Book review: Media Fortunes, Changing Times: ASEAN States in Transition

Heng, Russell (ed) (2002) Media Fortunes, Changing Times: ASEAN States in Transition, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore. ISBN. 252 pp. Reviewed by Sankaran Ramanathan Are ASEAN states in transition? If so, how many of the 10 states are? Are there changing times that the presumed transition brings, and if there are, have media fortunes been affected? If so, how have they been affected? If we were to gauge on the basis of political uncertainty, Indonesia, Laos and Cambodia qualify as being states under transition. If we were to broaden the definition to include countries whose economies are under transition (from developing to developed economy status), we could then add the Philippines, Vietnam, Myanmar and Thailand to the list. We could add Malaysia to this list, arguing that the economy has taken a slide since 1997 and that the transition of political power is imminent. We can then accept the contention that eight out of the 10 ASEAN member countries are in transition.