As usual, Vichai, you don’t see fit to finish the (selective) quote – so here’s the missing bit:
“Tirachai said that because the catastrophic flooding occurred so soon after a change in the government, it was inevitable that the government would only be able to deal with problems in this way – something for which it has been heavily criticised.”
And your “Not even Yingluck’s impeccable hairdo nor her stunning ‘presidential’ clothes could succeed to alleviate the Thais hardships and misery, during and after the Great Flood,…..
As I noted on its first outing*, I see your new-found word ‘presidential’ is getting further use. I hope you won’t wear it out too soon…..
Vorajet Pakirat, one of the active founders Nitirasadorn, is campaigning to reenbact/abolish the Section 112 of the Criminal Code. However, the Section 112 cannot be reenacted/abolished unless the Section 8: “The King shall be enthroned in a position of revered worship and shall not be violated,” in Chapter 2 of the present constitution is abolished.
“A frank admission – perhaps Vichai’s been away? ” (SteveCM #20)
And speaking of a very frank confession: ” . . .The Flood Relief Operations Centre (FROC) has never had a systematic plan to battle the crisis and has simply tackled problems as they have arisen on a day-to-day basis, said Tirachai Wuthitham, secretary to Justice Minister Pracha Promnok, who heads FROC. . .”
My point: Incompetents in government endanger the lives and welfare of the people. And that is criminal.
Not even Yingluck’s impeccable hairdo nor her stunning ‘presidential’ clothes could succeed to alleviate the Thais hardships and misery, during and after the Great Flood,
[…] only way these pro-Thaksin governments have been removed and then kept out is via illegal coups, brutal massacres, illegal airport occupations by neo-fascist hate mobs, phony politicized convictions, dissolution […]
I am currently in search of a study done on the democracy level of the Malaysia government and I was wondering if you could help me by providing a copy of your assessment of the survey done.
I am 100% in agreement with this review of Brinkley’s biased book. I myself have pointed out many of Keith’s arguments in my book “Dancing in Shadows : Sihanouk, the Khmer Rouge and the United Nations in Cambodia” published by Rowman Littlefield in 2007 and in my article in the new Mandala on the KR trials ich teh west want to go on and on forever to finally subdue Hun Sen which they failed to do since January 1979.
There was a report in the New Light of Myanmar, early this month, of a meeting between the Head of the US Embassy in Rangoon and U Aung Thaung & his negotiating team for ethnic affairs. Several influential U.S. Congressmen and Senators wanted to know why the Burmese generals renewed the ceasefire with UWSA, China’s proxy army in Burma, while at the same time staging an unprovoked military offensive against the Kachins, our WW2 ally.
The Burmese generals are now multi-millionaires. One of them bought a house on University Avenue for $7.0 million. Another bought a house on Inya Road for $4.0 million. What they cannot do is send their children to American Universities. And this will not happen until there is a negotiated political settlement in Burma.
And this is the primary mission of Hillary. She told Fox News ” we are not lifting sanctions, this is a fact-finding mission”.
China cannot send construction materials (cement & iron rods) to the Myitsone Dam since early June 2011 when the ceasefire ended in the Kachin State. KIA controls the roads from China. The Kachins have 10,000 soldiers in their regular army, and 20,000 soldiers in the Kachin People’s Army (their militia). They have their own weapons factory. The Burma Army cannot defeat them militarily. Thein Sein’s political advisor publicly stated at the Asean summit that they don’t want international mediation on ethnic issues. My guess is that this is one of the issues Hillary will discuss with the generals.
The Islamic authorities in Malaysia and elsewhere are in catch 22, being caught in a vicious cycle which is self-destructive. If they allow apostasy from the religion, many unhappy Muslims would leave and they would lose control of their adherents. When anti-apostasy laws are imposed, many would be Muslims in name only and those who insist on leaving would be persecuted which lacks compassion and is against human decency.
To break these chains of bondage, Islam must reform itself as Christianity has over the last few centuries to what it is today. And that is what Norani and others such as SIS and Islamic Renaissance Front are doing. This effort is commendable and should be supported by civil society for a peaceful and just world.
The tragedy these people brought upon themselves is reflected in the discrimination they face on both sides of the border. Bangladesh does not want them nor does Burma, nor Malaysia, a Muslim country, nor Thailand (they have their own problems with the Islamic south).
There used to be a racist Burmese expression; if you see a viper and a Yakhine, kill the Yakhine first. But the Burman majority and the Rakhine used to be at each other’s throat in ancient times. Now they find a common enemy, an alien interloper who speaks neither Arakanese (an older dialect of Burmese) nor Burmese, in the so-called Rohingyas originally from Bengal who have usurped the term Arakanese Muslim from earlier Islamic communities in the Arakan.
Whilst the discrimination and repression are legitimate concerns their cause is not helped by well meaning outsiders fooled by their claims as well as their powerful Islamic state backers joining in the fray. Bengali men have been known to use Burma’s repressive regime as an excuse masquerading as Rohingya boat people, economic migrants masquerading as asylum seekers.
What’s more, the earlier communities, whether descended from Arab/Persian settlers or from the men King Narameikhla brought back from Chittagong to help repulse the Burmese from the Arakan in the 15th C, have their own lives adversely affected by the newcomers starting a secessionist movement in the three northern townships contiguous to the border as early as 1947.
The ‘Rohingya’ have the choice of dropping their bogus claims of indigenous ethnicity and territory, dropping the term Magh (bandit in Bengali) for the native Rakhine fully aware that it is insulting and offensive, living in peace with them, not proselytising….. or carry on as they have been and face the consequences.
It’s not so much the plight of the Kachin (though it’s going to be the cause célèbre) as the geostrategic point about the pipeline that will be decisive for the US.
But yes, greed transcends patriotism/nationalism with our generals.
Their grey cells can only see the dollars the primary source of which they now turn to. But will they ditch the pipeline unless there’s a better offer on the table from a westerly direction?
the hypocrisy about myanmar getting the asean chair is contemptible. asean has been chaired by laos, a nasty neo-stalinist totalitarian dictatorship, and by vietnam, a one-party communist dictatorship. it seems to me that some people are unable to accept that reform can be driven in myanmar by former members of the tatmadaw, who understand that they need to have a symbiotic relationship with the NLD, which has belatedly decided that politics is the art of compromise and has compromised on its demands for changes to the constitution and the release of all political prisoners and voted to return to the electoral process. as for the debate over nomenclature, in a country where the majority ethnic group is the bama people, ‘myanmar’ is more inclusive than ‘burma’. those who prefer an exclusive name for the country are putting themselves on the same side as neo-nazis and skinheads.
Vietnam will never permit construction of a Chinese rail-road or oil pipeline in their country. Neither will South Korea. Not even North Korea. Why would Burmese generals permit construction of a Chinese railroad and oil pipeline? They can’t be that stupid, but some are very corrupt.
If there is a crisis in the Taiwan Straits, the US will close the Straits of Malacca and the Chinese Army will invade Burma to protect their railroad and oil-pipeline. And the Chinese Army will not leave.
The White House briefing on Burma stated : “They’ve taken a first step, but they recognise that we are prepared to meet them in that first step…. but I also think they are convinced of the seriousness of how the US President has approached this and THE DETERMINATION OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE.”
The requirements for the removal of American sanctions are clearly stated in the Tom Lantos Burma Freedom & Democracy Act. Let there be no misunderstanding, US will not abandon the Kachins our WW2 ally. The Statement supporting the Kachins by Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican Minority Leader who is likely to become Majority leader next year, is published on http://www.kachinnews.com.
Elizabeth Becker in a review of this book in April of this year argued that (or) maybe Hun Sen doesn’t need that money (international aid) so desperately and these donor governments are not such disinterested persons. I am not a fan of Elizabeth Becker but I think she has hit the nail on the head. No amount of grandstanding by Brinkley, even if he were partially correct, will curtail the flow of aid monies to Cambodia.
In a sense Hun Sen does not actually need foreign aid from “Western” providers of ODA. China appears only too willing as does South Korea (via investment projects) and even neighboring Vietnam. Hun Sen can mock at the likes of the World Bank and Asian Development Bank with their safeguard requirements (environment and resettlement) and financial transparency (some question whether either MDBs are actually that transparent but let’s assume they are) because he knows full well China is willing to step into the breech. However, to demonstrate the superficial analysis of such journalists one needs to address aid and development issues.
Cambodia has benefited in the past from low tarrifs on garments assembled in Cambodia (at its height this industry has employed nearly 400,000 young Cambodian women: wages and working conditions not very good but income generation opportunities that would otherwise have never existed) just as it is from the EUs “Anything But Arms” preferential trade policies (although here there are negative impacts as well such as the conversion of forest land into sugar cane farms in provinces such as Koh Kong).
Even some AusAID programs (such as the Agricultural Productivity Improvement Program) have been quite beneficial (Cambodia is now a significant exporter of rice even if much of the value is captured in neighboring Vietnam or Thailand via the milling of padi and pockets of food insecurity remain).
The point I am trying to make is that journalists such as Brinkley do not appear to grasp the nexus between aid and development or if they do are unable to articulate it.
But what I guess many Cambodians would find galling is the way he disempowers all Cambodians – except those associated with Hun Sen – and renders Cambodians people without any choices or capacities to act in ways to improve their lives. Such disempowering discourses reflect a misunderstanding, deliberate or otherwise not just of Cambodians but all peoples of the world, and Elizabeth Becker to her credit articulated this very well in her April 2011 review.
Still this is no reason why Brinkley should not publish his account of Cambodia. It’s not an account I find very balanced but at least he wears his biases and prejudices on his sleeve and in this way he is intellectually honest.
I wonder why it is that the self-appointed or appointed (and paid) protectors of the monarchy and defenders of repression get shitty and tell those with whom they cannot agree to go elsewhere. It is such a stupid response (not limited to Thailand, of course) that says a lot about the apparently limited capacity of the correspondent to empathize with others or to think beyond an extremely narrow and seemingly comfortable political boundary. Thank goodness there are much livelier minds at work on Thailand’s politics.
Link to AFP piece on Obama hailing Yingluck’s “inspirational election victory” at joint press conference with Yingluck in Bali. Boyce may still be yakking away but Obama and Hilary have decided to back the elected government of Thailand:
Clinton probably won’t make policy on Thailand or SE Asia, but look who is! As far as I can tell from the various Wikileaks cables, all Boyce was interested in when in Thailand (officially, anyway) was army, royalists and getting Thaksin out.
He got a neat job at Boeing and now seems to be one of those driving US policy, along with a bunch of the usual corporate bosses and defence-intelligence types. The military-industrial-financial complex seems alive and well:
FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR RALPH “SKIP” BOYCE
ADDRESSES ASEAN BUSINESS AND INVESTMENT SUMMIT
ON BEHALF OF
CSIS U.S.-ASEAN STRATEGY COMMISSION
NUSA DUA, BALI, INDONESIA, November 18, 2011 – Former U.S. ambassador to Indonesia and Thailand and current president of Boeing Southeast Asia, Ralph “Skip” Boyce today spoke at the ASEAN Business and Investment Summit in Bali. Boyce talked about U.S.-ASEAN relations and specific recommendations that he helped to develop as a member of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) U.S.-ASEAN Strategy Commission.
“What we found is that the United States is deeply engaged in Southeast Asia, but that it can and must do more,” Boyce said. “Our commission called on the United States to adopt a more proactive trade policy. In particular, we called on the administration to articulate the goal of negotiating a U.S.-ASEAN free trade agreement.”
The commission, which was co-chaired by Maurice R. “Hank” Greenberg, chairman of the C.V. Starr Company, and former U.S. secretary of defense and senator, William S. Cohen, was involved in an extensive review of American interests in Southeast Asia ranging from security and political to trade and investment to social cultural and people to people ties. The high-level American initiative underlined growing recognition that Southeast Asia is vital to U.S. national security and economic interests and seeks to provide inputs for a long term US strategy for the region.
The commission presented its summary recommendations to U.S. President Barack Obama and to the U.S. Congress. Its full report will be published in early December.
“American trade negotiators rightly point out that negotiating a U.S.-ASEAN FTA now would be nearly impossible given U.S. sanctions on Burma/Myanmar and the vastly different levels of development among ASEAN countries,” Boyce said at the ASEAN business forum in Bali. “But setting the FTA as a goal makes economic and geostrategic sense. It underlines long term U.S. commitment to work with ASEAN to get the right conditions when a negotiation would be viable.”
The other members of the commission are:
Mr. Richard Armitage, President, Armitage InternationalтАи
Mr. Manolo Arroyo, President – ASEAN, The Coca-Cola CompanyтАи
Mr. James Blackwell, Executive Vice President, Technology and Services, Chevron
Mr. Christopher “Kit” Bond, Chairman, KitBond Strategies; Partner, Thompson Coburn; former U.S. Sentator
Mr. Ralph “Skip” Boyce, President for Southeast Asia, Boeing CompanyтАи
Mr. George David, Chairman, United Technologies CorporationтАи
Ms. Carla A. Hills, Chair and CEO, Hills and CompanyтАи
Ms. Henrietta Holsman-Fore, Chairman and CEO, Holsman InternationalтАиAdmiral Timothy Keating, former PACOM CommanderтАи
Mr. Timothy Shriver, Chairman and CEO, Special OlympicsтАи|
Mr. Edward Tortorici, Vice Chairman, First Pacific Corporation тАи
Mr. Keith Williams, CEO, Underwriters Laboratories
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The toll of flooding on lives and politics
As usual, Vichai, you don’t see fit to finish the (selective) quote – so here’s the missing bit:
“Tirachai said that because the catastrophic flooding occurred so soon after a change in the government, it was inevitable that the government would only be able to deal with problems in this way – something for which it has been heavily criticised.”
And your “Not even Yingluck’s impeccable hairdo nor her stunning ‘presidential’ clothes could succeed to alleviate the Thais hardships and misery, during and after the Great Flood,…..
As I noted on its first outing*, I see your new-found word ‘presidential’ is getting further use. I hope you won’t wear it out too soon…..
* http://asiancorrespondent.com/69951/the-message-and-the-accent-the-first-meeting-of-hillary-clinton-and-yingluck-shinawatra/
Somyot’s trial
Vorajet Pakirat, one of the active founders Nitirasadorn, is campaigning to reenbact/abolish the Section 112 of the Criminal Code. However, the Section 112 cannot be reenacted/abolished unless the Section 8: “The King shall be enthroned in a position of revered worship and shall not be violated,” in Chapter 2 of the present constitution is abolished.
The toll of flooding on lives and politics
“A frank admission – perhaps Vichai’s been away? ” (SteveCM #20)
And speaking of a very frank confession: ” . . .The Flood Relief Operations Centre (FROC) has never had a systematic plan to battle the crisis and has simply tackled problems as they have arisen on a day-to-day basis, said Tirachai Wuthitham, secretary to Justice Minister Pracha Promnok, who heads FROC. . .”
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/politics/Aide-to-Pracha-admits-lack-of-planning-at-FROC-30170235.html
My point: Incompetents in government endanger the lives and welfare of the people. And that is criminal.
Not even Yingluck’s impeccable hairdo nor her stunning ‘presidential’ clothes could succeed to alleviate the Thais hardships and misery, during and after the Great Flood,
Bangkok: This is a massacre
[…] only way these pro-Thaksin governments have been removed and then kept out is via illegal coups, brutal massacres, illegal airport occupations by neo-fascist hate mobs, phony politicized convictions, dissolution […]
Democracy survey in Malaysia
Dear Shu,
I am currently in search of a study done on the democracy level of the Malaysia government and I was wondering if you could help me by providing a copy of your assessment of the survey done.
It would be of great help!!
Thank you.
Wendy
Review of Cambodia’s Curse
I am 100% in agreement with this review of Brinkley’s biased book. I myself have pointed out many of Keith’s arguments in my book “Dancing in Shadows : Sihanouk, the Khmer Rouge and the United Nations in Cambodia” published by Rowman Littlefield in 2007 and in my article in the new Mandala on the KR trials ich teh west want to go on and on forever to finally subdue Hun Sen which they failed to do since January 1979.
Media, politics, Burma
There was a report in the New Light of Myanmar, early this month, of a meeting between the Head of the US Embassy in Rangoon and U Aung Thaung & his negotiating team for ethnic affairs. Several influential U.S. Congressmen and Senators wanted to know why the Burmese generals renewed the ceasefire with UWSA, China’s proxy army in Burma, while at the same time staging an unprovoked military offensive against the Kachins, our WW2 ally.
Media, politics, Burma
The Burmese generals are now multi-millionaires. One of them bought a house on University Avenue for $7.0 million. Another bought a house on Inya Road for $4.0 million. What they cannot do is send their children to American Universities. And this will not happen until there is a negotiated political settlement in Burma.
And this is the primary mission of Hillary. She told Fox News ” we are not lifting sanctions, this is a fact-finding mission”.
China cannot send construction materials (cement & iron rods) to the Myitsone Dam since early June 2011 when the ceasefire ended in the Kachin State. KIA controls the roads from China. The Kachins have 10,000 soldiers in their regular army, and 20,000 soldiers in the Kachin People’s Army (their militia). They have their own weapons factory. The Burma Army cannot defeat them militarily. Thein Sein’s political advisor publicly stated at the Asean summit that they don’t want international mediation on ethnic issues. My guess is that this is one of the issues Hillary will discuss with the generals.
BBC under fire on Rohingyas
We will not see real stories like below in BBC, those are on
social media Web 2.0 sites.
Genocide of Native Buddhists in Maungdaw, Arakan, Burma
By Maung Maung (a former immigration official in that district),
Translated By Hla Oo
http://hlaoo1980.blogspot.com/2011/11/begali-maungdaw-genocide-of-native.html
Freedom of faith for Malaysian Malays
The Islamic authorities in Malaysia and elsewhere are in catch 22, being caught in a vicious cycle which is self-destructive. If they allow apostasy from the religion, many unhappy Muslims would leave and they would lose control of their adherents. When anti-apostasy laws are imposed, many would be Muslims in name only and those who insist on leaving would be persecuted which lacks compassion and is against human decency.
To break these chains of bondage, Islam must reform itself as Christianity has over the last few centuries to what it is today. And that is what Norani and others such as SIS and Islamic Renaissance Front are doing. This effort is commendable and should be supported by civil society for a peaceful and just world.
BBC under fire on Rohingyas
The tragedy these people brought upon themselves is reflected in the discrimination they face on both sides of the border. Bangladesh does not want them nor does Burma, nor Malaysia, a Muslim country, nor Thailand (they have their own problems with the Islamic south).
There used to be a racist Burmese expression; if you see a viper and a Yakhine, kill the Yakhine first. But the Burman majority and the Rakhine used to be at each other’s throat in ancient times. Now they find a common enemy, an alien interloper who speaks neither Arakanese (an older dialect of Burmese) nor Burmese, in the so-called Rohingyas originally from Bengal who have usurped the term Arakanese Muslim from earlier Islamic communities in the Arakan.
Whilst the discrimination and repression are legitimate concerns their cause is not helped by well meaning outsiders fooled by their claims as well as their powerful Islamic state backers joining in the fray. Bengali men have been known to use Burma’s repressive regime as an excuse masquerading as Rohingya boat people, economic migrants masquerading as asylum seekers.
What’s more, the earlier communities, whether descended from Arab/Persian settlers or from the men King Narameikhla brought back from Chittagong to help repulse the Burmese from the Arakan in the 15th C, have their own lives adversely affected by the newcomers starting a secessionist movement in the three northern townships contiguous to the border as early as 1947.
The ‘Rohingya’ have the choice of dropping their bogus claims of indigenous ethnicity and territory, dropping the term Magh (bandit in Bengali) for the native Rakhine fully aware that it is insulting and offensive, living in peace with them, not proselytising….. or carry on as they have been and face the consequences.
Media, politics, Burma
RY,
It’s not so much the plight of the Kachin (though it’s going to be the cause célèbre) as the geostrategic point about the pipeline that will be decisive for the US.
But yes, greed transcends patriotism/nationalism with our generals.
Their grey cells can only see the dollars the primary source of which they now turn to. But will they ditch the pipeline unless there’s a better offer on the table from a westerly direction?
Media, politics, Burma
the hypocrisy about myanmar getting the asean chair is contemptible. asean has been chaired by laos, a nasty neo-stalinist totalitarian dictatorship, and by vietnam, a one-party communist dictatorship. it seems to me that some people are unable to accept that reform can be driven in myanmar by former members of the tatmadaw, who understand that they need to have a symbiotic relationship with the NLD, which has belatedly decided that politics is the art of compromise and has compromised on its demands for changes to the constitution and the release of all political prisoners and voted to return to the electoral process. as for the debate over nomenclature, in a country where the majority ethnic group is the bama people, ‘myanmar’ is more inclusive than ‘burma’. those who prefer an exclusive name for the country are putting themselves on the same side as neo-nazis and skinheads.
Media, politics, Burma
Vietnam will never permit construction of a Chinese rail-road or oil pipeline in their country. Neither will South Korea. Not even North Korea. Why would Burmese generals permit construction of a Chinese railroad and oil pipeline? They can’t be that stupid, but some are very corrupt.
If there is a crisis in the Taiwan Straits, the US will close the Straits of Malacca and the Chinese Army will invade Burma to protect their railroad and oil-pipeline. And the Chinese Army will not leave.
The White House briefing on Burma stated : “They’ve taken a first step, but they recognise that we are prepared to meet them in that first step…. but I also think they are convinced of the seriousness of how the US President has approached this and THE DETERMINATION OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE.”
The requirements for the removal of American sanctions are clearly stated in the Tom Lantos Burma Freedom & Democracy Act. Let there be no misunderstanding, US will not abandon the Kachins our WW2 ally. The Statement supporting the Kachins by Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican Minority Leader who is likely to become Majority leader next year, is published on http://www.kachinnews.com.
Review of Cambodia’s Curse
Elizabeth Becker in a review of this book in April of this year argued that (or) maybe Hun Sen doesn’t need that money (international aid) so desperately and these donor governments are not such disinterested persons. I am not a fan of Elizabeth Becker but I think she has hit the nail on the head. No amount of grandstanding by Brinkley, even if he were partially correct, will curtail the flow of aid monies to Cambodia.
In a sense Hun Sen does not actually need foreign aid from “Western” providers of ODA. China appears only too willing as does South Korea (via investment projects) and even neighboring Vietnam. Hun Sen can mock at the likes of the World Bank and Asian Development Bank with their safeguard requirements (environment and resettlement) and financial transparency (some question whether either MDBs are actually that transparent but let’s assume they are) because he knows full well China is willing to step into the breech. However, to demonstrate the superficial analysis of such journalists one needs to address aid and development issues.
Cambodia has benefited in the past from low tarrifs on garments assembled in Cambodia (at its height this industry has employed nearly 400,000 young Cambodian women: wages and working conditions not very good but income generation opportunities that would otherwise have never existed) just as it is from the EUs “Anything But Arms” preferential trade policies (although here there are negative impacts as well such as the conversion of forest land into sugar cane farms in provinces such as Koh Kong).
Even some AusAID programs (such as the Agricultural Productivity Improvement Program) have been quite beneficial (Cambodia is now a significant exporter of rice even if much of the value is captured in neighboring Vietnam or Thailand via the milling of padi and pockets of food insecurity remain).
The point I am trying to make is that journalists such as Brinkley do not appear to grasp the nexus between aid and development or if they do are unable to articulate it.
But what I guess many Cambodians would find galling is the way he disempowers all Cambodians – except those associated with Hun Sen – and renders Cambodians people without any choices or capacities to act in ways to improve their lives. Such disempowering discourses reflect a misunderstanding, deliberate or otherwise not just of Cambodians but all peoples of the world, and Elizabeth Becker to her credit articulated this very well in her April 2011 review.
Still this is no reason why Brinkley should not publish his account of Cambodia. It’s not an account I find very balanced but at least he wears his biases and prejudices on his sleeve and in this way he is intellectually honest.
Somyot’s trial
“Lese Majeste law is here to stay” says Jesse.
But the actual answer is Lese Majeste as it exists today is going to disappear after the present King dies and the Crown Prince takes on the role.
Even diehard Thai Royalists are full of bad words when it comes to the Crown Prince. Spoken loudly, often, and in public places.
Somyot’s trial
I wonder why it is that the self-appointed or appointed (and paid) protectors of the monarchy and defenders of repression get shitty and tell those with whom they cannot agree to go elsewhere. It is such a stupid response (not limited to Thailand, of course) that says a lot about the apparently limited capacity of the correspondent to empathize with others or to think beyond an extremely narrow and seemingly comfortable political boundary. Thank goodness there are much livelier minds at work on Thailand’s politics.
Big sister in town
Link to AFP piece on Obama hailing Yingluck’s “inspirational election victory” at joint press conference with Yingluck in Bali. Boyce may still be yakking away but Obama and Hilary have decided to back the elected government of Thailand:
http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/513387-obama-hails-thai-pms-inspirational-election-win/
Big sister in town
Clinton probably won’t make policy on Thailand or SE Asia, but look who is! As far as I can tell from the various Wikileaks cables, all Boyce was interested in when in Thailand (officially, anyway) was army, royalists and getting Thaksin out.
He got a neat job at Boeing and now seems to be one of those driving US policy, along with a bunch of the usual corporate bosses and defence-intelligence types. The military-industrial-financial complex seems alive and well:
FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR RALPH “SKIP” BOYCE
ADDRESSES ASEAN BUSINESS AND INVESTMENT SUMMIT
ON BEHALF OF
CSIS U.S.-ASEAN STRATEGY COMMISSION
NUSA DUA, BALI, INDONESIA, November 18, 2011 – Former U.S. ambassador to Indonesia and Thailand and current president of Boeing Southeast Asia, Ralph “Skip” Boyce today spoke at the ASEAN Business and Investment Summit in Bali. Boyce talked about U.S.-ASEAN relations and specific recommendations that he helped to develop as a member of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) U.S.-ASEAN Strategy Commission.
“What we found is that the United States is deeply engaged in Southeast Asia, but that it can and must do more,” Boyce said. “Our commission called on the United States to adopt a more proactive trade policy. In particular, we called on the administration to articulate the goal of negotiating a U.S.-ASEAN free trade agreement.”
The commission, which was co-chaired by Maurice R. “Hank” Greenberg, chairman of the C.V. Starr Company, and former U.S. secretary of defense and senator, William S. Cohen, was involved in an extensive review of American interests in Southeast Asia ranging from security and political to trade and investment to social cultural and people to people ties. The high-level American initiative underlined growing recognition that Southeast Asia is vital to U.S. national security and economic interests and seeks to provide inputs for a long term US strategy for the region.
The commission presented its summary recommendations to U.S. President Barack Obama and to the U.S. Congress. Its full report will be published in early December.
“American trade negotiators rightly point out that negotiating a U.S.-ASEAN FTA now would be nearly impossible given U.S. sanctions on Burma/Myanmar and the vastly different levels of development among ASEAN countries,” Boyce said at the ASEAN business forum in Bali. “But setting the FTA as a goal makes economic and geostrategic sense. It underlines long term U.S. commitment to work with ASEAN to get the right conditions when a negotiation would be viable.”
The other members of the commission are:
Mr. Richard Armitage, President, Armitage InternationalтАи
Mr. Manolo Arroyo, President – ASEAN, The Coca-Cola CompanyтАи
Mr. James Blackwell, Executive Vice President, Technology and Services, Chevron
Mr. Christopher “Kit” Bond, Chairman, KitBond Strategies; Partner, Thompson Coburn; former U.S. Sentator
Mr. Ralph “Skip” Boyce, President for Southeast Asia, Boeing CompanyтАи
Mr. George David, Chairman, United Technologies CorporationтАи
Ms. Carla A. Hills, Chair and CEO, Hills and CompanyтАи
Ms. Henrietta Holsman-Fore, Chairman and CEO, Holsman InternationalтАиAdmiral Timothy Keating, former PACOM CommanderтАи
Mr. Timothy Shriver, Chairman and CEO, Special OlympicsтАи|
Mr. Edward Tortorici, Vice Chairman, First Pacific Corporation тАи
Mr. Keith Williams, CEO, Underwriters Laboratories
The commission has a website that includes its recommendations, background and biographical profiles of its key members. For more information, click here http://csis.org/program/us-asean-strategy-commission
Somyot’s trial
Lese Majeste law is here to stay. Take your freedom to other places that you can gain benefit from it !