ref: “The meeting… occurred after Dr. Mahathir retired…”
Appreciate your effort at clarification, Mr. Lopez, but my point is that Mr. Soros is a very peculiar case of an “American Jewish leader” in that he barely identifies himself as a Jew (and indeed as young boy –hence not altogether culpable for his actions back then– he played a rather appalling role in Nazi-occupied Hungary, facilitating the seizure of Jewish properties as their owners were being shipped off to Auschwitz); he hasn’t much applied his vast array of material resources and personal influences to specifically Jewish causes or initiatives (perhaps with the exception of “J-Street”, a radically-leftwing –even by the standards of the ultra-“progressive” American Jewish community, lobby/think-tank notoriously hostile to the present Israeli regime and specifically devised to subvert the undeniably large influence in US politics of generally right-leaning, pro-Zionist Jewish and evangelical Christian institutions : and even in that case, Soros’s support to J-Street seemed to have entailed false-flag intermediaries); and while Soros is a player of the first rank, alright, he’s not regarded by many American Jews as being on their team… This may all be way too oblique to the main subject of this posting but I felt that some elaboration here was warranted.
[…] showed the telltale signs of government censorship. But there were a few positive indications, as I noted in an article for Australian National University-run blog New Mandala shortly after the session […]
Mahathir himself regularly met with American Jewish leaders during his time in office.
The meeting of Dr. Mahathir and Mr. George Soros occurred after Dr. Mahathir retired as prime minister.
The pictures of Dr. Mahathir Mohamed with Mr. George Bush and with Mr. George Soros are for illustrative purposes only and not to prove any particular point made in this article.
You seem to be having it both ways: evil triumphs when good men do nothing (Ne Win era) , and ditto when they do something (SLORC/SPDC era). Assuming as you do that is that the West must not be other than a neutral agent of good. In God We Trust?
Progress with no political direction is fanciful. So is demanding that can only produce results from a position of strength. Besides a technological fix will not deliver on its own.
Neither a borrower nor a lender be. Credit greases the wheels of industry, trade and commerce, and delivers the social benefits such as health, education and transport infrastructure thereof provided they truly are the priorities of a govt. Why do you think so many countries are in hock and beholden to the IMF? Far from being irresponsible, its every move is calculated. Whether it’s really beneficial or detrimental to those on the receiving end is quite another story. But then again the survival of the prevailing socioeconomic order and the ruling class as its principle aim is not the same as the greater good of the country.
Mahathir Mohamad overstayed his welcome by at least a dozen years and if Anwar Ibrahim hadn’t launched in 1998 a vigorous assault upon the fortress of impunity Mahathir built around his throne, the Old Turkey Buzzard would probably have declared himself President for Life, after buying off all nine sultans and putting them to pasture. Now the Old Man lives in perpetual anxiety that Anwar Ibrahim – who miraculously resurrected himself after his erstwhile mentor politically crucified him with sensationalized accusations of sodomy and got him sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment – will lead his Opposition Coalition to victory in the coming elections. The day Anwar is installed as PM, Mahathir will either collapse from his final heart attack – or flee the country with whatever his family was able to steal during his 22-year reign as “the Great Pharaoh.”
If that grip-n-grin between Dr. Mahathir and George Soros was s’pozed to illustrate an exchange or meeting with “American Jewish leaders”, Amb. Ignatius isn’t quite up to speed on who is and who isn’t an American Jewish leader.
Hmmm… how indeed do you go about separating the two… simple… listen to this raving Atheist…. Secularism! thats it.. simple… demolish the sultanate… no single vicar of GOD monarchy… no putrid monopoly of titles and deeds… no religious polarization… Simple and absolute Secularization… Upon this you build a republic democracy.. bipartisan system… No quota of representative… No Racial Caste! annnnnd everything else will fall into place…. and most importantly religious freedom… separation of religious institution and state… A government representative cannot profess in public to be the follower or observer of any particular religion as long as he/her is in office… Simple and non-biased functionality… Humanism and secularism takes precedence before religious and racial convictions…. This alone is absolute guaranty!
So it’s demanding, not begging or borrowing. Fanciful.
“Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.”
Unfortunately business and commerce are run on finance i.e. credit.
But there is such a thing called self reliance/self sufficiency.
And barking up the wrong tree constantly will only divert from the real issue – governance and priorities where the state coffers, at least their own wallets, are bursting at the seams.
“Secondly, Burma’s recent reform has been top-down, whereas Indonesia’s reforms have been driven from the bottom-up.”
Expecting a Citizenry, like Myanmar, that has endure 50 and counting years of being bottom-upped, literally in Education, Health Care and Economic well being, by its own government with the collusion of the West be now expected to effect a reform from bottom-up??
Give the Citizenry what are necessary first then see the inevitable unique changes within Myanmar.
“Can beggars be choosers though since we are not exactly buyers albeit definitely debtors?”
The likely hood of AID and TB spreading from Myanmar to anywhere with sound basic Public Heath Policy is absolutely ludicrous.
Ko Moe Aung
The era of dictatorship in Myanmar that brought about this quagmire are:
1) Ne Win isolationist/deprivation policy. 1962-1988
2) This dictatorship outwitting the useless careless policy of deprivation/isolation.1988-?
The Humanity within Myanmar has been raped twice, by the respective similar periods of dictatorships.
Both times with the full complicity of the West:
1) Letting Ne Win be Ne Win
2) Instituting the outrageously, unprecedented and unjustifiable sanction. A continuation of Ne Win policy, still insolently ongoing under the flimsiest guise of “progress in democratic changes” as touted by DASSK.
Demanding to give Myanmar it “Fair share of basic humanity need”,in heath care, education and economic well being make the Citizenry within neither beggars nor debtors to the irresponsible West.
Regarding the references to Diamond (doesn’t he feel bored having talked and written about the single issue of democracy for decades?) and O’Donnell and Schmitter, one should also keep in mind the well known article by Thomas Carothers. 2002. “The End of the Transition Paradigm.” Journal of Democracy 13 (1):5-21. It can be freely downloaded at http://www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/gratis/Carothers-13-1.pdf
An unsuccesful coup because of people oppposition would change the Thai political landscape completely. If one is attempted, this is now a real possibility. Lets hope things resolve through acceptance of political reality as a people opposed coup is likely to be bloody.
However, the Democrats frantic and panicky resistance of anything that smacks of reconcilliation from neutral groups even when the previous coup leader supports it indicates a fairly big residue of extemists in positions of power with a powerful influence over a large minority.
This extremisim doesnt augur well for the country moving forward based on the democratic decisions of the Thai people unfortuanately.
ANU’s Ross Tapsell analyses press freedom in Malaysia.
This nice survey article however concludes that for real press freedom to emerge, Malaysia needs more substantive societal changes.
Few journalists within the industry believe that even if Najib’s does fulfil his promise and repeal the PPPA, it will not have much effect on press freedom. Even if licences do not need to be renewed yearly, the Malaysian Home Minister can still remove it, and his decision cannot be challenged in court.
The press freedom activists who have worked so hard over the past 13 years to implement reforms all believe that wider change needs to occur in Malaysian society. If greater reforms for press freedom are going to happen in Malaysia, it needs more support from the mainstream media, NGOs and politicians, both in the opposition and perhaps even reformers within the government. As Malaysiakini founder Steven Gan said: “We can do our bit here at Malaysiakini, but we need a contribution from a lot of different actors.”
This appears to be the conclusion of many experts analysing Malaysia as demonstrated in the Malaysia after regime change series of articles.
What we are lacking in Burma are the equivalents of the Berkeley Boys in the Indonesian Army and the Berkeley Mafia who advised Suharto on economic matters. What we do have are the Moscow Men in the army and the Kunming Kingpins (Laobans).
Couldn’t agree more that getting the balance right is crucial.
I guess the reasons TB and HIV enjoy the high profile that they do are probably:
a. being infections that respond to specific therapy, so it’s pretty straightforward, and
b. contagious with the attendant risk of spreading to the developed world especially drug resistant TB. Antimalarials and yellow fever vaccine were developed in order to protect their own troops always fighting foreign wars throughout history. Looking out for number happens to be a time honoured principle.
Like the missionaries in the olden days, Western NGOs are perhaps the ‘great white saviours’ of postmodern times, at least some of them, in their ‘missionary zeal’ as well as in their patronising attitude and meddling that may or may not be closely linked to their donor states. It’s a difficult balancing act on the part of the recipient states of such aid. The IMF is the financial and hence a fundamentally more dictatorial and deadlier body than these INGOs. The old caveat ‘buyer beware’ definitely applies in both arenas.
Can beggars be choosers though since we are not exactly buyers albeit definitely debtors? I can still remember the sense of both great sympathy for and shame on behalf of the locals felt in Burma during the Biafran war and famine crisis witnessed in the news that went round the globe.
“The mentality that a coup may be necessary is what’s keeping Thailand in its present status of being third world. Just remember: ABC, Anything But a Coup.”
While I agree with the tenor of your remarks, Dan D, the problem is that ABC can mean that the government will not exercise its legitimate authority in areas where there is any danger of tipping off a coup such as deciding on who should be in charge of the armed forces, whether the armed forces should submit to political control and matters such as lese majeste, or whether Thaksin should be amnestied.
So I don’t necessarily agree. The best thing for Thailand would be if the armed forces completely renounce the coup option. As it is, their position seems to be that the conditions for a coup are not present – but of course they could be tomorrow or next year. That decision still seems to be one that the army has been granted the right to make The next best thing would be a coup that fails completely and brings no violence and which puts the whole coup-making process under general contempt.
I’m not sure what the worst option would be. A successful coup with the necessary repression that would involve or a coup that is bitterly and violently contested.
Thank you for such a fascinating and concise synopsis of south eastern Asia. As a British Columbian Canadian our mainstream news is so dated and myopic as to put to little emphasis on the importance of the emerging economies especially to future trade and tourism. Presently our government is pursuing trade with China because of its stability but Canadian history has always been preference for partnership with democracies. I am hopeful that optimism prevails for the sake of increasing mutual trade and tourism in the Pacific rim. Our aging country could benefit much from the ideas of the educated and motivated young adults of this region.
“superanonymous // Mar 23, 2012 at 7:31 pm (jonfernquest#21) So what’s your beef with Ajarn Worachet, then? Members and supporters of the Nitirat group promote their views and debate outside the classroom and on and off campus, in print and open public forums, encouraging people to “dare talk openly in public about important things.” Also, my ‘comment is spurious?’ Are you doubting than I am the real superanonymous? Not quite following your train of thought.”
1. Why would you start your drive to “talk openly” with the one area that you know is going to incite anger and hatred (albeit remaining calm and stoic like a Boddhisatva in the face of LM does seem like a better way to honour the monarch of a Buddhist country then violent words and action (punching in face, effectively assaulting and murdering people with words, as examples in this very blog have shown) as some have shamefully done).
2. But given that is the way people behave, choosing LM really just seems like a form of grandstanding, drawing attention to yourself and trying to make yourself into some kind of intellectual hero with a certain group of western intellectuals who prioritize “freedom of speech” issues over real injustices or “double standards” that are a little harder to track down and document (i.e. real physical or economic harm done to other people, catalog of real life cases available upon request) Grandstanding was exactly what the LM poster boy Harry was all about with his Panama hat and ardent desire to find a controversial issue to become a great writer and in the end he got his 15 minutes of fame on CNN.
3. An LM mentality pervades just about every nook and cranny of public life in Thailand and especially that dealing with laws, law enforcement and the media and one major vehicle for this is the defamation suit, both actual use & threat of actual use even against major media outlets, coupled with the long long delays & uncertainty in discovering the verdict and making the whole issue complete taboo to discuss in public. Good truth-honouring people are thrown in jail, get bricks thrown through the windows of their car and all the while the defamation suit enjoins them from talking about these injustices (#1#2). Generalized defamation suit mentality and its cultural roots in face and loss of face is the real prior problem here.
4. Finally and most importantly, you want to really help people as a law professor? then focus on real injustice. Get out of the air-conditioned office and talk to rural people (like an anthropologist in the field) and make a catalogue of injustices , real life “double standards” that the red shirts talk about. I think they are absolutely right about this but then they lapse into lazy ideology and blame the bogey man “amat” for all these double standards that are never actually enumerated in all their horrid detail, which is just intellectual laziness and actually a huge distraction from solving the real injustices in their own backyard. Prove to me that it isn’t actually some petty Jao Phaw feudal lord in their own backyard that is their actual oppressor. It is 100 times easier for locals to get away with it, because there is no hyperlocal media shining the light of truth on what they are doing. Need more chapters like Pasuk & Baker’s Thai Capital chapters on hyperlocal political economy. (“hyperlocal” is used here because “local” sometimes just means “Thailand”, by “hyperlocal media” I mean at the provincial level, See Investigating Local Governments: A Manual for reporters, Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism). Anyway, I could go on and on and even start writing a book on this subject, but I have a 9 to 5 job, so bye 🙂
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Is Malaysia on the cusp of regime change?
@ Hanoi Paris Hilton #4.
Thanks very much for the elaboration.
Some of what you said are news to me (Soros profited from Nazi atrocities…WOW! How about that for someone pushing for Open Societies) .
Pictures, they say paint a thousand words.
And that was my purpose.
Each New Mandala reader will make his own interpretation of the enigmatic individuals in these photographs — and perhaps demystify most of them.
Is Malaysia on the cusp of regime change?
ref: “The meeting… occurred after Dr. Mahathir retired…”
Appreciate your effort at clarification, Mr. Lopez, but my point is that Mr. Soros is a very peculiar case of an “American Jewish leader” in that he barely identifies himself as a Jew (and indeed as young boy –hence not altogether culpable for his actions back then– he played a rather appalling role in Nazi-occupied Hungary, facilitating the seizure of Jewish properties as their owners were being shipped off to Auschwitz); he hasn’t much applied his vast array of material resources and personal influences to specifically Jewish causes or initiatives (perhaps with the exception of “J-Street”, a radically-leftwing –even by the standards of the ultra-“progressive” American Jewish community, lobby/think-tank notoriously hostile to the present Israeli regime and specifically devised to subvert the undeniably large influence in US politics of generally right-leaning, pro-Zionist Jewish and evangelical Christian institutions : and even in that case, Soros’s support to J-Street seemed to have entailed false-flag intermediaries); and while Soros is a player of the first rank, alright, he’s not regarded by many American Jews as being on their team… This may all be way too oblique to the main subject of this posting but I felt that some elaboration here was warranted.
Burma’s parliamentary system explained
[…] showed the telltale signs of government censorship. But there were a few positive indications, as I noted in an article for Australian National University-run blog New Mandala shortly after the session […]
Is Malaysia on the cusp of regime change?
@ Hanoi Paris Hilton #1.
The Ambassador noted:
The meeting of Dr. Mahathir and Mr. George Soros occurred after Dr. Mahathir retired as prime minister.
The pictures of Dr. Mahathir Mohamed with Mr. George Bush and with Mr. George Soros are for illustrative purposes only and not to prove any particular point made in this article.
Greg Lopez
Editor, New Mandala Malaysia section.
Interview with Doctors Without Borders – Myanmar
plan B,
You seem to be having it both ways: evil triumphs when good men do nothing (Ne Win era) , and ditto when they do something (SLORC/SPDC era). Assuming as you do that is that the West must not be other than a neutral agent of good. In God We Trust?
Progress with no political direction is fanciful. So is demanding that can only produce results from a position of strength. Besides a technological fix will not deliver on its own.
Neither a borrower nor a lender be. Credit greases the wheels of industry, trade and commerce, and delivers the social benefits such as health, education and transport infrastructure thereof provided they truly are the priorities of a govt. Why do you think so many countries are in hock and beholden to the IMF? Far from being irresponsible, its every move is calculated. Whether it’s really beneficial or detrimental to those on the receiving end is quite another story. But then again the survival of the prevailing socioeconomic order and the ruling class as its principle aim is not the same as the greater good of the country.
Is Malaysia on the cusp of regime change?
Mahathir Mohamad overstayed his welcome by at least a dozen years and if Anwar Ibrahim hadn’t launched in 1998 a vigorous assault upon the fortress of impunity Mahathir built around his throne, the Old Turkey Buzzard would probably have declared himself President for Life, after buying off all nine sultans and putting them to pasture. Now the Old Man lives in perpetual anxiety that Anwar Ibrahim – who miraculously resurrected himself after his erstwhile mentor politically crucified him with sensationalized accusations of sodomy and got him sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment – will lead his Opposition Coalition to victory in the coming elections. The day Anwar is installed as PM, Mahathir will either collapse from his final heart attack – or flee the country with whatever his family was able to steal during his 22-year reign as “the Great Pharaoh.”
Is Malaysia on the cusp of regime change?
If that grip-n-grin between Dr. Mahathir and George Soros was s’pozed to illustrate an exchange or meeting with “American Jewish leaders”, Amb. Ignatius isn’t quite up to speed on who is and who isn’t an American Jewish leader.
Malaysia after regime change – Tricia Yeoh
Hmmm… how indeed do you go about separating the two… simple… listen to this raving Atheist…. Secularism! thats it.. simple… demolish the sultanate… no single vicar of GOD monarchy… no putrid monopoly of titles and deeds… no religious polarization… Simple and absolute Secularization… Upon this you build a republic democracy.. bipartisan system… No quota of representative… No Racial Caste! annnnnd everything else will fall into place…. and most importantly religious freedom… separation of religious institution and state… A government representative cannot profess in public to be the follower or observer of any particular religion as long as he/her is in office… Simple and non-biased functionality… Humanism and secularism takes precedence before religious and racial convictions…. This alone is absolute guaranty!
Interview with Doctors Without Borders – Myanmar
plan B,
So it’s demanding, not begging or borrowing. Fanciful.
“Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.”
Unfortunately business and commerce are run on finance i.e. credit.
But there is such a thing called self reliance/self sufficiency.
And barking up the wrong tree constantly will only divert from the real issue – governance and priorities where the state coffers, at least their own wallets, are bursting at the seams.
Can Burma learn from Indonesia?
“Secondly, Burma’s recent reform has been top-down, whereas Indonesia’s reforms have been driven from the bottom-up.”
Expecting a Citizenry, like Myanmar, that has endure 50 and counting years of being bottom-upped, literally in Education, Health Care and Economic well being, by its own government with the collusion of the West be now expected to effect a reform from bottom-up??
Give the Citizenry what are necessary first then see the inevitable unique changes within Myanmar.
Interview with Doctors Without Borders – Myanmar
“Can beggars be choosers though since we are not exactly buyers albeit definitely debtors?”
The likely hood of AID and TB spreading from Myanmar to anywhere with sound basic Public Heath Policy is absolutely ludicrous.
Ko Moe Aung
The era of dictatorship in Myanmar that brought about this quagmire are:
1) Ne Win isolationist/deprivation policy. 1962-1988
2) This dictatorship outwitting the useless careless policy of deprivation/isolation.1988-?
The Humanity within Myanmar has been raped twice, by the respective similar periods of dictatorships.
Both times with the full complicity of the West:
1) Letting Ne Win be Ne Win
2) Instituting the outrageously, unprecedented and unjustifiable sanction. A continuation of Ne Win policy, still insolently ongoing under the flimsiest guise of “progress in democratic changes” as touted by DASSK.
Demanding to give Myanmar it “Fair share of basic humanity need”,in heath care, education and economic well being make the Citizenry within neither beggars nor debtors to the irresponsible West.
Democracy in Southeast Asia: A new generation’s take
P.S.:
Regarding the references to Diamond (doesn’t he feel bored having talked and written about the single issue of democracy for decades?) and O’Donnell and Schmitter, one should also keep in mind the well known article by Thomas Carothers. 2002. “The End of the Transition Paradigm.” Journal of Democracy 13 (1):5-21. It can be freely downloaded at http://www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/gratis/Carothers-13-1.pdf
Democracy in Southeast Asia: A new generation’s take
In January, the SEARC in Hong Kong published a series of working papers on aspects of the political situation in Vietnam.
They can be freely downloaded at http://www6.cityu.edu.hk/searc/doc.aspx
Carlyle A. Thayer: The Apparatus of Authoritarian Rule in Viet Nam
Thomas Jandl: Economic Decentralization and Central Political Control in Vietnam
Benedict J. Tria Kerkvliet: Government Repression and Toleration in Contemporary Vietnam
Malesky Edmund and Paul Schuler: Do Elections Help Non-Democratic Regimes Identify New Leaders?
Tuong Vu: The Persistence of Single-Party Dictatorships: The Case of Vietnam
Adam Fforde: Post Cold War Vietnam: Stay Low, Learn, Adapt And Try To Have Fun – But What About The Party?
A week of colour
An unsuccesful coup because of people oppposition would change the Thai political landscape completely. If one is attempted, this is now a real possibility. Lets hope things resolve through acceptance of political reality as a people opposed coup is likely to be bloody.
However, the Democrats frantic and panicky resistance of anything that smacks of reconcilliation from neutral groups even when the previous coup leader supports it indicates a fairly big residue of extemists in positions of power with a powerful influence over a large minority.
This extremisim doesnt augur well for the country moving forward based on the democratic decisions of the Thai people unfortuanately.
Internet freedom in Malaysia: A muzzled mess
ANU’s Ross Tapsell analyses press freedom in Malaysia.
This nice survey article however concludes that for real press freedom to emerge, Malaysia needs more substantive societal changes.
This appears to be the conclusion of many experts analysing Malaysia as demonstrated in the Malaysia after regime change series of articles.
Can Burma learn from Indonesia?
eva seriche,
What we are lacking in Burma are the equivalents of the Berkeley Boys in the Indonesian Army and the Berkeley Mafia who advised Suharto on economic matters. What we do have are the Moscow Men in the army and the Kunming Kingpins (Laobans).
Interview with Doctors Without Borders – Myanmar
plan B,
Couldn’t agree more that getting the balance right is crucial.
I guess the reasons TB and HIV enjoy the high profile that they do are probably:
a. being infections that respond to specific therapy, so it’s pretty straightforward, and
b. contagious with the attendant risk of spreading to the developed world especially drug resistant TB. Antimalarials and yellow fever vaccine were developed in order to protect their own troops always fighting foreign wars throughout history. Looking out for number happens to be a time honoured principle.
Like the missionaries in the olden days, Western NGOs are perhaps the ‘great white saviours’ of postmodern times, at least some of them, in their ‘missionary zeal’ as well as in their patronising attitude and meddling that may or may not be closely linked to their donor states. It’s a difficult balancing act on the part of the recipient states of such aid. The IMF is the financial and hence a fundamentally more dictatorial and deadlier body than these INGOs. The old caveat ‘buyer beware’ definitely applies in both arenas.
Can beggars be choosers though since we are not exactly buyers albeit definitely debtors? I can still remember the sense of both great sympathy for and shame on behalf of the locals felt in Burma during the Biafran war and famine crisis witnessed in the news that went round the globe.
A week of colour
“The mentality that a coup may be necessary is what’s keeping Thailand in its present status of being third world. Just remember: ABC, Anything But a Coup.”
While I agree with the tenor of your remarks, Dan D, the problem is that ABC can mean that the government will not exercise its legitimate authority in areas where there is any danger of tipping off a coup such as deciding on who should be in charge of the armed forces, whether the armed forces should submit to political control and matters such as lese majeste, or whether Thaksin should be amnestied.
So I don’t necessarily agree. The best thing for Thailand would be if the armed forces completely renounce the coup option. As it is, their position seems to be that the conditions for a coup are not present – but of course they could be tomorrow or next year. That decision still seems to be one that the army has been granted the right to make The next best thing would be a coup that fails completely and brings no violence and which puts the whole coup-making process under general contempt.
I’m not sure what the worst option would be. A successful coup with the necessary repression that would involve or a coup that is bitterly and violently contested.
Democracy in Southeast Asia: A new generation’s take
Thank you for such a fascinating and concise synopsis of south eastern Asia. As a British Columbian Canadian our mainstream news is so dated and myopic as to put to little emphasis on the importance of the emerging economies especially to future trade and tourism. Presently our government is pursuing trade with China because of its stability but Canadian history has always been preference for partnership with democracies. I am hopeful that optimism prevails for the sake of increasing mutual trade and tourism in the Pacific rim. Our aging country could benefit much from the ideas of the educated and motivated young adults of this region.
A week of colour
“superanonymous // Mar 23, 2012 at 7:31 pm (jonfernquest#21) So what’s your beef with Ajarn Worachet, then? Members and supporters of the Nitirat group promote their views and debate outside the classroom and on and off campus, in print and open public forums, encouraging people to “dare talk openly in public about important things.” Also, my ‘comment is spurious?’ Are you doubting than I am the real superanonymous? Not quite following your train of thought.”
1. Why would you start your drive to “talk openly” with the one area that you know is going to incite anger and hatred (albeit remaining calm and stoic like a Boddhisatva in the face of LM does seem like a better way to honour the monarch of a Buddhist country then violent words and action (punching in face, effectively assaulting and murdering people with words, as examples in this very blog have shown) as some have shamefully done).
2. But given that is the way people behave, choosing LM really just seems like a form of grandstanding, drawing attention to yourself and trying to make yourself into some kind of intellectual hero with a certain group of western intellectuals who prioritize “freedom of speech” issues over real injustices or “double standards” that are a little harder to track down and document (i.e. real physical or economic harm done to other people, catalog of real life cases available upon request) Grandstanding was exactly what the LM poster boy Harry was all about with his Panama hat and ardent desire to find a controversial issue to become a great writer and in the end he got his 15 minutes of fame on CNN.
3. An LM mentality pervades just about every nook and cranny of public life in Thailand and especially that dealing with laws, law enforcement and the media and one major vehicle for this is the defamation suit, both actual use & threat of actual use even against major media outlets, coupled with the long long delays & uncertainty in discovering the verdict and making the whole issue complete taboo to discuss in public. Good truth-honouring people are thrown in jail, get bricks thrown through the windows of their car and all the while the defamation suit enjoins them from talking about these injustices (#1 #2). Generalized defamation suit mentality and its cultural roots in face and loss of face is the real prior problem here.
4. Finally and most importantly, you want to really help people as a law professor? then focus on real injustice. Get out of the air-conditioned office and talk to rural people (like an anthropologist in the field) and make a catalogue of injustices , real life “double standards” that the red shirts talk about. I think they are absolutely right about this but then they lapse into lazy ideology and blame the bogey man “amat” for all these double standards that are never actually enumerated in all their horrid detail, which is just intellectual laziness and actually a huge distraction from solving the real injustices in their own backyard. Prove to me that it isn’t actually some petty Jao Phaw feudal lord in their own backyard that is their actual oppressor. It is 100 times easier for locals to get away with it, because there is no hyperlocal media shining the light of truth on what they are doing. Need more chapters like Pasuk & Baker’s Thai Capital chapters on hyperlocal political economy. (“hyperlocal” is used here because “local” sometimes just means “Thailand”, by “hyperlocal media” I mean at the provincial level, See Investigating Local Governments: A Manual for reporters, Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism). Anyway, I could go on and on and even start writing a book on this subject, but I have a 9 to 5 job, so bye 🙂