Minority Problems in Southeast Asia

MINORITY PROBLEMS IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
By Virginia Thompson and Richard Adloff
Shifts of power in Southeast Asia during the past decade (1945-1955) from colonial to national groups have brought minority problems of the area into a new and important focus. “Everywhere in Southeast Asia,” reported the authors of, Minority Problems in Southeast Asia, “the new nationalist governments have teed to ignore the problems of the ethnic minorities once the foreign imperial power has been eliminated. Their concern for such minorities is aroused only when they feel that outside elements may be using minority grievances as an excuse to re-establish foreign rule.” Strategically placed minorities in Thailand, Burma, Indochina, Indonesia, and Malaya may play potentially disruptive, if not subversive, roles in the future.
Virginia Thompson and Richard Adloff examine these ethnic and alien groups for their economic stake, political activities, history, and education, and in certain cases analyze their citizenship status. This is the first study of the Indian minority and of the indigenous minorities such as the Eurasians, the Malays of Thailand, the Thai of Indochina, the Arakanese, and the Ambonese. The Chinese minority – already exhaustively treated in other studies – is presented here chiefly as a regional problem, with special reference to their current activities.
A final chapter relates to possible future developments, and warns that those in power must offer minorities enough of a stake in the country to induce them to merge with the majority people in a common nationality, since they are now deeply rooted in Southeast Asia.

This book is issued under the auspices of the Institute of Pacific Relations.

This is a reproduction edition from a scanned copy of the orginal work.
Title: Minority Problems in Southeast Asia
Author: Virginia Thompson and Richard Adloff
Publisher: Stanford University Press 1955
ISBN : 080473786X