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This paper seeks to answer the question of how the sultanates of Malaysia maintained their authority in the current nation-state era as almost all of Indonesia's hundreds of sultanates (except for the Sultanate of Yogyakarta in Java) lost formal power. It proposes three findings. First, Dutch and British colonialism had different legacies in Indonesia and Malaysia, respectively. Second, following their independence, Indonesia and Malaysia adopted different government systems, with the former becoming a unitary republic and the latter becoming a federal state; consequently, the sultanates of Indonesia had to submit themselves to the central government in Indonesia, whereas those in Malaysia were given broader space to exercise their authority within a federal state. Third, the sultanates of Malaysia have a two-layered identity, resulting from the convergence of ethnic Malay and Islamic identities that eventually strengthened the Sultanate's authority and legitimacy in the eyes of the people and the federal state; conversely, convergence between ethnic and religious identity was limited in Indonesia's sultanates, subsequently undermining the sultans' ability to uphold authority and power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholarship on Christianity in Malaysia has been dominated by denominational church history, as well as the study of urban, middle-class and English-speaking church congregations in the post-Independence period. In focusing on the vernacular Chinese Protestant church in Malaysia, and one of its most prominent para-church organisations, called The Bridge, this paper draws attention to the variegated histories of Christian conversion and dissemination in Malaysia, and the various modes and meanings of Christian identity as incorporated into different local communities and cultures. The history of the Chinese Protestant church suggested in the first part of the paper takes as its point of departure the distinction between mission and migrant churches, the latter being the origin of the vernacular Chinese churches in Malaysia. The second part of the paper traces the emergence of a Chinese para-church lay organisation called The Bridge, and the Chinese Christian intellectuals behind it, in their mission to engage the larger Chinese and national public through literary publications and other media outreach activities. In so doing, these Chinese Christian intellectuals also drew on the resources of an East Asian and overseas Chinese Christian network, while searching for their destiny as Chinese Christians in the national context of Malaysia. By pointing to the importance of regional, Chinese-language Christian networks, and the complexity of vernacular Christian subjectivity, the paper hopes to fill a gap in the existing literature on Christianity in Malaysia, as well as make a contribution to on-going debates on issues of localisation, globalisation and authenticity in global Christianity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Applying Bourdieu's theoretical framework on the correspondence between mental structures and social structures, this paper examines the persistence of educational underachievement among working class Malay youths in Singapore. Accordingly, my first objective is to document the social structure, namely a largely working class neighbourhood where these Malay youths have grown up. My second aim is to analyse how everyday cultural practices and interactions among peers in the neighbourhood significantly reinforced these youths' levelled aspirations. I maintain that by believing in 'taking the gravel road', which is symbolically rough, uneven and uncertain, these youths justified the irrelevance of doing well in school. Succinctly, this essay demonstrates the close correspondence between the perceptions of the odds of success and the educational underperformance of the Malay youths. Hence, this paper would be of interest to scholars in the Malay Peninsula, as well as experts concerned with the intertwining of education with class and ethnicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Malay merchants and traders played an essential and significant role in the early modern history of trade and commerce in Southeast Asia. Nevertheless records on the history of their entrepreneurship has been hardly written and researched upon. Thus, the main objective of this paper is to trace back the dynamic of Malay trading communities in the late 18th and towards the early decades of the 19th century. The paper would also highlight the importance of Malay traders in early Penang and the survival of Melaka as an important port in the late 18th century. A focal analysis of this study is on the 18th and 19th centuries Malay merchant communities and how their active presence in the Malay waters had given a great impact to the intra-Asian trade in Southeast Asia prior to the period of European colonialism and imperialism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores dominant discourses on 'illegal' migrants in the context of contemporary Indonesian labour migration to Malaysia. By focusing on the particular case of migrant domestic workers, it discusses recent political moves undertaken by both nation-states to regularise migratory movements. These state-induced efforts at regularising transnational migration have been promoted as combating trafficking and 'illegal' migration, but they have led to the legitimisation of a migration scheme that has much in common with colonial indentured labour. Hence, the paper argues that this 'legal,' state-sanctioned migration scheme gradually leads domestic workers into 'legal' - but bonded - labour arrangements and that the labour contract, as such, needs to be analysed as an instrument of subordination. Through the counter-narrative of Arum, an Indonesian domestic worker performing her work 'illegally' in Malaysia, the paper then goes on to argue that to migrate through 'illegal' migration channels can be interpreted as an act of voluntarily circumventing the 'legal,' state-sanctioned migration scheme. Thus, 'illegal' migration can be equated with deliberately resisting a coercive system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Looking at crisis responses in the Philippines and Malaysia, this paper will analyse how state-based banking policy elites in both states used the 1997–2000 crisis to radically accelerate pre-crisis policy directions that were opposed by local banking institutions and their peak associations. Drawing on empirical evidence and policy reform theory, the paper will detail how these elites used both their ability to define the nature of the 1997–2000 crisis and the appropriate responses, and their control of the executive to accelerate these directions and minimize the voice of local banking players. In the case of Malaysia, the banking policy direction to be analyzed will be banking sector consolidation, while for the Philippines it will be foreign entry and equity participation in the local banking sector. Moving away from the singular domestic focus of much policy reform literature, this paper will attempt to develop a two-level model for these crisis-driven policy accelerations. To do this, it will look at the use by these state elites of their relationships with the IMF and their banking policy obligations of the GATS as the rationale for acceleration and as the rationale for their overriding of local banking interests. This incorporation of external actors and changes to the international political economy should allow for a more nuanced and well-rounded understanding of these specific elements of the 1997–2000 crisis response, as well as the political economy of policy reform in general for both Malaysia and the Philippines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is based on a larger ethnographic study of Bidayuh women who are a group of minority indigenous women in the Malaysian stat of Sarawak. The paper discusses women's entry into paid work and life-course squeezes. As the women earned a mere 39 per cent of their husbands' monthly wages even though they had the same years of schooling if not more than their husbands, the women's views on work and marriage are examined. The paper also explores the feminist question as to whether women's employment increases their personal autonomy and independence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This paper explores the rise of new social movements in Malaysia in the past year, with special focus on the transformations in civil society and the changing face of politics in the country. Recently, proselytisation and LGBT rights have become deeply politicised as a result of a revival in public activism and mobilisation. Here, I examine the discourse surrounding these issues through analyses of NGO websites, press releases, news articles and other sources. The analyses reveal three emergent themes beginning with the fragmentation of Islamic authority following experiments with state Islamism, the cosmopolitanisation of a society in a post-Islamist phase and finally, the increasing public visibility of social and political movements. I argue that Malaysian society is experiencing a shift from traditional ethnic politics to more critical cosmopolitan struggles, highlighting the encounter with globalisation and heightened awareness within public consciousness of the visible presence of minority communities in society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Social theorists examining the impact of globalisation on state power argue that sovereignty is being respatialised and rescaled and that it is no longer adequate to understand state sovereignty as operating evenly on a national scale over a population within a bounded territory. Nevertheless, ASEAN states continue to adopt such a national framing of people and place, particularly in the construction of immigration control regimes. I argue that in order to understand the localised and spatialised exercise of graduated sovereignty and the selective introduction of neoliberal practices, it is necessary to recognise the significance of the immigration status of individuals and examine how the dividing practices of immigration control regimes permit the selective allocation of rights to non-citizens. This paper examines Malaysia's approach to international labour migration, noting that it makes different biopolitical investments in different types of non-citizens on the basis of a calculation of their potential contribution to the 'nation'. Malaysia creates a hierarchy of rights, giving greater rights to skilled workers, while restricting those of 'unskilled' workers. Malaysia punishes those who breach immigration laws severely. However, Malaysia's modernist approach to immigration control fails to achieve intended results and I highlight a number of reasons why. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the recruitment procedure and the gradual loss of autonomy of low-skilled migrant workers in international labour migration, by using the example of Vietnamese workers' trajectories to Malaysia. It argues that debates on indentured labour and all other forms of bonded labour remain relevant today as new manifestations of the practice are now concealed behind extensive economic exchanges and inter-state economic cooperation. A detailed study of the process of Vietnamese labour migration shows how migratory trajectories that start from 'voluntary' indebtedness eventually lead to a status of subordinate and immobilised guest workers in Malaysia. The interrelations between debt and contracts play here a central role. Encouraged by the promising messages of local recruiters and the official support for migration, candidate workers readily consent to sign the triple contracts that will lead them to work in Malaysia. In the process, they gradually get entangled in a web of obligations towards their recruiter, their state (bank) and their employer, leading to severe restrictions in their autonomy over life and work in Malaysia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines and analyses human rights issues in Malaysia. Its approach is primarily an eclectic, by concentrating on the strengths and weaknesses of the human rights regime as practiced by Malaysia. This paper is divided into three parts. The first part looks at the six fundamentals of human rights that include: Respect for the integrity of the person; respect for civil liberties; and respect for political rights, more specifically, the rights of citizens in Malaysia to change their government. The second part looks at the Malaysian government's attitude regarding international and non-governmental investigation of alleged violations of human rights, such as discrimination based on religion, race, gender, disability, language or social status. The last part looks at worker's rights. The data for this analysis comes from primary and secondary sources, namely newspapers, the Internet, books, magazines and journals. The study found that the records of human rights in Malaysia is relatively good when compared to some of her ASEAN neighbours. For instance, Malaysian experience demonstrates that parliamentary democracy has been well-maintained in that elections have been held regularly ever since independence in 1957. Indeed, Malaysia enjoys one of the fastest-growing economies and is one of the 'Asian small tigers.' It may have occasional political and religious arrests of some opposition leaders, but physical force is not exerted against opponents, in contrast to what Ferdinand E. Marcos did and what Gloria M. Arroyo has been doing in the Philippines at the time of this writing. Furthermore, there is nothing that resembles the violence that frequently erupts in the Philippines, Thailand and the continuing oppression in Myanmar committed by the military government against its people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article highlights the workshop "Women, Youth and Children in Muslim Countries: Between Democracy and War," which was jointly organized by the Academy of Social Sciences and Women's Development Research Center, held at the Universiti Sains Malaysia, on December 23, 2002. The title of the workshop cum seminar captures the dilemma faced by Muslims in a campaign against terror. The exercise of pointing to the shortcomings of Western models of development and shifting from Eurocentric views were the prominent themes of the papers presented in the workshop. Local traditions acquire prominence in the exercise of exposing alternative perspectives. The civilizing role of religion becomes the basis of a dialogue between civilizations. A high priority is given to education as a means to introduce the alternative ways of doing and understanding life and the world. Education, through school and university curricula, becomes interconnected in a project to create a more tolerant society and world. The desire to break away from Eurocentricism and Western knowledge systems is a struggle in many parts of the developing world as the contradictions of capitalist modernity are made obvious.

Knowledge has been widely recognised as the most important factor of production in a "new economy". The production, dissemination and utilisation of knowledge are therefore essential for development. Some countries, Malaysia among others, have embarked on an ambitious plan to use knowledge as a base for economic development, by-passing earlier stages of industrialisation. Some commentators have, in contrast, asserted "that it is doubtful that the knowledge revolution will let developing countries leapfrog to higher levels of development" as "the knowledge economy will actually expand the gap between rich and poor" (Persaud, 2001:108). The paper discusses this controversy by arguing that the knowledge-gap (k-gap) is in fact a precondition for development. It is, however, no natural phenomenon but it is constructed by experts and governments. Socio-economic indicators are used to show that the existing global knowledge gap is widening between Southeast Asia and the OECD countries and within ASEAN Malaysia, whose government has pursued a vigorous strategy of knowledge development is moving ahead of other ASEAN nations, but falling behind industrialised countries. Factors explaining the situation are outlined in this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The globalisation of economies offers new opportunities to both developed and developing countries in terms of promoting growth, improving income, and reducing poverty and inequality. However, it has also given rise to labour flexibility, wage depression, and eroded important elements of redistribution and weakened social protection systems. The 1997–1998 financial crisis in Southeast and Northeast Asia further exposed important limitations in the ability of such existing systems to cope with the crisis. This paper identifies new forms of economic insecurities generated by the renewed growth of labour flexibility as globalisation weakens the basis of social partnership and tripartism. It examines Malaysia's development experience, the impact of the crisis on workers' economic security, and assesses the adequacy of existing social protection programmes in its response to new types of economic insecurities generated by globalisation. It argues that these issues need to be addressed in formulating policies to ensure equitable social development in Malaysia in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, Malaysia's attempt to join the 'information society' and 'knowledge economy' by embarking on the ambitious Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) is mapped out and analysed. The discussion is framed in the context of globalization, modernity and the situation in other Muslim societies. Notwithstanding the present national skepticism regarding the MSC, the project has been reasonably well designed and launched. But it is, in the final analysis, only a part of the larger structure of national innovation systems that function equally as 'engines of economic growth.' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the use of merger and separation as a textual construction of a nation. According to the author the history is not neutral. It is rendered ideological by the very act of being conveyed in a narrative form for language is both the purveyer of meaning and the principle locus of ideology. The paper explores the idea of history as discourse, and its deployment in the cultural symbolic construction of Singapore. To this end, the author has chosen to analyze a key moment for Singapore history, the years 1963-65, when Singapore for first merged with the nation of Malaysia and then separated form it. The way that these events are described in official histories is used by the government of Singapore to justify the policy of multiracialism, which also serves as a legimitating device confirming the state in its political and ideological hegemony. The author thus has examined the events through the analysis of local newspapers, to see in what ways their reporting may be helped to mould popular understandings to what was happening.