A Guide To South-East Asia's Problems

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29803, 21 April 1962, Page 3

A Guide To South-East Asia's Problems

[Reviewed by KJ.) South-east Asia Today— And Tomorrow. A short political guide. By Richard Bat well. Fall Mall Press. 182 pp.

For over a decade, the magic wand of great power rivalry has transformed the many complex problems of small, backward countries into cold-war issues of international importance. The security of South Vietnam, Thailand or Laos, the inclinations of Indonesia — regardless of the nature of their internal regimes—all assume an importance for the future of the West. South Vietnam and, Thailand may be ruled autocratically, Laos may have its three princely Prime Ministers like a minature United Nations representing communists, non-communists and neutralists, but we continue to assume that package terms such as the “Eastern Bloc.” or the looser connotation of “the West,” imply associations of similar principles and practices or, at least associations of like-minded peoples. Thus the world conflict is neatly, if inaccurately divided into a contest between democracy and communism. How unrealistic such concepts are, may best be seen in an area such as South-east Asia where neither term carries the emotional overtones that we normally associate with it in the West. Some of the reasons for this difference in attitude emerge from Professor Richard Butwell’s book *'SoUth' f . east Asia Today—and Tomorrow.” a short political guide. Aiming primarily at an American audience, Professor Butwell attempts to present the various problems “sui generis.” He seeks to disentangle the. Asian roots from European influence, con-

siders the various influences at work in the search.for an appropriate political system and analyses the , political process and economic problems. Sueh an ambitious undertaking covering 11 very different governments, angled with an eye to the future and encompassed in 182 pages, raises enormous difficulties and it is not surprising that the author has not escaped unscathed. It is soon apparent.' for example, that the Professor knows much more about Burma than, for example, Indonesia. He tends to undervalue the importance of India's example and the influence to traditional religious and linguistic forces and he still cannot forbear seeking a communist skeleton under every throne and in every presidential closet. Moreover, his tendency to equate social justice and socialism with the implication that communism is not far away, is not calculated to appeal to a New Zealand audience. All this is a pity because the book does contain several useful points. For example, the author underlines the importance of the army in Burma as a substitute bourgeois class bv pointing out that the army ’runs the country’s biggest department store, catches and sells fish, breeds poultry and imports and sells automobiles.” Also, a valuable contribution is to point out the obvious, but all too often over-looked fact, that in the short-term at least, the choice for South-est Asian countries is not between democracy and communism, but between military dictatorship or com-, rnunist para-military dictator-’ ship.

This is in no sense a profound book and the tendency fp ' siiperftclality is unfortunately exaggerated by the rather clumsy use of a comparative method which leads to repetition. Nevertheless, it is a useful introductory guide for those Who wish to make an initial approach to am understanding of the prob-1 lems of South-east Asia. j