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Monday, May 30, 2011

Maximum Government: Pervasive, omniscient, all powerful, often the fount of authority

What role did the Military play in the different Southeast Asia state?

Vietnam

  • Ho came into power in 1960 in which the new constitution gave prominence to communism and a totalitarian political structure with a dominant president, a disciplined party and the largest army
  • It was different from the National Assembly which was a broad national front; co-operative bodies that consist of non-communist as well

Military not the most prominent

  • Control of military was done through recruiting the commanders as party members
  • Promotions had to be approved by the party

Cambodia

Military used to contain factionalism within Sangkum

  • Rivalry between the politically conservative and the radical elites such that rebellion was instigated by the radicals in April, 1967 and was warned by Sihanouk that it would be severely dealt with and they (Samphan and Hou Yuon) went underground

Laos

Rise in power of Pathet Lao

  • Factionalism; the neutralist, the pro-Americans and Pathet Lao the communist political party
  • Needed to establish power and unity from 1950s

Indonesia

Military play a political role:

  • Acted as an instrument of consensus uniting the diverse population; crushed the movement of fundamentalist Muslims to establish an Islamic state in 1962
  • Ban political parties like the Masjumi and the Socialist party

Sukarno:

  • Depended heavily on the military’s tool of coercion
  • In return military was given key positions in civil administration and economic management under martial law in 1959

Suharto:

  • Political parties were not permitted to organize in the villages and sub-district, the home of 80% of Indonesia’s population and instead he formed Golkar
  • 1987 all societies including political parties were required to declare as their sole guiding principle the state ideology of the Pancasila—to subscribe to one ideology approved by Suharto
  • Military officers were given appointments in business enterprises like Pertamina; provincial and local governments were also opened to the military officers

Burma

Military play key role in assimilation of minority

  • Supposed to have pledged loyalty through Panglong Agreement, 1947 Aung San
  • U Nu introduced synthesis of Buddhism [Buddha Sasana Council Act a state-financed agency for the promotion and propagation of Buddhism] and socialism—opening the way to Burmanization and the decline of the non-Burman ethnic traditions
  • Ethnic minority controlled one tenth of the country

Ne Win and the Burmese Way to Socialism (BWS)

  • State rested upon the people and not on a narrow capitalist or landlord class
  • Against parliamentary democracy as well
  • Establish consensus among opposing factions—to unite political parties to form a single national party Burmese Socialist Programme Party (BSPP)
  • Required all monks to register, 1962
  • Ordered the arrest or removal of leaders, especially among the Shan, 1962
  • Black market flourished as he claimed for self-reliance
  • 1988 massive demonstration in Rangoon to topple Ne Win was curbed with strong military strength

Malaysia

Military to prevent secessionist tendencies, communal conflict

  • 1948 and 1953 in Penang and the same happened in Johor and Kelantan in 1955

Racial Riots of 1969:

  • Suspension of parliament and in its place a National Operations (security) Council

Positive changes:

  • The launching of the New Economic Policy (NCP) which as to concentrate on the large scale uplift of the bumiputra through urbanization and the creation of a bumiputra middle class

Philippines

  • Martial law in 1972 to create “New Society” against the forces of Marxist-Leninist-Maoist and the Muslim minority rebellion in the South (Moro National Liberation Front, MNLF) against the movement of Christians to the South and their hold over the local economic infrastructure
  • The outbreak of the Muslim rebellion had resulted in increased insurgency in the central plains of Luzon; and the insecurity motivated many Philippine families to organize their own vigilantes, they would use firearms and so economy took a dive
  • A vigilante is someone who unlawfully punishes a criminal, or participates in a mob or conspiracy to mete out unlawful punishment to a criminal or criminals.

Positive changes made by Marcos:

  • Land reforms: Presidential Decree No. 27 to conferred ownership of family sized farms on all tenants on rice and corn land, but it was not matched by implementation

Negative changes by Marcos:

  • To destroy the power of rival families
  • Benigno Aquino was arrested and exiled
  • Family business assets were seized from the Lopez clan and he set up the Philippine Sugar Exchange to control al the marketing of sugar abroad and all sugar produced now had to be sold to the state, land holdings exceeding 100 hectares were also purchased at low prices resulting in huge losses to families with wealth based on land

Singapore

Use of Economic Tools to control the society:

  • By 1965, the PAP-supported National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) had gained control over the trade unions from the left-wing Singapore Association of Trade Unions. The NTUC’s main platform was to call upon the trade unions to discard their narrow self interest and to modernize by working towards accommodating rather than confronting the government and the employers.
  • Expanded upon its social role to provide members with educational, recreational and business opportunities
  • 1972, set up the National Wages Council which was a tripartite wage-negotiation body consisting of labour, employers and the government—this further eroded the collective bargaining role of the trade unions

Use of Politics Tools to control the society:

  • Introduced new forms of mass organizations—weekly meet-the-people sessions so that constituents can feel the people’s concerns and there would be ‘walkabouts’ on Sundays to provide channel between the people and the government

Use of Social Tools to control the society [Assimilation of minority]:

  • Article 89 recognised the ‘special position’ of the Malays and it also recommended the creation of a non-elected advisory body called the Presidential Council on Minorities
  • Stress is on citizen army, total defense, and allowing high-ranking officers to cross over to participate in national politics or be seconded to the bureaucracy to ensure that the armed forces would have a major role in the political structure but not a dominant role

Task—Step 2:

  • Why did the military play the role that they did in the various countries?
  • Fill up this table

Reason 1

Reason 2

Reason 3

GA

ELA

EVI 1

EVI 2

EVA

Task—Step 3:

  • Attempt these essay questions below.
  • It should be a breeze if you had filled up the table SERIOUSLY! J

Essay Questions:

    1. “Military regimes were an answer to the early instability in newly-independent Southeast Asia nation-states”. Discuss. (IJC, 2006)

    1. To what extent have the military intervened in the politics of Southeast Asia states since independence” (IJC, 2007)

    1. Was the rise of maximum governments in Southeast Asian states after Independence inevitable? (NJC, Prelims 2007)

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