Malaysian Poetry in English began as a university activity 50 years ago. While some of the early poets imitated the works they read from the Anglo-American canon, the others were experimenting with poems in Engmalchin (English, Malay, Chinese) and writing poems about Malaysian realities. The position of the poet in English was dislodged by the declaration of Bahasa Malaysia as the only national language—and the literature written in this tongue as the only national literature. Silence and exile became the response of the poets in English, many of whom were of Chinese descent. But the writing continued, even if in trickles. This project is a postcolonial reading of this poetry. It shows the submerged and subaltern voices in the poetry. It also deals with poems that focus on the notion of Orientalism as propounded by Edward Said. Moreover, it discusses poems that show how the hybrid, hyphenated poet functions best in a society that is not monolingual, not mono-ethnic, and not mono-religious. Identities, it can be said, are shifting, slippery, and never static - whether it is the identity of the poet laboring over a poem at night, or a multicultural Malaysia in the process of finding its many voices under the sun.

This paper summarizes the findings of the project this researcher conducted in Thailand while based at Mahidol University's Institute for Population and Social Research. The major objective of the study is to identify important lessons and policy strategies from the Thai experience that Philippine authorities can adopt in addressing problems related to population and reproductive health. A short discussion of the shift from family planning to reproductive health was also included to give the context of fundamental policy changes in population programs in recent years.

Several important characteristics of the Thai population program could be identified: (1) the presence of a strong national population policy at every period of their development since the 1970s; (2) the effective involvement of non-government organizations in the implementation of family planning and population programs; (3) the effective choice of strategies for the implementation of particular projects; (4) the presence of effective information and advocacy campaigns; and (5) the availability of reproductive health services in most communities.
 

Two centuries ago thousands of men and women from the Muslim kingdom of Pattani, in what is now Southern Thailand, and Kedah (including what is now Perlis), were deported to Bangkok and its surrounding areas. This study provides an overall picture of how assimilated these Bangkok-Melayu population has become since then; they are still distinguishable from the other Thai-Buddhists and Thai-Muslims, but have lost many of their distinct cultural practices, especially in the regular use of Jawi.

This findings showed that in general assimilation was high, but there remains two interconnected key cultural elements which keep this group distinct from the dominant Thai-Buddhist host community. These are religion and language - both feed into the Bangkok-Melayu sense of identity, but it is concluded that it is Islam that ultimately provides the bedrock of their distinctive identity.

Causes of assimilation are from multiple sources, but two stand out: urbanisation and economic development, as well as new Islamic interpretations that are causing the abandonment of certain customary practices. Putting these in the context of a decentred globalisation model, it is concluded that the Bangkok-Melayu are in danger of losing their distinctiveness and of being merged with the wider Thai-Muslim community. But this danger may be neutralized by the government's current pluralist policies.

Struggles, resistance, and contestation often take a more dynamic and controversial form in oppositional politics. A classic working example in the late twentieth century points to the experiences of two oppositional peasant organizations in the Philippines and Thailand in resisting the development projects imposed by government and big business. The on-going struggles of the KMP and the AOP show how grassroots or peasant organizations challenge the state and dominant social forces. The oppositional politics of the two organizations, while manifesting two critical strands, demonstrates how their political practices could strengthen civil society. In the process of their political dealings, the centrality of local opposition and its amplification at the national and transnational levels are underscored. In turn, this scaling process demonstrates how national and transnational oppositions work to extend local struggles. Finally, a comparison of their engagements in contesting dominant powers in society highlights important factors critical to the analysis of the role of civil society in the twenty-first century.

This study attempts tounderstand the development of Malay national consciousness which led to the attainment of Malaya's independence. It focuses on the socio-political ideals of the anti-British and pro-Indonesian Malay nationalists and their struggle for Indonesia Raya during the period of 1920 to 1948. In the first place, it handles the emergence of the new intellectual groups and their political ideals for the future of Malaya. Secondly, this work examines their struggle for Indonesia Raya under the Japanese rule. Finally, it investigates their struggle for Indonesia Raya during the protest against the Malayan Union.

Historically, the Tay, the Nung in Viet Nam and the Zhuang in China share the same origin. The process of separation took place as early as the 11th century (the Tay in Viet Nam) and some 300 years ago (the Nung in Viet Nam). These ethnic groups show many similarities in their social organization and traditional culture, especially religious beliefs.

The Tay, Nung and Zhuang are the subjects of this research, which focuses on the areas inhabited by a great number of them such as Cao Bang, Lang Son, Bac Can in Viet Nam and the autonomous region of the Zhuang in Guangxi, China. The research also takes into consideration the Zhuang in Yunnan, the second most populous Zhuang province in China.

The primary goal of the research is to compare the religious beliefs of the Tay, Nung and Zhuang. Using historical origin, population, residential areas as bases, the research presents the points of similarity and differences in the religious beliefs of the three ethnic groups. The aspects examined include the conception of souls and deities, folk religious beliefs, mediums, sorcerers and religious rituals. The research also touches base with the religious beliefs of other Thai language-speaking ethnicities in Southeast Asia.

The development of India's software industry is so rapid that it has made India one of the world's most powerful software manufacturing and exporting countries. Many parallels can be found between China and India. By analyzing the present state, characteristics and development of India's software industry, this paper will extract lessons relevant to China's IT industry, especially the software industry, and thereby determine what policies the Chinese government should emphasize.

India and China are two Asian countries with not only the world's largest populations but also the fastest rates of economic growth. Both countries have been predominantly peasant societies for a long time and have experienced a number of severe famines in the past. As recently as 1943, India lost nearly 3 million people in the Bengal famine while China experienced a severe famine during the Great Leap Forward (1958-61) during which anywhere between 15 to 20 million people died. Since then both countries have made significant efforts to combat food shortages and have become self-sufficient in grain production in recent years. Nevertheless growth in agricultural production, food sufficiency or even becoming food-surplus does not guarantee access to food. For example, today India's official food grains stock stands at over sixty million tonnes. Yet around fifty million Indians are reported to be on the brink of starvation. Although India has been an exporter of food grain for the past few years and has reported a drop in its poverty level, endemic hunger and malnutrition continue for an unusually large number of Indians. This study seeks to analyse the theoretical roots of this paradox, the flawed policies vis a vis access to food and compare them with the experience of China. The central hypothesis is that food sufficiency does not necessarily ensure food security.

In the past two decades both countries have been adopting reform policies, making structural adjustments in the context of growing globalisation and increasingly relying on market forces. Both have achieved considerable success, especially China which is witnessing one of the fastest economic growth rates in history compressed in such a short time for so many people. However despite such rapid growth and reduction in absolute poverty, new social groups have emerged in China that are vulnerable. These are the unemployed, the post-socialism phase socially unprotected poor and the migrant rural labourers to cities and new manufacturing centres. In the proposed study I am comparing the official strategies being employed in the two countries to combat food insecurity in the era of reform. It appears very useful to learn from the two countries' respective experiences of reform. Agriculture still provides livelihood to the majority and despite the obvious differences in the two countries' colonial pasts and current political systems, their governments face the similar challenge of ensuring food security.

This article presents findings from research conducted among the Hmong in the Wenshan area of Yunnan Province in Southwestern China. I have attempted a basic ethnography on the construction of Hmong ethnic identity by exploring their myths, legends, rituals, songs and proverbs. With no written language to record the past, these forms of culture have been constructed and reproduced from generation to generation in Hmong society. In their long historical encounter with the Chinese majority, including state power and sinicization processes, the Hmong have attempted in different ways to construct, maintain and reproduce their ethnic identity, in order not to be absorbed by the mainstream culture. Nevertheless, beyond everyday practices in Hmong life are the inevitable effects of the long historical relationship between the Hmong and the Chinese. Simple forms of everyday practice, the visible face of contemporary Hmong identity, stem from shared descent.

The major objective of this paper is to identify the role of government and the family in the well-being of older people and to sketch the different dimensions of governmental and familial support for them. This paper also ventures to look into the sustainability of existing arrangements in the face of the apprehension that traditional support mechanisms may not be able to withstand the pressures associated with the current rapid structural changes that are currently taking place both in India and China. Conclusions will be drawn in the context of the current release of two national survey reports on ageing populations in India and China. Both surveys collected considerable data on the elderly population and their support systems through interviews with representative samples of the country’s aged populations.

The paper takes as its point of departure the contemporary debate on religion and the state in Nepal. The 1990 Constitution of Nepal, on the basis of which the country is currently governed, defines the kingdom as a multiethnic, multilingual, democratic, independent, indivisible, sovereign, Hindu and Constitutional Monarchical Kingdom. While there are those who are for retaining the relationship between the state and Hinduism in Nepal, there are others who argue against it and who demand that the state be declared secular.

Pointing out that it is worthwhile to examine the relationship between state and religion in other Asian countries with monarchical forms of government, the paper takes up the case of Thailand. Through a critical appraisal of the Thai case, it states that the stalemate on the debate on Hinduism versus secularism in Nepal could be overcome by learning from the Thai constitution, which distinguishes between the state and the king's religion. The paper argues for a middle ground that gives continuity to past traditions while simultaneously disassociating the state from aligning with Hinduism. This, it claims, could be done by deleting the word 'Hindu' from the clause that defines the kingdom, though not necessarily replacing it with the word 'secular'.

In May 1998, the world was taken by surprise when ethnic riots flared in the streets of South East Asia, spurred by a spiraling economic crisis. But while neighbouring countries like Indonesia and Thailand burned, Malaysia remained relatively calm . At a time when the fear of economic deprivation was leading communities to become more insular and chauvinistic, Malaysia as a multi-ethnic country seemed to buck the trend. Even though Malaysia was as badly hit economically as the other countries, why did it not go the way of its neighbors? At least part of the answer seemed to lie in how Malaysia had evolved its intercommunity relations, particularly in the last three decades, and developed a substantial capacity of the state to contain and minimize ethnic conflict in the country through effective use of political institutions.