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Southeast Asian Varieties

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The Social Evolution of Indonesia

Part of the book series: Studies in Social History ((SISH,volume 5))

Abstract

Vietnam and the Philippines differed from the model of Indianized Southeast Asian social formations in that both proved to be less stagnant and more receptive to external impulses. Vietnam represented an Asiatic variety but Filipino society stood quite apart, its evolution having deviated from all other important pre-capitalist societies in Asia. It was no pure coincidence that the Spaniards were so early and so easily able to push through and establish themselves in this least-developed area of Southeast Asia which, prior to the Spanish conquest, had not experienced any clear state-forming development and substantial class differentiation. Contact with Islam came too late to initiate political developments of any significance, while Chinese and Japanese trade as well as piracy led only to limited contact with those countries. In this case great inequality in power relations enabled the West to transform local primitive socioeconomic structures in the Philippines far more profoundly than was elsewhere possible in Southeast Asia.1

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Notes

  1. Fisher, Southeast Asia, pp. 131–134, 698–700, 703; Benda, ‘Political Elites’, in: Continuity, p. 194; Wickberg, Chinese, pp. 3.

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  3. The Muslim Filipinos.

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  4. Benda, ‘Political Elites’, in: Continuity, p. 194; Benda, ‘Structure’, in: Id., pp. 202–203; Fisher, Southeast Asia, pp. 702, 724; Fitzgerald, Southern Expansion, pp. 154–155: Purcell. Chinese, pp. 530 ff, 538 ff; Heidhuess, Southeast Asian Chinese Minorities, pp. 9 ff; Golay, Philippines, pp. 23 ff. Golay emphasizes the pluralist character of the Filipino economy.

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  5. Levinson, Die Philipinen, pp. 18 ff, 31 ff, 235 ff; Golay, Philippines, pp. 25 ff, 49 ff, 241 ff, 312 ff; Fryer, Emerging Southeast Asia, pp. 200 ff. Carroll, (The Filipino Entrepreneur) deals with his subject in an abstract way (in vacuo) outside the concrete (semi) colonial context. The influence of American and other foreign capital remains very strong and tends to become even more so since the establishment of martial law. Chinese capital maintained itself quite well despite discriminatory rules and practice.

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  6. Youngblood, ‘Philippine-American Relations’, in: PA, 50, 1, Spring 1977, pp. 52 ff; Kunio Yoshihara, ‘A Study’, in: Southeast Asia: Nature, Society and Develovment. pp. 246 ff. For the evaluation of agrarian relations, see: Wolters, Klasseverhoudingen, pp. 20 ff.

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  13. Landé, Leaders, pp. 4 ff and passim. Landé emphasizes that ‘third parties’ have so far failed. Id., pp. 83 ff. Many Filipinos speak about a ‘one-party two faction’-system. Meadows, ‘Colonialism’, in: PA, 44, 3, Fall 1971, p. 343.

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  15. Scaff (Philippine Answer) overestimates communist influence. See also: Kurihara, Labor, pp. 5 ff, 28, 62; Brimmel, Communism, pp. 101–111, 151–152; Saulo, Communism, pp. 5 ff, 12 ff, 22 ff; Kerkvliet, Peasant Rebellion, pp. 161–162, 167 ff, 180–183; Id., Huk Rebellion, pp. 37 ff.

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  21. Day (Philippines), an enthusiastic supporter of Marcos, gives an uncritical but very vivid impression of the chaotic jungle sphere of the pre-martial law years. For an opposite view of Philippine society: Fast, ‘Imperialism’, in: NLR, 82, Nov-Dec. 1973.

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  22. For the building of the strong state: Stauffer, ‘Philippine Authoritarianism’, in: PA, 50, 3, Fall 1977, pp. 367 ff. Stauffer’s efforts to analyse Marcos’ ‘new society’ in terms of corporatism is useful but not wholly convincing.

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  24. Wurfel, ‘Martial Law’, in: PA, 50, 1, Spring 1977, pp. 6 ff.

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  25. For the strong American aid during the preparation and building of the new strong centralized state: Stauffer, ‘Philippine Authoritarianism’, in: PA, 50, Fall 1977, pp. 369 ff.

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  26. Stauffer states (‘Philippine Corporatism’, in: AS, XVII, 4, April 1977, p. 407): ‘the new society has provided the framework for a closer integration of the Philippines into the world market economy under conditions that increase its dependence on outside inputs and corresponding controls.’

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  27. Youngblood, ‘Philippine-American Relations’, in: PA, 50, 1, Spring 1977, pp. 45–63;

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  28. Wurfel, ‘Martial Law’, in: PA, 50, 1, Spring 1977, pp. 6 ff.

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  29. For the failure of land reform under Marcos: Kerkvliet, ‘Land Reform’, in: PA, 47, 3, Fall 1974, pp. 286–304.

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  30. For the general weaknesses of the urban opposition, particularly its lack of a mass basis (Labour) in the late 1960s (but still relevant): Meadows, ‘Colonialism’, in: PA, 44, 3, July 1971, pp. 338 ff;

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  31. Noble, ‘Philippines’, in: AS, XVII, 2, Febru. 1977, pp. 134 ff.

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  32. For general histories: Le Thanh Khoi, Le Viet-Nam; Chesneaux, Contribution; Coedès, Histoire ancienne; Id., Les peuples; Hall, A History, pp. 195–204, 415435; Buttinger, Smaller Dragon. For the Chinese expansion: Fitzgerald, Southern Expansion; Purcell, Chinese, pp. 181 ff. For a historico-geographic approach: Fisher, Southeast Asia, pp. 87–89, 531 ff. Le Thanh Khoi (Le Viet-Nam, pp. 224 ff) still deals with socio-economic history in terms of ‘feudalism’. So did Chesneaux in his Contribution (pp. 25 ff) although later (in Le Vietnam, pp. 46 ff) he changed to the concept of the Asiatic mode of production, which was decidedly rejected by Le Thanh Khoi (‘Contribution’, in: La Pensée, 171, Sept–Oct. 1973, pp. 128–140). See also Scalabrino’s critique (Histoire cyclique et I’histoire linéaire) of Le Thanh Khoi’s position at the Colloque ‘Structures et cultures pré-capitaliste’, Paris, Dec. 1976.

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  33. Benda, ‘Political Elites’, in: Continuity, pp. 192–193; Chesneaux, Le Vietnam, pp. 48 ff; Id., Contribution, pp. 29; Nguyen Huu Giai, La personalité, pp. 6 ff; Nguyen Huu Khang, La commune annamite; Le Thanh Khoi, Le Viet-Nam, pp. 103 ff, 145 ff;

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  34. Le Thanh Khoi, ‘Contribution’, in: La Pensée, 171, Sept–Oct. 1973, p. 131; Nguyen Van Phong, La société, pp. 103 ff. The relationship state-village community has been characterized by Nguyen Van Phong (La société, p. 109) as a ‘paradox d’une monarchic absolue et d’une organisation democratique’. Also see: Mus, ‘Mandate of Heaven’, in: Southeast Asia: The Politics, pp. 298 ff. The rise of the mandarin state provoked a great deal of resistance from the peasants under Buddhist leadership. Chesneaux, Contribution, pp. 32–33.

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  35. Ngo Vinh Long, Before, pp. 5 ff; Nguyen Huu Khang, La commune, pp. 23 ff, 44 ff; Nguyen Huu Giai, La personalité, pp. 8 ff; Nguyen Khac Vien, ‘Confucianisme’, in: Tradition, pp. 28 ff; Le Thanh Khoi, ‘Contribution’, in: La Pensée, 171, Sept-Oct. 1973, p. 131.

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  36. According to Ngo Vinh Long (Before, p. 10), the drastic land reform of 1839 succeeded in converting much private land of large landowners into village public land. Concerning capital: the mandarins were always hostile to trade, which was indeed over-burdened by taxes. Chesneaux, Contribution, pp. 193 ff; Robequain, Economic Development, pp. 32 ff.

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  37. Nguyen Khac Vien, ‘Confucianisme’, in: Tradition, pp. 26 ff;

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  38. Nguyen Khac Vien, ‘Dat nuoc’, in: La Pensée, 170, July–Aug. 1973, pp. 12 ff; Ngo Vinh Long, Before, p. 4.

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  39. Le Thanh Khoi, Le Viet-Nam, pp. 163 ff; Chesneaux, Contribution, pp. 31–32. In Le Vietnam, pp. 24 ff, Chesneaux speaks of ‘Deux millénaries de luttes pour l’indépendence’. Mus stresses the extraordinary social strength of the village, ‘inviolable sanctuary for the nation’, the only place where a man can hide (‘behind man’) in a country without natural sanctuaries: ‘no woods, no marshlands or moors’. Mus, ‘Sources’, in: Southeast Asia: The Politics, pp. 117–118.

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  40. This unification was in a way prepared by the Tay Son rebellion and reign that started from Central Vietnam. Le Thanh Khoi, Le Viet-Nam, pp. 243 ff, 263 ff, 296–323; Chesneaux, Contribution, pp. 43 ff, 52 ff.

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  41. Robequain, Economic Development, pp. 319 ff; Fisher, Southeast Asia, pp. 537; Chesneaux, Contribution, pp. 158 ff; Id., Le Vietnam, pp. 149–158; Hall, A History, pp. 786–790.

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  43. Gourcu, Les paysans, pp. 144 ff, 226 ff, 352 ff, 381 ff, 560 ff; Fryer, Emerging Southeast Asia, p. 57.

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  44. Notwithstanding the extreme pressure on land, there was no strong urge to migrate to to Sumatra. Gourou states that only certain parts of Java were more densely populated than to Sumatra. Courou states that only certain parts of Java were more densely populated than the Tonkinese Delta, but the dense population of the latter was of far older date. Gourou, Les paysans, pp. 145–146. It should be born in mind that the majority of peasants in this area lived on a subsistence level. Id., p. 560.

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  45. This was brought about not only by the ‘march to the South’ but also by natural disasters to which agrarian societies along rivers with severe seasonal floods and sedimentation, like the Song Koi and the Hoangho, were very sensitive. Chesneaux, Contribution, p. 165; Fisher, Southeast Asia, p. 591.

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  46. Popkin, ‘Corporation’, in: Comparative Politics; Thompson, Labor Probems, p. 171; McAlister, Viet Nam, pp. 66, 75. Woodside (‘Development of Social Organizations’, in: PA, 44, 1, Spring 1976, pp. 39 ff) stresses the strength of traditionalism and the weaknesses of many organizations in the modern colonial period; so much so, however, that the successful emergence of the communist movement can hardly be explained.

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  47. Rousset, Communisme, pp. 112 ff;

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  48. Osborne, ‘Continuity’, in: PA, 47, 1, Spring 1974, pp. 39 ff; Tran Huy Lien, Les Soviets du Nghe-Tinh. For the mining industry (traditional and modern), the working class in general and the workers’ movement see: Robequain, Economic Development, pp. 55–56, 58, 91, 243 ff; Phan Thanh Son, ‘Le mouvement ouvrier’, in: Tradition, pp. 164 ff.

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  50. Fisher, Southeast Asia, p. 553.

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  54. Fisher, Southeast Asia, p. 549.

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  65. The ‘liberal’ years were those under the Governors-Generals A. Varenne (1925–1928, particularly the first years) and J. Brevie (1936–1939) under the influence of the Popular Front in France.

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  1. Fritjof Tichelman
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© 1980 Martinus Nijhoff Publishers bv, The Hague

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Tichelman, F. (1980). Southeast Asian Varieties. In: The Social Evolution of Indonesia. Studies in Social History, vol 5. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-8896-5_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-8896-5_6

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