Southeast Asian Affairs 2005.

• Author: Smith, Anthony
• Position: Book review

SOUTHEAST ASIAN AFFAIRS 2005

Edited by: Chin Kin Wah and Daljit Singh

Published by: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, 2005, 421pp, S$59.90 (hb), 39.90 (pb).

The Southeast Asian Affairs series is the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies' (ISEAS) annual review of its own region. Typically the volume features several region-wide theme chapters--in this case by Tim Huxley, Mely Caballero-Anthony, Denis Hew, Manu Bhaskaran and Robyn Lim--as well as chapters that review political, social, economic and foreign policy issues in each of the ASEAN member states. Alongside these annual country chapters are, in some cases, chapters on important theme issues such as, in this case, Donald Weatherbee on Indonesian foreign policy, Lee Hock Guan on affirmative action in Malaysia, Tin Maung Maung Than on Myanmar's energy sector, Andrew Tan on Singapore's homeland security, and Peter Marr on the Thai economy.

The editors, Chin Kin Wah and Daljit Singh, begin this particular volume by noting that the year under review, 2004, was 'a relatively good one' as South-east Asia made consolidations in governance and showed encouraging economic health--relative, perhaps, to the travails of economic crisis of past years. Some of the overarching themes that emerge surround leadership transition and democratisation. Huxley hails Indonesia's 2004 parliamentary and presidential voting rounds, with the emergence of Yudhoyono over the previous incumbent, as...