This paper examines why a dynamic Bumiputera Commercial and Industrial Class (BCIC) has generally failed to emerge despite decades of high profile governmental efforts. It was found that governmental training programs, political interventions as well as Malay culture have not been compatible with market rationality.

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Deforestation in the Philippine uplands occurred so rapidly that numerous attempts have been made to elucidate its major causes. The landless and the small-scale farmers in the lowlands have been regarded as the direct actor that expedited deforestation through their forest resource exploitation and forest land cultivation. Little attention, however, has been given as to how environmental changes, dwindling forest resources in particular, have affected the survival strategies of these economically poor people. This paper aims to examine the interrelationships between the diminishing forest resources and survival strategies of the local people, putting emphasis on the landless. It was revealed that forest resource exploitation and forest land cultivation have supported their household economy considerably. In transforming upland landscapes, however, the role of their activities was less significant compared with that of logging activities conducted by enterprises and of grazing activities owned by local elite. It was also revealed that dwindling forest resources did not seriously affect the livelihoods of the landless. They were able to cope with this environmental change through investments, enabling them to possess tangible and/or intangible assets and diversifying income generating activities by household members. The advent of cash crops with a high market value changed the upland landscapes from grasslands to crop fields, which led to the establishment of de facto land ownership. This, however, would not ensure their engagement in sustainable upland cultivation, as most of the landless are not seeking cultivation land per se but securing opportunities for survival. They do not consider grasslands as complete waste lands, as this contributes to their household economy to some extent. The government's effort to rehabilitate the grass-covered uplands through empowering the local residents will be in vain unless they are given economic incentives along with an understanding of the significance of the grasslands.

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In Indonesia, some aspects of the forest management problems have been raised, and the need to look for the solutions toward sustainable forest management is deemed necessary. The objectives of this study are (1) to clarify the forest problems in Indonesia, (2) to collect the comments and opinions of the persons concerned with the forest problems and (3) to propose solutions to forest problems in Indonesia. The research was based on interviews from various respondents : Ministry of Forestry and Estate Crops (MOFEC), the Regional Forestry Office, the Provincial Forestry Service, university lecturers, private concessionaires, the forest product industry, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), and the Forest Product Development Research Center (FPDRC). The interviews and discussions were focused on four topics : the imbalance between wood supply and demand, deforestation issues, forest disturbances, and conflicts between forest concessionaires and forest communities. The interview results showed that an increasing number of forest industries has caused the scarcity of wood, and thus has driven the concessionaires to illegal logging in order to compensate for the low supply of wood. MOFEC policy in forest utilization has tended to support the concessionaire in order to increase the foreign currency. On the other hand, it has caused negative impacts for the forest communities. Most problems of forest utilization in Indonesia are the result of the lack of forest resources data, weakness in forest area control due to the small number of forest security personnels compared to the forest area, efficiency of wood harvesting and processing techniques, and overlapping areas of forest concession and land tenure. Based on the research, the author proposes the following programs; (1) improving the industrial timber estate area in order to increase the wood supply, (2) matching wood supply to capacity of the forest industry when issuing the forest product industry licenses, (3) improving the wood efficiency in the forest industry, (4) increasing the forest security abilities to reduce the number of forest disturbances, (5) strengthening the control of the wood market to prevent the trade of illegal logs, and (6) involving the forest community in the forest management more intensively.

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Under the Suharto order that began in 1968, positive cultural politics came into force in Indonesia for the purpose of building a “national culture” through preserving and developing the country's diverse “regional cultures.” The notable point of this government policy is the rhetoric that combines the concept of “race” or “ethnic group” with the concept of “region,” that is, the 27 adiministrative provinces in Indonesia. Under this cultural policy, the cultural region and the administrative region (the province) have come to overlap.
 In this process, artistic genres like music, dance, and theater, were very important factors to indicate belonging to a specific region. The government attached importance to the preservation, promotion, and development of kesenian daerah (regional art forms) as a subdivision of regional cultures. Kesenian daerah means the art forms which are rooted in the cultural past of the people. This term was often used in the sense of the “valuable” and representative art forms.
 Against this background, the intellectual artists in various regions, including West Java, were actively searching for their own regional art forms. In West Java, this was done by seeking out and collecting the various regional art forms and reorganizing them. West Javanese intellectual artists founded an institute of arts and adopted as teaching materials the artistic genres that were rooted in this region, and were original, of high-quality, and have potential for development. They also promoted experimental activities for composing new works using these materials as sources. Presently, educational activities that promote extensive knowledge about various artistic genres and the experimental compositions are practiced at this institute.
 In the present paper, I consider the educational system and the curriculum at the institute of arts in West Java, and I will present a case study of the activities in search of kesenian daerah in Indonesia.

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The purpose of this paper is to examine U Kyaw Min's speech in the Burmese Parliament on 12 March 1957 and the political situation in which it was received. There were several movements in the name of Arakan, and most of them were fought by local guerrillas. The reason why U Kyaw Min's speech is worth considering is that he requested a State for the Arakan in the Burmese Parliament. He regarded himself as representing the majority of the Arakan, and demanded that the AFPFL Government to make effort to gain the confidence of the Arakanese. In fact, U Kyaw Min was a politician who used the Arakanese position in seeking power in the Burmese Politics. But his speech does reflect the political situation of Burma. Since the independence of the Union of Burma, not much attention was paid to the people and regions in the modern history of Burma, which were distant from the politics of the central Burma. U Kyaw Min's speech allows us to reconsider the distance, shown after nine years of independence of the Union of Burma and a year before the first Army takeover.

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Villagers' acquisition of food materials from the natural environment in a Lao village in Northeast Thailand is examined from the viewpoint of interaction between man and nature. The village is surrounded with exceptionally rich forests, on which villagers depend for a large part of their daily diet besides rice, the staple.
 Villagers' cooking methods and tastes are well adapted to the natural materials available around the village. The availability is influenced by seasonal factors as well as the micro-level changes of natural conditions. What food materials are taken is also affected by villagers' own schedules. They choose daily food materials from among what are available and from the viewpoint of diet diversification. Hunting-gathering activities are basically for the next meal. Villagers know what food materials are available and plan hunting or gathering based on past experience.
 These features are generated through villagers' daily interactions with nature. The core idea is that they want to live their lives following the conditions of nature. This idea underlies the rhythm of the villagers' daily life.

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