Countries in Southeast Asia in the 21st century are both dependent on China when it comes to economic affairs such as trade, but also infrastructure investment. At the same time, these countries...Show moreCountries in Southeast Asia in the 21st century are both dependent on China when it comes to economic affairs such as trade, but also infrastructure investment. At the same time, these countries are in conflict with China, about the South China Sea, in which China claims a bigger part of this sea than Southeast Asia would like. This thesis discusses the following research question: Why do Southeast Asian countries maintain Chinese infrastructure investments despite the territorial dispute about the South China Sea?Show less
In the last decade, the Indonesian corruption eradication commission (KPK) and various Indonesian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have reported cases related to corrupt behaviour and land...Show moreIn the last decade, the Indonesian corruption eradication commission (KPK) and various Indonesian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have reported cases related to corrupt behaviour and land grabbing by palm oil companies. Thus, corruption remains a persistent problem within the Indonesian palm oil industry. This thesis has investigated the underlying causes of this persistent corruption by analysing the motivations of actors in two corruption cases in Riau, in which the shareholders of two large palm oil companies are accused of bribing public officials in exchange for acquiring land rights permits (HGU). The third case study provides evidence of land grabbing associated with palm oil operations. Four main theories on the motivations behind corruption have been considered in the assessment of the three case studies. Our conclusion is that all four theories provide a partial explanation for the motivation behind corruption, but in isolation, none of the four theories provides an exhaustive explanation. In addition, this study contributes to the understanding of the incentives and motivations for actors in the palm oil industry to engage in corrupt behaviour and land grabbing.Show less
Out of the many examples that contribute to the global rise in right-wing extremist sentiments, Malaysia cannot be excluded. Malaysia is known as a multi-ethnic and culturally diverse nation....Show moreOut of the many examples that contribute to the global rise in right-wing extremist sentiments, Malaysia cannot be excluded. Malaysia is known as a multi-ethnic and culturally diverse nation. However, this public identity is in contrast with the political reality of Malaysia. This multi-ethnicity comes paired with ethnic segregation, where political parties only represent their ‘own’ ethnicity and their ‘own’ people. Though the ethnic Malay community is the most privileged in the country, politicians spread the idea that the ethnic Malays are under a constant threat of marginalization by ethnic minorities. To take this a step further, the privileged position of the ethnic Malay community is protected through the Constitution, resulting in the exclusion of ethnic minorities from political and public spheres. Advocating for ethnic equality and inclusive politics is considered to be going against the Constitution and is taken as a direct attempt at subordinating the Malay community. This has resulted in far-right sentiments surrounding the position of the Malay community vis-àvis the ethnic minorities. In this context, this paper analyses how institutionalized practices of ethnic segregation in Malaysia have created an environment of right-wing extremism.Show less
Two decades since the Bali bombings in 2002, terrorism still occurs nearly annually in Indonesia. This is despite a strong determination from the Indonesian government to eradicate the threat. This...Show moreTwo decades since the Bali bombings in 2002, terrorism still occurs nearly annually in Indonesia. This is despite a strong determination from the Indonesian government to eradicate the threat. This thesis will therefore attempt to provide an answer to the question: “Why has the Indonesian government, since the Bali bombings of 2002, so far failed to eradicate the terrorism threat, despite the police initially showing success in the aftermath of these bombings?”. In a literature review it will be noted that various authors answer this question by referring to the lack of military involvement in Indonesia’s counter-terrorism efforts. Though, in their arguments the long-term effects of such measures are often ill-considered. Therefore, this thesis will attempt to answer the research question by examining these long-term effects. The core of the argumentation will entail that the ‘hard’ approach that has been implemented by the government since the Bali bombings has created a backlash. Terrorists exploit human rights violations committed by the security forces and a significant amount of those who are incarcerated recidivate.Show less
This thesis seeks to answer the following research question: in what ways has economic development enabled the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the ensuing spread of Hindu-nationalism in...Show moreThis thesis seeks to answer the following research question: in what ways has economic development enabled the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the ensuing spread of Hindu-nationalism in India? Despite India’s impressive economic growth of the last decades, India society is still lacking widespread human development. Social cohesion is not only threatened by discontent over stagnating overall quality of life but also by the increase of Hindu-nationalist rhetoric, violence, and policies. By examining India’s neoliberalization since 1991, this thesis attempts to draw potential correlations between neoliberalism and surging nationalism. The goal is to highlight how the BJP and their leader Narendra Modi opportunistically employs pledges of inclusive growth to either attract or appease the Indian electorate. The research of this thesis sets off with a literature review of secondary sources about economic development with a focus neoliberalism as a model and its relationship to populism. The case of Chile is employed as an example to highlight the potential implications a neoliberal economy has on human development and social unrest. The literature review is followed by a short chapter on India’s history since independence. A thorough analysis of Narendra Modi’s political beginnings as well as the Gujarat Model give a first idea of his vision for the South Asian nation. Then, this thesis discusses how a declining economy led to another switch in rhetoric and gave the BJP impetus to exclusive Hindu-nationalist policies, resulting in an ever-increasing division of India’s heterogenous society that leaves the Muslim minority subordinated and oppressed.Show less
This paper examines the role of clientelism in Indonesia before the political transition in 1998 from dictatorship to democracy. Consequently, It draws on two case studies, one centering around the...Show moreThis paper examines the role of clientelism in Indonesia before the political transition in 1998 from dictatorship to democracy. Consequently, It draws on two case studies, one centering around the sectarian violence in Maluku in 1999, and the other centering around the 2017 Jakarta gubernatorial election, in order to examine the role of clientelism in the post-1998 period.Show less
This thesis researches the impact of the Sri Lanka Easter attacks of 2019 on tourism to the country. The research question posed is ‘To what extent is the effect of the Easter terrorist attacks in...Show moreThis thesis researches the impact of the Sri Lanka Easter attacks of 2019 on tourism to the country. The research question posed is ‘To what extent is the effect of the Easter terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka reflected in tourists’ travel behaviour through risk perception?’. The literature gap on the impact of the Easter attacks on Sri Lanka has been the motivation for doing this research. The research is multi-disciplinary as it incorporating both political, economic and historical insights on the topic. It can be identified as qualitative research as it makes use of a case study method to research the topic. In order to answer the question, a literature review on terrorism, tourism and tourists’ risk perception has been conducted as well as five expert interviews with Dutch travel agencies that focus on the impact of the attacks on tourism to Sri Lanka. The literature review has been semi-structured, making use of fixed keywords to find peer-reviewed data through Google Scholar. Snowballing has been used as well as a means to find data. The expert interviews have also been semi-structured and probing is used during the interviews. The transcripts have been coded making use of the constant comparative method in order to analyse the data. The findings of the research are that terrorism strongly affects tourists’ risk perception and makes them perceive a destination as unsafe, which subsequently leads to a strong loss in tourism. This perception of risk deteriorates after a couple of months as people forget about the calamity and tourism starts to revive. This has also been the case for Sri Lanka, which experienced a strong loss of tourism after the attacks, but saw tourism increase again after a couple of months. Risk perception therefore strongly influences tourists’ choice in travel destination.Show less
The versatility of palm oil makes it a demanded global commodity. Almost every product that we use in daily life contains palm oil. However, as palm oil plantations are mostly located in Southeast...Show moreThe versatility of palm oil makes it a demanded global commodity. Almost every product that we use in daily life contains palm oil. However, as palm oil plantations are mostly located in Southeast Asia’s biodiversity-rich forests, their contribution to massive deforestation has resulted in protests from the international community. As the palm oil industry is also dominated by big corporations, the global demand for palm oil incentivizes the needs for plantation expansions. Despite its adverse environmental impact, the land for plantations incrementally expands every year. Although regulations and policies to control land use for plantations have been enforced, there has been little evidence showing the decrease of land use for palm oil plantations. The patronage democracy, as a key feature of Indonesian politics, enhances incentive favouring the economic interest of business actors. With Indonesia’s democratisation, a pervasive patron-client relationship bolsters the ties between district governors (politicians) and palm oil companies (business), especially since decentralisation in which local governments are responsible for a large part of their own budget. Subsequently, it poses the question: how does patronage democracy halt the effort to combat corruption of palm oil land deals in Kalimantan? From 2 corruption cases of district head’s corruption in Gunung Mas and Seruyan district in Central Kalimantan, this research examines the creation of a system deriving from patronage democracy that halts the effort to combat corruption of palm oil land deals.Show less
Whilst overall poverty rates in the Southeast Asian region have been declining. However, the Philippines still struggles with reducing its poverty rates, more specifically chronic poverty rates....Show moreWhilst overall poverty rates in the Southeast Asian region have been declining. However, the Philippines still struggles with reducing its poverty rates, more specifically chronic poverty rates. This occurs parallel to high economic growth rates, which should, according to liberal economist discourse, eradicate poverty in the long run. As this is not happening, cash transfer programmes have been widely discussed as a solution to poverty in the last twenty years. By utilizing the case study method, this thesis seeks to analyze, the effects of conditional (CCTs) and unconditional cash transfers (UCTs) on the underlying political, economic processes and sociodemographic factors reinforcing chronic poverty in rural areas in the Philippines. This thesis argues that whilst CCTs have a more positive effect on school enrollment rates for young children, UCTs, are more effective for developing countries to implement and have the same effect as CCTs on the poorest beneficiaries, regarding school enrollment and health expenditure, which disputes the argument of poor people misusing the transfers. The poor can know what is essential, and with UCTs could break the chronic poverty cycle. This paper concludes that as the poor can efficiently utilize their cash transfers, UCTs are the best option to break the chronic poverty cycle in the Philippines.Show less
“The idea of microfinance emerged around the 1970s as a revolutionary new way to alleviate poverty in developing countries. Microfinance delivers financial services – such as loans and saving...Show more“The idea of microfinance emerged around the 1970s as a revolutionary new way to alleviate poverty in developing countries. Microfinance delivers financial services – such as loans and saving services – to the poor, who are traditionally financially excluded from conventional financial institutions. However, the debate whether the efforts of MFIs have been successful is almost just as old as the concept itself, and the results remain ambiguous. This thesis aims to add to the extensive body of literature by providing an in-depth comparative case study of the experiences and effects of microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Thailand and Indonesia. The research is focused on poverty alleviation in two key areas, (i.) household income generation and (ii.) household asset building. The hypothesis is that although MFI provides great opportunities for people in lower-income classes to access credit, it has done little to practically alleviate poverty in Thailand and Indonesia. In the final analysis, this thesis will argue that this hypothesis is false, and argues that microfinance institutions in Thailand and Indonesia have been effective in increasing household income and therefore poverty alleviation. However, the effect of microfinance on asset building is ambiguous. Therefore, the study revealed that the effect of microfinance on asset building for poor households should be further studied.” Key words: microfinance; poverty alleviation; Village Fund program; Islamic microfinance; Thailand; Indonesia.Show less
This thesis study aims to satisfy the need for a composite intersectional study examining the cross-border spread of the flight of Afghans and the attitude of the major donor-system of the...Show moreThis thesis study aims to satisfy the need for a composite intersectional study examining the cross-border spread of the flight of Afghans and the attitude of the major donor-system of the international community and its affiliated humanitarian organisations, such as the UN and the ICRC. The main hypothesis for which an exploration shall be sought is as follows. Strongly tied to the regional escalation of the Afghan refugee crisis, the international security dilemma has burdened an efficient approach to aid assistance of major humanitarian actors during and after the Cold War. An inquiry into the relevance of this expansive statement may result into a multi-layered explanation. Over a timespan of several decades, well before the turn of the century and many more recently, many Afghans have fled their homes to nations sometimes far and sometimes closer to home, into Iran and Pakistan which have functioned as host nations ever since the Soviet invasion of 1979. The latter host, Pakistan, has recently had severe difficulties with the high number of refugees flooding local border towns and into its second-to largest city Karachi. Host-fatigue appears to have caused police brutalities towards refugees who have settled in Karachi and Quetta, the latter being a popular destination among Pashtun refugees who have travelled across the Durand Line border for decades. The problematic attitudes of local government forces have sparked shock among the Pashtun refugee community, resulting in a group of tribal leaders organising a peaceful protest movement named the PTM. Such spurs of feelings of discontent with the status quo may very well result into less favourable protest movements, such has the past demonstrated. The plight of the Afghan cause ties into the extent of the security concerns of major international powers. Since the donors of the international aid system are often the ‘big players’ and member to the, however fictional, international community, the Afghan refugees are dependent of and victim to the mood swings of these actors.Show less
