The
Bibliography of Southeast Asia
is a selection of representative English language publications on the social sciences spanning a decade of one of the most interesting times in the region, the last of the second millennium, 1990-2000. The selection attempts to capture the documentation of the breathtaking pace of relatively peaceful regional development. It saw unprecedented high and double-digit growth underpinned and accelerated by information technology and the Internet reinforcing the globalization process. A burgeoning middle class heightened consumerism. Continued efforts at regionalization saw the expansion of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), embracing all ten countries. This was juxtaposed by widening income gaps, spread of deepening poverty, increased legal and illegal labour migration (as well as people trafficking) within the region as well as intra-migration from rural to urban centres. Health services were stretched thin in some countries on account of the spread of AIDS, drug addiction and trafficking were on the rise, so was crime; media control was tightened as governments became more paranoid, and opposition politics were stifled as governments became more authoritarian, more focused and single-minded on economic development. As a result, the environment was compromised; trees, forests and jungles were felled, cleared and burnt for profit. Governance and corruption were issues in public debates. Concomitantly, religion, especially Islam, was on the rise; civil society became more mature as the population was more exposed and educated.As the decade came to a close, uncontrolled financial and banking activities brought about the breakdown of some major economies (in Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia), kicked in a recession, caused political turmoil, and finally the collapse of the government and leadership of the most populous country, viz., Indonesia.The Bibliography comprises 6,521 entries, hard choices made from a good preliminary selection of some 12,000 publ