Conferencia: Post-colonialism and Globalization in Southeast Asia: A Commentary

The Second World War in the Asia-Pacific region ended with the defeat and the surrender of the Japanese on 14-15 August 1945. From then on the main colonial states within Southeast Asia began to be decolonized, namely, Burma and Malaya from the British, The Philippines from the US, Indonesia from the Dutch, and the Indo-China region (Cambodia, Laos & Vietnam) from the French. After that war European imperialism transformed into colonialism that dragged the colonies into a web of capitalist production for the profit-hungry Western European industrial power. It could be said the base for a globalization in Southeast Asia, that is centered in developed Europe and the US has been laid out and consolidated throughout the colonial period. The pattern of the globalization can be observed in three spheres, namely, economic, politics and socio-cultural. The nation of citizenship, both legal and communitarian, were put to test. In the socio-cultural sphere the rise of consumerism was obvious with cultural Western influence most felt in the entertainment sphere and the impact of drug production and addiction as a form of life-style after during and after Vietnam War (1955-1975) ended. These are a few of significant impacts of globalization in decolonized Southeast Asia. They are many more that shall be elaborated in the presentation.

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SHAMSUL AB, BA, MA (Malaya), PhD (Australia), Distinguished Professor and Founding Director, Institute of Ethnic Studies (KITA), The National University of Malaysia. He researches, lectures and writes extensively on the theme “politics, culture and economic development in Southeast Asia,”