Investigates rural indebtedness in the Malay States and the role in it of chettiar money-lenders from the economic and socio-historical viewpoint.

This paper examines the three-year attempt by the Thai people to establish a viable democratic political process. It focuses on the primary reasons for their failure: excessive right-left student activism, political polarization, intellectual-academic irresponsibility, status quo conservative and communist inspired subversion of the political process, ineffective civilian political leadership, excessive number of political parties, the impact of communist success in Indochina, and US foreign policy twards Thailand during this period. The paper also examines basic attitudes and patterns of action of traditional Thai political culture that may have indirectly contributed to the failure of democracy in Thailand. A central theme of the paper, however, is that old Thai bureaucratic polity that governed Thailand from 1932 to October 1973 collapsed because its political process could not cope with the rise of new economic and social pressures tht its earlier development 'successes' created. Thailand, in short, is seen as a case study of the hypothesis that long term economic development and political stability cannot occur and be maintained without corresponding development of the political structure and process that ultimately will develop and define the policies and processes most conducive to steady economic and social progress.

Papers and Proceedings of a Seminar organized by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, 8 March 1975.

Analyses the problems in external relations, delving into the background of the recent trends, and examines relations with China, USSR, US, Japan, Indochina and ASEAN partly in the light of internal events.

An investigation of the potential for rural progress of the Asian village, especially in monsoonal and equatorial areas. Contents include distinctions and relations between rural and urban, origin and evolution of ecosystems involving rural man, location and morphology of villages, social and agrarian patterns, the sociology of labour, land use, rural water use, nutrition, health, child-rearing and rural evolution at present. With 20 diagrams.

Analyses the ASEAN Organization, tracing its development from inception in 1968 to 1975. Includes discussion of the political climate, the various comittees, the National Secretariat and the ASEAN modus operandi

The Straits Chinese (otherwise known as Babas or Peranakans) represent a unique blend of Chinese and Malay cultural traits and yet are quite distinct from both these two source cultures. Many rose to the positions of political and social prominence under British rule. The nature of this cultural and political accommodation and its dynamics provide an ideal ethnographic base for an exploration of ethnicity in Southeast Asia. This paper examines the nature of their identity and culture, the changes in the nature of the group and internal and external criteria for identification. The thesis is that the emergence of the Baba community is due to a combination of social and political factors, including the nurturing of a group willing to distinguish themselves from other Chinese migrants by learning English and acting as social and political brokers between the government and the population. Their position becomes ambiguous after 1942, with the decline of British influence. The writer's argument is that the outcome of this situation is not to be explained by factors of choice or perception but by structural factors. The paper concludes with an examination of these structural factors (including processes of accommodation, assimilation, and resignification) which have their roots in the colonial past of the area in the present management of ethnicity in Malaysia and Singapore.