where’s the ‘circumstantial evidence’ of military involvement in the Bangkok bombings you mention?
Initially the police report that the explosion was due to TNT then they changed to uria benzine mix. Now if we are to take the initial report then TNT is a control explosive substance so no ordinary man can get their hand on that sort of explosive material.
Les – yes, I agree. I have quite a few volumes by Pira Canning Sudham, including the 2004 book Shadowed Country, which includes revised editions of Monsoon Country and The Force of Karma. I have written a chapter for an upcoming book, Journeys to the West: The Occident as Other in Narratives of Travel (Syracuse, 2011), in which I include the writing of Pira.
Prem Tinsulanonda’s principal instrument is the Democrat party which, exploiting the circumstances of his day and age, he has used to win power over the Thai people and the Thai state. Through the party he practices the violence, verbal and physical, whose effectiveness is becoming increasingly contrasted with the ineffectiveness of the media, the opposition political parties, independent human rights organizations and of the constitution.
The Democrat party is now like the feudal system. Nothing has changed.
Ko Hla Oo,
Doh Bamar Asiayone (Our Burman Association) is an all encompassing association comprising all ethnic groups or races reiding in British Burma. It was not confined to the Bamr or Burman alone. Prominent Thakhins of different ethnic groups:
1. Thakhin Aung Min … Chin
2. Thakhin Kha, Thakhin Ba Tin (Goshal) … Indian
3. Thakhin Ba Thein Tin .. Tavoyan (Sino-Burman)
4. Thakhin Tin Shwe (Kyaukse) … Chinese
5. Thakhin Tin Tun (CPB), Thakhin Khin Maung Oo (Bo Taryar) … Sino-Burmese; So were Thakhin Shu Maung (Bo Ne Win), Thakhin Aung Gyi (Brigadier)
6. Bo Saw Aung, Bo Saw Naung … Shan
7. Thakhin Nu … Half Mon
8. Thakhin Ba Tin … Arakanese
If you read the History of Doh Bamar Asiayone and its members you may come across a lot of other names belonging to ethnic races too.
Surachai sae Dan is at home with many comrades of the 60s. Radicals don’t go around advertising their “whatever it takes” ways. Have you seen pictures of the Surachai sae Dan type at Murdaharn enclave? Very much like the Karen private army along the border.
When Jatuporn said that he didn’t know any of those bombers, he was telling the truth. This is how “cell” works. The reason he was attacking Methi was cos’ that’s ‘staple’ of redshirts and Ai Too is second to none in Thailand when it comes to qualification. And, that is a craft he has perfected. After the surrender at Rajprasong stage and we know as an anti-climax of the marathorn protest. For the redshirts in my village it is about the money. So they recruiting members for meeting and hoping their recruits will do their parts. Monetary reward will depend on one’s link recruitment success, levels down as with direct selling marketing. An early bird situation. This would send chill down Abhisit’s spine, as depicted by Chalerm Youbumrung, come this general election.
@John, where’s the ‘circumstantial evidence’ of military involvement in the Bangkok bombings you mention? Would you care to give us the source for the rumour so that we may see it is bereft of fact? And since army personnel are some of the principal victims, would you care to explain the army’s ‘motivation’ for killing its own staff?
There have been no bombings in Bangkok since the red bomb maker blew himself to pieces. The guy was already wanted on explosive related matters. Apparently he also wasn’t big on travel, hence the somewhat bizzarre series of bombings and RPG attack in Nonthaburi.
And John…tsk tsk…you appear to have overlooked the fact that Puea Thai MPs have been busted depositing large sums of money to the deceased. Cooincidence, apparently 🙂
But John Francis Lee, here is what is reported about Samai Wongsuwan, suspected bomber responsible for the Oct. 5th Nonthaburi explostion that killed four people including Samai. And if you will look closely at the dates, and times, when witnesses saw Samai just hours before accidentally blew himself up and the neighborhood, your alternative ‘story’ that CRES itself could have been responsible for the Nonthaburi explosion seem very farfetched indeed.
(a) A native of Chiang Mai’s Hang Dong district and a staunch red shirt supporter, Mr Samai was arrested in Chiang Mai in connection with an assault on a group of yellow shirt supporters on Aug 23 last year. He was suspected of throwing a grenade at an office of yellow shirt supporters.
(b) Based on the explosives and the technique of bomb making found at the Nonthaburi scene, Samai might be linked to four bombing incidents: the Santirat School bomb attack on September 8, the attack at the parking lot of Big C supercentre on Ngarm Wongwan Road on September 8, the Public Health Ministry attack on September 9 and the Royal Turf Club attack on September 26.
(c) Samai moved into the apartment building (that exploded) at Bang Bua Thong on September 23.
(d) A security camera at the apartment also captured Mr Samai seeing off a married couple hours before the blast, said the CSD officer who requested anonymity.
(e) Pattaraporn Petnil, 38, a housekeeper, said a couple, travelling in a Toyota pickup truck with Narathiwat licence plates, visited Mr Samai’s room often. The housekeeper saw the three of them entering the apartment at 11am on Tuesday (Oct. 5th) and making a number of trips between the room and the car carrying pillows and fertiliser sacks.
Any more alternative stories Mr. John Francis Lee? And hadn’t we met before John Francis Lee about your Prachatai other alternative unsubstantiated story of ‘piles of bodies’ at Rachaprasong during Black May 2010 crackdown?
After the list of Thai authors translated into English we should add Pira Sudham who wrote in English. His writings are some of the best descriptions of the Issan region in the 1960s and 70s.
c20: “(The 1% rate per day is based on what I see locally but I live in a city so not sure if it the same in rural areas.)”
One “informal lender” I know of in Chiang Mai averages about 15% per month – and it can be as low* as 10%. The picture I get is that there is strong competition in the lending market here and that seems to moderate* the rates and conditions.
* Yes, I know, I know – these terms are very relative…..
For those who don’t know yet, there is always a clip by the pretty presenter (?Keepkay) with her charming smile for all Red Sunday activities. Of course that includes the trip to Ayuthaya on the 17th Oct.
Click this link below and do it again with the window on the right.
1. (Government, Politics & Diplomacy) a person who favours extreme or fundamental change in existing institutions or in political, social, or economic conditions
Greetings from England Caron. Thanks for your message.
To prevent us from going down on a lengthy philosophical discussion, I’ll be straight – am one of those who agree with Haden White that there isn’t difference between historical research and literary activity. What I read from Bombay Anna is more about Susan Morgan’s interpretation on Anna than about the historical truth of Anna Leonowens. That’s all right – I’ve no problem with historians’ construction of truth claim as long as they could verify and establish their claim with valid evidences – which I believe Susan Morgan could, and with recognisable merits. Bombay Anna was recommended to me by a Southeast Asianist last Christmas – very well written, couldn’t put it down; half way through it I realised that this book successfully rescued Anna from previous literature which seem to have run on a theme that she was a con artist (Bristowe, etc.). I even thought about reviewing this book for New Mandala but halted the idea as I felt that the review would probably end up being my philosophical outlook – how I see the world and the nature of man – rather than being about a book written by Morgan.
I should say what I found to be questionable about this book; its epistemological standpoint – and the gist of it is found in the introduction chapter which Morgan discusses her meaning of “identity”. This is an important chapter as it informs me from the very beginning that the work is going to be sympathetic to Anna. In other words, Morgan doesn’t pretend that she is disinterested – being ‘objective’ – but attempts to “understand” her subject of research. This is a commendable and honest approach, and I wish other biographers, especially those writing on Thai historical/political actors, would learn from her. However, I must admit that I do not wholeheartedly agree with this interpretation of Anna. Should I believe that an ambitious person who abandoned her past, changed her name, and refashioned herself completely did all these because she wanted to write books or educate herself/others? This seems to be a very optimist take of life. It doesn’t do enough on the dark-side of the human heart. Let’s admit it Anna wasn’t somebody like Mother Teresa or Gandhi (not individuals without politics); she was a socially ambitious woman who gambled with life – she believed she had potential to be who deserved to be and she proved right to us. This sort of person needs to be read with more complexity. What I failed to see from the book – let me give just one example; her social relationships and their impacts on those who came to interact with her ambition. I am vividly thinking a Becky Sharp’s story here. I maintain what I said before that fiction has a superior quality in bringing about the complexities and the psychological subtleties of human nature. For her financial gain, I didn’t mean she became extremely rich from her books/articles/lecture tours enterprises, but we shouldn’t undermine the fact that it was Siam that gave her a restart in life, socially as well as economically, one imagine she could have repaid Siam back with gratitude (I know her son Louise returned to Siam, but Louise’s life seems to have led to different track with hers). If Anna had founded a school, it means she was rich enough for other charities; but this, I know I may be asking too much. Anna knew where her heart was.
I’ll be waiting to read more about Anna. I hope to see a book that strikes a proportional balance between empathy and critical take of human life. Many thanks to Susan Morgan, Susan Kepner, Caron Dann, and several other writers working on Anna for bringing us the life of this amazing woman. But no, I wouldn’t call Anna an ‘educator’, an educator not only encourages their students to strive for the best, she also ensures that her students lead a moral and ethical life. It’s a common human nature to long for successful or meaningful life, but the means of getting there really reflects who we are. Only the Real will be remembered, with respect.
…the dead bomber Samai (detonated himself accidentally and three others at Nothaburi) was identified as hardcore Red. And the money trail indicated that dead bomber Samai was paid by someone connected to a high-ranking Peau Thai Party executive and MP, right?.
Isn’t that circumstantial enough, if not ‘smoking gun’ evidence?
An arm was said by the DSI to have been found with fingers still attached whose prints matched those of Samai who was said by the DSI to be a ‘red guard’ who ‘myseriously disappeared’ the night before the May Military Massacre at Ratchaprasong. No evidence given for either assertion. The non-evidence offered is as consistent with
1. the arm of a random dead person being planted at the site and the prints of its fingers being ‘identified’ as those of Samai by the DSI, or
2. the arm of the DSI/CRES’ paid red shirt infiltrator, Samai, being planted at the site and the prints of its fingers being ‘identified’ as those of Samai by the DSI, or
3. the arm of the disappeared, tortured, and murdered red shirt guard, Samai, being planted at the site and the prints of its fingers being ‘identified’ as those of Samai by the DSI, or
4. one can continue speculating.
Clearly you and the DSI feel that your story is compelling, is enough. You have the MSM in Thailand printing it as The Truth as well. But it’s just a story like any of a long list of stories centered on the ‘facts’, most likely fabricated in my opinion, by the DSI.
The business about the secretary being given 500 baht to deposit 50,000 to the account of the guy said to have been to the apartment before the blast has no real bearing on anything, is truly of the ‘circumstantial’ variety and is as easily explained as an act of the DSI as any other.
Most people trying to ‘prove’ a case try to avoid the word ‘circumstantial’ rather than revel in it. You at the DSI seem to have been taking lessons from Robert Amsterdam and ‘trying’ your case in the complicit Thai media. You seem to honor Thaksin more and more through your emulation of his tactics, from your dogged implementation of his Emergency Decree to his present full-court media press.
For motives and violence streak, the Thai people were witness to the April-May 2010 bombing rampage, high assault rifle attacks by the violent Red radicals, with the ‘peaceful’ Reds cheering every time the M79 grenade launchers made a direct hit to some innocent bystanders. And for pure malice as motive, there was the arson rampage during the Black May 2010 rampage.
Yes, the Thai people were witness to the April-May 2010 DSI/CRES bombing rampage; to the high-velocity bullets blowing out the brains of the unarmed Thai protestors during the assault rifle attacks by the vicious Thai military, who have only ever killed Thais; with the ‘peaceful’ Bangkok middle class cheering every time the M79 grenade launchers made a direct hit to some innocent bystanders. And for pure greed as motive there was the arson rampage that took place under the watchful eyes of the occupying Thai military, an opportunistic assault on their insurance companies by the Bangkok commercial “elite” during the Black May 2010 rampage.
As regards the bombings… all the violence in general… cui bono? It is the DSI/CRES that think they benefit from the bombings, attempting to create the bogus, circumstantial ‘evidence’ of red-shirt agency that you cite above as justification of the permanent existence of the CRES/SLORC/DSI and their de facto coup of 2010.
You are an interested party Vichai. You get paid to push the party line. My line is the anti-party line of my personal skepticism. All I can see is 800 pound gorilla, the obviously fabricated story line that is turning Thailand into the Siamese twin of Burma. You and the DSI/SLORC/CRES have effectively unlimited funds to push your propaganda. I don’t buy it. No one who requires evidence instead of self-serving assertion does either. Bye, bye Vichai.
We know not much gets done in Thailand without the provincial influential families taking their bite and we can suspect they don’t worry about the longer term effects of their developments. Next time you look at the MPs and party leaders from provinces just have a little think about the people you are supporting in Phua Thai, Bhum Jai Thai or Democrats.
Michael – I too have the Chalermnit edition and it was also how I became interested in the real story of Anna. I bought this edition when I first went to Thailand in 1990, at Asia Books on Sukhumvit Rd, Bangkok. It has a red cover and is dated 1979.
I have Letters from Thailand too, which I bought secondhand via the internet. I agree with you, it’s a great read. I often feel we’re missing out on a lot of wonderful Thai literature because it hasn’t been translated. Luckily, Susan Kepner is continuing to translate!
Have you read any of the Thai authors who write in English? For a historical novel, I recommend Jasmine Nights, by S. P. Somtow, a coming-of-age story set in 1960s Bangkok and first published in 1994. For short stories, I recommend Sightseeing, by Rattawut Lapcharoensap (2005) and Fragile Days: Tales from Bangkok, by Tew Bunnag (2003).
There is an interesting translation of journalism, stories and essays by the Thai writer Kulap Saipradit, who spent time as a student in Australia in the 1940s. It’s called Kulap in Oz: A Thai View of Australian Life and Society in the Late 1940s, translated and edited by Scot Barme, 1995. I found this book really valuable because we don’t often read critiques of Western countries by Thais (probably partly because they haven’t been translated – I’m sure there are more).
Sometimes an outsider’s observations of a society highlight areas we never would have thought of before – Kulap’s observations of Australian life are a case in point . Similarly, Anna observes Thai society in a way that is different to how Thais would write about it. True, as her critics say, she does make some harsh observations and judgements of that society and she does make some rude, racist, comments. But she has to be seen as a product of her times, not in light of 21st-century sensibilities (as my old Russian undergraduate history lecturer used to say, “Don’t read history backwards”). The recent discovery in the Thai archives of letters written to her by King Mongkut has made a nonsense of claims by many critics that she hardly knew him. The letters were found by a reporter, Paramin Khruathong. Here’s a link to a story, “A lady of substance”, that appeared in the Nation newspaper: http://bit.ly/b8u270
Martin Smith’s “Burma – Insurgency and the Politics of Ethnicity” 1991, Zed Books, London and New Jersey ISBN 0-86232-868-3/ISBN 0-86232-869-1 pbk is a good start to comprehend the Burmese conundrum. It was a seminal and comprehensive chronicle of modern Burmese history that came out a few years after the 1988 popular uprising.
Hla Oo’s view of ethnic conflict is essentially the Bamar-centric Tatmadaw version, and the international media’s take is basically the one you were led to believe, ethno-centric. In other words, chauvinist vs Christian co-religionist views of the same thing.
“..to show the world how stupid we Burmese are that we’ve been killing each other for last 60 years for just trivial reasons”
Such long drawn-out conflicts do not happen for trivial reasons, hence the stupidity or otherwise of the co-belligerents does not come into it. What is at stake is almost always control of resources and the priorities set in the distribution of the benefits therefrom. Superficially, the casus belli often appears to be race and/or religion as in Northern Ireland or the Middle East, and there needs to be a pretext to start hostilities.
In the case of Burma, the principle conflict has been the one between Burman groups, compounded and complicated by ethnic conflict. Socialist and Communist are self-proclaimed images projected for mass consumption inside the country and abroad. It still boils down to the differences in priorities set and choices made or denied, underpinned by ideological conviction although these days it’s more likely to be called pragmatism.
History from primary sources such as the actual players in those periods, valuable as they are, is not immune from spin, embellishment and bias, and Hla Oo is no exception. Maung Maung’s scepticism over the accounts of Thakhin Tin Mya, U Tin Shwe (Yebaw Chan Aye or Maung Suesan), Yebaw Mya, Yebaw Ba Khet…Thein Pe Myint is well justified given the circumstances.
Truth and conciliation will come to Burma in due course, not because the military regime wishes it, but despite the lack of political will on its part, despite its determination to hang on at all costs so it can continue to impose its will on a nation as resourceful and diverse as Burma. The people will win through.
Facebook 
Twitter 
Soundcloud 
Youtube 
Rss
The ghosts of September 2006
Simon – 13
where’s the ‘circumstantial evidence’ of military involvement in the Bangkok bombings you mention?
Initially the police report that the explosion was due to TNT then they changed to uria benzine mix. Now if we are to take the initial report then TNT is a control explosive substance so no ordinary man can get their hand on that sort of explosive material.
The Red Shirts in Ayutthaya
denyzofisarn – 9
Have to ever see Red Siam’s declaration of 5 principles to solve the country’s conflicts?
Review of Bombay Anna
Les – yes, I agree. I have quite a few volumes by Pira Canning Sudham, including the 2004 book Shadowed Country, which includes revised editions of Monsoon Country and The Force of Karma. I have written a chapter for an upcoming book, Journeys to the West: The Occident as Other in Narratives of Travel (Syracuse, 2011), in which I include the writing of Pira.
The Red Shirts in Ayutthaya
Prem Tinsulanonda’s principal instrument is the Democrat party which, exploiting the circumstances of his day and age, he has used to win power over the Thai people and the Thai state. Through the party he practices the violence, verbal and physical, whose effectiveness is becoming increasingly contrasted with the ineffectiveness of the media, the opposition political parties, independent human rights organizations and of the constitution.
The Democrat party is now like the feudal system. Nothing has changed.
Burma in Limbo, Part 3
Ko Hla Oo,
Doh Bamar Asiayone (Our Burman Association) is an all encompassing association comprising all ethnic groups or races reiding in British Burma. It was not confined to the Bamr or Burman alone. Prominent Thakhins of different ethnic groups:
1. Thakhin Aung Min … Chin
2. Thakhin Kha, Thakhin Ba Tin (Goshal) … Indian
3. Thakhin Ba Thein Tin .. Tavoyan (Sino-Burman)
4. Thakhin Tin Shwe (Kyaukse) … Chinese
5. Thakhin Tin Tun (CPB), Thakhin Khin Maung Oo (Bo Taryar) … Sino-Burmese; So were Thakhin Shu Maung (Bo Ne Win), Thakhin Aung Gyi (Brigadier)
6. Bo Saw Aung, Bo Saw Naung … Shan
7. Thakhin Nu … Half Mon
8. Thakhin Ba Tin … Arakanese
If you read the History of Doh Bamar Asiayone and its members you may come across a lot of other names belonging to ethnic races too.
The Red Shirts in Ayutthaya
Tarrin & NN
Surachai sae Dan is at home with many comrades of the 60s. Radicals don’t go around advertising their “whatever it takes” ways. Have you seen pictures of the Surachai sae Dan type at Murdaharn enclave? Very much like the Karen private army along the border.
When Jatuporn said that he didn’t know any of those bombers, he was telling the truth. This is how “cell” works. The reason he was attacking Methi was cos’ that’s ‘staple’ of redshirts and Ai Too is second to none in Thailand when it comes to qualification. And, that is a craft he has perfected. After the surrender at Rajprasong stage and we know as an anti-climax of the marathorn protest. For the redshirts in my village it is about the money. So they recruiting members for meeting and hoping their recruits will do their parts. Monetary reward will depend on one’s link recruitment success, levels down as with direct selling marketing. An early bird situation. This would send chill down Abhisit’s spine, as depicted by Chalerm Youbumrung, come this general election.
The Red Shirts in Ayutthaya
18 people have been killed in Thailand’s deep South during the last 10 days – yet General Prayuth has mapped out a strategy which he says sees the (largely peaceful) Red Shirts as his main focus ! :
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/home/18-killed-in-deep-South-during-past-ten-days-30140632.html
The ghosts of September 2006
@John, where’s the ‘circumstantial evidence’ of military involvement in the Bangkok bombings you mention? Would you care to give us the source for the rumour so that we may see it is bereft of fact? And since army personnel are some of the principal victims, would you care to explain the army’s ‘motivation’ for killing its own staff?
There have been no bombings in Bangkok since the red bomb maker blew himself to pieces. The guy was already wanted on explosive related matters. Apparently he also wasn’t big on travel, hence the somewhat bizzarre series of bombings and RPG attack in Nonthaburi.
And John…tsk tsk…you appear to have overlooked the fact that Puea Thai MPs have been busted depositing large sums of money to the deceased. Cooincidence, apparently 🙂
The Red Shirts in Ayutthaya
I agree with Nick on the term ‘radical’… and I use your spelling, ‘radicle’, myself very often to try to emphasize that fact.
For ‘radical’, no matter its denotation, has come to have the ‘bomb-throwing’ connotations of the cartoon anarchist.
While ‘radicle’ has, for me at least, a closer association with roots, as in ‘radish’, or botanical anatomy.
And our problems are sometimes (now!) best solved by going to their roots and… uprooting them.
No more violent than gardening, really, ├а la Voltaire.
The ghosts of September 2006
But John Francis Lee, here is what is reported about Samai Wongsuwan, suspected bomber responsible for the Oct. 5th Nonthaburi explostion that killed four people including Samai. And if you will look closely at the dates, and times, when witnesses saw Samai just hours before accidentally blew himself up and the neighborhood, your alternative ‘story’ that CRES itself could have been responsible for the Nonthaburi explosion seem very farfetched indeed.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/200096/blast-toll-climbs-to-four
(a) A native of Chiang Mai’s Hang Dong district and a staunch red shirt supporter, Mr Samai was arrested in Chiang Mai in connection with an assault on a group of yellow shirt supporters on Aug 23 last year. He was suspected of throwing a grenade at an office of yellow shirt supporters.
(b) Based on the explosives and the technique of bomb making found at the Nonthaburi scene, Samai might be linked to four bombing incidents: the Santirat School bomb attack on September 8, the attack at the parking lot of Big C supercentre on Ngarm Wongwan Road on September 8, the Public Health Ministry attack on September 9 and the Royal Turf Club attack on September 26.
(c) Samai moved into the apartment building (that exploded) at Bang Bua Thong on September 23.
(d) A security camera at the apartment also captured Mr Samai seeing off a married couple hours before the blast, said the CSD officer who requested anonymity.
(e) Pattaraporn Petnil, 38, a housekeeper, said a couple, travelling in a Toyota pickup truck with Narathiwat licence plates, visited Mr Samai’s room often. The housekeeper saw the three of them entering the apartment at 11am on Tuesday (Oct. 5th) and making a number of trips between the room and the car carrying pillows and fertiliser sacks.
Any more alternative stories Mr. John Francis Lee? And hadn’t we met before John Francis Lee about your Prachatai other alternative unsubstantiated story of ‘piles of bodies’ at Rachaprasong during Black May 2010 crackdown?
Review of Bombay Anna
Caron Dann – 8
After the list of Thai authors translated into English we should add Pira Sudham who wrote in English. His writings are some of the best descriptions of the Issan region in the 1960s and 70s.
How much of a burden is rural debt in Thailand?
c20: “(The 1% rate per day is based on what I see locally but I live in a city so not sure if it the same in rural areas.)”
One “informal lender” I know of in Chiang Mai averages about 15% per month – and it can be as low* as 10%. The picture I get is that there is strong competition in the lending market here and that seems to moderate* the rates and conditions.
* Yes, I know, I know – these terms are very relative…..
The Red Shirts in Ayutthaya
God bless all Red Shirt People and help them bring back Justice and Democracy !
The Red Shirts in Ayutthaya
For those who don’t know yet, there is always a clip by the pretty presenter (?Keepkay) with her charming smile for all Red Sunday activities. Of course that includes the trip to Ayuthaya on the 17th Oct.
Click this link below and do it again with the window on the right.
http://www.cbnpress.net/
The Red Shirts in Ayutthaya
“Tarrin”:
Radical does not mean violent in this context, but radical in their ideological convictions.
From the: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/radical
1. (Government, Politics & Diplomacy) a person who favours extreme or fundamental change in existing institutions or in political, social, or economic conditions
Review of Bombay Anna
Greetings from England Caron. Thanks for your message.
To prevent us from going down on a lengthy philosophical discussion, I’ll be straight – am one of those who agree with Haden White that there isn’t difference between historical research and literary activity. What I read from Bombay Anna is more about Susan Morgan’s interpretation on Anna than about the historical truth of Anna Leonowens. That’s all right – I’ve no problem with historians’ construction of truth claim as long as they could verify and establish their claim with valid evidences – which I believe Susan Morgan could, and with recognisable merits. Bombay Anna was recommended to me by a Southeast Asianist last Christmas – very well written, couldn’t put it down; half way through it I realised that this book successfully rescued Anna from previous literature which seem to have run on a theme that she was a con artist (Bristowe, etc.). I even thought about reviewing this book for New Mandala but halted the idea as I felt that the review would probably end up being my philosophical outlook – how I see the world and the nature of man – rather than being about a book written by Morgan.
I should say what I found to be questionable about this book; its epistemological standpoint – and the gist of it is found in the introduction chapter which Morgan discusses her meaning of “identity”. This is an important chapter as it informs me from the very beginning that the work is going to be sympathetic to Anna. In other words, Morgan doesn’t pretend that she is disinterested – being ‘objective’ – but attempts to “understand” her subject of research. This is a commendable and honest approach, and I wish other biographers, especially those writing on Thai historical/political actors, would learn from her. However, I must admit that I do not wholeheartedly agree with this interpretation of Anna. Should I believe that an ambitious person who abandoned her past, changed her name, and refashioned herself completely did all these because she wanted to write books or educate herself/others? This seems to be a very optimist take of life. It doesn’t do enough on the dark-side of the human heart. Let’s admit it Anna wasn’t somebody like Mother Teresa or Gandhi (not individuals without politics); she was a socially ambitious woman who gambled with life – she believed she had potential to be who deserved to be and she proved right to us. This sort of person needs to be read with more complexity. What I failed to see from the book – let me give just one example; her social relationships and their impacts on those who came to interact with her ambition. I am vividly thinking a Becky Sharp’s story here. I maintain what I said before that fiction has a superior quality in bringing about the complexities and the psychological subtleties of human nature. For her financial gain, I didn’t mean she became extremely rich from her books/articles/lecture tours enterprises, but we shouldn’t undermine the fact that it was Siam that gave her a restart in life, socially as well as economically, one imagine she could have repaid Siam back with gratitude (I know her son Louise returned to Siam, but Louise’s life seems to have led to different track with hers). If Anna had founded a school, it means she was rich enough for other charities; but this, I know I may be asking too much. Anna knew where her heart was.
I’ll be waiting to read more about Anna. I hope to see a book that strikes a proportional balance between empathy and critical take of human life. Many thanks to Susan Morgan, Susan Kepner, Caron Dann, and several other writers working on Anna for bringing us the life of this amazing woman. But no, I wouldn’t call Anna an ‘educator’, an educator not only encourages their students to strive for the best, she also ensures that her students lead a moral and ethical life. It’s a common human nature to long for successful or meaningful life, but the means of getting there really reflects who we are. Only the Real will be remembered, with respect.
The ghosts of September 2006
An arm was said by the DSI to have been found with fingers still attached whose prints matched those of Samai who was said by the DSI to be a ‘red guard’ who ‘myseriously disappeared’ the night before the May Military Massacre at Ratchaprasong. No evidence given for either assertion. The non-evidence offered is as consistent with
1. the arm of a random dead person being planted at the site and the prints of its fingers being ‘identified’ as those of Samai by the DSI, or
2. the arm of the DSI/CRES’ paid red shirt infiltrator, Samai, being planted at the site and the prints of its fingers being ‘identified’ as those of Samai by the DSI, or
3. the arm of the disappeared, tortured, and murdered red shirt guard, Samai, being planted at the site and the prints of its fingers being ‘identified’ as those of Samai by the DSI, or
4. one can continue speculating.
Clearly you and the DSI feel that your story is compelling, is enough. You have the MSM in Thailand printing it as The Truth as well. But it’s just a story like any of a long list of stories centered on the ‘facts’, most likely fabricated in my opinion, by the DSI.
The business about the secretary being given 500 baht to deposit 50,000 to the account of the guy said to have been to the apartment before the blast has no real bearing on anything, is truly of the ‘circumstantial’ variety and is as easily explained as an act of the DSI as any other.
Most people trying to ‘prove’ a case try to avoid the word ‘circumstantial’ rather than revel in it. You at the DSI seem to have been taking lessons from Robert Amsterdam and ‘trying’ your case in the complicit Thai media. You seem to honor Thaksin more and more through your emulation of his tactics, from your dogged implementation of his Emergency Decree to his present full-court media press.
Yes, the Thai people were witness to the April-May 2010 DSI/CRES bombing rampage; to the high-velocity bullets blowing out the brains of the unarmed Thai protestors during the assault rifle attacks by the vicious Thai military, who have only ever killed Thais; with the ‘peaceful’ Bangkok middle class cheering every time the M79 grenade launchers made a direct hit to some innocent bystanders. And for pure greed as motive there was the arson rampage that took place under the watchful eyes of the occupying Thai military, an opportunistic assault on their insurance companies by the Bangkok commercial “elite” during the Black May 2010 rampage.
As regards the bombings… all the violence in general… cui bono? It is the DSI/CRES that think they benefit from the bombings, attempting to create the bogus, circumstantial ‘evidence’ of red-shirt agency that you cite above as justification of the permanent existence of the CRES/SLORC/DSI and their de facto coup of 2010.
You are an interested party Vichai. You get paid to push the party line. My line is the anti-party line of my personal skepticism. All I can see is 800 pound gorilla, the obviously fabricated story line that is turning Thailand into the Siamese twin of Burma. You and the DSI/SLORC/CRES have effectively unlimited funds to push your propaganda. I don’t buy it. No one who requires evidence instead of self-serving assertion does either. Bye, bye Vichai.
How much of a burden is rural debt in Thailand?
Vichai N – 23
Debts, Deluge, Despair and Dependency
Interesting article in the Bangkok Post on the cause of flooding in Korat this year. Man made possibly?
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/202625/disaster-was-man-made
We know not much gets done in Thailand without the provincial influential families taking their bite and we can suspect they don’t worry about the longer term effects of their developments. Next time you look at the MPs and party leaders from provinces just have a little think about the people you are supporting in Phua Thai, Bhum Jai Thai or Democrats.
Review of Bombay Anna
Michael – I too have the Chalermnit edition and it was also how I became interested in the real story of Anna. I bought this edition when I first went to Thailand in 1990, at Asia Books on Sukhumvit Rd, Bangkok. It has a red cover and is dated 1979.
I have Letters from Thailand too, which I bought secondhand via the internet. I agree with you, it’s a great read. I often feel we’re missing out on a lot of wonderful Thai literature because it hasn’t been translated. Luckily, Susan Kepner is continuing to translate!
Have you read any of the Thai authors who write in English? For a historical novel, I recommend Jasmine Nights, by S. P. Somtow, a coming-of-age story set in 1960s Bangkok and first published in 1994. For short stories, I recommend Sightseeing, by Rattawut Lapcharoensap (2005) and Fragile Days: Tales from Bangkok, by Tew Bunnag (2003).
There is an interesting translation of journalism, stories and essays by the Thai writer Kulap Saipradit, who spent time as a student in Australia in the 1940s. It’s called Kulap in Oz: A Thai View of Australian Life and Society in the Late 1940s, translated and edited by Scot Barme, 1995. I found this book really valuable because we don’t often read critiques of Western countries by Thais (probably partly because they haven’t been translated – I’m sure there are more).
Sometimes an outsider’s observations of a society highlight areas we never would have thought of before – Kulap’s observations of Australian life are a case in point . Similarly, Anna observes Thai society in a way that is different to how Thais would write about it. True, as her critics say, she does make some harsh observations and judgements of that society and she does make some rude, racist, comments. But she has to be seen as a product of her times, not in light of 21st-century sensibilities (as my old Russian undergraduate history lecturer used to say, “Don’t read history backwards”). The recent discovery in the Thai archives of letters written to her by King Mongkut has made a nonsense of claims by many critics that she hardly knew him. The letters were found by a reporter, Paramin Khruathong. Here’s a link to a story, “A lady of substance”, that appeared in the Nation newspaper: http://bit.ly/b8u270
Burma in Limbo, part 4
fenn caro
Martin Smith’s “Burma – Insurgency and the Politics of Ethnicity” 1991, Zed Books, London and New Jersey ISBN 0-86232-868-3/ISBN 0-86232-869-1 pbk is a good start to comprehend the Burmese conundrum. It was a seminal and comprehensive chronicle of modern Burmese history that came out a few years after the 1988 popular uprising.
Hla Oo’s view of ethnic conflict is essentially the Bamar-centric Tatmadaw version, and the international media’s take is basically the one you were led to believe, ethno-centric. In other words, chauvinist vs Christian co-religionist views of the same thing.
“..to show the world how stupid we Burmese are that we’ve been killing each other for last 60 years for just trivial reasons”
Such long drawn-out conflicts do not happen for trivial reasons, hence the stupidity or otherwise of the co-belligerents does not come into it. What is at stake is almost always control of resources and the priorities set in the distribution of the benefits therefrom. Superficially, the casus belli often appears to be race and/or religion as in Northern Ireland or the Middle East, and there needs to be a pretext to start hostilities.
In the case of Burma, the principle conflict has been the one between Burman groups, compounded and complicated by ethnic conflict. Socialist and Communist are self-proclaimed images projected for mass consumption inside the country and abroad. It still boils down to the differences in priorities set and choices made or denied, underpinned by ideological conviction although these days it’s more likely to be called pragmatism.
History from primary sources such as the actual players in those periods, valuable as they are, is not immune from spin, embellishment and bias, and Hla Oo is no exception. Maung Maung’s scepticism over the accounts of Thakhin Tin Mya, U Tin Shwe (Yebaw Chan Aye or Maung Suesan), Yebaw Mya, Yebaw Ba Khet…Thein Pe Myint is well justified given the circumstances.
Truth and conciliation will come to Burma in due course, not because the military regime wishes it, but despite the lack of political will on its part, despite its determination to hang on at all costs so it can continue to impose its will on a nation as resourceful and diverse as Burma. The people will win through.