I think that the idea of personal consumer technology somehow enabling democratization is probably just another marketing point for personal consumer technology.
The forces of darkness will provide the counterweight to any bona fide communication by individuals using personal consumer technology, as the US, Israeli, and Chinese cyberwarfare divisions, to name a few, daily demonstrate.
“Thankfully one crucial transformation is that we can today see what is really going on in ethnic homelands and at the border. We get to hear what our ethnic brethren bearing arms against the govt have to say,”
Really! With the past available footage on uTube┬о as well as other absolutely anti present ruling entity, how much of being said has ‘come to pass’ or even truthful.
Let’s start with the award winning Burma VJ that won all the awards with doctored footage, shall we.
“no longer easily vilified and demonised one sidedly stoking up irrational and unjustified racial hatred.”
It is not like you either to admit most posters here eager to jump on ‘Karen or anything against Bamar’ wagon or acknowledge every western media pet pea to vilify SPDC vs glorify every DASSK.
Is that mean you are accusing the present entity of spewing hatred?
Where thou is thy proof?
“Proper two way traffic on the small screen too with the advent of the DVB TV channel including Dateline Irrawaddy in its programmes beamed directly into rural and urban dwellings alike, far more effective and reaching a much wider audience than the Internet.”
Hmm, DVB: ultimate monger of misinformation, inaccurate facts. Every piece of news is either anti this entity or pro DASSK.
I have yet to find any reporting objective by DVB
No wonder Myanmar is in this quagmire.
No wonder Burmese dubbed Korean drama is ever so popular over any DVD broadcast.
I do admit Myanmar TV 1-4 still doing poorly compared to DVB.
Then again the signal quality is much better now that the best Broadcasting equipment from USA are being acquired through Singapore by this military government. A sure sign sanction is working indeed.
The German government is not interfering in any judicial process by saying that Thailand should pay the arbitration award. There is no longer a judicial process in which Germany could interfere. As Portman @199 notes, the arbitration award is final, unappealable, and due. (The court case in the U.S. will not change that.)
On the other hand, there is an ongoing judicial process concerning seizure of the airplane in Germany, but the German government has not (that we know) “interfered” there. It has correctly said it cannot interfere there.
It’s laughable that PM Abhisit and FM Kasit — and their cheering section, Thanong — are complaining that the German government is interfering with the judiciary, not only because it’s not, but because Kasit dashed off to Germany to demand that it interfere! Apparently it would have suited Abhikasit if Germany had advised its judiciary to release the plane, but not to advise Thailand to abide by the now-final arbitration decision.
Imagine the PAD/Yellow and Prayuth eruption should the new Foreign Minister direct that the Thai government to pay up per the arbitration judgement in the German construction-CP plane dispute…………imagine the Thailand government fulfilling its pre-agreed obligation to follow the arbitrator’s ruling, what an offense that will be.
On another note, I find that this local form of thinking in this regard that many Laotians have that has largely not changed in hundreds of years needs to change quickly otherwise China and Thailand (and Vietnam) will change the lifestyles of many Laotians before they know it.
I have asked some Lao friends about what they think about the new railway being built between Kunming and Vientiane and eventually onto Laos and the fact that during the construction phase only Chinese workers will be employed to work on the railway, with not a single Laotian getting a job until the railway is completed. Not to mention the 5km “exclusive” economic corridor on both sides of the railway that the Chinese have negotiated from the Lao government. The response I got was that the people I queried were quite naive and just gave me this unanimous response: “this development is good for our country”. While I agree with that assessment, if the politians in Vientiane continue to give the Chinese everything they want, eventually the Laotians will feel like foreigners in their own country. Go up to the northern parts of Laos, for example Udomxai, Boten and parts of Phongsali and Luang Nam Tha provinces and see how much Chinese script and how little Lao you will see. Many Chinese people living in those provinces (often from Yunnan and relatively recent arrivals) speak only Chinese and act as if Laos were part of China (i.e. they generally operate businesses catering to Chinese people travelling through Laos, though foreigners and locals are usually welcome, with the exception of the border casinos where local Laotians are not welcome).
The corruption, short-sightedness and naivety of the Lao government will surely bite both the government and it’s people in the back if not addressed soon. Either Laos will become a Chinese economic colony of sorts (personally I think Thailand should play a greater role in the development of Laos, rather than continuing to see it as a backwater while China grabs all the opportunites it can get) and/or it will be exploited by its neighbors (particularly China) to the point that there is no turning back.
My opinions are based on a number of years of travel into Laos and I have seen both the advantages and disadvantages of development in Laos, as well as the effects of corruption on the poor infrastructure in many places, an observation that will likely not change anytime soon until corruption is tackled more. Also, I don’t believe that there is much media exposure in Laos..it’s invariably a case of the usual “show off the good things that happen in our country everyday” that they showcase and neglecting to show any negatives or have any debate on serious issues.
I have to agree with Herve. Although I speak fluent Thai and therefore won’t need to speak English with Thai people (indeed, few Thai people speak English fluently enough to have an intellectual conversation with), however, I find that even having an intellectual conversation in Thai in Thailand is something I find myself doing only rather occasionally, unfortunately.
By contrast, everytime I go to Myanmar (haven’t been for a few years) and Cambodia, I find interesting, well spoken local people to speak to (in English) and the conversations are both interesting and inspiring. I also find that Myanmar, being more traditional than Thailand is more intellectual and they read more books than Thais (especially amongst the middle and upper class and the former elite that are no longer allowed to perform the jobs they were originally qualified to perform by the present government) simply because the Burmese have less access to modern forms of entertainment such as cable TV, the internet, computer games and other such activities. Also, the lack of access to outside news makes them very curious people. Unlike in Thailand, where curiousity is generally limited to more personal matters such as income, hobbies and even commenting on the Thai language abilities of foreigners that are able to speak their language (usually praising their abilities, even if they are only able to speak basic Thai), in Myanmar, curious locals will talk to you about politics, current events, life abroad and how it is different from Myanmar, and many other interesting topics, all in very good English.
Question: Is the Attorney General a political post or a technocrat / civil service type appointment. Will the incoming PT government need to replace him with their own appointee?
I think this might be important, as an obvious royalist / Sonti / Thanong strategy will be to publicly maintain that black is white in all these cases (as they are currently doing) then, if and when the new government accepts the inevitable, howl that they’ve sold out the Thai nation, blockade parliament etc.
It would actually be preferable if (some of) the loonies are kept in the firing line until they are forced to confront reality.
Nationally lawyers told not to take cases AND to report family members who ask them to.
Legal experts and law firms afraid to take on certain topics, and with good reason.
Hope this appointment goes through. Kittirat is someone with enough intelligence and morals to undo some of the damage that Kasit Promiya has brought to Thai international affairs.
Sam 192. Let Thanong rail at the German government’s decision to let Thaksin back in by all means, although to be fair to them we have not heard what their reasons were for that, if it is indeed true. Their reasons for banning him originally seemed to be not for political reasons but because he used some false or incomplete documents to apply for a residence permit in Bonn under an assumed name. The reasons given by Noppadol and Kasit for his unbanning are simply conjecture.
The German Embassy is not a government interfering in a dispute between a private company and Thailand because it is a signatory to and thus effectively a guarantor on behalf of German companies of the bilateral treaty that the UN arbitration found had been violated by Thailand. Of course the government cannot interfere with the Landshut court which, as I have pointed out, is not a backwater court but a highly appropriate court to deal with a matter relating to the airport and is in an administrative capital of Bavaria. Germany seems to be just saying that when you have lost an international arbitration and their are no meaningful avenues of appeal, just pay up and save everyone a lot of trouble. Isn’t that also the message that the government has given to Thaksin who I personally think would do everyone a big favour by coming back and spending the rest of his life behind bars?
With his mystery witness who is going to ride in and save the day A-G Julasingh seems now to be drawing his inspiration from Chalerm’s creative defence of his son that featured a mystery shooter who won the legal battle for the hapless Duangchalerm without the need to be identified or even exist. Something tells me it won’t be so easy in a uncorrupt Western court. Perhaps that is why Julasingh is wistfully trying to tempt Werner Schneider into filing an enforcement action in a Thai court. Unfortunately he has overlooked the important point that Herr Schneider has just been declared persona non grata in Thailand by the foreign minister. Julasingh doesn’t seem to feel it necessary to explain (and the Thai media didn’t feel the need to ask him) why the Thai defence team of international lawyers hired at vast taxpayers’ expense didn’t present this crucial witness at the UN arbitration in Geneva.
An interesting analysis but I am unclear in what sense Pavin attributes the earnings growth of SET listed companies to the president of the SET. He was unable to achieve much in the way of achieving major new listings for political reasons, e.g. the Chamlong inspired protests that forced Thai Beverage to list in Singapore instead and the Rosanna inspired protests that prevented the isting of EGAT and other state enterprises. Thus the SET’s earnings growth was largely a factor of economic recovery and the companies’ own managements, not the exchange where their shares happened to be traded. Nonetheless, he was a good president of the SET, even though Pavin has no idea how to assess performance of this type of a role, an important failing, since he lists it as the pinnacle of Kittirat’s career to date. Kittirat has a good sense of timing which is important for a trader. He got out just before Thaksin shameful Shin Corp transaction and the related insider trading and bending of takeover rules. (He also resigned honourably when he leadership of the Thai national soccer proved disastrous). His main value as president of the SET was in fact that he came to the job with a background as a working broker from the research side where they are typically more cerebral but rarely have the clout to call the shots. Most presidents of the SET have either been outsiders who had no clue whatsoever about financial markets with one notable exception who had been merely the well born Thai figure head at his Japanese joint venture firm and so barely qualified as an insider. It is not clear that Kittirat would have the same insider advantages at the Foreign Ministry but he is a thoughtful man and relatively clean by Thai standards, so it would be interesting to watch.
Interesting that Thaksin’s strategy seems now to be the”bad guy” putting technocrats with clean images into key cabinet positions, vs Abhisit (and Sarayud) as the “good guy” putting pieces of crap into the jobs. This is great way to keep red shirts out of the cabinet because the technocrats will definitely not serve with them and they will be told they have to accept this as a necessity for national reconciliation and kick starting the economy (even though it hasn’t been doing badly). However, the technocrats are probably only going to be used as filler to smooth things over for a few months until PT can figure out a way to get Thaksin back. Then a new election is probable after which the prize cabinet seats will go to the 111 who will be unbanned next May and Yingluck can go back to the girl guides.
From that Notion article linked by Nathan in c195:
Thailand had a witness who was very familiar with the investment contract from the beginning, but the international arbitration tribunal refused to take this witness into account and made an unfair judgement against the Thai government, Julasing said.
“If the German court in Berlin learned about this key witness, I believe the court would agree with Thailand that the tribunal made the wrong decision on the case,” he said.
Kind of takes you back to those old episodes of Perry Mason, doesn’t it? There was always the late arrival of that key witness who swung the case round…..
Link to The Nation article reporting that Thailand government’s Office of Attorney General says the German construction company needs to bring its compensation case before a court in Thailand if it wants to receive payment:
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Taking photos in Burma
I think that the idea of personal consumer technology somehow enabling democratization is probably just another marketing point for personal consumer technology.
The forces of darkness will provide the counterweight to any bona fide communication by individuals using personal consumer technology, as the US, Israeli, and Chinese cyberwarfare divisions, to name a few, daily demonstrate.
Taking photos in Burma
@#3
“Thankfully one crucial transformation is that we can today see what is really going on in ethnic homelands and at the border. We get to hear what our ethnic brethren bearing arms against the govt have to say,”
Really! With the past available footage on uTube┬о as well as other absolutely anti present ruling entity, how much of being said has ‘come to pass’ or even truthful.
Let’s start with the award winning Burma VJ that won all the awards with doctored footage, shall we.
“no longer easily vilified and demonised one sidedly stoking up irrational and unjustified racial hatred.”
It is not like you either to admit most posters here eager to jump on ‘Karen or anything against Bamar’ wagon or acknowledge every western media pet pea to vilify SPDC vs glorify every DASSK.
Is that mean you are accusing the present entity of spewing hatred?
Where thou is thy proof?
“Proper two way traffic on the small screen too with the advent of the DVB TV channel including Dateline Irrawaddy in its programmes beamed directly into rural and urban dwellings alike, far more effective and reaching a much wider audience than the Internet.”
Hmm, DVB: ultimate monger of misinformation, inaccurate facts. Every piece of news is either anti this entity or pro DASSK.
I have yet to find any reporting objective by DVB
No wonder Myanmar is in this quagmire.
No wonder Burmese dubbed Korean drama is ever so popular over any DVD broadcast.
I do admit Myanmar TV 1-4 still doing poorly compared to DVB.
Then again the signal quality is much better now that the best Broadcasting equipment from USA are being acquired through Singapore by this military government. A sure sign sanction is working indeed.
Plane audacity in Thai dispute
The German government is not interfering in any judicial process by saying that Thailand should pay the arbitration award. There is no longer a judicial process in which Germany could interfere. As Portman @199 notes, the arbitration award is final, unappealable, and due. (The court case in the U.S. will not change that.)
On the other hand, there is an ongoing judicial process concerning seizure of the airplane in Germany, but the German government has not (that we know) “interfered” there. It has correctly said it cannot interfere there.
It’s laughable that PM Abhisit and FM Kasit — and their cheering section, Thanong — are complaining that the German government is interfering with the judiciary, not only because it’s not, but because Kasit dashed off to Germany to demand that it interfere! Apparently it would have suited Abhikasit if Germany had advised its judiciary to release the plane, but not to advise Thailand to abide by the now-final arbitration decision.
Yingluck’s Foreign Minister
Backoff — 4
‘Yellow Morons’?
May I assume you are a Red Shirt Thug then?
Yingluck’s Foreign Minister
Can we change the ‘thumbs up’ button to be the red one? It would help me feel better about voting.
Yingluck’s Foreign Minister
Imagine the PAD/Yellow and Prayuth eruption should the new Foreign Minister direct that the Thai government to pay up per the arbitration judgement in the German construction-CP plane dispute…………imagine the Thailand government fulfilling its pre-agreed obligation to follow the arbitrator’s ruling, what an offense that will be.
Corruption and media exposure in Laos
On another note, I find that this local form of thinking in this regard that many Laotians have that has largely not changed in hundreds of years needs to change quickly otherwise China and Thailand (and Vietnam) will change the lifestyles of many Laotians before they know it.
I have asked some Lao friends about what they think about the new railway being built between Kunming and Vientiane and eventually onto Laos and the fact that during the construction phase only Chinese workers will be employed to work on the railway, with not a single Laotian getting a job until the railway is completed. Not to mention the 5km “exclusive” economic corridor on both sides of the railway that the Chinese have negotiated from the Lao government. The response I got was that the people I queried were quite naive and just gave me this unanimous response: “this development is good for our country”. While I agree with that assessment, if the politians in Vientiane continue to give the Chinese everything they want, eventually the Laotians will feel like foreigners in their own country. Go up to the northern parts of Laos, for example Udomxai, Boten and parts of Phongsali and Luang Nam Tha provinces and see how much Chinese script and how little Lao you will see. Many Chinese people living in those provinces (often from Yunnan and relatively recent arrivals) speak only Chinese and act as if Laos were part of China (i.e. they generally operate businesses catering to Chinese people travelling through Laos, though foreigners and locals are usually welcome, with the exception of the border casinos where local Laotians are not welcome).
The corruption, short-sightedness and naivety of the Lao government will surely bite both the government and it’s people in the back if not addressed soon. Either Laos will become a Chinese economic colony of sorts (personally I think Thailand should play a greater role in the development of Laos, rather than continuing to see it as a backwater while China grabs all the opportunites it can get) and/or it will be exploited by its neighbors (particularly China) to the point that there is no turning back.
My opinions are based on a number of years of travel into Laos and I have seen both the advantages and disadvantages of development in Laos, as well as the effects of corruption on the poor infrastructure in many places, an observation that will likely not change anytime soon until corruption is tackled more. Also, I don’t believe that there is much media exposure in Laos..it’s invariably a case of the usual “show off the good things that happen in our country everyday” that they showcase and neglecting to show any negatives or have any debate on serious issues.
Burma’s reading culture
I have to agree with Herve. Although I speak fluent Thai and therefore won’t need to speak English with Thai people (indeed, few Thai people speak English fluently enough to have an intellectual conversation with), however, I find that even having an intellectual conversation in Thai in Thailand is something I find myself doing only rather occasionally, unfortunately.
By contrast, everytime I go to Myanmar (haven’t been for a few years) and Cambodia, I find interesting, well spoken local people to speak to (in English) and the conversations are both interesting and inspiring. I also find that Myanmar, being more traditional than Thailand is more intellectual and they read more books than Thais (especially amongst the middle and upper class and the former elite that are no longer allowed to perform the jobs they were originally qualified to perform by the present government) simply because the Burmese have less access to modern forms of entertainment such as cable TV, the internet, computer games and other such activities. Also, the lack of access to outside news makes them very curious people. Unlike in Thailand, where curiousity is generally limited to more personal matters such as income, hobbies and even commenting on the Thai language abilities of foreigners that are able to speak their language (usually praising their abilities, even if they are only able to speak basic Thai), in Myanmar, curious locals will talk to you about politics, current events, life abroad and how it is different from Myanmar, and many other interesting topics, all in very good English.
Refugee deal – a Malaysian view
Waiting for New Mandala commentators to show their views on this story…..(or they are not interested in something ‘closer to home’ ?).
Plane audacity in Thai dispute
Question: Is the Attorney General a political post or a technocrat / civil service type appointment. Will the incoming PT government need to replace him with their own appointee?
I think this might be important, as an obvious royalist / Sonti / Thanong strategy will be to publicly maintain that black is white in all these cases (as they are currently doing) then, if and when the new government accepts the inevitable, howl that they’ve sold out the Thai nation, blockade parliament etc.
It would actually be preferable if (some of) the loonies are kept in the firing line until they are forced to confront reality.
Yingluck’s Foreign Minister
It won’t take long for the yellow morons and Prayuth to brand him as a traitor the moment he starts to tackle the Phreah Vihear issue.
Plane audacity in Thai dispute
Train audacity
http://news.yahoo.com/china-lawyers-told-not-rail-crash-cases-141719308.html
Nationally lawyers told not to take cases AND to report family members who ask them to.
Legal experts and law firms afraid to take on certain topics, and with good reason.
Yingluck’s Foreign Minister
Hope this appointment goes through. Kittirat is someone with enough intelligence and morals to undo some of the damage that Kasit Promiya has brought to Thai international affairs.
Plane audacity in Thai dispute
Sam 192. Let Thanong rail at the German government’s decision to let Thaksin back in by all means, although to be fair to them we have not heard what their reasons were for that, if it is indeed true. Their reasons for banning him originally seemed to be not for political reasons but because he used some false or incomplete documents to apply for a residence permit in Bonn under an assumed name. The reasons given by Noppadol and Kasit for his unbanning are simply conjecture.
The German Embassy is not a government interfering in a dispute between a private company and Thailand because it is a signatory to and thus effectively a guarantor on behalf of German companies of the bilateral treaty that the UN arbitration found had been violated by Thailand. Of course the government cannot interfere with the Landshut court which, as I have pointed out, is not a backwater court but a highly appropriate court to deal with a matter relating to the airport and is in an administrative capital of Bavaria. Germany seems to be just saying that when you have lost an international arbitration and their are no meaningful avenues of appeal, just pay up and save everyone a lot of trouble. Isn’t that also the message that the government has given to Thaksin who I personally think would do everyone a big favour by coming back and spending the rest of his life behind bars?
Plane audacity in Thai dispute
With his mystery witness who is going to ride in and save the day A-G Julasingh seems now to be drawing his inspiration from Chalerm’s creative defence of his son that featured a mystery shooter who won the legal battle for the hapless Duangchalerm without the need to be identified or even exist. Something tells me it won’t be so easy in a uncorrupt Western court. Perhaps that is why Julasingh is wistfully trying to tempt Werner Schneider into filing an enforcement action in a Thai court. Unfortunately he has overlooked the important point that Herr Schneider has just been declared persona non grata in Thailand by the foreign minister. Julasingh doesn’t seem to feel it necessary to explain (and the Thai media didn’t feel the need to ask him) why the Thai defence team of international lawyers hired at vast taxpayers’ expense didn’t present this crucial witness at the UN arbitration in Geneva.
Yingluck’s Foreign Minister
An interesting analysis but I am unclear in what sense Pavin attributes the earnings growth of SET listed companies to the president of the SET. He was unable to achieve much in the way of achieving major new listings for political reasons, e.g. the Chamlong inspired protests that forced Thai Beverage to list in Singapore instead and the Rosanna inspired protests that prevented the isting of EGAT and other state enterprises. Thus the SET’s earnings growth was largely a factor of economic recovery and the companies’ own managements, not the exchange where their shares happened to be traded. Nonetheless, he was a good president of the SET, even though Pavin has no idea how to assess performance of this type of a role, an important failing, since he lists it as the pinnacle of Kittirat’s career to date. Kittirat has a good sense of timing which is important for a trader. He got out just before Thaksin shameful Shin Corp transaction and the related insider trading and bending of takeover rules. (He also resigned honourably when he leadership of the Thai national soccer proved disastrous). His main value as president of the SET was in fact that he came to the job with a background as a working broker from the research side where they are typically more cerebral but rarely have the clout to call the shots. Most presidents of the SET have either been outsiders who had no clue whatsoever about financial markets with one notable exception who had been merely the well born Thai figure head at his Japanese joint venture firm and so barely qualified as an insider. It is not clear that Kittirat would have the same insider advantages at the Foreign Ministry but he is a thoughtful man and relatively clean by Thai standards, so it would be interesting to watch.
Interesting that Thaksin’s strategy seems now to be the”bad guy” putting technocrats with clean images into key cabinet positions, vs Abhisit (and Sarayud) as the “good guy” putting pieces of crap into the jobs. This is great way to keep red shirts out of the cabinet because the technocrats will definitely not serve with them and they will be told they have to accept this as a necessity for national reconciliation and kick starting the economy (even though it hasn’t been doing badly). However, the technocrats are probably only going to be used as filler to smooth things over for a few months until PT can figure out a way to get Thaksin back. Then a new election is probable after which the prize cabinet seats will go to the 111 who will be unbanned next May and Yingluck can go back to the girl guides.
Plane audacity in Thai dispute
From that Notion article linked by Nathan in c195:
Thailand had a witness who was very familiar with the investment contract from the beginning, but the international arbitration tribunal refused to take this witness into account and made an unfair judgement against the Thai government, Julasing said.
“If the German court in Berlin learned about this key witness, I believe the court would agree with Thailand that the tribunal made the wrong decision on the case,” he said.
Kind of takes you back to those old episodes of Perry Mason, doesn’t it? There was always the late arrival of that key witness who swung the case round…..
Rather too late in this case, I suspect…..
Yingluck’s Foreign Minister
Kittirat seems to be a professional with an impressive record. But some of Kittirat’s merits seem to be over the top, as this one:
“Kittirat turned things around. The combined profits of companies listed in the SET, under the leadership of Kittirat”
These profits were the results of a sharp recovery after the Asian crisis.
The SET president is not a “Super CEO” of all listed companies.
Plane audacity in Thai dispute
This entire discussion will probably be irrelevant by next week, given that Kasit and AV will no longer hold political office.
BangkokPost has a new update:
“Mr Kasit said the Germans were pursuing a double standard.”
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/249433/kasit-slams-german-decision
(I’m laughing so hard it almost hurts)
Plane audacity in Thai dispute
Link to The Nation article reporting that Thailand government’s Office of Attorney General says the German construction company needs to bring its compensation case before a court in Thailand if it wants to receive payment:
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2011/07/30/national/Bring-case-to-Thailand-30161496.html