The Bibliography of Southeast Asia is a selection of representative English language publications on the social sciences spanning a decade of one of the most interesting times in the region, the last of the second millennium, 1990-2000. The selection attempts to capture the documentation of the breathtaking pace of relatively peaceful regional development. It saw unprecedented high and double-digit growth underpinned and accelerated by information technology and the Internet reinforcing the globalization process. A burgeoning middle class heightened consumerism. Continued efforts at regionalization saw the expansion of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), embracing all ten countries. This was juxtaposed by widening income gaps, spread of deepening poverty, increased legal and illegal labour migration (as well as people trafficking) within the region as well as intra-migration from rural to urban centres. Health services were stretched thin in some countries on account of the spread of AIDS, drug addiction and trafficking were on the rise, so was crime; media control was tightened as governments became more paranoid, and opposition politics were stifled as governments became more authoritarian, more focused and single-minded on economic development. As a result, the environment was compromised; trees, forests and jungles were felled, cleared and burnt for profit. Governance and corruption were issues in public debates. Concomitantly, religion, especially Islam, was on the rise; civil society became more mature as the population was more exposed and educated. As the decade came to a close, uncontrolled financial and banking activities brought about the breakdown of some major economies (in Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia), kicked in a recession, caused political turmoil, and finally the collapse of the government and leadership of the most populous country, viz., Indonesia. The Bibliography comprises 6,521 entries, hard choices made from a good preliminary selection of some 12,000 publ
About the Author: Ch'ng Kim See is the Head, ISEAS Library, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS), Singapore, since 1988. She is a library and information specialist in Southeast Asian studies, and has written more than 30 articles, edited a number of books, and compiled several bibliographies. She was recently nominated by the Singapore library fraternity for the first Outstanding Librarian Award of CONSAL (Congress of Southeast Asian Librarians). Her academic interest is in the history and politics of Malaysia, Southeast Asian Chinese, and the international relations of Southeast Asia and ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations). She is currently engaged in a doctoral research programme on the Malayan independence movement, with Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia. Miss Ch'ng has a B.A. (Hons.) (University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur), Postgrad. Dipl. in Librarianship (University of New South Wales, Sydney), and M.Sc. (Soc. Sc. - Information Studies) (University of Sheffield, Sheffield). Prior to her stint in ISEAS Library, Miss Ch'ng spent nearly six years as Head, Technical Services, Vienna International Centre Library (Joint Library of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and United Nations Agencies), Vienna, Austria. Earlier, she was for three and half years Director, and Chief Librarian of the United States Information Service (USIS) Lincoln Cultural Center in Kuala Lumpur. Her first library job was as Head, Cataloguing Classification Division, National Library of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur. Miss Ch'ng joined the Straits Times Press in Kuala Lumpur as a journalist upon graduating from the University of Malaya.