If you are wanting parallels with SE Asian nations I thought you would start with Laos and Cambodia. After all, Laos has almost the same political structure, and Cambodia some kind of hybrid.
As a tocharian (sic), I admit that “ancient cultures” all face a natural death. It’s just a matter of time scales (Hari Seldon would agree!). Tocharians are long gone as a culture.
Personally, I find the vanishing populations of the Sentinelese and the Onge of the Andaman Islands very fascinating, genetically and linguistically, because they are probably direct descendents of the first wave of human migration out of Africa ( I don’t think the Indian government really cares about these “ancient cultures” that much). The “negritos” must have populated parts of Burma and Southern India and there are probably genetic traces (being born in Burma, I always fancy that I am partly a Sentinelese!). Even this “thanakha-paste” that Burmese women like to put on their faces (I haven’t seen Suu Kyi doing that) is perhaps a legacy of an ancient facial and body painting tradition of the original inhabitants of Burma. Who knows?
Anyway I definitely don’t like the hypocritical modern political exploitation and commercialisation of “Ancient Cultures”. History is often written and rewritten by the “conquerors”, so what is recorded in history is just a “relative truth”, both in time and space.
[…] New Mandala reports that thirteen villagers from Huay Kontha were apprehended by armed offices from Thailand’s Phu Pha Daeng, a local wildlife sanctuary in Lomsak district. The villagers were harvesting corn at the time as hired hands on the land of another villager. The officers reportedly watched them for three days before telling them they were trespassing on wildlife sanctuary land and ordering them to come to the police station. […]
JW: “Before I open Google Earth … there must be an irrigation scheme in Isarn that’s actually working, so could you provide me two coordinates: one showing the ‘scars’ and one showing a working system?”
A “working” irrigation scheme is a subjective term too. There are RID gravity-fed schemes that provide water to farmers in Isaan, but the land irrigated is a relatively small fraction of their theoretical command area in the dry season (usually in the order of 10 -25 %). In the rainy season, water becomes less of a limiting factor and some years, farmers in irrigation schemes can rely on rainfall runoff to get a reasonable crop of rice, the same as neighbouring farmers in so-called “rain-fed areas”. Irrigation in the rainy season tends to be supplementary and often not critical to success, unless there is a long dry spell – something more likely to occur the further south and west one goes in Isaan as a general rule of thumb. However, floodplain lowlands under state irrigation systems have a higher water retention capacity and less vulnerable than the prevalent middle/upper floodplain terraces (which also tend to be sandier soils) to dry periods, and those areas tend not to be irrigated.
A typical RID large-scale gravity-fed scheme, might be Nong Wai (Nam Phong Basin) in Khon Kaen province, with coordinates:
16 32’06.46″ N 102 53’07.70″ Eye elev. 6.65 kms
A semi-abandoned pumped irrigation scheme (slightly to the east of the TKRH plain proper), which is probably RID built, but may have been a legacy of the Dept of Energy Promotion K-C-M project is visible here, with its tendrils of canals clearly visible stretching across the landscape near Ban Nam Om, Yasothon, with no apparent irrigation:
15 25’11.73″ N 104 13’13.54″ E Eye elev 15.25 kms
In the rainy season, farmers would be loath to pay the pumping costs, but on RID gravity schemes the water is gratis. The tax payer is footing a huge bill for irrigation infrastructure that is not producing extra food or incomes. Hope this helps.
For Jon Fernquest, you might also be interested in some of the past papers on Isaan socio-ecological transformations and the hydropolitics of the Lower Mekong Basin by Chris Sneddon.
The content of this article is welcome news, in my personal opinion.
Yes, there are a few kinks, such as the stronger than expected support for suicide bombing and terrorism revealed by the Muslim Youth Survey Malaysia 2010.
Why do organisations like the Jemaah Islamiah continue to have a hold on the imagination of Muslims? It is because they seem to provide a way to defend Islam, a religion which Muslims (as shown in the survey) truly love.
But one should not look at Islam as a problem. If anything, it is the solution.
I just want to highlight, as a Muslim, the concept of “wasatiah” (look it up) or moderation in Islam. Put into practice, the concept of wasatiah can be a powerful tool against extremism of any kind in Malaysia and globally.
In fighting for the ‘hearts and minds’ of people (specifically Muslims), moderate Islam, the true Islam, must be encouraged. Peace 🙂
You will find that the world is rushing headlong in total opposite direction to Rahman’s sentiment and with full support of all involved including the lowest rung who are conditioned to be part of the increasing prosperous world as pavement.
Ancient Cultures and their need to be preserved is a question full of ambiguities.
There are Ancient Cultures in many areas of the world, Papua New Guinea, Aboriginal Australia, the Amazon Rain Forest, parts of Africa, whole districts of Afghanistan and Pakistan, many places in Africa, especially well in the interior away from the coasts, not only in Burma’s hinterlands.
Should all of these areas and all of these people live Museum lives so that folks from the cities and the modern world can come and take photos? Like the Masai in Kenya, preserved and put in living zoos. Or the long-necked girls in NW Thailand, enslaved, deformed and rented out for tourists to gawk at.
What about very high rates of child and mother childbirth mortality rates? What about very short life spans? What about living subsistence lives with no cash, no savings, no bank accounts, no access to credit, like almost 50% of the population of Laos?
What about forced marriage at age 10? Public executions without any legal procedures for someone accused of adultery, even falsely accused? What about child labor? Forced clitorectomies?
Who or what committee will sit and decide which bits of Ancient Cultures should be preserved and which bits discarded? And will such a committee be acting in its own class/social position interest or in the interest of the peoples they perceive to be obligated to remain in the Ancient Culture System?
For instance, in Thailand the Ancient Culture Group has been promoting the Sufficiency Economy concept as a way to slow down social change and advancement. More for preserving its own prerogatives, interests and position than looking out for the interests of the vast swath of the population they wish to adopt Sufficiency Economy lives.
Quite a strong criticism of McDaniel’s book. Basically, White seems to suggest that the book has been published prematurely. Reading the review, I wondered what would happen if we transferred McDaniel’s micro approach to societal spheres that are equivalent to the field of religion. Would it really make much sense to emphasize the “actions [and thoughts, meanings, repertoires] of individual agents” in a factory, hospital, court, educational, scientific, mass media, or bureaucratic setting? Would these structural, institutional settings disappear by focusing of what individual actors do? How individual are the individual actors’ actions?
I was also in the Pha Arthit Phan Fa Bridge area in 1992 and your version of the events doesn’t seem to accord with reality at all. In fact, it seems to be not much more than the Thai officialdom version with a dubious anecdote”
“An American journalist, working for one of the major networks, came rushing with the crowd, from the East side, to where I was standing. The demonstration at Fan Fa Bridge had been largely peaceful that night, until then – obviously in some shock, he blurted out to me that two men had come out of a building and with pistols – started firing directly into the crowd. I heard those shots – intermittently, for about twenty minutes. They achieved their aim : the crowd then exploded in anger. There were definitely agent provocateurs at work – through-out May ’92.”
The reason no one else has ever told this story is that it is just not true.
It was ridiculous to be imprisoned for translating parts of an academic book, published by Yale University Press, that is regularly referenced by scholars. I presume that Joe Gordon’s US citizenship had a great deal to do with his pardon, so here is the question that remains in my mind: does the royal pardon mean that Joe Gordon has the right to remain or return to Thailand, or will he/has he been put on a plane and told never to return to the Kingdom?
Your piped dream of ‘becoming the next dictator’ need to take a back seat for now.
I am absolutely certain that “Si├кmpré Revoluci├│n” concept NEVER lead to Rule of Laws.
History has shown unequivocally lead to another even worst dictatorship.
Useless careless policy and advocacy like yours aside, it take 0ver 50 years of ( Ne Win + SPDC) dictatorship to degrade Myanmar to present quagmire.
It will surely take as much time to restore RoL.
As for the present inequities that you profess to care between the have and have not will certainly be taken care of in due time with the advent of the RoL.
Have the West that is so bent on punishing the military through whipping the Citizenry with deprivation now see the numerous avenues available to restore, promote and strengthen institutions, individuals and everything else that will promote the RoL?
Education, Health Care and Economic well being of Myanmar Citizenry are within the realms of advocating/Facilitating an independent judiciary system, that will rectify past abuses and simultaneously strike down further abuses that you and you┬о ilks like to dwell on.
So according to plan B, rule of law has nothing to do with politics/govt and all to do with investment. Such sage words of wisdom make us lesser mortals so humble.
The need to reduce military budgets, however you measure it, is of course hardly unique to Burma, what with the Anglo-American axis demanding austerity from the public because the ruling classes cannot afford to spend tax payer’s money on public services such as health and education, the very same that citizenry need everywhere, while fighting evidently highly affordable/desirable foreign wars all over the planet. The difference is the Burmese military fights not foreign devils but internecine wars within its own borders. Enforced austerity to all intents and purposes with no recourse to protest, let alone checks and balances which at least Western people enjoy.
Just as the ruling classes get richer than ever in the West while the majority populace see both their jobs and public services/benefits go down the drain, so does the military-crony ruling class in Burma exponentially richer while the rest of the country finds life harder than ever (Maung Aye goes to Singapore for medical treatment, people just die quietly) .
All you need to do is throw money at the problem. And in whose lap will it land?
I support your views broadly, but have one question.
Do you think that an illiberal government can actually do what you said in your closing statement: “… must allow each individual to reach his or her full potential, and to treat a person with dignity and respect, and to act in the interest of the citizens, not a narrow elite…”
My humble opinion is the above are contradictory (illiberal government and the freedom for each individual to reach their full potential, and to treat a person…etc)
Coming from a layman perspective with working class parents and living in a small rented apartment in one of the southeast asian states, I would judge a government by what it is suppose to do. In general a government is supposed to ensure the well being of the citizens, and if the government of the day fails to meet this objective, whether it is illiberal or not is not relevant to me and some of my contemporaries struggling to survive.
One example of a liberal government that has failed to ensure the well being of the citizens (with the exception of the top 1%) is the United States. It has a strong democracy, liberal media and clear separation of powers between the judicial, executive and legislative branches of government. From the Reagan era down to Clinton and the Bush period, there had been strong movement towards deregulations and shifting of wealth concentration to the elite. Between 1992 to 2007, the top 400 earners in the US saw their income rose by 392% while their tax is reduced by 37%. It is a well known fact of the widening income gap and social injustice in the US that led to the OWS movement. I could not see how things could change as the elite has managed to manipulate the democratic process to protect their wealth.
In Southeast Asia, Thaksin was viewed as a hardline ruler when he was in charge of Thailand. Yet it was during his time when attention was paid to the rural masses. Countries such as Thailand and Singapore experienced strong economic growth with income rising for the majority of the population. In the case of Singapore, it was only recently that the idea of liberal democracy started to take place within the larger population as it was perceived the government policies had failed to improve the quality of life of the population.
My take is that each country is unique and there is no standard template on how countries should be run. What could work in the US may not work in Europe, likewise what is practical in the West may not be applicable to countries in this region due to historical factors or other form of constraints. We tend to use the West as a yardstick which has its own shortcomings. The historian John Smail has argued that many historians tend to use Europe-centric approach in studying Southeast Asia, therefore unable to appreciate local contributions to the regional’s development and history. Likewise, the danger of thinking that there is only one way and that everybody else must follow that one way is a failure to appreciate the uniqueness of each country and region, which is a recipe for disaster.
In the current context, we may not be aware but subconsciously we could be adopting one view and use it as a basis to judge others, while the fact there is no absolute truth.
Whether a government is liberal or not, the bottomline for the government of the day is that it must allow each individual to reach his or her full potential, and to treat a person with dignity and respect, and to act in the interest of the citizens, not a narrow elite.
Envy, greed and racialism were not the causes but the outcomes of poor governance. The ethnic-based affirmative actions might be viewed by some as the result of envy, greed and racialism of one race against another. But is it true?
Race-based affirmative actions are in place in other countries too. In post apartheid South Africa, the blacks were given special treatments such as in the education system and admission to universities, in view of the fact that should one be allowed into a university solely on merit alone, the universities will still be all white, while majority of the populations are non-whites. Do we then call such affirmative actions by South Africa as a result of envy, greed or racialism by the non-white against the white?
While the race-based affirmative actions in Malaysia have noble aims to ensure social stability by improving the economic status of the majority Malays, the implementations of ideas are lacking in effectiveness. There is a lack accountability and transparency, resulting in allegations of nepotism and corruptions. The key players use race and where convenient, religion, as a rallying ground, thus dividing the society into “us vs them” mentality which resulted in greed, envy and racialism.
There is no single right template on how a country should be run. Policy that could work for the United States may not be applicable to Singapore, likewise what is applicable to Singapore may not be practical for Malaysia.
However the bottomline that all countries, Malaysia included, must adhere to is the idea of social justice, that each man has the right to achieve his full potential and to be treated with dignity and respect. This idea is difficult to grasp in the current global environment where a small minority has monopoly of wealth and resources, leading to widening income gap and social instability, and also the Occupy “Whatever” movements around the globe.
As the minority tries harder to protect their turf in the name of “market efficiency” and using laws and politics to protect their wealth, this causes envy and greed. And in a country where one particular race controls the wealth, this causes racial hatred and a recipe for a potential disaster. As the Noble laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz argued, “The top 1 percent have the best houses, the best educations, the best doctors, and the best lifestyles, but there is one thing that money doesn’t seem to have bought: an understanding that their fate is bound up with how the other 99 percent live. Throughout history, this is something that the top 1 percent eventually do learn. Too late .”
Ralph, I’ll refer you to comment #1, doubtless they know about international law hence they’re still scratching their heads re: “… right to be treated with respect and dignity as prisoners of conscience and political prisoners, which are guaranteed by international laws“. Third time now, 26 red thumbs, but people only seem to want to obfuscate. Are you saying AI should have visited all of the 55? Why?
“Indeed, the recent reforms in Myanmar underline the differences between authoritarian and militaristic regimes and Marxist-Leninist ones. Aung Sang Suu Kyi would never have survived in Laos, Vietnam or China. ”
True. Being authoritarian without any ideology makes things unpredictable and somewhat flexible at the whim of whoever is in charge. In the earlier days being a wife of British citizen would have helped as the then military isolationists did not know how to deal with her. Being Aung San’s daughter helped as well. But there has been serious attempts to kill her wiht out success for seasoned professional killers. That may simply be fate!
“…The hegemonic global mantra is ‘development,’ an often vague term promising a better future, and almost anything can be justified just by invoking it. It is a kind of modern magic, and it trumps any other card in the deck, including preservation of ‘a beautiful, ancient Lao culture,…”
Nowadays, not just Laos’s, but any culture at all are simply museum pieces. The global consumerism indoctrination is so complete, there is not even a single academic left to argue for preservation of ancient culture which is currently alive and well in Burma simply to disappear in a few years’ time to give way to global consumerism and covetousness as quite rightly pointed out in the name of “development” or most readers of these columns would call increasing GDP and social status indicators none of which include how much family members care for each other.
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Factionalism in Vietnam
If you are wanting parallels with SE Asian nations I thought you would start with Laos and Cambodia. After all, Laos has almost the same political structure, and Cambodia some kind of hybrid.
Lao history: Don’t look back
Maybe some elements of Loation socialist republicanism need to be preserved to question the embracement of traditional culture by Thai royals
Lao history: Don’t look back
As a tocharian (sic), I admit that “ancient cultures” all face a natural death. It’s just a matter of time scales (Hari Seldon would agree!). Tocharians are long gone as a culture.
Personally, I find the vanishing populations of the Sentinelese and the Onge of the Andaman Islands very fascinating, genetically and linguistically, because they are probably direct descendents of the first wave of human migration out of Africa ( I don’t think the Indian government really cares about these “ancient cultures” that much). The “negritos” must have populated parts of Burma and Southern India and there are probably genetic traces (being born in Burma, I always fancy that I am partly a Sentinelese!). Even this “thanakha-paste” that Burmese women like to put on their faces (I haven’t seen Suu Kyi doing that) is perhaps a legacy of an ancient facial and body painting tradition of the original inhabitants of Burma. Who knows?
Anyway I definitely don’t like the hypocritical modern political exploitation and commercialisation of “Ancient Cultures”. History is often written and rewritten by the “conquerors”, so what is recorded in history is just a “relative truth”, both in time and space.
Blaming villagers for global warming
[…] New Mandala reports that thirteen villagers from Huay Kontha were apprehended by armed offices from Thailand’s Phu Pha Daeng, a local wildlife sanctuary in Lomsak district. The villagers were harvesting corn at the time as hired hands on the land of another villager. The officers reportedly watched them for three days before telling them they were trespassing on wildlife sanctuary land and ordering them to come to the police station. […]
Peasants and the state
JW: “Before I open Google Earth … there must be an irrigation scheme in Isarn that’s actually working, so could you provide me two coordinates: one showing the ‘scars’ and one showing a working system?”
A “working” irrigation scheme is a subjective term too. There are RID gravity-fed schemes that provide water to farmers in Isaan, but the land irrigated is a relatively small fraction of their theoretical command area in the dry season (usually in the order of 10 -25 %). In the rainy season, water becomes less of a limiting factor and some years, farmers in irrigation schemes can rely on rainfall runoff to get a reasonable crop of rice, the same as neighbouring farmers in so-called “rain-fed areas”. Irrigation in the rainy season tends to be supplementary and often not critical to success, unless there is a long dry spell – something more likely to occur the further south and west one goes in Isaan as a general rule of thumb. However, floodplain lowlands under state irrigation systems have a higher water retention capacity and less vulnerable than the prevalent middle/upper floodplain terraces (which also tend to be sandier soils) to dry periods, and those areas tend not to be irrigated.
A typical RID large-scale gravity-fed scheme, might be Nong Wai (Nam Phong Basin) in Khon Kaen province, with coordinates:
16 32’06.46″ N 102 53’07.70″ Eye elev. 6.65 kms
A semi-abandoned pumped irrigation scheme (slightly to the east of the TKRH plain proper), which is probably RID built, but may have been a legacy of the Dept of Energy Promotion K-C-M project is visible here, with its tendrils of canals clearly visible stretching across the landscape near Ban Nam Om, Yasothon, with no apparent irrigation:
15 25’11.73″ N 104 13’13.54″ E Eye elev 15.25 kms
In the rainy season, farmers would be loath to pay the pumping costs, but on RID gravity schemes the water is gratis. The tax payer is footing a huge bill for irrigation infrastructure that is not producing extra food or incomes. Hope this helps.
For Jon Fernquest, you might also be interested in some of the past papers on Isaan socio-ecological transformations and the hydropolitics of the Lower Mekong Basin by Chris Sneddon.
Malaysia’s Islamic future
The content of this article is welcome news, in my personal opinion.
Yes, there are a few kinks, such as the stronger than expected support for suicide bombing and terrorism revealed by the Muslim Youth Survey Malaysia 2010.
Why do organisations like the Jemaah Islamiah continue to have a hold on the imagination of Muslims? It is because they seem to provide a way to defend Islam, a religion which Muslims (as shown in the survey) truly love.
But one should not look at Islam as a problem. If anything, it is the solution.
I just want to highlight, as a Muslim, the concept of “wasatiah” (look it up) or moderation in Islam. Put into practice, the concept of wasatiah can be a powerful tool against extremism of any kind in Malaysia and globally.
In fighting for the ‘hearts and minds’ of people (specifically Muslims), moderate Islam, the true Islam, must be encouraged. Peace 🙂
Malaysia after regime change – Ooi Kee Beng
@ #1 & #2,
You will find that the world is rushing headlong in total opposite direction to Rahman’s sentiment and with full support of all involved including the lowest rung who are conditioned to be part of the increasing prosperous world as pavement.
Lao history: Don’t look back
Ancient Cultures and their need to be preserved is a question full of ambiguities.
There are Ancient Cultures in many areas of the world, Papua New Guinea, Aboriginal Australia, the Amazon Rain Forest, parts of Africa, whole districts of Afghanistan and Pakistan, many places in Africa, especially well in the interior away from the coasts, not only in Burma’s hinterlands.
Should all of these areas and all of these people live Museum lives so that folks from the cities and the modern world can come and take photos? Like the Masai in Kenya, preserved and put in living zoos. Or the long-necked girls in NW Thailand, enslaved, deformed and rented out for tourists to gawk at.
What about very high rates of child and mother childbirth mortality rates? What about very short life spans? What about living subsistence lives with no cash, no savings, no bank accounts, no access to credit, like almost 50% of the population of Laos?
What about forced marriage at age 10? Public executions without any legal procedures for someone accused of adultery, even falsely accused? What about child labor? Forced clitorectomies?
Who or what committee will sit and decide which bits of Ancient Cultures should be preserved and which bits discarded? And will such a committee be acting in its own class/social position interest or in the interest of the peoples they perceive to be obligated to remain in the Ancient Culture System?
For instance, in Thailand the Ancient Culture Group has been promoting the Sufficiency Economy concept as a way to slow down social change and advancement. More for preserving its own prerogatives, interests and position than looking out for the interests of the vast swath of the population they wish to adopt Sufficiency Economy lives.
Review of The Lovelorn Ghost and the Magical Monk
Quite a strong criticism of McDaniel’s book. Basically, White seems to suggest that the book has been published prematurely. Reading the review, I wondered what would happen if we transferred McDaniel’s micro approach to societal spheres that are equivalent to the field of religion. Would it really make much sense to emphasize the “actions [and thoughts, meanings, repertoires] of individual agents” in a factory, hospital, court, educational, scientific, mass media, or bureaucratic setting? Would these structural, institutional settings disappear by focusing of what individual actors do? How individual are the individual actors’ actions?
Thailand’s benevolent army
CB #19
I was also in the Pha Arthit Phan Fa Bridge area in 1992 and your version of the events doesn’t seem to accord with reality at all. In fact, it seems to be not much more than the Thai officialdom version with a dubious anecdote”
“An American journalist, working for one of the major networks, came rushing with the crowd, from the East side, to where I was standing. The demonstration at Fan Fa Bridge had been largely peaceful that night, until then – obviously in some shock, he blurted out to me that two men had come out of a building and with pistols – started firing directly into the crowd. I heard those shots – intermittently, for about twenty minutes. They achieved their aim : the crowd then exploded in anger. There were definitely agent provocateurs at work – through-out May ’92.”
The reason no one else has ever told this story is that it is just not true.
Peaceful army, violent third hand = propaganda
FACT’s plea for Joe Gordon
It was ridiculous to be imprisoned for translating parts of an academic book, published by Yale University Press, that is regularly referenced by scholars. I presume that Joe Gordon’s US citizenship had a great deal to do with his pardon, so here is the question that remains in my mind: does the royal pardon mean that Joe Gordon has the right to remain or return to Thailand, or will he/has he been put on a plane and told never to return to the Kingdom?
Myanmar’s new political-economic contours
Ko Moe Aung #25
Your piped dream of ‘becoming the next dictator’ need to take a back seat for now.
I am absolutely certain that “Si├кmpré Revoluci├│n” concept NEVER lead to Rule of Laws.
History has shown unequivocally lead to another even worst dictatorship.
Useless careless policy and advocacy like yours aside, it take 0ver 50 years of ( Ne Win + SPDC) dictatorship to degrade Myanmar to present quagmire.
It will surely take as much time to restore RoL.
As for the present inequities that you profess to care between the have and have not will certainly be taken care of in due time with the advent of the RoL.
Have the West that is so bent on punishing the military through whipping the Citizenry with deprivation now see the numerous avenues available to restore, promote and strengthen institutions, individuals and everything else that will promote the RoL?
Education, Health Care and Economic well being of Myanmar Citizenry are within the realms of advocating/Facilitating an independent judiciary system, that will rectify past abuses and simultaneously strike down further abuses that you and you┬о ilks like to dwell on.
Myanmar’s new political-economic contours
So according to plan B, rule of law has nothing to do with politics/govt and all to do with investment. Such sage words of wisdom make us lesser mortals so humble.
The need to reduce military budgets, however you measure it, is of course hardly unique to Burma, what with the Anglo-American axis demanding austerity from the public because the ruling classes cannot afford to spend tax payer’s money on public services such as health and education, the very same that citizenry need everywhere, while fighting evidently highly affordable/desirable foreign wars all over the planet. The difference is the Burmese military fights not foreign devils but internecine wars within its own borders. Enforced austerity to all intents and purposes with no recourse to protest, let alone checks and balances which at least Western people enjoy.
Just as the ruling classes get richer than ever in the West while the majority populace see both their jobs and public services/benefits go down the drain, so does the military-crony ruling class in Burma exponentially richer while the rest of the country finds life harder than ever (Maung Aye goes to Singapore for medical treatment, people just die quietly) .
All you need to do is throw money at the problem. And in whose lap will it land?
Southeast Asia’s illiberal regimes
I support your views broadly, but have one question.
Do you think that an illiberal government can actually do what you said in your closing statement: “… must allow each individual to reach his or her full potential, and to treat a person with dignity and respect, and to act in the interest of the citizens, not a narrow elite…”
My humble opinion is the above are contradictory (illiberal government and the freedom for each individual to reach their full potential, and to treat a person…etc)
Malaysia after regime change – Ooi Kee Beng
Well said Rahman.
Thailand’s benevolent army
Nic Stuart – I 100% agree.
Southeast Asia’s illiberal regimes
Coming from a layman perspective with working class parents and living in a small rented apartment in one of the southeast asian states, I would judge a government by what it is suppose to do. In general a government is supposed to ensure the well being of the citizens, and if the government of the day fails to meet this objective, whether it is illiberal or not is not relevant to me and some of my contemporaries struggling to survive.
One example of a liberal government that has failed to ensure the well being of the citizens (with the exception of the top 1%) is the United States. It has a strong democracy, liberal media and clear separation of powers between the judicial, executive and legislative branches of government. From the Reagan era down to Clinton and the Bush period, there had been strong movement towards deregulations and shifting of wealth concentration to the elite. Between 1992 to 2007, the top 400 earners in the US saw their income rose by 392% while their tax is reduced by 37%. It is a well known fact of the widening income gap and social injustice in the US that led to the OWS movement. I could not see how things could change as the elite has managed to manipulate the democratic process to protect their wealth.
In Southeast Asia, Thaksin was viewed as a hardline ruler when he was in charge of Thailand. Yet it was during his time when attention was paid to the rural masses. Countries such as Thailand and Singapore experienced strong economic growth with income rising for the majority of the population. In the case of Singapore, it was only recently that the idea of liberal democracy started to take place within the larger population as it was perceived the government policies had failed to improve the quality of life of the population.
My take is that each country is unique and there is no standard template on how countries should be run. What could work in the US may not work in Europe, likewise what is practical in the West may not be applicable to countries in this region due to historical factors or other form of constraints. We tend to use the West as a yardstick which has its own shortcomings. The historian John Smail has argued that many historians tend to use Europe-centric approach in studying Southeast Asia, therefore unable to appreciate local contributions to the regional’s development and history. Likewise, the danger of thinking that there is only one way and that everybody else must follow that one way is a failure to appreciate the uniqueness of each country and region, which is a recipe for disaster.
In the current context, we may not be aware but subconsciously we could be adopting one view and use it as a basis to judge others, while the fact there is no absolute truth.
Whether a government is liberal or not, the bottomline for the government of the day is that it must allow each individual to reach his or her full potential, and to treat a person with dignity and respect, and to act in the interest of the citizens, not a narrow elite.
Malaysia after regime change – Ooi Kee Beng
Envy, greed and racialism were not the causes but the outcomes of poor governance. The ethnic-based affirmative actions might be viewed by some as the result of envy, greed and racialism of one race against another. But is it true?
Race-based affirmative actions are in place in other countries too. In post apartheid South Africa, the blacks were given special treatments such as in the education system and admission to universities, in view of the fact that should one be allowed into a university solely on merit alone, the universities will still be all white, while majority of the populations are non-whites. Do we then call such affirmative actions by South Africa as a result of envy, greed or racialism by the non-white against the white?
While the race-based affirmative actions in Malaysia have noble aims to ensure social stability by improving the economic status of the majority Malays, the implementations of ideas are lacking in effectiveness. There is a lack accountability and transparency, resulting in allegations of nepotism and corruptions. The key players use race and where convenient, religion, as a rallying ground, thus dividing the society into “us vs them” mentality which resulted in greed, envy and racialism.
There is no single right template on how a country should be run. Policy that could work for the United States may not be applicable to Singapore, likewise what is applicable to Singapore may not be practical for Malaysia.
However the bottomline that all countries, Malaysia included, must adhere to is the idea of social justice, that each man has the right to achieve his full potential and to be treated with dignity and respect. This idea is difficult to grasp in the current global environment where a small minority has monopoly of wealth and resources, leading to widening income gap and social instability, and also the Occupy “Whatever” movements around the globe.
As the minority tries harder to protect their turf in the name of “market efficiency” and using laws and politics to protect their wealth, this causes envy and greed. And in a country where one particular race controls the wealth, this causes racial hatred and a recipe for a potential disaster. As the Noble laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz argued, “The top 1 percent have the best houses, the best educations, the best doctors, and the best lifestyles, but there is one thing that money doesn’t seem to have bought: an understanding that their fate is bound up with how the other 99 percent live. Throughout history, this is something that the top 1 percent eventually do learn. Too late .”
Prisoner writes to Amnesty International
Ralph, I’ll refer you to comment #1, doubtless they know about international law hence they’re still scratching their heads re: “… right to be treated with respect and dignity as prisoners of conscience and political prisoners, which are guaranteed by international laws“. Third time now, 26 red thumbs, but people only seem to want to obfuscate. Are you saying AI should have visited all of the 55? Why?
Lao history: Don’t look back
“Indeed, the recent reforms in Myanmar underline the differences between authoritarian and militaristic regimes and Marxist-Leninist ones. Aung Sang Suu Kyi would never have survived in Laos, Vietnam or China. ”
True. Being authoritarian without any ideology makes things unpredictable and somewhat flexible at the whim of whoever is in charge. In the earlier days being a wife of British citizen would have helped as the then military isolationists did not know how to deal with her. Being Aung San’s daughter helped as well. But there has been serious attempts to kill her wiht out success for seasoned professional killers. That may simply be fate!
“…The hegemonic global mantra is ‘development,’ an often vague term promising a better future, and almost anything can be justified just by invoking it. It is a kind of modern magic, and it trumps any other card in the deck, including preservation of ‘a beautiful, ancient Lao culture,…”
Nowadays, not just Laos’s, but any culture at all are simply museum pieces. The global consumerism indoctrination is so complete, there is not even a single academic left to argue for preservation of ancient culture which is currently alive and well in Burma simply to disappear in a few years’ time to give way to global consumerism and covetousness as quite rightly pointed out in the name of “development” or most readers of these columns would call increasing GDP and social status indicators none of which include how much family members care for each other.