The United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) has ruled Malaysia uninterrupted since Independence. They control everything: the economy, the police, the judiciary, the electoral commission, the media, Islamic religious bodies/institutions and of course Malaysia’s monarchy.
I’m sure TRT is nowhere as powerful as UMNO, and surely Thaksin is no Mahathir.
Can you even imagine a coup against Mahathir or UMNO.
UMNO’s only match, is of course, the immortal PAP.
#16 “It puts its finger squarely on one of the key stereotypes of rural politics that my work seeks to challenge.”
And pigs may fly. The stereotypes of local politics are actually somewhat weaker than the awful reality that various contending (supposedly political) mafias have this country completely by the nuts.
Andrew says ” Thailand’s modern peasantry as being involved in an active “political society” in which the primary desire is to draw state power into local circuits of exchange by means of diverse, informal and pragmatic relationships. The coup of September 2006 attempted to negate the influence of this non-civil rural politics”
That is an amazingly disingenuous way to describe the patron-client relationships and godfathers that dominate rural politics..
Why don’t you just come out and say that Thaiksin managed to get all the godfathers to join the TRT or its coalitions and coup attempted to break that up. You might also go on and try to explain how that amalgamation of the worst of the Thai politicians was good for the country and was going to lead to anything but a UMNO style single party government. One that would in fact make the UNNO look like saints.
I am very pleased with this comment and give it a green thumbs up. It puts its finger squarely on one of the key stereotypes of rural politics that my work seeks to challenge.
Oh, great, people going back to the exact same comments made more than 5 years ago. Don’t you feel silly being slow to a discussion and then just being repetitious?
I find the logic and reasoning of people who said TKNS is unreliable because it is untrue that the King never smiles is laughable. The title of the story is one thing, but you have the look at the content within to judge the quality of the book. Just read the paper. It is a frequent practice for the journalist to give a certain title to their article, and the content of their writing is ‘different’ from what the title says. And it is perfectly legal to do this.
Yale University is the #2 university in the USA, only second to Harvard in terms of academic quality. They would not have published this book if they have doubts about its quality and accuracy, or its excellent academic reputation will be ruined.
As for Mark David’s (#43) assertion about those few errors (which I don’t know whether or not this is true), I must say that even assuming that those errors are true, you are still far and away from successfully countering the ‘main gist’ of this book. The ‘main gist’ of this book, the ‘theory’ which Mr. Handley asserted, which anyone who wishes to undermine the credibility of this book must successfully counter, is “how a king widely seen as beneficent and apolitical could in fact be so deeply political and autocratic”. This is the gist of this book which you must focus on to argue that he is wrong.
To cite the title, or those few irrelevant errors which have no relevance to the main theory of the book (that is the King is not actually apolitical, but he is deeply political and autocratic) is not only unacademic, but it shows the complete lack of ability to see the main theory/gist of the book that you are reading. It is like you attack the author of the article that “OJ Simpson killed his wife” as unreliable, because the author said on x day, OJ wore a black shirt while in fact on that day he wore a white shirt. Your error notpicking (even if it is true) has no relevance to the main content of whether or not he killed his wife, and picking out those errors did nothing to disprove the assertion the author made that OJ “killed his wife”.
I predict there will be a spike in stories & comments on those other countries next time they have a military coup.
I do agree, however, that it would be interesting to see more deep analysis about those other countries (even if they don’t have a military coup, or claim to be a democracy with a magnificent, omniscient and virtuous head of state).
Looks like Thailand’s peasant rice farmers are now reaping the benefit of getting political. Bloomberg reports the following:
“…Thailand is willing to relinquish its role as the world’s biggest rice exporter as the government prepares to buy grain directly from farmers to boost prices and rural incomes, Deputy Prime Minister Kittiratt Na-Ranong said…”
For the past five years or so our focus has been “mainland Southeast Asia”. New Mandala tilts, at various times, towards emphasising content about Thailand, about Burma and about Malaysia. Events sometimes dictate where our attention goes. This reflects the academic interests, active field research and other priorities of our team. We also have a fair amount of activity centered on Laos, and if you look back through the archives you’ll find there have been times when Cambodia, northeast India and southwest China have also received plenty of attention. Occasionally we publish a review or other piece that deals with Vietnam.
And, for what it’s worth, I just tallied up our 10 most recent posts and we have four on Malaysia, four on Thailand, one on Burma, and one on Buddhism.
We are certainly not averse to considering guest contributions on the other countries of mainland Southeast Asia. I know we could definitely do with more on Vietnam. If you’re inclined to offer something for our consideration, focused on Vietnam or anywhere else, then you can get in contact at the usual place.
I think the coup represents the ideological stalemate of the thai political structure/system that has been on going since the 1932 revolution. Which is ‘changing, through political/military intervention, just enough so that inherently nothing actually changes’
Chuenha, I am glad that u were able to get past the MICT block if you live in Thailand and read the book that has been banned.
I read your review and note that you feel it is largely ‘stupid’. That certainly clarifys your perception.
However I found Chambers review somewhat more thought provolking that yours.
He said. “The King Never Smiles is the third book (to be banned) on the life of Thailand’s King Bhumipol Adulyadej published by a non-Thai. The others are Rayne Kruger’s The Devil’s Discus and William Stevenson’s The Revolutionary King. Written by a journalist who resided in the Kingdom for thirteen years, it is exceptionally well written and reflects a deep knowledge of Thai politics and history. Handley begins the story impressively by detailing the sacral ideology of Buddhist kingship, juxtaposed between the traditions of dhammaraja (king by virtue of the ten principles of a virtuous Buddhist king) and devaraja (a Brahmanic-oriented god-king). The setting commences with a coup against absolute monarchy in 1932, the abdication of King Rama VII, the attempted annihilation of Thai royalism, the suspicious death of his successor King Rama VIII and the accession to power of 18-year-old Bhumipol (Rama VIII’s brother) in 1946….. ” http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/contemporary_southeast_asia_a_journal_of_international_and_strategic_affairs/v029/29.3chambers.html
Perhaps you can read it and make a point by point anslysis of this review. Perhaps it can elicit more than stupid, stupid, stupid from you.
As for the comment of Mr. David, it should be noted that Mr. Hadley is a journalist not a historian. The goals of each being somewhat different. Indeed Mr. Adulyadej was not born in Brookline, Brookline is a few hundred meters across that river from Mount Alburn Hospital and was the residence of of the family at that time of the the birth noted. So point taken.
Yet the Marxist, Leninist, Maoist based archaic hatred inspired, never proven to work, one size fit all, assumption continue—
facts:
All Myanmar government since, and even blf Jan 4 1948 is the 2┬║ result of direct and indirect response to interferences of the west and the Chinese.
From the quelling of the communists, supported by mainly the Chinese white or Red, to present 30 years of useless careless policy of relentless vilification, as well as sanctions, the former make Ne Win to be Ne Win and the latter now the generals to be the generals, ironically, again under the Chinese support.
All proven here @ New Mandala per Ko Hla Oo multiple exposé and the author of the present topic Andrew Seth article here:
Yet the main cause, the useless careless interferences is ignored, in favor of focusing on the villains that were created by the very west and the Chinese,
Might have been a great arm chair discussion if not for the plight of the citizenry that has almost never mentioned lest discussed.
As long as the 50 millions+ citizenry undeserving plight of this unique country that bare no resemblance to any others, is not made clear and dealt with accordingly, any none applicable policy of the west will make present Myanmar a continuing Hell Hole for the citizenry.
ana here is cognate to the Greek prefix ana, which both share a proto-Indo-European ancestor, meaning “up”; where as anus is Latin for “ring”. (From the PIE *ano-)
curiosity #12 I don’t know why you are getting down voted, it seems a legitimate question to me. Though if you look closely there have been articles on Laos and both Burma and Malaysia have been running hot lately. But as for the rest of Southeast Asia, are they really that unexceptional that nobody cares about them? Maybe its New Mandala’s raunchy reputation that scares off the serious scholars.
Here is a better example where Ajahn Lee specifically relates mindfulness of the breath to sensations in the stomach and intestines:
Being mindful of the in-and-out breath at all times, knowing the various aspects of the breath–the up-flowing breath, the down-flowing breath, the breath in the stomach, the breath in the intestines, the breath flowing along the muscles and out to every pore–keeping track of these things with every in-and-out breath: This is Right Mindfulness.
From Keeping the Breath in Mind & Lessons in Samadhi
by Ajaan Lee Dhammadharo (Phra Suddhidhammaras─▒
Gambh─▒ramedhcariya) Translated from the Thai
by Thanissaro Bhikkhu (Geoffrey DeGraff)
In strong support of Eisel Mazard’s interpretation of passasati from the Anapanasati Sutra, one should review the passage below from Ajahn Lee’s (a highly respected, deceased Thai Forest monk who was a student of Ajahn Mun) book, The Craft of the Heart, describing his detailed understanding of breath meditation based on his practice. Ajahn Lee’s knowledge of breath meditation, at least to my understanding, was based largely on his experiences as a strict Tudong monk in the remote hills of Chiang Mai using breath meditation practice to recover from a heart attack during a rains retreat without the intervention of modern medicine.
If the mind doesn’t settle down, go on to consider the wind property: the up-going breath sensations, the down-going breath sensations, the breath sensations in the stomach, the breath sensations in the intestines, the breath sensations flowing throughout the entire body, and the in-and-out breath.
Andrew says ” Thailand’s modern peasantry as being involved in an active “political society” in which the primary desire is to draw state power into local circuits of exchange by means of diverse, informal and pragmatic relationships. The coup of September 2006 attempted to negate the influence of this non-civil rural politics”
That is an amazingly disingenuous way to describe the patron-client relationships and godfathers that dominate rural politics..
Why don’t you just come out and say that Thaiksin managed to get all the godfathers to join the TRT or its coalitions and coup attempted to break that up. You might also go on and try to explain how that amalgamation of the worst of the Thai politicians was good for the country and was going to lead to anything but a UMNO style single party government. One that would in fact make the UNNO look like saints.
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The coup: five years on
@ John Smith #12,
You flatter TRT.
The United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) has ruled Malaysia uninterrupted since Independence. They control everything: the economy, the police, the judiciary, the electoral commission, the media, Islamic religious bodies/institutions and of course Malaysia’s monarchy.
I’m sure TRT is nowhere as powerful as UMNO, and surely Thaksin is no Mahathir.
Can you even imagine a coup against Mahathir or UMNO.
UMNO’s only match, is of course, the immortal PAP.
The coup: five years on
Andrew #16 ” It puts its finger squarely on one of the key stereotypes of rural politics that my work seeks to challenge.”
Andrew, suggest you spend a year or so in Wang Nam Yen and then come back and tell us all about stereotypes you wish to challenge.
The coup: five years on
#16 “It puts its finger squarely on one of the key stereotypes of rural politics that my work seeks to challenge.”
And pigs may fly. The stereotypes of local politics are actually somewhat weaker than the awful reality that various contending (supposedly political) mafias have this country completely by the nuts.
The coup: five years on
John Smith writes:
I am very pleased with this comment and give it a green thumbs up. It puts its finger squarely on one of the key stereotypes of rural politics that my work seeks to challenge.
Paul Handley replies to comments
Oh, great, people going back to the exact same comments made more than 5 years ago. Don’t you feel silly being slow to a discussion and then just being repetitious?
Paul Handley replies to comments
I find the logic and reasoning of people who said TKNS is unreliable because it is untrue that the King never smiles is laughable. The title of the story is one thing, but you have the look at the content within to judge the quality of the book. Just read the paper. It is a frequent practice for the journalist to give a certain title to their article, and the content of their writing is ‘different’ from what the title says. And it is perfectly legal to do this.
Yale University is the #2 university in the USA, only second to Harvard in terms of academic quality. They would not have published this book if they have doubts about its quality and accuracy, or its excellent academic reputation will be ruined.
As for Mark David’s (#43) assertion about those few errors (which I don’t know whether or not this is true), I must say that even assuming that those errors are true, you are still far and away from successfully countering the ‘main gist’ of this book. The ‘main gist’ of this book, the ‘theory’ which Mr. Handley asserted, which anyone who wishes to undermine the credibility of this book must successfully counter, is “how a king widely seen as beneficent and apolitical could in fact be so deeply political and autocratic”. This is the gist of this book which you must focus on to argue that he is wrong.
To cite the title, or those few irrelevant errors which have no relevance to the main theory of the book (that is the King is not actually apolitical, but he is deeply political and autocratic) is not only unacademic, but it shows the complete lack of ability to see the main theory/gist of the book that you are reading. It is like you attack the author of the article that “OJ Simpson killed his wife” as unreliable, because the author said on x day, OJ wore a black shirt while in fact on that day he wore a white shirt. Your error notpicking (even if it is true) has no relevance to the main content of whether or not he killed his wife, and picking out those errors did nothing to disprove the assertion the author made that OJ “killed his wife”.
Again, this is only my two cents.
New prison for political prisoners in Thailand?
I predict there will be a spike in stories & comments on those other countries next time they have a military coup.
I do agree, however, that it would be interesting to see more deep analysis about those other countries (even if they don’t have a military coup, or claim to be a democracy with a magnificent, omniscient and virtuous head of state).
The coup: five years on
Looks like Thailand’s peasant rice farmers are now reaping the benefit of getting political. Bloomberg reports the following:
New prison for political prisoners in Thailand?
Thanks for these comments:
For the past five years or so our focus has been “mainland Southeast Asia”. New Mandala tilts, at various times, towards emphasising content about Thailand, about Burma and about Malaysia. Events sometimes dictate where our attention goes. This reflects the academic interests, active field research and other priorities of our team. We also have a fair amount of activity centered on Laos, and if you look back through the archives you’ll find there have been times when Cambodia, northeast India and southwest China have also received plenty of attention. Occasionally we publish a review or other piece that deals with Vietnam.
And, for what it’s worth, I just tallied up our 10 most recent posts and we have four on Malaysia, four on Thailand, one on Burma, and one on Buddhism.
We are certainly not averse to considering guest contributions on the other countries of mainland Southeast Asia. I know we could definitely do with more on Vietnam. If you’re inclined to offer something for our consideration, focused on Vietnam or anywhere else, then you can get in contact at the usual place.
Best wishes to all,
Nich
The coup: five years on
I think the coup represents the ideological stalemate of the thai political structure/system that has been on going since the 1932 revolution. Which is ‘changing, through political/military intervention, just enough so that inherently nothing actually changes’
Paul Handley replies to comments
Chuenha, I am glad that u were able to get past the MICT block if you live in Thailand and read the book that has been banned.
I read your review and note that you feel it is largely ‘stupid’. That certainly clarifys your perception.
However I found Chambers review somewhat more thought provolking that yours.
He said. “The King Never Smiles is the third book (to be banned) on the life of Thailand’s King Bhumipol Adulyadej published by a non-Thai. The others are Rayne Kruger’s The Devil’s Discus and William Stevenson’s The Revolutionary King. Written by a journalist who resided in the Kingdom for thirteen years, it is exceptionally well written and reflects a deep knowledge of Thai politics and history. Handley begins the story impressively by detailing the sacral ideology of Buddhist kingship, juxtaposed between the traditions of dhammaraja (king by virtue of the ten principles of a virtuous Buddhist king) and devaraja (a Brahmanic-oriented god-king). The setting commences with a coup against absolute monarchy in 1932, the abdication of King Rama VII, the attempted annihilation of Thai royalism, the suspicious death of his successor King Rama VIII and the accession to power of 18-year-old Bhumipol (Rama VIII’s brother) in 1946….. ”
http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/contemporary_southeast_asia_a_journal_of_international_and_strategic_affairs/v029/29.3chambers.html
Perhaps you can read it and make a point by point anslysis of this review. Perhaps it can elicit more than stupid, stupid, stupid from you.
As for the comment of Mr. David, it should be noted that Mr. Hadley is a journalist not a historian. The goals of each being somewhat different. Indeed Mr. Adulyadej was not born in Brookline, Brookline is a few hundred meters across that river from Mount Alburn Hospital and was the residence of of the family at that time of the the birth noted. So point taken.
Sheridan and Selth on Burma today
Yet the Marxist, Leninist, Maoist based archaic hatred inspired, never proven to work, one size fit all, assumption continue—
facts:
All Myanmar government since, and even blf Jan 4 1948 is the 2┬║ result of direct and indirect response to interferences of the west and the Chinese.
From the quelling of the communists, supported by mainly the Chinese white or Red, to present 30 years of useless careless policy of relentless vilification, as well as sanctions, the former make Ne Win to be Ne Win and the latter now the generals to be the generals, ironically, again under the Chinese support.
All proven here @ New Mandala per Ko Hla Oo multiple exposé and the author of the present topic Andrew Seth article here:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb6479/is_3_30/ai_n31178685/pg_4/?tag=content;col1
Yet the main cause, the useless careless interferences is ignored, in favor of focusing on the villains that were created by the very west and the Chinese,
Might have been a great arm chair discussion if not for the plight of the citizenry that has almost never mentioned lest discussed.
As long as the 50 millions+ citizenry undeserving plight of this unique country that bare no resemblance to any others, is not made clear and dealt with accordingly, any none applicable policy of the west will make present Myanmar a continuing Hell Hole for the citizenry.
Flatulence and breathing meditation
re: lindago
ana here is cognate to the Greek prefix ana, which both share a proto-Indo-European ancestor, meaning “up”; where as anus is Latin for “ring”. (From the PIE *ano-)
New prison for political prisoners in Thailand?
curiosity #12 I don’t know why you are getting down voted, it seems a legitimate question to me. Though if you look closely there have been articles on Laos and both Burma and Malaysia have been running hot lately. But as for the rest of Southeast Asia, are they really that unexceptional that nobody cares about them? Maybe its New Mandala’s raunchy reputation that scares off the serious scholars.
Flatulence and breathing meditation
Here is a better example where Ajahn Lee specifically relates mindfulness of the breath to sensations in the stomach and intestines:
Being mindful of the in-and-out breath at all times, knowing the various aspects of the breath–the up-flowing breath, the down-flowing breath, the breath in the stomach, the breath in the intestines, the breath flowing along the muscles and out to every pore–keeping track of these things with every in-and-out breath: This is Right Mindfulness.
From Keeping the Breath in Mind & Lessons in Samadhi
by Ajaan Lee Dhammadharo (Phra Suddhidhammaras─▒
Gambh─▒ramedhcariya) Translated from the Thai
by Thanissaro Bhikkhu (Geoffrey DeGraff)
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/thai/lee/inmind.html
Flatulence and breathing meditation
In strong support of Eisel Mazard’s interpretation of passasati from the Anapanasati Sutra, one should review the passage below from Ajahn Lee’s (a highly respected, deceased Thai Forest monk who was a student of Ajahn Mun) book, The Craft of the Heart, describing his detailed understanding of breath meditation based on his practice. Ajahn Lee’s knowledge of breath meditation, at least to my understanding, was based largely on his experiences as a strict Tudong monk in the remote hills of Chiang Mai using breath meditation practice to recover from a heart attack during a rains retreat without the intervention of modern medicine.
If the mind doesn’t settle down, go on to consider the wind property: the up-going breath sensations, the down-going breath sensations, the breath sensations in the stomach, the breath sensations in the intestines, the breath sensations flowing throughout the entire body, and the in-and-out breath.
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/thai/lee/craft.html
The Craft of the Heart
by Ajaan Lee Dhammadharo (Phra Suddhidhammaransi Gambhiramedhacariya) translated from the Thai by
Thanissaro Bhikkhu
The coup: five years on
John Smith,
That is an amazingly disingenuous way to describe the patron-client relationships and godfathers that dominate rural politics..
Why don’t you offer a better description so your criticism has something to respond to? You’ve just taken a swipe without making a scratch.
The coup: five years on
Andrew says ” Thailand’s modern peasantry as being involved in an active “political society” in which the primary desire is to draw state power into local circuits of exchange by means of diverse, informal and pragmatic relationships. The coup of September 2006 attempted to negate the influence of this non-civil rural politics”
That is an amazingly disingenuous way to describe the patron-client relationships and godfathers that dominate rural politics..
Why don’t you just come out and say that Thaiksin managed to get all the godfathers to join the TRT or its coalitions and coup attempted to break that up. You might also go on and try to explain how that amalgamation of the worst of the Thai politicians was good for the country and was going to lead to anything but a UMNO style single party government. One that would in fact make the UNNO look like saints.
The coup: five years on
Achara’s article at the Bangkok Post didn’t say that, did it. Achara may be asserting her integrity at Prachatai… at the Bangkok Post?
Forget about it.
New prison for political prisoners in Thailand?
Why this forum only touch upon the stories of Thailand? I think the new Mandala is about South East Asia (and it’s said so on the top of your page).
Why don’t we hear any interesting stories from Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei etc.?
Sorry if I post this question in the wrong section but I don’t know where to raise the question to this ANU academics/tourists to Thailand.