Welfare Capitalism in Southeast Asia

Welfare Capitalism in Southeast Asia: Social Security, Health and Education Policies
Journal of Third World Studies, Spring 2003 by Renjini, D

Ramesh, M with Mukul G. Asher. Welfare Capitalism in Southeast Asia: Social Security, Health and Education Policies. London: Macmillan Press Ltd, 2000. 217 pp.
The book focuses on different social welfare policies of in the five Southeast Asian countries namely Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. The authors have chosen Southeast Asia because of the high degree of current interest in social welfare policies. The study examines three main social welfare policies namely social security, health and education. Among them the social security programmes are given lesser importance or rather neglected in the said region.
The work begins with a good introduction to a comparatively longer study (which took nearly four years to cover the five countries). In the second chapter the authors give a clear description of the general economic condition of the Southeast Asia. A detailed analysis of the social security programmes in all the five countries is given in the third chapter. This helps the reader to get a good picture of the social security measures provided by both the government and private sectors in the chosen region. All the five countries have separate schemes for those who work in the public and private sectors and they have given importance only to the social security programmes for the aged who retire from employment. Indonesia has two income maintenance schemes initiated by the government. They are TASPEN or Government Civilian Employees Saving and Insurance Scheme and ASABRI or Armed Forces Social Insurance Plan. For the workers in the private sector there is a compulsory provident fund scheme called JAMSOSTEK. TASPEN provides cash benefits on reaching retirement age or in the event of death during employment. JAMSOSTEK also provides protection against work related accidents and diseases.