Parliamentary Reforms in the Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines: A Comparative Perspective

Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines are three major countries in Southeast Asia, sharing different culture, religion, and political history.  By the mid-1980s, these three countries were ruled by authoritarian regimes, mostly military-dominated governments.  Being ruled by a hereditary monarch, Thailand is a Buddhist country with frequent military coups since 1932, whereas Indonesia, the largest Islamic state in the world, was under the rule of General Suharto for thirty two years from 1966 to 1998.  The Philippines is a Catholic state, but it was under the authoritarian rule of Mr. Marcos for twenty one years from 1965 to 1986.

These three countries, however, began to make political changes towards democracy, including parliamentary reforms, since the mid-1980s, although they experienced different bumpy roads in the last few decades.  Indonesia is the most successful country moving towards democracy, while Thailand and the Philippines suffered from various internal disputes and conflict.  This paper will take a historical and comparative perspective to explore the changes of parliamentary reforms in these three countries and argue that a universal value for democracy is functional in Southeast Asia.

Professor Ku received his Ph.D. in political science from the Ohio State University in June 1989.   Dr. Ku then began to work at National Sun Yat-sen University from September 1989 to July 2016, where he had served as the director of the Sun Yat-sen Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies for Social Sciences (August 2001- May 2006) and the Graduate Institute of China and Asia-Pacific Studies (August 2011–July 2016).  In addition, Professor Ku had been a visiting scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Jakarta, East Asian Institute in Singapore, Ateneo de Manila University in Manila, and Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. Professor Ku was recruited to serve as the Vice President for international affairs at Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages in August 2016 (till January 2019); he is now a professor at the Master Program on Southeast Asian Studies in Wenzao. Professor Ku’s major research interests include political development in Southeast Asia and Taiwan’s relations with Southeast Asia. Professor Ku has published more than fifty journal articles and more than ten books, including a series of books on eight individual Southeast Asian country, i.e. Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, the Philippines and Cambodia. While two thirds of his publications are in Chinese; his English articles have also appeared in such international journals as Asian Survey, Asian Perspective, Contemporary Southeast Asia, Issues and Studies, Journal of Contemporary China, Journal of Asian and African Studies, etc.

The event is supported by CAS cooperation activity with leading research institutions in South and Southeast Asia, 2019.

Seminar will be held in English. No registration is needed.