Thanks for your reply, Greg. I think calling the electoral system “fraudulent” is a big call.
Of course “democracy” and “fair elections” are not absolute concepts. They are spectrums of which there are varying degrees, and may validly mean different things in different parts of the world. The Malaysian electoral system is much more advanced that other aspects of Malaysian civil society (eg free press). Malaysia’s electoral system is also significantly better than the systems in all of Malaysia’s neighbours. Many of the problems identified in the posts to which you’ve linked exist in many other countries including Australia and the US (gerrymandering being rife in the latter). All Malaysians can go to the polls in a secret ballot, vote for who they choose, and the vote will be counted properly. Remember: the BN allowed for the peaceful transfer of power in 2008 in four large states. It won back Perak by doing what any opposition in its position would try to do: siphon off disaffected government lawmakers.
Is Malaysia’s electoral system perfect? No. Is any electoral system? Probably not. Does Malaysia’s electoral system fall below the standards of most Western countries? Perhaps, but really not by much. Are Malaysian civil institutions (eg free press) below the standards of Western countries? Yes, significantly – but they do not make elections fraudulent. What is responsible for the opposition’s failure to win power? It’s certainly not the electoral system, and it’s arguably not even the absence of a free press. At least for the last ten years, it is largely the opposition’s failure to offer voters a cohesive and acceptable vision of the country’s future.
Thank you Moses for raising this important question.
In the political science circle, Malaysia is considered a dysfunctional democracy. Terms such as semi-authoritarian, quasi-democracy, electoral one party state, syncretic state, etc are how Malaysia is usually defined.
Furthermore, Malaysia is constantly measured as partly free or unfree in any of the international rankings such as Freedom House, Human Rights Watch, Economist Intelligence Unit, Heritage Foundation, etc. The linked article is to capture this aspect.
Fraudulent electoral practises are a subset of these larger issues spelled out in the linked article. The BN systematically undermines the opposition at elections and between elections. Malaysians are also penalised for supporting the opposition. The power grab in Perak, the with-holding of Federal government funds to opposition controlled states and opposition Members of Parliament demonstrate that electoral results often amounts to very little in Malaysia.
For examples of specific electoral fraud, please read BERSIH 2.0 report here and one on gerrymandering. Also, this posting may be of interest.
What Malaysia needs is whole-scale reforms to become a functioning democracy but its unlikely that BN will allow that. Therefore, for a start, we should make at least the electoral process less fraudulent.
Not a new voice but certainly an important one, Ajarn Sulak has won an honor in Japan, but the presentation is being postponed because of earthquake aftermath. See http://www.thekoratpost.com main page for details and HTML links:
Thai Activist to Receive $220,000 Prize
12 April 2011
The AsiaNews.it, website, at http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Sulak-Sivaraksa-wins-29th-Niwano-Peace-Prize-20905.html, announced that world renown religious and social activist Sulak Sivaraksa had won the 29 th Niwano Peace Prize. Nikkyo Niwano, after whom the valued prize is named, was co-founder of the devout Buddhist group promoting interreligious values Rissho Kosei-kai . While Sulak will take home the equivalent est. $220,000 another thing that he takes home is the national honor of a Thai Buddhist once again being recognized for good works and promotion of peace in a turbulent world. Latest news comes from the foundation’s website at http://www.npf.or.jp/english/ where an announcement is made that the prize will “possibly take place” in a new venue on a new date given the repercussions from the 11 March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
I note in the article (Greg Lopez, 2009) you’ve linked to, there are very few suggestions of actual electoral rorting in Malaysia. It is more general commentary on Malaysian civil institutions.
Two of your specific examples — smaller rural constituencies and federal governments making life difficult for opposition-held states — are present in Australia, the very country Raja Petra holds up as a model.
While the “gerrymandering” of smaller rural constituencies helps BN in Johor, Sabah and Sarawak, it conversely helps PAS in Kedah and Kelantan.
It is entirely valid to point out the subservience of Malaysia’s judiciary, at least under Mahathir. But it is difficult to see how that has any relationship to free and fair elections, especially today. Indeed, those who observe Malaysian politics closely would be well aware of BN election victories that have been overturned by the courts (most recently in Sanglang, 2008).
As a native Thai who no longer reads or writes Thai on a regular basis (for about 40 years), I do find when reading Thai now that it is not a smooth and seamless experience and I attribute that to being used to spacing in the English language. For what it’s worth, I would welcome the abandonment of scriptura continua. Using punctuation marks on the other hand is trickier and may not be readily embraced.
Looks like His Excellency, the highly respectable Ambassador, is on a bit of a campaign, at the behest of his boss Foreign Minister Kasit :
FREE Hawke Centre lecture
RSVP essential via Hawke Centre web site or phone 08 8302 0215
The Thai Ambassador to Australia speaks on respective futures for Thailand and Australia in the ASEAN community (The Association of Southeast Asian Nations)
Thursday 5 May 2011
Bradley Forum, UniSA City West campus, Hawke Building level 5, 50-55 North Terrace, Adelaide
5.30pm for a 6.00pm start
His Excellency Dr Kriangsak Kittichaisaree will address the topic: “Thailand’s and Australia’s places in the ASEAN Community in 2015 and beyond” drawing attention to the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Thailand and Australia in 2012.
Dr Kriangsak: “Thailand and Australia have close, productive and multi-faceted relations, both bilaterally and at the regional level. Although renowned for its excellent food and tourist attractions, Thailand’s strategic importance to Australia, in terms of security, political, and economic partnerships, is not realized by most Australians. Thailand is geographically and strategically situated in South-East Asia, linking the south of China, with Indochina, and the rest of that region. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), consisting of 10 thriving member countries in South-East Asia, actually neighbours to the near north of Australia, will become the ASEAN Community in 2015. Australia must, therefore, assess its policy in order to maximize what it could gain from the ASEAN Community, with Thailand as its important ally.”
Ralph # 23 :
What’s the maximum sentence for irony ?
Whatever !! Given Andrew’s outrageous post, the sentence in such cases needs to be at least doubled. Galah security is at stake.
Wow. “Anonymous as usual” accuses me of trying to please the Thai Embassy. And then Mr Raknai Luang (there’s that word separation issue again!) accuses me of lese majeste. This is Thailand!
Wouldn’t it be colonial to insist on Thais to change their language to suit us? What of the Chinese and Japanese languages? Certainly much different than European languages, but they seem to get on (at least in math and the sciences!). I’m currently visiting China and have had the most interesting chats about Mandarin with a Chinese man where he showed me two characters that combine to mean something and then can be completely swapped with other characters to convey endless meanings. Do these languages have punctuation? Spaces? Are they more impoverished?
Thai historically has been an oral/aural language and its literature a poetic one, recited at royal courts just like the Ramayana, the well from which Thai literature draws much of its form and inspiration. It was precisely this aural aspect that enabled the Thais to retain many of the traditions and rituals of the Ayuddaya after all of these written materials were torched by the Burmese. High priests were sought for their memory of the language of Ayuddaya.
Is Western literature all that different in the long shadow of history? The Old and New Testaments? The Iliad and the Odyssey? These are oral traditions. The novel was a new concept in the very recent 19th century.
Still, this opens up big questions for those of us who remain interested in all of the questions we have regarding culture and language. Taking on the Thai language and analyzing it in light of European languages would be a great research area in contrastive linguistics.
Is this a done deal? I’ve only seen it pushed by the Dis-Information Ministry at the Vejjajiva, nee Bangkok, Post. As in ‘be afraid, be very afraid, of the Shinawatra Dynasty!’.
Point taken as to which dynasty the author actually has in mind.
If I were a Thai and the Puea Thai Party actually did announce that it was ‘officially’ degenerating into the Shinawatra Party… I might still vote for it. There’s no other choice but the degenerate Thai Military Party.
“Guiding the nation in difficult times requires much more than an auspicious surname.” >> She is also very beautifully Chinese!! Or doesn’t this count? By the way, the surname isn’t really that auspicious.
It s a very smart choice for the many reasons mentioned in the comments already..
It will allow the Pua Thai to win these elections and run the country again, it is as simple as that, sorry for you, AW
Scriptura continua may not be an insurmountable problem but it is still curious as to why it has been retained in Thailand for so long. One reason may well be a negative impact of “not being colonised”.
Children must be encouraged to explore and enjoy books from an early age. Given the opportunity to choose on a regular basis from stimulating stock they will soon move on from comic books to more substantial fare.
Available figures show there are currently 26 public libraries in Bangkok and 33 in the whole of the North East. These include libraries in Universities and government offices. They are not facilities to walk in to off the street.
Reading books encourages a more thoughtful and self reflective society. In whose interest is it to keep the Thai public glued to the daily diet of propaganda and pap which describes much of free to air Thai TV?
Anything that might encourage children to read more is worthy of serious study, and that includes the question of scriptura continua.
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Australia should send electoral observers to Malaysia
Thanks for your reply, Greg. I think calling the electoral system “fraudulent” is a big call.
Of course “democracy” and “fair elections” are not absolute concepts. They are spectrums of which there are varying degrees, and may validly mean different things in different parts of the world. The Malaysian electoral system is much more advanced that other aspects of Malaysian civil society (eg free press). Malaysia’s electoral system is also significantly better than the systems in all of Malaysia’s neighbours. Many of the problems identified in the posts to which you’ve linked exist in many other countries including Australia and the US (gerrymandering being rife in the latter). All Malaysians can go to the polls in a secret ballot, vote for who they choose, and the vote will be counted properly. Remember: the BN allowed for the peaceful transfer of power in 2008 in four large states. It won back Perak by doing what any opposition in its position would try to do: siphon off disaffected government lawmakers.
Is Malaysia’s electoral system perfect? No. Is any electoral system? Probably not. Does Malaysia’s electoral system fall below the standards of most Western countries? Perhaps, but really not by much. Are Malaysian civil institutions (eg free press) below the standards of Western countries? Yes, significantly – but they do not make elections fraudulent. What is responsible for the opposition’s failure to win power? It’s certainly not the electoral system, and it’s arguably not even the absence of a free press. At least for the last ten years, it is largely the opposition’s failure to offer voters a cohesive and acceptable vision of the country’s future.
Australia should send electoral observers to Malaysia
Thank you Moses for raising this important question.
In the political science circle, Malaysia is considered a dysfunctional democracy. Terms such as semi-authoritarian, quasi-democracy, electoral one party state, syncretic state, etc are how Malaysia is usually defined.
Furthermore, Malaysia is constantly measured as partly free or unfree in any of the international rankings such as Freedom House, Human Rights Watch, Economist Intelligence Unit, Heritage Foundation, etc. The linked article is to capture this aspect.
Fraudulent electoral practises are a subset of these larger issues spelled out in the linked article. The BN systematically undermines the opposition at elections and between elections. Malaysians are also penalised for supporting the opposition. The power grab in Perak, the with-holding of Federal government funds to opposition controlled states and opposition Members of Parliament demonstrate that electoral results often amounts to very little in Malaysia.
For examples of specific electoral fraud, please read BERSIH 2.0 report here and one on gerrymandering. Also, this posting may be of interest.
What Malaysia needs is whole-scale reforms to become a functioning democracy but its unlikely that BN will allow that. Therefore, for a start, we should make at least the electoral process less fraudulent.
Seditious tales in Thailand
FYI – The Hi-S Facebook page is blocked by my Thai ISP ( TOT )
A new voice from Isaan
Not a new voice but certainly an important one, Ajarn Sulak has won an honor in Japan, but the presentation is being postponed because of earthquake aftermath. See http://www.thekoratpost.com main page for details and HTML links:
Thai Activist to Receive $220,000 Prize
12 April 2011
The AsiaNews.it, website, at http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Sulak-Sivaraksa-wins-29th-Niwano-Peace-Prize-20905.html, announced that world renown religious and social activist Sulak Sivaraksa had won the 29 th Niwano Peace Prize. Nikkyo Niwano, after whom the valued prize is named, was co-founder of the devout Buddhist group promoting interreligious values Rissho Kosei-kai . While Sulak will take home the equivalent est. $220,000 another thing that he takes home is the national honor of a Thai Buddhist once again being recognized for good works and promotion of peace in a turbulent world. Latest news comes from the foundation’s website at http://www.npf.or.jp/english/ where an announcement is made that the prize will “possibly take place” in a new venue on a new date given the repercussions from the 11 March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
A new voice from Isaan
it’s always good to see another view of the region
Australia should send electoral observers to Malaysia
I note in the article (Greg Lopez, 2009) you’ve linked to, there are very few suggestions of actual electoral rorting in Malaysia. It is more general commentary on Malaysian civil institutions.
Two of your specific examples — smaller rural constituencies and federal governments making life difficult for opposition-held states — are present in Australia, the very country Raja Petra holds up as a model.
While the “gerrymandering” of smaller rural constituencies helps BN in Johor, Sabah and Sarawak, it conversely helps PAS in Kedah and Kelantan.
It is entirely valid to point out the subservience of Malaysia’s judiciary, at least under Mahathir. But it is difficult to see how that has any relationship to free and fair elections, especially today. Indeed, those who observe Malaysian politics closely would be well aware of BN election victories that have been overturned by the courts (most recently in Sanglang, 2008).
Reforming Thai language structure
As a native Thai who no longer reads or writes Thai on a regular basis (for about 40 years), I do find when reading Thai now that it is not a smooth and seamless experience and I attribute that to being used to spacing in the English language. For what it’s worth, I would welcome the abandonment of scriptura continua. Using punctuation marks on the other hand is trickier and may not be readily embraced.
An outdated way of choosing a leader!!
I think our friend р╕гр╕▒р╕Б et. al is just pushing buttons. At least, I hope so. It would be humanly insufferable if such a sentiment were genuine.
Thai ambassador to speak at ANU
Looks like His Excellency, the highly respectable Ambassador, is on a bit of a campaign, at the behest of his boss Foreign Minister Kasit :
FREE Hawke Centre lecture
RSVP essential via Hawke Centre web site or phone 08 8302 0215
The Thai Ambassador to Australia speaks on respective futures for Thailand and Australia in the ASEAN community (The Association of Southeast Asian Nations)
Thursday 5 May 2011
Bradley Forum, UniSA City West campus, Hawke Building level 5, 50-55 North Terrace, Adelaide
5.30pm for a 6.00pm start
His Excellency Dr Kriangsak Kittichaisaree will address the topic: “Thailand’s and Australia’s places in the ASEAN Community in 2015 and beyond” drawing attention to the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Thailand and Australia in 2012.
Dr Kriangsak: “Thailand and Australia have close, productive and multi-faceted relations, both bilaterally and at the regional level. Although renowned for its excellent food and tourist attractions, Thailand’s strategic importance to Australia, in terms of security, political, and economic partnerships, is not realized by most Australians. Thailand is geographically and strategically situated in South-East Asia, linking the south of China, with Indochina, and the rest of that region. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), consisting of 10 thriving member countries in South-East Asia, actually neighbours to the near north of Australia, will become the ASEAN Community in 2015. Australia must, therefore, assess its policy in order to maximize what it could gain from the ASEAN Community, with Thailand as its important ally.”
An outdated way of choosing a leader!!
Ralph # 23 :
What’s the maximum sentence for irony ?
Whatever !! Given Andrew’s outrageous post, the sentence in such cases needs to be at least doubled. Galah security is at stake.
Thai ambassador to speak at ANU
CHANGE OF VENUE: The new venue will be Sparke Helmore Theatre 2. All other details remain the same.
An outdated way of choosing a leader!!
I accuse Andrew Walker of irony! He should be arrested at Canberra Airport and sentenced to a lengthy spell at the Comedy School.
An outdated way of choosing a leader!!
Wow. “Anonymous as usual” accuses me of trying to please the Thai Embassy. And then Mr Raknai Luang (there’s that word separation issue again!) accuses me of lese majeste. This is Thailand!
An outdated way of choosing a leader!!
“Filling national leadership positions on the basis of blood ties is a discredited and antiquated practice. ”
This is lese majeste and you should be arrested next time you arrive at the airport! р╕Ир╕▓р╕Ър╕Ир╣Йр╕зр╕Зр╕бр╕▓р╕Бр╣Ар╕ер╕в…
Reforming Thai language structure
sam deedes @ 17 and others:
Wouldn’t it be colonial to insist on Thais to change their language to suit us? What of the Chinese and Japanese languages? Certainly much different than European languages, but they seem to get on (at least in math and the sciences!). I’m currently visiting China and have had the most interesting chats about Mandarin with a Chinese man where he showed me two characters that combine to mean something and then can be completely swapped with other characters to convey endless meanings. Do these languages have punctuation? Spaces? Are they more impoverished?
Thai historically has been an oral/aural language and its literature a poetic one, recited at royal courts just like the Ramayana, the well from which Thai literature draws much of its form and inspiration. It was precisely this aural aspect that enabled the Thais to retain many of the traditions and rituals of the Ayuddaya after all of these written materials were torched by the Burmese. High priests were sought for their memory of the language of Ayuddaya.
Is Western literature all that different in the long shadow of history? The Old and New Testaments? The Iliad and the Odyssey? These are oral traditions. The novel was a new concept in the very recent 19th century.
Still, this opens up big questions for those of us who remain interested in all of the questions we have regarding culture and language. Taking on the Thai language and analyzing it in light of European languages would be a great research area in contrastive linguistics.
An outdated way of choosing a leader!!
Is this a done deal? I’ve only seen it pushed by the Dis-Information Ministry at the Vejjajiva, nee Bangkok, Post. As in ‘be afraid, be very afraid, of the Shinawatra Dynasty!’.
Point taken as to which dynasty the author actually has in mind.
If I were a Thai and the Puea Thai Party actually did announce that it was ‘officially’ degenerating into the Shinawatra Party… I might still vote for it. There’s no other choice but the degenerate Thai Military Party.
An outdated way of choosing a leader!!
“Guiding the nation in difficult times requires much more than an auspicious surname.” >> She is also very beautifully Chinese!! Or doesn’t this count? By the way, the surname isn’t really that auspicious.
An outdated way of choosing a leader!!
I think BillyD might be onto something and I smell an LM rat……very cute, Andrew!
An outdated way of choosing a leader!!
It s a very smart choice for the many reasons mentioned in the comments already..
It will allow the Pua Thai to win these elections and run the country again, it is as simple as that, sorry for you, AW
Reforming Thai language structure
Scriptura continua may not be an insurmountable problem but it is still curious as to why it has been retained in Thailand for so long. One reason may well be a negative impact of “not being colonised”.
Children must be encouraged to explore and enjoy books from an early age. Given the opportunity to choose on a regular basis from stimulating stock they will soon move on from comic books to more substantial fare.
Available figures show there are currently 26 public libraries in Bangkok and 33 in the whole of the North East. These include libraries in Universities and government offices. They are not facilities to walk in to off the street.
Reading books encourages a more thoughtful and self reflective society. In whose interest is it to keep the Thai public glued to the daily diet of propaganda and pap which describes much of free to air Thai TV?
Anything that might encourage children to read more is worthy of serious study, and that includes the question of scriptura continua.
With recent figures showing the Vietnamese reading thirty times as many books as the Thais (http://www.viet-studies.info/reading_habit_way_behind.htm), all avenues to improvement should be actively explored.