Asian Transformations in Action - Api-fellowships.org

240APPENDIX IIIABSTRACTS OF PAPERSCircles of power and counterbalancesPOLITICS AND TIMBER IN MALAYSIAAkiko MorishitaThis paper discusses who controls timber resources and how in a forest-rich state in Malaysia. The federalgovernment has given great autonomy to the state government, including the entire control over forestconcessions. Here, the state Chief Minister has retained his strong political influence for more than 25 years.Local entrepreneurs, especially those with timber interests, have to rely on his patronage for their businesssuccess. The paper examines how he has concentrated political power into his hands, how local business peoplehave made links with him and became successful in business, and what factors have brought the concentrationof power into the Chief Minister’s hands.POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS AND OPPOSITION FORCES INMALAYSIA: THE POLITICAL PROCESS OF THE OFFICIAL SECRETSACT AND THE NATIONAL ECONOMIC CONSULTATIVE COUNCILAyame SuzukiThe interaction between Malaysia’s political institutions and people’s perceptions of and attitudes towardsthese institutions are examined to explain the dynamics of opposition forces in Malaysia. The study focuseson a series of amendments to the Official Secrets Act (OSA) in 1986, which aimed to restrict the right toknow and freedom of speech. When the government drafted the restrictive OSA, various actors, includingopposition and governing parties, NGOs, business groups, and trade unions opposed the bill. The increasedopposition forced the government to relax some of the act’s provisions. This was followed in turn by adecrease in the size of the opposition when governing parties and business groups realized that the newlaw did not violate their opportunities for interest articulation. The diminished size of the opposition hasremained constant because of the law-abiding nature of the implementation of the OSA and because theNational Economic Consultative Council (NECC), a deliberative institution, provided business groups andgoverning parties with alternative channels for interest articulation. The findings of the study show how thecurrent non-liberal political institution came to be in force, how the institution thus established affected thesize of opposition forces, and why this institution has been maintained in spite of the persistent oppositionfrom pro-liberal actors.THE DISCOURSE OF THE ISLAMIC STATE AND ISLAMIC LAW INMALAYSIAKamaruzzaman Bustamam-AhmadThis paper discusses the debate on the Islamic State and Islamic law in Malaysia after the reformasi. It will arguethat this discourse can be seen through different Muslim and non-Muslim interpretations of Islam as a politicalsource in Malaysia. The Muslim voice in the state on this debate shows that their understanding of Islam followstheir interests in the political arena. However, in between these spectrums there are Muslim groups that act morelike a civil society rather than promoting an Islamic state and Islamic law in Malaysia. By doing ethnography withone Islamic missionary group in Malaysia, Jamâ‘ah Tablîgh, I argue that there is an Islamic movement that plays animportant role in disseminating Islamic teaching through ‘reform from below.’ In contrast, for non-Muslims, theissue of an Islamic state and Islamic law is to turn Malaysia into a theocratic state, which is against the constitutionand the context of Malaysia’s plural and multi-ethnic citizenry.Asian Transformations in ActionThe Work of the 2006/2007 API Fellows