In Southeast Asia, partial recovery from financial crisis has been accompanied by signs of the start of a local version of America's internet business boom. E-businesses and dotcom start-ups have emerged. Political and business leaders have touted the virtues of the so-called "new economy" and its potential for resolving the post-crisis malaise that still affects parts of the region. But is the e-business revolution in Southeast Asia real? Are technologies and business practices being transformed? Or is the "new economy" mainly hype and wishful thinking? Does e-business spell the death of monopolies and conglomerates at the hands of agile new entrants? Or is it popular because it provides an alternative to fundamental business restructuring? And what do the answers to these questions imply for economic recovery and political reform? Linda Lim is the associate director of the International Institute and Director of the Southeast Asia Business Program at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She has written and lectured extensively on political economy, economic development, and business practices in Southeast Asia, where she recently completed preliminary field research on the appearance and growth of electronic business.

Separatism and terrorism, demonstrations and scandals, elite conflict and economic malaise ... With so much trouble on its hands, why should the Indonesian government willingly open up the Pandora's box that is the legacy of violence from the Suharto regime, especially since many of his associates remain politically active? Or is the risk of focusing on the past worth takingÑto administer justice and foster a humane consensus strong enough to ensure that such abuses do not recur? These difficult questions cannot be answered without taking local conditions into account: the sense of uncertainty and stagnation that hangs over the reform process; the widespread perception that in mysterious and powerful ways Suharto is still controlling events; and the apparent inability of Indonesian society to transform its recent history into a set of lessons that could generate momentum toward a better future. Mary S. Zurbuchen was based until recently in Jakarta, as the Ford Foundation's chief representative for Southeast Asia (1992-96) and Indonesia (1996-2000). She is the academic coordinator of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at UCLA, where she is teaching a course on Indonesia while continuing her research on the intersection of history and memory in that country. Her many publications on cultural and social change in Indonesia include The Language of Balinese Shadow Theater (1987).

Dennis Harter is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service and a Foreign Service Officer (since 1966) specializing in Asian Affairs. From 1968-1970, he served as a district senior advisor in the Mekong Delta, then as deputy director for Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia Affairs in the late 1970s. He has served as director of Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam Affairs during the period of normalization of relations with Vietnam, and as deputy chief of Mission (Deputy Ambassador) from August 1997 to the present. He also served in Hong Kong twice; in Taiwan and Indonesia, and was Consul General in Guangzhou, People's Republic of China from 1989-1993.

Southeast Asia has been buffeted by several shocks and momentous events over the last two years, in particular the economic recession which started in July 1997; the return of Hong Kong to China; and political instability, particularly in Indonesia.

Increasingly, large, extended urban regions compete with each other in the Region and in the global economy. Furthermore, as a result of strong driving forces, including free trade, convergence in tax structures, and the "death of distance", Southeast Asian urban regions are less protected and influenced by nation states, and are thus highly vulnerable to unpredictable consequences of strong forces associated with globalization and co-evolving domestic change.

Dr. Webster will assess events of the last few years in terms of the dramatic re-positioning that has occurred among major urban regions in Southeast Asia - identifying winners and losers. His assessment will be based on consideration of both competitiveness and resilience - the two primary objectives, perhaps non-reconcilable, of most Southeast Asian urban regions.

Dr. Webster is currently a visiting scholar at the Asia/Pacific Research Center. He has been Senior Urban Advisor to the National Planning Board, Prime Minister's Office, Thailand for the last five years. He is involved in formulation of strategies and policies related to urbanization in the context of rapid socio-economic change in Thailand. He is also full time advisor to the World Bank's Asia and Pacific Urban Unit. At the global level, he is involved in formulation of the World Bank's Global Urban Strategy, and the World Development Report 2000 which will focus on urbanization and decentralization.

Dr. Webster was formerly Director of the Urban Planning Program at the University of Calgary and Professor of Planning at the Asian Institute of Technology. He has advised a wide variety of governments, cities, corporations, and development agencies on urban policies and programming, particularly in Southeast Asia, over the last 25 years. He is the author of many academic and professional publications on urbanization and urban issues in Southeast Asia.

This presentation will focus on the effects of the economic crisis on poverty in Southeast Asia illustrated by a case study of Indonesia. Particular attention will be paid to the government responses with social safety net programs and how these responses have been influenced by government perceptions of the role of rural-urban dynamics and the urban informal sector. This presentation is based upon research carried out over the last sixteen months in Indonesia. The final part of the talk deals with the issue of inserting social policy into development plans in the period of economic recovery in Indonesia. Terry Mc Gee has spent more than 40 years carrying out research in Southeast Asia. He has held appointments at the University of Malaysia, University of Hong Kong and the Research School of Pacific Studies, Australia National University (Canberra), as well as UBC since l978. He is the author of The Southeast Asian City (l967), Essays on Third World Urbanization ( l971) and co-editor of The Extended Metropolis in Asia (l991) and Mega-Urban Regions in Southeast Asia (l995) he has acted as a consultant for UNDP and CIDA on urban policy in Asia.

Like a double-edged sword, the recent conflict in East Timor challenged Indonesia and the international community alike. For Indonesia, the crisis and its resolution offered a chance for military reform, yet threatened national unity. For international donors, the chance to defend human rights and implement self-determination carried a risk of provoking nationalist resentment against foreign intervention for democratic change.This talk will focus on the international community and its donor countries and agencies. How did they react to the conflict in East Timor? What were their strategies? How did their actions affect Indonesia -- not only its East Timor policies but also the course of its own democratic transition? Looking back on them now, do the crisis and its outcome lessons for the feasibility of foreign intervention to achieve domestic political reform? If so, what are they? If not, why not? And what do the answers to these questions imply for the democratic prospect in developing countries more generally?

In Southeast Asia over the last two centuries, Chinese traders, workers, and immigrants adapted to a changing series of local environments--pre-national, colonial, and post-colonial. At each stage, they broadened the scope of their activities. They were on the brink of working the modern global economy when the post-World War II nation-states of Southeast Asia were created. Nationalist agendas and the politics of cold and hot wars soon obliged the ethnic Chinese to make readjustments. New forms of globalization are changing the Southeast Asian environment once again. Will former strategies of survivalÑadaptations honed during the last fifty years, if not the past two hundred--help the region's ethnic Chinese to deal with globalization in the 21st century? Or will such accommodations need to be replaced? Will the ethnic Chinese mainly seek (or be obliged) to concentrate on saving themselves? Or will they be able to share their own skills and values on behalf of the viable nations and vibrant economies that Southeast Asia will need if it is to cope successfully with the new century's challenges? Wang Gungwu is Director of the East Asian Institute and Faculty Professor in Arts and Social Sciences at the National University of Singapore; Distinguished Professorial Fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, also in Singapore; and Emeritus Professor at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra. Previously, he was Vice-Chancellor (President) of the University of Hong Kong (1986-1995) and Professor of Far Eastern History at ANU (1968-1986). He also taught at the University of Malaya (1957-1968). His many publications include The Chinese Overseas (2000), China and Southeast Asia (1999), The Nanhai Trade (new ed., 1998), and, as coeditor, The Chinese Diaspora (2 vols, 1998) and Changing Identities of Southeast Asian Chinese since World War II (1988). Prof. Wang was born in Surabaya, Indonesia, and grew up in Ipoh, Malaysia.

Among heads of state, Indonesia's is unique--and uniquely challenged. Aburrahman Wahid ("Gus Dur") is virtually blind and has suffered two strokes. His country, the world's fourth most populous, is bedeviled by political and economic crises. Momentum toward secession in several outlying regions, notably Aceh and Irian Jaya, threatens to unravel the republic. In Maluku province, intercommunal violence has accelerated. Prospects for continued recovery from the devastating recession of 1998 are uncertain. As impatience mounts over the inability of Gus Dur's government to date to solve such problems, fragile stability and nascent democratization are at risk of reversal, especially if elements in the army decide to intervene. Who is the man in the eye of this hurricane? What does his background tell us about his ability to cope with his country's manifold problems? Is he up to the task? Will he be ousted by his rivals? Or, in Indonesia's post-authoritarian political climate, do Gus Dur's weaknesses amount to a kind of strength? Donald K. Emmerson is a senior fellow at the Asia/Pacific Research Center. His edited book, Indonesia beyond Suharto, has just been published. Other recent writings include pieces in the Journal of Democracy and the National Interest--the former on political change in Southeast Asia, the latter on Western moralpolitik in East Timor. In June and August 1999 he helped to monitor Indonesia's national elections in Maluku and the UN's plebiscite on sovereignty in East Timor, respectively. His talk on Gus Dur will include information obtained during a three-hour interview with the new president in Jakarta in December 1999.