Long posts Andrew, the gist of which seem to be that you are very keen on Robert Amsderdam and not very keen at all on Amnesty International…. Curious priorities, but each to his own.
This intrigued me “Quite simply, they can’t. When AI speak to an unelected, unmandated Democrat govt, a govt that was forced through terrible violence on the Thai people, they claim it’s evidence of their “impartiality”. ”
Well that democrat government, unmandated or not, is now history as, most likely, is the chaotic and directionless Democrat Party.
There is now a new government with a huge popular majority…. And in all your obsessive ramblings and attacks on the party that lost the election and some NGO or other…. You never really explain why or how more pressure should be applied to this elected government, in place now, concerning their avowed support for 112 and their huge keenness to absolve all parties of legal responsibilty for the events of the last five years in order to bring Thanksin Shinawatra back to Thailand. Why is that? Why are you obsessing about trivialities rather than addressing the main issues with regards to the elected government of the day?… Or do you have an interest in attempting to distract attention from the real issues that actually matter?
Frank, I had not thought about that, now a Thai needs to file a complaint and show this lm circus for what it is.
Some people are just trying to be totally intellectual and not able to enjoy a brief bit of humor, even if it is an “academic forum”. after some of the last few posts with a whole lot of arguing and personal insults, I think that most regular readers appreciate a little joke at the expense of the BP writers.
Pete S, Great link!
I agree with Postman! Postman is correct. He is a very serious genius. Postman is legendarily literate in the English language. This NM site is silly, and is only made better with Postman making comments such as ‘They are Thais after all’, because that’s not juvenile or sub-standard. It’s a highly accurate description. Thank you Postman.
Perhaps I just expect a higher quality of irony from a University. This (rather stupid) error is hardly worth sniggering like school children over, much less justifies a post by New Mandala.
As for the ‘chill’ advice – thanks for that but my comment stands, it was a juvenile post to make. New Mandala would be better off making serious posts about the multitude of travesties of democracy in Thailand rather than making stupid jokes about the Bangkok Post and their almost legendary illiteracy in the English language.
As for an alleged confusion between ‘w’ and ‘v’, I’m not sure that Rama WIII entirely makes sense either – unless of course it is more high-level irony beyond my ken. Personally I suspect they’re just sub-standard, writing, sub-editing, editing and proof-reading.
postman, don’t take yourself so seriously, this was obviously posted for a laugh, loosen up, it is a good rest from the fighting going on here for the last few days on some other posts.
I think it stems from the Thai confusion between the use of v and w, the writer probably intended to hit the w key and hit the x by mistake 🙂
Unfortunately this morning the article was amended and down-graded the visionary statue to merely one of Rama VIII (But the url still gives the game away). But over at the mobile site the original article is still available for all to chuckle over; http://m.bangkokpost.com/news/296308
I was laughing when I saw it, but they have already changed it, someone’s face must be red. They must read New Mandala, Andrew, you have done a public service.
That should be Rama VIII, there is no Rama XIII bridge and it seems likely that there will not even be a Rama X, so ‘succession planning’ as you wrongly state for a Rama XIII seems a touch optimistic.
VIII = 8
XIII = 13
New Mandala should have been able to work that out on their own. This is a very stupid post for them to make, since it was correctly reported in the rag-esque Nation. Primary school stuff.
Would it be too far fetched to create some sort of fellowship/internet reader-based funded reporting position through NM? There’s so little quality reporting in the MSM because few have the funding to do so.
Enough money for a man like Nick to be able to support his family long term and be on the ground.
Eighty people having a mere 1k Thai baht deducted each month wouldn’t be terribly difficult would it?
No doubt they’ll all be expecting to be ushered into the presence of the Great Golden Feet and given the freedom of HM’s dominions to exploit without let or hindrance.
Just shoot the messenger, why don’t you? That appears to be your preoccupation all along anyway.
And I’m sure the welfare of the Myanmar Citizenry continues to be the responsibility of the West, nothing to do with the rulers of this cursed land. Engagement too little too late for you? You want the fires in the kitchen and the hearth stoked up while the house is leaking from the rooftop and being inundated.
Thanks to Aung Moe for the links. One cannot help but be struck by the irony that these marvelous colonial buildings now seem to be in danger of the white man’s entrepreneurial and development zeal the second time round when we are engaged in the second struggle for independence as a certain lady has characterised it.
I heartily agree with Thant Myint-U and the Burmese architects’ spokesperson Chaw Kalyar that we must try and keep this very important part of our history the evidence of which remains wonderfully evocative in these structures to posterity, in the flesh as it were with no need for recourse to old photos in historical documents.
Converts to the rampant capitalist ideology of the free market style development such as Aung Moe and Hla Oo are today however ten a penny as it itself becomes an ossified orthodoxy fundamentally pushing profits before people whose priorities can’t always be arbitrated by the money nexus. Why don’t we privatise the ruddy (some would say rudderless) state, not just the utilities and the infrastructure?
Let me give you a public forum discussion on the Australian example of electricity privatisation for instance. You may be interested also in this ILO monograph published in 1997 of a study in labour and social dimensions prior to it. And the bogeyman Left’s overview of the global picture. Please feel free to skip if it’s too much for right wing and liberal sensibilities.
Our own generals have been handing both land and other assets over to the USDP, their own families and cronies, in partnership with international capitalists anyway; taking Hla Oo’s enlightened advice would only be a logical extension of what’s been going on.
Unless there can be a good incentive ($$$$$…ker-ching!) to these ‘developers’ along with the requisite political will on the part of Yangon’s municipal authorities, we are bound to see this kind of upper class vandalism by money mad philistines of the world united in their single-minded pursuit for filthy lucre. Will this govt rise up to the challenge? No prizes for guessing the answer. Perhaps Rangoon University is going to be the flag-ship development new RUM style.
And while RU will likely prove to be a test case for their development strategy, I agree with Ohn and Kyi May Kaung it is nowhere near as important as the pressing issues of workers fighting for a living wage, health & safety and decent working conditions as well as farmers fighting against relentless land confiscations, not least a genuine political settlement (not lucrative business incentives for the leadership – arms for dollars in democracy) of the civil war.
Yes, they seem to be natural followers of Marie Antoinette. Let them eat frog in the wake of Cyclone Nargis, and now let them use candles.
So I expect students past and present of Rangoon University (let them learn nowt and stay out of town) may take a cue from U Myint and OCCUPY RU before the developers’ bulldozers move in. And it won’t be a moment too soon.
Good luck, Nick! Don’t forget to tell us when you open your restaurant. I may be a little bit far away from Germany but if I have a chance to go to visit Germany I will drop by to have German-Thai food.
I feel sorry for Thailand that we(Thai state) don’t want quality immigrants. We should welcome people who are qualified to move to our country and give (a citizenship)them treat them as our own people. we still need lots of quality people to develop our (Thailand)country. I am ,pretty lucky, living in the country that welcome to immigrants and have the right as local people.
Other details about the private company which employs Ben Zawacki can be found here and also shows that the company is cash rich with several UK┬гmillion in the bank (they need it for those nice US$800k golden handshakes!).
Strangely there is no mention of AI IS anywhere on their website (http://www.amnesty.org/en/who-we-are) actually being a private company called Amnesty International Limited even though the address, website and phone number all match between the company listing and AI IS itself. Why the secrecy? Are they embarrassed?
Ultimately, to a large extent, it doesn’t matter, but it does mean that they are not some completely impartial and unbiased organisation that isn’t governed by self-interest (especially when there’s the possibility of a US$800k golden handshake at some point).
Zawacki is an employee of a private company – nothing more, nothing less.
The world of Bangkok conspiracy theories and rumours is always of interest but, of course, a large pinch of salt is always needed. And, to counter these “rumours” theres nothing like the facts.
In April 2011 Robert Amsterdam was denied the opportunity to speak to AI Malaysia about his application to the International Criminal Court regarding the Bangkok Massacre 2010. From the human rights activists I spoke to at the time they said that Ben Zawacki and Donna Guest – Amnesty International International Secretariat staffers – both intervened in a very heavy handed and almost bullying way to prevent Amsterdam from speaking.
So incensed were many members of this SE Asia human rights’ community that they wrote a lengthy letter attacking AI. 70 people signed the letter and New Mandala published it here –
What was not revealed at the time was that the anger, particularly of Malaysian activists, was not just because of Zawacki/Guest’s stance on RA but also that they told Malaysia AI not to make comments about Burma as well. Strange but true. (If only they’d mentioned it at the time – Zawacki’s faltering reputation would have completely collapsed).
This private company, AI IS, has previously attempted to hide huge payoffs to two former staff members (http://bit.ly/fOzGUJ US$1.37million in total, US$800k to one staffer) and certainly acted in a less than scrupulous fashion when they tried to cover the story up. AI IS also control, commercially, the AI brand and own copyright to the name, the symbol and all merchandise. These are Zawacki’s employees – a private profit-making company, rooted in a culture of capitalism with all the self-interest that goes with that. Personally I find it odd that’s seldom mentioned in connection with AI but hey, what do I know when there are $800K golden handshakes going around? (I can;t say with any certainty, but I would be utterly amazed if Thaksin’s payment to Robert Amsterdam came anywhere close to this colossal amount – at least Thaksin’s money isn’t raised under the false premise of being for “human rights” work).
No matter. AI still do some very worthwhile work and should be applauded for that. But should that then mean that employees of this private company be absolved of criticism?
In this “statement” Zawacki attempts to explain why someone such as Robert Amsterdam should not be allowed to explain to AI members in Malaysia the basis of his case to the International Criminal Court. What was Zawacki so afraid of? He claimed, at that time, that Amnesty “remain neutral, objective, and impartial” and that, somehow, because Amsterdam was employed by someone with an interest in Thai politics that meant that he wouldn’t be allowed to put his case. Of course, by this point, Zawacki had been speaking privately to the Abhisit government for months and actually admitted that to me in a phone-call when he said that such private discussions where the “best way to do things.” Was Zawacki seriously suggesting that Abhisit’s Democrats were above politics?
Later, Zawacki’s impartiality was demolished as I revealed he’d been taking tips from parts of the Democrat Party government on who to give Prisoner of Conscious (PoC) status to – in this instance Da Torpedo. Even in the email I’d gotten hold of Zawacki completely fails to mention that Da Torpedo had never had anything approaching a fair trial, that her trial had been held in secret and that she’d never been allowed to test the evidence against her. For Zawacki all that mattered was that his MFA source had told him Da T was “violent” and that similar acts would put her in prison in other countries. Therefore Zawacki abandoned Da Torpedo to her fate in an appalling act of cowardice for which he has consistently refused to answer for or explain.
Given the events of the last few days it seems like Thais are having to face another tough phase in the struggle for democracy. Yet, given how utterly compromised and biased organisations such as Amnesty in Thailand have become, how can these same ordinary Thais rely on these organisations to give a fair representation to the international community? Quite simply, they can’t. When AI speak to an unelected, unmandated Democrat govt, a govt that was forced through terrible violence on the Thai people, they claim it’s evidence of their “impartiality”. Yet, at the same time, any attempt to speak to the legal counsel of the Red Shirts is considered as “biased.”
Such unprincipled and abject posturing might fit into the world view of the PAD, Democrat Party and the various persons passing themselves off as “impartial journalists” in Bangkok but it doesn’t wash and doesn’t stand up to proper scrutiny outside of the confines of the Sukhumvit ghetto. If Zawacki – and his coup-loving colleague, HRW’s Sunai Phasuk – were employed by a private company with more scruples they’d be out on their ear. Let’s hope one day they are and HRW/AI’s deserved reputation for good work can be re-established in Thailand.
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The end, the beginning
#43 Andrew Spooner
Long posts Andrew, the gist of which seem to be that you are very keen on Robert Amsderdam and not very keen at all on Amnesty International…. Curious priorities, but each to his own.
This intrigued me “Quite simply, they can’t. When AI speak to an unelected, unmandated Democrat govt, a govt that was forced through terrible violence on the Thai people, they claim it’s evidence of their “impartiality”. ”
Well that democrat government, unmandated or not, is now history as, most likely, is the chaotic and directionless Democrat Party.
There is now a new government with a huge popular majority…. And in all your obsessive ramblings and attacks on the party that lost the election and some NGO or other…. You never really explain why or how more pressure should be applied to this elected government, in place now, concerning their avowed support for 112 and their huge keenness to absolve all parties of legal responsibilty for the events of the last five years in order to bring Thanksin Shinawatra back to Thailand. Why is that? Why are you obsessing about trivialities rather than addressing the main issues with regards to the elected government of the day?… Or do you have an interest in attempting to distract attention from the real issues that actually matter?
Succession planning: Rama XIII
Frank, I had not thought about that, now a Thai needs to file a complaint and show this lm circus for what it is.
Some people are just trying to be totally intellectual and not able to enjoy a brief bit of humor, even if it is an “academic forum”. after some of the last few posts with a whole lot of arguing and personal insults, I think that most regular readers appreciate a little joke at the expense of the BP writers.
Pete S, Great link!
Succession planning: Rama XIII
I agree with Postman! Postman is correct. He is a very serious genius. Postman is legendarily literate in the English language. This NM site is silly, and is only made better with Postman making comments such as ‘They are Thais after all’, because that’s not juvenile or sub-standard. It’s a highly accurate description. Thank you Postman.
Succession planning: Rama XIII
In the land of the…even this oversight, obviously inadvertent, is prosecutable, based on allegations filed by complete nincompoops.
Succession planning: Rama XIII
Oh Mr Postman, here’s a link to help you
http://bit.ly/JK7gdu
Succession planning: Rama XIII
Ron and Anuthee:
Perhaps I just expect a higher quality of irony from a University. This (rather stupid) error is hardly worth sniggering like school children over, much less justifies a post by New Mandala.
As for the ‘chill’ advice – thanks for that but my comment stands, it was a juvenile post to make. New Mandala would be better off making serious posts about the multitude of travesties of democracy in Thailand rather than making stupid jokes about the Bangkok Post and their almost legendary illiteracy in the English language.
As for an alleged confusion between ‘w’ and ‘v’, I’m not sure that Rama WIII entirely makes sense either – unless of course it is more high-level irony beyond my ken. Personally I suspect they’re just sub-standard, writing, sub-editing, editing and proof-reading.
They are Thais after all.
Succession planning: Rama XIII
Thanks, Postman.
I agreed with the above replies that you may be too serious. However, without you I wouldn’t be able to understand what this post is about.
Originally, I thought there’s something to do with Sukhumbhand.
Succession planning: Rama XIII
Don’t be too serious Mr.Postman. This ‘succession planning’ is just a joke. You “should have been able to work that out” on your own, shouldn’t you? 😀
Succession planning: Rama XIII
postman, don’t take yourself so seriously, this was obviously posted for a laugh, loosen up, it is a good rest from the fighting going on here for the last few days on some other posts.
I think it stems from the Thai confusion between the use of v and w, the writer probably intended to hit the w key and hit the x by mistake 🙂
Succession planning: Rama XIII
Unfortunately this morning the article was amended and down-graded the visionary statue to merely one of Rama VIII (But the url still gives the game away). But over at the mobile site the original article is still available for all to chuckle over;
http://m.bangkokpost.com/news/296308
Succession planning: Rama XIII
I was laughing when I saw it, but they have already changed it, someone’s face must be red. They must read New Mandala, Andrew, you have done a public service.
Succession planning: Rama XIII
That should be Rama VIII, there is no Rama XIII bridge and it seems likely that there will not even be a Rama X, so ‘succession planning’ as you wrongly state for a Rama XIII seems a touch optimistic.
VIII = 8
XIII = 13
New Mandala should have been able to work that out on their own. This is a very stupid post for them to make, since it was correctly reported in the rag-esque Nation. Primary school stuff.
Nick Nostitz interviewed by Matichon
Nicholas and Andrew,
Would it be too far fetched to create some sort of fellowship/internet reader-based funded reporting position through NM? There’s so little quality reporting in the MSM because few have the funding to do so.
Enough money for a man like Nick to be able to support his family long term and be on the ground.
Eighty people having a mere 1k Thai baht deducted each month wouldn’t be terribly difficult would it?
Just a thought…
Foreigners (registered) in Myanmar
No doubt they’ll all be expecting to be ushered into the presence of the Great Golden Feet and given the freedom of HM’s dominions to exploit without let or hindrance.
On protests and media in Myanmar
plan B,
Just shoot the messenger, why don’t you? That appears to be your preoccupation all along anyway.
And I’m sure the welfare of the Myanmar Citizenry continues to be the responsibility of the West, nothing to do with the rulers of this cursed land. Engagement too little too late for you? You want the fires in the kitchen and the hearth stoked up while the house is leaking from the rooftop and being inundated.
Thant Myint-U on Yangon
Thanks to Aung Moe for the links. One cannot help but be struck by the irony that these marvelous colonial buildings now seem to be in danger of the white man’s entrepreneurial and development zeal the second time round when we are engaged in the second struggle for independence as a certain lady has characterised it.
I heartily agree with Thant Myint-U and the Burmese architects’ spokesperson Chaw Kalyar that we must try and keep this very important part of our history the evidence of which remains wonderfully evocative in these structures to posterity, in the flesh as it were with no need for recourse to old photos in historical documents.
Converts to the rampant capitalist ideology of the free market style development such as Aung Moe and Hla Oo are today however ten a penny as it itself becomes an ossified orthodoxy fundamentally pushing profits before people whose priorities can’t always be arbitrated by the money nexus. Why don’t we privatise the ruddy (some would say rudderless) state, not just the utilities and the infrastructure?
Let me give you a public forum discussion on the Australian example of electricity privatisation for instance. You may be interested also in this ILO monograph published in 1997 of a study in labour and social dimensions prior to it. And the bogeyman Left’s overview of the global picture. Please feel free to skip if it’s too much for right wing and liberal sensibilities.
Our own generals have been handing both land and other assets over to the USDP, their own families and cronies, in partnership with international capitalists anyway; taking Hla Oo’s enlightened advice would only be a logical extension of what’s been going on.
Unless there can be a good incentive ($$$$$…ker-ching!) to these ‘developers’ along with the requisite political will on the part of Yangon’s municipal authorities, we are bound to see this kind of upper class vandalism by money mad philistines of the world united in their single-minded pursuit for filthy lucre. Will this govt rise up to the challenge? No prizes for guessing the answer. Perhaps Rangoon University is going to be the flag-ship development new RUM style.
And while RU will likely prove to be a test case for their development strategy, I agree with Ohn and Kyi May Kaung it is nowhere near as important as the pressing issues of workers fighting for a living wage, health & safety and decent working conditions as well as farmers fighting against relentless land confiscations, not least a genuine political settlement (not lucrative business incentives for the leadership – arms for dollars in democracy) of the civil war.
Yes, they seem to be natural followers of Marie Antoinette. Let them eat frog in the wake of Cyclone Nargis, and now let them use candles.
So I expect students past and present of Rangoon University (let them learn nowt and stay out of town) may take a cue from U Myint and OCCUPY RU before the developers’ bulldozers move in. And it won’t be a moment too soon.
Nick Nostitz interviewed by Matichon
Good luck, Nick! Don’t forget to tell us when you open your restaurant. I may be a little bit far away from Germany but if I have a chance to go to visit Germany I will drop by to have German-Thai food.
I feel sorry for Thailand that we(Thai state) don’t want quality immigrants. We should welcome people who are qualified to move to our country and give (a citizenship)them treat them as our own people. we still need lots of quality people to develop our (Thailand)country. I am ,pretty lucky, living in the country that welcome to immigrants and have the right as local people.
The end, the beginning
Apologies the link for AI IS Companies House listing is bust – try this one
http://wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk/ea2ced6df564c81eab04eff0a0abcef7/compdetails
Or look at Companies House and search for company number 01606776 here –
http://wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk/de6ceeae24d3bbf3da86ad2bd46cce44/wcframe?name=accessCompanyInfo.
Other details about the private company which employs Ben Zawacki can be found here and also shows that the company is cash rich with several UK┬гmillion in the bank (they need it for those nice US$800k golden handshakes!).
http://companycheck.co.uk/company/01606776
Strangely there is no mention of AI IS anywhere on their website (http://www.amnesty.org/en/who-we-are) actually being a private company called Amnesty International Limited even though the address, website and phone number all match between the company listing and AI IS itself. Why the secrecy? Are they embarrassed?
Ultimately, to a large extent, it doesn’t matter, but it does mean that they are not some completely impartial and unbiased organisation that isn’t governed by self-interest (especially when there’s the possibility of a US$800k golden handshake at some point).
Zawacki is an employee of a private company – nothing more, nothing less.
The end, the beginning
The world of Bangkok conspiracy theories and rumours is always of interest but, of course, a large pinch of salt is always needed. And, to counter these “rumours” theres nothing like the facts.
In April 2011 Robert Amsterdam was denied the opportunity to speak to AI Malaysia about his application to the International Criminal Court regarding the Bangkok Massacre 2010. From the human rights activists I spoke to at the time they said that Ben Zawacki and Donna Guest – Amnesty International International Secretariat staffers – both intervened in a very heavy handed and almost bullying way to prevent Amsterdam from speaking.
So incensed were many members of this SE Asia human rights’ community that they wrote a lengthy letter attacking AI. 70 people signed the letter and New Mandala published it here –
http://www.newmandala.org/2011/04/29/open-letter-amnesty-international-in-thailand/
What was not revealed at the time was that the anger, particularly of Malaysian activists, was not just because of Zawacki/Guest’s stance on RA but also that they told Malaysia AI not to make comments about Burma as well. Strange but true. (If only they’d mentioned it at the time – Zawacki’s faltering reputation would have completely collapsed).
Zawacki and Guest are both, as stated, employees of AI’s International Secretariat. AI IS is a private company and not an NGO or a charity. Their listing in the UK Companies House website is here – http://wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk/11e2e5a9bc0bbdd4b2447ac292c17772/compdetails
This private company, AI IS, has previously attempted to hide huge payoffs to two former staff members (http://bit.ly/fOzGUJ US$1.37million in total, US$800k to one staffer) and certainly acted in a less than scrupulous fashion when they tried to cover the story up. AI IS also control, commercially, the AI brand and own copyright to the name, the symbol and all merchandise. These are Zawacki’s employees – a private profit-making company, rooted in a culture of capitalism with all the self-interest that goes with that. Personally I find it odd that’s seldom mentioned in connection with AI but hey, what do I know when there are $800K golden handshakes going around? (I can;t say with any certainty, but I would be utterly amazed if Thaksin’s payment to Robert Amsterdam came anywhere close to this colossal amount – at least Thaksin’s money isn’t raised under the false premise of being for “human rights” work).
No matter. AI still do some very worthwhile work and should be applauded for that. But should that then mean that employees of this private company be absolved of criticism?
The reaction to Zawacki and Guest’s bullying had, actually, been preceded by this missive from Zawacki to New Mandala here > http://www.newmandala.org/2011/04/27/amnesty-international-and-robert-amsterdam/ (The discussion that follows Zawacki’s statement is very instructive).
In this “statement” Zawacki attempts to explain why someone such as Robert Amsterdam should not be allowed to explain to AI members in Malaysia the basis of his case to the International Criminal Court. What was Zawacki so afraid of? He claimed, at that time, that Amnesty “remain neutral, objective, and impartial” and that, somehow, because Amsterdam was employed by someone with an interest in Thai politics that meant that he wouldn’t be allowed to put his case. Of course, by this point, Zawacki had been speaking privately to the Abhisit government for months and actually admitted that to me in a phone-call when he said that such private discussions where the “best way to do things.” Was Zawacki seriously suggesting that Abhisit’s Democrats were above politics?
Later, Zawacki’s impartiality was demolished as I revealed he’d been taking tips from parts of the Democrat Party government on who to give Prisoner of Conscious (PoC) status to – in this instance Da Torpedo. Even in the email I’d gotten hold of Zawacki completely fails to mention that Da Torpedo had never had anything approaching a fair trial, that her trial had been held in secret and that she’d never been allowed to test the evidence against her. For Zawacki all that mattered was that his MFA source had told him Da T was “violent” and that similar acts would put her in prison in other countries. Therefore Zawacki abandoned Da Torpedo to her fate in an appalling act of cowardice for which he has consistently refused to answer for or explain.
Given the events of the last few days it seems like Thais are having to face another tough phase in the struggle for democracy. Yet, given how utterly compromised and biased organisations such as Amnesty in Thailand have become, how can these same ordinary Thais rely on these organisations to give a fair representation to the international community? Quite simply, they can’t. When AI speak to an unelected, unmandated Democrat govt, a govt that was forced through terrible violence on the Thai people, they claim it’s evidence of their “impartiality”. Yet, at the same time, any attempt to speak to the legal counsel of the Red Shirts is considered as “biased.”
Such unprincipled and abject posturing might fit into the world view of the PAD, Democrat Party and the various persons passing themselves off as “impartial journalists” in Bangkok but it doesn’t wash and doesn’t stand up to proper scrutiny outside of the confines of the Sukhumvit ghetto. If Zawacki – and his coup-loving colleague, HRW’s Sunai Phasuk – were employed by a private company with more scruples they’d be out on their ear. Let’s hope one day they are and HRW/AI’s deserved reputation for good work can be re-established in Thailand.
Video on PM Yingluck’s Australia visit
Not only did Peter Slipper somehow gain the pleasure of shaking Yingluck’s hand, but he did it for an inordinate amount of time…