The Importance of Effective Leadership in the Nationalist Movements of South East Asia Before the Second World War

The Importance of Effective Leadership in the Nationalist Movements of South East Asia Before the Second World War

Nationalist movements in South East Asia was a form of negative

response, with various kinds of opposition to the Western impact, and

although erupted often, most were merely short-lived revolts that were

not successful. Nationalism took on many forms and can be defined from

different angles, and also does not necessarily mean anti-colonialism.

Indeed effective leadership was an important factor in the nationalist

movements of South East Asia, in many cases it being the cause for

bring the people together to bring about any form of resistance

movements. However it is still prudent to note that there were other

considerations then which also played a significant role in the

emergence of such nationalist uprisings, such as religion and ethic

reasons. Therefore I would say that effective leadership does play an

important role in the nationalist movements of South East Asia,

however not being the only factor in play then. Also whether

leadership itself is effective or not is another issue, as in many

cases this does not seem to be the case.

Many nationalist movements, whether for what particular reasons, often

started off from a single leader, and in many cases such leaders were

of religious authority, although the movements were not entirely based

on religion, but rather using it as a banner to go under. Religious

leaders attained this prominence almost by default, since they were

the only indigenous elites who survived the virtual destruction of the

old monarchial order at the hands of European colonialism.

In Siam, t...

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...ic dominance, formed in 1912 when both

groups had considerable economic influence in the Indies. They

organized boycotts against Chinese merchants, which ended up in

violence in the beginning of 1912.

In conclusion, as seen above, there are various factors in play

concerning the nationalist movements in Southeast Asia, namely

leadership, religion, economic interest. As seen above, religion seems

to play a very important role in most of the movements, it being the

binding force of the people. However in my opinion, I would think that

still effective leadership is more important than religion as it is

that brings the different segregated groups of people together into an

organization with a stronger political voice. Thus the effective

leadership is of great importance in the nationalist movements of

Southeast Asia.