Japanese Journal of Southeast Asian Studies
Online ISSN : 2424-1377
Print ISSN : 0563-8682
ISSN-L : 0563-8682
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Volume 41, Issue 3
Displaying 1-10 of 10 articles from this issue
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Articles
  • A Narrative of Contested Views of Development in Thai Society:
    Voices of Villagers in Rural Northeastern Thailand
    Ratana Tosakul Boonmathya
    2003 Volume 41 Issue 3 Pages 269-298
    Published: December 31, 2003
    Released on J-STAGE: October 31, 2017
    DOIhttps://doi.org/10.20495/tak.41.3_269
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
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    This paper is a report of an ethnographic field research reflecting contested views of development on how to become modern in Thai society. It demonstrates how villagers in two rural Thai-Lao communities in the Northeast of Thailand utilized discourses of development after having been subjected to development programs and policies of the Thai state beginning in the 1960s. It also argues that development concepts and practices have become a political and cultural space where constant negotiation, integration, cooperation, contestation, and resistance are taking place. While the Thai state is responsible for initiating the concept of development, village discourses about the concept cannot be interpreted as reflecting unquestioned hegemony of a ruling elite. Development, thus, has become a political and cultural location that entails not only cooperation of villagers with state agencies, but also contestation of the authority of some of these agencies. The actual experiences of villagers with official development initiatives and their own pursuit of development have led to tensions not only between villagers and representatives of the state, but also within village society. In pursuit of interests that are differentiated by class, gender, and age, some villagers have also sought allies within and outside their villages. The contestation over development meanings and practices in these two villages reflects, thus, a more widespread debate in Thai society about what it means to be modern.
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  • Burial Goods in the Philippines:
    An Attempt to Quantify Prestige Values
    Grace Barretto-Tesoro
    2003 Volume 41 Issue 3 Pages 299-315
    Published: December 31, 2003
    Released on J-STAGE: October 31, 2017
    DOIhttps://doi.org/10.20495/tak.41.3_299
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
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    It has always been the practice to relate materials interred with the dead as markers of status. The value assigned to these burial goods are most of the time from the value system of the researcher. However, the value systems of past cultures were most likely different from that of the researcher. In this paper, I am proposing an independent system from ethnographic analogy by which burial goods can be evaluated from an archaeological perspective.
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  • The Shifting Role of Large Livestock in Northeast Thailand
    Suchint Simaraks, Sukaesinee Subhadhira, Somjai Srila
    2003 Volume 41 Issue 3 Pages 316-329
    Published: December 31, 2003
    Released on J-STAGE: October 31, 2017
    DOIhttps://doi.org/10.20495/tak.41.3_316
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
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    In 1976 large livestock populations overall began to decline along with other developmental changes in Northeast Thailand. The developmental trend greatly influences the livestock population. In the past, livestock played important roles in farming systems at household and community levels. The aim of this study is to re-examine the changes in roles of livestock. Households were selected according to household activities, including labor for livestock raising. Village leaders, village administrative committees or key informants, and households were interviewed by using a semi-structured interviewing technique. In order to confirm that the data collected was accurate, representatives of leaders involved in livestock raising or marketing from every province were interviewed in groups. The numbers of livestock raised by the villagers varied from one village to another and there are fewer buffaloes than cattle. Animal power utilization has been related to land preparation for paddy and for upland crops, weeding, and paddy threshing. However, these roles have greatly declined and been replaced by farm mechanization, such as hand tractors, herbicides, and mobile threshing machines. The contribution of livestock to the ecology through livestock manure in terms of soil fertility has declined. Strategic uses of livestock as a saving bank or as a commodity to be sold for immediately needed cash has declined. Therefore dependency of the farmers upon money, instead of natural resources, has become more pronounced to their livelihood. Uses of livestock in bartering systems, such as an exchange for land rights or other necessary goods, has been mostly replaced by a buy-and-sale system, especially in popular weekly livestock markets. Other roles of livestock, related to passing on of inheritance, rituals etc., have declined and been replaced mainly by consumer goods. Replacement of livestock by external inputs has produced an impact on community systems fostering dependency, a loss of indigenous knowledge, and, probably, increased consumptive behavior.
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  • Party-State Manqué:
    Ne Win and the Burma Socialist Programme Party
    Yoshihiro Nakanishi
    2003 Volume 41 Issue 3 Pages 330-360
    Published: December 31, 2003
    Released on J-STAGE: October 31, 2017
    DOIhttps://doi.org/10.20495/tak.41.3_330
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
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    This article examines Ne Win’s attempt to construct a party-state in Burma. Previous studies have argued that Ne Win built the Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP) in 1962 as a political organization to camouflage his dictatorship and military rule. In this article I suggest that Ne Win tried to construct a partystate in the 1970s by changing the rules governing appointment to top state positions, but failed.
     From 1962 to 1970, the Revolutionary Council consisted of military officers favored by Ne Win, directors of the Ministry of Defense, and regional commanders of the Army. It began to change in 1971, when Ne Win formed the Central Executive Committee (CEC) within the BSPP for top decisionmaking. In 1972, he compelled most CEC members to retire from the military and did so himself. Many CEC members who concurrently held ministerial posts resigned in 1973, effectively separating the CEC from the military and the government. At the third Party Conference in February 1977, Ne Win began to change the type of people appointed to the CEC. Five new members of the third CEC were retired officers who had transferred from the military to the party in the 1960s and rose in the party. They were not former directors of the Ministry of Defense or former regional commanders, but party leaders. This means Ne Win began to shift his power base from the military to the BSPP.
     But in an attempt that came to light later, some party leaders tried to unseat Ne Win in the election of the Central Committee at the third Party Conference. Ne Win then purged 113 party members including new CEC members and appointed the fourth Central Committee in November 1977. Ne Win never again appointed people to the CEC who had risen through the party. Subsequently, until 1988, the BSPP functioned primarily to camouflage his military dictatorship.
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  • Indonesia's Political Elite after the Fall of Soeharto:
    The 1999 Elections to the People's Representative Council
    Akiko Morishita
    2003 Volume 41 Issue 3 Pages 361-385
    Published: December 31, 2003
    Released on J-STAGE: October 31, 2017
    DOIhttps://doi.org/10.20495/tak.41.3_361
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
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    In June 1999, one year after the end of the Soeharto regime, Indonesia held its most liberal election in 32 years to elect representatives to national and local parliaments for the 1999–2004 term. Those elected to representative bodies are now some of the most important figures in Indonesian politics, in constrast to the powerlessness of these bodies during Soeharto’s authoritarian rule. This essay focuses who was elected to the People’s Representative Council (Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat: DPR), analyzing their characteristics in terms of social and cultural background.
     Through an analysis of DPR member profiles—including name, sex, year of birth, place of birth, religion, ethnicity, academic background, business career, social and political activity, family background, and so on—this essay identifies six common characteristics of the 1999–2004 DPR members. First, more than 90% are male. Second, 64% won their election in the constituency that includes their place of birth. Third, they have high levels of academic achievement. Fourth, their professional backgrounds are mostly as businessmen, scholars, government officials, secular teachers, religious teachers, journalists, and lawyers. Fifth, one half had prior experience in a national or local parliament before the 1999 election. But, finally, less than 10% have a family background in politics, such as a father who was a DPR member. This essay also illuminates some differences among DPR members in age, religion, ethnicity, academic background, business career, political career, and social and political activities, according to the political party to which they belong.
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