Asian Regionalism: New Poising Architecture for Global Financial and Economic Cooperation

*Noodle bowl architecture for global economic and financial cooperations*

On September 10th 2008, Asian Development Bank (ADB) in conjunction with Center for Strategic International Studies (CSIS), launched an open forum announcing the coming ADB meeting in Bali on 2-5 May 2009. As for the ADB regionalism report, this forum acted as a warm-up event to address the emerging ASIAN regionalism.

Mari Elka Pangestu-minister of Trade, Republic of Indonesia stated that the 1997 financial crisis had taught an importance of regionalism in at least economic cooperation. Focused on Asian Economic Regionalism from the outset, the process propelled by strengthening Asia's short term financing facility which mentioned in Chiang Mai initiative, and next it will be elaborated in the ASEAN economic integration (based on ASEAN blueprint and ASEAN charter). As the growing needs, ASEAN requires real integration with China, Japan and Korea, under ASEAN + 3 PLUS the following India, which working more solid than that of EAS (East Asia Summit). The single market integration roughly estimated to produce outputs as much as to 50 percent greater than the total outputs of European and North American countries. Even the regionalism has some greatest virtues compared to European Union. For instance, free to join for any economy (not need to be an officially recognized state e.g. Taiwan), no specific economic standards to uphold as a member, and open for countries, subregions and prefectures to be partially integrated and entering at its own pace.

Regionalism can be the stabilizing factor when crisis occurs. The regionalism intended to be an open regionalism (not necessarily mean keeping business opportunities in Asia for Asian only) in which ASEAN becomes a hub for regional cooperation. ASEAN in particular oriented outwardly to all over Asia. This regionalism designed to instigate the maximum participation for all countries and use the liberalization as merely tools for countries development. By strong leaderships and innovation or technological competitiveness improvements, this design directed to share wealths amongst the regional components.

The world financial crisis had piled-up the significance of Asian Regionalism which not only market led but orderly managed by governments. As T.J. Pempel from University of California-Berkeley said that markets not always leading in direction desired or as fast as desired, because many of the goals of regionalism lie beyond economics itself (e.g. environment, drug controls, health, and anti-pandemic help). The markets yet remain open, and at the same time Asia increasing its relative influence globally through IMF, World Bank and WTO--though Asian economies is oftenly under-represented in these institutions. Asia must collectively and provide a "common front" through institutional format and aligned with that, strengthen regional stock markets and other financial links. Weaving the outlying states (not just the lower classes) such as Laos, Cambodia, DPRK, Myanmar--into Asian miracle is a matter of importance as well, since the economic gap should be overcome beforehand.

Asian Regionalism is predicted to be the outward model for single integrated market by 2020 with the ADB as the trusted partner in Asian integration. Asian Regionalism allowing each Asian countries expenditure reach minimum three percent of the point targeted by ADB (for further targets, see the ADB 2008 report on www.adb.org). The economic-based market integration would be expedited by the bank and attaining the robust economic growth for the countries involved. This indeed would snap the global economic and financial architecture centralized in global dollar standard.

Global dollar standard has been proven wrong by Gao Haihong from Institute of World Economics and Politics Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, as the US' "benign neglect" policy has uneven effects for the US and the rest of the world. The other havoc potentials come from the negative wealth effect of shrinking dollar on dollar assets holders (e.g. China, Japan, Korea, China-Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Phillipines, Singapore and Thailand). So briefly speaking, fragility arises from over-reliance on the trust in the US' ability of managing the dollar.

Asian countries should reconsider the global dollar standard and their positions as creditors to the rest of the world. To hinder the global crisis impacts, asian regionalism as an Asian economic community for cooperation is inclined to be the solution. In terms of the new architecture would create a substitute for the US dollar and invigorate a deep and sophisticated regional institusional integration (to supplement the existence of global organizations) and regional financial markets.

The Asian regionalism is apt to switch the APEC moribund since Bush insistence on securitization of economics. It's still a great boon to Asia that Bush was unilateral and US still #2 or 3 trade partner for most Asian exporting countries. Inevitably, to be the global leader through the new architecture, Asia still link to US and Europe as well as internally . Nonetheless, it does not mean Asian regionalism would necessarily use the US' economic standard.

The new archiecture involving great works of each countries in intra-region and extra-region, and fetching functional spill-over effects to the regions (successful results in one area requires cooperation in others and expansion of regional cooperation arena towards multi-track cooperations, including new issues cooperations--climate change, social security issues etc). Regional connectivity should be enhanced and while maintaining the open investment regions in the regions, the architecture should support the global trading system as well.

The open question: would the Asian Regionalism wrench the live of local farmers and home industries?

The challenge: How can the Asian countries move together to meet the economic challenge?

Thesis Abstract..the Final Results of A Perseverance..

Finally..the curtain has fallen down..the show is over..and i'm asking earnestly for an ovation..haha..silly me, i guess. Yet, inspite of taking long hours blabbing on my thesis gory process..anyway..i'd like to show here my abstract..the final one, which involved Radit--a friend of mine as the proofreader..yet actually, this final abstract wasn't originally his writing..i had modified it..quite the last minute before i submitted my thesis..
hope this would be a learning thing for all of us..

ABSTRACT

In the construction of women and feminist counter-public sphere, the media series organized by a specific identity-based women community (feminist) for social actions campaign on Violence Against Women, became the very crucial parts. Futher, this research aimed at revealing the dynamics inside the construction of counter-public sphere process which could be seen from the response of the media series towards the patriarchal hegemony and mainstream media domination. The response of which, could bring about the construction of women identity representation within the gender-equality values (the new women identity) amidst the society at large.
To scrutinize the counter-public sphere construction process, this research focused on the counter-public sphere theory. In fact, this theory supported by other theories such Gramsci’s hegemony and counter-hegemony theory, and Archer’s structural dualism. In regard to the emphasis on the construction of women and feminist counter-public sphere by the series of gender-political movement community medias, this research was equipped by the theory of identity, feminism, the politics of identity and movement, the theory of feminist media and professional identity on alternative media. To be rigorous, this research adopted two different interconnected perspectives, which were the radical feminism and the critical constructionism. Both perspectives allowed this research to divulge the social powers that thrusted the gender political movement in Indonesia. The movement of which struggled towards patriarchal hegemony that performed the Violence Against Women, and towards the domination of mainstream media in the public sphere.
As the consequence of both perspectives, this illustrative case study utilized the theoretical framework as a normative guidance for the study of the construction of women and feminist counter-public sphere in gender-political movement on Violence Against Women in Indonesia. Each sub issues of a main issues, were thoroughly researched using the qualitative approach. In regard to the single-case design embedded as the research strategy, each social actions of Violence Against Women issues comprises the violence against women in conflict areas, public and political domain, and domestic; polygamy; pornography; trafficking—were singled out as the research subjects.
Violence Against Women, was a major issue that became the main concern of gender-political movement network with Women’s Journal Foundation as an active organization in its many women movement. Its media programs series, routinely pointed at bearing out the gender-political movement since 1996.
To learn about the social powers gap which caused the construction of counter-public sphere, this research purposively involved six informants from Women’s Journal Foundation, who were active in women and feminist gender-political movement in social actions of each sub issues on Violence Against Women. Meanwhile, four practitioner informants from mainstream medias, were also purposively involved, to express parts of discourses on Violence Against Women social action sub issues--which are covered up by the mainstream medias. Next, these latter discourses dominated the public sphere in Indonesia and strengthen the hegemony of patriarchal culture.
Within the intense years of gender political movement on each Violence Against Women sub issues (2004-2007), media became gimmicks for narrating the voice of women as the rejecting subjects towards Violence Against Women. The movement medias (not only routine media program series, Women’s Journal Foundation also published the media program series for gender-political movement coalition and alliance—such as newsletters, postcards, online movement sites etc), disseminated every dynamics of gender-political movement, including its public campaigns and represented new women identity through its discourses. Generally, the movement medias in conjunction with the public campaigns, could construct the counter-public sphere.
The gender-political movement network, was one element of counter-public inside the multiplicities of public in Indonesian society. The existence of counter-public sphere which in turn reconfigurated the structure of public sphere in Indonesia, were generated by the gender-political movement. Nowadays, the public sphere is filled by the overlapping multiplicities of counter-public sphere.
The women and feminist movement counter-public, had undergone the counter-processes. The counter-processes could be examined from the distinctive nature of discourses culture (expressed in the movement medias and the public campaigns), which took a side in feminine values within women and feminist movement. The counter-processes attempted to elaborate the structural and cultural order, in order to reconstruct the representation of new women identity in Indonesia.
Gender-politics in Violence Against Women issue, still could be imparted through the movement media series which applied the mass media logic. By persuasion strategy, these media series endeavoured to reach the public multiplicities in the society. The foreign donors behind the gender-political movement, indicated the foreign penetration in gender-political agendas for the construction of movement counter-public sphere. Next research is expected to examine the existence of other couter-public spheres with their own politics of identity.