I don’t want to be rude Andrew, but did you really expect anything else? It might be lunacy to you, but the Democrat Party knows that if it can’t win elections, it might win the skewed political battle of military/judicial putsch. It is their way to power.
Deification of the current king is one thing; how they go about it with the next king will be interesting.
The number of violent incidents in the South may be falling, but the level of expertise in carrying them out seems to be rising. As in any insurgency campaign, the army must defend every potential target, while the insurgents can choose to attack only the most vulnerable. Most army personnel are rotated through on fixed-length tours of duty, while the insurgents are permanent residents and just keep on accumulating experience. They’re good, they’re getting better, and their stated aim of restoring an independent Muslim Malay State of Pattani is an exceptionally powerful motivator.
Trying to instil loyalty to the Thai Buddhist state by training the local Malay Muslim villagers in the royal principles of the sufficiency economy is unlikely to work. These are people who already have life-long experience in their own sufficiency economy of rural village life. The only way to win their loyalty is to ensure full equality before the law, end double standards, and grant regional autonomy with local control over such things as education – in other words, acceptance and implementation of the Pattani Principality proposal. Let’s hope this becomes Phuea Thai government policy.
Thank you Mark for a brilliant piece of deconstruction. We need more of this kind of thing.
It put me in mind of the following quote from “Mien Relations”, the groundbreaking book (reviewed on NM) by Hjorleifur Jonsson. (p69)
Here he quotes from an official exhibit in Chiang Rai: “On February 27, 1983, Their Majesties…paid a visit to the base of the [Thai military] battalion on Doi Yao, Thoeng District, Chiang Rai Province. There, upon request, His Majesty graciously agreed to the battalion commander to make two sets of the imprint of his feet. One set is retained by the commander and the other is installed in the Footprint Pavilion in the headquarters of the battalion which is located in Fort Mangrai Maharaj.”
In a footnote Jonsson reminds us: The imagery draws on the Buddha’s footprints, which are important sacred objects. Chronicles sometimes refer to the footprints of the Buddha as preordaining certain sites for settlement by Buddhist peoples.
Seh Fah, we still can’t find who killed King Rama VIII. How many years it has been since? You should know how cover-ups work in this country by now. If someone high up enough wants something to be forgotten, it stays forgotten.
Skeletons? Cemeteries of secrets is more accurate.
Democracy on Sale #46,
In a Democratic society, electoral vote is considered to be a basic right.
You might not like it, but seeing how voting is an integral part of Democracy. May be it is YOU who does not fit in?
You can’t increase your vote by getting a PHD, nor by paying more taxes than the others. By that definition, Thaksin should have at least millions of votes more than an average beggar. The system just doesn’t work that way.
I have been several times in the South in 2007, when Akkara was Army Spokesman there. Of course he has to defend the Army actions, and present an overly positive image – that is his job.
What i am extremely grateful for is that he enabled me, and many other journalists, unprecedented access to military operations which in other sensitive areas at Thailand’s borders would be impossible to get. He also put his own career at risk there – if this foreign journo would have been injured in one of the Red Zones his own career would have been over (a unit i went on patrol with, was attacked only a few days after i left, and one of the soldiers was permanently disabled in the resulting firefight). There was also no pressure applied to me on how i have to report.
Akkara told me his theory of information war. He also said that we Journalists will work down there anyhow, and if he doesn’t give us access, we will get sole access from quarters sympathetic to the insurgency.
For me, the access i have gotten through Akkara, enabled be a better understanding of the mess down there (no complete understanding of course, for this i would have to live my life down there, and even that wouldn’t be enough).
As Thai Army goes, i found Akkara unusually open to journalists. Of course he has to be seen in context – he is a spokesman, and he is a soldier – he is not an independent observer.
The increasingly open efforts of deification of the King by the military are very interesting. Will this strategy work for them, or will it turn out to be counterproductive?
Personally speaking – the day after the elections i was quite depressed. I was thinking of why there could not have been an agreement for long overdue elections before April 10 last year, why the government was going on and on then about the “silent majority” (which has spoken now), somehow justifying its refusal by mob rule, silent majorities supposedly on its side, and whatever not. For what? One more year in office? Many lives could have been saved.
I can understand your wish that the events of April 10th. 2010 didn’t happen, that circumstances before then had been different, but it did happen and it’s important we should know the ‘whats and whys’ of it.
Your wish that Abhisit government had a different policy on early elections can be matched by those that wished that Thaksin and the UDD had a different policy on regaining power. In the end it comes down to who fired the first lethal shot and who benefited from it. I guess we all have our own suspicions on that.
Thanks for the review – it is really valuable to provide comprehensive reviews for such niche topic as this and I appreciate the time and effort it takes writing them.
I’m afraid my point about “women’s rights promotion” was taken misleadingly and came down to another agenda (not related to gender discrimination and gender blindness). May I repeat my saying once again here
“never said a single word about women’s rights promotion during her campaign”.
Thanks for your quote in the next para;
“At the National Council of Women of Thailand where her sister, Yaowares Shinawatra, was once president, Ms Ying-luck promised to give each province 100 million baht to support income-generating activities of women’s groups, while working closely with the women’s council.”
This help a lot to confirm my point that the would be the first ever Thailand female PM is being blind to gender discrimination, the women development fund (7,700 million baht) handouts is “to support income-generating activities of women’s groups, while working closely with the women’s council.” not for eliminating discrimination against women or promoting gender equality.
My comment towards Khun Yingluck’s campaign just to make a point to how gender blindness she is which is actually looks like others male PM in general and in fact to answer the question (from the interviewer) that “will the first female PM will help improving women status and promoting gender equality in Thailand?
c/o Prabda:
Seems that your justment is unfair since it’s based on “from being received a forward email that has been circulated within the women’s rights NGOs googlegroup prior to the election.” Please re-read the email that you have been forwarded to carefully that is about the debate within WREST’s groupmail about a news article in The Nation newspaper and to read just a single forwarded email from our group I suggest you should not judged the whole group in that way. You can contact the group at E-mail: [email protected] or know more about us at Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/women.network.reshaping.thailand
All remarks making fun of a prominent person are really stupid. Their perpetrators should have their heads examined. If you don’t honor a government leader, honor the individual concerned as a fellow human being deserving respect and dignity.
“…while in the second incident only 1 soldier was killed, and friendly fire was a possible cause.”
Friendly fire was the definite cause of that incident – it happened in front of me and a few other photographers (i have a very horrible photo of the soldier).
I would not be so hung up on the numbers, as both the number ’91’ and the term Rajaprasong are representative for all of last year’s calamity. Also soldiers, the dead PAD protester, the dead cops, and the dead journalists were humans whose life was gambled with (i don’t see any color in the dead – just lost lives).
Of course the “truth” is a very complex issue, but chances are that this time much of the “truth” will come out, at least substantially more than in previous violent incidents here. But will people believe it then?
Personally speaking – the day after the elections i was quite depressed. I was thinking of why there could not have been an agreement for long overdue elections before April 10 last year, why the government was going on and on then about the “silent majority” (which has spoken now), somehow justifying its refusal by mob rule, silent majorities supposedly on its side, and whatever not. For what? One more year in office?
Many lives could have been saved.
Out of touch and definitely out of the country too long.
1) Among the frenzy of new building projects in Yangon the one @ the corner of Latha and Canal Street neither retained the burnt out state of the past 50 years nor uninhabited any longer, now a green coated normal appearing one.
2) Daw Aung San Suu Kyi wannabe, Chinese actress, you know who, has been put back on the following flight from Mingladon without much ado.
3) New huge LED marque on Bogyoke Aung San Street heralding visiting tourists to economic activities similar to Thailand or any true ASEAN country to come.
Tell us again WHAT only option do you think is on the table, again?
The next fire!
Have you seen SG Than Shwe and his cohort making the same mistake TWICE?
It is the west forever useless careless policy that resulted in mistreatment of Myanmar Citizenry that will be remembered when DASSK name is mentioned.
Democracy throw buying votes cannot be considered democracy. It is a common tactic utilized by Thaksin to pay community leaders a fee for collecting ID cards from towns people in their province and surrounding rural areas. These community leaders then claim the right to cast the votes for these people. Democracy throw bullying votes cannot be considered democracy. I have heard of many Thai employers in Australia, who support Thaksin & who employ Thai nationals, use coersion upon these Thai nationals to vote for Thaksin. If this can be done so blatantly here in Australia, one must think what is happening in Thailand.
The rhetoric that Thaksin has been under attack from the elite of Thailands Socio-economic class is questionable if you consider the fact that in the past few years after the coupe against Thaksin , we have seen a slow down in the Thai economy, but after this election the domestic money market has begun to move in a more positive direction. If the premise had any element of truth would we not have seen the complete opposite. We in the west are simply being feed the old cliche of rich vs poor. There are many things which are not discussed and many things that are to intricate to be explain but a easiest way is to simply say, if anyone here really knows Thailand, they would probably think that the phrase “Money talks, Bullshit walks” was most likely coined there.
For the whole country, the popularity of Democrats has been declining since the shortage of palm oil crisis in February.
The BKK voter turnout is 71% while the whole country is 75%.
BKK overall result of party list is very close ie Democrat 1,277,669 and Pue Thai 1,209,508. It’s obvious that Democrats got more votes in the central part of BKK while PT got more in the periphery of BKK. This is due to the influx of people from the north, north eastern people to the suburban area during last few decades. PT also won all seat except only one in the para-BKK provinces, Nontaburi, Pratumtani, SamutPrakarn.
Why? Of course, most of the BKK newcomer are of lower socio-economic status than the original Bangkokians. Those middle class people, elsewhere in the country, are financial secure and likely to be scared of Thaksin, due to the main media, so they had to vote for Democrats.
This is the war between classes, definitely not brand loyalty of Bangkokians.
Yingluck is yet to form government so best to wait and see how that pans out, still early days and you are only as good as the team around you.
Julia getting advice from Yingluck, think even she would say: know who your constituents actually are and give them the policies they want and need. That would be a big leap for Julia as she seems to ignore her traditional constituency and is trying to ram a carbon tax few want down their throats.
Later the bankers will get even richer from an ETS, so guess they are happy Hmm, middle class greenies, bankers, most of Canberra and bitter old unrepentant commies, not the traditional mix for labor that I recall, Can’t imagine why is all going so badly, Hawke & Keating must shake their heads in disbelief.
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National lunacy
Yes, Ralph, I did. I still have some of the idealism of youth!
National lunacy
I don’t want to be rude Andrew, but did you really expect anything else? It might be lunacy to you, but the Democrat Party knows that if it can’t win elections, it might win the skewed political battle of military/judicial putsch. It is their way to power.
The army and the god king
Deification of the current king is one thing; how they go about it with the next king will be interesting.
The number of violent incidents in the South may be falling, but the level of expertise in carrying them out seems to be rising. As in any insurgency campaign, the army must defend every potential target, while the insurgents can choose to attack only the most vulnerable. Most army personnel are rotated through on fixed-length tours of duty, while the insurgents are permanent residents and just keep on accumulating experience. They’re good, they’re getting better, and their stated aim of restoring an independent Muslim Malay State of Pattani is an exceptionally powerful motivator.
Trying to instil loyalty to the Thai Buddhist state by training the local Malay Muslim villagers in the royal principles of the sufficiency economy is unlikely to work. These are people who already have life-long experience in their own sufficiency economy of rural village life. The only way to win their loyalty is to ensure full equality before the law, end double standards, and grant regional autonomy with local control over such things as education – in other words, acceptance and implementation of the Pattani Principality proposal. Let’s hope this becomes Phuea Thai government policy.
The army and the god king
Thank you Mark for a brilliant piece of deconstruction. We need more of this kind of thing.
It put me in mind of the following quote from “Mien Relations”, the groundbreaking book (reviewed on NM) by Hjorleifur Jonsson. (p69)
Here he quotes from an official exhibit in Chiang Rai: “On February 27, 1983, Their Majesties…paid a visit to the base of the [Thai military] battalion on Doi Yao, Thoeng District, Chiang Rai Province. There, upon request, His Majesty graciously agreed to the battalion commander to make two sets of the imprint of his feet. One set is retained by the commander and the other is installed in the Footprint Pavilion in the headquarters of the battalion which is located in Fort Mangrai Maharaj.”
In a footnote Jonsson reminds us: The imagery draws on the Buddha’s footprints, which are important sacred objects. Chronicles sometimes refer to the footprints of the Buddha as preordaining certain sites for settlement by Buddhist peoples.
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra
Seh Fah, we still can’t find who killed King Rama VIII. How many years it has been since? You should know how cover-ups work in this country by now. If someone high up enough wants something to be forgotten, it stays forgotten.
Skeletons? Cemeteries of secrets is more accurate.
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra
Democracy on Sale #46,
In a Democratic society, electoral vote is considered to be a basic right.
You might not like it, but seeing how voting is an integral part of Democracy. May be it is YOU who does not fit in?
You can’t increase your vote by getting a PHD, nor by paying more taxes than the others. By that definition, Thaksin should have at least millions of votes more than an average beggar. The system just doesn’t work that way.
The army and the god king
I have been several times in the South in 2007, when Akkara was Army Spokesman there. Of course he has to defend the Army actions, and present an overly positive image – that is his job.
What i am extremely grateful for is that he enabled me, and many other journalists, unprecedented access to military operations which in other sensitive areas at Thailand’s borders would be impossible to get. He also put his own career at risk there – if this foreign journo would have been injured in one of the Red Zones his own career would have been over (a unit i went on patrol with, was attacked only a few days after i left, and one of the soldiers was permanently disabled in the resulting firefight). There was also no pressure applied to me on how i have to report.
Akkara told me his theory of information war. He also said that we Journalists will work down there anyhow, and if he doesn’t give us access, we will get sole access from quarters sympathetic to the insurgency.
For me, the access i have gotten through Akkara, enabled be a better understanding of the mess down there (no complete understanding of course, for this i would have to live my life down there, and even that wouldn’t be enough).
As Thai Army goes, i found Akkara unusually open to journalists. Of course he has to be seen in context – he is a spokesman, and he is a soldier – he is not an independent observer.
The increasingly open efforts of deification of the King by the military are very interesting. Will this strategy work for them, or will it turn out to be counterproductive?
The army and the god king
Need a new Hollywood movie, “The Hypnotist.” What happens if the entranced wake up…
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra
Nick Nostitz – 47
Personally speaking – the day after the elections i was quite depressed. I was thinking of why there could not have been an agreement for long overdue elections before April 10 last year, why the government was going on and on then about the “silent majority” (which has spoken now), somehow justifying its refusal by mob rule, silent majorities supposedly on its side, and whatever not. For what? One more year in office? Many lives could have been saved.
I can understand your wish that the events of April 10th. 2010 didn’t happen, that circumstances before then had been different, but it did happen and it’s important we should know the ‘whats and whys’ of it.
Your wish that Abhisit government had a different policy on early elections can be matched by those that wished that Thaksin and the UDD had a different policy on regaining power. In the end it comes down to who fired the first lethal shot and who benefited from it. I guess we all have our own suspicions on that.
Review of Ruth
Thanks for the review – it is really valuable to provide comprehensive reviews for such niche topic as this and I appreciate the time and effort it takes writing them.
Yingluck and Thailand’s women
c/o Jon Wright and Noi Jaidee:
I’m afraid my point about “women’s rights promotion” was taken misleadingly and came down to another agenda (not related to gender discrimination and gender blindness). May I repeat my saying once again here
“never said a single word about women’s rights promotion during her campaign”.
Thanks for your quote in the next para;
“At the National Council of Women of Thailand where her sister, Yaowares Shinawatra, was once president, Ms Ying-luck promised to give each province 100 million baht to support income-generating activities of women’s groups, while working closely with the women’s council.”
This help a lot to confirm my point that the would be the first ever Thailand female PM is being blind to gender discrimination, the women development fund (7,700 million baht) handouts is “to support income-generating activities of women’s groups, while working closely with the women’s council.” not for eliminating discrimination against women or promoting gender equality.
My comment towards Khun Yingluck’s campaign just to make a point to how gender blindness she is which is actually looks like others male PM in general and in fact to answer the question (from the interviewer) that “will the first female PM will help improving women status and promoting gender equality in Thailand?
c/o Prabda:
Seems that your justment is unfair since it’s based on “from being received a forward email that has been circulated within the women’s rights NGOs googlegroup prior to the election.” Please re-read the email that you have been forwarded to carefully that is about the debate within WREST’s groupmail about a news article in The Nation newspaper and to read just a single forwarded email from our group I suggest you should not judged the whole group in that way. You can contact the group at E-mail: [email protected] or know more about us at Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/women.network.reshaping.thailand
Kevin Rudd and Aung San Suu Kyi
WOW!!! An LED marque! Than Shwe is awesome…wait didn’t he step down?
If that is the best you’ve got to praise the military regime you might want to consider changing from Plan B to Plan 9 from Outer Space.
Yingluck Shinawatra: The lighter side
All remarks making fun of a prominent person are really stupid. Their perpetrators should have their heads examined. If you don’t honor a government leader, honor the individual concerned as a fellow human being deserving respect and dignity.
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra
“Seh Fah”:
“…while in the second incident only 1 soldier was killed, and friendly fire was a possible cause.”
Friendly fire was the definite cause of that incident – it happened in front of me and a few other photographers (i have a very horrible photo of the soldier).
I would not be so hung up on the numbers, as both the number ’91’ and the term Rajaprasong are representative for all of last year’s calamity. Also soldiers, the dead PAD protester, the dead cops, and the dead journalists were humans whose life was gambled with (i don’t see any color in the dead – just lost lives).
Of course the “truth” is a very complex issue, but chances are that this time much of the “truth” will come out, at least substantially more than in previous violent incidents here. But will people believe it then?
Personally speaking – the day after the elections i was quite depressed. I was thinking of why there could not have been an agreement for long overdue elections before April 10 last year, why the government was going on and on then about the “silent majority” (which has spoken now), somehow justifying its refusal by mob rule, silent majorities supposedly on its side, and whatever not. For what? One more year in office?
Many lives could have been saved.
Kevin Rudd and Aung San Suu Kyi
@ #5
Out of touch and definitely out of the country too long.
1) Among the frenzy of new building projects in Yangon the one @ the corner of Latha and Canal Street neither retained the burnt out state of the past 50 years nor uninhabited any longer, now a green coated normal appearing one.
2) Daw Aung San Suu Kyi wannabe, Chinese actress, you know who, has been put back on the following flight from Mingladon without much ado.
3) New huge LED marque on Bogyoke Aung San Street heralding visiting tourists to economic activities similar to Thailand or any true ASEAN country to come.
Tell us again WHAT only option do you think is on the table, again?
The next fire!
Have you seen SG Than Shwe and his cohort making the same mistake TWICE?
It is the west forever useless careless policy that resulted in mistreatment of Myanmar Citizenry that will be remembered when DASSK name is mentioned.
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra
Democracy throw buying votes cannot be considered democracy. It is a common tactic utilized by Thaksin to pay community leaders a fee for collecting ID cards from towns people in their province and surrounding rural areas. These community leaders then claim the right to cast the votes for these people. Democracy throw bullying votes cannot be considered democracy. I have heard of many Thai employers in Australia, who support Thaksin & who employ Thai nationals, use coersion upon these Thai nationals to vote for Thaksin. If this can be done so blatantly here in Australia, one must think what is happening in Thailand.
The rhetoric that Thaksin has been under attack from the elite of Thailands Socio-economic class is questionable if you consider the fact that in the past few years after the coupe against Thaksin , we have seen a slow down in the Thai economy, but after this election the domestic money market has begun to move in a more positive direction. If the premise had any element of truth would we not have seen the complete opposite. We in the west are simply being feed the old cliche of rich vs poor. There are many things which are not discussed and many things that are to intricate to be explain but a easiest way is to simply say, if anyone here really knows Thailand, they would probably think that the phrase “Money talks, Bullshit walks” was most likely coined there.
The Democrats in Bangkok
The turnout in BKK was 72% (for both)
Constituency: Vote No 6%; Bad ballots 5.4%
Party-list stats: Vote No 4.4%; Bad ballots: 2%
The Democrats in Bangkok
In addition, Democrat only win by 96,000 vote from 2.7 million voters.
The Democrats in Bangkok
For the whole country, the popularity of Democrats has been declining since the shortage of palm oil crisis in February.
The BKK voter turnout is 71% while the whole country is 75%.
BKK overall result of party list is very close ie Democrat 1,277,669 and Pue Thai 1,209,508. It’s obvious that Democrats got more votes in the central part of BKK while PT got more in the periphery of BKK. This is due to the influx of people from the north, north eastern people to the suburban area during last few decades. PT also won all seat except only one in the para-BKK provinces, Nontaburi, Pratumtani, SamutPrakarn.
Why? Of course, most of the BKK newcomer are of lower socio-economic status than the original Bangkokians. Those middle class people, elsewhere in the country, are financial secure and likely to be scared of Thaksin, due to the main media, so they had to vote for Democrats.
This is the war between classes, definitely not brand loyalty of Bangkokians.
Yingluck Shinawatra: The lighter side
I loved that whitening cream line…
Yingluck is yet to form government so best to wait and see how that pans out, still early days and you are only as good as the team around you.
Julia getting advice from Yingluck, think even she would say: know who your constituents actually are and give them the policies they want and need. That would be a big leap for Julia as she seems to ignore her traditional constituency and is trying to ram a carbon tax few want down their throats.
Later the bankers will get even richer from an ETS, so guess they are happy Hmm, middle class greenies, bankers, most of Canberra and bitter old unrepentant commies, not the traditional mix for labor that I recall, Can’t imagine why is all going so badly, Hawke & Keating must shake their heads in disbelief.