Kleptocracy and Foreign Loan Decision-Making Process: Insights From Malaysia's Deals and Renegotiations With China

One the largest cases of kleptocracy is attributed to the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal involving the former Malaysian Prime Minister, Najib Razak. As a result of the pressure to pay the debt, Najib signed multiple inflated infrastructure loans from China in 2016. This study analyses the manipulation of Public Service Bargains as a critical variable influencing the foreign loan decision-making of the kleptocrat leader. It concludes that Najib's manipulation strategies transformed the established Trustee-type to kleptocratic-type bargains in Malaysia's foreign loan decision-making process. The post-Najib's restoration of Trustee-type bargains under the new Malaysian government, followed by a series of successful renegotiations with China, attest to the significance of the Public Service Bargains system on the foreign loan decision-making process. This analysis also contributes to the wider discussion on the critical side of China's Belt and Road Initiative amidst a global call for good governance.

The COVID-19 Pandemic and the Emergence of Vietnam as a Middle Power

Limited capability and political will have caused the great powers to fail to demonstrate their global leadership in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, which has created greater room to manoeuvre for other countries to influence international affairs. Preliminary achievements in the fight against the COVID-19 crisis have buttressed the rising global status of small and medium-sized states, including Vietnam. Although Vietnam has recently been recognised as an emerging middle power, scepticism looms regarding whether this higher international status is beyond its capacity. We argue that the pandemic may act as a catalyst for Vietnam to further elevate its strategic role as a middle power on the international stage in the medium and long term.

Outsourcing Outreach: ‘Counter-translation’ of Outreach Activities at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia

This article examines the outreach activities of the ongoing trials in the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC). The ECCC was designed to hold the leaders of Cambodia's notoriously violent Khmer Rouge regime (1975–1979) accountable. Outreach programmes have now become part of transitional justice initiatives as means to anchor their work in local and national consciousness in target countries. Using ethnographic data gathered in 2019–2020, this article explores how outreach activities have changed over time as they have become subject to new influences. I focus in particular on how some local actors have begun appropriating them in ways that represent a ‘counter-translation’ of the intentions originally propagated by the architects of the ECCC.

Poliheuristic Theory and Indonesia’s Absence in Deep-Sea Mining (DSM)

Indonesia is among the many states that have become interested in conducting deep-sea mining (DSM) since it first became viable in the 1970s. However, it was during the administration of President Joko Widodo (2014–2019) that DSM became an important viable endeavour, with the increasing depletion of Indonesia’s mineral and metal reserves. Nevertheless, Indonesia is yet to undertake DSM activity. This article aims to explain the absence of DSM in Indonesia by analysing the political dimensions of the decision-making process during President Widodo’s administration. This research utilises the poliheuristic theory (PHT) of decision-making. It shows that Indonesia’s DSM absence is the result of conscious decisions made by President Widodo to avoid loss in public support and drop in popularity. This article contributes to expanding the study of non-event or non-decision, which has been largely ignored in decision-making literature in Indonesia.

Representing Chinese Indonesians: Pribumi Discourse and Regional Elections in Post-Reform Indonesia

Utilising Pitkin’s concept of representation, this article surveys the landscape of Chinese Indonesian political representation since the advent of regional elections in 1999. Analyses of the dataset of individual profiles of Chinese Indonesian executives, as they adopt inclusive-pairing tactics by taking on deputised roles or appeal using charisma, had demonstrated that there was a visible transition from “descriptive” towards more “substantive” forms of political representation in various constituencies – seen as the most important dimension of ideal representation despite the presence of soft ethnic politics. Recent appeals to indigenism ( pribumi-ism), especially in the wake of Jakarta governor Ahok’s failed re-election bid in 2017, had the effect of confining representational politics towards the narrow margins of ethnicity above all else. This article looks at the precarity of thedivide between pribumis and Chinese Indonesians ( Tionghoa) from the perspective of political representation at the regions and fills in the lacuna of political representativeness in post-reform Indonesia – overlooked so far by critiques of democracy. .

The Impact of Local Parties on Party System Institutionalisation in Post-Conflict Aceh

While there has been a flurry of research on party system institutionalisation (PSI) and regionalist parties, very little research has been conducted on their imbrication. This study aims to fill this gap by analysing the impact of local parties on the party system in post-conflict Aceh, Indonesia. It contends that the presence of local parties in Aceh has had a hybrid effect on the institutionalisation of the party system. Similar to national parties, local parties in Indonesia have weak societal roots and party organisations that obstruct PSI in Aceh. That notwithstanding, local parties in post-conflict Aceh have assisted in solidifying the party system by improving the legitimacy of parties and elections and by creating a less fragmented party system. This hybrid effect is also strongly influenced by Aceh’s long wartime history and its post-conflict status.

Authoritarian Populism in Indonesia: The Role of the Political Campaign Industry in Engineering Consent and Coercion

All around the globe, populism has become increasingly prominent in democratic societies in the developed and developing world. Scholars have attributed this rise at a response to the systematic reproduction of social inequalities entwined with processes of neoliberal globalisation, within which all countries are inextricably and dynamically linked. However, to theorise populism properly, we must look at its manifestations in countries other than the West. By taking the case of Indonesia, the third largest democracy and the largest economy in Southeast Asia, this article critically analyses the role of the political campaign industry in mobilising narratives in electoral discourses. We use the Gramscian notion of consent and coercion, in which the shaping of populist narratives relies on mechanisms of persuasion using mass and social media. Such mechanisms allow the transformation of political discourses in conjunction with oligarchic power struggle. Within this struggle, political campaigners narrate the persona of political elites, while cyber armies divide and polarise, to manufacture allegiance and agitation among the majority of young voters as part of a shifting social base. As such, we argue that, together, the narratives – through engineering consent and coercion – construct authoritarian populism that pits two crowds of “the people” against each other, while aligning them with different sections of the “elite.”

Interfering via ASEAN? In the Case of Disaster Management

It has been argued that the non-interference principle is given more emphasis than democracy and human rights in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Yet a certain kind of consensus has emerged: ASEAN members may become involved in one another’s domestic affairs as long as they do so via ASEAN organs and instruments. This can be seen in co-operation on disaster management. Since the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on Disaster Management (AHA Centre) was established in 2011, the definition of a “disaster” appropriate for regional management has been broadened. Careful analysis of this case shows that, each for its own strategic reasons, ASEAN organs and institutions began to be useful for both “giving” and “receiving” member states. This article’s analysis of strategic interaction among member states yields useful insights on how intervention via multi-lateral frameworks shapes both the behaviour of domestic decision-makers and the dynamics within regional organisations.