Naypyidaw in the Burmese language is a common noun meaning ‘royal city’.
In modern times we’ve had Naypyidaw School or Naypyidaw Shoe Shop etc., but to name the new capital Naypyidaw was simply daft.
It’s actually worse to Burmese ears, since it then becomes Naypyidaw Myo (City) as in Maymyo (Pyin Oo Lwin), Yangon Myo etc., or Naypyidaw Naypyidaw as in Yadanabon Naypyidaw(Mandalay) , Ava Naypyidaw(Ava) etc. of the Konbaung Dynasty. Many indeed call Naypyidaw Kyatpyay Naypyidaw after its location at Kyatpyay, near Pyinmana.
It’s a combination of grandiose delusion and a lack of imagination peculiar to Than Shwe. Perhaps we should blame his astrologer instead.
Seems the three buddies have to thank sae Daeng, but not in public, because as a military man, this guy knows which is the weak point in any defense, in this case an opening through this hospital.
Publicly, the reds have to disown sae Daeng for causing loss of face but in retrospect, they must admit that an attack from this side has a good chance of success.
@ Steve, by implicating the involvement of Newin I presume the reader is attempting to send the message the red shirts alone are not capable of such actions. On the contrary, the body snatching mission has proven that they well and truly are.
There’s a video of the red shirts politely requesting to enter a hospital for the purpose of repatriating the bodies on the 10th April which does have some raid-like qualities about it. If the action was triggered by bodies vanishing why did they only reclaim three? Not enough room on stage?
Thanks for the warning, Tarrin.
There is now Facebook police, under the misnomer of Social Sanction. The sanctions are way beyond social. Facebook users have been fired from work, arrested, and received death threats. Their offense: lese-majeste, equated with threat to national security.
I am appalled that the censors did not placed the obligatory mosaic over the pipe. Who knows what sorts of misconceptions might arise in the minds of the loyal subjects?
Even if the redshirts win through to an election, which presumably they would also win if recent history and current sentiment are taken into account, the stability of the ensuing government and the entire country would depend upon palliating opposition elements, or suppressing them outright. If we do not take this as a zero-sum game, then reinstituting pro-red and anti-yellow policies will just place Thailand back in the same situation, only with the roles of the actors reversed.
Do the redshirts have the foresight to do so? Or will they fall back into the same ludicrous path of only appointing government officials who have close personal relationships with Thaksin? Much has been said about the redshirt movement being far greater than Thaksin. I have my doubts about the redshirts abandoning him, though. Political Godfathers in Thailand don’t vanish that easily. Look at the likes of Suthep, Newin, Banharn, etc. Thais will even sometimes speak, sotto voce, about a greater Godfather, who shall remain unnamed, but whose identity is well-known to anyone who has more than a passing association with Thailand. It is fine and well to reestablish the outward form of democracy, but Thailand’s deeply ingrained patronage system, on both sides of this political divide, will continue the limit the development of this country
The rank and file reds at Rajprasong seem to be now about 40-50% over 50 years old and most, apart from the Chinese looking ones using eating at McDonalds and using the wi-fi, look like farmers waiting around for rice planting to start. What is disturbing is the red shirt guards who hang around the stages and spill out at the Saladaeng intersection. They certainly don’t look like farmers – more like hired thugs on the fringes of society who are otherwise unemployable and far too lazy to work on farms.
It could be true that the government is taking advantage of the protest being carried out in the vicinity of the hospital. However, even though the Red Shirts stress that it is not their policy to obstruct the hospital or its patients, how could they be completely sure that the protest will not get out of control? It is a large group and no one knows what could happen. It is for this reason, I feel, that the hospital is at least partially right to move the patients elsewhere as a precaution in case something untoward breaks out, as have happened before in the past few weeks. I think it is not too far fetched to say that the patients are not safe with the protests happening at the hospital’s door steps.
The other interest thing I saw being reported by the Thai media is that HRH Princess Sirindhorn had visited the Supreme Patriach of Thailand at the Chulalongkorn Hospital where he was the sole remaining patient today. Some commentators in a few forums have commended HRH for having the guts to do so. I have a feeling that HRH did not only intend to visit the Supreme Patriach but she was also trying to assess for herself what is really happening on ground zero. Of course, with all the protocol people running ahead of her trying to present the best spectacle possible to HRH, she would not be able to see the real situation, and I have no doubt that she has long realised that these things happen, but at least by being there herself, she would not have to completely rely on the stories and God knows what else being fed to her from God knows who.
The current government was formed as a direct result of the greed of Thaksin’s sister who made her husband, Somchai, favour her faction of Isaan MPs over Newin’s faction which had been favoured by Samak. That made Newin turn against his Boss. Another example of how Thaksin’s problems are all caused by greed and arrogance of himself, his family and cronies. Newin’s faction of MPs had the same right to vote for Abhisit as PM as they had earlier in the same Parliament to vote for Samak and Somchai to be PM. Just because you don’t like the result of a parliamentary vote, doesn’t mean that it was unconstitutional under the parliamentary system, any more than was Gordon Brown’s premiership. Why not just wait for new elections in a few months time without causing so much suffering? If the red shirts political and militant wings are so popular, no doubt they will do well and be able to form a government. What difference will a few months make?
New Mandala has sunk to a new low with these pathetic attempts to justify the raiding of a hospital by 200 psychopathic thugs, many of whom were no doubt armed. It’s bad enough that hospitals are being blockaded and taunted with continous loud music and Hitleresque speeches blaring 24 hours a day. It’s up to hospital management to decide what is a safe environment for their patients and staff and the opinions of red shirt leaders who ordered the raid and are causing the blockade is irrelevant.
TPBS ran stories related to the hospital intrusion and evacuation for roughly 25 minutes on its main 7 p.m. newscast Friday night. The footage included some very small upcountry protests. Afterward, it segued into other Red Shirt protest-related news.
Twenty-five minutes is more net time than the complete national evening news broadcasts on the US networks.
Was this really such cataclysmic news? Who exactly exerted editorial influence over that broadcast? Is TPBS really as independent a broadcaster as it claims to be?
Stanley Weiss’s view on sanctions and bogus elections could be viewed as a positive step even if it does not lead to democracy which cannot emerge overnight – but should not be overemphasized either. Expecting upcoming elections to be free and fair (which didn’t happen in 1990 elections) is not realistic at best. Up till now, two-thirds of registered political parties are from ethnic nationalities which is a good thing.
I assume everyone in the academic circle agree that certain social, economic and political institutions must be built ahead of a full-fledged democracy to take place in the decades-long isolated and military-ruled country. It’s widely assumed that Suu Kyi be released just after the elections, fairly understandable. Importantly, a new government has to open space for Suu Kyi that would help engagement policy of the West particularly US, and must address ethnic rights.
(2). Many teachers in Thai schools, universities, they “brain-wash” their students that the Red movement is to topple the monarchy and only for Thaksin.
and then a reference to Mao Zedong.
During the “Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution” students were encouraged to be critical of their teachers and many took this advice to great lengths.
Makes me think of a CMU academic who has a greater than life-size golden robed picture behind his desk, where students prostrate themselves on the floor in front of him.
even if the redshirts win through to an election the stability of the resulting government and its capability, even with the authority of the people, to bring the military under control will depend heavily on the
the willingness of the rank and file to render the 700 generals unable to challenge the authority of the democratically elected government
I have a friend whose 86year-old father had suffered his second stroke four weeks ago. He was operated at the Chula Hospital and hD remained semi-conscious in its ICU. The family gathered at his bed every evening. When the hospital decided to evacuate, my friend was forced to look for another hospital for her father. Eventually, they transferred him to Paya Thai 2 Hospital.
Does anybody expects that her opinion regarding the UDD is positive?
Maybe you’ve seen my stickers up all over Bangkok? This post smells like naphthalene. It’s the same old argument wheeled out about music not being as good as it used to be, or that young people are ruder now than they were in the past. The implication is that young people don’t care about politics. Young people have their own political systems, and you just don’t know about them because you’re no longer young. See if you can infiltrate them you old fogeys. Be wise to us young whippersnappers. If politics is sport you must’ve gotten political arthritis. All I can recommend is vaseline.
Ste (#14) – there’s nothing to wonder about. Hardly a “raid” – UDD openly did that to take (if I remember right) two bodies and display them on the rally stage.
We can have views about whether it was appropriate or justified (some claim the action was triggered by reports of bodies vanishing in 2009), but I struggle to see what point you’re groping for by raising it in connection with the entry into Chula.
Chulalongkorn’s pipe? Such realism – or is it? It reminds me of the 1968 essay by Michel Foucault, Ceci n’est pas une pipe (“This Is Not a Pipe”), based on the sketch of a pipe by the Belgian artist Rene Magritte: the “strangeness” in the drawing’s realism contrasted with the text below the picture: “This is not a pipe”: An incongruity of a pipe smoking prince? [Neither words, nor the visible]. It could also be subtitled “this is not a pipe but a smoke”: Foucault argued it is pointless to say what we see; as what we see never resides in what we say. “And it is in vain that we attempt to show, by the use of images, metaphors, or similes, what we are saying…” [p.9]. Thus, he noted, the drawing and others like it (remember Warhol’s meaningless simulation in Campbell Soup cans?) takes away the certainty that the pipe is a pipe, and… perhaps affirms and represents nought. To cut a lot of academic waffle short: The Prince is not smoking, and [by order of the state] it is clearly not a pipe.
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From you to me – the mail in Burma
Naypyidaw in the Burmese language is a common noun meaning ‘royal city’.
In modern times we’ve had Naypyidaw School or Naypyidaw Shoe Shop etc., but to name the new capital Naypyidaw was simply daft.
It’s actually worse to Burmese ears, since it then becomes Naypyidaw Myo (City) as in Maymyo (Pyin Oo Lwin), Yangon Myo etc., or Naypyidaw Naypyidaw as in Yadanabon Naypyidaw(Mandalay) , Ava Naypyidaw(Ava) etc. of the Konbaung Dynasty. Many indeed call Naypyidaw Kyatpyay Naypyidaw after its location at Kyatpyay, near Pyinmana.
It’s a combination of grandiose delusion and a lack of imagination peculiar to Than Shwe. Perhaps we should blame his astrologer instead.
Chulalongkorn Hospital – an alternative account
Seems the three buddies have to thank sae Daeng, but not in public, because as a military man, this guy knows which is the weak point in any defense, in this case an opening through this hospital.
Publicly, the reds have to disown sae Daeng for causing loss of face but in retrospect, they must admit that an attack from this side has a good chance of success.
It is better to be paranoid than sorry later.
Chulalongkorn Hospital – an alternative account
If there is a political unrest in Newtown, Sydney, some troops are located at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. Will it be an issue?
Chulalongkorn Hospital – an alternative account
@ Steve, by implicating the involvement of Newin I presume the reader is attempting to send the message the red shirts alone are not capable of such actions. On the contrary, the body snatching mission has proven that they well and truly are.
There’s a video of the red shirts politely requesting to enter a hospital for the purpose of repatriating the bodies on the 10th April which does have some raid-like qualities about it. If the action was triggered by bodies vanishing why did they only reclaim three? Not enough room on stage?
Where are the young reds?
Thanks for the warning, Tarrin.
There is now Facebook police, under the misnomer of Social Sanction. The sanctions are way beyond social. Facebook users have been fired from work, arrested, and received death threats. Their offense: lese-majeste, equated with threat to national security.
Vajiralongkorn’s pipe
I am appalled that the censors did not placed the obligatory mosaic over the pipe. Who knows what sorts of misconceptions might arise in the minds of the loyal subjects?
Chulalongkorn Hospital – an alternative account
Even if the redshirts win through to an election, which presumably they would also win if recent history and current sentiment are taken into account, the stability of the ensuing government and the entire country would depend upon palliating opposition elements, or suppressing them outright. If we do not take this as a zero-sum game, then reinstituting pro-red and anti-yellow policies will just place Thailand back in the same situation, only with the roles of the actors reversed.
Do the redshirts have the foresight to do so? Or will they fall back into the same ludicrous path of only appointing government officials who have close personal relationships with Thaksin? Much has been said about the redshirt movement being far greater than Thaksin. I have my doubts about the redshirts abandoning him, though. Political Godfathers in Thailand don’t vanish that easily. Look at the likes of Suthep, Newin, Banharn, etc. Thais will even sometimes speak, sotto voce, about a greater Godfather, who shall remain unnamed, but whose identity is well-known to anyone who has more than a passing association with Thailand. It is fine and well to reestablish the outward form of democracy, but Thailand’s deeply ingrained patronage system, on both sides of this political divide, will continue the limit the development of this country
Where are the young reds?
The rank and file reds at Rajprasong seem to be now about 40-50% over 50 years old and most, apart from the Chinese looking ones using eating at McDonalds and using the wi-fi, look like farmers waiting around for rice planting to start. What is disturbing is the red shirt guards who hang around the stages and spill out at the Saladaeng intersection. They certainly don’t look like farmers – more like hired thugs on the fringes of society who are otherwise unemployable and far too lazy to work on farms.
Chulalongkorn Hospital – an alternative account
It could be true that the government is taking advantage of the protest being carried out in the vicinity of the hospital. However, even though the Red Shirts stress that it is not their policy to obstruct the hospital or its patients, how could they be completely sure that the protest will not get out of control? It is a large group and no one knows what could happen. It is for this reason, I feel, that the hospital is at least partially right to move the patients elsewhere as a precaution in case something untoward breaks out, as have happened before in the past few weeks. I think it is not too far fetched to say that the patients are not safe with the protests happening at the hospital’s door steps.
The other interest thing I saw being reported by the Thai media is that HRH Princess Sirindhorn had visited the Supreme Patriach of Thailand at the Chulalongkorn Hospital where he was the sole remaining patient today. Some commentators in a few forums have commended HRH for having the guts to do so. I have a feeling that HRH did not only intend to visit the Supreme Patriach but she was also trying to assess for herself what is really happening on ground zero. Of course, with all the protocol people running ahead of her trying to present the best spectacle possible to HRH, she would not be able to see the real situation, and I have no doubt that she has long realised that these things happen, but at least by being there herself, she would not have to completely rely on the stories and God knows what else being fed to her from God knows who.
Clash at National Monument
The current government was formed as a direct result of the greed of Thaksin’s sister who made her husband, Somchai, favour her faction of Isaan MPs over Newin’s faction which had been favoured by Samak. That made Newin turn against his Boss. Another example of how Thaksin’s problems are all caused by greed and arrogance of himself, his family and cronies. Newin’s faction of MPs had the same right to vote for Abhisit as PM as they had earlier in the same Parliament to vote for Samak and Somchai to be PM. Just because you don’t like the result of a parliamentary vote, doesn’t mean that it was unconstitutional under the parliamentary system, any more than was Gordon Brown’s premiership. Why not just wait for new elections in a few months time without causing so much suffering? If the red shirts political and militant wings are so popular, no doubt they will do well and be able to form a government. What difference will a few months make?
Chulalongkorn Hospital – an alternative account
New Mandala has sunk to a new low with these pathetic attempts to justify the raiding of a hospital by 200 psychopathic thugs, many of whom were no doubt armed. It’s bad enough that hospitals are being blockaded and taunted with continous loud music and Hitleresque speeches blaring 24 hours a day. It’s up to hospital management to decide what is a safe environment for their patients and staff and the opinions of red shirt leaders who ordered the raid and are causing the blockade is irrelevant.
Vajiralongkorn’s pipe
Why link the prince to a general commentary on smoking in the region?
And why, Andrew, post it here on NM?
Are we being invited to read something into something that does not really exist?
Chulalongkorn Hospital – an alternative account
TPBS ran stories related to the hospital intrusion and evacuation for roughly 25 minutes on its main 7 p.m. newscast Friday night. The footage included some very small upcountry protests. Afterward, it segued into other Red Shirt protest-related news.
Twenty-five minutes is more net time than the complete national evening news broadcasts on the US networks.
Was this really such cataclysmic news? Who exactly exerted editorial influence over that broadcast? Is TPBS really as independent a broadcaster as it claims to be?
Never-ending Burma debate
Stanley Weiss’s view on sanctions and bogus elections could be viewed as a positive step even if it does not lead to democracy which cannot emerge overnight – but should not be overemphasized either. Expecting upcoming elections to be free and fair (which didn’t happen in 1990 elections) is not realistic at best. Up till now, two-thirds of registered political parties are from ethnic nationalities which is a good thing.
I assume everyone in the academic circle agree that certain social, economic and political institutions must be built ahead of a full-fledged democracy to take place in the decades-long isolated and military-ruled country. It’s widely assumed that Suu Kyi be released just after the elections, fairly understandable. Importantly, a new government has to open space for Suu Kyi that would help engagement policy of the West particularly US, and must address ethnic rights.
Where are the young reds?
Interesting to read Athita’s comment:
(2). Many teachers in Thai schools, universities, they “brain-wash” their students that the Red movement is to topple the monarchy and only for Thaksin.
and then a reference to Mao Zedong.
During the “Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution” students were encouraged to be critical of their teachers and many took this advice to great lengths.
Makes me think of a CMU academic who has a greater than life-size golden robed picture behind his desk, where students prostrate themselves on the floor in front of him.
Chulalongkorn Hospital – an alternative account
Maratjp…
I hope you are right
even if the redshirts win through to an election the stability of the resulting government and its capability, even with the authority of the people, to bring the military under control will depend heavily on the
the willingness of the rank and file to render the 700 generals unable to challenge the authority of the democratically elected government
Chulalongkorn Hospital – an alternative account
I have a friend whose 86year-old father had suffered his second stroke four weeks ago. He was operated at the Chula Hospital and hD remained semi-conscious in its ICU. The family gathered at his bed every evening. When the hospital decided to evacuate, my friend was forced to look for another hospital for her father. Eventually, they transferred him to Paya Thai 2 Hospital.
Does anybody expects that her opinion regarding the UDD is positive?
Where are the young reds?
Maybe you’ve seen my stickers up all over Bangkok? This post smells like naphthalene. It’s the same old argument wheeled out about music not being as good as it used to be, or that young people are ruder now than they were in the past. The implication is that young people don’t care about politics. Young people have their own political systems, and you just don’t know about them because you’re no longer young. See if you can infiltrate them you old fogeys. Be wise to us young whippersnappers. If politics is sport you must’ve gotten political arthritis. All I can recommend is vaseline.
P/S Van Halen rocks!
Chulalongkorn Hospital – an alternative account
Ste (#14) – there’s nothing to wonder about. Hardly a “raid” – UDD openly did that to take (if I remember right) two bodies and display them on the rally stage.
We can have views about whether it was appropriate or justified (some claim the action was triggered by reports of bodies vanishing in 2009), but I struggle to see what point you’re groping for by raising it in connection with the entry into Chula.
Vajiralongkorn’s pipe
Chulalongkorn’s pipe? Such realism – or is it? It reminds me of the 1968 essay by Michel Foucault, Ceci n’est pas une pipe (“This Is Not a Pipe”), based on the sketch of a pipe by the Belgian artist Rene Magritte: the “strangeness” in the drawing’s realism contrasted with the text below the picture: “This is not a pipe”: An incongruity of a pipe smoking prince? [Neither words, nor the visible]. It could also be subtitled “this is not a pipe but a smoke”: Foucault argued it is pointless to say what we see; as what we see never resides in what we say. “And it is in vain that we attempt to show, by the use of images, metaphors, or similes, what we are saying…” [p.9]. Thus, he noted, the drawing and others like it (remember Warhol’s meaningless simulation in Campbell Soup cans?) takes away the certainty that the pipe is a pipe, and… perhaps affirms and represents nought. To cut a lot of academic waffle short: The Prince is not smoking, and [by order of the state] it is clearly not a pipe.