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Malaysian investors in the Indonesian oil palm plantation sector: Home state facilitation and transboundary haze
Abstract
This paper analyses the regionalization of Malaysian oil palm plantation firms into Indonesia. These firms have been implicated in starting fires to clear land for planting, which has resulted in transboundary haze. This paper argues that these Malaysian investors have been able to burn with impunity, despite the dire consequences of haze on their home country, because of the close patronage relationships and vested interests of the Malaysian government elites in these companies. Because of this, the home government is inclined to protect and defend the actions of these firms in Indonesia against such allegations, while the Malaysian public continues to suffer the haze.
... This article is thus among the first to offer a detailed examination of the unfolding of a concrete corporate venture in the oil palm sector in the Philippines. As we demonstrate below, the case of Palawan also proffers insights on the dynamics of regionalization of Malaysian firms in Southeast Asia, in response to domestic stagnation owing to land scarcity, degradation and labour shortage (Varkkey, 2013). ...
... With the transnational investments and redistribution of power in capitalist networks, market dynamics are exerting new pressures on these relations. A shift is taking place from local authoritarian enclaves governed by land-based agro-industry elites to new transnational alliances of companies and government-based actors (Borras and Franco, 2005;Varkkey, 2013). ...
... 41 In the Philippine context, the evidence from this case adds to our understanding of the way elites can enact their agency through corporategovernment ties, protecting a project deemed beneficial by those same elites but harmful to the less privileged. Building on previous studies of the internal structure of such oligarchies (Angeles, 1999) and the emergence of new transnational alliances (Borras and Franco, 2005;Varkkey, 2013), the case sheds light on the shifting nature of these contested spaces and on how the exposure to elite capture within concrete projects undermines the ambition of procedural governance fixes. It is indicative of the ways that influential people extend their control through the selective application of administrative procedures and supposedly 'objective' technical knowledge of state agencies (see also Novellino and Dressler, 2010). ...
State‐based and corporate remedies are increasingly offered as solutions to intractable issues provoked by land‐based investments, such as the oil palm agro‐industry. This article critiques this shift towards procedural governance fixes, drawing on theories of the legitimizing function of corporate responsibility and mechanisms of elite capture in agrarian states. The authors contrast the ambition of remedy with local reality in one controversial oil palm project in Palawan Province, the Philippines, showing that it was operated by companies, banks, agencies and politicians who either lacked the capacity to rein in the project once it became evident that it was causing harm to farmers, or showed no interest in doing so. As one of the first detailed examinations of the growing oil palm sector in the Philippines, the study adds to understandings of the shifting nature of elite capture through transnational agro‐industry. It also shows that the remedies discourse remains rooted in colonial doctrines and neoliberal constructs and thus tends to deflect attention away from more appropriate harm prevention strategies. The authors argue that functional remedies will only arise once states and companies confront competing land and resource claims and relinquish more control over new procedures to local and indigenous communities.
... These environmental issues are closely linked to the economic and social issues outlined above but we do not address them explicitly in this volume. (Barnes et al. 2014;Bennett et al., 1996;Bryan et al. 2013;Butler et al. 2009;Carlson et al., 2012;Lian and Wilcove, 2008;Hooijer et al. 2006Hooijer et al. , 2010McCarthy 2012;McCarthy and Zen 2010;Pye and Bhattacharya, 2013;Rival and Levang 2014;Sayer et al. 2012;Shiel et al. 2009;Tanaka et al., 2009;Tisdell and Nantha 2009;Venter et al., 2009;Wicke et al., 2008;Varkkey, 2012Varkkey, , 2013 ...
... Varkkey (2012Varkkey ( , 2013 concludes that the shared business culture between the two countries and the patronage of the Malaysian state explain why many of these Malaysian (and Singaporean) investors have been complicit in proscribed practices in Indonesia such as the use of fire in land clearing, which harms the public in their own countries through transboundary air pollution or haze. ...
The oil palm industry has transformed rural livelihoods and landscapes across wide swathes of Indonesia and Malaysia, generating wealth along with economic, social, and environmental controversy. Who benefits and who loses from oil palm development? Can oil palm development provide a basis for inclusive and sustainable rural development?
Based on detailed studies of specific communities and plantations and an analysis of the regional political economy of oil palm, this book unpicks the dominant policy narratives, business strategies, models of land acquisition, and labour-processes. It presents the oil palm industry in Malaysia and Indonesia as a complex system in which land, labour and capital are closely interconnected. Understanding this complex is a prerequisite to developing better strategies to harness the oil palm boom for a more equitable and sustainable pattern of rural development.
... The acquisition of existing plantations in foreign countries should be scrutinized so that environmentally responsible or certified plantation companies do not purchase farmlands from plantation companies that have cleared forests during the establishment of new plantations. For example, Malaysian palm oil companies have been known to increase their plantation land holdings outside Malaysia (Basiron, 2007;Wilcove and Koh, 2010;Cramb and Curry, 2012;Sayer et al., 2012;Varkkey, 2013;Sime Darby, 2015). These companies aim to expand their business in suitable regions for palm oil cultivation, acquiring land holdings in less developed and biodiversity-rich neighboring regions including Sumatra, Kalimantan and Papua New Guinea (Cramb and Curry, 2012;Julia and White, 2012;Varkkey, 2012;Sime Darby, 2015). ...
... These companies aim to expand their business in suitable regions for palm oil cultivation, acquiring land holdings in less developed and biodiversity-rich neighboring regions including Sumatra, Kalimantan and Papua New Guinea (Cramb and Curry, 2012;Julia and White, 2012;Varkkey, 2012;Sime Darby, 2015). It is worrying that the target countries for largescale palm oil expansion are those with weak environmental laws and enforcement and that also suffer from corruption (Smith and Walpole, 2005;Laurance, 2004;Butler and Laurance, 2008;Varkkey, 2012Varkkey, , 2013. ...
Most palm oil currently available in global markets is sourced from certified large-scale plantations. Comparatively little is sourced from (typically uncertified) smallholders. We argue that sourcing sustainable palm oil should not be determined by commercial certification alone and that the certification process should be revisited. There are so-far unrecognized benefits of sourcing palm oil from smallholders that should be considered if genuine biodiversity conservation is to be a foundation of 'environmentally sustainable' palm oil production. Despite a lack of certification, smallholder production is often more biodiversity-friendly than certified production from large-scale plantations. Sourcing palm oil from smallholders also alleviates poverty among rural farmers, promoting better conservation outcomes. Yet, certification schemes - the current measure of 'sustainability' - are financially accessible only for large-scale plantations that operate as profit-driven monocultures. Industrial palm oil is expanding rapidly in regions with weak environmental laws and enforcement. This warrants the development of an alternative certification scheme for smallholders. Greater attention should be directed to deforestation-free palm oil production in smallholdings, where production is less likely to cause large scale biodiversity loss. These small-scale farmlands in which palm oil is mixed with other crops should be considered by retailers and consumers who are interested in promoting sustainable palm oil production. Simultaneously, plantation companies should be required to make their existing production landscapes more compatible with enhanced biodiversity conservation.
... While Indonesia has overtaken Malaysia in the amount of land under cultivation, much of the export production in Indonesia is partially controlled by Malaysian conglomerates or other Asian financial actors (Hall, 2011;McCarthy, et al., 2012). As Varkkey (2012) explains, although Indonesia is Southeast Asia's largest oil palm producer, the network of industry-affiliated scientists, investors, government elites, lobbying groups, and plantation managers with vested interest in Indonesia's oil palm sector is regional, reaching throughout Malaysia and Singapore. ...
... Though their research circulates along different institutional axes, this divergent knowledge community offers a challenge to the notion of planetary crisis engendered by greenhouse gas emissions from Indonesia's peatlands. Funded in part by oil palm companies and based largely at Indonesian and Malaysian universities, as opposed to overseas universities or international research centers, industry-affiliated scientists are part of an Indonesia's oil palm sector network with close political and economic ties to Singapore and Malaysia (Varkkey, 2012). Some industry-affiliated scientists also work for the Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture while others are funded by the Malaysian Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment; both of these state institutions have been tasked with expanding oil palm production for national economic growth. ...
So-called global land grabbing is not only a response to socio-ecological shifts but can also generate substantial subterranean and atmospheric biogeochemical changes. As land acquisitions for agricultural development play out in Indonesia, the country's peatlands have been a key to rapid and expansive oil palm development. Oil palm production in tropical peatlands, however, requires soil drainage through hydrological engineering, which stimulates carbon dioxide emissions. Research on the quantities and mechanisms of those carbon emissions has been central to generating scientific consensus stipulating peatland conservation and rehabilitation, rather than agricultural development. Yet, alternate scientific knowledge networks have generated what I call divergent expertise, which supports a peatland management strategy of continued development despite ecological risk. This divergent expertise raises questions of how land is made suitable for large-scale acquisition and investment for agricultural development, and how to manage the biogeochemical crises that can ensue when land is incorporated into land grab regimes.
... Newspapers discussed allegations that Singaporean and Malaysian companies were most responsible for the deforestation and fires in Sumatra. Moreover, one of these Singaporean companies, Temasek Holdings, was particularly controversial because it is an official Government Linked Corporation (GLC), with strong investment and advisory links to the Singaporean government (see Section 5) (Varkkey, 2012(Varkkey, , 2013. ...
... But news reports could be seen to be critical of the government if they link haze to the activities of government-linked corporations in investments in Indonesia. This criticism would add weight to existing widespread dissatisfaction about alleged corruption and business connections within the Singapore and Malaysian governments (Varkkey, 2013). ...
... It was also reported that around 24 million hectares of Indonesia's forest was destroyed between 1990 and 2015 (Greenpeace, 2018)-an event that has contributed to the significant loss of orangutans, a known endangered species (Voigt et al., 2018). Such forest destruction can not only be attributed to the Indonesian oil palm companies but also companies from other countries, such as Malaysia and Singapore (Greenpeace, 2019), due to the structure of plantation ownership (Varkkey, 2013;Varkkey et al., 2018). ...
... Dettman & Gomez (2020), for instance reported that the amount of carbon release from the oil palm plantation "is roughly equivalent to the amount of carbon produced by 530 people flying from Geneva to New York in economy class". Similar study has been conducted by (Varkkey, 2013) reported that the Malaysian palm oil SOEs were criticised for causing transboundary haze in Indonesia, primarily involved in clearing peatland areas that caused major forest fires to break out. Another study by (Ganesan & Varkkey, 2022) studied on the different ownership and control structures between FELDA and FGV, claiming that both structures determined the decision making process of firms based on their link to the Malaysian government. ...
This study provides in-depth explanation on institutionalisation of sustainability initiatives. This study applies a qualitative research method, i.e. case study, to address the specific research objective. The findings revealed that a structured and strategic process of sustainability initiatives institutionalisation starting from a clear vision and mission is reflecting the commitment for accountability and legitimacy. The processes involve participation and engagement, self-regulation and assurance, performance assessments and evaluations, and reporting and disclosure statements. Two essential dimensions emerged in the findings to support the institutionalisation process, namely corporate image and culture. The findings of this study provide managers and policymakers with evidence to what extent sustainability initiatives could be institutionalised starting with a clear vision and mission. As sustainability initiatives are an important effort of the company towards materialising sustainability effort, is thus crucial to reflect the commitment for accountability and legitimacy. Past studies have primarily focused on sustainability initiatives from the perspective of several external stakeholders such as customers. However, this study examined the internal process of institutionalisation involving the four processes, in turn, introducing to the existing literature on sustainability initiatives.
... Malaysia being a receiving country, therefore, amended legislation to provide for higher penalties and stricter control towards foreign labor recruitment, to protect the employment of local Malaysians domestic wise. For example, in May 1984, the government of Indonesia and Malaysia signed an agreement, also known as the Medan Agreement to control the hiring of Indonesian workers for the Malaysia plantation sector (Varkkey, 2013). Globalization indeed helps to create more jobs in a country, but it is crucial for the government to regulate of who gets to get employed in the labor sector. ...
Globalization is a method of interaction of developing the global economy among all the countries of the world. It is the integration of economies with all the economies of the world. Globalization is seen as facilitating increasing flows of capital, goods, services, and ideas among the countries, thus contributing to their high economic growth in the past decades. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of globalization in ASEAN countries. In the area of international relations, globalization changing nations and borders of Southeast Asia through increased regional cooperation in the formation of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The establishment of ASEAN as one of the most highly-integrated regional organizations is the reflection of the process of globalization. This study proved that globalization contributed some benefits for ASEAN countries such as the development of education and health system, employment opportunities, employment growth, technology information, and competitive advantage. With the current economic situation that is going on all over the world, it is of utmost importance that countries are exposed to globalization and free trade. The benefits of these can bring about positive changes in countries, not only in ASEAN but all over the world.
... Forest fires have been happening in Indonesia since the 1960s, when the Government of Indonesia (GoI), under the New Order regime, started to develop the commercial timber industry and continue the transmigration program 1(pp13-17) . In the late 1980s, the GoI also promoted the pulp and paper industry and palm oil industry that havebeen contributing to forest fires, since the private F This paper should be cited as: Alamsyah corporation, like a slash-and-burn farmer 2(pp75-100) , uses fire as a method of land clearing [3][4][5] . Although there is scientific evidence showing the contribution of El Nino 6 , poverty, remoteness, underdevelopment 7 , and criminality 8 to forest fires, it is not a natural disaster that should be prevented or mitigated. ...
This study aims to explain collaborative practices during forest fire prevention and mitigation in Indonesia using a narrative policy framework (NPF). The primary data was collected from 30 informants related to forest fire mitigation in South Sumatra Province (SSP) using in-depth interviews. The secondary data was from online media that publishes news on forest fires. This study adopts a deductive approach and an interactive model during organizing, processing, and analyzing using ATLAS.ti 8 for Windows. Based on the NPF approach, this study has found that there are different views among the policy actors about the character (the villain, the hero, and the victims), the plot, and the solution policy (moral of the story) within the narrative of forest fires in SSP. This study recommends government institutions increase the quality of taskforce governance so that it can facilitate the learning process, enhance trust, minimize conflict tension, and promote participative decision-making between policy actors within the forest fire policy sub-system.
... In 2017, more than 73% of agricultural land in Malaysia was covered with oil palms (Kotecha 2018, p. 2). In recent years, Malaysian businesses have started developing more land in neighbouring Indonesia (Varkkey 2013). The figures stated here are not only important for attempts to retrace the expansion of oil palm in the region but also to gain an understanding of the conditions in which a growing number of rural workers work and live. ...
This open access book explores bioeconomy and bioenergy policies across South America, Asia and Europe. It discusses how a transition away from a fossil and towards a bio-based economic order alters, reinforces and challenges socio-ecological inequalities. A series of conceptual discussions and case studies with a multidisciplinary background in the social sciences illuminate how the deployment of biomass sources from the agricultural and forestry sectors affect societal changes concerning knowledge production, land and labour relations, political participation and international trade. How can a global perspective on socio-ecological inequalities contribute to a critical understanding of bioeconomy? Who participates in the negotiation of specific bioeconomy policies and who does not? To what extent does the bioeconomy affect existing socio-ecological inequalities in rural areas? What are the implications of the bioeconomy for existing relations of extraction and inequalities across regions? The volume is an invitation to reflect upon these questions and more, at a time when the need for an ecological and socially just transition away from a carbon intensive economy is becoming increasingly pressing.
The editors, Maria Backhouse, Rosa Lehmann, Kristina Lorenzen, Malte Lühmann, Janina Puder, Fabricio Rodríguez and Anne Tittor are all social scientists and members of the Junior Research Group “Bioeconomy and Inequalities. Transnational Entanglements and Interdependencies in the Bioenergy Sector” funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).
... In 2017, more than 73% of agricultural land in Malaysia was covered with oil palms (Kotecha 2018, p. 2). In recent years, Malaysian businesses have started developing more land in neighbouring Indonesia (Varkkey 2013). The figures stated here are not only important for attempts to retrace the expansion of oil palm in the region but also to gain an understanding of the conditions in which a growing number of rural workers work and live. ...
Malaysia is the second largest palm oil producer in the world. In recent years, the state has portrayed palm oil as a favourable source of biomass for the global bioeconomy. Palm oil production has been heavily criticized and is often associated with social inequalities concerning land ownership, land use, access to land and environmental degradation. Palm oil expansion in Malaysia has resulted in the exploitation of migrant workers—a further expression of social inequality induced by industrial oil palm cultivation. Hence, investigating the working conditions of this group is crucial when examining existing, solidifying or evolving social inequalities in emerging bio-based industries. In this chapter, I draw on an existing body of literature and my own empirical findings in order to show that migrant workers are systematically superexploited in the Malaysian palm oil sector—an economic branch that could gain importance if the bioeconomy becomes a global reality.
... Seiring dengan peningkatan permintaan global, jumlah keluasan ladang kelapa sawit di Indonesia dianggarkan akan meningkat sehingga 17 juta hektar pada tahun 2025 (ZSL 2017). Meskipun Indonesia mempunyai kawasan yang luas untuk diteroka bagi penanaman sawit, ia mempunyai kekangan dari segi modal dan sumber teknologi (Varkkey 2013). Pelaburan asing amat diperlukan untuk membiayai perkembangan industri ini (Sjahza & Asmit 2019;Varkkey, Tyson, & Choiruzzad 2018). ...
Objektif utama kajian ini adalah untuk mengkaji pengaruh pemilikan asing ke atas pendedahan maklumat alam sekitar dalam industri sawit Indonesia. Pelabur asing yang dikaji terbahagi kepada tiga kategori iaitu: (i) pelabur dari negara jiran yang merangkumi Singapura, Malaysia, Thailand dan Brunei, (ii) pelabur dari Kesatuan Eropah, dan (iii) pelabur dari negara-negara lain. Sampel kajian ini terdiri daripada syarikat kelapa sawit yang tersenarai di Bursa Efek Indonesia pada tahun 2013 hingga 2017. Jumlah sampel terdiri daripada 100 pemerhatian syarikat kelapa sawit selama 5 tahun. Pendedahan maklumat alam sekitar diambil menerusi kaedah analisis kandungan dalam laporan tahunan syarikat. Kajian ini menguji hipotesis menerusi ujian analisis data panel. Salah satu sumbangan kajian ini adalah membuktikan bahawa pihak pengurusan syarikat menjalankan strategi pelaporan berbeza apabila berdepan dengan pelabur dalam kategori berbeza. Pihak pengurusan syarikat menjalankan strategi legitimasi apabila berdepan dengan pelabur dari Kesatuan Eropah yang merupakan negara yang paling kuat memberi tekanan ke atas industri sawit. Namun, bertindak mengurangkan pelaporan maklumat tertentu apabila berdepan dengan pelabur dari negara-negara lain. Dapatan kajian ini memberi sumbangan signifikan dalam usaha meningkatkan kelestarian industri sawit menerusi pembuktian kategori pelabur yang mempunyai pengaruh dalam meningkatkan ketelusan pelaporan maklumat dan seterusnya membantu memantau aktiviti syarikat kelapa sawit yang boleh memudaratkan alam sekitar. Dapatan ini juga dijangka berguna dalam membantu penetapan polisi yang berkait dengan pelaburan asing agar industri sawit bukan sahaja mendapat akses kepada sumber modal tetapi juga dapat menangani masalah pencemaran alam.
The main objective of this study is to examine the influence of foreign ownership on the environmental information disclosure in oil palm industry in Indonesia. Foreign investors are divided into three categories: (i) investors from neighbouring countries involving Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Brunei; (ii) investors from European Union; and (iii) investors from other countries. The samples of this study consist of oil palm companies listed in the Indonesian Stock Exchange from the years 2013 until 2017. The total sample includes the observation of 100 oil palm companies for 5 years. Environmental information disclosure was taken through the content analysis method from the companies' annual reports. This study tested the hypothesis using panel data analysis. One of the contributions of this study is in proving the companies' management carried out different reporting strategies when dealing with investors of different categories. The management used legitimacy strategy when dealing with investors from the European Union as they are the countries that give most pressure to the oil palm industry. However, they withhold reporting of certain information when dealing with investors from other countries. The finding of this study is significant in the efforts to improve the sustainability of the oil palm industry. This is proven by the finding of this study that the categories of investor have an influence on the transparency of reporting and help monitor companies' activity that may harm the environment. This finding is also important in developing policy(ies) regarding foreign investment not only for oil palm to get access to source of capital but also to tackle the issue of pollution.
... see discussion of such views in Amengual, 2010). More broadly, critical scholars have often viewed private governance schemes as potential instruments for legitimizing hegemonic power relations (Bloomfield, 2012;Moog et al., 2015), particularly in the presence of hostile local governments (Varkkey, 2013). Those critical scholars focused on regimes of state, business and social power in particular places have highlighted how global regulatory schemes can be systematically undermined by their "attempts to institutionalise an order that provides for a distribution of benefits that is not in line with local constellations of power and interest" (McCarthy, 2012(McCarthy, , p. 1885Mikler, 2018;Bebbington et al., 2017). ...
The social and environmental impact of commodity production in the global south is now governed by an array of global market-driven standard-setting schemes, which interact with state-centred legal and administrative governance ‘on the ground’ in producing countries. Drawing on a case study of contested regulatory governance in the Indonesian palm oil sector, this paper investigates the effects of interactions between (northern) market-based and (southern) state-centred regulatory authorities. Analysis shows that it is not the collaborative or conflictual character of governance interactions that matters most in shaping regulatory capacity, but rather how such interactions influence the motivations, capacities and legitimacy claims of competing regulatory coalitions within commodity producing jurisdictions. While conflictual pathways of regulatory empowerment can sometimes be productive, their effects on destabilizing power relations between elite and marginalised actors in producing countries render them distinctively vulnerable to legitimacy challenges from incumbent powerholders. This generates dilemmas for global regulators, whose efforts to influence change through strategies of empowering southern pro-regulatory coalitions are subject to challenge from competing coalitions of southern actors.
... Nonetheless, an NJM's capacity to exercise authority over disputing parties may depend in significant ways on its relationship with state authorities. Where it is regarded as challenging state policies or sovereignty, its authority may be directly challenged(Varkkey 2013;Schouten et al. 2016); conversely, collaborations with local governments may amplify NJM authority in a specific context.10 State backing has been variously conceptualized as providing "a background 'penalty default' that penalises noncooperation" (DeBurca et al. 2013, p.739) or "participatory incentives and enforcement capacity"(Gunningham 2009, p.163).11 ...
Redress for communities harmed by transnational business activity remains elusive. This paper examines community efforts to access redress for human rights‐related harms via recourse to transnational nonjudicial mechanisms (NJMs) – a prevalent but widely debated instrument of transnational business regulation. Drawing together insights from theoretical debates surrounding nonjudicial regulation and evidence from a major empirical study of human rights redress claims in Indonesia and India, the paper explores the conditions under which NJMs can support community access to remedy. Three conditions are shown to be central in enabling some degree of NJM effectiveness: the institutional design of regulatory strategies, the institutional empowerment of regulatory institutions, and social empowerment of affected communities and their supporters. While all three conditions are required in some measure to underpin effective NJM interventions, these conditions can be combined in varying ways in different contexts to underpin either top–down or bottom–up pathways to redress. The former derives its primary influence from institutional authority and capacity, while the latter relies more heavily on diffuse societal leverage in support of community claims. These findings have significant implications for theoretical debates about the capacity and limits of nonjudicial regulatory approaches to support human rights redress within decentered contexts of transnational regulation where both regulatory power and agency are widely diffused.
... Examples are the awarding of fishing licences to supertrawlers in Senegal (Standing, 2015) and mining licences to Australia in the case of Bougainville (Lasslett, 2014). Questionable relationships between Malaysian elites in the palm oil industry in Indonesia, Varkkey (2013) argued, were an important reason behind the impotence of the Indonesian government in combatting the annual smoke haze that blankets the region-despite its toxic impact on humans and devastating environmental impact. In each case, a regime of permission emanates from government, underpinning damaging corporate conduct. ...
This article interrogates criminological ambivalence towards law as both essential in the control of corporate crime and as an enabler of corporate harm. It argues we can make sense of such tensions by seeing law—in its plurality of soft and hard forms—as constituent elements within multiple fields of struggle, in which laws operate as tools wielded to influence contested rules, and as rules governing regulatory struggles. This argument is developed by bringing criminological analyses of the law’s role in business facilitation and regulatory enforcement together with sociological analyses of ‘fields of struggle’. The value of this approach in illuminating law’s ambiguous role in relation to corporate harm is illustrated through two cases of multinational business activity in Indonesia.
... One of ongoing problems experienced by ASEAN countries is transboundry haze pollution (Varkkey, 2016). It happens when the pollution in one country, by crossing borders through air, cause damage in another country's environment (Varkkey, 2017). The haze in ASEAN normally associated with fire-related or large air pollution (Heil & Goldammer, 2001). ...
This paper provides transboundary haze pollution experienced by ASEAN countries especially Malaysia in the past decade and discuss the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution 2002 (AATHP), bringing to the light the weaknesses of the AATHP. Transboundary haze pollution is a complex issue, and has been a perennial problem though the AATHP has come into force in November 2003. The study argues that the agreement is unsuccessful due to the repeated haze pollution incident until now and lacks of enforceable obligatory provisions in the AAHTP. Since the governance framework seems remained largely ineffective, this paper proposes a few suggestions that should be taken to eradicate the haze pollution issues in ASEAN countries.
... Many other industries in the region are also of industrial leadership in the world. Those include services offshoring, software and film industries in India (Lorenzen & Taube, 2008); electronics industries in East Asia, such as manufacturing of flat panel displays and semiconductors (Mathews, 2005); solar panel and wind turbine industries in China (Tan & Mathews, 2015;Zhang & White, 2016); and rubber and oil palm in Southeast Asia (Varkkey, 2013). There is much that indigenous research in Asia Pacific can offer to the management literature based on insights gained from those industry settings. ...
This Perspectives paper draws attention to what I would call “industry-focused research” as an approach in management research that I believe can potentially contribute to the improvement of non-academic impact of the research. Industry-focused research refers to a type of studies in management that are based on an in-depth understanding of particular industry environments and that take account of the contextual details of the industries under investigation. Given that the industrial context in different locations tends to vary, industry-focused research can also contribute to the contextualization of management research in the Asia Pacific region.
... One of ongoing problems experienced by ASEAN countries is transboundry haze pollution (Varkkey, 2016). It happens when the pollution in one country, by crossing borders through air, cause damage in another country's environment (Varkkey, 2017). The haze in ASEAN normally associated with fire-related or large air pollution (Heil & Goldammer, 2001). ...
This paper provides transboundary haze pollution experienced by ASEAN countries especially Malaysia in the past decade and discuss the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution 2002 (AATHP), bringing to the light the weaknesses of the AATHP. Transboundary haze pollution is a complex issue, and has been a perennial problem though the AATHP has come into force in November 2003. The study argues that the agreement is unsuccessful due to the repeated haze pollution incident until now and lacks of enforceable obligatory provisions in the AAHTP. Since the governance framework seems remained largely ineffective, this paper proposes a few suggestions that should be taken to eradicate the haze pollution issues in ASEAN countries.
... Business engagement may stop when the concerns of northern NGOs are addressed, while local communities remain aggrieved (Kohne, 2014). Business relationships with the highest levels of government can work simultaneously and in opposition to ongoing mediations with communities, and may have antithetical aims (Kemp & Owen, 2014;Varkkey, 2013). Finally, the pressure on company mediators, and in turn on communities, to ensure a business activity goes ahead can undermine efforts to reach an equitable settlement (Kemp & Owen, 2014). ...
Human rights harms caused by transnational business in the global South are increasingly being addressed using ‘new governance’ tools and their cooperative problem-solving processes. Such an approach is employed by OECD National Contact Points (NCPs), which received a complaint regarding Korean steel giant POSCO in India. This article explains the contested aspects of the POSCO project in its politico-economic context and shows how the NCP process sacrificed elements essential to an effective new governance approach. This case highlights the challenges facing new governance tools in advancing human rights in the global South raising significant questions about their usefulness in this context.
This article examines the relationship between willful blindness and structures of blame by exploring how Ngaju Dayak villagers in Indonesia’s province of Central Kalimantan deal with the discourses, knowledge, and politics of blame that have emerged around the region’s recurrent peat fires. Since these fires cause regional air pollution, detrimental health effects, tremendous economic costs, and environmental impact on a global scale, the search for fire villains takes center stage. However, as this article shows, the causes of fires are basically unknowable. Not only do the fires’ pyrogenic agencies and temporal and scalar complexities stymie knowing, but knowing involves risks. This puts ignorance at the heart of this Anthropocenic blight, with diverse actors engaging in willful blindness to attribute blame and avoid responsibility in order to live with the fires and the epistemic and political-economic structures bound up with them. Willful blindness, it is thus argued, is a core element of structures of blame. However, given that nonhuman entities are drawn into these circuits of blame and unknowing, an analysis of willful blindness and its dynamics needs to actively reckon with these nonhuman actors.
This paper aims to explain Indonesia’s rejection to resolve its 2015 forest and land fire disaster under the mechanism of Joint Emergency Response provided in the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution. The haze caused by forest and land fires in Indonesia raised threats to not only itself but also states in the region of Southeast Asia. As it was declared as a regional problem, ASEAN then responded by creating a common framework called the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution in 2002 and Indonesia was the last ratifying the agreement in 2014; more than a decade after its inception. Indonesia, however, refused to pick the AATHP Joint Emergency Response to tackle the 2015 disaster within its territorry despite its most serious recurring disaster since 1997. This research applied the qualitative method with a causal correlation analysis. The research applied Charles O. Lerche and Abdul A. Said’s national interest theory. The research found that Indonesia’s rejection was driven by its national interests such as image, economy and politics which were much more important than others. Instead, Indonesia preferred the domestic efforts and bilateral cooperation to respond to it. The paper argues that the Southeast Asian regional institution is not able to offer incentives overtaking states’ domestic-oriented national interests. Keywords: Forest and land fire, haze, Joint Emergency Response, national interest.
This paper aims to explain Indonesia’s rejection to resolve its 2015 forest and land fire disaster under the mechanism of Joint Emergency Response provided in the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution. The haze caused by forest and land fires in Indonesia raised threats to not only itself but also states in the region of Southeast Asia. As it was declared as a regional problem, ASEAN then responded by creating a common framework called the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution in 2002 and Indonesia was the last ratifying the agreement in 2014; more than a decade after its inception. Indonesia, however, refused to pick the AATHP Joint Emergency Response to tackle the 2015 disaster within its territorry despite its most serious recurring disaster since 1997. This research applied the qualitative method with a causal correlation analysis. The research applied Charles O. Lerche and Abdul A. Said’s national interest theory. The research found that Indonesia’s rejection was driven by its national interests such as image, economy and politics which were much more important than others. Instead, Indonesia preferred the domestic efforts and bilateral cooperation to respond to it. The paper argues that the Southeast Asian regional institution is not able to offer incentives overtaking states’ domestic-oriented national interests.
Haze continues to affect the Southeast Asian region and causes a significant deterioration in air quality. The palm oil industry is blamed for causing the haze and is urged by stakeholders to improve its accountability and transparency. Despite the growing research in environmental accountability and transparency, to the best of our knowledge, none has scrutinised stakeholders’ perspectives in relation to environmental disclosure by this controversial industry. This study aims to investigate stakeholders’ needs and expectations regarding environmental disclosure by palm oil companies, and to examine the quality of disclosure and its impact on firm performance. This study conducted semi-structured interviews to ascertain stakeholders’ needs and expectations regarding palm oil companies’ environmental disclosure. Then, content analysis of 2013–2017 annual reports of publicly listed palm oil companies was undertaken to examine the quality of disclosures. Finally, the impact of environmental disclosure on firm performance was tested using a panel data approach. One of the novel contributions from this study is the identification of an additional environmental indicator requested by stakeholders, namely information on location of logging and forest clearance, which has not been previously identified in the literature or by the Global Reporting Initiative. The study also finds that Indonesian plantation companies showed a lack of accountability and transparency in relation to the haze and other environmental issues. Malaysian companies provided slightly better disclosures year by year, indicating improved accountability and transparency. The findings also show that environmental disclosure was associated with better firm performance, but only for Malaysian companies. The Malaysian government should give serious consideration to making environmental disclosure mandatory, not only for the sake of the environment but also for the economic sustainability of the palm oil industry. Disclosure has no association with the performance of Indonesian companies, and further research should seek to identify alternative actions to improve stakeholder confidence in the Indonesian palm oil industry.
Peatland burning in Indonesia’s state forest has increased in recent years, causing protracted “haze” crises across Southeast Asia and opening up new ways of thinking about how the political forest extends into the atmosphere and the subterranean. I take up political geographers’ call to consider territory volumetrically, rather than as two‐dimensional area, to analyse the politics of contemporary forest territoriality and of cross‐border biophysical forest phenomena. Doing so acknowledges the increasingly volatile materiality of forests but also the ways in which state, extra‐state, and non‐state actors respond to forest‐based crises under neoliberalism. As fires in Indonesia’s peatlands affect the subterranean and atmospheric spaces beyond the enclosed surfaces that have traditionally rendered forests political through territorialisation, analysing the vertical and volumetric dimensions of forest territory reveals the ways in which contemporary political forest‐making occurs through strategic control of the expansive space above, below, and beyond forests themselves. I further suggest that such territorialisation plays out through surveillance‐based legal and representational practices, such as laws that seek culpability for polluted transboundary airspace and satellite‐based remote sensing of underground fires, in ways that obscure the economic and political objectives of such territorial strategies.
With a long campaign and legal battle environmentalists, government, and local communities were able to bring the oil palm plantation holder PT. Kalista Alam to court and have it convicted for the use of fire in the Tripa peat swamp forest, Aceh, Indonesia. This unique case calls for the question ‘Can campaigns save forests?’ In this article we describe the process that led to the court case and the final conviction, showing also that with the conviction the campaign has not ended. We use the Advocacy Framework to look at this campaign presenting it in an historical line and looking at the several local actors, political change at national and local level that together have brought this outcome. We conclude that what is seen as a big success at the moment the court's verdicts came, might only be an intermediate victory.
p>ABSTRACT
Indonesia`s Palm oil industry is the greatest export commodity in the world. Palm oil industry has been developed since Soeharto`s administration with World Bank`s initiative. Indonesia`s development pattern is modernization which is fully supported by global capitalist agent. Furthermore, the government of Indonesia has issued policies to support this industry and the ease of accessibilty for investor to build in Indonesia. Most of the policies focus on economic interest with lack of attention to social and environmental issues. The paper applies qualitative method to analyze through literature studies and depth interview. As a result, the writer attempt to discuss the relationship of various concepts and theories regards to Resistency, Modernization and The Modern World-System theory. In fact, Indonesia as palm oil producer do not have bargaining power to determine the price due to global politic has structured to limit profit. Meanwhile, Central Kalimantan has the negative impact of environment and society that caused by palm oil industry. Tanjung Pusaka villagers refuse their region to be transform as palm plantation because they believe that their life is better now that being part of plantation. The purpose of this paper is to explain how villagers have capability of resistance for the sake of social life and environmental preservation.
Keywords: Palm, Indonesia, industry, policies, Central Kalimantan
ABSTRAK
Industri minyak sawit Indonesia merupakan komoditas ekspor terbesar di dunia saat ini. Industri minyak sawit telah dibangun sejak kepemimpinan Soeharto yang didukung oleh Bank Dunia. Pola pembangunan Indonesia adalah modernisasi yang disokong oleh agen kapitalis global. Lebih lanjut, Pemerintah Indonesia telah mengeluarkan kebijakan untuk mendukung industri minyak sawit dan memberikan kemudahan bagi investor untuk berinvestasi di sektor ini. Kebijakan-kebijakan tersebut hanya fokus terhadap kepentingan ekonomi dan minimnya perhatian terhadap isu sosial dan lingkungan hidup. Tulisan ini menggunakan metode kualitatif untuk menganalisa melalui studi literatur dan wawancara mendalam. Hasilnya, penulis berusaha mendiskusikan hubungan antara beragam konsep dan teori mengenai Resistensi, Modernisasi dan Teori Sistem Dunia. Faktanya, Indonesia sebagai produsen minyak sawit tidak memiliki kekuatan untuk menentukan harga karena politik global yang telah dibentuk untuk membatasi keuntungan yang didapatkan. Sementara itu, provinsi Kalimantan Tengah mengalami dampak negatif terhadap lingkungan hidup dan sosial yang disebabkan oleh industri minyak sawit. Warga Dusun Tanjung Pusaka menolak wilayahnya dijadikan perkebunan sawit karena mereka yakin hidupnya akan lebih baik dibandingkan menjadi bagian dari perkebunan sawit. Tujuan penulisan ini paper ini untuk menjelaskan bagaimana masyarakat desa mampu melakukan upaya resistensi demi kepentingan sosial dan pelestarian lingkungan hidup.
Kata kunci: Sawit, Indonesia, industri, kebijakan, Kalimantan Tengah</p
Large-scale, industrial oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) plantations are rapidly expanding in tropical forest regions to supply a growing global demand for palm oil, the world’s most popular vegetable oil. Such agro-industrial enterprises are a growing threat to primates and their habitats. We review the history of palm oil production, starting with its origins in Africa followed by its expansion to other tropical regions including Malaysia and Indonesia, where over 85 % of the world’s palm oil is now produced. We examine the ecological and socioeconomic impacts of industrial oil palm developments and address global attempts to produce palm oil sustainably. Our analysis indicates that large-scale, industrial oil palm plantations directly destroy tropical forest biodiversity and negatively affect adjacent intact forests. Contrary to arguments made by many advocates of industrially produced palm oil, we find that such production schemes may not be in the economic interests of local communities and may lead to social conflict. We find that in many cases industrial oil palm developments suffer from lack of transparency and fail to obtain the free, prior, and informed consent of local people who are at a great disadvantage when negotiating with agribusinesses. We present evidence indicating that efforts to produce palm oil sustainably through the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil suffer from lack of oversight, enforcement, and accountability and, ultimately, allow for deforestation. We recommend ways to reduce the ecological and social impacts of industrially produced palm oil and suggest that the conservation, development, and human rights communities work with national governments to develop alternative palm oil production schemes that reduce environmental impacts and socioeconomic risks.
On 20 January 2015 Indonesia deposited its instrument of ratification for the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution with the ASEAN Secretariat, becoming the last ASEAN member state to join the treaty. Haze pollution poses a serious health threat to the people of Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia, and for decades haze pollution has been a highly contentious issue among ASEAN member states. This article argues that Indonesia’s ratification will not be an immediate game changer. The mechanisms of the agreement are too weak to contribute much to a reduction of haze pollution in the region. The agreement is designed according to the ASEAN way: a non-binding approach that is based on the principles of state sovereignty and non-intervention. This makes it unlikely that the agreement itself will bring about change, even now that all ASEAN member states have ratified it. © 2015, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies. All rights reserved.
Despite the efforts of Southeast Asian governments and of ASEAN, transboundary haze continues to be a major environmental problem in Southeast Asia. This book demonstrates that the issue is complex, and explains why efforts to solve the problem in purely political terms are ineffective, and likely to continue to be ineffective. The book shows how state-led, state-incentivised agribusiness development lies at the heart of the problem, leading to a large rise in palm oil production, with extensive clearing of forests, leading to deliberate or accidental fires and the resulting haze. Moreover, although the forest clearing is occurring in Indonesia, many of the companies involved are Malaysian and Singaporean; and, further, many of these companies have close relationships with the politicians and officials responsible for addressing the problem and who thereby have a conflict of interest. The author concludes by discussing the huge difficulties involved in overturning this system of 'patronage politics'.
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the drivers of outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) from the emerging economies and if there exists a positive role for home governments to coordinate them. The backdrop is the recent increases in OFDI from emerging economies and the emergence of several emerging economy firms, which have caught up to become global leaders in several industries. The paper focuses particularly on experiences from Asian economies. Design/methodology/approach – The paper applies a multi method approach and relies on literature studies, investment statistics, government reports, press reports, company reports, and interviews with public officials. Findings – Extending the motive-based business theory, the paper first establishes the pronouncement of a third wave of OFDI from the mid-1990s. Whereas the typical motives have remained important, the technology-seeking motive has become significantly more important during the third wave. Typical policy prescriptions to liberalize government regulations have been called into question. Many home emerging country governments have acted to coordinate their activities by regulating proactively investment outflows. The evidence also shows that the successful investment outflows have benefited significantly from home governments addressing the characteristics and motives of target industries and locations abroad. Practical implications – The analysis shows that contrary to mainstream prescriptions many home governments have successfully regulated strongly OFDI from the emerging economies. However, it is important for home governments to consider the broader interest of promoting capital flows to ensure the long-term development of economies rather than narrow national interests. Home and host governments should seek to establish common and specific collaboration platforms to raise information flows and coordinate better the negotiations and execution of investment projects. Originality/value – The paper provides a more thorough analysis of the implications for home country policies of the increasing outward investment flows from emerging economies and the increasing competitiveness and capabilities of their transnational firms. It proposes augmentations to prior frameworks of drivers and motives of OFDI and pushes deeper the home policy implications of increasing outward investment flows.
This article examines ASEAN's cooperation on transboundary haze pollution. I argue that ASEAN's creation of the haze treaty in 2002 demonstrates its attempt to depart from certain elements of the institutional culture. But both ASEAN's treaty and cooperation have been hindered by certain normative constraints, organizational customs, and domestic politics.
The process that leads to deforestation in Indonesia cannot be fully understood without examining how Indonesian politics and the attitudes of decision makers, with support from the international system, shape and drive the various factors which contribute to deforestation. In the first section, the principal competing explanations of the causes of deforestation are outlined. In the second section, a political explanation of deforestation is proposed. Indonesian political institutions, processes and attitudes, which shape and drive the factors of deforestation identified in the first section, are outlined. Employing the questions raised by the different explanations of deforestation in section one, and incorporating the description of Indonesian politics provided in section two, the third section examines the politics of Indonesian deforestion. -from Author
This article examines why patron-client systems of governance persist around the world despite efforts to fight them through economic liberalization, democratization, decentralization, and civil service reform. Aid donors want developing countries to abandon clientelism to encourage production of public goods. However, our reexamination of the case literature finds that clientelism may have hidden positive externalities, such as the appeasement of elites and the integration of people into the state, which can make it attractive. There also is a collective action problem: individuals might prefer an alternative to clientelism, but they support the status quo as a safety-first strategy. We propose an analytic framework for diagnosing patron-client systems and suggest programming options for donors. Despite the obstacles, governance institutions have been improved selectively around the world, as a result of emerging political parties competing based on generalized appeals to interest, through the activities of policy entrepreneurs, or through advocacy by civil society organizations.
This article argues that better informed insights into the benefits and repercussions of the form of development of East Asian economies could be obtained when the theoretical perspectives from two different bodies of literature are employed collectively. If the concepts from the discipline of political economy – specifically the body of literature dealing with the developmental state now commonly deployed in analyses of East Asian economies – are used in combination with concepts from the literature on business history based on the work of Alfred Chandler, the reasons for the rise and fall of major enterprises in East Asia can be better understood. A case study of enterprise and economic development in Malaysia is presented to substantiate this argument.
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the drivers of outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) from the emerging economies and if there exists a positive role for home governments to coordinate them. The backdrop is the recent increases in OFDI from emerging economies and the emergence of several emerging economy firms, which have caught up to become global leaders in several industries. The paper focuses particularly on experiences from Asian economies. Design/methodology/approach – The paper applies a multi method approach and relies on literature studies, investment statistics, government reports, press reports, company reports, and interviews with public officials. Findings – Extending the motive-based business theory, the paper first establishes the pronouncement of a third wave of OFDI from the mid-1990s. Whereas the typical motives have remained important, the technology-seeking motive has become significantly more important during the third wave. Typical policy prescriptions to liberalize government regulations have been called into question. Many home emerging country governments have acted to coordinate their activities by regulating proactively investment outflows. The evidence also shows that the successful investment outflows have benefited significantly from home governments addressing the characteristics and motives of target industries and locations abroad. Practical implications – The analysis shows that contrary to mainstream prescriptions many home governments have successfully regulated strongly OFDI from the emerging economies. However, it is important for home governments to consider the broader interest of promoting capital flows to ensure the long-term development of economies rather than narrow national interests. Home and host governments should seek to establish common and specific collaboration platforms to raise information flows and coordinate better the negotiations and execution of investment projects. Originality/value – The paper provides a more thorough analysis of the implications for home country policies of the increasing outward investment flows from emerging economies and the increasing competitiveness and capabilities of their transnational firms. It proposes augmentations to prior frameworks of drivers and motives of OFDI and pushes deeper the home policy implications of increasing outward investment flows.
This essay examines the political practices observed in the relationships between the state and civil society that developed during the process of decentralization in Venezuela. One of the objectives of the process was transforming the representative democracy established by the National Constitution of 1961 into the participatory democracy institutionalized by the constitution adopted in December 1999. It will analyze whether the practices that maintain the relationship between the decentralized municipality and organized civil society are those of clientelism, semiclientelism, or citizenship, the latter understood as participation in the decision-making process in order to create public policies for the efficient and equitable distribution of scarce resources. Consequently, it will not only identify the new practices but also examine the role that both the old and new practices play in the recently decentralized local structures. The following questions will be explored: Are the practices of clientelism intrinsic to the decentralization model that is being applied in Latin America, or are they a result of an incomplete implementation of that model? Are these practices characteristic of all socio-political actors, or are they differentiated according to social class? Are they a response to the absence of some of the prerequisites for democratic decentralization, such as the existence of democratizing social movements, changes in the political culture or underlying political model, and the transformation of the legal or institutional framework? Is decentralization solely a managerial readjustment, or is it truly a qualitative heightening and strengthening of democracy? Are the practices of clientelism involving social or interest groups a new form of clientelism? And, finally, is this new form of clientelism a product of decentralization in a country that is undergoing a profound political and economic crisis? We will study the practices of the strategic political and social actors on the local government level-the mayor, town council members, neighborhood associations, and administrative bureaucracy-and focus on clientelism, personalism, and absenteeism.
Proposes that, arms length economic system (ALS) is not always appropriate for developing nations. The alternative of a relationship based system (RBS) which is often mistaken for crony capitalism as practiced in Malaysia is offered. Entrepreneurial spirit so fundamental to the development of an economy may be so lacking as to perish under an ALS yet be able to flourish under RBS. Explains three major aspects of how the Malaysian Economy was able to flourish under the RBS (1) the cultural reform of the majority indigenous group (2) the multi-cultural cooperation between the economically superior Chinese and the less economically developed Malays and (3) The spill-over effect from privatisation policies. Recognising the existence and legitimacy of an RBS as an economic model may offer a new approach towards poverty eradication and economic development of Third World countries.
While there has been much discussion of the negative effects of crony capitalism, there has been little analysis of their precise nature. It is widely agreed that crony capitalism generates significant economic rents, which result in a misallocation of resources and lower incentives for wealth creation. In addition, the corruption that accompanies cronyism constitutes a considerable impediment to growth and development. This paper provides an analysis of the likely costs of cronyism and categorises them into four principal groups: allocative inefficiencies; dynamic inefficiencies; corruption and transaction costs; and problems of social and political stability. The analysis suggests that the most damaging aspect of crony capitalism is its tendency to discourage restructuring and adjustment at a time when such traits are central to economic success. The various linkages between the cost components are also explored. Examination of the claimed benefits of crony capitalism shows that they are more than offset by the negative effects.Asian Business & Management (2005) 4, 117132. doi:10.1057/palgrave.abm.9200126
Cultivation of the oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) has expanded tremendously in recent years such that it is now second only to soybean as a major source of the world supply of oils and fats. Presently, Southeast Asia is the dominant region of production with Malaysia being the leading producer and exporter of palm oil. This paper reviews the various factors that have led to oil palm occupying its present position, including biological, technical, managerial, environmental, and socio-political aspects. Biological features recognised as critical to the high productivity of the crop are examined. These include its perennial and evergreen nature (giving a continuous year-round canopy cover intercepting a high proportion of incoming radiation), the year-round production of fruit bunches and the high partition of total assimilates into harvested product.
The member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have been frequently criticized for adhering to a long-standing norm of strict non-interference in each other's domestic affairs, thereby hampering collective efforts to address regional problems. This article presents an analytical model of international institutions that shows how underlying norms and principles – the meta-regime – govern the rules and procedures of specific international regimes. It then applies this model to ASEAN's trade and anti-haze regimes, demonstrating how ASEAN's underlying meta-regime has frustrated attempts to liberalize trade and reduce air pollution. While ASEAN's purview has extended well beyond its original security mandate and it has developed new rules and procedures to handle the new issues, its underlying norms and principles consistently limit its ability to handle regional problems. In the conclusion, we discuss how the ASEAN states might be able to foment cooperation in these issue areas without completely abandoning its foundational norms and principles.
This chapter reviews the literature on natural resource decentralization with an emphasis on forests in developing countries. This literature can be located at the intersection between discussions of good governance and democracy, development, and poverty alleviation, on the one hand, and common property resources, community-based resource management, and local resource rights, on the other. Policies implemented in the name of decentralization, however, are often not applied in ways compatible with the democratic potential with which decentralization is conceived, and only rarely have they resulted in pro-poor outcomes or challenged underlying structures of inequity. Greater attention to who receives decentralized powers, the role of property rights, the notion of "the local," and the meeting of expert and local knowledge provides insights into key issues and contradictions. Fundamental differences in conceptions of democracy, participation, and development lie behind these contradictions and shape strategies for the redistribution of access to political power and resources, which is implied by decentralization.
Clientelism is characterized by the combination of particularistic targeting and contingency-based exchange. This method of contingent exchange thrives in both autocracies and democracies. It exists in a large variety of cultural contexts. Confronted with economic development, clientelism fades away in some political contexts but adapts and survives in others. This article explores our understanding of the origins and dynamics of clientelism, focusing on the relationships between clientelism and democracy and between clientelism and development. It then evaluates the connection between clientelism and a variety of political and economic outcomes, including democratic accountability, corruption, and public goods provision. It concludes by outlining some remaining empirical and theoretical challenges and highlighting recent innovations in data collection and empirical methods.
Some countries produce more multinational enterprises (MNEs) than others. India and China, in particular, have produced a number of dynamic MNEs whose success abroad generates important economic benefits for the home economy. Motivated by this observation, we describe the internationalisation record of Indonesia's major business groups. Using an archival analysis method, we find that, with a few exceptions, Indonesia's largest business groupings focus predominantly upon the domestic market. We advance two explanations for this investment pattern. The first suggests that the apparent absence of Indonesian MNEs is an accounting error, because firms' outward investment is under-reported in official statistics. The second suggests that Indonesian outward foreign direct investment is impeded by a combination of institutional and firm-level factors that arrest the internationalisation of all but the largest firms. We discuss the policy implications of these findings and reflect on their theoretical implications.
This book is the first to analyze the environmental impact of Japanese trade, corporations, and aid on timber management in the context of Southeast Asian political economies. It is also one of the first comprehensive studies of why Southeast Asian states are unable to enforce forest policies and regulations.
1998 Winner of the International Studies Association's Harold and Margaret Sprout Award Peter Dauvergne developed the concept of a "shadow ecology" to assess the total environmental impact of one country on resource management in another country or area. Aspects of a shadow ecology include government aid and loans; corporate practices, investment, and technology transfers; and trade factors such as consumption, export and consumer prices, and import tariffs. In Shadows in the Forest, Dauvergne examines Japan's effect on commercial timber management in Indonesia, East Malaysia, and the Philippines. Japan's shadow ecology has stimulated unsustainable logging, which in turn has triggered widespread deforestation. Although Japanese practices have improved somewhat since the early 1990s, corporate trade structures and purchasing patterns, timber prices, wasteful consumption, import tariffs, and the cumulative environmental effects of past practices continue to undermine sustainable forest management in Southeast Asia. This book is the first to analyze the environmental impact of Japanese trade, corporations, and aid on timber management in the context of Southeast Asian political economies. It is also one of the first comprehensive studies of why Southeast Asian states are unable to enforce forest policies and regulations. In particular, it highlights links between state officials and business leaders that reduce state funds, distort policies, and protect illegal and unsustainable loggers. More broadly, the book is one of the first to examine the environmental impact of Northeast Asian development on Southeast Asian resource management and to analyze the indirect environmental impact of bilateral state relations on the management of one Southern resource.
James Clifford (1997: 56) has, in a much cited locution borrowed from Renato Rosaldo, theorized the methodology of ethnographic research – my craft – as ‘deep hanging out.’ This perverse phrase captures nicely the improvisational quality of fieldwork, the confusing overlap between informal streetcorner conversation and the serious inquiry embodied in ethnographic fieldwork, and the profound level of understanding of the other for which ethnography aims through apparently casual methods.
Cultivation of the oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) has expanded tremendously in recent years such that it is now second only to soybean as a major source of the world supply of oils and fats. Presently, Southeast Asia is the dominant region of production with Malaysia being the leading producer and exporter of palm oil. This paper reviews the various factors that have led to oil palm occupying its present position, including biological, technical, managerial, environmental, and socio-political aspects. Biological features recognised as critical to the high productivity of the crop are examined. These include its perennial and evergreen nature (giving a continuous year-round canopy cover intercepting a high proportion of incoming radiation), the year-round production of fruit bunches and the high partition of total assimilates into harvested product. Scientific and managerial aspects contributing to the success of the crop include the significant genetic improvements and production of high quality planting materials, the development and application of finely-tuned agronomic practices, the appropriate scale and efficient organisation of oil palm plantations and the continuous R&D and good infra-structural support provided in the main producing countries. The programmes of crop improvement through the utilisation of traditional breeding and selection methods, the development and benefits of vegetative propagation techniques using tissue culture and ongoing efforts to apply molecular and genetic engineering techniques to improve and modify oil composition, are reviewed. Finally, the nutritional qualities of palm oil as a healthy component of diet are briefly described.
Governments and large agribusinesses are increasingly using the environmentalist movement and its policy arm of green nongovernmental organizations to justify imposing protectionist non-tariff barriers on developing countries. Wrong-headed environmental policies and ―green‖ protectionism are contributing to a resurgence of malaria in some countries and endangering millions of jobs in developing countries. Even the World Bank‘s mandate to foster economic development is being subverted to serve environmentalist and protectionist objectives. The EU and the U.S. need to eliminate protectionist policies and regulations that are masquerading as environmental safeguards and refocus the World Bank on promoting economic development to alleviate poverty
Southeast Asia's "haze" crisis has posed a severe challenge for ASEAN. Despite a record of more than two decades of cooperation on environmental issues, and even given the costs of the haze which have been estimated at more than $4.5 billion so far, ASEAN modalities have proved a severe disappointment. In 1997-98 around eight million hectares of forest and grassland, mostly in Indonesia, were ravaged by fires largely originating from wasteful forestry and plantation clearing practices. However, the Indonesian regime proved unwilling or unable to put the interest of the neighborhood ahead of those of its closest associates, overriding environmental regulations and ignoring resource managing bureaucracies. The effect on the self-image of ASEAN has been corrosive, and the likelihood that its modalities will fail when tested by a crisis of a different kind has increased. Accordingly, alternative approaches have been the desperate resort of policy makers, a strategy that has had major implications. Prominent in these alternatives has been the positive role accorded to NGOs and transnational opinion groups. This has posed a challenge to the character of ASEAN, given that a number of regimes within the group have been reluctant to accept the legitimacy of such political activity, and also in light of the fact that the accord and consensus of ASEAN has been largely the creature of elite agreement rather than popular opinion.
There is limited empirical research on the internationalization processes, strategies, organizations and operations of Asian Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) and particularly Malaysian MNEs. Drawing on secondary sources and data and specifically from 12 case studies of emerging Malaysian MNEs, this paper examines and analyses their internationalization strategies, including motivations, patterns and sources of competitive advantage. The findings indicate that the emerging Malaysian MNEs, while exhibiting characteristics such as that described in recent empirical studies, also suggest that different emerging strategies are being tried. The sustainability of these strategies, limitations of the paper and areas for further research are discussed.
This case study examines the Southeast Asian fires and resultant haze not so much to assess the biophysical causes and results but, rather, the implications on cooperation within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the region. By describing the efforts within ASEAN to deal with the fires and re- gional haze pollution, we examine not the environment per se, but the ASEAN processes and norms as they apply to the environment. The study also draws on, and makes suggestions regarding, ASEAN in other areas of activity and concern in order to understand its environment-related ac- tivities as part of a larger picture. The study considers how cooperation might be developed within ASEAN or the wider Asia Pacific on the haze issue. In addressing both institutional and environmental questions, it seeks to be as much about ASEAN and Asia Pacific cooperation as it is about the environment. First, ASEAN's development across different concerns and fields of ac- tivity is surveyed, to situate environmental cooperation in a broader in- stitutional context. Second, ASEAN's environmental heritage and its cooperation to protect that heritage are reviewed with particular atten- tion given to the ASEAN Agreement on the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, which is the only attempt to date to conclude a bind- ing environmental treaty. Third, the study reviews ASEAN efforts to deal with the organization's greatest environmental challenge to date, namely, the Indonesian fires and haze, and, in so doing, it suggests why efforts thus far have been insufficient. Fourth, ways are suggested in which the fires and haze could be effectively addressed by ASEAN or the Asia Pacific community, and consideration is given to the broader institutional
This study explores initiatives in Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia to eliminate transboundary “haze” in Southeast Asia and the fires in Indonesia that are its major cause. It outlines reforms and technical programs to improve fire management and reduce smoke pollution and examines the scope for cooperation and conflict among these parties to the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution. The study analyzes how changing administrative structures affect success of fire management and pollution control programs and explains how developing the effective fire management in Indonesia necessary to eliminate transboundary haze will depend on a combination of political will, legal reform, and administrative coordination. Although the ASEAN Haze Agreement lacks enforceable mandatory provisions, it remains a useful vehicle for international pressure and regional cooperation to eliminate transboundary pollution.
Since the summer of 1997, Indonesia has been engulfed in the worst economic crisis witnessed in Southeast Asia. Simultaneously, a second—environmental—crisis is taking place in the shadow of currency devaluations and stock market crashes. The latter signals the negative consequences of rapid, poorly regulated economic development for the region's environment and is exemplified by the raging forest fires in Indonesia spreading out of control and enveloping neighboring countries in a thick harmful haze. This article explores the multiple links between the two crises in Indonesia and their underlying causes. It shows that the International Monetary Fund-backed Indonesian structural reform program leaves the problem of forest fires unresolved and is likely to result in further environmental degradation. The very fate of these reforms is assessed in light of the prevailing political uncertainty. Finally, alternative solutions that begin to deal with both the environmental and the financial crises are proposed.
As economic tensions escalate and unsustainable logging practices continue, the risk of civil violence in Indonesia is rising.
The article argues that the adoption and persistence of many failed inward‐looking development strategies can be attributed to political clientelism. A political system consisting of aggregations of patron‐client networks bound together by the exchange of material benefits for political support is liable to be dominated by factionalism, politicisation, a high level of administrative corruption and a low degree of legitimacy and autonomy. In such an environment, welfare‐reducing inward‐looking development strategies result from the attempt to satisfy the demands of political supporters. The analysis suggests that political changes can be a prerequisite to a permanent transition to superior development strategies, and thus to the success of structural reform programmes.
The analysis presented here is an effort to elaborate the patron-client model of association, developed largely by anthropologists, and to demonstrate its applicability to political action in Southeast Asia. Inasmuch as patron-client structures are not unique to Southeast Asia but are much in evidence, particularly in Latin America, in Africa, and in less developed portions of Europe, the analysis may possibly have more general value for understanding politics in preindustrial societies. After defining the nature of patron-client ties and distinguishing them from other social ties, the paper discriminates among patron-client ties to establish the most important dimensions of variation, examines both the survival and transformations in patron-client links in Southeast Asia since colonialism and the impact of major social changes such as the growth of markets, the expanded role of the state, and the creation of local regimes. Finally, the paper shows how patron-client bonds interact with electoral politics to create distributive pressures which, in turn, often lead to inflationary fiscal policies and vulnerability of regimes to losses of revenue.
This paper evaluates the Singapore government's ‘regionalization strategy’ (1990–2004) as a national development policy. Unlike the Singapore government's earlier national development policy, which focused on encouraging industrial transnational corporations to locate production within Singapore, the new strategy encouraged them to locate production in Singapore-developed industrial parks in selected cities across the Asia Pacific region. As a development policy, this research finds that the regionalization strategy has had mixed results. It has succeeded in encouraging industrial transnational corporations to locate in these Singapore-developed industrial parks, but failed to generate enough profits to supplement Singapore's domestic economy. Based on this study, there are two conclusions that can be drawn: first economic globalization and global production networks are not only driven by the motivations of industrial transnational corporations (market driven) but also by national economic policies (state driven), such as by the Singapore government's regionalization strategy. Second, as a national development policy, a ‘regional’ strategy is highly risky as the state is not in full control of external factors, as opposed to implementing development policies locally.
Discusses the qualitative and quantitative paradigms and clarifies the terms qualitative and quantitative and structured and unstructured. Multiple methods and policy research are reviewed, multisite/multimethod research as a solution is examined, and issues concerning collecting and analyzing less-structured data in multisite/multimethod studies are discussed. Four major approaches to integration are identified: sequential, parallel, fused, and interactive models. All involve multisite/multimethod approaches to data collection and analysis, but each represents a distinct approach to the marriage of the 2 paradigms. (30 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The past decade has witnessed a resurgence of regionalism in world politics. Old regionalist organizations have been revived, new organizations formed, and regionalism and the call for strengthened regionalist arrangements have been central to many of the debates about the nature of the post-Cold War international order. The number, scope and diversity of regionalist schemes have grown significantly since the last major ‘regionalist wave’ in the 1960s. Writing towards the end of this earlier regionalist wave, Joseph Nye could point to two major classes of regionalist activity: on the one hand, micro-economic organizations involving formal economic integration and characterized by formal institutional structures; and on the other, macro-regional political organizations concerned with controlling conflict. Today, in the political field, regional dinosaurs such as the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and the Organization of American States (OAS) have re-emerged. They have been joined both by a large number of aspiring micro-regional bodies (such as the Visegrad Pact and the Pentagonale in central Europe; the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU) and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in the Middle East; ECOWAS and possibly a revived Southern African Development Community (SADC, formerly SADCC) led by post-apartheid South Africa in Africa), and by loosely institutionalized meso-regional security groupings such as the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE, now OSCE) and more recently the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF). In the economic field, micro-regional schemes for economic cooperation or integration (such as the Southern Cone Common Market, Mercosur , the Andean Pact, the Central American Common Market (CACM) and CARICOM in the Americas; the attempts to expand economic integration within ASEAN; and the proliferation of free trade areas throughout the developing world) stand together with arguments for macro-economic or ‘bloc regionalism’ built around the triad of an expanded European Union (EU), the North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA) and some further development of Asia-Pacific regionalism. The relationship between these regional schemes and between regional and broader global initiatives is central to the politics of contemporary regionalism.
The study of patronage and of patron-client relations has come lately to the fore in anthropology, political science and sociology, and has exerted a great fascination for scholars in these spheres. From a topic of relatively marginal concern it has become a central one, closely connected to basic theoretical problems and controversies in all the social sciences.
This article reviews the extensive political and economic literature since 1990 on corruption in Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. After considering each country's individual recent history of corruption, the article comparatively analyses the relationship of corruption in these countries with, respectively, the roles of the state, the private sector and external actors, democratisation and decentralisation, and the impact of corruption on economic growth and inequality. Our conclusion is that while economic liberalisation, democratisation and centralisation of state power influence the forms of corruption and its impact on national economic performance, they are neither necessary nor sufficient for its decline.
Recent economic collapse, forest fires, and political uncertainty, as well as changes in World Bank policies, may reverse the course of Indonesian forest mismanagement. 1990s came crashing to earth during late 1997 with a collapse of the currency and disintegration of the banking system. By mid-1998 Suharto was forced out of office by a tidal wave of street protests, and raging fires were ablaze throughout the land. In this paper we draw attention to the fundamentals of the finance crisis and the environmental crisis as they relate to the state of tropical rainforests in Indonesia. It is concluded that, somewhat ironically, the dramatic collapse of the Indonesian economy and the devastating forest fires of the late 1990s may lead to the preservation of one of the earth's most significant heritage sites, the tropical rainforests and biodiversity of Indonesia. Although Indonesia occupies only 1.3% of the world's land area, the country possesses about 10% of the world's flowering plant species, 12% of all mammal species, 17% of all reptile and amphibian species, and 17% of all bird species (National Development Planning Agency, 1993). The great lowland forests in much of Kalimantan and Sumatra are gone for good, and countless species have been driven to extinction in the process. However, there remains much to preserve, protect, and utilise sustainably.
How do entrepreneurs working across multiple countries leverage individual experiences and institutional environments to pursue international markets? This research utilizes Bourdieu's theory of practice as a sensitizing framework to explore transnational entrepreneurs' internationalization strategies. Four case studies reveal the ways in which transnational entrepreneurs rely on diverse sets of resources—economic, social, cultural, and symbolic capital—to navigate multiple institutional environments—cultural repertoires, social networks, legal and regulatory regimes, and power relations—when making strategic decisions about internationalization. Transnational entrepreneurs are uniquely positioned to internationalize directly and, in many cases, as an intermediary for local firms. As such, transnational entrepreneurs pursue a modern middleman role that transcends the multiple institutional environments in which they are embedded.
The large environmental impacts associated with agro-industrial development in Indonesia are both striking and increasingly important, especially with increased demand for biofuels and the rapid extension of oil palm plantations. Recently, Indonesia has also seen a series of transformations in the regulatory regime for pollution control with decentralization and a shift towards new environmental policy instruments. This article considers the effectiveness of these new approaches, including the widely influential International Organization for Standardizations (ISO) 14001 series for environmental management systems and the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certification system. Despite the turn towards these new governance approaches, the underlying problems that have undermined bureaucratic regulation in the past continue to haunt attempts to make the sector more sustainable. Efforts to mitigate the increasingly large-scale pollution associated with agro-industrial development will need to be better crafted and combined to suit the characteristics of the industry concerned and to address the wider socio-economic and political realities within which problems are embedded and where any policy tool must be applied.
Indonesian legislation calls for a zero-burning policy. This approach to fire management is largely in response to significant negative impacts on the economy and the environment, not only in Indonesia but also the neighbouring region, that result annually from peat fires in Kalimantan and Sumatra. In this context, the present paper investigates the local use and management of fire in Flores and Sumba islands in eastern Indonesia. Our appraisals show that people's livelihoods depend on fire to maintain grasslands and, therefore, that the national policy and legislation for zero-burning is inappropriate and needs to be revised. This follows from the fact that not all fires cause damage and are unwanted. Through a series of rapid rural appraisal interviews, we found that the fires in grasslands are often lit intentionally to maintain the grasslands that local people use to sustain a variety of livelihood activities such as cattle rearing, hunting and farming. Although fires can damage or destroy remnant dry forests in eastern Indonesia, in order to be effective, future policy formulations need to account for this human livelihood dimension and the geographic variation in fuels, climate and land use.
Over recent decades a structural transformation has affected agriculture in the frontier areas of Malaysian Borneo and Outer Island Indonesia with the rapid conversion of agricultural lands, fallows, and formerly forested areas into oil palm. These frontiers have similar positions in the international political economy of oil palm and have complementary resource endowments. In both cases, state planners face the common challenges of finding a disciplined labour force, delivering land for estate development, maintaining local legitimacy, and dealing with local contestation. Yet there are significant differences in systems of governance and policy frameworks regarding land, shifting capacity of state actors to facilitate the transformation of these agrarian frontiers, and changing degrees of local, national and international contestation. Considering the generic and the specific elements at play in each case, this paper argues that analogous policy narratives have shaped the ways in which landholders have been engaged in the process of oil palm expansion in Malaysia and Indonesia. In both cases, with the shift from state-led to neoliberal governance approaches to agricultural development, the ‘frontier’ has been created and transformed through policy narratives that facilitate the conversion of whole landscapes into oil palm. This has been achieved by obscuring indigenous forms of agriculture and land tenure, while creating reserves of available ‘state’ or ‘idle’ customary land, and counterpoising smallholder ‘marginality’ and ‘backwardness’ to the modernity of contemporary estate agriculture.
Fires on Sumatra and Kalimantan have taken a heavy toll on Indonesia' remaining tropical forests. Drought exacerbates the fire hazard, but it does not cause the fires, most of which have been the result of inappropriate land-use policies and practices. Peatland fires have emitted vast quantities of smoke that periodically blanket large parts of insular Southeast Asia, impairing visibility, disrupting travel, hampering economic activity, and posing serious health risks. The development agenda of Indonesia' New Order regime paid scant attention to forest management, including the need to detect, control, and suppress unwanted fires.