The 13 countries in ASEAN plus Three (‘APT’) can take pride in being one of the leading, if not the leading, groupings in the world where attracting investments in concerned. Paper presented by Huzaime Hamid at the NEAT Working Group on East Asian Investment Cooperation held at Weihai, China on 28 July 2006. Download
The ringgit is free but not floating freely. It is now under “managed??? float. Cynics would call it “dirty??? float. To them, a “clean??? float is synonymous with a “free??? float. The latter is labeled “clean??? as the exchange rate under this mode is determined by supply and demand for the currency without government interventions. … Read more
Economic crisis sparked political mobilization in both Malaysia and Indonesia in the late 1990s, but with very different results. Reformism in competitive electoral authoritarian Malaysia took a largely electoral route, yielding marginal, top-down institutional change and the enhancement of democratic norms. The hegemonic electoral authoritarian regime in neighbouring Indonesia, on the other hand, was toppled … Read more
It verges on tautology to say that internet use depends on internet availability. Obviously, the former will not occur in the absence of the latter. However, it is quite another thing to claim that there is a simple linear relationship between availability and use. It is conceivable that, once the diffusion of a communication technology … Read more
A pattern appears in Malaysian governance – this means that any solution adopted by the state to enhance its power will remain long after the crisis is over. When overdone, these solutions create their own crisis. Author: Ooi, Kee Beng. Publication: Opinion Asia, 12 Oct 2007. Download
Far less attention has been paid to deficiencies in the foundations for the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). Although the ASEAN Charter views ASEAN economic integration as the basis for continuing integration in other areas, the draft charter does not support this goal with a sufficient framework. Author: Sim, Edmund. Publication: Opinion Asia, 03 Aug 2007. … Read more
This paper addresses the subject of media control in Malaysia under the Barisan Nasional (BN–National Front) regime, the coalition of ethnically-based political parties that has ruled the country since independence. As Hughes notes in her introduction to this issue, the dominant liberal discourse on democratization often views the mass media in fairly functionalist terms as … Read more
By its very nature, this profit maximization process does not inform us about the overall social and environmental impact of a given project on a society. This can be a great cause of concern because a project, especially a large dam project which is considered economically viable, will not necessarily contribute to the social development … Read more
The Charter is the work of nation states; that ASEAN is being refurbished remains no more than the sum of its parts. If the idealism of the EPG recommendations is not fully reflected in the final document, it is because the drafting is the work of officials who have to be mindful of its acceptability … Read more
As a component of the study project on cross-regional trade agreements (CRTAs), this article explores recent free trade negotiations, first by Singapore, then in more detail by Thailand and Malaysia. The article notes that each government, while remaining committed to the regional trade liberalization processes manifest in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC), the Association … Read more