Tolling for the searching ones on their speechless seeking trail
For the lonesome hearted lovers with too personal a tale
And for each unharmful, gentle soul misplaced inside a jail
And we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing
My thoughts are with Ah Kong’s wife, Pa Ou, and his family tonight.
Who imprisoned him? Look to Abhisit.
Who lacked the courage to release him? Pheu Thai.
Who failed to tell the world about the terrible injustice of LM? Amnesty, HRW and most of the Bangkok-based international media (as far as I’m aware not one single correspondent of note has taken the time to visit any LM prisoner. When I spoke to the prisoners in Feb 2012 they all said they had never even seen AI or HRW at the prison).
I was lucky enough to meet Ah Kong three times in prison. I conducted two short interviews with him and plan to blog this on Friday.
“Today, perhaps rather belatedly, for the first time, I feel genuine shame at the fact that I live in Thailand. As Pavin said in Matichon Online, I just hope now that those responsible for imprisoning a sick, elderly and innocent man get their just rewards. And soon.”
This is not me. Whoever posted this, have you no shame?…… Hideous. To even exploit the death of this man and the suffering of his family to try and score points against someone you do not even know? Some people truly have no shame. Horrific.
RIP Ar Kong. A victim of horrendous brutality and insane injustice. I think his end will fill a lot of people with a cold fury…. I does me.
The Mods at New Mandala need to sort out their stalker problem. It is out of hand…..
[Thanks Dan (White): I don’t see evidence of the “stalker problem”. “Dan” is a pretty common name. But we will, of course, keep an eye on this. The other “Dan” who has emerged may want to choose a different moniker. Best wishes to all, Nich]
A well-written and referenced critical biography along the lines of Pasuk & Baker’s “Thaksin” (or a critical history, for events and figures of the past) would as of a matter of course use all sources the author could lay his hands on and eschew theorizing about its subject and thus avoid what the review author considers “shameful” political science (without citing examples).
Montesano: “He casts his book, first, as a critique of the long influential–often painfully influential, for its familiarity among scholars not specializing on Thailand–“chao pho” or “godfather” school of Thai politics.”
As long as politicians, canvassers, reporters and business rivals are shot dead by hired guns “chao phos” (or a better and more general term “influential figures”) will be a part of political reality, not 100% of reality but still an important part of reality, irrespective of trends in Thai Studies. That this new study presents neglected dimensions of political reality in rural patron-client relations with politicians is great but doesn’t supplant the former (note: the author’s habit of using pejoratives to belittle everything without even citing examples so we can understand what he is talking about is really annoying as a style of writing).
Anyone who has spent “appreciable periods of time in provincial Southeast Asia” knows that untransparent dealmaking based on personal relationships with “influential figures” that the media can barely report on due to factors such as financially crippling defamation suits are common in politics and the media as well as business and that sometimes all you can see is the tip of the iceberg, as in the National Innovation Agency-Chulalongkorn University plagiarism case. To know the full extent of what is happening in this case and why all the actors in this case (ministers, academics, perhaps even military) are behaving so strangely and not just doing the reasonable and honourable thing, namely to revoke the degree, you would have to know the full social network and how people have benefited and how these benefits they have received prevent them from speaking out or acting against the NIA chief because of possible retaliation (patron-client chains of reciprocal obligation). It would be reasonable to surmise that this case has compromised scientific research in the country. Likewise, part of the Banharn story is the issue of whether microscopically fulfilling the needs of locals macroscopically fufils the needs of the nation as a whole, for example neighboring provinces after Banharn gets water diverted into them during floods, to cite one example.
The review was certainly thought-provoking but isn’t there anything in the book the reviewer would criticize or suggest could be improved? This review seems to follow the typical pattern in Southeast Asian studies of polarized unbalanced reviews written for and against a work based on personal allegiances and friendships, the comment by Michael H. Nelson added a critical dimension and made it whole. 🙂
Hi Andrew,
Thanks for bringing to readers’ attention this statue! I hope there will be many, many more finds to come that we may semiotically analyze.
One point which you note at the end is that this is all very speculative. I agree, and I suggest to those with similar research interests to simply get in touch with a Myanma official familiar with Naypyidaw and asking them what their view on the matter is. The era of shuttered tea-leaf reading I think is ebbing. I myself secured a 3hour interview with the Myanma Ambassador to my country of residence (Canada) with one short phone call back in August 2011, during which I could seek the government’s insight on many symbolic features newly adopted by ‘the state redux’. I’m a masters graduate student (in other words, my case was not particularly ‘special’).
All of this is to note that the Myanma officials are very accessible in some cases (I’d be curious to hear whether other researchers have noted an increased accessibility from Myanma officials, as I have), and rather than merely speculate as to the intended meaning of the Myanma government’s new symbolic accoutrements, we can now access the official narratives of meaning without speculation (which…of course, we can then analyze away for underlying meaning!).
I look forward to more interesting ‘finds’ like this!
Tony
They say if you can’t do the time don’t do the crime, so those deliberately flaunting LM laws know what awaits. In this case though the evidence seemed flimsy against an old man who by all accounts held the institution in high regard. A tragic outcome, I would have thought that great PR value was begging on this one for timely leniency, seems TPTB thought otherwise.
The intention was to point to the fact that a revolution incorporating violence is like breeding a monster, the violence sticks around forever.
But South Africa does have a lot of parallel.
Indeed farmer Jone’s pigs always behave like human over time.
That will be a worry for Burma down the road, like in the name of national progress (For the Greater Good) , NLD might start putting the (future) demonstrators in jail as demonstration is not NLD style! Not even a quiet one. In fact none. No amount of killing, torturing, burning rice storage and villages are ever enough for protest as there must be NO confrontation. Otherwise one would become a hardliner!!!
Money and racism. Somehow those two evils are excellent bedfellows.
Burmese chauvinism is a racism. And all the wars happen in money earning area- diamond, gold, drug, jade, teak, gas pipes, border trades.
Old Cecil Rhodes started De Beers first before bleating Anglo-Sexon Supremacy. Afrikaners then are caught red handed.
The West does have something like a “Deifying Machine”.
When old man Mandela was in the can forever, 26 year old Winnie held the candle- a hot, burning one, for a long, long time. She was the mother of the nation- young, beautiful and respected. Later she did go off the rails with Serpei murder and necklacings.
Well before that, her crime was being a “hardliner”. One would have feeling that she is not lacking in connection and cunningness of Ramaphosa at the opposite end. But for all her faults, she sticks with the poor blacks.
Funny how none of the West-defied persons are hardliners including Havel. They do come out of the scream and shout group but then distinguish themselves by being a collaborator- a celebrated ones usually carefully choreographed in details.
Back to Burma, most important things are to have real peace where all killings, even the ones by the brand new lovely democratic government, are objected and stopped and to progress in such a way that the most beautiful social system, religionSSS, and social traditionss as well as environment are kept intact while using education and technology to make it happen for every single citizen.
For the dangling prize of catching up with the ASEAN business (which itself is simply dumb), people are ready to sell out anything and every thing to any buyer even though they cannot make a drop of water or an ounce of clean air themselves.
It plays right into the game of the multinational companies and their agents – “democratic” governments and the international financing agencies, development agencies
When IMF says there is a great chance of being a rich country, it means they know they have greedy, covetous audience, and they feel they can take them a for a ride.
[…] 2011: Esteemed scholar and outspoken anti-112 advocate Pavin Chachavalpongpun takes to Facebook to launch an online campaign in support of Akong’s release. The campaign immediately attracts hundreds of followers, Thai […]
Today, perhaps rather belatedly, for the first time, I feel genuine shame at the fact that I live in Thailand. As Pavin said in Matichon Online, I just hope now that those responsible for imprisoning a sick, elderly and innocent man get their just rewards. And soon.
I would have half swallowed this if he had been conclusively proven guilty of violating the laws of the land even if I do not agree with the law.
The thing is, he was convicted based on not having a proper defense. Since when is the onus of proof on the defendant in a criminal case ? Even in Thailand the prosecution has the burden of proof.
Furthermore it is absolutely technically possible to clone a SIM card and it is technically still possible to spoof IMEI numbers on certain mobile phones so it seems if I don’t like someone, I just need my hands on their phone SIM card for a bit so I can clone them. Few months later they are in jail. Ridiculous.
‘One can only dream now that a posthumous pardon … ‘
A posthumous pardon … that’s exactly up their alley … pardon themselves for murdering Amphon. Add insult to the most grievous possible injury. That’s the Thai ‘elite’ specialty …. tearfully forgiving themselves for murdering Thais.
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Ar Kong dead
Whoever supports this barbaric law has blood on their hands. There is no humanity.
Ar Kong dead
Speechless!!!
р╣Бр╕Фр╣Ир╕нр╕▓р╕Бр╕З
Chimes of Freedom:
Bob Dylan
Tolling for the searching ones on their speechless seeking trail
For the lonesome hearted lovers with too personal a tale
And for each unharmful, gentle soul misplaced inside a jail
And we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing
Ar Kong dead
Have the Bangkok ‘Elite’ no shame?
No sense of decency?
No Respect for humanity?
Are they sipping Wine and Eating Cheese in Bistros in Siam Center?
History will remember them unkindly!
The end of Tatmadaw rhetoric?
[…] The end of Tatmadaw rhetoric? (asiapacific.anu.edu.au) […]
Ar Kong dead
My thoughts are with Ah Kong’s wife, Pa Ou, and his family tonight.
Who imprisoned him? Look to Abhisit.
Who lacked the courage to release him? Pheu Thai.
Who failed to tell the world about the terrible injustice of LM? Amnesty, HRW and most of the Bangkok-based international media (as far as I’m aware not one single correspondent of note has taken the time to visit any LM prisoner. When I spoke to the prisoners in Feb 2012 they all said they had never even seen AI or HRW at the prison).
I was lucky enough to meet Ah Kong three times in prison. I conducted two short interviews with him and plan to blog this on Friday.
Ar Kong dead
# 14 Dan
“Today, perhaps rather belatedly, for the first time, I feel genuine shame at the fact that I live in Thailand. As Pavin said in Matichon Online, I just hope now that those responsible for imprisoning a sick, elderly and innocent man get their just rewards. And soon.”
This is not me. Whoever posted this, have you no shame?…… Hideous. To even exploit the death of this man and the suffering of his family to try and score points against someone you do not even know? Some people truly have no shame. Horrific.
RIP Ar Kong. A victim of horrendous brutality and insane injustice. I think his end will fill a lot of people with a cold fury…. I does me.
The Mods at New Mandala need to sort out their stalker problem. It is out of hand…..
[Thanks Dan (White): I don’t see evidence of the “stalker problem”. “Dan” is a pretty common name. But we will, of course, keep an eye on this. The other “Dan” who has emerged may want to choose a different moniker. Best wishes to all, Nich]
Review of Political Authority and Provincial Identity in Thailand
A well-written and referenced critical biography along the lines of Pasuk & Baker’s “Thaksin” (or a critical history, for events and figures of the past) would as of a matter of course use all sources the author could lay his hands on and eschew theorizing about its subject and thus avoid what the review author considers “shameful” political science (without citing examples).
Montesano: “He casts his book, first, as a critique of the long influential–often painfully influential, for its familiarity among scholars not specializing on Thailand–“chao pho” or “godfather” school of Thai politics.”
As long as politicians, canvassers, reporters and business rivals are shot dead by hired guns “chao phos” (or a better and more general term “influential figures”) will be a part of political reality, not 100% of reality but still an important part of reality, irrespective of trends in Thai Studies. That this new study presents neglected dimensions of political reality in rural patron-client relations with politicians is great but doesn’t supplant the former (note: the author’s habit of using pejoratives to belittle everything without even citing examples so we can understand what he is talking about is really annoying as a style of writing).
Anyone who has spent “appreciable periods of time in provincial Southeast Asia” knows that untransparent dealmaking based on personal relationships with “influential figures” that the media can barely report on due to factors such as financially crippling defamation suits are common in politics and the media as well as business and that sometimes all you can see is the tip of the iceberg, as in the National Innovation Agency-Chulalongkorn University plagiarism case. To know the full extent of what is happening in this case and why all the actors in this case (ministers, academics, perhaps even military) are behaving so strangely and not just doing the reasonable and honourable thing, namely to revoke the degree, you would have to know the full social network and how people have benefited and how these benefits they have received prevent them from speaking out or acting against the NIA chief because of possible retaliation (patron-client chains of reciprocal obligation). It would be reasonable to surmise that this case has compromised scientific research in the country. Likewise, part of the Banharn story is the issue of whether microscopically fulfilling the needs of locals macroscopically fufils the needs of the nation as a whole, for example neighboring provinces after Banharn gets water diverted into them during floods, to cite one example.
The review was certainly thought-provoking but isn’t there anything in the book the reviewer would criticize or suggest could be improved? This review seems to follow the typical pattern in Southeast Asian studies of polarized unbalanced reviews written for and against a work based on personal allegiances and friendships, the comment by Michael H. Nelson added a critical dimension and made it whole. 🙂
Ar Kong dead
Well, he now is a martyr. First this haunting image and now he had to die in prison like this. What a tragedy.
There are a million stupid, nasty, insane things said, texted, written on the internet every day. And of all the people who are punished.
Someone please tell his family, those children in that picture, that this man is Thailand. The best of Thailand.
A statue in Naypyidaw: Exploring motifs and meanings
Hi Andrew,
Thanks for bringing to readers’ attention this statue! I hope there will be many, many more finds to come that we may semiotically analyze.
One point which you note at the end is that this is all very speculative. I agree, and I suggest to those with similar research interests to simply get in touch with a Myanma official familiar with Naypyidaw and asking them what their view on the matter is. The era of shuttered tea-leaf reading I think is ebbing. I myself secured a 3hour interview with the Myanma Ambassador to my country of residence (Canada) with one short phone call back in August 2011, during which I could seek the government’s insight on many symbolic features newly adopted by ‘the state redux’. I’m a masters graduate student (in other words, my case was not particularly ‘special’).
All of this is to note that the Myanma officials are very accessible in some cases (I’d be curious to hear whether other researchers have noted an increased accessibility from Myanma officials, as I have), and rather than merely speculate as to the intended meaning of the Myanma government’s new symbolic accoutrements, we can now access the official narratives of meaning without speculation (which…of course, we can then analyze away for underlying meaning!).
I look forward to more interesting ‘finds’ like this!
Tony
Ar Kong dead
112 minutes, to be exact.
Ar Kong dead
They say if you can’t do the time don’t do the crime, so those deliberately flaunting LM laws know what awaits. In this case though the evidence seemed flimsy against an old man who by all accounts held the institution in high regard. A tragic outcome, I would have thought that great PR value was begging on this one for timely leniency, seems TPTB thought otherwise.
Kachin media war continues
The intention was to point to the fact that a revolution incorporating violence is like breeding a monster, the violence sticks around forever.
But South Africa does have a lot of parallel.
Indeed farmer Jone’s pigs always behave like human over time.
That will be a worry for Burma down the road, like in the name of national progress (For the Greater Good) , NLD might start putting the (future) demonstrators in jail as demonstration is not NLD style! Not even a quiet one. In fact none. No amount of killing, torturing, burning rice storage and villages are ever enough for protest as there must be NO confrontation. Otherwise one would become a hardliner!!!
Money and racism. Somehow those two evils are excellent bedfellows.
Burmese chauvinism is a racism. And all the wars happen in money earning area- diamond, gold, drug, jade, teak, gas pipes, border trades.
Old Cecil Rhodes started De Beers first before bleating Anglo-Sexon Supremacy. Afrikaners then are caught red handed.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/apartheid-made-in-britain-richard-dowden-explains-how-churchill-rhodes-and-smuts-caused-black-south-africans-to-lose-their-rights-1370856.html
The West does have something like a “Deifying Machine”.
When old man Mandela was in the can forever, 26 year old Winnie held the candle- a hot, burning one, for a long, long time. She was the mother of the nation- young, beautiful and respected. Later she did go off the rails with Serpei murder and necklacings.
Well before that, her crime was being a “hardliner”. One would have feeling that she is not lacking in connection and cunningness of Ramaphosa at the opposite end. But for all her faults, she sticks with the poor blacks.
Funny how none of the West-defied persons are hardliners including Havel. They do come out of the scream and shout group but then distinguish themselves by being a collaborator- a celebrated ones usually carefully choreographed in details.
Back to Burma, most important things are to have real peace where all killings, even the ones by the brand new lovely democratic government, are objected and stopped and to progress in such a way that the most beautiful social system, religionSSS, and social traditionss as well as environment are kept intact while using education and technology to make it happen for every single citizen.
For the dangling prize of catching up with the ASEAN business (which itself is simply dumb), people are ready to sell out anything and every thing to any buyer even though they cannot make a drop of water or an ounce of clean air themselves.
It plays right into the game of the multinational companies and their agents – “democratic” governments and the international financing agencies, development agencies
When IMF says there is a great chance of being a rich country, it means they know they have greedy, covetous audience, and they feel they can take them a for a ride.
Ar Kong dead
We should have 2 minutes silence nation wide.
Its the least we could do.
Thailand’s Fearlessness: Free Akong
[…] 2011: Esteemed scholar and outspoken anti-112 advocate Pavin Chachavalpongpun takes to Facebook to launch an online campaign in support of Akong’s release. The campaign immediately attracts hundreds of followers, Thai […]
Ar Kong dead
On Facebook there is a note https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000942179021&sk=wall indicating that people are gathering in front of the Criminal Court wearing black to demonstrate respect for this victim of what many see as judicial murder.
Ar Kong dead
Today, perhaps rather belatedly, for the first time, I feel genuine shame at the fact that I live in Thailand. As Pavin said in Matichon Online, I just hope now that those responsible for imprisoning a sick, elderly and innocent man get their just rewards. And soon.
Ar Kong dead
Can judiciary in Thailand be charged with murder, or manslaughter?
Ar Kong dead
I would have half swallowed this if he had been conclusively proven guilty of violating the laws of the land even if I do not agree with the law.
The thing is, he was convicted based on not having a proper defense. Since when is the onus of proof on the defendant in a criminal case ? Even in Thailand the prosecution has the burden of proof.
Furthermore it is absolutely technically possible to clone a SIM card and it is technically still possible to spoof IMEI numbers on certain mobile phones so it seems if I don’t like someone, I just need my hands on their phone SIM card for a bit so I can clone them. Few months later they are in jail. Ridiculous.
Ar Kong dead
‘One can only dream now that a posthumous pardon … ‘
A posthumous pardon … that’s exactly up their alley … pardon themselves for murdering Amphon. Add insult to the most grievous possible injury. That’s the Thai ‘elite’ specialty …. tearfully forgiving themselves for murdering Thais.
Ar Kong dead
RIP Ar Khong.