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Transparency and Authoritarian Rule in Southeast Asia

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Transparency and Authoritarian Rule in Southeast Asia TRANSPARENCY AND AUTHORITARIAN RULE IN SOUTHEAST ASIA The 1997–98 Asian economic crisis raised serious questions for the remaining authoritarian regimes in Southeast Asia, not least the hitherto outstanding economic success stories of Singapore and Malaysia. Could leaders presiding over economies so heavily dependent on international capital investment ignore the new mantra among multilateral financial institutions about the virtues of ‘transparency’? Was it really a universal functional requirement for economic recovery and advancement? Wasn’t the free flow of ideas and information an anathema to authoritarian rule? In Transparency and Authoritarian Rule in Southeast Asia Garry Rodan rejects the notion that the economic crisis was further evidence that ulti- mately capitalism can only develop within liberal social and political insti- tutions, and that new technology necessarily undermines authoritarian control. Instead, he argues that in Singapore and Malaysia external pres- sures for transparency reform were, and are, in many respects, being met without serious compromise to authoritarian rule or the sanctioning of media freedom. This book analyses the different content, sources and significance of varying pressures for transparency reform, ranging from corporate dis- closures to media liberalisation. It will be of equal interest to media analysts and readers keen to understand the implications of good governance debates and reforms for democratisation. For Asianists this book offers sharp insights into the process of change – political, social and economic – since the Asian crisis. Garry Rodan is Director of the Asia Research Centre, Murdoch University, Australia. ROUTLEDGECURZON/CITY UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG SOUTHEAST ASIAN STUDIES Edited by Kevin Hewison and Vivienne Wee 1 LABOUR, POLITICS AND THE STATE IN INDUSTRIALIZING THAILAND Andrew Brown 2 ASIAN REGIONAL GOVERNANCE: CRISIS AND CHANGE Edited by Kanishka Jayasuriya 3 REORGANISING POWER IN INDONESIA The politics of oligarchy in an age of markets Richard Robison and Vedi R. Hadiz 4 TRANSPARENCY AND AUTHORITARIAN RULE IN SOUTHEAST ASIA Singapore and Malaysia Garry Rodan TRANSPARENCY AND AUTHORITARIAN RULE IN SOUTHEAST ASIA Singapore and Malaysia Garry Rodan First published 2004 by RoutledgeCurzon 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by RoutledgeCurzon 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2004. RoutledgeCurzon is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group © 2004 Garry Rodan All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Rodan, Garry, 1955– Transparency and authoritarian rule in Southeast Asia: Singapore and Malaysia / Garry Rodan. p. cm.—(RoutledgeCurzon/City University of Hong Kong Southeast Asian studies; 4) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Asia, Southeastern—Politics and government—1945– 2. Transparency in government—Asia, Southeastern. 3. Asia, Southeastern—Economic policy. I. Title. II. Series: RoutledgeCurzon/City University of Hong Kong South East Asian studies; 4. JQ750.A91R63 2004 320.9595—dc22 ISBN 0-203-42101-9Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-68093-6(Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 0-415-33582-5 (Print Edition ) CONTENTS Series editors’ preface vii Preface x Acknowledgements xii Glossary xiii 1 Information control and authoritarian rule in East 1 and Southeast Asia: Under challenge? 2 Bedding down media and information control in 18 Singapore and Malaysia 3 Bureaucratic authoritarianism and transparency reform 48 in Singapore 4 Keeping civil society at bay: Media in Singapore after 82 the crisis 5 Crony capitalism and transparency reform in Malaysia 111 6 Challenges to media control in Malaysia 141 7 Conclusion: Advanced market systems, information 173 flows and political regimes Notes 188 References 210 Index 250 v SERIES EDITORS’ PREFACE The establishment of the Southeast Asia Research Centre at the City Uni- versity of Hong Kong in 2000 reflected an increased interest in Southeast Asia following two watershed changes. The first was the end of colonial- ism in Hong Kong, as the territory became a Special Administrative Region of China in 1997. This coincided with the second event, the Asian Economic Crisis, that struck down some of the major economies of the region, with important political consequences. The RoutledgeCurzon/City University of Hong Kong Southeast Asia Series reflects the Centre’s research agenda and seeks to advance under- standing of the political, economic and social forces that are shaping contemporary Southeast Asia. The Series aims to produce books that are examples of the Centre’s emphasis on multi-disciplinary, comparative and holistic research. It also recognises that the political and economic devel- opment of Southeast Asia has often been turbulent, and that the contemporary era is no different. As the region emerged from decolonisation and war, rapid economic development reconfigured the societies of Southeast Asia. From the mid- 1970s, a number of Southeast Asian economies enjoyed periods of signific- ant economic growth. The economies of Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia benefited from a more generalised development in East Asia, and made rapid advances, becoming some of the most dynamic economies and societies in the world. Huge flows of foreign capital and the develop- ment of relatively powerful domestic capitalist classes rapidly transformed these economies and their societies. The international financial institutions celebrated the region’s economic success, urged a continued unfettering of markets, and extolled the benefits of enhanced globalisation. But the negative social outcomes of the 1997 economic crash posed new challenges for the region’s development models and a questioning of the processes associated with capitalist globalisation. Furthermore, the eco- nomic crash confronted the region’s political regimes with significant chal- lenges. This confluence of economic and political turmoil stimulated a reassessment of the impacts of globalisation and associated ideas about vii SERIES EDITORS’ PREFACE regionalisation. Nowhere has this re-assessment been more vividly revealed than in the economic rise of China and the challenges and opportunities this poses for Southeast Asia. Understanding how Southeast Asians are negotiating the broad and multiple challenges – economic, political, social, religious and cultural – posed by globalisation, and how they are reinventing their societies are critical tasks. This is a central concern of the Southeast Asia Research Centre’s research agenda. A second research focus is the divisions of class, ethnicity, gender, culture and religion that appear as faultlines underlying Southeast Asia’s post-colonial nations. Such rifts shape diverse patterns of conflict in the region. A third area of research interest involves regional interactions, including those between states, within transnational civil society, business, labour and migration flows in and beyond the region. Finally, attention is given to the ways in which Southeast Asian political economies are being reinvented following the Asian Crisis, examining new patterns of politics, accumulation and allocation in the region. When the crisis struck, many commentators argued that one of the main causes for the downturn had been ‘crony capitalism’. Attention was drawn to poor corporate governance in the close relationships that had sprung up between business and government. For many, including inter- national financial institutions, one of the remedies was increased trans- parency. Indeed, transparency has become a widely used term with universally positive connotations. In Transparency and Authoritarian Rule in Southeast Asia, Professor Garry Rodan examines various reform agendas and meanings associated with notions of ‘transparency’. In particular, he counterposes notions of freedom of the press and expression or political transparency with the push for transparency by interests aligned with neo-liberal objectives of securing increased and sustainable capital mobility. It is often asserted that globalisation, with its new media technologies, is an irrepressible force for increased openness in a range of areas, includ- ing the political. Enhanced transparency and the increased access to more information are usually seen as unimpeachable outcomes of increased globalisation. In this highly original study, the author comes to different and more nuanced conclusions. In examining Singapore and Malaysia, Rodan finds that authoritarian regimes have more to gain than lose by trying to accommodate business information needs. In this area, then, the pressures for reform are more likely to be accommodated. Political trans- parency is another matter. New media technologies and enhanced information flows can be important in the struggle to increase political reform, but only where there are social and political forces capable of, and motivated towards, harnessing them for that end. This book highlights the different forms that authoritarianism can take and their differential capacities to accommodate pressures
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