Convergence and Variation of Southeast Asian Ethnic Politics

With the vast migrations, consistent religion and culture movements, wars and trades, and anti-colonialism movements starting from the 19th to the first half of the 20th century, Southeast Asia has been the focal area of the studies of ethnic politics. The ethnic politics issues are not fading away with the end of the Cold War, but rather rejuvenating because of the new phenomena, which are the transnational migration induced by globalization and the political and economic re-formation caused by the influx of foreign/Chinese capitals in general, and issues encountered by the individual countries in particular. The four papers will address the changing ethnic politics issues in four countries in Southeast Asia: the historical legacy of state-building in Myanmar, the harmony and conflict between ethnic majorities and minorities in Cambodia, the stable political order maintained by the deliberated governing of ethnic majorities in Singapore, and the ethnic conflicts and violence triggered by the political-economic transformation in Vietnam and Indonesia.