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15945 results in ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute

Page 695 of 798

  • 16 - The Indonesian Crisis in an Alternative Perspective: Views from Outer Indonesia

  • from Part IV - Emerging Issues
  • Edited by Aris Ananta
  • Book:
    The Indonesian Crisis
    Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    21 October 2015
    Print publication:
    05 December 2002, pp 417-444

  • Summary

    Introduction

    Were the achievements real? … Why have things gone wrong? Is it because Indonesia has been pursuing a wrong development strategy?

    (Soesastro 1999, p. 1)

    What is referred to as “the Indonesian crisis” is commonly depicted as having started in July 1997, when the devaluation of the Thai bhat led other Asian currencies into a tailspin. The “monetary” crisis that ensued, the collapse of the financial sector, the loss of many industrial jobs, the austerity measures imposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the difficult economic conditions for many, and intensifying protests, eventually led to the end of the 32-year presidency of, at that time, the longest reigning Asian leader. Just a year before, in 1996, despite escalating protests and unrest in Indonesia, articles in Asiaweek had pointed to the “economic fundamentals” as being still strong (Suh and Shameen 1996), and there was no “danger of collapse” (Berfield and Loveard 1996)2. Prominent economists also, even though they pointed out some of the misfits between macro-data and micro studies (Hill 1996, p. 195), as well as the difficulties in assessing the number of people living in “poverty” (Booth 1993), still had great praise for New Order Indonesia, which they had described as having gone, during Soeharto's reign, from a “basket case” to one of “Asia's success stories” (Hill 1996, pp. 1–3), or from a “drop-out” to a “miracle” (Booth 1999, p. 113).

    Indeed, the conventional assessment still seems to be that even though Indonesia is now in economic ruins, the years of development were still beneficial to the population; one cannot undervalue what has been done, even though disaster has struck. For example, looking back over the New Order one analyst has painted the following picture:

    Enormous progress was made in health, education, agriculture and poverty eradication, to mention a few of the most important fields. From 1969 to 1994 GDP (Gross Domestic Product) growth averaged 6.8 per cent and real GDP per capita increased more than threefold. From the early 1970's up to 1997 this economic development formed the basis for the regime's main claims to legitimacy.

  • 13 - Political Economy of Business Relations between Indonesia and Singapore

  • from Part IV - Emerging Issues
  • Edited by Aris Ananta
  • Book:
    The Indonesian Crisis
    Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    21 October 2015
    Print publication:
    05 December 2002, pp 345-361

  • Summary

    Introduction

    Indonesia and Singapore easily stand at two ends of a continuum in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), ranging from physical size and per capita national income to, most starkly, their responses to globalization and governance. Both the Indonesian state and government, synonymous with the dominant Golongan Karya (Golkar) since independence in 1945, tightened under Soeharto's New Order in mid-1960s, and the People's Action Party (PAP) in Singapore since 1959 bears resemblance. However, the similarity ends as soon as the strategies and policy options to run the largest ASEAN economy and a mere city-state are put in a practical perspective.

    While the historical and traditional symbiosis between Singapore and Malaysia with the British legacy is pervasive, a contention of this chapter is that the political economy of business relations between Indonesia and Singapore has far more potential and opportunities. Paradoxically, national rivalry has emerged between Malaysia and Singapore as a consequence of converging development paths in industrialization and in the level of prosperity and standard of living, especially between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. The same competitive strain may not, or would take a much longer time to surface for Indonesia as it is a much larger agriculture-based economy and there is more scope for complementarity with Singapore.

    Much depends on the evolving political economy of relations and alliances at both the state and private levels, and these prospects are assessed here, beginning with a brief overview of economic relations before and after the financial crisis in 1997. The issues and problems facing Indonesian–Singapore relations are discussed in the following section, first in the context of their respective domestic constraints before translating them into the regional and global environment. The concluding section notes some policy implications, and suggests how business relations can be further synergized between the two countries.

    Economic Relations Before and Since the Crisis

    Two crucial related areas define economic relations between Indonesia and Singapore: the historical entrepôt trade, and networks of Chinese capital and enterprise. The true magnitude of trade between the two countries has been officially blacked out on the Singapore side since Indonesia's confrontation during Singapore's merger with Malaysia and never restored because of extant smuggling trade. Indonesia must be as important as Malaysia in Singapore's trade relations.

  • Chapter 4 - Indonesian Television and the Dynamics of Transition

    • By Kukuh Sanyoto, journalist for more than 20 years, during which time he has worked for newspapers such as the Indonesian Observer and Jakarta Post, and at the state-owned Radio Republik Indonesia
  • Book:
    Media Fortunes, Changing Times
    Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    03 November 2017
    Print publication:
    30 October 2002, pp 83-106

  • Summary

    INTRODUCTION

    This chapter traces the role and challenges of the electronic media, particularly those of television, at various key junctions in Indonesia's political history. It also examines the status of television today as Indonesia grapples with its difficult transition to democracy.

    Political leaders habitually seek to manage the media. They can enforce a regimen of control for a certain period of time, but the process is fraught with political tension and harbours a great potential for crisis, conflict and chaos. Although press freedom and freedom of expression are basic human rights acknowledged in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 19), as well as in Indonesia's 1945 Constitution, the implementation of these rights has had a chequered history. For more than 50 years after Indonesia's Independence (1945–1998), freedom of expression and press freedom were very much controlled by the rulers, except during two “honeymoon” periods.

    In the present post-Soeharto period, press freedom and freedom of expression are safeguarded by an August 2000 amendment of the 1945 Constitution, the People's Consultative Assembly Decree no. XVII/1999 on Human Rights, and the Press Law no. 40/1999. However, written statutes alone cannot safeguard press freedom. Having the appropriate laws is important, but a free press will only thrive if it becomes part of a larger democratic culture within the country. Unfortunately, a democratic system and its values are not well-established yet in Indonesian society. Many individuals or groups are already complaining that press freedom in the current liberal climate has gone too far. On the other hand, there are those who do not understand that freedom should be tempered by a strong sense of responsibility.

    The shifting dynamics of media politics are contained within a nexus of activism, media and political power that is a prevailing motif in the history of the Indonesian nation. In the twentieth century, Indonesia's political history was shaped by popular activism.2 The media played a central role in raising public consciousness and galvanizing people into action. Politicians therefore understood the importance of the media in seeking and maintaining power — and this realization informed an official media policy that sought to control, while at the same time make allies of, the media.

  • Foreword Wolfgang Möllers

  • Book:
    Media Fortunes, Changing Times
    Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    03 November 2017
    Print publication:
    30 October 2002, pp vii-vii

  • Summary

    ASEAN has been undergoing a tremendous change in the last decade. Just as the region has diverse cultural and political systems, the Southeast Asian media scene is no different. It ranges from the very free in the Philippines to those strictly following party lines as in Vietnam, Laos and military-ruled Myanmar. Is the nature of the media industry highly dependent on the power of media practitioners or does the state have greater control over it instead? Although it is ideal to believe that the pen is mightier than the sword, in reality the governments in most of the ASEAN countries have greater control. However, media ownership and market dynamics also play a role in defining the position of media in the region.

    In some ASEAN countries, governments view media as a tool of national development. Yet in others, media practitioners are not protected and are constantly putting their lives in danger when they report what they believe to be true. In more press-liberal countries like the Philippines and Thailand, media has become a toy of the owners, usually big business groups or politicians who serve their private agendas. Sometimes the media itself lacks a clear concept and direction, making it unreliable, irresponsible and corrupt.

    The original ASEAN members who have experienced a higher level of economic development have better media technology, both print and satellite, and are now embracing multimedia. The newer members are still struggling with limited television and radio coverage in rural areas. New technologies pose new challenges for ASEAN governments. Direct satellite broadcasting has increased significantly and foreign-owned media broadcasts are easily accessible today. Technological breakthroughs together with public demand are making it difficult for the governments to restrict access to international information.

    The Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, with the support of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, initiated the workshop on “Media and Transition in ASEAN”. This book, which analyses the position of media in a changing region, is a result of the contributions of eleven researchers covering eight countries. The position of the media in each country is unique and thus the results should be analysed bearing in mind the developments influencing the economic, social and political environment in the respective countries.

  • Chapter 10 - Vietnamese Media in Transition: The Boon, Curse, and Controversy of Market Economics

  • Book:
    Media Fortunes, Changing Times
    Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    03 November 2017
    Print publication:
    30 October 2002, pp 231-248

  • Summary

    INTRODUCTION

    In keeping with the country's socialist political system, Vietnam has a media system which is state-owned and funded. However, beginning in the early 1980s, a wave of market reforms brought about significant changes to the economy in general, and the media in particular. This signalled the beginning of a new policy to stop subsidizing the economy and let market forces take over. Within this new economic orientation, media organizations, like business enterprises, had to learn how to operate without the usual financial handouts. In line with its reduced largesse, the state also eased its control of the economy, thereby allowing media organizations to experiment with new ideas and increase their popularity with consumers. Adjusting to market reforms was, therefore, both a matter of necessity and opportunity. Some of the changes in the media are easily evident, for example the increase in the number of publications. But besides these obvious changes, there remain a few outstanding questions about the Vietnamese media which do not have clear answers yet. An examination of these issues therefore provides an understanding of how far advanced the media is in the transition to a market model.

    ADVENT OF MARKET FORCES

    In 1986, the VCP (Vietnam Communist Party) formally endorsed doi moi, a reforms programme that began the country's transition from a centrally-planned to a market economy. One fundamental change that came about was the phasing out of state subsidies for most sectors of the state-owned and state-run economy, including the media. Before doi moi, the state provided all media organizations with their operating expenses such as office space, equipment, newsprint, wages and other running costs. In return, the state set the price and the size of the print runs, and regulated the content.

    The newspapers before 1986 did not rely on advertisements as a source of revenue. Only one paper in Ho Chi Minh City, Tin Sang (Morning News), which was also the only privately-owned newspaper, had some space for classified advertisements. The print media relied entirely on its circulation for revenue. Whether this covered the cost of production did not matter, because the state always made up for any shortfall.

  • Chapter 3 - Industrialized Media in Democratizing Indonesia

    • By Ariel Heryanto, lectures at the Melbourne Institute of Asian Languages and Societies (MIALS), University of Melbourne, Stanley Yoseph Adi, freelance reporter in Indonesia, and his work has been published extensively in books, magazines and newspapers
  • Book:
    Media Fortunes, Changing Times
    Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    03 November 2017
    Print publication:
    30 October 2002, pp 47-82

  • Summary

    INTRODUCTION

    The close of the twentieth century has witnessed one of the most profound transformations in the history of the mass media in Indonesia. This, in turn, may open the way for a new era in the country's political history. We do not refer to the widely-discussed and often over-estimated social change brought about by information technology in general and the Internet more specifically. While Indonesia is not immune to some of the symptoms of the Internet fever, another series of developments has taken place in the mediascape, one which has been much less noted by observers inside and especially outside the country. We refer to the social tensions that have accompanied the recent rapid industrialization of the mass media.

    This chapter examines a major transition that the Indonesian mass media has been undergoing under the New Order regime (1966–98) and beyond. Crudely, the media's transition can be described as one from personifying an idealist force of “truth-seeker” that is subjected to constant state repression, to an increasingly autonomous, professionally managed, and essentially self-serving industrial empire. However, our main interest is not in that broad and too familiar phenomenon. Like all transitions, the case at hand is full of contradictory elements, movements and tendencies. The ensuing discussion will describe and analyse the various details of tensions among old and new forces that constitute the case in its specific contexts. The main agent of change in the process is neither the abstract state apparatus, nor any specific state agents, nor crusading journalists either. It is the whole network of industrial capitalism at global, national and local levels that has been responsible for the transformation of the media as an institution, as well as its relations with other institutions, including the state.

    For many decades the relation between the state and the institution of mass media in Indonesia, as in most of its neighbouring countries, has been one full of suspicion and tensions. The state has both sponsored and controlled media developments as part of the consolidation of nation–state building and modernization. Today, the Indonesian state has lost nearly all of its paternalistic control of the mass media. And, comparable to situations in neighbouring Thailand and the Philippines, state officials and institutions have been regular targets of criticism and derision by the press.

  • Chapter 7 - Myanmar Media: Meeting Market Challenges in the Shadow of the State

  • Book:
    Media Fortunes, Changing Times
    Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    03 November 2017
    Print publication:
    30 October 2002, pp 139-172

  • Summary

    INTRODUCTION

    As in any other country, the media — encompassing the print, broadcast and electronic versions — has played an important but ill-defined role in the interface between state and society in Myanmar. This role is influenced by the social, economic and political environment. Advocates of liberal democracy have argued at length about the importance of press freedom. Nevertheless, in practice the best that can be achieved is perhaps a form of embedded autonomy within the social milieu in which the media operates. As such, one should avoid “extracting and reifying” the media into a monolithic “institution” that stands apart from the “host society”. The extent to which media act as a communication “medium” is largely determined by the groups that have control over them. In the case of Myanmar, this control has been the state's prerogative for nearly four decades, since the military coup of 1962.

    Some discussion of the changing social, economic and political settings, as well as the evolution of the Myanmar media in a historical perspective, is also necessary in order to be able to appreciate the complexities underlying the current challenges faced by the media and the latter's attempt to cope with them.

    MYANMAR STATE AND SOCIETY

    Myanmar is a multi-racial, multicultural and multi-religious society. The political system of Myanmar has changed four times during the twentieth century. In 1948 it changed from a British colony that allowed limited “home rule”, to a parliamentary democracy system along the lines of the Westminster model. After the military coup of 2 March 1962, the military Revolutionary Council (RC) ruled Myanmar by decree. The RC formed the Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP) in July 1962 and, after drawing up a new state constitution that instituted a one-party socialist state in January 1974, it handed over power to the BSPP. From early 1974 until the coup of 18 September 1988, a one-party socialist system under the regime was in place. This system changed when a military junta named the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) took power through a coup on 18 September 1988. The junta holds executive and legislative powers while devolving judicial authority to the courts of law after initially exercising martial law.

  • Chapter 8 - Singapore: Media at the Mainstream and the Margins

    • By Cherian George, Ph.D. student at Stanford University's Department of Communication
  • Book:
    Media Fortunes, Changing Times
    Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    03 November 2017
    Print publication:
    30 October 2002, pp 173-200

  • Summary

    INTRODUCTION

    Singapore's media system has been extraordinarily stable through a period of revolutionary change and seismic reforms elsewhere. While new players and technologies have entered the scene, the underlying structure has shifted only gradually. The most obvious reason is the continued hegemony of the ruling PAP (People's Action Party), which is the single most important determinant of media developments in Singapore. This, however, is only a partial explanation. Governments do not always get what they wish for; so the fact that the PAP has been able to maintain a firm grip on media policy cannot be explained solely by its desire to do so. An additional critical factor was its early adoption of pro-market policies. By ensuring that the national press was commercially secure and successful, it gave media corporations a vested interest in preserving the status quo. Another factor was its technological awareness, such that it has not been caught completely unaware by the Internet revolution. The PAP has thus been able to respond to changing conditions at least partly on its own terms.

    Stability, however, is not to be confused with stasis. This chapter reviews the established press system, and offers an overview of ongoing and impending changes to media, society and government. I argue that while these changes may be subtle and evolutionary, they contribute to a real and discernible long-term trend towards greater democratization. This trend can be analysed in terms of a transition from a mode of social organization called “enterprise association”, to one of “civil association”. These terms, borrowed from Michael Oakeshott, have been applied to Singapore by James Cotton.1 Enterprise association is an organizing principle marked by a society-wide adherence to a shared undertaking. In civil association, the shared commitment is to rules regulating conduct, rather than to common ends. Singapore under the PAP has been characterized by enterprise association, the common purpose being the struggle for national economic competitiveness. All institutions and policies, including the news media and press laws, are judged on their contribution to the chosen national enterprise. The rule of law, of primary importance in civil association, is relegated to a supporting role in enterprise association.

  • Introduction

  • Book:
    Media Fortunes, Changing Times
    Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    03 November 2017
    Print publication:
    30 October 2002, pp xiii-xviii

  • Summary

    Over the last 20 years, a sense of “transition” has dominated the affairs of the ten member nations of ASEAN — Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. Transition does not just refer to changes in general. It comes about only when the magnitude of these changes points to a transformation of the status quo in significant ways. For some countries, it is the transition from authoritarianism to democracy. For others, the transition is from a planned socialist economy to a capitalist market model. Technological and lifestyle changes are also transforming societies in the region. Chapter 1 sets down these events in greater detail.

    Synergy exists among the various types of transition; the dynamics in one often trigger change-inducing forces in another. For example, market reforms in the state-controlled socialist economies — Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar — provide individuals with more options for work, a trend that facilitates greater independence from the state. They also enhance the connections between these societies and the rest of the world. These are liberalizing influences that must be given some leeway by the political leadership if the latter wants the market transition to be a success. In other parts of the region, thriving market economies have produced affluent and better-educated societies that will hanker for a more democratic political culture (the underlying assumption of modernization theory). Economic development has to reach a certain level for IT (Information Technology) to become widely available to the public. The IT-facilitated free flow of information needs a certain level of democratic allowance. When a society rides the crest of this IT revolution and allows its citizens considerable exposure to a wide range of international influence, it hastens socio-cultural transformation. This also generates more political space.

    These different strands of transition can be interwoven in any number of permutations to make up a rich and diverse tapestry of societal change; but as much as it is essential to acknowledge their connectivity, it is sometimes necessary to refer to the transitional trends as distinct and separate identities. This is because different countries place a different emphasis on each of them.

  • Chapter 6 - The Media and Malaysia's Reformasi Movement

    • By Zaharom Nain, lectures in Communication Studies at Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang
  • Book:
    Media Fortunes, Changing Times
    Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    03 November 2017
    Print publication:
    30 October 2002, pp 119-138

  • Summary

    INTRODUCTION

    The economic and political crises besetting the region as a consequence of the “Asian meltdown” in the late 1990s has seen the emergence of new groups and new demands among the peoples of numerous ASEAN countries. The majority of these demands are related to an apparent desire to reform woefully outdated systems of governance and to make governments and corporations in the region more transparent, accountable and democratic.

    The media, as has often enough been acknowledged, play a pivotal role in defining social consciousness. Aware of this crucial role, governments and large corporations all over the world have been quick to attain control of the media through a variety of means, in order to enable the media to work in tandem with their needs and motivations.

    By looking at this relationship between the media, the state and commercial interests in the context of Malaysia, this chapter attempts to locate the role played by the mainstream media during this period of transition. The principal aim is to provide a preliminary assessment of what the Malaysian Reformasi movement asserts itself to be and how the movement has thus far been depicted by the mainstream media. This study confines itself to a qualitative analysis of the mainstream Malay and English-language media, principally the print and broadcast media.

    THE REFORMASI MOVEMENT: OLD ISSUES, NEW CONVERTS

    In the heady days of late 1998, the streets of Malaysia's capital, Kuala Lumpur, reverberated with chants of R-E-F-O-R-M-A-S-I. Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets almost weekly, demanding changes, including justice (especially for Anwar Ibrahim, the sacked former Malaysian deputy prime minister, who was later detained, beaten up by Malaysia's top policeman, charged in court, and, predictably, convicted and sentenced to 15 years incarceration), greater transparency and accountability on the part of the government of the day. More personally, many urged Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad to resign.

    It was, to borrow from Charles Dickens, the best of times and the worst of times. The Asian economic crisis, which began in mid-1997, had started biting the Malaysian economy. Many businesses were facing bankruptcy while other, more privileged ones were being bailed out by the regime. Words like “transparency” and “accountability” were being bandied about by the likes of the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and the World Bank, and were becoming popular among Malaysian citizens.

  • Chapter 9 - Offending Images: Gender and Sexual Minorities, and State Control of the Media in Thailand

    • By Peter A. Jackson, Fellow in Thai History in The Australian National University's Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies
  • Book:
    Media Fortunes, Changing Times
    Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    03 November 2017
    Print publication:
    30 October 2002, pp 201-230

  • Summary

    INTRODUCTION

    In recent decades the legitimacy of new highly-visible cultures of male and female homosexual and transgender minorities in Thailand has been much debated by the country's academics, bureaucrats, medical professionals and politicians. Thailand does not criminalize homosexuality or transgenderism and there is no history of state surveillance or intervention in individuals’ private sexual lives to enforce conformity to dominant heterosexual norms. However, since the 1980s there has been considerable debate about the public representation of gender/sex minorities in the electronic media, with the controversy reaching a new peak in 1999 when then prime minister Chuan Leekpai unsuccessfully attempted to keep images of kathoey (male-to-female transgendered characters) out of the public domain.

    These changes took place against a background of a significant transition in Thailand. Politically, Thailand has moved from a militarycontrolled authoritarian regime of the early 1970s to the multi-party civilian democracy of the 1990s. This passage of time encompasses a long history of resistance to military dictatorship, the end of Cold-Warperiod justifications for state authoritarianism to counter communist “subversion”, and the economic ascendancy of the commercial and industrial middle classes since the Thai economic boom (1987–1997). They have all contributed to a progressive empowerment of the civil society sector and its growing success in media battles with the entrenched conservatism of Thai authorities.

    A superficial observation of the public imaging of gender/sex minorities in Thailand provides a study in dramatic contrasts. In Bangkok, pornographic male homosexual publications, videos and VCDs are sold openly, but illegally, in tourist areas such as Silom Road and Patpong, as well as in the city's homosexual red-light districts such as Saphan Khwai. However, non-pornographic movies realistically representing homosexual and transgender lifestyles have at times been banned. This chapter will examine several much-publicised cases where films, television programmes and public events such as transgender beauty contests have been defined as “indecent” (lamok) or “pornographic” (po) and banned, or attempted to be banned. The above interventions contrast with instances of state sufferance (such as recent screening of Thai-language films about homosexuality) or even promotion (for example, Thai state agencies have harnessed the public's fascination with transgenderism to promote national programs and policies).

  • Chapter 1 - Media in Southeast Asia: A Literature Review of Post-1980 Developments

  • Book:
    Media Fortunes, Changing Times
    Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    03 November 2017
    Print publication:
    30 October 2002, pp 1-26

  • Summary

    WHY 1980 AND AFTER?

    Reviewing all the available literature on media in Southeast Asia risks cramming too much (both in quantity and diversity of topics) into the limited confines of a book chapter. It is likely to produce a long list of broad categories, too summarily treated to be of any analytical value.1 Thus, scaling the exercise down to more manageable proportions would be sensible and, in that regard, dealing only with what has been published after 1980 dovetails with the theme of “transition”. Beginning in the 1980s, the region saw the start of several major new trends that continue to shape political-economic-social reality till today. They are:

  • 1. Increased forces of democratization

  • 2. Revising of old economic strategies

  • 3. Significant socio-cultural changes in tandem with 1. and 2.

  • 4. The challenges of information technology.

    • The 1980s saw the beginnings of a democratization trend in the region. The more dramatic manifestations of this trend were “people power” uprisings in Manila (which were successful) and in Myanmar (which were aborted). In the 1990s, people power again forced the demise of unpopular regimes in Thailand and Indonesia. Even politicallyplacid Singapore experienced a gradual but discernible process of democratization with a changing of the guards in the top leadership in the 1980s and, with that, some relaxation of political control. At the same time, in Vietnam and Laos, authoritarian Communist governments introduced liberal reform programmes. In the 1990s, Cambodia turned from a one-party socialist state to a multi-party democracy, an outcome brought about through international negotiations. Every country in the region can sense that its political status quo cannot remain as it is, although some regimes may be putting on a front of having their power-sharing formula right.

    The changes were not just in politics. Another major trend beginning in the 1980s was economic transformation. The countries — Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar — turned from socialist state planning to capitalist market economics. At the same time, the non-socialist countries implemented aggressive economic development programmes, the results of which are still pending. Meanwhile, all these developments have produced great socio-cultural changes. The middle class expanded and sought more political participation. At a more visible level, consumerism grew, hastening the impact of globalization through the import of goods and lifestyles. A greater demand for more space in private lives gave birth to a new form of culture politics.

  • Chapter 2 - Cambodian Media in a Post-Socialist Situation

    • By Ham Samnang, Assistant Director of the Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace
  • Book:
    Media Fortunes, Changing Times
    Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    03 November 2017
    Print publication:
    30 October 2002, pp 27-46

  • Summary

    INTRODUCTION

    Cambodia has been experiencing a major transition through the 1990s from being run as a one-party socialist state to functioning as a chaotic polity trying to become a multi-party democracy. In such a major transition, many institutions will have to be reorganized and adjust to a new reality. The Cambodian media is one such example. This chapter examines the extent of the changes in state–media dynamics in the last ten years in the areas of media ownership, the law, state management tactics and the role of foreign players.

    CURRENT PROFILE OF MEDIA

    Freedom of the press is guaranteed under the present constitution of Cambodia and the country has a relatively free press by regional standards. But many print media are prone to publish with little sense of responsibility. This can lead to the government threatening them with suspension or even closure, although the punitive measures of the state are not necessarily linked to irresponsible editorial output. On balance, there is no systematic repression of the press.

    Control is tighter vis-à-vis the broadcast media. All television channels are owned by the government or individuals intimately connected with the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP), as are most radio stations. This produces a broadcast situation that urgently needs diversity and independence. The level of journalism education among Cambodian journalists is low and so is the quality of most media output. The level of education is not the only factor affecting the product. The country is poor, and consumers have little disposable income; this keeps media advertising revenues low, which depresses journalists’ salaries.

    Widespread illiteracy, limited access to the media in the provinces, and little coverage of what happens in the provinces are other concerns. Additionally, the limited transparency and unclear mandates of information officials within the state bureaucracy hinder journalists’ access to information.

    POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE MEDIA

    Today's media in Cambodia is born out of the country's turbulent postindependence political experience. Before 1953, France, the colonial power, imposed its own restrictive media policy but it also introduced some Western media traditions into the country. After the French left Cambodia, the number of newspapers exploded, with many of them serving as the mouthpieces of different political parties that were jostling for power in a post-colonial situation.

  • Chapter 5 - The Impact of Economic Transition on the Media in Laos

    • By Thonglor Duangsavanh, journalism career in 1995 and is an Assistant Editor at the Vientiane Times in Laos
  • Book:
    Media Fortunes, Changing Times
    Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    03 November 2017
    Print publication:
    30 October 2002, pp 107-118

  • Summary

    INTRODUCTION

    In the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR), the media plays the important role of acting as a bridge between the government and the people, by providing information through a system of two-way communication to promote and protect national interests. The Lao media carries out these duties within the framework of a socialist press that is owned by the state and managed by state-appointees.

    A major event in the LPDR's recent history that has a great impact on Laotian society in general, and the media in particular, took place in 1986. That year, the Lao Government started to open the country to the world. Laos’ social, economic and human resources have developed dramatically since then. The government now actively encourages private investment, both foreign and domestic, by offering incentives to investors such as the reduction of corporate taxes, duties and turnover taxes on imported capital equipment and inputs to production. Foreign investments can come in the form of fully-owned foreign companies or of joint ventures with local partners.

    As a result of the encouragement of private investment, Lao people have the opportunity to choose from a wider range of jobs and to increase their incomes. Investments after 1986 initially came from family businesses and were mainly in light and medium industries. Within this positive economic climate, some newspapers, magazines, radio stations and television channels were launched. They steadily grew through the widening of friendly relationships and economic cooperation with foreign countries and international organizations. As the government steadily opened the country, journalists have played a more active role in reporting developments in the country.

    From 1986 to 1993, economic and media reforms were still carried out with great caution. This caution arose because during this time formerly socialist countries, especially the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries, underwent a total change in their political system from socialism to capitalism. Some of these countries have since experienced civil war or have had conflicts among political parties and minority groups. The dislocations these countries experienced have hindered social and economic development. Laos has avoided such radical changes and its socio-economic development has moved gradually forward while its political system has remained stable.

    From 1993, the LPDR increased the momentum of its reforms programme, and this had its impact on the country's media.

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