CJC H2 HIST P2

2 CATHOLIC JUNIOR COLLEGE JC2 PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION 2009 9731/02 31 August 2009 HISTORY 3 hours Paper 2 : History of Southeast Asia c1900-1997 No additional materials are required. READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS FIRST Write your name and home tutorial group on all the work you hand in. Write in dark blue or black pen on both sides of the paper. Section A Answer Question 1. Section B Answer any three questions. Start each answer on a fresh sheet of paper. All questions in this paper carry equal marks.

3 SECTION A You must answer Question 1 ASEAN IN THE POST COLD WAR WORLD Source A ASEAN has outlived its usefulness. Hopes that ASEAN can promote harmony and stability in Asia are misplaced. The regional group’s members hip, history and principles are irreconcilable with the most important element in a chieving them – democratic principles. Moreover, the outlook for ASEAN and the ASEAN Regio nal Forum (ARF) is not promising. The ARF was founded to discuss security issues. How ever, it has too many partners with different interests: ARF’s progress is bound to be limited. China has also cultivated influence in ASEAN, especially among Myanmar, Cambo dia and Laos. ASEAN is an anachronistic regional institution that has failed to guarantee the region’s security and freedom. Asian Wall Street Journal, Aug 2001 Source B ASEAN has responded dynamically to the end of the C old War. Another achievement at Manila (Summit) was the initiative exercised by ASE AN to invite the Foreign Ministers of China and Russia to attend their meeting as guests. The two ministers made several positive and useful points in their discussion with their ASEAN counterparts. The Chinese Foreign Minister put forward a number of specific p roposals to strengthen ASEAN–China economic and political co-operation. These proposal s will be carefully considered by ASEAN. The consultative dialogue between ASEAN and these two major regional powers is intended to strengthen a process that builds con fidence, enhances co-operation and minimizes conflict. That ASEAN discussed regional security with its dia logue partners is a sign of the organisation’s maturity. It also shows that economics and security are linked. The security of Southeast Asia cannot be isolated from the secur ity of the larger Asia Pacific region. Countries outside Southeast Asia have legitimate in terests in the region, and with the demise of the Cold War, the regional security order is likely to evolve. “ASEAN charts a New Regional Order” (Asian Wall Street Journal, Aug 1992) In Tommy Koh, The Quest for World Order: Perspectives of a Pragmatic Idealist”

4 Source C The Asian economic crisis of 1997-98 had profound i mplications for Southeast Asian security. Most countries in the region have cut def ense budgets and postponed arms modernization programmes because of their economic difficulties. With ASEAN armed forces modernization programmes essentially stagnant, there could be serious implications for the protracted disputes among the Spratly islan ds claimants, particularly with China….In strategic terms they (ASEAN members) reve al an Association that is unable to create a common security front even as China contin ues to upgrade its installations in the Spratlys. Peggy Hu, “Economic Crisis has affected SEA Security Priorities,” 1998 Source D ASEAN has been one of the most durable examples of regional multilateralism. It acts as the hub, if not the leader of regional multilateral forums for East Asia. The fact that the region’s most powerful players - including China, I ndia and the United States – show deference to ASEAN by participating in these forums show that ASEAN still matters. ………….Vietnam, then seen as an obstacle to regional security is now a valued member of the organization. Finally, as the Cold War ended , it was ASEAN that provided the platform for building regional institutions that wo uld engage a rising China and other major players in the region. Amitav Acharya, in Foreign Affairs, 2008 Source E It has been said that the progress of ASEAN’s econo mic integration has been hampered by the admission of the four new members. I fail to see how this is so. If the four had not been admitted into ASEAN, the ASEAN Free Trade Agre ement (AFTA), for example would have included only the six older members. In the light of their small share of intra-ASEAN tr ade and in investments in ASEAN, the ASEAN-4 cannot be the obstacle to ASEAN’s economic progress that they are sometimes accused of being. In fact, the accession of the ASE AN-4 to the AFTA and related agreements has, at least theoretically given inves tors a wider choice of where to place their investments in the free trade area according to the availability and cost of other resources, the effectiveness and enforcement of the legal and policy regime, the overall investment climate and so on. Rodolfo C. Severino, Southeast Asia: In Search of an ASEAN community, 2006 Now answer the following question: How far do sources A-E support the view that “ASEAN has successfully responded to new challenges in the post Cold War era?”

5 SECTION B You must answer THREE questions from this section. You must support each answer with examples drawn from at least three countries 2. How important was the role of the Western coloni al powers in the development of Southeast Asian nationalism in the p eriod prior to World War Two? 3. “Short-lived and superficial.” How accurately does this phrase capture the impact of the Japanese Occupation (1942-45) on Southeast Asian nationalism? 4. To what extent did the military intervene in the politics of Southeast Asian independent states? 5. “More illusion than reality.” Assess the economi c development of independent states in the light of this statement i n the period 1960- 1997. 6. How have traditional disputes affected inter-state relations between independent Southeast Asian states? ----------------------------- End of Paper ---------------------------

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