“He emphasized that he was close to many officers
and, in fact, taught many of them in his capacity as a guest
lecturer at Chulachomklao Royal Military Academy and the
Royal Thai Air Force Academy. He said that he had always
held the military in high regard for their sense of honor and
dedication to the country.”
It is about HRW’s Sunai Phasuk and comments attributed to him in Oct 2006, just after the coup.
“Human rights activist Sunai Phasuk noted that the
concerns about martial law and similar issues “puts people
like me in a very difficult and uncomfortable position.” He
said that as a staunch anti-Thaksin activist, he was
initially relieved to see the Thaksin administration forced
out, and he wants to be supportive of the interim
government’s effort to restore democracy in Thailand. But
the failure of the CNS in responding to repeated calls for
lifting martial law and restrictions on civil liberties is
making it impossible for him (and people like him) who want
to be supportive.”
Sure they would be willing to question a hluttaw representative on why there isn’t more media freedom. That’s why I think they would be offended by your apparent suggestion that they are subservient to members of the government and parliament. It’s certainly not reflective of the journalists I know, although they are a polite bunch. When I said the process hasn’t changed, I meant that pre-publication censorship is still in place for news journals. However, there are far, far fewer articles and photos being redacted – the difference between what is being published now and two years ago is quite dramatic.
As a Thai who has lived through HMK’s reign and observed all his acts, I fail to see what is so exciting about his life and work. Why don’t we all reread Shakespeare’s Much Ado about Nothing?
Speaking of KBAAWL, may I recommend B.J. Terwiel’s Thailand’s Political History: From the Fall of Ayutthaya to Recent Times , 2011 reviewed and updated form the original book.
Great use of original sources, supporting footnotes, thought provoking ideas and – so far – a very good read. Some nice concluding comments covering the state of how Thai history is interpreted, packaged and disseminated to the people.
1) The slash and burning are done for next season planting especially in the hills of Myanmar and Thailand.
2) Raging natural forest fire 2┬║ to thunder storm unlike the west both country have little mean to control.
3) Wood Charcoal makers will burn down a forest for the purpose of gathering the product that they rely on to survive.
except for #2, the traditions endure and relatively supported by the unique Myanmar ecosystem, that westerner frown.
This ongoing traditions for centuries is dwarf by large scale development/deforestation by Dictators self serving approved Chinese, Thai and Korean projects.
Projects that take very little concerns for anything but profits.
Project that are 2┬║ to present useless careless action by the west.
Sounds to me like Pridi is an unsung hero of Thailand. Unfortunately his role seems to have been completely whitewashed from official history, and many Thais probably have little idea. If anyone deserves a book, it’s him.
Counterfactual history is fascinating but as CT #15 says, we can never know. However, I do suspect, like Johan #14, that were it not for the killing of Ananda, Pridi Banomyong would almost certainly have had a much greater influence on postwar Thai politics, to the probable benefit of the country.
They seem to be making it complicated – indicating that they’re a bunch of writers and have no experience running an organization. In particular my eyes roll on reading “make the punishment for offences against the King greater than that of ordinary individuals by 1 year“. One more year for him, one more year for her, one more year for him, one more year for her, one more for the regent … add a couple of SMS messages and a ‘like’ on Facebook and are we at 15 years yet?
An adjustment of a figure in Forbes and several useful additional paragraphs on lese majeste seems a high price to pay! Are you quite certain there’s not something else?
> “Why would well known academics, each with the talent and depth of knowledge to write their own biographies of Phumiphon agree to collaborate on one organized by the most extreme royalist acolytes?”
Firstly why do you use the word ‘extreme’? Isn’t the term ‘royalist acolyte’ pejorative enough? How ‘extreme’ , when compared against a random sample of royalist acolytes, is Anand Panyarachun and do you know anything about any of the other committee members?
> “Now that I have these conceptions in my mind, I am able to see a larger more complicated image, thats right, I am now no longer perceiving the original narrative as presented. ”
[Slow hand-clap …]
> “you then produced some of the most garish, fawning adulation to ever grace the pages of Newmandala.”
Where?
> “your slavish, unquestioning devotion to academia could cause ripples in the royal household”
I haven’t noticed this. Several academics are facing LM charges/investigations. By the way your second paragraph is basically a repeat of your third paragraph from the previous post.
Stuart:
Whatever your pursuit you have to deal with processes and people that get on your nerves. Thanks to Ouyyanont’s chapter, Forbes have just written their latest iteration of their exposes on the King’s wealth. Thanks to the chapter Streckfuss wrote, journalists won’t have to use and reuse exactly the same paragraph in any story they write about LM – they should have four or five extra ones to choose from.
Yakima, WA may participate in Gross National Happiness/ Pursuit of Happiness Day 13 April 2012. We would like to communicate with others around the globe who can offer information on teach-in respources and connections.
I cannot for the life of me fathom why well-credentialed and respected independent academics and commentators such as Streckfuss, Ouyyanont, Erlich et al would align themselves with this project and subject themselves to a tainted editorial advisory board. Surely they must have known the book is, at least in part, an exercise in public relations. But they appear to have done so.
Jon Wright #88. You appear to be struggling with the concept of ‘perception’. Why would well known academics, each with the talent and depth of knowledge to write their own biographies of Phumiphon agree to collaborate on one organized by the most extreme royalist acolytes? If this situation doesn’t inspire still more inquisitiveness, then good luck, you still believe in the fairytale kingdom. My experience with Thai culture tells me nothing travels in a straight line in Thailand. Hence, I am able to conceive of multiple more complex scenarios, not necessarily sinister. Now that I have these conceptions in my mind, I am able to see a larger more complicated image, thats right, I am now no longer perceiving the original narrative as presented.
You, yourself, stoked my fetid, paranoid imagination with quotes like these: (Jon Wright #85) “They are the authorities on their respective subjects and presumably they extracted certain assurances before they commenced work.”, “I guess their role was project management, basically consisting of smoothing out the to-ing and fro-ing between an incoherent committee and the exasperated writers.”. Now where would I get the perception of back-room deals being done? I am indebted to your inside knowledge on that one.
I noted that you weren’t totally onside with my rant against academic privilege and the free passes that still have favor in some quarters. you then produced some of the most garish, fawning adulation to ever grace the pages of Newmandala. News of your slavish, unquestioning devotion to academia could cause ripples in the royal household, rivals are not tolerated.
However, I still perceive hope for you Jon. You managed to float from critical discussion on Newmandala to year zero in 1970s Cambodia. A somewhat startling feat of imagination but just a tad hysterical, try mediation before resorting to drugs.
Arguably the worst pollution in SE Asia caused by poor people struggling to survive. It doesn’t fit too well in the romantic “narrative” of the innocent poor living in harmony with nature does it? As an embarrassing fact, it almost ranks with the hunter-gatherers’ destruction of the megafauna of all continents except Africa.
Not sure if anyone else has found something similar…
Behind Ananda’s Death (sic?) is the title of a Thai book we picked up yesterday at a local mall. It was interesting to note that a Thai language book of this type would be for open sale, so I went to the Table of Contents section first to see what was supposed to be in it. Disregarding the fact that page numbers indicated did not match where the citations actually were, there is one section titled Medical Reports of Ananda’s Death that I found particularly interesting. A brief read at the beginning of the section led to of course, a police statement that inasmuch as public reports contained a great deal of misleading and incorrect information, it was necessary to clear things, despite investigations not being complete, so as to provide an accurate picture to the Thai people.
Now I have yet to go back to the book, but will be spending some time this week doing so and will provide some detailed references to it if anyone is interested. By the way, what other books in Thai and English are available locally on this subject?
For a book that boasts “accuracy”, “A Life’s Work” manages to get a very well known and crucial fact about King Ananda’s death, wrong!!
(See below for details; I just thought it’s fun to begin with a “headline” 55555 – for our non-Thai readers, this is “Thai-style “lol”)
………………….
I finally got hold of a copy yesterday afternoon, thanks to the generosity of the staff at Asia Books Fashion Island branch. The new batch that just arrived, all several hundreds copies, had already been reserved in advance. (I didn’t reserve one.) But after some checking the staff found that someone had not come in to pick up his/her copy since the last batch, despite being repeatedly contacted by the branch. So they decided to give that copy to me. (Sorry for that person if s/he ever comes in later!)
…………….
Obviously I haven’t finished the book. Frankly, reading certain sections quickly and browsing the whole book, I don’t find it as interesting as I expected. When Anand Panyarachun gave a long interview to promote the book on the well-known “Answer the Questions” program on Thai PBS, both he and the program host (the currently very famous Phinyo – “I am neutral, don’t pressure me to choose side” – Traisurathamma) gave a strong impression that the book departs in significant ways from previous official and semi-official “biographies” of the King, in dealing with controversial issues like the “King Ananda’s Death Case” or “6 Tula” (6 October) in a frank, “objective” fashion. Well, it doesn’t. It’s still the same old dishonesty and lies by deliberate omissions we’ve seen before, and not that subtle either.
Anyway, I’ll come back when I finish at least those parts of the book that I’m particularly curious about (the CPB and the Lesse Majeste law, in addition to the two issues mentioned above.)
……………….
Now about the factual error I “headline” above.
On page 83, the book says (my emphasis):
“At 9.20 am, about 20 minutes after Prince Bhumibol had left the breakfast table, a shot rang out. A bullet had entered King Ananda’s forehead over his right eye and exited as a more minor wound into the bed’s mattress.”
As anyone with just a minimum knowledge of the case would know, the fact is: it’s over the LEFT eye that the bullet entered! And this was one of the reasons why Ananda could not possibly have shot himself, either accidentally or deliberately. (He’s right-handed.)
By the way, the sequence about Bhumibol having breaking that morning is factually wrong too. (I’ll explain when I write a long review.)
I also found another factual error when the book describes the events leading to the 1973 student uprising (the same error is repeated twice on one page).
…………………
Anyway, let me end with another 555555.
I smiles when I see that I am in one of the photos in the book. A very tiny shot of (a very young) me!!
The more I think about it, the more struck I am by the similarities between KBAALW and The Revolutionary King. I’ve discussed this in part 3 of my review, which is now online, as follows:
One of the striking things about KBAALW and its failed effort to conceal the truth about 1946 is the extent to which it echoes the debacle of The Revolutionary King. In the 1990s, Bhumibol and key members of his inner circle brought in William Stevenson to write a whitewash of the Ninth Reign, only to see their plan explode damagingly in their faces. With KBAALW, the basic strategy hasn’t changed, they just seem to have concluded they needed to try to do it more competently. So a whole team of foreign journalists and academics has been drafted in this time, and a panel of the most loyal network monarchists appointed to oversee their efforts under the trusty stewardship of Anand Panyarachun. What could possibly go wrong?
The problem, as Thailand’s royalist establishment appears to fail to understand, is that no matter how many people you lock up for lèse majesté, or how many foreign writers you employ to spin things for you, or how hard you try to suppress facts you don’t like, the truth doesn’t change. And it has a way of getting out, sooner or later.
“They have concluded, probably correctly, that Handley has done as much to undermine the Thai monarchy abroad as Thaksin has done at home.”
Sorry?…. Thaksin has done no such thing….. He is a loyal servant of the King and Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yubamrung in the present Thaksin controlled government has made clear it clear that it is his intention to vigorously pursue all cases of defamation against the King and uphold the laws of Lese Majeste. Nor are the vast majority of Red shirts anything other than loyal. Thida Thavornseth has made that clear.
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Open letter about lese majeste
Another comment attributed to HRW’s Sunai Phusak from a post-coup cable in 2006 http://www.cablegatesearch.net/cable.php?id=06BANGKOK6354&q=phasuk%20sunai
“He emphasized that he was close to many officers
and, in fact, taught many of them in his capacity as a guest
lecturer at Chulachomklao Royal Military Academy and the
Royal Thai Air Force Academy. He said that he had always
held the military in high regard for their sense of honor and
dedication to the country.”
Open letter about lese majeste
This is from a wikileaks cable – http://www.cablegatesearch.net/cable.php?id=06BANGKOK6354&q=phasuk%20sunai
It is about HRW’s Sunai Phasuk and comments attributed to him in Oct 2006, just after the coup.
“Human rights activist Sunai Phasuk noted that the
concerns about martial law and similar issues “puts people
like me in a very difficult and uncomfortable position.” He
said that as a staunch anti-Thaksin activist, he was
initially relieved to see the Thaksin administration forced
out, and he wants to be supportive of the interim
government’s effort to restore democracy in Thailand. But
the failure of the CNS in responding to repeated calls for
lifting martial law and restrictions on civil liberties is
making it impossible for him (and people like him) who want
to be supportive.”
Burma’s constitution in 2012 and beyond
Colum Graham,
Sure they would be willing to question a hluttaw representative on why there isn’t more media freedom. That’s why I think they would be offended by your apparent suggestion that they are subservient to members of the government and parliament. It’s certainly not reflective of the journalists I know, although they are a polite bunch. When I said the process hasn’t changed, I meant that pre-publication censorship is still in place for news journals. However, there are far, far fewer articles and photos being redacted – the difference between what is being published now and two years ago is quite dramatic.
I thought this (http://en.rsf.org/burma-burmese-media-combating-censorship-22-12-2010,39134.html) was a more nuanced report from RSF and this recently published piece (http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/01/20/paper_tigers) also gave a pretty accurate picture of the issues local journalists are facing. I can’t imagine Maung Wuntha (quoted in the article) being subservient to an MP…
Review of A Life’s Work
As a Thai who has lived through HMK’s reign and observed all his acts, I fail to see what is so exciting about his life and work. Why don’t we all reread Shakespeare’s Much Ado about Nothing?
Reviews and reviews and reviews
Speaking of KBAAWL, may I recommend B.J. Terwiel’s Thailand’s Political History: From the Fall of Ayutthaya to Recent Times , 2011 reviewed and updated form the original book.
Great use of original sources, supporting footnotes, thought provoking ideas and – so far – a very good read. Some nice concluding comments covering the state of how Thai history is interpreted, packaged and disseminated to the people.
Smoke across mainland Southeast Asia
R. N. England
During the bone dry season b/t November to May:
1) The slash and burning are done for next season planting especially in the hills of Myanmar and Thailand.
2) Raging natural forest fire 2┬║ to thunder storm unlike the west both country have little mean to control.
3) Wood Charcoal makers will burn down a forest for the purpose of gathering the product that they rely on to survive.
except for #2, the traditions endure and relatively supported by the unique Myanmar ecosystem, that westerner frown.
This ongoing traditions for centuries is dwarf by large scale development/deforestation by Dictators self serving approved Chinese, Thai and Korean projects.
Projects that take very little concerns for anything but profits.
Project that are 2┬║ to present useless careless action by the west.
Reviewing King Bhumibol’s life
Sounds to me like Pridi is an unsung hero of Thailand. Unfortunately his role seems to have been completely whitewashed from official history, and many Thais probably have little idea. If anyone deserves a book, it’s him.
Reviewing King Bhumibol’s life
Counterfactual history is fascinating but as CT #15 says, we can never know. However, I do suspect, like Johan #14, that were it not for the killing of Ananda, Pridi Banomyong would almost certainly have had a much greater influence on postwar Thai politics, to the probable benefit of the country.
Reviews and reviews and reviews
Somsak Jeamteerasakul #5
Please let us know which page we can find you. Going through the whole book yet again to look for it would be more than I could bear.
Open letter about lese majeste
They seem to be making it complicated – indicating that they’re a bunch of writers and have no experience running an organization. In particular my eyes roll on reading “make the punishment for offences against the King greater than that of ordinary individuals by 1 year“. One more year for him, one more year for her, one more year for him, one more year for her, one more for the regent … add a couple of SMS messages and a ‘like’ on Facebook and are we at 15 years yet?
Keep it simple folks!
Review of A Life’s Work
Jon.
An adjustment of a figure in Forbes and several useful additional paragraphs on lese majeste seems a high price to pay! Are you quite certain there’s not something else?
Review of A Life’s Work
laoguy:
> “Why would well known academics, each with the talent and depth of knowledge to write their own biographies of Phumiphon agree to collaborate on one organized by the most extreme royalist acolytes?”
Firstly why do you use the word ‘extreme’? Isn’t the term ‘royalist acolyte’ pejorative enough? How ‘extreme’ , when compared against a random sample of royalist acolytes, is Anand Panyarachun and do you know anything about any of the other committee members?
> “Now that I have these conceptions in my mind, I am able to see a larger more complicated image, thats right, I am now no longer perceiving the original narrative as presented. ”
[Slow hand-clap …]
> “you then produced some of the most garish, fawning adulation to ever grace the pages of Newmandala.”
Where?
> “your slavish, unquestioning devotion to academia could cause ripples in the royal household”
I haven’t noticed this. Several academics are facing LM charges/investigations. By the way your second paragraph is basically a repeat of your third paragraph from the previous post.
Stuart:
Whatever your pursuit you have to deal with processes and people that get on your nerves. Thanks to Ouyyanont’s chapter, Forbes have just written their latest iteration of their exposes on the King’s wealth. Thanks to the chapter Streckfuss wrote, journalists won’t have to use and reuse exactly the same paragraph in any story they write about LM – they should have four or five extra ones to choose from.
3rd International Conference on Gross National Happiness
Yakima, WA may participate in Gross National Happiness/ Pursuit of Happiness Day 13 April 2012. We would like to communicate with others around the globe who can offer information on teach-in respources and connections.
Review of A Life’s Work
I cannot for the life of me fathom why well-credentialed and respected independent academics and commentators such as Streckfuss, Ouyyanont, Erlich et al would align themselves with this project and subject themselves to a tainted editorial advisory board. Surely they must have known the book is, at least in part, an exercise in public relations. But they appear to have done so.
What are we to think of them now?
Review of A Life’s Work
Jon Wright #88. You appear to be struggling with the concept of ‘perception’. Why would well known academics, each with the talent and depth of knowledge to write their own biographies of Phumiphon agree to collaborate on one organized by the most extreme royalist acolytes? If this situation doesn’t inspire still more inquisitiveness, then good luck, you still believe in the fairytale kingdom. My experience with Thai culture tells me nothing travels in a straight line in Thailand. Hence, I am able to conceive of multiple more complex scenarios, not necessarily sinister. Now that I have these conceptions in my mind, I am able to see a larger more complicated image, thats right, I am now no longer perceiving the original narrative as presented.
You, yourself, stoked my fetid, paranoid imagination with quotes like these: (Jon Wright #85) “They are the authorities on their respective subjects and presumably they extracted certain assurances before they commenced work.”, “I guess their role was project management, basically consisting of smoothing out the to-ing and fro-ing between an incoherent committee and the exasperated writers.”. Now where would I get the perception of back-room deals being done? I am indebted to your inside knowledge on that one.
I noted that you weren’t totally onside with my rant against academic privilege and the free passes that still have favor in some quarters. you then produced some of the most garish, fawning adulation to ever grace the pages of Newmandala. News of your slavish, unquestioning devotion to academia could cause ripples in the royal household, rivals are not tolerated.
However, I still perceive hope for you Jon. You managed to float from critical discussion on Newmandala to year zero in 1970s Cambodia. A somewhat startling feat of imagination but just a tad hysterical, try mediation before resorting to drugs.
Smoke across mainland Southeast Asia
Arguably the worst pollution in SE Asia caused by poor people struggling to survive. It doesn’t fit too well in the romantic “narrative” of the innocent poor living in harmony with nature does it? As an embarrassing fact, it almost ranks with the hunter-gatherers’ destruction of the megafauna of all continents except Africa.
Review of A Life’s Work
Not sure if anyone else has found something similar…
Behind Ananda’s Death (sic?) is the title of a Thai book we picked up yesterday at a local mall. It was interesting to note that a Thai language book of this type would be for open sale, so I went to the Table of Contents section first to see what was supposed to be in it. Disregarding the fact that page numbers indicated did not match where the citations actually were, there is one section titled Medical Reports of Ananda’s Death that I found particularly interesting. A brief read at the beginning of the section led to of course, a police statement that inasmuch as public reports contained a great deal of misleading and incorrect information, it was necessary to clear things, despite investigations not being complete, so as to provide an accurate picture to the Thai people.
Now I have yet to go back to the book, but will be spending some time this week doing so and will provide some detailed references to it if anyone is interested. By the way, what other books in Thai and English are available locally on this subject?
Reviews and reviews and reviews
For a book that boasts “accuracy”, “A Life’s Work” manages to get a very well known and crucial fact about King Ananda’s death, wrong!!
(See below for details; I just thought it’s fun to begin with a “headline” 55555 – for our non-Thai readers, this is “Thai-style “lol”)
………………….
I finally got hold of a copy yesterday afternoon, thanks to the generosity of the staff at Asia Books Fashion Island branch. The new batch that just arrived, all several hundreds copies, had already been reserved in advance. (I didn’t reserve one.) But after some checking the staff found that someone had not come in to pick up his/her copy since the last batch, despite being repeatedly contacted by the branch. So they decided to give that copy to me. (Sorry for that person if s/he ever comes in later!)
…………….
Obviously I haven’t finished the book. Frankly, reading certain sections quickly and browsing the whole book, I don’t find it as interesting as I expected. When Anand Panyarachun gave a long interview to promote the book on the well-known “Answer the Questions” program on Thai PBS, both he and the program host (the currently very famous Phinyo – “I am neutral, don’t pressure me to choose side” – Traisurathamma) gave a strong impression that the book departs in significant ways from previous official and semi-official “biographies” of the King, in dealing with controversial issues like the “King Ananda’s Death Case” or “6 Tula” (6 October) in a frank, “objective” fashion. Well, it doesn’t. It’s still the same old dishonesty and lies by deliberate omissions we’ve seen before, and not that subtle either.
Anyway, I’ll come back when I finish at least those parts of the book that I’m particularly curious about (the CPB and the Lesse Majeste law, in addition to the two issues mentioned above.)
……………….
Now about the factual error I “headline” above.
On page 83, the book says (my emphasis):
“At 9.20 am, about 20 minutes after Prince Bhumibol had left the breakfast table, a shot rang out. A bullet had entered King Ananda’s forehead over his right eye and exited as a more minor wound into the bed’s mattress.”
As anyone with just a minimum knowledge of the case would know, the fact is: it’s over the LEFT eye that the bullet entered! And this was one of the reasons why Ananda could not possibly have shot himself, either accidentally or deliberately. (He’s right-handed.)
By the way, the sequence about Bhumibol having breaking that morning is factually wrong too. (I’ll explain when I write a long review.)
I also found another factual error when the book describes the events leading to the 1973 student uprising (the same error is repeated twice on one page).
…………………
Anyway, let me end with another 555555.
I smiles when I see that I am in one of the photos in the book. A very tiny shot of (a very young) me!!
Review of A Life’s Work
The more I think about it, the more struck I am by the similarities between KBAALW and The Revolutionary King. I’ve discussed this in part 3 of my review, which is now online, as follows:
One of the striking things about KBAALW and its failed effort to conceal the truth about 1946 is the extent to which it echoes the debacle of The Revolutionary King. In the 1990s, Bhumibol and key members of his inner circle brought in William Stevenson to write a whitewash of the Ninth Reign, only to see their plan explode damagingly in their faces. With KBAALW, the basic strategy hasn’t changed, they just seem to have concluded they needed to try to do it more competently. So a whole team of foreign journalists and academics has been drafted in this time, and a panel of the most loyal network monarchists appointed to oversee their efforts under the trusty stewardship of Anand Panyarachun. What could possibly go wrong?
The problem, as Thailand’s royalist establishment appears to fail to understand, is that no matter how many people you lock up for lèse majesté, or how many foreign writers you employ to spin things for you, or how hard you try to suppress facts you don’t like, the truth doesn’t change. And it has a way of getting out, sooner or later.
Reviews and reviews and reviews
#3 RN England
“They have concluded, probably correctly, that Handley has done as much to undermine the Thai monarchy abroad as Thaksin has done at home.”
Sorry?…. Thaksin has done no such thing….. He is a loyal servant of the King and Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yubamrung in the present Thaksin controlled government has made clear it clear that it is his intention to vigorously pursue all cases of defamation against the King and uphold the laws of Lese Majeste. Nor are the vast majority of Red shirts anything other than loyal. Thida Thavornseth has made that clear.