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| 1 |
ID:
184221
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| Summary/Abstract |
From inside China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), two southern tier nations offer contrary perspectives as to the efficacy of Beijing’s economic statecraft, namely Indonesia and East Timor. While obviously asymmetric in practically every respect, nevertheless a careful study of these two nations’ bilateral links with China over long and short times offers salutary lessons on infrastructure financing in particular. Several interconnected inquiries are interposed. In a nation known for its competing political elites and support bases, how successful has China been in micro-managing its relations with Jakarta over trade and investment deals even carrying through to a post-authoritarian order? How has newly independent albeit aid-dependent Timor-Leste been able to parlay the China connection? Mixing documentary with primary research in situ, the inclusion of the East Timor case adds a missing link in the growing literature on the BRI.
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| 2 |
ID:
119097
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| Publication |
2013.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Two sides of the debate on Indonesia's future turn on the tension between sustained economic growth fueled by demand for Indonesia's natural resources and the highly skewed distribution of wealth. With the Indonesia boosters forecasting a vertiginous rise of Southeast Asia's largest economy, the naysayers point to the deadweights of corruption, lack of transparency, and poor governance. With democratic electoralism revived in a post-authoritarian setting, such issues can no longer be swept under the carpet: they are matched by a relatively open media and burgeoning civil society.
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| 3 |
ID:
130184
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| Publication |
2014.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Ahead of upcoming elections, expectations ran high in 2013 across the archipelago for a highly pluralistic electorate. With China as a leading trading partner, the backdrop for Indonesia was steady economic growth, albeit checked by a sliding currency, a current account deficit, and a depressing culture of corruption. Mixing commerce and geopolitics, China, the U.S., and Japan all turned to Indonesia to expand their influence.
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| 4 |
ID:
160407
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| Summary/Abstract |
In mass demonstrations spearheaded by a coalition of Islamic radicals, 2017 witnessed a polarizing assault on the nation’s broadly secular founding creed, Pancasila. With the arrest and imprisonment of the popular ethnic-Chinese Christian mayor of Jakarta on spurious blasphemy charges, even the Indonesian president was left on the back foot and obliged to push back.
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| 5 |
ID:
164956
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| Summary/Abstract |
In 2018 Indonesia looked ahead to legislative and presidential elections, and heads of major parties, including the incumbent president, lined up allies. As host of the 18th Asian Games, the nation celebrated in style. But with economic growth flatlining and natural disasters taking their toll, it was also a year of introspection.
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| 6 |
ID:
081860
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| Publication |
2008.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Laos in 2007 unveiled new infrastructure linking the landlocked country with its neighbors. Just as Laos seeks to exploit its ample natural riches, so the country reinvents its sense of regional integration. Willy-nilly, such late-arriving globalization also brings the still largely isolated communist state under increasing international attention on a range of governance and human rights issues
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| 7 |
ID:
152262
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| Summary/Abstract |
Briefly entering the international media spotlight coinciding with the first-ever visit by a sitting US president along with a galaxy of regional leaders, Laos in 2016 saw a new leadership lineup following a quinquennial party congress. Questions of Chinese versus Vietnamese influence over Laos and even the legacy of US bombing all gained an airing.
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| 8 |
ID:
094521
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| 9 |
ID:
172474
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| Summary/Abstract |
Politically, the focus in Timor-Leste in 2019 shifted from infighting to crucial decision-making on petroleum exploitation. Contrary to international advice on risk management and the need to diversify the non-oil economy, a going-for-broke mindset with respect to a multi-billion-dollar onshore gas development appeared to have carried the day.
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| 10 |
ID:
179255
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| Summary/Abstract |
The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on Timor-Leste in 2020 was great, and the ripple effects may be felt for years. Paradoxically, it was not that the population was directly impacted—indeed, the small half-island nation stands out with only a score or so of cases, and no deaths—but that the oil-dependent economy and the status of financial reserves took a major hit with the collapse of oil and stock prices. In the interest of managing the pandemic, the incumbent prime minister declared a state of emergency, withdrawing his earlier resignation and thus averting a political crisis. Still, as the new economic realities surrounding oil-related mega-infrastructure projects hit home, we see churn among the concerned ministers and technocrats, amid a major rethink of the way ahead, and with many of the choices invidious in the challenging new economic environment.
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