Department of History, National University of Singapore The Department of History is one of the oldest departments in the National University of Singapore. Its roots can be traced to 1929, when history was made part of the curriculum of the newly founded Raffles College. Over the years, the Department has grown in size as well as in its research and curricular range. It currently has 23 full-time faculty members and each year approximately 5,000 undergraduates enrol in its modules. The Department’s expertise lies primarily in the history of Asia, with special emphasis on Southeast and East Asia, but there is also a strong selection of offerings in European and American History, Art History, Military History and Historiography. Modules cover a wide range of topics, including maritime history; economic, social and cultural history; science and technology; and Asian business history. Traditionally, the Department has emphasized providing undergraduate education to prepare its students for their future careers, and this task remains a major commitment. However, graduate studies in history are now a priority area for expansion, and the Department currently has a sizeable population of MA and PhD candidates, with a comprehensive graduate curriculum. Raffles Visiting Professor The Raffles Chair in History, last filled in 1983, has been reconstituted as the Raffles Visiting Professorship in History. Scholars invited to fill this position will be distinguished figures in the field of Asian history, in keeping with the focus of the Department and in the spirit of the historical interests of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles. The first holder of the Raffles Visiting Professorship in History is Professor Anthony Milner of the Australian National University. Professor Milner was in residence at the Department between July and December 2002. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies The Institute of Southeast Asian Studies was established as an autonomous organization in 1968. It is a regional centre dedicated to the study of socio-political, security and economic trends and developments in Southeast Asia and its wider geostrategic and economic environment. The Institute's research programmes are the Regional Economic Studies (RES, including ASEAN and APEC), Regional Strategic and Political Studies (RSPS), and Regional Social and Cultural Studies (RSCS). ISEAS regularly co- publishes book on topics related to its research programmes. © 2003 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore First published in Singapore in 2003 by Institute of Southeast Asian Studies 30 Heng Mui Keng Terrace Pasir Panjang E-mail: [email protected] Singapore 119614 Website: http://bookshop.iseas.edu.sg for the Department of History National University of Singapore 10 Kent Ridge Crescent Singapore 119260 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, for the Department of History, NUS. © 2003 Department of History, National University of Singapore. The responsibility for facts and opinions in this publication rests exclusively with the author and his interpretations do not necessarily reflect the views or the policy of the Department of History, the University, the Institute, or their supporters. ISEAS Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data Milner, A. C. (Anthony Crothers), 1945- Region, security and the return of history. (Raffles lecture, 0129-8177 ; 1) 1. Regionalism—Asia, Southeastern—History. 2. ASEAN. 3. National security—Asia, Southeastern. 4. Asia, Southeastern—Foreign relations. I. Title. II. Series: Raffles lecture series ; 1. DS501 I61 no. 1 2003 sls2003008017 ISBN 981-230-221-2 ISSN 0219-8177 Printed in Singapore by Markono Digital Solutions Pte Ltd © 2003 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore CONTENTS Critiquing ASEAN 4 The Convergence Era 7 Security and Talk 15 Regionalism in Europe 21 Recognizing Difference 24 Difference in the Regional Conversation 28 The Historian 31 Excess, Islam 33 Notes 43 Select Bibliography 53 About the Author 57 © 2003 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore This lecture was delivered by Anthony Milner, Basham Professor of Asian History and Dean of Asian Studies, Australian National University, and Raffles Visiting Professor in the Department of History, National University of Singapore. It was the Inaugural Raffles Lecture, organized by the Department of History, National University of Singapore on 2 December 2002. © 2003 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore Reproduced from Region, Security and the Return of History (The Raffles Lecture Series), by Anthony Milner (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2003). This version was obtained electronically direct from the publisher on condition that copyright is not infringed. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the prior permission of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. Individual articles are available at < http://bookshop.iseas.edu.sg > Region, Security and the Return of History REGION, SECURITY AND THE RETURN OF HISTORY Anthony Milner It is an honour to present the first Raffles Lecture, and it has been a pleasure and a stimulation to work this year with Professor Tan Tai Yong and the Department of History at the National University of Singapore. In talking tonight about “Region, Security and the Return of History”, I will be focussing on ‘talk’ itself in the context of region and security. Some have spoken derogatively about the role of ‘talk’ in this region. I will speak in defence of ‘talk’. Sir Stamford Raffles, it happens, had a considerable interest in the themes I am discussing. He had a good sense of the 1 © 2003 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore Anthony Milner region itself. He did not use the term ‘Southeast Asia’ but he referred to the Malay Archipelago, Ava (or Myanmar), Siam and Cambodia, together with Cochin China and Tonkin (together, Vietnam) as a region, or rather as a ‘field’. These countries, he said, happen to be situated between the “rich and populous continents of China on the one hand and India on the other”. Their coasts are “washed by the smoothest seas in the world” and the countries possessed, in his words, “large and navigable rivers” that offered “communication with the interior”.1 Raffles, in his way, was a regionalist — or more specifically an open regionalist. Trade, he saw, was a bonding element in the region. There was, he said, a “constant intercourse and circulation ... set in motion by the spirit by commerce”. He wanted to foster that regional, commercial intercourse and, as an open regionalist, to do so in ways that would promote the region’s commerce with the wider world (especially, of course, Great Britain). 2 © 2003 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore Region, Security and the Return of History Raffles was also concerned about what might be called the talk of the region — about the flow of ideas — and here, as in the case of commerce itself, he saw Singapore playing a special role. Influenced partly by his study of history, Raffles portrayed Singapore as being at “the very centre of this Archipelago”. He wanted an educational institution in Singapore that studied the peoples of what we call today Southeast Asia — with teachers of Siamese, Burmese and Pali as well as Malay, Bugis, Chinese and Arabic. Whether or not Raffles was the true founder of Singapore, he certainly deserves a prominent place in the history of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore and the various Southeast Asian studies enterprises in the National University of Singapore. Raffles, it must be stressed, was keen to see Singapore promote the spread of knowledge from outside the region, as well as the study of the region itself. He was concerned in particular about “moral improvement” — we might think here of 3 © 2003 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore Anthony Milner the spread of norms. When he spoke of moral improvement he clearly had in mind the communication of Western, specifically British ideas and institutions. Globalization for Raffles had a particularly British flavour, just as it is easily confused today with Americanization. What Raffles emphasized was that “moral and intellectual improvement” was not only good for its own sake; it also helped to promote commerce and, in addition, security. The education he had in mind, he said, would foster the “general security and good order” of the region. So in Raffles’ thinking about Southeast Asia we have region and security, and history as well. We also have a concern for the communication of ideas — as it were, for talk. CRITIQUING ASEAN My own interest in the matter of ‘talk’ or ‘conversation’ in this Southeast Asian region arises partly from a phrase I have seen repeated in condemnations of 4 © 2003 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore