The Bureaucratization of Southeast Asia

Spectacular events tend to capture our attention—the war in Cambodia, oil exploration and production on Malaysia's coast, the assassination of Benigno Aquino and internal strife in the Philippines, the election of two solitary opposition candidates to Singapore's parliament, the rejuvenation of Indonesia's military command structure, coup rumours in Thailand: an endless string of more or less spectacular or even decisive happenings that find themselves in the headlines of the international press.