Interesting to read all these post . I have not been is Mae Sot for years . I just hope that most of my old comrads of harms are still alive ..
I was part of the first so called ” French .- Belgium ” team .. 1985/1988 .and I served with the KNLA in and out till 1990 .
Why ” so called ” French – Belgium ” team ? Well even if Guillaume Wogler alias ” Jimmy the Belgium ” was a friend , a great adventurer and a good man – Rest in peace – RIP in was only in command of this operation from his head quater in Pat Pong ( Madrid Bar ).
The team was made only of French men . I met also an Australian and a Kiwi both wounded in operation and of course all our Friends from the ” Japonese Imperial Army ” . LOL ! ( Mr Abe . Ito and Nishikawa )
Met also couples of americans old timers .. Good guys !
Maybe some of you remember my brother ? ” John ” ? He had a French restaurant in Maesot for years ..
I made a small VDO – Photos souvenir and post it on Youtube ..
Be good or at least try your best !! LOL !
And say I to all the boys for me …
This is total nonsense – Thomas, you know very little about the recent hisoty of Thai Buddhism.
Luang Ta Bua, one of the most influential monks in Thailand and a leader of the so-called “forest monk” tradition, was a major supporter of the Yellow Shirts from day 1. His beef with Thaksin was due to the fact that the Supreme Patriarch has been living in a hospital for years, and that Thaksin had Somdet Kiaw, the second most senior monk in the Sangha Council, appointed acting Supreme Patriarch.
Unfortunately, the Supreme Patriarch and Luang Ta Bua are Dhammayuttika Nikaya-sect monk, while his number 2 was a a Mahanikaya-sect monk. The Dhammayuttika Nikaya has been closely affiliated with the palace since it was founded by R.4. In the Thaksin years, Luang Ta Bua even petitioned the King (despite what the current yellow government might say about royal petitions) asking that Somdet Kiaw be defrocked.
Read any of Luang Ta Bua’s anti-Thaksin sermons si… they make Sondhi and friends sound sane.
While I will concede that Than Shwe might well be a better speller than I (an easy thing to do), I still don’t think he is particularly bright. I base that on the conditions of the country after 40+ years of military rule, and I see no evidence that might refute that assumption. I may be wrong Nicholas, but I think your underlying assumption is that Than Shwe can’t possibly be a dolt since he’s running a country. This assumes that a certain level of intelligence is needed to run a country, an assumption I believe history and experience pretty conclusively refute. Look at George W Bush and Sarah Palin, both of whom show just how far you can get with political patronage. Palin in particular had a reputation for cultivating people who could advance her career and then stabbing them in the back at the first opportunity. Such behavior doesn’t require much savvy, just a ruthless self interest.
Kaplan’s point about Ceausescu was that the Communists advanced him because they thought he could be manipulated, and consequently he ended up in a position to seize power himself. Again, nothing particularly new here since sycophants have been killing their patrons ever since (and probably well before) the Old Testament records a servant suffocating a king on his sick bed in order to seize the throne. Again, it doesn’t argue any special aptitude for governing, just a ruthless self interest. You don’t have to be anywhere near as smart as Machiavelli to be Machiavellian.
We also have concrete evidence that the military regime in general, and Than Shwe in particular, have no qualms about shooting unarmed citizens, or denying them food and other disaster aid. If you are willing to do that, then governing the population isn’t too difficult. I don’t think the folks running segregation in the American South were particularly bright, based on my dealings with some of their lineal descendents. They didn’t have to be; all that was required was to summarily deal with any “uppityness”, either real or imaginary, in the African American population. You could have all the constitutions and elections you wanted, and nothing would change as long as you also had the occasional lynching. A side benefit of this approach is that knowledge is easily controlled since universal ignorance is preferred.
I don’t think there is any need for speculation when brute force is a sufficient explanation for Than Shwe’s continued rule.
That is a bit too cynical for me. But maybe i am just too young and/or idealistic.
Not that you are wrong with much that you have stated. But there is always the other side. The common monks i have listened to in the protests, mostly in the Red Shirt protests, do have strong believes, and do not appear to me living lives of luxury.
Is it for monks to have opinions on politics? I don’t know, i am not an expert in Buddhism.
But some of the more impressive monks i have met, forest monks and such, had usually rather strong and well thought through views on the more practical things of life as well as being meditation masters. And more often than not they were also very straight forward in expressing these views.
Thanks Nich. I’ve only had time to read the Susan Banki article, which leads one to question, once again, the validity of international sanctions:
“This article does not attempt to establish direct causal links between the withdrawal of aid and the increase in regime-reinforcing phenomena in Burma, but it does argue that in the presence of larger political and economic factors, the withdrawal of aid had little effect on the strength of the Burmese regime. The article also demonstrated that refugee flows were little affected by the withdrawal of aid, but increased due to the crackdown that preceded the withdrawal of large amounts of aid. “
Indeed, why not also call those monks who support PAD rentamonks? Especially when they start telling us they know better than the layman – Sondhi style. The comment was made on the strength of knowing only too well about the likes of Pra Kittivutto. Indeed, my dislike of both Chumlong and Sondhi is partly based on the pseudo-religious BS they both surround themselves with. Plus the feeling that Chumlong never really had an democratic cred anyway. In the 1992 debacle, he did little more than lead gullible (but at least concerned) people into being killed and maimed by his old military academy ‘chums’. Power struggle was about all it ever was to him. And certainly nothing has changed.
If anything, it could be said that many Thai monks are too opinionated and too easily led into lending support to causes that have dubious benefit for the vast majority. If they feel so strongly about lay issues, maybe they would be better off becoming lay politicians. They could hardly be any worse than the current Garn Muang shower. They might even be an improvement, if you go on the basis that things can hardly get any worse than they are at present.
As it is, many monks are probably just told what to do by their superior clergy. In other words, they do stuff to keep the necessary funds going to run the temple and keep themselves in a fairly easy life. You have to keep the rich sponsor happy. And name me a rich sponsor who doesn’t have some allegiance in this struggle, since they see politics as their guarantee of continuing easy profit.
I would have thought that managing a knowledge prevention and expression system would require the knowing what others are not to know. The lack of intelligence would be in clearly not accepting that everyone else is equal while they’re alive, because only when your dead is every-body- equal. Wouldn’t that be more how the perception of their blunt, belligerent, brutal, bestial-ness is bandied about for us?
Than Shwe should appear with the rest of the World’s leaders on a ‘Are you smarter than a fifth grader?’ show of some sort. He should, but he wont. He’s a somebody.
If you can’t mock someone out of reclusiveness, then what are you meant to do? 🙁
The austere approach discussing what Buddhism should be often ends up in orthodoxy that somehow contradicts much of how Bhuddism has developed in Buddhist cultures.
Why are these monks called “renta-monk” just in this case? Also the PAD had monks appearing and performing ceremonies.
In many ways almost all of popular Buddhism then could be labeled such – monks are given donations for the appearance at weddings, at funerals and at any other event their presence is required.
But, this is integral part of Thai culture and Thai Bhuddism. Buddhism has its orthodox aspects, and equally important popular believes that may contradict the more orthodox leanings of some.
There are some monks which are regulars at the Red Shirt rallies, some appear even on the stage. Others i have heard holding sermons about politics, democracy and dhamma to protesters. Especially important was this in the aftermath of the Songkran Riots, where Red Shirts have gathered (without the red shirts) in small groups during the emergency decree, and discussed the crackdown. There people closely listened to what the monks had to say.
Not much has been written about the involvement of monks and religion, other than biased polemics, unfortunately.
I very much welcome this article. The involvement of religion and monks shows very much that the present conflict is much more than just a political or social conflict, but goes to the heart of Thai identity.
the PAD/yellow shirts were strongly supported in running food supplies and in rituals and accompanied in their occupations of Government House and, I think, the airports by their current leader and a cohort of Santi Asoke monks.
see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santi_Asoke for some more info, not mentioned in that article it seems Chamlong styles as a lay leader for the sect and as Wikipaedia mentions the group is seen as anti-Thaksin.
recently the redshirts have been permitted to stage rallies at Wat Suan Keow and in association with a city monastery and numbers of monks have attended their rallies and senior monks have spoken on stage. a (dhammakaya) monk has a regular morning spot on DTV
So don’t underestimate him on what he did in the past! Shame that does nothing to shape the future. Perhaps instead we should label him a coward for failing to face up to the future. After all, we know most of his kind will scuttle off to Singapore when the shit really hits the fan. Hardly the actions of a man who is prepared to face the future without a lot of firepower and accumulated filthy lucre to protect him
Yes. I made the rentamonks comment. Certainly monks are entitled to have views. But they seemed to have been more interested in practicing voodoo religion than actually expressing an opinion in this case.
I appreciate your well-informed perspectives on this intriguing set of issues and histories.
I would be particularly keen to see evidence for the assertion that while Than Shwe, and the others, “might not be simple, they aren’t particualarly bright”.
It strikes me that this is a working assumption held by most people. But is there evidence to support it? Anybody out there able to share the academic record of any senior Burmese government figure? I am fishing for something concrete that would help us to better undertand the intellectual capacity of some of these guys. We often rely on proxy measurements of their reputed “smarts” (lack of foreign language appitude, brutality, insularity, xenophobia, etc, etc) but I wonder if this is, at the end of the day, quite misleading.
Specific examples of how dim, or otherwise, the members of the SPDC are would be very instructive.
Brute, despot, recluse, greedy bastard, skillful manipulator. You can call Than Shwe, the notorious Dictator of Burma, any name but a coward who led his troops into numerous defeats at the hands of the Communists.
He commanded a light infantry division in the seventies and wiped Burmese Communist Party HQ troops off Pegu Yoma. He has now build his Nay-Pyi-Daw on that same sacred ground of thick jungle where thousands of Burmese communist were killed by his own troops.
He was the divisional commander of Delta in the eighties and his troops brutally stopped the Karens from gaining a foothold there again.
He was one of the very early graduates of OTS which selects her candidates from among the bravest and most capable Sergeants under the age of 30 from the fighting army which has been waging a brutal civil war against its own ethnic minorities and the resilient Communists.
Underestimating him would be a grave mistake for the democracy fighters of Burma.
Can’t say that I kow much about Than Shwe personally, or any of the Burmese military guys, but while they might not be simple, they aren’t particualarly bright. They do have a criminal cunning, and a willingness to use violence that most normal people don’t have, and consequently the Burmese military is frequently underestimated. I suspect that the description of Ceau┼Яescu in Robert Kaplan’s book “Balkan Ghosts” would apply equally well to Than Shwe.
I would also point out that once you seize control of a modern state the norms of international relations provide you all sorts of power and grudging legitimacy, no matter how bright or stupid you are. Let’s face it, nobody, not even the US, is going to support Kachin independence. or sign an oil deal with the KNU. Of course this has always been true, not just in the modern era. As a Taoist philosopher observed a couple of thousand years ago, ” A man is put to death for stealing a fish hook; a man who steals a country is made king.”
I would like to commend Duncan McCargo the following:
1. His seriousness as a scholar. He understands Thai language (he talked about this book in Thai with Pitch in ChuPitch Program in Prachatai Webboard), which made his field work credible.
2. His originality about network monarchy is a significant contribution.
I would also like to commend the reviewer Sawarin Suwichakornpong as well. Your critical reading is amazing. I hope to see you further in the Thai political studies and come up with your recommendations. As a native, (Thai Chinese, just guessing), you may have different insights and perspectives to the issue for a constructive debate with Duncan McCargo, even though the problem may not be fixed quickly.
Having said the above, I would like to critique one point. I hope to see Professor Duncan McCargo touches on the theoretical side of international politics, instead of only based on the comparativist approach, empirical work, and domestic politics level. McCargo provided an overview fact finding bottom up, however, without theoretical international relations analysis, one will have hard time explaining why the Southern militancy is intensified during the Post-Cold War world. Focusing on the domestic politics can provide only half of the story. International politics theories will stipulate the casual association between independent and dependent variables and reduce the complexity to its essential components.
A debate arguing with prejudice fails to inform, it only inflames. It takes society nowhere. There’s no point to go around the bush with your hidden agenda about China. China and Thailand has blood-bonded special relationship especially in the national security matter. In short, Panda is here to stay.
Aquariums educate? About all most zoos and aquariums here do is acclimatize people to living in emotional, economic and social slavery themselves. And unless very well-run, they frequently just result in just more dead, dead-bored and psychotic animals. That sounds familiar too!
Last evening’s royal news featured the underwater panda in the aquarium. Brilliant student, badminton champion and fashion designer Sirivannavari Nariratana visited the real live panda with a bunch of buddies and took photos and then went to the aquarium – there it was, the underwater panda, waving to her.
Aquarium helps expand people horizon, it is a living educational tool, healthy for our minds. The issue being argued here seems to be about the aquarium high technology and the panda show, rather about the educational entertainment of the aquarium. In my opinion, the presence of Panda in Thailand is about the common interest in peace. It is a preventive measure to ensure an assumption that every nation has an identical interest in peace, and that any nation which desires to disturb the peace is therefore both irrational and immoral. This is the underlying reason why Chiang Mai is proud of her advanced technology aquarium and the panda show.
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Volunteering to fight in Burma
Hi guys
Interesting to read all these post . I have not been is Mae Sot for years . I just hope that most of my old comrads of harms are still alive ..
I was part of the first so called ” French .- Belgium ” team .. 1985/1988 .and I served with the KNLA in and out till 1990 .
Why ” so called ” French – Belgium ” team ? Well even if Guillaume Wogler alias ” Jimmy the Belgium ” was a friend , a great adventurer and a good man – Rest in peace – RIP in was only in command of this operation from his head quater in Pat Pong ( Madrid Bar ).
The team was made only of French men . I met also an Australian and a Kiwi both wounded in operation and of course all our Friends from the ” Japonese Imperial Army ” . LOL ! ( Mr Abe . Ito and Nishikawa )
Met also couples of americans old timers .. Good guys !
Maybe some of you remember my brother ? ” John ” ? He had a French restaurant in Maesot for years ..
I made a small VDO – Photos souvenir and post it on Youtube ..
Be good or at least try your best !! LOL !
And say I to all the boys for me …
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzD3-DJje5A
Monk
This is total nonsense – Thomas, you know very little about the recent hisoty of Thai Buddhism.
Luang Ta Bua, one of the most influential monks in Thailand and a leader of the so-called “forest monk” tradition, was a major supporter of the Yellow Shirts from day 1. His beef with Thaksin was due to the fact that the Supreme Patriarch has been living in a hospital for years, and that Thaksin had Somdet Kiaw, the second most senior monk in the Sangha Council, appointed acting Supreme Patriarch.
Unfortunately, the Supreme Patriarch and Luang Ta Bua are Dhammayuttika Nikaya-sect monk, while his number 2 was a a Mahanikaya-sect monk. The Dhammayuttika Nikaya has been closely affiliated with the palace since it was founded by R.4. In the Thaksin years, Luang Ta Bua even petitioned the King (despite what the current yellow government might say about royal petitions) asking that Somdet Kiaw be defrocked.
Read any of Luang Ta Bua’s anti-Thaksin sermons si… they make Sondhi and friends sound sane.
Than Shwe in profile
While I will concede that Than Shwe might well be a better speller than I (an easy thing to do), I still don’t think he is particularly bright. I base that on the conditions of the country after 40+ years of military rule, and I see no evidence that might refute that assumption. I may be wrong Nicholas, but I think your underlying assumption is that Than Shwe can’t possibly be a dolt since he’s running a country. This assumes that a certain level of intelligence is needed to run a country, an assumption I believe history and experience pretty conclusively refute. Look at George W Bush and Sarah Palin, both of whom show just how far you can get with political patronage. Palin in particular had a reputation for cultivating people who could advance her career and then stabbing them in the back at the first opportunity. Such behavior doesn’t require much savvy, just a ruthless self interest.
Kaplan’s point about Ceausescu was that the Communists advanced him because they thought he could be manipulated, and consequently he ended up in a position to seize power himself. Again, nothing particularly new here since sycophants have been killing their patrons ever since (and probably well before) the Old Testament records a servant suffocating a king on his sick bed in order to seize the throne. Again, it doesn’t argue any special aptitude for governing, just a ruthless self interest. You don’t have to be anywhere near as smart as Machiavelli to be Machiavellian.
We also have concrete evidence that the military regime in general, and Than Shwe in particular, have no qualms about shooting unarmed citizens, or denying them food and other disaster aid. If you are willing to do that, then governing the population isn’t too difficult. I don’t think the folks running segregation in the American South were particularly bright, based on my dealings with some of their lineal descendents. They didn’t have to be; all that was required was to summarily deal with any “uppityness”, either real or imaginary, in the African American population. You could have all the constitutions and elections you wanted, and nothing would change as long as you also had the occasional lynching. A side benefit of this approach is that knowledge is easily controlled since universal ignorance is preferred.
I don’t think there is any need for speculation when brute force is a sufficient explanation for Than Shwe’s continued rule.
Monk
“Frank”
That is a bit too cynical for me. But maybe i am just too young and/or idealistic.
Not that you are wrong with much that you have stated. But there is always the other side. The common monks i have listened to in the protests, mostly in the Red Shirt protests, do have strong believes, and do not appear to me living lives of luxury.
Is it for monks to have opinions on politics? I don’t know, i am not an expert in Buddhism.
But some of the more impressive monks i have met, forest monks and such, had usually rather strong and well thought through views on the more practical things of life as well as being meditation masters. And more often than not they were also very straight forward in expressing these views.
Burma: Journal special edition
Thanks Nich. I’ve only had time to read the Susan Banki article, which leads one to question, once again, the validity of international sanctions:
“This article does not attempt to establish direct causal links between the withdrawal of aid and the increase in regime-reinforcing phenomena in Burma, but it does argue that in the presence of larger political and economic factors, the withdrawal of aid had little effect on the strength of the Burmese regime. The article also demonstrated that refugee flows were little affected by the withdrawal of aid, but increased due to the crackdown that preceded the withdrawal of large amounts of aid. “
Monk
Indeed, why not also call those monks who support PAD rentamonks? Especially when they start telling us they know better than the layman – Sondhi style. The comment was made on the strength of knowing only too well about the likes of Pra Kittivutto. Indeed, my dislike of both Chumlong and Sondhi is partly based on the pseudo-religious BS they both surround themselves with. Plus the feeling that Chumlong never really had an democratic cred anyway. In the 1992 debacle, he did little more than lead gullible (but at least concerned) people into being killed and maimed by his old military academy ‘chums’. Power struggle was about all it ever was to him. And certainly nothing has changed.
If anything, it could be said that many Thai monks are too opinionated and too easily led into lending support to causes that have dubious benefit for the vast majority. If they feel so strongly about lay issues, maybe they would be better off becoming lay politicians. They could hardly be any worse than the current Garn Muang shower. They might even be an improvement, if you go on the basis that things can hardly get any worse than they are at present.
As it is, many monks are probably just told what to do by their superior clergy. In other words, they do stuff to keep the necessary funds going to run the temple and keep themselves in a fairly easy life. You have to keep the rich sponsor happy. And name me a rich sponsor who doesn’t have some allegiance in this struggle, since they see politics as their guarantee of continuing easy profit.
Than Shwe in profile
I would have thought that managing a knowledge prevention and expression system would require the knowing what others are not to know. The lack of intelligence would be in clearly not accepting that everyone else is equal while they’re alive, because only when your dead is every-body- equal. Wouldn’t that be more how the perception of their blunt, belligerent, brutal, bestial-ness is bandied about for us?
Than Shwe should appear with the rest of the World’s leaders on a ‘Are you smarter than a fifth grader?’ show of some sort. He should, but he wont. He’s a somebody.
If you can’t mock someone out of reclusiveness, then what are you meant to do? 🙁
Monk
On both sides of the divide are monks involved.
The austere approach discussing what Buddhism should be often ends up in orthodoxy that somehow contradicts much of how Bhuddism has developed in Buddhist cultures.
Why are these monks called “renta-monk” just in this case? Also the PAD had monks appearing and performing ceremonies.
In many ways almost all of popular Buddhism then could be labeled such – monks are given donations for the appearance at weddings, at funerals and at any other event their presence is required.
But, this is integral part of Thai culture and Thai Bhuddism. Buddhism has its orthodox aspects, and equally important popular believes that may contradict the more orthodox leanings of some.
There are some monks which are regulars at the Red Shirt rallies, some appear even on the stage. Others i have heard holding sermons about politics, democracy and dhamma to protesters. Especially important was this in the aftermath of the Songkran Riots, where Red Shirts have gathered (without the red shirts) in small groups during the emergency decree, and discussed the crackdown. There people closely listened to what the monks had to say.
Not much has been written about the involvement of monks and religion, other than biased polemics, unfortunately.
I very much welcome this article. The involvement of religion and monks shows very much that the present conflict is much more than just a political or social conflict, but goes to the heart of Thai identity.
Monk
the PAD/yellow shirts were strongly supported in running food supplies and in rituals and accompanied in their occupations of Government House and, I think, the airports by their current leader and a cohort of Santi Asoke monks.
see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santi_Asoke for some more info, not mentioned in that article it seems Chamlong styles as a lay leader for the sect and as Wikipaedia mentions the group is seen as anti-Thaksin.
recently the redshirts have been permitted to stage rallies at Wat Suan Keow and in association with a city monastery and numbers of monks have attended their rallies and senior monks have spoken on stage. a (dhammakaya) monk has a regular morning spot on DTV
Than Shwe in profile
So don’t underestimate him on what he did in the past! Shame that does nothing to shape the future. Perhaps instead we should label him a coward for failing to face up to the future. After all, we know most of his kind will scuttle off to Singapore when the shit really hits the fan. Hardly the actions of a man who is prepared to face the future without a lot of firepower and accumulated filthy lucre to protect him
Monk
Yes. I made the rentamonks comment. Certainly monks are entitled to have views. But they seemed to have been more interested in practicing voodoo religion than actually expressing an opinion in this case.
Than Shwe in profile
Thanks Aiontay and Hla Oo,
I appreciate your well-informed perspectives on this intriguing set of issues and histories.
I would be particularly keen to see evidence for the assertion that while Than Shwe, and the others, “might not be simple, they aren’t particualarly bright”.
It strikes me that this is a working assumption held by most people. But is there evidence to support it? Anybody out there able to share the academic record of any senior Burmese government figure? I am fishing for something concrete that would help us to better undertand the intellectual capacity of some of these guys. We often rely on proxy measurements of their reputed “smarts” (lack of foreign language appitude, brutality, insularity, xenophobia, etc, etc) but I wonder if this is, at the end of the day, quite misleading.
Specific examples of how dim, or otherwise, the members of the SPDC are would be very instructive.
Best wishes to all,
Nich
Than Shwe in profile
Brute, despot, recluse, greedy bastard, skillful manipulator. You can call Than Shwe, the notorious Dictator of Burma, any name but a coward who led his troops into numerous defeats at the hands of the Communists.
He commanded a light infantry division in the seventies and wiped Burmese Communist Party HQ troops off Pegu Yoma. He has now build his Nay-Pyi-Daw on that same sacred ground of thick jungle where thousands of Burmese communist were killed by his own troops.
He was the divisional commander of Delta in the eighties and his troops brutally stopped the Karens from gaining a foothold there again.
He was one of the very early graduates of OTS which selects her candidates from among the bravest and most capable Sergeants under the age of 30 from the fighting army which has been waging a brutal civil war against its own ethnic minorities and the resilient Communists.
Underestimating him would be a grave mistake for the democracy fighters of Burma.
Than Shwe in profile
Can’t say that I kow much about Than Shwe personally, or any of the Burmese military guys, but while they might not be simple, they aren’t particualarly bright. They do have a criminal cunning, and a willingness to use violence that most normal people don’t have, and consequently the Burmese military is frequently underestimated. I suspect that the description of Ceau┼Яescu in Robert Kaplan’s book “Balkan Ghosts” would apply equally well to Than Shwe.
I would also point out that once you seize control of a modern state the norms of international relations provide you all sorts of power and grudging legitimacy, no matter how bright or stupid you are. Let’s face it, nobody, not even the US, is going to support Kachin independence. or sign an oil deal with the KNU. Of course this has always been true, not just in the modern era. As a Taoist philosopher observed a couple of thousand years ago, ” A man is put to death for stealing a fish hook; a man who steals a country is made king.”
Stranger than fiction
Thanks Ralph. Well spotted. Please let us know if the mermaid appears on the Royal News. AW
Review of “Tearing Apart the Land”
I would like to commend Duncan McCargo the following:
1. His seriousness as a scholar. He understands Thai language (he talked about this book in Thai with Pitch in ChuPitch Program in Prachatai Webboard), which made his field work credible.
2. His originality about network monarchy is a significant contribution.
I would also like to commend the reviewer Sawarin Suwichakornpong as well. Your critical reading is amazing. I hope to see you further in the Thai political studies and come up with your recommendations. As a native, (Thai Chinese, just guessing), you may have different insights and perspectives to the issue for a constructive debate with Duncan McCargo, even though the problem may not be fixed quickly.
Having said the above, I would like to critique one point. I hope to see Professor Duncan McCargo touches on the theoretical side of international politics, instead of only based on the comparativist approach, empirical work, and domestic politics level. McCargo provided an overview fact finding bottom up, however, without theoretical international relations analysis, one will have hard time explaining why the Southern militancy is intensified during the Post-Cold War world. Focusing on the domestic politics can provide only half of the story. International politics theories will stipulate the casual association between independent and dependent variables and reduce the complexity to its essential components.
Stranger than fiction
A debate arguing with prejudice fails to inform, it only inflames. It takes society nowhere. There’s no point to go around the bush with your hidden agenda about China. China and Thailand has blood-bonded special relationship especially in the national security matter. In short, Panda is here to stay.
Stranger than fiction
Aquariums educate? About all most zoos and aquariums here do is acclimatize people to living in emotional, economic and social slavery themselves. And unless very well-run, they frequently just result in just more dead, dead-bored and psychotic animals. That sounds familiar too!
Stranger than fiction
Last evening’s royal news featured the underwater panda in the aquarium. Brilliant student, badminton champion and fashion designer Sirivannavari Nariratana visited the real live panda with a bunch of buddies and took photos and then went to the aquarium – there it was, the underwater panda, waving to her.
Stranger than fiction
Aquarium helps expand people horizon, it is a living educational tool, healthy for our minds. The issue being argued here seems to be about the aquarium high technology and the panda show, rather about the educational entertainment of the aquarium. In my opinion, the presence of Panda in Thailand is about the common interest in peace. It is a preventive measure to ensure an assumption that every nation has an identical interest in peace, and that any nation which desires to disturb the peace is therefore both irrational and immoral. This is the underlying reason why Chiang Mai is proud of her advanced technology aquarium and the panda show.