South-East Asia: People’s Struggle And Political Identity

From the Preface : The recent economic and political convulsions in the region of South-East Asia have brought into focus the fragility of the contrived political economy of several of the ASEAN nations. Indonesia’s political upheaval which has forced a president to step down, the continuing ethnic and social conflicts in the country, and the fall-out effects of the economic and political intervention of superpowers such as China, Japan and the US-backed IMF and World Bank–all have brought about subtle shifts in geopolitical and economic centre of gravity that forces these nations and others in the region to take a second and hard look at the peoples interests in the context of national identity and indigenous solutions. The articles, papers, reviews and documents, including profiles, have been put together in the present publication under the collective appallation of South-East Asia: People’s Struggle and Political Identity, in an effort to provide the student and scholar, teacher and researcher in the area, salient and relevant inputs that pertain to resurgence of South-East Asian politics and policies, in the context of the peoples national as well as regional aspirations. The publication is a welcome and valuable addition to literature on the region in view of the rapidly changing scenario of the various nations.