As 2011 comes to a close, we would like to thank all our friends and customers for your continuous support.
Happy New Year!
The following books are now available.
Bediuzzaman Said Nursi: Author of the Risale-i Nur
Sukran Vahide
Publisher: Islamic Book Trust (IBT)
Year: 2011
ISBN: 9789675062865
515 Pages
RM60.00 /$42.00
This first full-length English biography of the great Turkish Muslim thinker and reformer Bediuzzaman Said Nursi is based on his own works and on accounts of those who have known or met him. It describes his life, works, and struggle, and places Bediuzzaman's ideas and activities in a historical context. It describes his enterprising and scholarly endeavours in the cause of the Ottoman Empire, particularly in the areas of education, constitutionalism, and Islamic unity. In the second part of the book, it traces both Bediuzzaman's silent struggle through his commentary of the Qur'an collectively known as Risale-i Nur, speaking out against the irreligion that was offically propagated in the early years of the Turkish Republic.
Poverty and Global Recession in Southeast Asia
Edited by Aris Ananta and Richard Barichello
Publisher: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS)
Year: 2012
ISBN: 9789814311199
432 Pages
RM125.00 /$49.90
Financial crises after financial crises have occurred, with widening impact and deepening severity. This book started with an objective to understandthe impact of high inflation on poverty in Southeast Asia. However, global inflation moved quickly into recession in 2008. Southeast was not an exception. The book then refocused the title to Poverty and Global Recession in Southeast Asia. It is a modest attempt to contribute a better understanding of poverty and food security in Southeast Asia during the 2008-09 global recession, considering both recent developments and the previous major crisis of 1997-98. The book may also help to anticipate some possible impacts of future global recession on food and poverty, not only in Southeast Asia, but also in many other countries in the world.
Portuguese and Luso-Asian Legacies in Southeast Asia, 1511-2011, Vol. 1: The Making of the Luso-Asian World Intricacies of Engagement
Edited by Laura Jarnagin
Publisher: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS)
Year: 2011
ISBN: 9789814345255
323 Pages
RM150.00 /$59.90
In 1511, a Portuguese expedition under the command of Afonso de Albuquerque arrived on the shores of Malacca, taking control of the prosperous Malayan port-city after a swift military campaign. Portugal, a peripheral but then technologically advanced country in southwestern Europe since the latter fifteenth century, had been in the process of establishing solid outposts all along Asia’s littoral in order to participate in the most active and profitable maritime trading routes of the day. As it turned out, the Portuguese presence and influence in the Malayan Peninsula and elsewhere in continental and insular Asia expanded far beyond the sphere of commerce and extended over time well into the twenty-first century. Five hundred years later, a conference held in Singapore brought together a large group of scholars from widely different national, academic and disciplinary contexts, to analyse and discuss the intricate consequences of Portuguese interactions in Asia over the longue duree. The result of these discussions is a stimulating set of case studies that, as a rule, combine original archival and/or field research with innovative historiographical perspectives. Luso-Asian communities, real and imagined, and Luso-Asian heritage, material and symbolic, are studied with depth and insight. The range of thematic, chronological and geographic areas covered in these proceedings is truly remarkable, showing not only the extraordinary relevance of revisiting Luso-Asian interactions in the longer term, but also the surprising dynamism within an area of studies which seemed on the verge of exhaustion. After all, archives from all over the world, from Rio de Janeiro to London, from Lisbon to Rome, and from Goa to Macao, might still hold some secrets on the subject of Luso-Asian relations, when duly explored by resourceful scholars. – Rui M. Loureiro, Researcher Centre de Historia de Alem-Mar, Lisbon
Issues in Human Security in Asia
Edited by Yang Razali Kassim
Publisher: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) and S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS)
Year: 2011
ISBN: 9789814345484
232 Pages
RM100.00 /$39.90
This volume focuses on the theme of Human Security – a phenomenon increasingly in the news in Asia. The issues revolve around the security of the individual more than the security of the state. They encompass some of the latest developments affecting or having implications for the well-being of the Asian individual since January 2010. Among them are Japan’s triple calamity, including the nuclear crisis in Fukushima; Wikileaks; the Arab uprisings; and the death of Osama bin Laden. Issues discussed range from climate change and natural disasters; energy security; health, food and water security to issues of internal challenges such as governance, politics and identity. The role of diplomacy in non-traditional security, as the larger conceptual framework within which human security resides, is also covered. This is the third volume of Strategic Currents, which publishes essays and commentaries first written for RSIS commentaries by scholars, academics and associates of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University.
Panama Climate News Updates (October 2011)
Publisher: Third World Network
Year: 2011
ISBN: 9789675412615
56 Pages
RM10.00 /$7.00
This is a collection of 18 News Updates prepared by the Third World Network for and during the recent United Nations Climate Change Talks - the third part of the 14th session of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the UN Fremework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC AWG-LCA 14), and the third part of the 16th session of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyota Protocol (AWG-KP 16) - in Panama City, Panama from 1 to 7 October 2011.
Standing in the Way of Development? A Critical Survey of the IMF's Crisis Response in Low-Income Countries
Elisa Van Waeyenberge, Hannah Bargawi & Terry McKinley
Publisher: Third World Network
Year: 2011
ISBN: 9789675412608
78 Pages
RM11.00 /$7.70
The International Monetary Fund (IMF), which has been criticised for the rigid economic policy conditionalities attached to its lending programmes, says it now provides borrower states greater flexibility to adopt expansionary policies. Standing in the Way of Development? assesses this claim in the context of the IMF's central role in dealing with the effects of the global financial crisis in low-income countries (LICs). This paper evaluates the general macroeconomic policy scheme promoted by the Fund and closely examines the nature of its engagement during the crisis in a representative sample of 13 LICs. The authors find that, despite some relaxation of policy restraints, the IMF essentially remains wedded to its longstanding prioritisation of price stability and low fiscal deficits over other macroeconomic goals.
Such a policy stance, it is argued, could undermine not only LIC's prospects for a quick recovery from the crisis but also their longer-term development outlook. In light of this, this paper outlines the broad outlines the broad contours of an alternative macroeconomic policy framework geared towards supporting long-run equitable growth and poverty reduction.
The IMF's Financial Crisis Loans: No Change in Conditionalities
Bhumika Muchhala
Publisher: Third World Network
Year: 2011
ISBN: 9789675412592
20 Pages
RM7.00 /$4.90
During the global financial crisis of 2008-09, lending by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) surged as countries faced acute financing shortfalls amid the economic turmoil. However, as with most IMF credit over the years, these crisis loans came attached with contractionary policy conditionalities whose procyclical nature has long been a cause for concern. Examining the provisions in the official IMF loan documents, this paper finds that the IMF required borrowing countries to implement austerity measures in fiscal and monetary policy to attain "macroeconomic stability" or, in other words, low levels of deficit, inflation and external debt. Government budget deficits and inflation were to be brought down by cutting public spending and raising interest rates, among other measures such as regressive tax policies.
In light of concern over the adverse impacts of such austerity policies in a time of global downturn, this paper recommends a rethink of procyclical IMF loan conditionality. In the context of global crisis contagion, policy-setting international financial institutions should not be advocating budget cuts and interest rate hikes. Rather, expansionary, or Keynesian, macroeconomic policy should be supported in crisis-affected countries, such as fiscal stimulus and public spending measures to revive domestic economic activity, aid domestic firms and citizens severely affected by the crisis, promote employment creation and protect essential services in health, education and pension sectors. In addition to this policy reassessment, the paper also calls for reform in IMF governance, such as tranparency in the formulation and distribution of IMF policy reports and fair representation and voice for developing countries in the Fund's decision-making.
To purchase these and/or any other Gerakbudaya/SIRD titles, you may:
a) Drop by our showroom at the following address:
No. 11, Lorong 11/4E
46200 Petaling Jaya,
Selangor, Malaysia
Tel: (603) 7957 8343/8342
Fax: (603) 7954 9202
b) Buy it online at bookshop.gerakbudaya.com or bookshop.gbgerakbudaya.com
c) Send us an email at sird@streamyx.com or gerakbudaya@pd.jaring.my
d) Get it from all major bookstores throughout Malaysia
Thank you for your kind interest and support
