I’m sorry I lost Athita on her first comment. The beginning is debatable, but this part is just plain ridiculous:
“Gen. Chavalit, while was Chief of the Army, planned to downsize the army, enhancing the efficiency. What happened to him? He is suspected for not loyal to the monarchy.”
Chavalit was the army chief almost twenty years ago. Surayud was the one who actually had “downsized the army and increased efficiency”, he was unceremoniously kicked out by Thaksin in 2003 over clashes on Burmese border.
Just a year earlier Thaksin was pounding his fist on the table, threatening to obliterate Burmese drug producing towns. Then he decided that killing Thai drug dealers is better and fighting Burmese became a big no no. Surayud was removed.
To “downsize the army and increase the efficiency” Thaksin appointed his cousin instead.
So, from that first comment on I have zero trust in whatever numbers and theories Athita puts forward here.
The budget is acceptable. PTP protested that the army gets more money than agriculture once, but, to be fair, agriculture is business, it’s not a service provided by the government.
Mickey C #1: this is really scary stuff. I clicked on the ‘translate’ button at the top of both FB sites, &, although the translations are extremely messy, was able to identify that they have posts advocating buying guns & using acid.
Interesting that the govt is blocking sites like the obituaries for the 25-year-old nurse & the ‘small person’ who were murdered by soldiers whilst engaged in medical aid in Wat Pratum, and allowing sites which advocate & incite extreme violence against Redshirts by members of the community. Who are the real buffaloes?
Nuomi #11: re. your point number 3 – this whole thing of overseas ‘fact-finding’ trips needs looking at. A huge amount of money goes into it every year, & it is a significant channel of corruption. The organisers in the Ministry have deals with travel agents whereby they are billed for large numbers of ‘phantom’ participants, & the agents & officials split the surplus.
Further, if these trips are going to make any contribution to the development of education, they need to be much more than quick tours. Your idea that teachers should be sent overseas is good, but I’d say the money spent would only be well-spent if it were made into scholarships of at least a year’s duration, whereby recipients would undergo training & monitored teaching placements in schools. Such programs would need to be worked out with teacher-training institutions in the host countries in order to counter the very bad training currently available in Thailand and, especially, the education culture here. I’d stress that such programs should be on a basic ‘hands-on’ undergraduate-level (like Australian Dip.Ed., UK PGCE/QTE with much more mentoring), regardless of the local academic qualifications of the participants. Trainers in Thai teacher-training institutions should undergo such overseas training as a compulsory requirement.
The US has never changed under any presidents. The US is just a hungry dracula who never look at any other things except greed. They will skillfully attack any country verbally until the whole world foolishly believe in their propaganda. Look what they did to Iraq! If the US stop their greed and follow what they promised, we will definitely have a better world.
Sorry I could have been clearer with the headline. Indeed, I can also think of some months which were probably bloodier (October 2004 in the Deep South, Songkran traffic death tolls, February and March 2003, and no doubt some other months too…) or redder (April 2009 springs to mind, as do the early months of 2010…). But for a month that was bloody and red I can’t think of any that match May 2010. Sorry for any confusion.
Surely there was at least one bloodier month during the drug war. Surely also there were redder months in terms of more reds on the streets than there were in May when rally numbers were declining.
This is what you get when you ask PM Abhisit a critical question in his press conference for journalists. Did the PM not indicate to Nick that he could serve as wirness in the investigation! Why then would he move to block Nick’s true information? Rather confusing…
Abhisit got the first thing he wanted — budget bill passed by parliament. Second thing he wants is Prayuth as the new Army chief, replacing Anupong but this will happen only at the end of September during the annual retirement age for Thai civilian/military officials.
After this, he will be confident enough to hold general elections. This explains why he earlier proposed to hold elections on 14 November. Before this date, no matter what happens, he refuses to hold elections because he knows for sure the democrats will lose. Abhisit does not mind being called the Butcher of Bangkok for ordering the massacre of protesters as long as he is in power and can get these two things first.
Ok now he got the first thing and he will do the following: spend the budget to woo the rural voters, especially in Isan and Lanna (north) so they will forget Thaksin’s populist policies. Have you noticed why Education, Health, and Agriculture sectors are allocated with big budget ? The answer is very clear, namely he wants to show rural voters that he can do what Thaksin did in his time. But the democrats are good only at talking and we must wait and see the results. The democrats also good at pocketing state money even though they accused Thaksin of corruption. Examples abound even during the current Mark’s tenure: health equipment scandal, rotten canned fish, and the so-called Thai kem khaeng program.
Whether Abhisit will stay in power long enough remains to be seen because people now seem to believe more in Chairman Mao’s famous dictum that political power comes from the barrel of a gun, not from the ballot box. Thaksin came to power from the ballot box but was kicked out by the tanks. Only a few days ago, the Thai military used force, even by shooting innocent people inside a temple, to defend a regime who gives generous defense budget to them to fatten their pockets and play golf regularly. This is what the late Seh Daeng said several times — he would have celebrated his 59th birthday today — 2 June.
I would like to add that my statements on teachers pay and its increases is based on a relative working in one of the northern provinces. She might have considered and stressed on those two particular “big” pay increases. However, I am of the opinion that she is still underpaid even with those two “BIG” pay increases beyond the annual increments.
“Now, in the waning years of King Bhumibol’s reign, Thailand is a fractured society…”
“Fractured” is indeed the correct adjective to describe the current state of affairs post May 19th. Here at Mahidol University in Salaya, Nakhon Pathom, where yellow shirt sympathies among the “poo yai’s” on campus are at a level perhaps second only to those among the well heeled academics at Chulalongkorn University, my department has posted a photo of Abhisit upon a yellow bulletin board and with an artistically boxed space in which staff have been invited to write their sentiments to express their support for the reconciliation process in Thai society. I want to go on record today by stating that I was not the one who wrote, in large English letters, “GO TO HELL!”
Thank you very much for this very informative article on the South.
It is interesting for me to note the similarity between these southerners voting for Democrat Party and my Bangkok friends (Thammasat U and Chulalongkorn U) voting for Democrat Party. Years ago as a Uni student, I asked my course mates, and I usually got a blank look before the answer in various forms that equal ‘family tradition’ (eg Parents vote DP or whole family vote DP). There are also many instances where the answer goes along the line of: friend’s father or uncle is MP for DP.
This brings to mind an observation from my Mom, that Thailand is a colonial creation (western style borders were drawn by imperial powers, whereas historically locally territories are marked by tributes from lesser ruler and not a clear cut border), that when one speaks of Thailand, one is really talking about the ruling capital of Bangkok, and yet Bangkok is not Thailand.
For me the big interest is the education budget, the size of it:
Finland’s education budget (education ministry) for 2010. This includes money going to primary schools + middle schools (high schools and vocational schools) + universities + adult training:
12,3% of total budget.
Finland has free education from primary schools to universities and compensated adult training. And learning results are top of the class (PISA). But tackles with funding.
I am not very good with governmental budgets, so could someone give idea how come Thai budget has so big proportion for education? There is mysterious explanation to continue the 15 years of free education but that does not for me explain it at all.
29,4% Ministry of Finance.
Real money eater:
the Economics Department, the Budget Department, the Tax Department, the Financial Markets Department, the Personnel Department, the Department for Municipal Affairs and the Public Management Department. All and all: this is the huge bureacratic black hole.
22,8% Social and health ministry.
Finland has social care and compensated semi-free health care. Always problems with funding.
5,3% Defense budget
Finland has proportionally what is considered high budget for defense expenses due to the old bogie of “Soviet Union” and compulsory military service for all men.
5,6% Land and Forest ministry
Includes payouts for farmers but also forest ministry etc, lots of this is these days circulating through the EU coffins. Finland happens to be in northern hemisphere were farmers can’t farm with profit, and government support is “needed to ensure local food production and non-dependence in fully imported food”.
While I am ‘heartened’ over the 19% education budget, I am also very skeptical. (In truth, most of that money is already pre-destined for various pockets)
Being very well acquainted with the wiliness of the Democrat Party, I would like to request for help to keep an eye on this HUGE portion of the money. The Democrat Party knows that upping Education at this moment is good PR, and the numbers given is certainly dwarfs that of previous government, and the percentage (19%) will certainly give many foreign critics pause.
The key point is now “HOW” that money is spent.
Thai teachers are seriously severely underpaid. I wished that and hope that Ahbisit will continue the kind of BIG pay increases one saw under the previous populist government, and when Chavalit was PM until teachers are well paid enough to live a comfortable middle class life equivalent to that of a developed country after adjusting for reasonable differences in standards of living. Monies should also be use improve quality of teachers rather than teaching facilities (teaching facilities are a hotbed for skimming).
Now, things to watch out for under this generous budget:
1) Are unnecessary new school buildings and extensions being slated for the countryside (lots of money starved construction people waiting – including ‘friends’ of my family currently dining and wining with the relevant bureaucrats already). Many schools are in need of maintenance work, but upgrades should be considered a luxury, not a necessity given that the Thai government really do not have the money to spend ‘upgrading’. Favorite locations for building new government buildings are usually location that needed extra work such as swamps – local cost of one truck load of sand for filling the swamp (this is actual rate for filling for the Nong-Ngu-Hao site, on which the current airport stands – this business offer was made to a relative of mine during the Chuan government) is 10,000 baht, but the government gets billed 100,000 baht for each truck load.
2) Are expensive and unnecessary upgrades to the latest computers ( rural schools rarely gets the latest (usually not even first hand) regardless of what is filed at the ministry) and other expensive iffy tech items on the list?
3) Are there excessive trips for the various ministers and high ranking bureaucrats to travel overseas to ‘study’ how London (Cambridge system) and Paris (IB system) run their schools? Such trips usually turn into shopping and holiday junketts with ministers bringing their family along for the ride and taxpayers paying for wives’ shopping at Louis Vuitton. I wished for more educational tours for rural teachers to see how teachers in developed countries worked.
4)Ensure that monies are spread out fairly, especially to poor rural schools, and not to financed expensive white elephant projects for rich top schools especially schools under “royal patronage”.
Gene,
Here’s one example. The Thai public school in Mae Sariang was originally a Karen private school run by the Karen Baptist Church in Mae Sariang. The church in Mae Sariang was started by a Karen Baptist missionary from Burma. The school taught English, Karen (Skaw), Burmese and Thai. The original Thai teacher was a Karen, but he knew Northern Thai, not Central Thai, so he was replaced by another Karen who could read, write and speak Central Thai. This was around 1910 when Mae Sariang’s connections to Central Thailand were pretty thin at best, so it is interesting to note that they specifically wanted Central Thai to be taught. The school was also open to non-Karens, including the local Thais, who were all Buddhists, so we have a non-Thai ethnic and religious minority teaching the dominant dialect to Thais speaking a regional dialect. Everything went pretty well until the Japanese took over in the 1940s. The Thai government took the school over after the war.
Could you provide an example of Christianity being introduced to the Karens by the Mon? I thought it came pretty directly from Judson and his Karen convert whose name escapes me right now.
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Nick Nostitz in the killing zone
I am still on TRUE hi-speed and still able to access this post and the comments.
Strange, but TRUE.
Is 2 trillion baht populist enough?
I’m sorry I lost Athita on her first comment. The beginning is debatable, but this part is just plain ridiculous:
“Gen. Chavalit, while was Chief of the Army, planned to downsize the army, enhancing the efficiency. What happened to him? He is suspected for not loyal to the monarchy.”
Chavalit was the army chief almost twenty years ago. Surayud was the one who actually had “downsized the army and increased efficiency”, he was unceremoniously kicked out by Thaksin in 2003 over clashes on Burmese border.
Just a year earlier Thaksin was pounding his fist on the table, threatening to obliterate Burmese drug producing towns. Then he decided that killing Thai drug dealers is better and fighting Burmese became a big no no. Surayud was removed.
To “downsize the army and increase the efficiency” Thaksin appointed his cousin instead.
So, from that first comment on I have zero trust in whatever numbers and theories Athita puts forward here.
The budget is acceptable. PTP protested that the army gets more money than agriculture once, but, to be fair, agriculture is business, it’s not a service provided by the government.
Thailand’s reddest and bloodiest month
Mickey C #1: this is really scary stuff. I clicked on the ‘translate’ button at the top of both FB sites, &, although the translations are extremely messy, was able to identify that they have posts advocating buying guns & using acid.
Interesting that the govt is blocking sites like the obituaries for the 25-year-old nurse & the ‘small person’ who were murdered by soldiers whilst engaged in medical aid in Wat Pratum, and allowing sites which advocate & incite extreme violence against Redshirts by members of the community. Who are the real buffaloes?
Is 2 trillion baht populist enough?
This is shaping up to be a very good discussion.
Nuomi #11: re. your point number 3 – this whole thing of overseas ‘fact-finding’ trips needs looking at. A huge amount of money goes into it every year, & it is a significant channel of corruption. The organisers in the Ministry have deals with travel agents whereby they are billed for large numbers of ‘phantom’ participants, & the agents & officials split the surplus.
Further, if these trips are going to make any contribution to the development of education, they need to be much more than quick tours. Your idea that teachers should be sent overseas is good, but I’d say the money spent would only be well-spent if it were made into scholarships of at least a year’s duration, whereby recipients would undergo training & monitored teaching placements in schools. Such programs would need to be worked out with teacher-training institutions in the host countries in order to counter the very bad training currently available in Thailand and, especially, the education culture here. I’d stress that such programs should be on a basic ‘hands-on’ undergraduate-level (like Australian Dip.Ed., UK PGCE/QTE with much more mentoring), regardless of the local academic qualifications of the participants. Trainers in Thai teacher-training institutions should undergo such overseas training as a compulsory requirement.
Najib’s first year in office, Part II
[…] Read Najib’s first year in office, Part II here […]
Nick Nostitz in the killing zone
[…] that this important post by Nick Nostitz appears to have been blocked by the Thai government, we are posting […]
Strategic alignment: Thailand and the US
The US has never changed under any presidents. The US is just a hungry dracula who never look at any other things except greed. They will skillfully attack any country verbally until the whole world foolishly believe in their propaganda. Look what they did to Iraq! If the US stop their greed and follow what they promised, we will definitely have a better world.
Thailand’s reddest and bloodiest month
Thanks Nobody,
Sorry I could have been clearer with the headline. Indeed, I can also think of some months which were probably bloodier (October 2004 in the Deep South, Songkran traffic death tolls, February and March 2003, and no doubt some other months too…) or redder (April 2009 springs to mind, as do the early months of 2010…). But for a month that was bloody and red I can’t think of any that match May 2010. Sorry for any confusion.
Best wishes to all,
Nich
Thailand’s reddest and bloodiest month
Not sure about that title
Surely there was at least one bloodier month during the drug war. Surely also there were redder months in terms of more reds on the streets than there were in May when rally numbers were declining.
Surely, it’s just a coincidence
This is what you get when you ask PM Abhisit a critical question in his press conference for journalists. Did the PM not indicate to Nick that he could serve as wirness in the investigation! Why then would he move to block Nick’s true information? Rather confusing…
р╕Бр╕▓р╕гр╣Ар╕Вр╣Йр╕▓р╕Цр╕╢р╕Зр╕Вр╣Йр╕нр╕бр╕╣р╕ер╕Фр╕▒р╕Зр╕Бр╕ер╣Ир╕▓р╕зр╕Щр╕╡р╣Й р╕Цр╕╣р╕Бр╕гр╕░р╕Зр╕▒р╕Ър╣Ар╕Ыр╣Зр╕Щр╕Бр╕▓р╕гр╕Кр╕▒р╣Ир╕зр╕Др╕гр╕▓р╕з
р╣Вр╕Фр╕вр╕нр╕▓р╕ир╕▒р╕вр╕нр╕│р╕Щр╕▓р╕Ир╕Хр╕▓р╕б
р╕Юр╕гр╕░р╕гр╕▓р╕Кр╕Бр╕│р╕лр╕Щр╕Фр╕Бр╕▓р╕гр╕Ър╕гр╕┤р╕лр╕▓р╕гр╕гр╕▓р╕Кр╕Бр╕▓р╕г
р╣Гр╕Щр╕кр╕Цр╕▓р╕Щр╕Бр╕▓р╕гр╕Ур╣Мр╕Йр╕╕р╕Бр╣Ар╕Йр╕┤р╕Щ р╕Ю.р╕и. р╣Тр╣Хр╣Фр╣Ш
р╕Хр╕▓р╕бр╕Др╕│р╕кр╕▒р╣Ир╕Зр╕Вр╕нр╕Зр╕ир╕╣р╕Щр╕вр╣Мр╕нр╕│р╕Щр╕зр╕вр╕Бр╕▓р╕гр╣Бр╕Бр╣Йр╣Др╕Вр╕кр╕Цр╕▓р╕Щр╕Бр╕▓р╕гр╕Ур╣Мр╕Йр╕╕р╕Бр╣Ар╕Йр╕┤р╕Щ
Surely, it’s just a coincidence
It’s blocked @ the government school I work at in BKK.
Is 2 trillion baht populist enough?
Hey there folks,
I see that the current Thai administration (and maybe the last one) has plenty in common with the Malaysian government.
Ahh…the curse of being a developing nation.
Cheers
Greg
Is 2 trillion baht populist enough?
2 ” Sarah // Jun 1, 2010 at 11:47 pm
One man’s ‘populist policy’ is another man’s right to an education.”
I’ll truly and wholeheartedly keep my fingers crossed (in tight knots) for that “another man’s right to an education”.
I hope the budget for education doesn’t just end up in somebody’s pockets, as usual.
Is 2 trillion baht populist enough?
Abhisit got the first thing he wanted — budget bill passed by parliament. Second thing he wants is Prayuth as the new Army chief, replacing Anupong but this will happen only at the end of September during the annual retirement age for Thai civilian/military officials.
After this, he will be confident enough to hold general elections. This explains why he earlier proposed to hold elections on 14 November. Before this date, no matter what happens, he refuses to hold elections because he knows for sure the democrats will lose. Abhisit does not mind being called the Butcher of Bangkok for ordering the massacre of protesters as long as he is in power and can get these two things first.
Ok now he got the first thing and he will do the following: spend the budget to woo the rural voters, especially in Isan and Lanna (north) so they will forget Thaksin’s populist policies. Have you noticed why Education, Health, and Agriculture sectors are allocated with big budget ? The answer is very clear, namely he wants to show rural voters that he can do what Thaksin did in his time. But the democrats are good only at talking and we must wait and see the results. The democrats also good at pocketing state money even though they accused Thaksin of corruption. Examples abound even during the current Mark’s tenure: health equipment scandal, rotten canned fish, and the so-called Thai kem khaeng program.
Whether Abhisit will stay in power long enough remains to be seen because people now seem to believe more in Chairman Mao’s famous dictum that political power comes from the barrel of a gun, not from the ballot box. Thaksin came to power from the ballot box but was kicked out by the tanks. Only a few days ago, the Thai military used force, even by shooting innocent people inside a temple, to defend a regime who gives generous defense budget to them to fatten their pockets and play golf regularly. This is what the late Seh Daeng said several times — he would have celebrated his 59th birthday today — 2 June.
Is 2 trillion baht populist enough?
I would like to add that my statements on teachers pay and its increases is based on a relative working in one of the northern provinces. She might have considered and stressed on those two particular “big” pay increases. However, I am of the opinion that she is still underpaid even with those two “BIG” pay increases beyond the annual increments.
Thailand’s reddest and bloodiest month
“Now, in the waning years of King Bhumibol’s reign, Thailand is a fractured society…”
“Fractured” is indeed the correct adjective to describe the current state of affairs post May 19th. Here at Mahidol University in Salaya, Nakhon Pathom, where yellow shirt sympathies among the “poo yai’s” on campus are at a level perhaps second only to those among the well heeled academics at Chulalongkorn University, my department has posted a photo of Abhisit upon a yellow bulletin board and with an artistically boxed space in which staff have been invited to write their sentiments to express their support for the reconciliation process in Thai society. I want to go on record today by stating that I was not the one who wrote, in large English letters, “GO TO HELL!”
Report from the South: From the day of Prong-Dong (Harmony) to the day of Prab-Pram (Suppression)
Thank you very much for this very informative article on the South.
It is interesting for me to note the similarity between these southerners voting for Democrat Party and my Bangkok friends (Thammasat U and Chulalongkorn U) voting for Democrat Party. Years ago as a Uni student, I asked my course mates, and I usually got a blank look before the answer in various forms that equal ‘family tradition’ (eg Parents vote DP or whole family vote DP). There are also many instances where the answer goes along the line of: friend’s father or uncle is MP for DP.
This brings to mind an observation from my Mom, that Thailand is a colonial creation (western style borders were drawn by imperial powers, whereas historically locally territories are marked by tributes from lesser ruler and not a clear cut border), that when one speaks of Thailand, one is really talking about the ruling capital of Bangkok, and yet Bangkok is not Thailand.
Is 2 trillion baht populist enough?
For me the big interest is the education budget, the size of it:
Finland’s education budget (education ministry) for 2010. This includes money going to primary schools + middle schools (high schools and vocational schools) + universities + adult training:
12,3% of total budget.
Finland has free education from primary schools to universities and compensated adult training. And learning results are top of the class (PISA). But tackles with funding.
I am not very good with governmental budgets, so could someone give idea how come Thai budget has so big proportion for education? There is mysterious explanation to continue the 15 years of free education but that does not for me explain it at all.
29,4% Ministry of Finance.
Real money eater:
the Economics Department, the Budget Department, the Tax Department, the Financial Markets Department, the Personnel Department, the Department for Municipal Affairs and the Public Management Department. All and all: this is the huge bureacratic black hole.
22,8% Social and health ministry.
Finland has social care and compensated semi-free health care. Always problems with funding.
5,3% Defense budget
Finland has proportionally what is considered high budget for defense expenses due to the old bogie of “Soviet Union” and compulsory military service for all men.
5,6% Land and Forest ministry
Includes payouts for farmers but also forest ministry etc, lots of this is these days circulating through the EU coffins. Finland happens to be in northern hemisphere were farmers can’t farm with profit, and government support is “needed to ensure local food production and non-dependence in fully imported food”.
4,4% Transport ministry
Same as in Thailand.
Is 2 trillion baht populist enough?
While I am ‘heartened’ over the 19% education budget, I am also very skeptical. (In truth, most of that money is already pre-destined for various pockets)
Being very well acquainted with the wiliness of the Democrat Party, I would like to request for help to keep an eye on this HUGE portion of the money. The Democrat Party knows that upping Education at this moment is good PR, and the numbers given is certainly dwarfs that of previous government, and the percentage (19%) will certainly give many foreign critics pause.
The key point is now “HOW” that money is spent.
Thai teachers are seriously severely underpaid. I wished that and hope that Ahbisit will continue the kind of BIG pay increases one saw under the previous populist government, and when Chavalit was PM until teachers are well paid enough to live a comfortable middle class life equivalent to that of a developed country after adjusting for reasonable differences in standards of living. Monies should also be use improve quality of teachers rather than teaching facilities (teaching facilities are a hotbed for skimming).
Now, things to watch out for under this generous budget:
1) Are unnecessary new school buildings and extensions being slated for the countryside (lots of money starved construction people waiting – including ‘friends’ of my family currently dining and wining with the relevant bureaucrats already). Many schools are in need of maintenance work, but upgrades should be considered a luxury, not a necessity given that the Thai government really do not have the money to spend ‘upgrading’. Favorite locations for building new government buildings are usually location that needed extra work such as swamps – local cost of one truck load of sand for filling the swamp (this is actual rate for filling for the Nong-Ngu-Hao site, on which the current airport stands – this business offer was made to a relative of mine during the Chuan government) is 10,000 baht, but the government gets billed 100,000 baht for each truck load.
2) Are expensive and unnecessary upgrades to the latest computers ( rural schools rarely gets the latest (usually not even first hand) regardless of what is filed at the ministry) and other expensive iffy tech items on the list?
3) Are there excessive trips for the various ministers and high ranking bureaucrats to travel overseas to ‘study’ how London (Cambridge system) and Paris (IB system) run their schools? Such trips usually turn into shopping and holiday junketts with ministers bringing their family along for the ride and taxpayers paying for wives’ shopping at Louis Vuitton. I wished for more educational tours for rural teachers to see how teachers in developed countries worked.
4)Ensure that monies are spread out fairly, especially to poor rural schools, and not to financed expensive white elephant projects for rich top schools especially schools under “royal patronage”.
Confronting Karen homophobia in Burma
Gene,
Here’s one example. The Thai public school in Mae Sariang was originally a Karen private school run by the Karen Baptist Church in Mae Sariang. The church in Mae Sariang was started by a Karen Baptist missionary from Burma. The school taught English, Karen (Skaw), Burmese and Thai. The original Thai teacher was a Karen, but he knew Northern Thai, not Central Thai, so he was replaced by another Karen who could read, write and speak Central Thai. This was around 1910 when Mae Sariang’s connections to Central Thailand were pretty thin at best, so it is interesting to note that they specifically wanted Central Thai to be taught. The school was also open to non-Karens, including the local Thais, who were all Buddhists, so we have a non-Thai ethnic and religious minority teaching the dominant dialect to Thais speaking a regional dialect. Everything went pretty well until the Japanese took over in the 1940s. The Thai government took the school over after the war.
Could you provide an example of Christianity being introduced to the Karens by the Mon? I thought it came pretty directly from Judson and his Karen convert whose name escapes me right now.