Central / national / federal government Books

Book SynopsisBeginning in 2005 as a small electoral reform committee, the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections – or Bersih – soon became Malaysia’s most prominent social movement, mobilising five mass demonstrations on the streets of Kuala Lumpur and other cities at home and abroad, and becoming a prominent voice not only for electoral form, but against corruption and authoritarianism. Based on participant observation and first-hand interviews with key actors, this is the first academic book that looks at how Bersih operated within an authoritarian system that turned into a movement that aggregated the collective grievance of Malaysians and enabled Malaysian socio-political activism to force the government to concede to elements of electoral reform. Engaging with social movement theory, the author locates Bersih at the centre of the movement for democracy in Malaysia, thus creating a platform for citizen participation and mobilisation that helped form the basis of a new democratic ethos. Along the way, she notes the way in which Bersih evolved out of earlier civil society activism and the Reformasi movement to place political protest and popular mobilisation as important forces in Malaysian politics. This book makes a major contribution to the scholarly work on social movement theories in the Southeast Asian context, and to the growing literature on social movements and democratisations.

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Book SynopsisIndonesia is the most populous Muslim country in the world, with 87.18 per cent of its 260 million population embracing the Islamic faith. However, Indonesia is neither an Islamic state nor a secular one. It adopts Pancasila as the state ideology but has a Ministry of Religious Affairs (MORA) overseeing six official religions.MORA has its genesis in Dutch colonial rule (1602-1942). It was strengthened during the Japanese occupation (1942-45) and then sustained by the post-independence Indonesia government (after 1945). The decision to keep MORA was to compensate those who had aspired for the enactment of the Jakarta Charter in the era of Sukarno but failed.This article examines how MORA has been managed under President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) from 2014 till the present. It highlights similarities and differences in Jokowi's control of the influential ministry compared to his predecessors. In 2014, even though Jokowi was elected on a reform agenda, he left MORA untouched.After the 2019 election, Jokowi appointed Fachrul Razi, a retired general as Minister of Religious Affairs, departing from the past practices of naming a religious scholar (ulama) or a religiously trained person (santri) to that position. This demonstrates a wish on the part of the President to shake up the ministry and to exert control over the institution. This decision, however, has alienated core supporters in NU who helped him get re-elected in 2019.

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Book SynopsisOn 28 April 2021, the Indonesian government, under President Joko Widodo, dissolved the Ministry of Research, Technology, and Higher Education (Kemenristek-Dikti). Since then, the management of higher education has been taken over by the Ministry of Education and Culture, while research and innovation are now the responsibility of the National Research and Innovation Agency (Badan Riset dan Inovasi Nasional, or BRIN). Based on Presidential Regulation (Perpres) Nos. 33 and 78 of 2021, various research institutes, such as LIPI, BATAN, LAPAN and BPPT, and research agencies in some ministries have been or will be merged into BRIN, making it a "super-government agency" with an "overarching" role. With a Rp26 trillion budget allocated by the government for research per year and with a large number of researchers, BRIN is expected to boost national research and innovation, and help the country catch up with countries such as Singapore and South Korea.

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Book SynopsisOver the past two decades, the fixation on anti-state content has shaped the way Vietnamese authorities deployed various censorship strategies to achieve the dual goals of creating a superficial openness while maintaining a tight grip on online discourses. These considerations dictated how several regulations on Internet controls were formulated and enforced.Vietnamese censors also selectively borrowed from China's online censorship playbook, a key tenet of which is the fear-based approach. The modus operandi for the authorities is to first harp on what they perceive as online foreign and domestic threats to Vietnam's social stability. Then those threats are exhaustively used to enforce tougher measures that are akin to those implemented in China.But unlike China, Vietnam has not afforded to ban Western social media platforms altogether. Realizing that they would be better off exploiting social media for their own gains, Vietnamese authorities have sought to co-opt and utilize it to curb anti-state content on the Internet. The lure of the Vietnamese market has also emboldened Facebook and Google's YouTube to consider it fit to acquiesce to state censorship demands.

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Book SynopsisSoutheast Asian autocracies of Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam have politicized vague definitions of "fake news" to justify diverse tactics of digital repression.In these countries, what constitutes falseness in "fake news" has hardly been clearly articulated. The governments instead focus on the grave threats the dissemination of "fake news" could pose to national security, public disorder or national prestige

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Book SynopsisThe volume presents research works on developing Artificial Intelligence based algorithms and methodologies for making social good that too to a notable one. The book discusses latest findings on efficient technological solutions of e-governance and other areas of life from the leading researchers in the field. The prime focus is on solving socio-economic technical problems using state-of-the-art research findings like fuzzy computing, evolutionary and hybrid frameworks, neuro computing, etc., along with other AI based computation platforms. The topics covered include solution frameworks using Artificial Intelligence based models in application areas like agriculture and rural development, road accident, travel and tourism, solid waste management, rural medical care, crowd sourced election monitoring system, ragging, rape and other abuses, cyber criminals and cyber bullying, disaster management, social good, etc. The book offers a valuable resource for all undergraduate, postgraduate students and researchers interested in exploring solution frameworks for social good problems using artificial intelligence.Table of ContentsArtificial Intelligence for Rural Healthcare Management: Prognosis, Diagnosis and Treatment.- A Study using Support Vector Machine as a Tool for Patient’s Satisfaction for SARS-CoV-2 Cases Using Telemedicine.- Applications of AI and IoT technology in Protected Cultivation for Enhancing Agricultural Productivity: A Concise Review.- IoT Based Smart Farming Using AI.- Random Forest Algorithm for Plant Disease Prediction.

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisFor over eight decades, The United States Government Manual has been known as the official handbook of the federal government. This annual resource provides comprehensive information on the agencies of the legislative, judicial, and executive branches, as well as quasi-official agencies, international organizations in which the United States participates, boards, commissions, and committees. The Manual begins with reprints of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.Each agency's description consists of a list of principal officials heading major operating units; a summary statement of the agency's purpose and role in the federal government; a brief history of the agency, including its legislative or executive authority; and a description of consumer activities, contracts and grants, employment, and publications. The United States Government Manual is published as a special edition of the Federal Register. Its focus is on programs and activities.

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