This book examines the relationship between foreign companies and government within the Indonesian oil industry. It is concerned in particular to identify those factors which determine the balance between central regulation and untrammelled company activity, in order to evaluate the choices which the government has to make in the creation of its policies. Given the extent of foreign investment in the mineral extractive industries of many of the less-developed countries, such policies are of major importance. From his study of the operation of Indonesian oil contracts, Dr Khong concludes that the formal terms of an agreement may well give a misleading impression of the actual allocation of the benefits from petroleum extraction. The common perception that a basic shift in favour of host governments has occurred is shown to be largely misplaced, whatever relative advances they may have achieved.

This book explains the dynamics behind the economic transformation from the colonial era to the post-independence period in Indonesia and Vietnam. It analyses the different Vietnamese and Indonesian government approaches to the economic legacies of colonialism remaining in these countries after independence. It also demonstrates that despite critical differences between the two nation-states, the Vietnamese and Indonesian leaderships were pursuing similar long-term goals: to create a truly independent national economy. The book discusses the way in which the Indonesian government established complete economic control, resembling the socialist transformation of North Vietnam in the 1950s, and the various means by which the government of South Vietnam concentrated economic power in its own hands during the late 1950s and early 1960s. It also explores how the Indonesian government was determined remove the economic legacy of Dutch colonialism by placing the entire economy under strong state control and ownership in accordance with the spirit of Guided Democracy and Guided Economy in the late 1950s and the early 1960s. This book is a point of reference for students, researchers and academics interested in a comparative analysis of the economic systems implemented by the colonial and fascist powers in Indonesia and Vietnam.

This comprehensive volume provides the first book-length account on the politics of fossil fuel subsidies. This title is also available as Open Access.

"This book provides an introduction (from the perspective of Chan/Zen Studies) to the teachings of the key figure of Yuan-dynasty Chan: Zhongfeng Mingben. Zhongfeng was a leading student of Gaofeng Yuanmiao. At Gaofeng's death, Zhongfeng left the mountain and for many years resided in various small mountain hermitages (often called "Dwelling-in-the-Phantasmal Hermitages"). On occasion, he chose to live on a houseboat. He drew students from all over East Asia: Yunnan, Turfan, Mongol officials; Koreans, Japanese, and so forth. The primary focus is on illustrating Zhongfeng's Chan style via translation of selected works in his Chan records. The texts selected from his Chan records include the standard genres instructions to the assembly and dharma talks; the miscellany Night Conversations in a Mountain Hermitage (which covers such topics as the nature of the huatou; the relationship between the bodhisattva stages and Chan; numinous knowing versus false knowing, and so forth); one-hundred poems in imitation of the well-known collection Hanshan's Poems (Poems of Cold Mountain); admonitions on cross-legged sitting Chan, and so forth. Zhongfeng's wider social world, cultural context, and idiosyncratic calligraphy are addressed only in passing"--

The military is one of the few institutions that cut across the divides of Indonesian society. As it continues to play a critical part in determining Indonesia's future, the military itself is undergoing profound change. The authors of this book examine the role of the military in politics and society since the fall of President Suharto in 1998. They present several strategic scenarios for Indonesia, which have important implications for U.S.-Indonesian relations, and propose goals for Indonesian military reform and elements of a U.S. engagement policy.

How can we make sense of Algeria's post-colonial experience - the tragedy of unfulfilled expectations, the descent into violence, the resurgence of the state? Oil Wealth and the Poverty of Politics explains why Algeria's domestic political economy unravelled from the mid-1980s, and how the regime eventually managed to regain power and hegemony. Miriam Lowi argues the importance of leadership decisions for political outcomes, and extends the argument to explain the variation in stability in oil-exporting states following economic shocks. Comparing Algeria with Iran, Iraq, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia, she asks why some states break down and undergo regime change, while others remain stable, or manage to re-stabilise after a period of instability. In contrast with exclusively structuralist accounts of the rentier state, this book demonstrates, in a fascinating and accessible study, that political stability is a function of the way in which structure and agency combine.

For the people of Timor-Leste, independence promised a fundamental transformation from foreign occupation to self-rule, from brutality to respect for basic rights, and from poverty to prosperity. In the eyes of the country’s political leaders, revenue from the country’s oil and gas reserves is the means by which that transformation could be effected. Over the past decade, they have formulated ambitious plans for state-led development projects and rapid economic growth. Paradoxically, these modernist visions are simultaneously informed by and contradict ideas stemming from custom, religion, accountability and responsibility to future generations. This book explores how the promise of prosperity informs policy and how policy debates shape expectations about the future in one of the world’s newest and poorest nation-states.

Supporters of neoliberalism claim that free markets lead to economic growth, the creation of a middle class, and the establishment of democratically accountable governments. Critics point to a widening gap between rich and poor as countries compete to win foreign investment, and to the effects on the poor of neoliberal programs that restrict funding for health, education, and welfare. This book offers a ground-level view from Sumatra of the realities behind these debates during the final years of Suharto’s New Order and the beginning of a transition to more democratic government. The author’s wealth of primary data from ten years of interviews and local newspaper reportage (1994–2004) shows how farmers and laborers were dispossessed by both government policies and crony capitalism. Elizabeth Collins relates the stories of populist efforts in South Sumatra to combat "development" policies responsible for producing extreme poverty and allowing corruption to flourish. She describes how student-led NGOs worked with farmers fighting to retain their livelihoods in the lowland forests of South Sumatra. She reports on a local branch of the Indonesian Environmental Forum as it battled multinational companies and Indonesian conglomerates responsible for damage to the environment; on contract workers protesting exploitation by a company with ties to a Suharto crony; and on systemic corruption under the New Order, which spread throughout all levels of government and into civil society organizations. She examines the sometimes strained relationships between Islamists and human-rights activists, arguing that there is no inherent contradiction between Islam and democratic politics. Collins concludes that for real change to occur, neoliberal capitalism must be recognized as a utopian ideology; democracy, imperfect as it is, offers the best hope for sustainable development in Indonesia.