (Only God Forgives (2013) and No Escape (2015)). In such global images, the urban
milieus of Southeast Asian nations are portrayed as sites of squalor, congestion, and
violence. Their inhabitants are typically characterized as being inescapably impoverished
and lawless due to their dependency and despair. I will discuss these normative practices of
cinematic representation in relation to the concept of autoethnography (Pratt 1992 and Chow
1995), which highlights how individuals must adopt the idioms and stereotypes of dominant
groups when constructing a legible self-representation. Applying this concept, I will explain
how filmmakers from the Global South, with limited opportunities for financing and
exhibition, must adhere to transnational norms in their cinematic portrayal of their own
location of origin in order for their works to be legible within the international market of film
funds and festivals. According to their criteria for selection, transnational organizations such
as the Hubert Bals Fund and the World Cinema Fund, while championing works from
marginalized regions, require that these works feature the ‘voice’ of a ‘native director’ telling
‘local stories’. Instead of establishing a setting marked by the anonymity of its location
(Martin-Jones and Montañez 2013), Mendoza elevates his localized portrayal of a Philippine
metropolis into the global trope of a ‘Third World mega-city.’ To conclude, I will explore
how, in evoking the urban milieu of a mega-city with authentic realism, such films
inadvertently create a visual surplus disruptive of global norms in the form of passers-by
who gaze at the camera. Shot in the spirit of cinéma vérité without a closed set, their
cinematic backdrop ends up including the gaze of extras who refuse the terms of realistic
representation. Contrary to Chow (1995), I would argue that this visual surplus may unsettle
the established order but without leading to transformation.
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Nation as Non-Place: Cultural Amnesia in Contemporary Singapore Cinema
Mr. MaoHui Deng
(University of Manchester)
In a recent published book on the history of Southeast Asia, Anthony Reid claimed that
‘Singapore was in many ways less Southeast Asian in 2010 than it had been a century earlier
when it had a Malay lingua franca and village lifestyle’ (Reid 2015: 414). Implicit in Reid’s
statement is a suggestion that contemporary Singapore faces a disconnect from its region’s
geopolitical history. This is in part due to the state’s firm management of history and time
following the nation’s independence in 1965, necessitated – apparently, according to the
state’s narrative – due a severing of historical and political ties from Malaya. “Year Zero” of
Singapore’s national identity and history therefore begins with 1965, and has been heavily
emphasised in the nation’s 50th birthday in 2015. Although Malay is still the official
language of Singapore today, ethnic Chinese make up about three quarters of the country’s
population, and English is the lingua franca of the nation. This tight regulation of the past
ultimately results in a form of cultural amnesia; both the histories of Southeast Asia and
Singapore are forgotten in contemporary society. This complicated relationship between
Singapore, Southeast Asia, and the collective histories can be articulated through an
exploration of contemporary Singapore cinema, which is regularly classified as a form of
Chinese cinema that ignores both Southeast Asia’s geopolitics, and the country’s status as
the regional hub of Malay-language film productions from 1947 to 1972. Using Liao
JieKai’s Red Dragonflies (2010), I will highlight Singapore’s third generation citizens’
struggle to identify with the nation’s history beyond the discourse that has been dominated
by the state, reflecting on the observation made by T. Alexander Aleinikoff and Douglas
Klusmeyer, who argue that the third generation citizens of a nation are usually born into their
citizenships whilst most of the first and second generations have to be socialised into a
nation (Aleinikoff and Kylsmeyer 2002: 9 – 10). I will then argue that this disconnect is
characteristic of contemporary Singapore cinema’s disengagement from both its national and
regional past. After which, borrowing from Marc Augé, I propose to think of Singapore as a
non-place – a nation of transitory and liminal entity – in order to understand this temporal
disconnect in relation to contemporary Singapore cinema. Ultimately, this paper calls for a
more comprehensive understanding of cinema’s role in helping us access the past despite the
government’s tight regulation of history and cultural memory, and the need to have an even
more nuanced reconsideration of “nation” and “region” when addressing that past.
Singapore Dreaming: Paved with Good Intentions for the Good Life
Dr. Regina Lee
(SIM University)
In this paper, I examine the film Singapore Dreaming as a cultural text that offers insight
into the materialistic yearnings of a working class family, seeking upward mobility in order
to attain a higher level of existence. I argue that this yearning is not only universally
symptomatic of the working class in general, but also that it has been carefully cultivated
through the discourse of meritocracy, which underpins the governing ethos of the country.
Through the analysis of the socio-economic aspirational leanings of a typical Singaporean
family, this film unveils and critiques the cultural hegemony behind the dominant discourse
of meritocratic achievement in Singapore – a discourse that is constructed for a specific
mode of consumption that feeds and maintains the myth of a materialistic yet meritocratic
society.
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Screening the Past: Exorcising the Evils of Southeast Asian History Through Films
Ms. Darlene Machell de Leon Espena
(Nanyang Technological University)
This paper explores the various cinematic depictions of “evils from the past” within the
context of contemporary Southeast Asia. Focusing on the two cases of the Philippines and
Indonesia, I investigate how contemporary films remember and portray two lingering
historical evils, the remnant of colonialism and the communist purge, in the memory and
narratives of these countries. On the one hand, Indonesia has yet to come to terms with the
communist purge of 1965, spearheaded by the then President Suharto, where hundreds of
thousands, if not millions, of people suspected to be communists or were tortured and killed
in a massive campaign against communism. Using Joshua Oppenheimer and Christie Cynn’s
controversial film, The Act of Killing, I present how evil is epitomized in the real-life
character of Anwar Congo – then a young thug hired to murder hundreds of Indonesians
during the purge. I further examine the spectrum of representations of evil, from a penitent
one to an unabashed. On the other hand, the Philippines, in a series of historical films,
recollect their colonial past and the time of distress and oppression under the American rule.
Utilizing the film Heneral Luna: Bayan o Sarili (General Luna: Nation or Self), I probe into
the process by which evils of colonialism does not merely include the deeds and blunders of
the Americans but the Filipino elite’s own “betrayal” of the nation, their own attempt to
collaborate with the Americans and absconding the ideals of the Philippine Revolution.
Through depicting the hero, General Luna, the film inevitably depicts the evil as well. I
argue that film serves as a 21st century platform for coming to terms with the evils from the
past. I further argue that evil in today’s milieu is neither homogenous nor monotonous. It is
represented in a spectrum of images and in varying degrees of evilness.

Ms. Wikanda Promkhuntong
(Aberystwyth University)
Over the last twenty years, South East Asian film directors have gained significant attention
at international film festivals through various funding platforms, film programming and
commissioned projects. This phenomenon is similar to the wave of interest given to newly
discovered territories including the Latin American Cinema around the same time. Conscious
of the geopolitics between the Western supporters and previously marginalised directors,
works on Latin American cinema and film funding have cautiously warned of the potential
perpetuation of the neo-colonial ideology (Halle, 2010; Ross, 2011). Funded films supported
by European developmental organisations and governmental subsidies have to follow
specific criteria such as shooting the film in the director’s country of origin, and unwritten
rules such as highlighting exotic elements that attract the interest of Western audiences. Does
South East Asian cinema fall into similar situation? Through the case of Apichatpong
Weerasethakul and the International Film Festival Rotterdam, archival materials related to
the director reveal the way in which potential neo-colonial elements associated with global
art cinema favoured by Western film festivals and critics have been consciously
problematized through the discourse on taste culture. Apichatpong’s first feature Mysterious
Object at Noon (2000), co-funded by the IFFR’s Hubert Bals fund, has been positioned as a
mysterious treasure discovered by the festival. At the same time, the film is described as
being consciously impure; crossing over between a drama, a fantasy story with aliens and
flying balls and a road movie documentary. Another feature film Tropical Malady (2004),
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supported by the IFFR through the co-funding platform Cinemart, features sensual elements
of human tiger and homoerotic content. Yet, the festival is conscious in framing the film as
minimalist and poetic in order to avoid being seen through the trope of sensationalist Asian
gay films. By being able to fit in with all kind of film traditions, Apichatpong’s films have
been cited in many occasions to help the festival negotiate their position as a democratic
supporter of innovative cinema. In recent years, as the festival has been criticised for losing
sight of art cinema by programming all kinds of movies and art exhibitions (Young, 2015),
the success of Apichatpong’s multi-platform project Primitive, which comprises of an art
installation, short films and a feature film Uncle Boonmee who can Recall His Past Lives
(2010), have been referred to in various occasions to highlight the IFFR’s insight into the
future of cinema that intersects with all kinds of taste cultures from a political movie, a ghost
story, a television soap to a sci-fi spaceship.
The Televisual Senario of Race and Nation

Mr. Luqman Lee
(SOAS)
Senario is Malaysia’s second-longest running situational comedy that was telecast from
1996-2013. Given that it is a Malay-language sitcom featuring a Malay-only cast, and aired
on what was marketed as a Malay channel, why did it conceptualize an exclusive Malay
space amidst a nation of ethnically diverse citizenry? Within this ethnically homogenous
televisual space, what did Senario contribute to the national discourse of Malayness? How
are key Malay nationalist ideas articulated within the televisual text? This paper aims to
explore these questions through an analysis of Senario.
From Urban Society to Urban Literature: The Case of Vietnamese Literature by

Young Writers in Ho Chi Minh City 2000 – 2015
Professor Tran Tinh Vy
(University of Hamburg)
Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon, is the most dynamic and fastest city in
Vietnam. Literature, as a mirror reflecting reality, has passionately portrayed the process of
modernization and innovation here. Among a variety of genres contributing to the bloom of
literature in Saigon, fiction written by young writers has been one of the sources which
allows for labelling Saigonnese literature as an “urban literature”. My paper “From urban
society to urban literature: The case of Vietnamese literature by young writers in Ho Chi
Minh City 2000 - 2015” has two aims. First, by presenting those writings as typical products
of the urban society, I indicate the inevitable relation between social and cultural changes.
Second, by studying hundreds of fictional texts by 28 young authors who were born from
1975 onwards and are currently living in Ho Chi Minh City, I want to systemize the
contributions made by young writers to national contemporary literature. Following this,
emerging literary trends by young writers in Ho Chi Minh City will be brought into the
foreground. To serve these objectives, the paper is structured in two main parts. The first
part will define (1) what constitutes Ho Chi Minh City as the urban center in Vietnam; and
(2) how writings by young authors could be supplementary to such an urban center. Matters
concerning concepts of the urban society, urban literature and its features will be clarified
here. The second part is devoted to fiction by young writers, focusing specifically on content
and aesthetics. As for the content, the urban factors could be easily recognized in the
writings through frequent discoveries of inner worlds by young protagonists; the descriptions
of the loneliness or desperation of citizens as consequences of the breakdown of cultural
184
traditions and the dis-adaptation to new environments. Furthermore, the appearance of chat-
language, blog-story, code-switching and other aspects related to the use of new media forms
in the writings interestingly reflect the patterns of cultural consumption in urban contexts by
young writers.
The Dynamics of Vietnamese Literature and Publishing in the Age of the Internet
Dr. Dana Healy
(SOAS, University of London)
This paper looks at the impact of the Internet and new media on literary production and
publishing in Vietnam. It sets out to illustrate the transformative, innovative and empowering
potential of online literature. Vietnam has been connected to the global Internet since 1996
(with the launch of public access in 1997). The Internet has contributed to the transformation
of the literary landscape in Vietnam by generating new spaces for creative expression
online. It has brought vigour to cultural production, transformed traditional publishing
channels (as evidenced in the proliferation of literary websites, e-books
sites, personal artists’ websites and blogs, literary forums and online literary journals),
accommodated various forms of marginalized writing and disrupted traditional mechanisms
of state control and censorship. Among the issues explored in this paper are: the production
and consumption of literary texts in the digital age; literary websites, online forums and
blogs; the transformation of the publishing industry; online censorship and dissent.
Yogyakarta, An Emerging Film Industry

Mr. Tito Imanda
(Goldsmiths, University of London)
There have been more and more feature films produced in Yogyakarta in the past few years,
utilizing local resources and cultures. The paper explores different aesthetics and production
strategies used by filmmakers. Film communities combined to organize film festivals from
the late 1990’s that ended up refining film tastes and production skills. The best picture of
the 2015 Indonesian Film Festival, Siti, by director Eddie Cahyono, is only the tip of an
iceberg of a number of Jogja films winning awards or selections in local and international
festivals. All of this film culture was developed with sparse numbers of film theatres and
limited support from the government. Finally, with the lure of Jakarta or global resources and
the minimum infrastructures in regions, the paper asks questions about the prospect of strong
future film industry.
My Name is Ratu Kidul: An Art-Anthropology Collaboration

Dr. Felicia Hughes-Freeland (SOAS)
This paper addresses questions of cultural production and creative experimentation in new
media with reference to a transcultural art-anthropology collaboration that will be shown as
part of the presentation. The short film is a poetic evocation about Ratu Kidul (Queen of the
South Sea), a mythological figure in Javanese political symbolism who marries central
Javanese rulers, created the famous court Bedhaya dance, and steals young men who enter
the sea wearing her special shade of green. It combines live action, poetry, shadow puppetry,
and collage. It appears to be the first collaboration of its kind to have taken place in
Indonesia. The collaboration was inspired by Seruni Bodjawati's short films about art and
artists produced with her mother, the artist Wara Anindyah, motivated by two of their
paintings, and animated by Hughes-Freeland's longitudinal anthropological research into
185
Javanese dance. Wara Anindyah has participated in more than 85 exhibitions in Indonesia
and China, and was elected The Most Creative Artist by the Indonesian Press Community in
2000. Her daughter, Seruni Bodjawati is a painter and studying a masters in fine art at the
Indonesian Institute of Arts, Yogyakarta. She has held four solo exhibitions, dozens of group
exhibitions, and film screenings in Indonesia, Italy, Hong Kong, Slovakia, Liechtenstein, and
USA. She was elected The Most Inspiring Woman in Art and Culture by Indonesia's First
Lady, Ani Yudhoyono. The anthropologist, Felicia Hughes-Freeland is an independent
scholar and filmmaker who has known Wara and her family since 1989; indeed, Wara and
Seruni both appeared briefly in her film, 'Tayuban' (1996). As well as demonstrating the kind
of inventive no-budget visual work which is made possible by digital technologies, this new
film collaboration stands as an example of the productive capacity of long friendships
formed during anthropological research.
186
PANEL 42
New Constellations, New Spaces for Action:
Social and Labour Movements in Southeast Asia
Despite sustained economic growth and overall poverty reduction, countering growing social
inequalities and achieving decent pay and conditions for workers remains a major challenge
in the Southeast Asian region. However there are also new opportunities for identity
formation and mobilization arising from the global flow of ideas and people, from
transnational organizations and networks and from new technologies. This panel examines
the changing interface between social movements and NGOs and worker-led organisations
and unions engaged in pressing claims for recognition and protection of various human
rights. The panel sets Southeast Asian developments in a global and regional context and
shares recent empirical studies encompassing a range of levels.
Convenors:
Petra Mahy, SOAS

Mary Austin, SOAS
Session 1
Chair: Mary Austin (SOAS, University of London)
Indonesia’s Indigenous People’s Movement and Forest Rights

Liz Chidley (University of East Anglia)
Broadening Union Activism: The Paradoxes of Union Development in Indonesia’s

Democratic Transition
Hari Nugroho (Leiden University and the University of Indonesia)
The Law and Politics of Minimum Wage Setting in Indonesia

Surya Tjandra (Atma Jaya Catholic University, Indonesia)
Labour Rights and Representation in Vietnam: The Challenges of an FDI-led and

Export Oriented Industrialisation Process
Michela Cerimele (University of Naples L’Orientale) and Pietro P. Masina (University of
Naples L’Orientale)
Session 2:
Chair: Petra Mahy (SOAS, University of London)
Multi-scalar model or peripheral performers? The changing role of unions in the fight
for an Indonesian Domestic Workers’ Bill
Mary Austin (SOAS, University of London)
Moralities and Mobilities of Domestic Work in the Cities of Kupang, NTT, and
Jakarta
David Jordhus-Lier (University of Oslo)
187
Organising Migrant Domestic Workers in Hong Kong SAR and Singapore
Gabriela Marti (SOAS, University of London)
Discussion: Current Research on Social and Labour Movements in Southeast Asia

Petra Mahy (SOAS, University of London)
Abstracts
Indonesia’s Indigenous People’s Movement and Forest Rights

Liz Chidley (University of East Anglia)
Control over forest resources has been a contentious issue throughout Indonesia’s political
transition from independence through to regional autonomy. In May 2013, the indigenous
peoples’ organisation - AMAN - won a landmark case in the Constitutional Court with the
result that customary forests are no longer directly controlled by the state. Yet the indigenous
peoples’ movement only held its first national congress in March 1999. How did such a
young organisation achieve this result which potentially affects the lives of some 40 million
forest peoples in the country? My research, which is still in its early stages, aims to explore
the factors that led to this achievement in terms of the reciprocal relationships between social
movements and the state in the context of democratisation.
Broadening Union Activism: The Paradoxes of Union Development in Indonesia’s

Democratic Transition
Hari Nugroho (University of Leiden and University of Indonesia)
In the early 2000s, the idea of incorporating broader social rights into trade union agendas
was a popular idea and one which international development and labour-related donor
agencies, like ACILS which is affiliated to ACL-FIO in the United States, played an
important role in supporting. The provision of state education and health services and the
right to public information had been introduced as important agendas for unions alongside
their conventional agendas promoting workers’ interests. A similar idea had also been
promoted by some labour-related NGOs that had longer and closer relationships with
workers’ movements at the grass- roots level. However, very few trade unions have been
able to retain such integration. Many others put such broader social issues outside their
mainstream agendas such as increasing minimum wages, defending against union busting,
and challenging precarious working conditions. Although trade unions have fought for a
national social security system as part of workers’ main interests, the issue has often has
been put separately from other broader citizen’s rights-related issues. By comparing two
unions in industrial cities in Central Java, I would like to show that the inter-twining of
various elements such as the formation of agencies of movement; structural relations with
donor institutions and NGOs; ideological constructions; the restructuring of union
organization and political agendas as well as existing political capital, help explain the
different responses of unions to the experiments. Nevertheless, the future of such types of
movement remains in question. The lack of conception on working class politics meant that
union leaders failed to see the potential for strategic alliances between workers and other
marginalised groups, beyond citizen-based activism. Moreover, existing local power
structures, paradoxically the result of democratic transition, have hampered the formation of
class-based interests.
188
The Law and Politics of Minimum Wage Setting in Indonesia
Surya Tjandra (Atma Jaya Catholic University, Indonesia)
This paper analyses the practice of minimum wage setting in Indonesia, particularly the
situation in regional areas since regional autonomy has increased; and the roles and influence
of organized labour on wage-setting decisions. In situations where the minimum wage
setting processes established in various regions have prevented unions from using collective
bargaining mechanisms at the company or industry level, the Wage Councils have become
the main avenue by which labour can participate in the wage setting process, with unions
relying on a combination of legal and political activities to assist their struggle. The
decentralisation of minimum wage setting to the regions has presented both benefits and
challenges for labour’s efforts to develop minimum wages as a social policy tool and as a
benchmark for collective bargaining. Competition and differences in local political dynamics
between regions, combined with the fragmentation of unions, weak central union
organizations, and challenges associated with the existing surplus of labour in Indonesia,
have resulted in a wide range of outcomes with respect to minimum wage setting, between
different regions and industry sectors. In the absence of clear support, at the national
government level, for the existence of unions and their right to undertake collective
bargaining; and in the absence of employers’ interest in working constructively with unions,
minimum wage setting has remained largely an area of conflict without significant
agreement.
Labour Rights and Representation in Vietnam: The Challenges of an FDI-led and

Export-Oriented Industrialisation Process
Michela Cerimele (University of Naples L’Orientale) and Pietro P. Masina (University of
Naples L’Orientale)
Since its accession to the WTO in 2007 Vietnam has become a major manufacturing hub; a
process due to further accelerate with the simultaneous approval of a bilateral trade
agreement with the EU and the Trans Pacific Partnership. Since 2015, Vietnam has become
the 12th largest exporter of electronics worldwide and Samsung, which has moved its mobile
phone assembling from China to Vietnam, has become the country’s largest source of FDI.
Vietnam’s entrance in the TPP has been conditioned on the implementation in the country of
measures aimed at guaranteeing the respect of ILO’s core labour standards, with particular
emphasis on the right to form independent unions. Although the TPP is still far from being
ratified, it offers a vantage point on the contradictions between the international
community’s support for the ILO core labour standards and a modality of industrialization in
Southeast Asia (promoted by the same interests behind the TPP) that in fact implies a
suppression of workers’ rights. Based on extensive fieldwork with trade unions in Vietnam,
our paper explores the framework of three EC co-financed projects. The paper looks, on the
one hand, at how the current modality of industrial development seems unable to allow a
process of industrial upgrading (in a pattern similar to other Southeast Asian countries), thus
risking making low wages and limited rights a permanent feature of the Vietnamese
economic development model. Secondly, the paper details some specific characteristics of
the labour regimes arising from such an industrial development model, paying here special
attention to the multiple mechanisms helping the production and reproduction of a workforce
(mainly composed of poor female internal migrants) that is “in-fact informalised”,
exploitable, vulnerable, temporary, circulatory and exposed to restless return to poverty.
On the basis of this analysis of concrete economic and labour dynamics the paper
then looks at the role of the Vietnamese trade unions. The question of the transition in the
189
Vietnamese union still is an unresolved and problematic one, and all the more so in a country
that continues to declare itself a “socialist market economy”. The Vietnamese trade unions
and authorities have proven tolerant of the wildcat (“illegal”) strikes spreading in
Vietnamese new peri-urban industrial as a result of workers’ very poor working and living
conditions. However, the reform programmes they have adopted in response to rising labour
conflict have fallen short of providing workers true democratic representation. Especially at
factory and district level, the working of Vietnamese trade unions remains alarmingly poor.
Nonetheless, agreements such as the TPP well highlight the ultimate incompatibility between
“neoliberal” models of industrialization and those same labour rights and standards they
invoke and promote – thus also the constraints under which trade unions in Vietnam (as
elsewhere) operate. Indeed, serving the interest of key international stakeholders (the TNCs,
which want to avoid boycott campaigns; the American Trade Unions and the public opinion,
etc.), the reference to ILO’s core labour standards seems unlikely to have any positive
impact. On the contrary, these agreements seem due to further accelerate the on-going
tendency towards greater inequality in Vietnam and Southeast Asia – and potentially capable
to de-potentiate any genuine attempt at improving labour conditions and reforming its
organizational structures.
Multi-scalar Model or Peripheral Performers? The Changing Role of Unions in the

Fight for an Indonesian Domestic Workers’ Bill
Mary Austin (SOAS, University of London)
Much research on Indonesian domestic workers focuses on the experiences and organizing
efforts of migrant workers. This paper shifts the focus to the domestic workers’ movement
inside Indonesia, which campaigns on behalf of the several million workers employed in
Indonesian homes as well as for those overseas. The heart of this movement is JALA PRT,
an umbrella organization with its origins in a Yogyakarta women’s discussion forum and
Jakarta-based human rights and women’s rights organizations dominated by members of
Indonesia’s educated middle class. Today the movement aims not only for legislative reform
and the ‘empowerment’ of domestic workers but seeks to build a Confederation of Domestic
Worker Unions across the archipelago with strong links to the International Domestic
Workers Federation.
Drawing on recent fieldwork in Jakarta and Yogyakarta this paper explores the extent
to which activists have been able (against the grain) to capitalize on the new spaces for
action opened up by democratization, new technologies and the growth of transnational
networks and confederations. How far has unionization allowed workers to create new
identities, negotiate new avenues and modes of representation, pursue claims for
redistribution and win recognition as more equal citizens of the Indonesian state?
Moralities and Mobilities of Domestic Work in the Cities of Kupang, NTT, and
Jakarta
David Jordhus-Lier (University of Oslo)
Domestic workers constitute a significant part of the global workforce, but are seldom
acknowledged as such (ILO, 2013). While domestic work is always embedded in the micro-
geographies of the household (Weix, 2000), the global domestic labour force is highly
mobile and many, often young women, cross continents to work for other families (Pratt,
2012). Domestic workers tend to migrate to urban labour markets in search of employment,
but often find themselves culturally marginalised in foreign cities. This is why mobility and
urban citizenship both represent key concepts in which to understand domestic workers as
subjects (Forrest, 2008). Based on recent research on domestic workers in Indonesian cities,
190
this paper will attempt to highlight a set of dynamics that speak to the mobilities of domestic
work, but in ways that have received little focus in the literature. First, by focusing on
migrant domestic workers who do not cross a national border, more than 10 million workers
in Indonesia alone. Second, by adding nuance to the understanding of the urban for domestic
work: cities are senders, transit ports and destinations for domestic workers and these
different roles shape the politics of domestic work in the city in different ways (Williams,
2007). Third, by shedding light on other groups of subjects constitutive of domestic work,
namely employers and recruitment agents (Rudnyckyj, 2004), and discuss how their
variegated mobilities shape the ability for domestic workers to claim citizenship.
Organising Migrant Domestic Workers in Hong Kong SAR and Singapore

Gabriela Marti (SOAS, University of London)
Both the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China
(Hong Kong) and Singapore are major destinations for migrant domestic workers (MDWs)
from Southeast Asian states, especially the Philippines and Indonesia. In Hong Kong, more
than 330,000 MDWs are currently employed in private households, while in Singapore, there
are over 220,000 MDWs.
In both jurisdictions, MDWs encounter a number of challenges with regard to organising in

migrants’ associations and unions. Many of these barriers are practical in nature (or an
indirect result of the legal regulation of MDWs in the host jurisdiction) and are based on
MDWs’ isolated workplace, the fact that they must mandatorily live in with their employers,
their long working hours, the temporary and precarious nature of their stay in the country of
employment, and their difficulties in accessing information.
In Hong Kong, MDWs encounter few (direct) legal obstacles to organising in
migrants’ associations and unions, whereas MDWs’ organisation in Singapore is highly
restricted, and MDWs face a number of legal barriers in terms of joining and forming
associations. Based on fieldwork in Hong Kong and Singapore in the years 2012-2015, this
paper examines the differences between the organising contexts for MDWs in Hong Kong,
on the one hand, and Singapore, on the other hand. The paper concludes that Hong Kong
provides a far more enabling context for MDWs to form and join unions and migrants’
associations, and for non-governmental organisations to support MDWs, than is the case in
Singapore. In particular, the paper assesses the impacts of the comparatively lively civil
society landscape in Hong Kong and of the weak civil society in Singapore on the socio-
legal status of MDWs in these two jurisdictions.
191
PANEL 43
Siam’s Elite Photographies in an Era of Colonial Anxiety
By examining the adoption of photography in Siam’s early modern period, this panel will
demonstrate how photography was understood, practiced, and negotiated as a [cultural and
political] communicative tool, not merely as a colonial technological transfer process. This
panel also examines how individual photographs project meaning and agency both visually
as well as materially, enabling us to interpret photographs as both ‘visual’ and ‘material’
objects (Edwards and Hart 2004). Political tensions within Southeast Asia were especially
heightened with the influx of European colonialism from the mid-1850s to the 1910s. As
Britain expanded its colonial territories from India to Burma and the French expanded the
Indochinese empire into the upper Mekhong region of Laos, Siam occupied the non-colonial
space in between, balancing its own geopolitics with those of two global imperial powers.
Siamese elites introduced many cultural and political strategies during this period in attempts
to assuage their anxieties and stabilise the turbulent political landscape. The papers of this
panel focus on a cross-section of elite photographies of crypto-colonised Siam (Herzfeld
2011) from King Chulalongkorn’s images as a visual and material proclamation to the throne
in 1868, to Princess Dara Rasmi – a Chiang Mai princess who became a royal consort of
Chulalongkorn from 1886-1910 and ‘Ngo Ba’, a young boy of the Semang tribe adopted by
the King and raised within the palace, exploring the notion of ‘ethnic-otherness’ within the
ethnic hierarchy in the Siamese royal court. Finally, a paper examining Siam’s representation
and its relationship with the Western world in the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in 1904.
This panel explores how photographic technologies were deployed as both political and
cultural medium in elites’ efforts to re-balance their positions within the realms of domestic,
regional and global geopolitics.
Organiser: Mr. Lupt Utama (SOAS, University of London)

Chair: Dr. Leslie Woodhouse (University of San Francisco)
Discussant: Professor Ashley Thompson (SOAS, University of London)
Panel
Visual and Material Proclamation: The Role of Photography in the Accession of Siam’s
King Chulalongkorn in 1868
Mr. Lupt Utama (Research Student, SOAS, University of London)
Picturing ‘Siwilai’: Representations of Ethnic Difference in Elite Photography During

Siam’s Fifth Reign (1868-1910)
Dr. Leslie A. Woodhouse (University of San Francisco)
Extravagant Ambiguities: Siam’s Representation at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition

Dr. Caverlee Cary (University of California, Berkeley)
Abstracts
Visual and Material Proclamation: The Role of Photography in the Accession of Siam’s
King Chulalongkorn in 1868
Mr. Lupt Utama (Research Student, SOAS, University of London)
192
Before the arrival of photography in Siam, the only evidence of visual discourse in
representing people’s likeness was in paintings of unidentified figures in mural paintings in
Buddhist temples. This lack of tradition reflected a public taboo against representing images
of people within the Royal Siamese Court. The introduction of the first camera, the
daguerreotype camera, in Siam in 1845 by French priest, Father Louis Larnaudie, would
revolutionise this taboo, even though it took ten years to capture the first photograph of the
Siamese King in 1855. Prior to King Mongkut’s death in 1868, the King had inexplicably
refused to state a preference as to his successor. However, Prince Chulalongkorn was
enthroned by the accession council in 1868 when he was only fifteen years old. During this
time patrilineal succession lack regulations in Siam’s palatine law, and was further
complicated by the institution of a ‘second king’, moreover, through a series of domestic and
regional political events during an era of colonial anxiety, the choice of Chulalongkorn was
safer. This paper will argue that in addition to acting as a political endorsement of King
Chulalongkorn’s accession to the throne, his portraiture in the new medium of photography
was also worked to cement his elevation. Three key photographs (including well-known
portraits taken by Scottish photographer, John Thompson in 1865, and Siamese
photographer, Frances Chit in 1868), will provide my methodological framework for
investigating the implications and significance of the sartorial ‘materials’ and ‘objects’
embedded within these photographs. I will argue that the endorsement of Prince
Chulalongkorn’s succession was made explicit through the use of photographs as both
‘visual’ and ‘material’ proclamation to the throne.
Picturing ‘Siwilai’: Representations of Ethnic Difference in Elite Photography During

Siam’s Fifth Reign (1868-1910)
Dr. Leslie A. Woodhouse (University of San Francisco)
Scholars of Asian art and history have undertaken a critical examination of how photography
has historically been deployed by various Western colonial powers to reinforce a “hierarchy
of civilizations” with themselves at the top. Thailand’s royal elites have long been known for
their adoption of “modern” techniques to represent their civilization, such as mapping
(Thongchai 1999), collecting and photography (Peleggi 2002). As my paper will discuss,
photography could also be enlisted in non-colonial contexts to create notions of ethnic
difference that replicated and reinforced the ethnic power hierarchy suggested by Western
colonizers – even in countries which were never formally colonized, such as Siam (today
Thailand). In this paper, I will discuss how elite Siam’s photographers elaborated a Siamese
notion of civilization called “siwilai,” an adaptation of Western colonial categories of ethnic
hierarchy to the Siamese context. In this paper, I explore how such elite photographers
utilized photographs of court figures who represented ethnic “Other-ness” within the palace
in constructing siwilai and its corollaries in Siam. As case studies, I will focus on two
particular figures, including “Ngo Ba,” a young boy of the Semang tribe adopted by King
Chulalongkorn and raised within the court, and Princess Dara Rasami, an ethnically Lao
consort who practiced distinct customs of dress, eating and deportment. Photographic images
of both these figures, I will argue, played an important part in embodying the ethnic
hierarchy of Siamese siwilai.
Extravagant Ambiguities: Siam’s Representation at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition

Dr. Caverlee Cary (University of California, Berkeley)
While by the turn of the twentieth century Siam had participated for decades in overseas
exhibitions in Europe and America as part of its international diplomatic imperatives,
193
surviving photographs of Siam’s pavilion at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St
Louis suggest perhaps the most elaborate opportunity for exporting state theater up to that
time. In this paper I will review a series of moments in the construction of the royal image
from the previous half-century, an image crafted to be identified with the kingdom itself,
before turning to the St. Louis case. What kind of image did Siam choose to present? What
was the context of this particular exposition, and, beyond this, that of America’s relations
with Asia in this period? This paper explores ambiguities and ironies embedded in the story
of Siam at the St. Louis fair.
194
Panels Pending Final Details
PANEL 44: Conflict, Power, and Politics in Indonesian Foreign Policy
PANEL 45: Cold War Cultural Networks: The Construction of Southeast Asia as a
Regional Art Scene
PANEL 46: The Popular Traditional Music in Malaysia
PANEL 47: Social and Political Disruptions in Burma and Southeast Asia from the
Late 1930s to the 1950s
PANEL 48: Beneath the Constitution: Everyday Conceptions and Practices of Thai
Law and Social Ordering
195
196
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The Ryukyu/Okinawa Findings and The Reassertion of The Legacy of Hang

Conference Paper · September 2016

Rozita Che Rodi

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SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL AND AFRICAN STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF

ASEASUK Conference 2016

EUROSEAS 2017 (Oxford) Conference Announcement 196

Andy Sumner and Lukas Schlogl (King’s College London)

How Inclusive has Growth been in Indonesia?

Is Indonesia going through an Inclusive or Illusional Structural Transformation?

Decentralisation and Distribution: A Multi-dimensional Taxonomy of Indonesian

Has Inequality in Indonesia been Transmitted over Generations?

How Inclusive has Growth been in Indonesia?

In this paper we consider different approaches to assessing inclusive growth in Indonesia

Is Indonesia going through an Inclusive or Illusional Structural Transformation?

The Indonesian economy’s future relies on successful structural transformation. Externally,

Decentralisation and Distribution: A Multi-Dimensional Taxonomy of Indonesian

Has Inequality in Indonesia been Transmitted over Generations?

Professor Duncan McCargo (University of Leeds)

Professor Duncan McCargo (University of Leeds)

Polarization, Partisanship and Political Culture: Southeast Asia

Theorizing Polarization and the Political in Thailand and Malaysia

Rumour, Fantasy and Fraud: De-Legitimizing the Jokowi Presidency

Session 2: TRANSITIONS FROM AUTHORITARIANISM

Chair: Dr. Adam Tyson (University of Leeds)

Myth, Rhetoric and History: The Legitimation of the Marcos Regime

From War to Peace in Timor-Leste: When Democracy Prevails?

Contentious Politics in Myanmar’s Democratic Transition

Session 3: THAILAND’S TRAVAILS

Thailand after the Coup: The Expansion of the Bureaucratic State

Oppositional Space under Military Rule in Thailand: A “Thai Style” Dictatorship?

Polarization, Partisanship and Political Culture: Southeast Asia

Dr. Bridget Welsh

Theorizing Polarization and the Political in Thailand and Malaysia

Rumour, Fantasy and Fraud: De-Legitimizing the Jokowi Presidency

Myth, Rhetoric and History: The Legitimation of the Marcos Regime

From War to Peace in Timor-Leste: When Democracy Prevails?

Timor-Leste exemplifies how contentious politics can be in Southeast Asia in times of

Navigating an Inhospitable Peace: The Role of Civilian Ceasefire Monitors in Burma

Since the advent of Burma’s transition to democracy in 2012, peacebuilding practitioners

Contentious Politics in Myanmar’s Democratic Transition

Thailand After the Coup: The Expansion of the Bureaucratic State

Oppositional Space under Military Rule in Thailand: A “Thai Style” Dictatorship?

Dr. Iza Hussin (University of Cambridge)

Dr. Tomas Larsson (University of Cambridge)

Law, Gender and Personal Status in Malaysia: Circulations and Networks

Budgeting for Buddhism: The political economy of religious bureaucratisation in

Theorising and Practicing Democracy in Theravada Buddhist Southeast Asia

Reading Rawls in Asia – Political Liberalism and Indonesia

The Response of Contemporary Indonesia Islamic Parties towards Pluralism

The Limits of “State Intervention” in the Promotion of a Singaporean Muslim Identity

Constitution and Personal Law Realm: Multiculturalism, Autonomy, and Freedom of

Ahmadiyah and Shia Resistance: Ahmadiyah, Shia and Counter-hegemony in Post-

Capital Account Liberalization and Capital Controls in Indonesia: the Effectiveness of

The Political Economy of Regionalism in ASEAN and Its +3 Partners: Contemporary

Rethinking the Source of Political Change in Thailand, Myanmar, and Thailand

The Military in Motion: Indonesia’s Defence Diplomacy in the Yudhoyono Years

Out of the Shadows of the Past: Challenges to a Full-fledged ASEAN Political-Security