This paper aims to examine the social impacts of e-commerce on regional integration in Southeast Asia. This paper argues that the existing literature takes for granted the positive relations between trade and regional integration; define narrowly regional integration in economic terms; and thus, focus mainly on economic impacts of e-commerce to regional integration in Southeast Asia. In contrast to this existing view, regional integration envisioned by ASEAN is not only economic but also social, emphasizing the development of a sense of belonging among regional members. In addition, the logics of the business sector, including e-commerce, may or may not be in line with the logics of ASEAN in imagining regional integration, and thus giving a possibility for the convergence or divergence of interests between the two. Applying constructivist approach on how imagination and transaction contribute to promoting region-ness among regional members, this paper finds that the imagination and transaction of e-commerce actors in the region has not had significant social impact to regional integration and may even develop risk of widening the gap among Southeast Asian countries as the imagination and transaction of many of the e-commerce actors in Southeast Asia are concentrated in the more developed parts of the region.Keywords: E-Commerce, Regional Integration, Southeast Asia, Constructivism
This paper discusses the peacebuilding process in Aceh Indonesia. Southeast Asia is one of the regions that has been plagued by severe ethno-nationalist strives due to its high level of diversity and the impact of colonialism. Among several cases of ethno-nationalist struggles in this region, the separatist insurgency in Aceh, Indonesia has been regarded as the protracted conflict that has been successfully resolved and created durable peace. The Helsinki Peace Agreement attempted to redress the economic grievances that were manifested in perceived inequality and the exploitation of Aceh’s natural resources through the arrangement of Special Autonomy Fund. This fund serves as a peace dividend that is expected to bring welfare and enhance economic development in Aceh. The paper examines the role of Special Autonomy Fund in accelerating economic development in Aceh in the past ten years by utilizing the concept of the peace dividend and the model of fiscal-sharing. While this fund has been successfully increasing Aceh economic growth compared to the conflict era, it has not been optimally utilized to reduce poverty and inequality. Due to the nature of peace in Aceh as an elite-based peace, the peace dividend has contributed to the patronage politics particularly among the former combatants.
In April 2019 Indonesia conducted its fourth direct election since the 1998 democratic reformation. This election is frequently described as one of the most complicated elections in the world, given a large number of voter and simultaneous process with the legislative election. The eminent feature of the current elections in Indonesia is the increasing use of the internet for the various forms of electoral politics. The internet has been widely used in the election campaign, voter education as well as disseminating information on electoral rules and election result. It leads to the question about the influence of the online platform to electoral political participation in Indonesia. This paper attempts to investigate the nexus between digital democracy through an online platform and political participation by analysing the role of Kawal Pemilu and AyoJagaTPS, the crowdsourcing projects run by civil society. This platform is an essential effort to prevent electoral irregularities that could undermine the legitimacy of the election. Taking the classical literature on political participation that classified political participation into four dimensions: voting, campaign activity, contacting official and collective activities, this paper argues that online political participation through digital democracy offers a new dimension of participation by accentuating voluntarily action from the public. However, it also creates competition and distrust around the subject of digital data resulted from deepening polarization in Indonesia's politics. This paper employs qualitative methods to analyse a case study of Kawal Pemilu and AyoJagaTPS, the citizen digital platforms as one of the forms of political participation during Indonesia 2019 election.
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