The Naga Awakens

Saddled within the wider Asia Pacific, the Southeast Asian region is undergoing tremendous change in response to the macro forces of globalisation and the technological challenges resulting from increasing computerisation and improving information technology (IT). Using the Southeast Asian regional landscape as its area of inquiry, this book addresses a wide range of issues that countries in the region face as they move towards the 21st century. These issues include specific applications of new technologies, such as the region's airline mega-computerisation reservation system, the use of geographic information systems (GIS) in planning and environmental issues, and the office response to IT within the region.Ironically, it is globalisation and the adoption of IT that brings about new perspectives to the whole issue of state and boundaries. These include maintaining that the borderless world is not something alien to the region as boundaries and borderlands have traditionally resisted neat classification; the opening up of borders and the creation of economic growth triangles in Southeast Asia; and the issue of marine territoriality and the contest for marine resources among states. State boundaries have become increasingly porous as they are sucked wittingly or unwittingly into a virtual economic system, anchored in the use of IT and bolstered by multinational corporations. These shifts impact other sectors of the economy, such as the informal sector in Malaysia and beach resorts in the region's growing mega leisure and tourism industry.Development and progress have brought new challenges, environmentally and socially. The chapter on environment discusses the differences between the North and the South and proposes environmental education as a long-term solution to sustainable development. Socially, the region is confronted with a mosaic of cultures and languages that constantly threatens the political and social stability of countries. Even when the region moves towards greater solidarity with the very real possibility of an "ASEAN 10", each country still needs to manage its cultural diversity. The Singapore case-study reveals how the authorities manage its multi-ethnic issues.