Southeast Asian Studies

On 26 July 2010, Kaing Guek Eav was convicted by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) of crimes against humanity. Kaing, better known by his nom de guerre Duch, committed these crimes in his position as the commandant of the Khmer Rouge’s secret S-21 prison. In the wake of this historic decision, I offer here a re-reading of Rithy Panh’s groundbreaking 2003 documentary "S-21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine." Panh’s documentary reassembles the living memory of Duch’s S-21 by bringing together two of its surviving victims with a group of its surviving prison guards and torturers. At the former prison cells and torture chambers of Tuol Sleng, the central nexus of S-21, Panh gets these former guards and torturers to reenact their daily rounds of discipline, interrogation, and execution of their prisoners, at moments under the gaze of the two former victims. I will read Panh’s remarkable reassemblage of the lived memory of the victims and perpetrators in counterpoint with Maurice Blanchot’s notion of the de-scribing effect of the Disaster and Dominick LaCapra’s readings of the memoirs and testimonials of the Nazi Holocaust, and will conclude by reflecting on S-21 and "S-21" as signifiers of the radical contingency of the world.

"For Whitehead and Nishitani, a rethinking of religion necessitates a rethinking of the metaphysics that underlie one’s concept of religion. The dynamism of religion is unveiled only within the metaphysical grounding of an ontology that accommodates the philosophical preference of “becoming” as an ultimate category of reality.
The novelty of Whitehead’s theory of religion lies in the process metaphysics that it presupposes. For him, religion, like the whole of reality, is inherently developing, evolving, and he captures this succinctly in his book Religion in the Making (1926). What Nishitani offers is a rethinking of Western understanding of religion by way of an Asian speculative approach grounded in Zen Buddhism. He argues that Western religion, particularly Christianity and Judaism, has succumbed to the modern predicament of nihilism, or relative nothingness. The quest for the contemporary rethinking of religion is to radicalize this same nihility towards absolute nothingness (śūnyatā). Nishitani expounds on this idea in his book Religion and Nothingness (1982).
Both Whitehead and Nishitani, two philosophers of the 20th century, recuperate the integral role of religion in the development of civilization understood as the realization of the cultural ideal. Despite the distortion by religious fundamentalists, genuine religion consolidates and points a society towards its real destiny. However, the realization of religion’s role necessitates reflexivity on its own inherent dynamism. As Nishitani emphasizes, whatsoever this adventure of the religious spirit may be, its desired conclusion is what religion essentially is, “the real self-awareness of reality.”
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"Neoliberal economics have emerged in the post-Cold War era as the predominant ideological tenet applied to the development of countries in the global south. For much of the global south, however, the promise that markets will bring increased standards of living and emancipation from tyranny has been an empty one. Instead, neoliberalisation has increased the gap between rich and poor and unleashed a firestorm of social ills.

This book deals with the post-conflict geographies of violence and neoliberalisation in Cambodia. Applying a geographical analysis to contemporary Cambodian politics, the author employs notions of neoliberalism, public space, and radical democracy as the most substantive components of its theoretical edifice. He argues that the promotion of unfettered marketisation is the foremost causal factor in the country’s inability to consolidate democracy following a United Nations sponsored transition. The book demonstrates Cambodian perspectives on the role of public space in Cambodia's process of democratic development and explains the implications of violence and its relationship with neoliberalism.

Taking into account the transition from war to peace, authoritarianism to democracy, and command economy to a free market, this book offers a critical appraisal of the political economy in Cambodia.
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Reviews:

Gunn, G. C. 2013. Journal of Contemporary Asia, 43.1: 188-191.

Brickell, K. 2011. Asia Pacific Viewpoint, 52.3: 372-374.

Percival, T. 2011. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, 32.2: 270-272.

Christie, R. 2010. South East Asia Research, 19.2: 349-372.

Ordóñez de Pablos, P. 2010. International Journal of Asian Business and Information Management, 1.4: 65-66."

The presenters on this panel draw on Michael J. Shapiro’s notion of violent cartography to articulate the political and cultural enmities in their respective geographical regions of study. According to this conceptual geopolitics, the range of images that drive and complicate these territories also constitute grounds for inclusion and exclusion, giving rise to shifting modes of violence. The research presented in this panel explores new dimensions in this process of enmity-formation. First, Anusorn Unno will examine the production of enmity in Siam, and in Cold War and present-day Thailand, with a focus on the “Red Shirt” movement. Next, Frank Cibulka will discuss the sources of the different modes of violence that can be identified in the Philippines. Turning back to Thailand’s “Red Shirt” movement, Noah Viernes will examine the connections between violence and its representation by mapping the genealogy of street scenes in Bangkok after the 2006 coup. Finally, Alvin Lim will conclude by looking at the psychological roles of desire and memory in the formation of national identity, with a focus on the fantasmatic emergence of the Cambodian nation and its concurrent production of violence. After these presentations, David Toohey will serve as discussant.

Abstract: Penang has always been a focal point, absorbing knowledge (and popular culture) from civilizations to the East and West. In modern Penang the pattern of cultural contacts has changed over time. Research institutes and universities in Penang cooperate with foreign partners to produce research papers and reports. Based on an analysis of joint research output, the changing international position of Penang as an emerging research hub will be analyzed.

This article examines the role of state intervention on itinerant artists in the Cirebon region one year before and after Suharto's 1965 coup d'état (Gestok). Two artist identification cards from Majalengka are central to the study: the first one was inaugurated six months before the coup, the second card anticipated Gestok's first anniversary. Although the registries were launched by two political regimes with disparate agendas, both were issued by the Regency of Majalengka's Education and Culture Department.