I simply wanted to say that the article is absolutely fabricated and based-on biased approach. As David said before, Sai Latt should declare his religion and background when writing about the issue like this. As a reader and an Australian Tax Payer, I believe this is wasting our Tax Payers’ money by publishing articles like this on Australian Tax Payers’ website, as the article is based on the fabricated wrong facts making false history of a country and a region that he doesn’t know.
Simon: Ip addressed are stored in two locations: 1) the apache logs, 2) the wordpress logs. (I’ll ignore the logs that WordPress themselves as well as several more third parties will keep – but we shouldn’t.)
Getting rid of the ip addresses from both these locations is non-trivial. Quite simply very few people alter the way Apache logs visits. It’s even more complicated here because the web server is hosting the whole of asiapacific.anu.edu.au – not just New Mandala. In WordPress there’s no option to clear ip addresses – they’re logged with every comment and only disappear when the comment is deleted. The moderators have indicated that they like to refer to ip addresses to detect bogus posts so they have to be logged for at least several days.
Don’t post dangerous stuff from an IP address (or rather, connection) that you use often or only a few people use. As displayed in the case of Ah Kong, the authorities have shown they’re willing to follow a circumstantial trail to identify a machine and hold an owner to account.
But if you think you’re on the home run once you’ve got your ip address obfuscated then think again. Think about Panopticlick: https://panopticlick.eff.org/
Realistically, your ip address holds less identifying information that the request headers that you browser sends.
Log into your Yahoo mail then a few minutes later (or hours or days, really) post an illegal comment on New Mandala via an obfuscated ip address? They’ve got you!
Or potentially they’ve got you anyway, I really doubt the Thai authorities are sophisticated enough to be doing that kind of fingerprinting. The good news is that SSL (ie https) hides all those headers.
Gee, this post certainly lured a startling number of new readers – an alternative demographic to NM’s usual suspects – to post opinions and to up the number of ‘green tickmarks’ for juvenile and/or deranged comments…
Ah well, at least it’s novel to have some freshly brewed vitriol to mull over with my morning coffee as I catch up on regional news…
Oh and my opinion about Muslims and Rohingya in Myanamar? Recent events evoke the atmosphere for Jews in 1930s Germany, and specifically Kristallnacht, so with the state benefitting from the distraction such scapegoating provides, who has the will, presence of mind, and power to broker peace and foster intercultural understanding? For the time being, I fear, the answer is…no one.
Your paper is only based on Facebook and Internet. Myanmar has lowest usage of internet and telephone among SEA countries. And Within Rakhine state , very difficult to go somewhere from others as there are so many rivers. So information are not smooth well as u think. Even if u use bad languages at FB to them , how can they know? I dont think this event spark from online article and comments. I can prove this. That’s why Myanmar isn’t follow Arab Spring Wave. At that time all people using online doing so many campaign. But nothing happen as there is so limited connection to access online from Myanmar inside.
And another point is are you sure about there is no supported organisations for Rohingya. we can discuss it later.
Please note that participants from both sides are now running for their life as they have no time and connection to reply to u. Hope u will write “how to help those victims by Australian gov” for your next article.
Best wish for your PhD by doing other great paper.
My brother met a Rakhine Buddhist in Rangoon, former capital, who went to Malaysia and worked there illegally like a lot of oppressed Rohingyas and other Muslims of Burma (South Asian descent) in search of work did via Thailland.
This is what he said: It was nice.
This Buddhist guy must have had close intermingling with the Rohingyas and other Muslims of Burma there. Because he was being productive and earning a living, he had no reason to resent the industrious Rohingys nor other Muslims of Burma like those who did not go anywhere and are just interested in picking on the weaker group to blame for their own poverty.
Ko Wunna,
You are a lier. eliable News Agency has already stated that Rohingya and Rakhine ratio in Maungdaw is 50:50. Only in Maungdaw, the Muslims dared ot fight back the oppression. In other towns and villages in Arakan, the Rohingy Muslims are sitting ducks.
It is pathetic to see the so called Burmese Buddhist showing no compassion toward the Rohingys as they took asylum status or via refugee programs and become a citizen in a new country. That is because they are no Buddhis. They are fake Buddhists.
It is one thing to not agree with the Rohingyas claiming for ethnic group status, biut it is another thing to ask for for killing them. Shame on you people.
As for Sai Latt, the author, I salute you for your facts on the story.
Last article of Sai Latt drew the largest response from people who usually do not bother and sure this one will. Just like the BBC report of Anna Jones.
Facebook and news outlets are really in overdrive all times of day and night.
Yet the issue is simple.
If one enjoys using emotional and inflammatory words found among these posts they are in thousands- on both sides.
It is now becoming clear that what is happening is not really any thing to do with religion at all or race.
U Razek and Yebaw Ko Htwe were respected and “A-lay- pued” exactly like Aung San and Thakin Mya. All Buddhist Burmese go around for a feast of great Bariani at the time of Eide. And no Buddhist offerings would exclude any human who turns up for the feast or in some instances the “Nats” a great many of whom are indeed “Kalar” which is a word many have repeatedly pointed out is not by itself derogatroy at all, even though some enjoy saying it is in international press. One great student and cronicler of Burmese history indeed was U Kalar.
The issue of the word “Rohingya” is red herring. It does not matter when it originates and what it means in this issue. Neither is the proof or lack thereby of such and such people being in such and such place for such and such time.
You see, short of the current “Civil War”, there was never any apprehension for the Burmese and Christian Kachin living side by side never worring about one race raping and killing the other and burning down ones houses, -short of this civil war.
But that has been the situation with some populace of northern Araken and around Sittwe while it must be emphasized that a large number of muslim people in those area also get along well with the others.
There has been no doubt a crime has been committed regarding a rape and murder. There also have been no doubt that another larger crime has been committed in Taunggup regardless of the reasons for it. Those have to be dealt with by legal means.
None of these can be used as an excuse to further violence and claim victimhood regardless of any emotional appeal.
It is clear regardless of name, religious persuation or duration of time people have been in the place. People living together must be able to live with one another in comfort and trust.
Current problem shows that people who have been living for say-centuries cannot gain faith and trust of the majority neighbours.
Drumming up explosive religion and race cards for worldwide sympathy is simply cowardly.
It is time for everyone to come out clean rather than recruit sympathesies by emotional blackmail.
Buddhist Burmese and Arakanese must come out to say, their animosity is against the muslim or the minority group at the north of Araken.
Muslim Burmese must come out to say their view on this group.
And people currently claiming victimhood must state what the real reasons of their demands are. Afterall, Yunos himself was educated in higher learning centre in Rangoon.
Only when these facts are clear, the way forward of how to deal with this group of people can be put on the table.
“While I forget the amount of the funds found in Thaksin’s donut box, it certainly wasn’t enough to impact the court decision on the case.” – Hoyt
Enlightening response from a true Thaksin believer! The amount of the Thaksin bribe through his lawyers was Baht 2.0 million by the way. And out of curiousity Leah Hoyt, how much higher should the bribe had been “to impact the court decision . . .”?
Do you all Thaksin lovers think like Hoyt? Every Thaksin ‘honest mistake’ at or below a certain amount explainable as no more than trivial misdemeanor?
Sai Latt should declare his religion and ethnicity before allowing to write a long article on such controversial issues on an Australian Taxpayers funded website.
Here in America even the CNBC journalists are forced by a strict law to declare their material interest in a particular company if they are making a favorable or non-favorable comments on that stock.
You are a Muslim Shan and you want to protect your Muslim brethens so much by omitting the real terrorist face of Rowengya or Rohingya. Look at all the villages they burnt, look at all the people they killed. They have played victim so much before. Now it is their time to play their real role of ‘Savages’. You will help it out, willingly or unwillingly.
Racial discrimination (not just in Burma) is, in my opinion, based on 4 things (in the following order):
1. Skin colour
2. Money
3. Religion
4. Education and Culture
Skin colour seems to be the most important one in Asia (the UN emissary Ibrahim Gambari was never taken seriously by Than Shwe). Asians are rather obsessed about skin colour, even in India (there are lot of skin whitening creams available all over Asia!). No wonder, Korean soap operas are very popular in Burma (a lot of kids in the big cities in Burma really try hard to look like Korean stars). Most Burmese also seem to have a much higher tolerance for “illegal immigrants” from China (there are lots of them in Burma but perhaps Burmese consider Chinese as “taing yin tha” (indigenous) or even as “paukphaw” (cousins)?, maybe because they “look more like Burmese” (whatever that means lol) and besides, they have enough money to bribe corrupt Burmese officials and buy real estate? I don’t know)
Anyway, it’s not going to be easy for the poor uneducated dark-skinned Muslim “illegal immigrants”, in Burma or elsewhere. I wonder how Burmese think about lighter-skinned very rich Muslims from Saudi-Arabia or Dubai (where some Burmese generals might have bank accounts?)
Incidentally the last Mughal emperor of India Bahadur Shah II (a Muslim) was sent to Burma by the British and he died (peacefully) in Rangoon in 1862.
Melody Maung
I might have screen of the guy who offered award for raping and killing muslims. He said he would pay 300,000 Kyats for raping a muslim woman and 500,000 Kyats for killing a muslim. He even mentioned his phone number on facebook. He is from Thailand.
Please do research before you judge Sai Latt.
Violating the very Sun Tzu’s principle of “wining the war b/f even beginning a battle” the Kachin-Bamar conflict will drag on with all the usual accompanying tragedies with, the Kachin surely getting the even shorter end.
How will this conflict will be concluded?
Look no further than preponderance of recent examples b/t Karen-Bamar and similar others.
The good news is this conclusion will be swifter than other previous ones.
Due to neither 3rd party nor Guns and Ammo ┬о individual zealots involvement yet, as in the case of still ongoing Karen-Bamar.
What would happen if the Paris Court subpoena’s Prime Minister Najib Razak or Ahmad Zahid, Malaysia’s current Defense Minister to testify at the trials?
This article discusses the legal aspects of that possibility.
It is open for the French courts, if Ahmad Zahid refuses to answer a subpoena, to upgrade that subpoena to an international warrant of arrest, and to seek the assistance of Interpol to effect it. This is known as a “red notice”. Whether the French would actually do that is a tale for another time.
The Burmese and Rakhine are only human. Just remember that there has never been a Buddhist crusade or jihad in history. Ever heard of the “Arab and the Camel”? Only here in this version the camel is Rohingya and the Arab Rakhine. Religion and citizenship though relevant are secondary to the real issue – territorial claims based on a bogus history accompanied by aggression.
Perhaps the 3 June 2012 massacre, which was a strong reaction to a rape-murder case of a 26-year-old woman in Rambre Township is based on an unfounded rumour, perhaps started by the govt to divert popular anger on a whole raft of issues as they have done before. But it’s hardly surprising nonetheless that Burmese opinion across the board, of all political hues, is supportive of the Rakhine. The $64,000 question is are we falling for one of the regime’s time honoured strategies in times of crisis?
You may have seen this article by Dr. Habib Siddiqui in Asia Tribune. He said, “As I write, Maung Daw – located in northern Arakan (Rakhine state of Burma) is burning, as if mimicking the pogroms against the Rohingya and Muslim minorities of Burma that started in the 1930s..” when in fact it was the Rohingya who had earlier gone on a rampage killing seven people and burning 22 Buddhist villages in Maungdaw. Tit for tat never ends.
win,
Surely you’ve heard of a racist expression in the army, “When you see an Arakanese and a viper, kill the Arakanese first“? Not a million miles to extrapolate from there. And you are rather good at self-flagellation as plan B would put it.
This I agree with the author:
Most importantly, perhaps, although Burmese Muslims do not seem to be enthusiastic about supporting Rohingyas’ status as an ethnic group of Burma, they are not able to make visible the distant between themselves and the Rohingya, as they doubt that anti-Rohingya campaign is also an anti-Muslim one. In other words, the idea of Muslim brotherhood is not relevant to the relationship between Rohingyas and Burmese Muslims…
Exactly. They do not wish to be tarred with the same brush, and they are not confined to the three townships just this side of the Naaf River which in itself is a giveaway.
And how exactly do you get Burmese-Australian citizens off the racist campaign? Can anyone throw some light on the legal aspects of this?
Episodes of Sectarian violence within a nation such as Myanmar, with such vast differences in every respect from ethnicity to religions is to be expected.
Recurrent factors, which rarely can be solved, that contribute to these repeated episodes must be addressed, monitor and controlled.
Welcome to the age of faux “Freedom”. Where media such as Facebook, Blogs and other internet based communication can be used by unscrupulous to spread hatred and paranoia.
The present issue within Yakhine state is but an ugly microcosm of deprivation that the West has chosen as a method to effect the whole of citizenry within Myanmar.
Thus rather Hypocritical for the West/Australian government now to use this as a HR progress.
Not until the very basic of Myanmar Citizenry HR to education, healthcare and economic opportunities are addressed and guaranteed to desperate deprived Citizenry, invoking present HR violations as well as others that stem from poverty, in every respects, will just be putting the cart b/f the horses.
Thaksin’s lawyers got convicted for sending a routine grease payment to the corrupt justices because they were Thaksin’s lawyers.
The thousands of other grease payments doubtlessly passed through as usual.
While I forget the amount of the funds found in Thaksin’s donut box, it certainly wasn’t enough to impact the court decision on the case. The purpose of the bribe was much more likely to move a court date forward.
I’ve met Korn a couple of times and know some people very close to him.
Korn is certainly smart, erudite and articulate but I am not sure he is that much of a politician. A technocrat, yes, but he seems to lack any “political ambition” or nous.
What is strange is that he has some good ideas – he spoke to me once of a “living wage” and I know he was interested in a property and land tax as a redistributive device.
These are progressive policies in my view yet they get drowned out in Abhisit’s headlong charge into electoral oblivion.
Unfortunately for him, Korn is now so closely associated to Abhisit that he is tainted in the eyes of the Thai electorate. His letter you reference above shows how much of Abhisit’s Kool Aid he’s now drunk and how detached he’s becoming from his responsibilities.
Thailand’s democracy needs better than this – it needs a good strong opposition, that is committed to democratic means to hold PTP to account.
At the moment the Dems are stuck in a self-perpetuating cycle. They can’t win an election because they are so out of touch/weak/badly-led which means they can’t mount a decent parliamentary opposition, which then means they rely on an alliance with anti-democratic forces, which just makes them more unpopular and so on and so on.
And the prognosis isn’t good. A party whose leadership don’t care if they finish 2nd could also soon be finishing 3rd or even 4th. The Dems are on a terminal decline at present and it’s not good for Thailand or Thai democracy.
“I’m specifically interested in Andrew Spooner’s position here.”
What? You think my position on RA’s work is more important than his views on his own work?
Seems a bit odd to me.
The guy is very approachable as I’ve said.
“Andrew refuse [sic] to answer this in a convincing way, as is his habit when he’s pulled up on specific points.”
If you think I am so important – perhaps, in your view, more important than RA himself? – you can interview me anytime you want via email, Skype, telephone or face to face – [email protected]. Publish it where you want – your blog maybe? You can ask me any question you want and I will do my best to answer.
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Intolerance, Islam and the Internet in Burma
I simply wanted to say that the article is absolutely fabricated and based-on biased approach. As David said before, Sai Latt should declare his religion and background when writing about the issue like this. As a reader and an Australian Tax Payer, I believe this is wasting our Tax Payers’ money by publishing articles like this on Australian Tax Payers’ website, as the article is based on the fabricated wrong facts making false history of a country and a region that he doesn’t know.
Comments, comments, comments
Simon: Ip addressed are stored in two locations: 1) the apache logs, 2) the wordpress logs. (I’ll ignore the logs that WordPress themselves as well as several more third parties will keep – but we shouldn’t.)
Getting rid of the ip addresses from both these locations is non-trivial. Quite simply very few people alter the way Apache logs visits. It’s even more complicated here because the web server is hosting the whole of asiapacific.anu.edu.au – not just New Mandala. In WordPress there’s no option to clear ip addresses – they’re logged with every comment and only disappear when the comment is deleted. The moderators have indicated that they like to refer to ip addresses to detect bogus posts so they have to be logged for at least several days.
Don’t post dangerous stuff from an IP address (or rather, connection) that you use often or only a few people use. As displayed in the case of Ah Kong, the authorities have shown they’re willing to follow a circumstantial trail to identify a machine and hold an owner to account.
But if you think you’re on the home run once you’ve got your ip address obfuscated then think again. Think about Panopticlick:
https://panopticlick.eff.org/
Realistically, your ip address holds less identifying information that the request headers that you browser sends.
Log into your Yahoo mail then a few minutes later (or hours or days, really) post an illegal comment on New Mandala via an obfuscated ip address? They’ve got you!
Or potentially they’ve got you anyway, I really doubt the Thai authorities are sophisticated enough to be doing that kind of fingerprinting. The good news is that SSL (ie https) hides all those headers.
Intolerance, Islam and the Internet in Burma
Gee, this post certainly lured a startling number of new readers – an alternative demographic to NM’s usual suspects – to post opinions and to up the number of ‘green tickmarks’ for juvenile and/or deranged comments…
Ah well, at least it’s novel to have some freshly brewed vitriol to mull over with my morning coffee as I catch up on regional news…
Oh and my opinion about Muslims and Rohingya in Myanamar? Recent events evoke the atmosphere for Jews in 1930s Germany, and specifically Kristallnacht, so with the state benefitting from the distraction such scapegoating provides, who has the will, presence of mind, and power to broker peace and foster intercultural understanding? For the time being, I fear, the answer is…no one.
Intolerance, Islam and the Internet in Burma
Sai
Your paper is only based on Facebook and Internet. Myanmar has lowest usage of internet and telephone among SEA countries. And Within Rakhine state , very difficult to go somewhere from others as there are so many rivers. So information are not smooth well as u think. Even if u use bad languages at FB to them , how can they know? I dont think this event spark from online article and comments. I can prove this. That’s why Myanmar isn’t follow Arab Spring Wave. At that time all people using online doing so many campaign. But nothing happen as there is so limited connection to access online from Myanmar inside.
And another point is are you sure about there is no supported organisations for Rohingya. we can discuss it later.
Please note that participants from both sides are now running for their life as they have no time and connection to reply to u. Hope u will write “how to help those victims by Australian gov” for your next article.
Best wish for your PhD by doing other great paper.
Intolerance, Islam and the Internet in Burma
My brother met a Rakhine Buddhist in Rangoon, former capital, who went to Malaysia and worked there illegally like a lot of oppressed Rohingyas and other Muslims of Burma (South Asian descent) in search of work did via Thailland.
This is what he said: It was nice.
This Buddhist guy must have had close intermingling with the Rohingyas and other Muslims of Burma there. Because he was being productive and earning a living, he had no reason to resent the industrious Rohingys nor other Muslims of Burma like those who did not go anywhere and are just interested in picking on the weaker group to blame for their own poverty.
Intolerance, Islam and the Internet in Burma
Ko Wunna,
You are a lier. eliable News Agency has already stated that Rohingya and Rakhine ratio in Maungdaw is 50:50. Only in Maungdaw, the Muslims dared ot fight back the oppression. In other towns and villages in Arakan, the Rohingy Muslims are sitting ducks.
It is pathetic to see the so called Burmese Buddhist showing no compassion toward the Rohingys as they took asylum status or via refugee programs and become a citizen in a new country. That is because they are no Buddhis. They are fake Buddhists.
It is one thing to not agree with the Rohingyas claiming for ethnic group status, biut it is another thing to ask for for killing them. Shame on you people.
As for Sai Latt, the author, I salute you for your facts on the story.
Intolerance, Islam and the Internet in Burma
This is a time of real scary and critical period.
Last article of Sai Latt drew the largest response from people who usually do not bother and sure this one will. Just like the BBC report of Anna Jones.
Facebook and news outlets are really in overdrive all times of day and night.
Yet the issue is simple.
If one enjoys using emotional and inflammatory words found among these posts they are in thousands- on both sides.
It is now becoming clear that what is happening is not really any thing to do with religion at all or race.
U Razek and Yebaw Ko Htwe were respected and “A-lay- pued” exactly like Aung San and Thakin Mya. All Buddhist Burmese go around for a feast of great Bariani at the time of Eide. And no Buddhist offerings would exclude any human who turns up for the feast or in some instances the “Nats” a great many of whom are indeed “Kalar” which is a word many have repeatedly pointed out is not by itself derogatroy at all, even though some enjoy saying it is in international press. One great student and cronicler of Burmese history indeed was U Kalar.
The issue of the word “Rohingya” is red herring. It does not matter when it originates and what it means in this issue. Neither is the proof or lack thereby of such and such people being in such and such place for such and such time.
You see, short of the current “Civil War”, there was never any apprehension for the Burmese and Christian Kachin living side by side never worring about one race raping and killing the other and burning down ones houses, -short of this civil war.
But that has been the situation with some populace of northern Araken and around Sittwe while it must be emphasized that a large number of muslim people in those area also get along well with the others.
There has been no doubt a crime has been committed regarding a rape and murder. There also have been no doubt that another larger crime has been committed in Taunggup regardless of the reasons for it. Those have to be dealt with by legal means.
None of these can be used as an excuse to further violence and claim victimhood regardless of any emotional appeal.
It is clear regardless of name, religious persuation or duration of time people have been in the place. People living together must be able to live with one another in comfort and trust.
Current problem shows that people who have been living for say-centuries cannot gain faith and trust of the majority neighbours.
Drumming up explosive religion and race cards for worldwide sympathy is simply cowardly.
It is time for everyone to come out clean rather than recruit sympathesies by emotional blackmail.
Buddhist Burmese and Arakanese must come out to say, their animosity is against the muslim or the minority group at the north of Araken.
Muslim Burmese must come out to say their view on this group.
And people currently claiming victimhood must state what the real reasons of their demands are. Afterall, Yunos himself was educated in higher learning centre in Rangoon.
Only when these facts are clear, the way forward of how to deal with this group of people can be put on the table.
Reconciliation games
“While I forget the amount of the funds found in Thaksin’s donut box, it certainly wasn’t enough to impact the court decision on the case.” – Hoyt
Enlightening response from a true Thaksin believer! The amount of the Thaksin bribe through his lawyers was Baht 2.0 million by the way. And out of curiousity Leah Hoyt, how much higher should the bribe had been “to impact the court decision . . .”?
Do you all Thaksin lovers think like Hoyt? Every Thaksin ‘honest mistake’ at or below a certain amount explainable as no more than trivial misdemeanor?
Intolerance, Islam and the Internet in Burma
Sai Latt should declare his religion and ethnicity before allowing to write a long article on such controversial issues on an Australian Taxpayers funded website.
Here in America even the CNBC journalists are forced by a strict law to declare their material interest in a particular company if they are making a favorable or non-favorable comments on that stock.
Intolerance, Islam and the Internet in Burma
Sai Latt,
You are a Muslim Shan and you want to protect your Muslim brethens so much by omitting the real terrorist face of Rowengya or Rohingya. Look at all the villages they burnt, look at all the people they killed. They have played victim so much before. Now it is their time to play their real role of ‘Savages’. You will help it out, willingly or unwillingly.
David
Intolerance, Islam and the Internet in Burma
Racial discrimination (not just in Burma) is, in my opinion, based on 4 things (in the following order):
1. Skin colour
2. Money
3. Religion
4. Education and Culture
Skin colour seems to be the most important one in Asia (the UN emissary Ibrahim Gambari was never taken seriously by Than Shwe). Asians are rather obsessed about skin colour, even in India (there are lot of skin whitening creams available all over Asia!). No wonder, Korean soap operas are very popular in Burma (a lot of kids in the big cities in Burma really try hard to look like Korean stars). Most Burmese also seem to have a much higher tolerance for “illegal immigrants” from China (there are lots of them in Burma but perhaps Burmese consider Chinese as “taing yin tha” (indigenous) or even as “paukphaw” (cousins)?, maybe because they “look more like Burmese” (whatever that means lol) and besides, they have enough money to bribe corrupt Burmese officials and buy real estate? I don’t know)
Anyway, it’s not going to be easy for the poor uneducated dark-skinned Muslim “illegal immigrants”, in Burma or elsewhere. I wonder how Burmese think about lighter-skinned very rich Muslims from Saudi-Arabia or Dubai (where some Burmese generals might have bank accounts?)
Incidentally the last Mughal emperor of India Bahadur Shah II (a Muslim) was sent to Burma by the British and he died (peacefully) in Rangoon in 1862.
Intolerance, Islam and the Internet in Burma
Melody Maung
I might have screen of the guy who offered award for raping and killing muslims. He said he would pay 300,000 Kyats for raping a muslim woman and 500,000 Kyats for killing a muslim. He even mentioned his phone number on facebook. He is from Thailand.
Please do research before you judge Sai Latt.
A deadline looms in Kachin war
Violating the very Sun Tzu’s principle of “wining the war b/f even beginning a battle” the Kachin-Bamar conflict will drag on with all the usual accompanying tragedies with, the Kachin surely getting the even shorter end.
How will this conflict will be concluded?
Look no further than preponderance of recent examples b/t Karen-Bamar and similar others.
The good news is this conclusion will be swifter than other previous ones.
Due to neither 3rd party nor Guns and Ammo ┬о individual zealots involvement yet, as in the case of still ongoing Karen-Bamar.
Altantuya and Malaysia’s 13th general elections
What would happen if the Paris Court subpoena’s Prime Minister Najib Razak or Ahmad Zahid, Malaysia’s current Defense Minister to testify at the trials?
This article discusses the legal aspects of that possibility.
Intolerance, Islam and the Internet in Burma
Artur,
The Burmese and Rakhine are only human. Just remember that there has never been a Buddhist crusade or jihad in history. Ever heard of the “Arab and the Camel”? Only here in this version the camel is Rohingya and the Arab Rakhine. Religion and citizenship though relevant are secondary to the real issue – territorial claims based on a bogus history accompanied by aggression.
Perhaps the 3 June 2012 massacre, which was a strong reaction to a rape-murder case of a 26-year-old woman in Rambre Township is based on an unfounded rumour, perhaps started by the govt to divert popular anger on a whole raft of issues as they have done before. But it’s hardly surprising nonetheless that Burmese opinion across the board, of all political hues, is supportive of the Rakhine. The $64,000 question is are we falling for one of the regime’s time honoured strategies in times of crisis?
You may have seen this article by Dr. Habib Siddiqui in Asia Tribune. He said, “As I write, Maung Daw – located in northern Arakan (Rakhine state of Burma) is burning, as if mimicking the pogroms against the Rohingya and Muslim minorities of Burma that started in the 1930s..” when in fact it was the Rohingya who had earlier gone on a rampage killing seven people and burning 22 Buddhist villages in Maungdaw. Tit for tat never ends.
win,
Surely you’ve heard of a racist expression in the army, “When you see an Arakanese and a viper, kill the Arakanese first“? Not a million miles to extrapolate from there. And you are rather good at self-flagellation as plan B would put it.
This I agree with the author:
Exactly. They do not wish to be tarred with the same brush, and they are not confined to the three townships just this side of the Naaf River which in itself is a giveaway.
And how exactly do you get Burmese-Australian citizens off the racist campaign? Can anyone throw some light on the legal aspects of this?
Noir nights in Phnom Penh
Good stuff Chris. Our trip together there a few years back was memorable.
Intolerance, Islam and the Internet in Burma
Episodes of Sectarian violence within a nation such as Myanmar, with such vast differences in every respect from ethnicity to religions is to be expected.
Recurrent factors, which rarely can be solved, that contribute to these repeated episodes must be addressed, monitor and controlled.
Welcome to the age of faux “Freedom”. Where media such as Facebook, Blogs and other internet based communication can be used by unscrupulous to spread hatred and paranoia.
The present issue within Yakhine state is but an ugly microcosm of deprivation that the West has chosen as a method to effect the whole of citizenry within Myanmar.
Thus rather Hypocritical for the West/Australian government now to use this as a HR progress.
Not until the very basic of Myanmar Citizenry HR to education, healthcare and economic opportunities are addressed and guaranteed to desperate deprived Citizenry, invoking present HR violations as well as others that stem from poverty, in every respects, will just be putting the cart b/f the horses.
Reconciliation games
Vichai N,
Thaksin’s lawyers got convicted for sending a routine grease payment to the corrupt justices because they were Thaksin’s lawyers.
The thousands of other grease payments doubtlessly passed through as usual.
While I forget the amount of the funds found in Thaksin’s donut box, it certainly wasn’t enough to impact the court decision on the case. The purpose of the bribe was much more likely to move a court date forward.
Reconciliation games
SteveCM
I’ve met Korn a couple of times and know some people very close to him.
Korn is certainly smart, erudite and articulate but I am not sure he is that much of a politician. A technocrat, yes, but he seems to lack any “political ambition” or nous.
What is strange is that he has some good ideas – he spoke to me once of a “living wage” and I know he was interested in a property and land tax as a redistributive device.
These are progressive policies in my view yet they get drowned out in Abhisit’s headlong charge into electoral oblivion.
Unfortunately for him, Korn is now so closely associated to Abhisit that he is tainted in the eyes of the Thai electorate. His letter you reference above shows how much of Abhisit’s Kool Aid he’s now drunk and how detached he’s becoming from his responsibilities.
Thailand’s democracy needs better than this – it needs a good strong opposition, that is committed to democratic means to hold PTP to account.
At the moment the Dems are stuck in a self-perpetuating cycle. They can’t win an election because they are so out of touch/weak/badly-led which means they can’t mount a decent parliamentary opposition, which then means they rely on an alliance with anti-democratic forces, which just makes them more unpopular and so on and so on.
And the prognosis isn’t good. A party whose leadership don’t care if they finish 2nd could also soon be finishing 3rd or even 4th. The Dems are on a terminal decline at present and it’s not good for Thailand or Thai democracy.
Reconciliation games
Greg Lowe
“I’m specifically interested in Andrew Spooner’s position here.”
What? You think my position on RA’s work is more important than his views on his own work?
Seems a bit odd to me.
The guy is very approachable as I’ve said.
“Andrew refuse [sic] to answer this in a convincing way, as is his habit when he’s pulled up on specific points.”
If you think I am so important – perhaps, in your view, more important than RA himself? – you can interview me anytime you want via email, Skype, telephone or face to face – [email protected]. Publish it where you want – your blog maybe? You can ask me any question you want and I will do my best to answer.