Introduction

Since the 1970s the anti-globalisation movement has provided a network for social movements critical of the policies of international financial institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. This has enabled them to link together to exchange criticisms as well as strategies on how to counteract the development programmes of these institutions. These movements initially emerged during the period of dictatorships in Asia when international financial institutions were perceived to provide the rationale for state-led, capitalist, authoritarian regimes. Despite the downfall of these dictatorships in the 1980s and 1990s, the policies of international financial institutions, which stress free enterprise, privatisation, and a market economy, prevailed. The intensification of these policies under the auspices of neo-liberalism further fuelled the anti-globalisation movement. Asia emerged as one of the important sites of interaction among those involved in these movements as international financial institution development models emerged in the newly industrialised countries, for example, Taiwan, Singapore, and South Korea in the 1970s and the new Asian Tigers of Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia in the 1980s. The 1997 Asian financial crisis, which witnessed the collapse of the economies of the newly industrialising countries and the new Asian Tigers, gave further impetus to the anti-globalisation movements as they criticised the development policies and programmes of these institutions. The crisis led to a further criticism of the international financial institutions: the absence of good governance, that is, their lack of transparency and accountability.