The Asian Meltdown of 97/98 has yielded complicated results for Indonesia. Economic implosion spawned anti-Chinese rioting and the downfall of Suharto.

In its wake we have seen serious efforts by the country's political elite to develop viable and legitimate institutions, but political instability and executive incompetence has impaired the psot-Suharto transition. The military has attempted to play a background role, yet it is still vastly influential in civilian politics; the eruptions in Aceh and Borneo, as well as inter-religious and ethnic strife, will make the military more central to the stability of the country as a whole.

This RAND report starts with two generalized scenarios for Indonesia's possible future: 1) Successful transition; 2) Centrifugal disintegration.

Right off the bat, the study correctly identifies the implications for longterm US policymaking: the stability of the Southeast Asian region will directly impact the extension of China, and consequently impact the meaning of US-China relations. Thus, Indonesia's future not only has vital implications for a huge, disparate country with lots of resources and a huge population, but also implications for geopolitical relations among two great power for years to come.

The study gives a brief historical sketch of the political (mis)rule of Wahid, et al; a study of individual separatist movements; possible futures for Indonesia and the consequences for the future of the region as a whole. A brief section on militant separatist movements in Thailand and the Philippines is also included; which is very intelligent since ethnic and religious identities transcend national borders.

The book ends with the implication for US policy, and the necessity for US-Indonesian military relations. This is somewhat inadequate, both for the two-dimensionality of the political recommendations, and RAND's institutional habit of considering Air Force concerns first, and the concerns for defense policy as tertiary to this. The involvement of US Army special forces in the country -and the political implications of that- as well as the extreme importance of the US Navy as the Great Balancer in Asian geopolitics, is not treated.

Thus study's background work is typical RAND: incisive, concise, and useful. Their recomendations are typically rote and two-dimensional as well.

From primitive 'zao pao' ritual sacrifice and the often ignored 'offay' dances to communal scarification and endogamous incest taboos, this book has it all and more! The ideal tool to teach geography, customs and oral literature of the lesser-studied indigenous peoples of the So Mei Penninsula and beyond. Bartok-Baratta has provided an ordurous, penetrating review of Southeast Asian society. Ideal for all beginning haruspicators!

The book clearly gives insight knowledge of how Indonesian government and non-governmental institutions respond to rapid economic growth and societal demands.

A useful part of the book provides information about President Wahid's policies when he ran the Revival of Religious Scholars Organization; the book describes its history, structures, views, and responses to the political, economic and social changes that have been caused by the New Order's program. These components give us some predictions and expectations of what policies that this new and first Indonesian democratic government will implement in the coming years, in regards to their economic policy towars international communities, such as IMF, the World Bank, and foreign investors.

A most enjoyable, well-informed introduction to--and enlightenment towards--the country and its people during a longest era called the "New Order." Readers will be introduced to the unbelievable Suharto in the first chapter, before they are taken to a journey to the what's-been-going-on: development process, democracy, society, succession,etc. Readers will only put down the book after being able to envision what will happen to a fragility at the end of the millenium.

This book is an excellent book that gets down to the point.

This superb little collection of essays and journal notes sheds light on an obscure, yet important aspect of Asian history. We Westerners tend to give the wartime aims of Japan a uniformly dark aspect, yet there were idealists among the Japanese conquerors who dreamed of an Asia free of Western imperialism. One cannot be naive in dealing with this subject - the brunt of the Japanese occupation machine was geared to subjugation and exploitation. Yet in the East Indies there were many Japanese administrators who prepared the Indonesians for the inevitable battle with the returning Dutch.

In this imaginative and informative book, you can learn much of the art of shadow puppetry. With beautiful illustrations and simple to follow instructions, you can begin a fulfilling journey to mastering a craft of incredible expression. In these pages, you'll find templates for puppets, ideas for making them for yourself, and an elaborate history on one of Japan's most beautiful artforms. The book is heavy on puppets, but it's rather light on performance. I would prefer to know less about cutting techniques andmore about how to make a successful show.

Dr. Edward J. Maruska states (in the forward of this book) "The Komodo Dragon is one of the most Charismatic of living reptiles." Unfortunately little information is available to the adult layman, like myself, about this interesting being. "Komoto, The Living Dragon" helps nibble away at this absence and offers a well written expose on this large predator. The book is written in very understandable pose and relates many facts for those of us that like a little more than a picture and caption. The Komoto dragon, like many of Earth's creatures, is threatened by man's expansion across the globe. The book chronicles how the Indonesian Government and captive breading programs around the world will help protect this treasure for all of us. "Komoto, The Living Dragon", will help a lot of interested people better understand one of Earth's most amazing creatures.

This book could be enjoyed by a person of any academic level. Although it contained many unfamiliar scientific names and terms, I found it thoroughly interesting and informative. Ian Thornton knows his subject well and has much to teach.

John Emigh in his book, Masked Performance, has himself created something of a one-man masked performance like the Balinese masked drama, topeng pajegan, he describes. This book is revealing, beguiling, and pleasantly bewildering for the multitude of voices, roles, and masks that he presents. Emigh writes as an actor, anthropologist, director, dramaturge, and Asian theatre scholar and while each one of these roles illuminates a realm of masking and playing, at the same time, they obscure some other realm. The result does not produce a grand universal scheme of masking in performance (à la Gordon Craig) rather a richly complex yet accessible smorgasbord of ideas that are intended to inspire a sense of wonder about the human occupation with masking and performing. The book is a joy to read because it is not beholden to any single genre of academic writing but is part scholarly record, part personal memoir, part philosophical treatise. By departing from a purely descriptive analysis Emigh attempts to probe the function and purpose of masking in performance. The fundamental premise that he explores is that masking represents on many levels an encounter between the self (the performer) and the other (the character). What comes of this encounter is a performance that lingers somewhere between the ontological idea of me and not-me. Unlike most modern dramatic performances based on a script, a masked performance often implies the relationship between the mask and the performer is unstable and may even lead to a loss of self. In a candid and refreshing way Emigh does not assume that masking is in and of itself a valid subject for research, but rather, he actually attempts to explore questions concerning the necessity for masks in performance: what value do masks have for our own society that is so enthralled by realism and escapism? By revealing what brought himself to this exploration is as much an aesthetic interest as an academic one, Emigh opens up the subject of masking to problems with artistic responses in multi-cultural performance. For those who are already familiar with Emigh's previous articles on the Orisa Prahlada Nataka, Balinese topeng pajegan and the Rajasthani Hajari Bhand, this material has been greatly expanded and revised according to his larger theme of masking in performance. All in all the arguments are stronger, developed in greater detail, and accompanied with fine illustrations and photographs. There has also been included a useful appendix of basic questions concerning performance that I was grateful to have with me when I was doing my fieldwork a few years ago. Theatre students will find this book a good introduction to Asian performance practices, but also Asian theatre scholars will find this is good introduction to post-modern theory, and anthropologists will find this is a good introduction to how dramatic theory might apply to cultural performance. It has been a long time since a book on Asian theatre has had aspirations to conduct an analysis beyond an encyclopedic description of performance detail. Such a search for aesthetic meaning tends to enter a subjective territory, which lies very near the end of our own ability to formulate coherent scientific principles. As Emigh reveals in this book, masking also lies in such a region between the known and unknown and does not have a wholly rational meaning. Masking is a mode of experience and feeling that approaches the boundaries of our capacity to know ourselves and our consciousness.