Political Legitimacy in Southeast Asia

467 Pages·1995·47.369 MB·English

by  Muthiah Alagappa

Political
Legitimacy in
Southeast
Asia
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Political Legitimacy in
Southeast Asia
THE QUEST FOR MORAL AUTHORITY
Edited by Muthiah Alagappa
STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
STANFORD, CALIFORNIA
1995
Stanford University Press
Stanford, California
© 1995 by Stanford University Press
Printed in the United States of America
CIP data are at the end of the book
Stanford University Press publications are
distributed exclusively by Stanford
University Press within the United States,
Canada, Mexico, and Central America;
they are distributed exclusively by
Cambridge University Press throughout
the rest of the world
A New Series from
Stanford University Press and the East-West Center
CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
Bruce M. Koppel, Editor
A collaborative effort by Stanford University Press and the East-W est
Center, this new series addresses contemporary issues of policy and schol-
arly concern in Asia and the Pacific. The series will focus on political, so-
cial, economic, cultural, demographic, environmental, and technological
change and the problems related to such change. A select group of East-
West Center senior fellows — representing the fields of political science,
economic development, population, and environmental studies — serves
as the Advisory Board for the series. The decision to publish is made by
Stanford.
Preference will be given to comparative or regional studies that are con-
ceptual in orientation and emphasize underlying processes and to works
on a single country that address issues in a comparative or regional con-
text. Although concerned with policy-relevant issues and written to be
accessible to a relatively broad audience, books in the series will be schol-
arly in character. We are pleased to offer here the first book in the series,
Political Legitimacy in Southeast Asia: The Quest for Moral Authority,
edited by Muthiah Alagappa.
The East-West Center, located in Honolulu, Hawaii, is a public, non-
profit educational and research institution established by the U.S. Con-
gress in i960 to foster understanding and cooperation among the govern-
ments and peoples of the Asia-Pacific region, including the United States.

Preface
This book was conceived in 1990-91 when I was teaching a course on
comparative politics of Southeast Asia at Columbia University. The ques-
tion of political legitimacy surfaced many times during the course, both
as an issue in itself and in relation to the effectiveness of domestic gov-
ernance, regime change, and the international conduct of governments.
Yet the issue appeared to have been little explored directly in relation to
Southeast Asia. My interest in the subject was further stimulated by the
growing nexus between domestic politics and international relations — my
primary area of interest until this time.
Because it constitutes the core of political organization, the right to rule
affects all political activities and is crucial to our understanding of the
politics of any country. In addition to affecting the structure of domina-
tion, the “language of legitimacy” provides the reference framework for
competing centers of power to articulate and mobilize resistance to the
incumbent power holders. Thus the issue of legitimacy lies at the heart
of the political discourse and many of the political crises in the South-
east Asian countries. Acknowledging its centrality to state-society rela-
tions, this book is devoted to an explication and elaboration of the con-
cept and to the study of political legitimacy in seven Southeast Asian
countries. What is the meaning and nature of legitimacy? What are its
constituent elements? Who is seeking to legitimate what? Which groups
are crucial for political legitimation? On what basis is authority claimed,
acknowledged, contested? Why do legitimation projects succeed or fail?
Can any patterns be observed? These are some of the questions we shall
explore here.
In designing the project I decided to invite younger scholars to write
the country chapters and to involve more established scholars in an advi-
sory capacity to review, discuss, and comment on their work. Apart from
concentrating some of the best minds on the subject, this approach, I
viii Preface
believe, facilitates interaction between the younger and senior scholars,
fosters the development of Southeast Asian studies, and makes the East-
West Center better known among scholars of Southeast Asia. The authors
and the project advisory group — drawn from Southeast Asia, the United
States, the United Kingdom, and Australia — met in two stimulating and
productive workshops: first in August 1992. in Honolulu and subsequently
in February 1993 in Chiang Mai. I found the project enormously demand-
ing as well as enriching. Indeed, the other authors and I hope the reader
will find this book useful and as stimulating as it has been for us. We
consider our work to be not the final word but the beginning of the study
of political legitimacy in Southeast Asia — a subject we commend to others
for further inquiry.
Many people have helped in this undertaking. As members of the ad-
visory committee Benedict Anderson, Michael Aung-Thwin, Rodney Bar-
ker, Donald Crone, Harold Crouch, William Duiker, Benedict Kerkvliet,
Bruce Koppel, Michael Leifer, Kenneth Liberthal, William Liddle, Chai-
anan Samudavanija, and James Scott gave generously of their time and
expertise. In addition to suggesting suitable younger scholars, each read
and reread several chapters. Many of their comments and insights have
been incorporated into the conceptual and case study chapters. Taufik
Abdullah, John Badgley, Suchit Bungbongkarn, Chuah Beng Huat, Diane
Davis, Wimal Dissanayake, Bernard Gordon, Carolina Hernandez, Paul
Kreisberg, Andrew Nathan, Kim Ninh, Murugesu Pathmanathan, Kristin
Pelzer, Douglas Ramage, Biswapriya Sanyal, Kusuma Snitwongse, Loek-
man Sutrisno, Carlyle Thayer, and Geoffrey White commented on one or
more chapters. Substantial parts of the manuscript were also read and
commented upon by Christopher Clapham, Christopher Collier, John
Girling, Charles Morrison, and Yaacov Vertzberger. Clark Neher read
and commented upon the entire manuscript. To all of these scholars I ex-
press my deep appreciation. I would also like to thank the case study au-
thors. Their knowledge — not only of the country of their specialization
but of the Southeast Asian region as a whole — and their ability to inte-
grate area studies and theory are remarkable. They are a talented and dili-
gent group of young scholars. It is my pleasure to have had the opportu-
nity to work with them.
Thanks are also due to the Henry Luce Foundation for providing fund-
ing support, the Chaiyong Limthongkul Foundation for cohosting the sec-
ond workshop in Chiang Mai, Michel Oksenberg, Bruce Koppel, and
Charles Morrison of the East-West Center for their support, Don Yoder
for his copyediting, Deborah Forbis and David Wolff for their proofread-
ing, Anne Stewart for her liaison with Stanford University Press, Christo-
pher Collier for providing invaluable aid as my research intern during the
Preface
latter part of the project, Kelly Kanetani and Jeannie Hamasaki for orga-
nizing the two workshops, Ann Takayesu for so efficiently word process-
ing the entire manuscript and preparing the bibliography for several chap-
ters, and Dorothy Villasenor, Marilu Khudari, and Catherine Blickos for
their secretarial assistance during the various phases of the project.
Finally I would like to express my greatest appreciation and admiration
for my wife, Kalyani, without whose forbearance and support this book
would not exist.
Muthiah Alagappa