I could get only two serious and confirmed info from Chiang Mai contacts:
-there was a fire on Nawarat Bridge on the 19th in the evening
-there was a demonstration in front of the House of the Governor and obviously some gunshots were heard.
Aiontay, please keep posting, we have very few info on what is currently happening.
LesAbbey:
You do have a sense of humor. In 2001, TRT is possibly the ‘newest’ of all the major party contesting – I supposed that qualify it as ‘brand new’.
You are also correct about the lack of the need to behave badly – I attended some of those rallies and found them quite interesting. For the first time, I was hearing about policy platforms I can actually agree or disagree with rather than the usual mud-slinging.
Looking back – that was the year ‘vote-buying’ turn ‘cool’. A voter attending certain rallies and receive a ‘gift-pack’ with a brand-new mobile phone (old model) and a prepaid sim card. Thais like to show off, they like to be ‘modern’ and be in the ‘in-crowd’. The old party dogs were totally out-classed, out maneuvered and… ‘old’. Taksin’s TRT election campaign that year was remarkably well planned and well-organized. The Democrat Party must have felt just like Hilary Clinton as the Obama campaign sped ahead, leaving her in the dust.
And so yes, as I stated before, I believe 2001 elections was the defining moment – from how the ballots was organized, the new rules of the game, to the shocking defeat of the Assavahame. More shocking to the status quo was the TRT win over DP. If you were there then, you would remember how 2001 was supposed to be a Democrat Party year. (If you are in Thailand long enough, you get the idea whose turn it is to make government) The 97 constitution was drafted to pave way for the rise of a two party system like the US. It was a taken that Democrat Party will be one of the twos. No one expected TRT to make it as the other. No one expected TRT to actually win that big a majority.
Finally, I would like to add a point on ethics, ideology and morality. One can always say, if one is sincere to build a clean party from scratch or if one is sincere to give away his wealth or to stop doing business. Now, that is call becoming a monk and setting up a temple hoping to eventually become an Abbott, not becoming a politician and setting up a party hoping to become a PM.
I have no doubt Taksin entered politics with dreams of becoming the next Lee Kuan Yew of Asia. I have no doubt he is not truly altrusic, and he is certainly corrupted. But I can see how and why he won those two elections – I respect his skills for that. I can also see why he fell and how he fell, I recognise those flaws in him.
But, while the TRT was made up of a number of the ‘same old guys’, it is also made up of a number of people who are genuinely keen to see the country improve, and some of those people have no names (family connections) nor money but they ran with TRT’s backing. So when criticizing the Mazdas with Ford logos, please do not discount the Volvo engines.
Just to clarify, Leeyiankun; the issue is that we’re in Canberra and pinging servers in Bangkok (or wherever) to decipher these kinds of blockages is an inaccurate business. Indeed if we didn’t get the initial notifications then I wouldn’t even know that there are issues. Happily most of you aren’t experiencing any problems. But if that changes the best option is probably to e-mail us with details…
And please continue to add comments here about any locations/ISPs that are being blocked (and the symptoms: notification pages, blanks, time outs, etc). Thanks for all your help!
Your suggestion that Thai citizens are brainwashed by their upbringing and too baffled to understand what’s going on is rather patronising and ignorant.
Where are the massacres, coups, media lockdowns, royal interventions and “popular uprisings” predicted by the denizens of this site? They were never on the cards. You can’t judge the mood of the population remotely. Attempts to extrapolate past events and outdated stereotypes will err.
Your implication that the King tossed Thaksin is based on the shaky premise that the King manipulates politics, which an overwhelming majority of citizens would dispute. The armed forces put their hand up for that and provided some fairly straightforward and compelling explanations of their motivations.
Thailand has had 60 years to judge their King. Result: He is indisputably the most respected person in the country with a street cred second to none. If you seriously attribute this respect to ‘social conditioning’ then you seem rather poorly informed to me.
[…] hitherto influential royal palace. “Could Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn and/or Princess Sirindhorn play a role as they did in 1992? If they don’t, and if their father remains silent, will many Thais start to wonder more […]
Even though this is factual, I'd rather be anonymous says:
2.09 pm, still assessable via TOT broadband in Bangkok.
Even if it is blocked, readers can easily get access by going into http://reader.google.com and hitting “Add subscription.” Past the New Mandala URL in, and you can read the articles. Although you can’t make or read comments.
Nicholas Farrelly, guess you’re on True then. Another one on CRES blockage list. If you’d try to access Samesky(where Prof Somsak resides) in the past year, you’d be well-equip to deal with this anyhow.
Like in the past it appears that any efforts to block New Mandala content are incomplete and inconsistent. Further information from readers is, as ever, very welcome.
CNN woman was probably not aware of it but about a month ago Chavalit tried to petition the King to intervene and take essentially the red side.
Chavalit made a big public show of it but never went through with the petition, under barrage of criticism.
Several days later the King gave a speech to the judges that was publicly broadcast and published the next day.
I think it was the most the King could do under the circumstances – the history of the conflict, allegations of his involvement in the coup, debates of his constitutional powers, his reply to Abhisit’s similar petition four years ago and so on.
Also, unlike 1992, protesters’ real leader, Thaksin, cannot be summoned to the palace and told to behave, not that the palace wants to negotiate with him in the first place.
Any intervention would have to be decisive, ending the conflict once and for all, and that was never guaranteed, especially on the red side that has a clearly anti-monarchy layer right near the top.
Polyphemus – unless there’s a genuine reconciliaton worked out soon, it won’t be safe to shop anywhere in Thailand, especially not Bangkok or north thereof.
It will be shop till you drop, Pattani-style !
Mick, I pretty well agree with everything in yr last post. Order must be restored. Business should resume. The judiciary should be impartial and not manipulated. Elections should take place this year. Election results should be respected. But Mr T should stay in his self chosen exile. He is corrupt and has abused power enough. Let the UDD form a political party and campaign for votes. Lets see what happens. Erewhon.
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New Mandala “temporarily curtailed”?
Well with the inflammatory one-sided stuff you’re publishing, surprised?
How about some balanced reporting?
New Mandala “temporarily curtailed”?
On TOT Bangkok 2:44pm Friday – The crown prince article is blocked
“This website has been blocked by ICT”
But other pages are fine.
Chaos, curfew and confusion
I could get only two serious and confirmed info from Chiang Mai contacts:
-there was a fire on Nawarat Bridge on the 19th in the evening
-there was a demonstration in front of the House of the Governor and obviously some gunshots were heard.
Aiontay, please keep posting, we have very few info on what is currently happening.
New Mandala “temporarily curtailed”?
No problem here . . . I could access NM b/s from Bangkok anytime like right now.
Too many eggs in the royal basket
LesAbbey:
You do have a sense of humor. In 2001, TRT is possibly the ‘newest’ of all the major party contesting – I supposed that qualify it as ‘brand new’.
You are also correct about the lack of the need to behave badly – I attended some of those rallies and found them quite interesting. For the first time, I was hearing about policy platforms I can actually agree or disagree with rather than the usual mud-slinging.
Looking back – that was the year ‘vote-buying’ turn ‘cool’. A voter attending certain rallies and receive a ‘gift-pack’ with a brand-new mobile phone (old model) and a prepaid sim card. Thais like to show off, they like to be ‘modern’ and be in the ‘in-crowd’. The old party dogs were totally out-classed, out maneuvered and… ‘old’. Taksin’s TRT election campaign that year was remarkably well planned and well-organized. The Democrat Party must have felt just like Hilary Clinton as the Obama campaign sped ahead, leaving her in the dust.
And so yes, as I stated before, I believe 2001 elections was the defining moment – from how the ballots was organized, the new rules of the game, to the shocking defeat of the Assavahame. More shocking to the status quo was the TRT win over DP. If you were there then, you would remember how 2001 was supposed to be a Democrat Party year. (If you are in Thailand long enough, you get the idea whose turn it is to make government) The 97 constitution was drafted to pave way for the rise of a two party system like the US. It was a taken that Democrat Party will be one of the twos. No one expected TRT to make it as the other. No one expected TRT to actually win that big a majority.
Finally, I would like to add a point on ethics, ideology and morality. One can always say, if one is sincere to build a clean party from scratch or if one is sincere to give away his wealth or to stop doing business. Now, that is call becoming a monk and setting up a temple hoping to eventually become an Abbott, not becoming a politician and setting up a party hoping to become a PM.
I have no doubt Taksin entered politics with dreams of becoming the next Lee Kuan Yew of Asia. I have no doubt he is not truly altrusic, and he is certainly corrupted. But I can see how and why he won those two elections – I respect his skills for that. I can also see why he fell and how he fell, I recognise those flaws in him.
But, while the TRT was made up of a number of the ‘same old guys’, it is also made up of a number of people who are genuinely keen to see the country improve, and some of those people have no names (family connections) nor money but they ran with TRT’s backing. So when criticizing the Mazdas with Ford logos, please do not discount the Volvo engines.
New Mandala “temporarily curtailed”?
I can get you loud and clear in Malaysia. Regards and take care.
New Mandala “temporarily curtailed”?
Thanks everyone,
Just to clarify, Leeyiankun; the issue is that we’re in Canberra and pinging servers in Bangkok (or wherever) to decipher these kinds of blockages is an inaccurate business. Indeed if we didn’t get the initial notifications then I wouldn’t even know that there are issues. Happily most of you aren’t experiencing any problems. But if that changes the best option is probably to e-mail us with details…
And please continue to add comments here about any locations/ISPs that are being blocked (and the symptoms: notification pages, blanks, time outs, etc). Thanks for all your help!
Best wishes to all,
Nich
20 May 1992
Stuart
Your suggestion that Thai citizens are brainwashed by their upbringing and too baffled to understand what’s going on is rather patronising and ignorant.
Where are the massacres, coups, media lockdowns, royal interventions and “popular uprisings” predicted by the denizens of this site? They were never on the cards. You can’t judge the mood of the population remotely. Attempts to extrapolate past events and outdated stereotypes will err.
Your implication that the King tossed Thaksin is based on the shaky premise that the King manipulates politics, which an overwhelming majority of citizens would dispute. The armed forces put their hand up for that and provided some fairly straightforward and compelling explanations of their motivations.
Thailand has had 60 years to judge their King. Result: He is indisputably the most respected person in the country with a street cred second to none. If you seriously attribute this respect to ‘social conditioning’ then you seem rather poorly informed to me.
20 May 1992
[…] hitherto influential royal palace. “Could Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn and/or Princess Sirindhorn play a role as they did in 1992? If they don’t, and if their father remains silent, will many Thais start to wonder more […]
New Mandala “temporarily curtailed”?
2.09 pm, still assessable via TOT broadband in Bangkok.
Even if it is blocked, readers can easily get access by going into http://reader.google.com and hitting “Add subscription.” Past the New Mandala URL in, and you can read the articles. Although you can’t make or read comments.
You can also conveniently install censorship-bypassing tools like Ultrasurf, although the military has blocked access to the Ultrasurf website as well. This short writeup tells you how to bypass the blocks and install the software: http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AT9EBb3GC00xZGQyZ2puOV8xMzNkeHdkdmNjZw&hl=en
New Mandala “temporarily curtailed”?
Nicholas Farrelly, guess you’re on True then. Another one on CRES blockage list. If you’d try to access Samesky(where Prof Somsak resides) in the past year, you’d be well-equip to deal with this anyhow.
New Mandala “temporarily curtailed”?
Nicholas I get the April 23rd article on a member of the royal family. Erewhon
New Mandala “temporarily curtailed”?
Thanks BKK Lawyer and R. Duke,
Like in the past it appears that any efforts to block New Mandala content are incomplete and inconsistent. Further information from readers is, as ever, very welcome.
Best wishes to all,
Nich
20 May 1992
CNN woman was probably not aware of it but about a month ago Chavalit tried to petition the King to intervene and take essentially the red side.
Chavalit made a big public show of it but never went through with the petition, under barrage of criticism.
Several days later the King gave a speech to the judges that was publicly broadcast and published the next day.
I think it was the most the King could do under the circumstances – the history of the conflict, allegations of his involvement in the coup, debates of his constitutional powers, his reply to Abhisit’s similar petition four years ago and so on.
Also, unlike 1992, protesters’ real leader, Thaksin, cannot be summoned to the palace and told to behave, not that the palace wants to negotiate with him in the first place.
Any intervention would have to be decisive, ending the conflict once and for all, and that was never guaranteed, especially on the red side that has a clearly anti-monarchy layer right near the top.
Burning, curfew
Polyphemus – unless there’s a genuine reconciliaton worked out soon, it won’t be safe to shop anywhere in Thailand, especially not Bangkok or north thereof.
It will be shop till you drop, Pattani-style !
New Mandala “temporarily curtailed”?
Nich: I get a blank, untitled page — no block message, no error message — as if the page doesn’t exist.
New Mandala “temporarily curtailed”?
Thanks BKK Lawyer,
But what happens when you click on this?
Best wishes to all,
Nich
New Mandala “temporarily curtailed”?
I can access it both from home (using True) and the office in Bangkok.
New Mandala “temporarily curtailed”?
I’m still connecting to you (2 pm Bangkok time). I checked because Political Prisoners in Thailand has just become blocked within the last hour.
The URL includes “CAPO”, the acronym of CRES’s predecessor.
Burning, curfew
Mick, I pretty well agree with everything in yr last post. Order must be restored. Business should resume. The judiciary should be impartial and not manipulated. Elections should take place this year. Election results should be respected. But Mr T should stay in his self chosen exile. He is corrupt and has abused power enough. Let the UDD form a political party and campaign for votes. Lets see what happens. Erewhon.