Dr Anindita’s book on democracy
Dr Anindita Dasgupta, a senior lecturer with the American Degree Transfer Programme at Sunway University College has been awarded the Asian Scholarship Fund (ASF) Collaborative Works Grant funded by the Ford Foundation and administered by the Asian Scholarship Foundation in Thailand.
Proud collaborators Dr Anindita (left) and Neeta (right)
Dr Anindita who teaches Pacific Asian Studies, will use the grant valued at USD16,000 to produce a landmark
edited book titled ‘Resurgent Democracies: Experiences of South and Southeast Asia’. Seven scholars from around the world including Dr Maung Zarni from Oxford University, Dr Richard Whitecross from University of Edinburgh, Dr Stephen M. Lyon from Durham University, Professor Imtiaz Ahmed from Dhaka University and Neeta S Singh, a lecturer in Malaysian Studies at Sunway University College, were invited by Dr Anindita to write an 8,000-10,000 word chapter each for the book. Ms Neeta S. Singh will contribute a chapter entitled “Democracy: The Malaysian Enigma”.
“There is little doubt that the restoration of democracy is imperative for the enjoyment of equal rights and liberties
by the citizens of a country” said Dr Anindita. “The wave of popular movements or ‘people power’ demanding restoration of democracy that has swept across Asia in recent months provides the rationale for the selection of the seven case-studies for the book” she added.
The book will provide compelling chapters on democracy in Malaysia and six other Asian countries. The chapter on
Malaysia will trace the development of democracy since independence and address whether people’s power as seen in the March 2008 elections will lead to the return of true democratic principles. Dr Anindita emphasized “The contents of the book will reflect findings from new research and will be purely scholarly, without any political agenda and will provide a balanced and academic analysis of the recent burst of people-power across Asia”. Dr Anindita added “More importantly, we hope that this book will be used as reference material for university students of political science and international relations as at the moment there is a lack of suitable books that cover this range of nations in South and Southeast Asia”.
Dr Anindita was previously granted two other fellowships funded by the Ford Foundation and administered by the Asian Scholarship Foundation in Thailand in 2001 and 2003.
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