Something you guys might be interested in: a project by the Pridi Institute to gather & restore a lot of valuable & hitherto inaccessable historical stuff relating to Thai political history post 1932, & make it available through an ‘E-Library.’
Initially the works will consist of printed & AV materials mainly related to Pridi & his wife Poonsuk, although “Websites for other prominent persons such as Puey Ungpakorn, Kularb Saipradit and Jit Pumisak, who are not mentioned in school text books and official histories, will be produced as well.”
Just to get your juices flowing: “… audio clips of Tee Srisuwan making a confession to the late Panyananta Bhikku in 1979 for having framed Pridi in the case of King Ananda’s death were also available on the website.”
Pridi By Pridi; Selected Writings on Life, Politics, and Economy
translated by Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit is also available for download (pdf).
Billy, if there is no LM law it can’t be abused. Reform by royalists is unlikely to bring meaningful change. The law is there because it suits the palace just fine. It also suits conservatives. When the political going gets tough they use the law against opponents. They have done so several times. Data suggests that the law has been most used in 1976-77 and now, since 2005.
Currently, some scholars began to write in the direction of Siam as a diverse ethnics country. I wonder why didn’t they do so much earlier. This information is not a new finding either to Siamese or Western scholars. Western scholars in Southeast Asian history are well-versed on this kind of literature, especially from historiography aspect. As for Siamese, it is implicitly known among its citizen about ethnics differences in the north, northeast, south, and central. It has never been an issue for Siam’s sovereignty until recent past.
So my questions are the following:
1. Why the issue of ethnics diversity come up now?
(According to this article, the compilation of the Southern ethnics difference began in 1981)
2. What is the importance of the South to Thailand and Southeast Asia geo-strategic?
I would like to argue that even though Siam currently is facing various crises, however, I believe its citizens and Siamese government would keep its sovereignty intact. Even though there are domestic political differences, I believe Siamese support Abhisit government in making the contract with China to build railways across the country to keep the country’s unity and sovereign. I would like to say thank you to Siamese military for its far-sighted on Siam-China special relationship for peace and security of Southeast Asian countries.
Have to correct myself – one book is available in English, i.e. A Century of Thai Graphic Design published by River Books. But still almost nothing compared with the more than 100 books he wrote in Thai.
Ralph Kramden suggests that the LM law be abolished. Easy to say, harder to do. The issue right now is how to prevent it from being abused by the likes of Akbar Khan, or political elites with grudges against other political elites, or yellows vs. reds. Reform is what can be done, and this is what political will should be mustered to do. Ralph, let’s not make the perfect the enemy of the good
…is comically wrong in his analyzes on the drug war, and in particular regarding the killings, and its relevance to the ouster of Thaksin.
The drug war killings had no relevance whatsoever in the rise of the PAD or the military coup. On the contrary – the military was an active partner in the drug war (as was the civil service, and all other institutions of the state). A PAD leader such as Sondhi Limthongkul has during the killings actively supported the drug war killings through favorable reporting. He has even accused Thaksin during the first Royal Plaza meeting that he has lately been too easy on drug dealers (this photographer here has listened carefully to Sondhi’s speech at the time). Also Chamlong Srimuang has not uttered one word against the killings at the time they happened. And neither do i remember any other PAD having been protesting against the drug war killings at the time.
“Taxi drivers” and most other Thais have supported the drug war not just out of “lack of understanding of the significance”, but because their communities were directly affected by a drug problem that was way out of hand, and not to a small part because the previous Democrat government has done nothing to stop the rise of drugs other than holding speeches of good intent.
Maybe “jonfernquest” lacks understanding of the significance of the drug problem in the communities. The drug war, and the killings, are a far too complex matter to just simplify them for the sake of a personal political agenda. Of course there are human rights issues involved, no doubt about that. But there are also the human rights issues to consider of the many Thais whose families got destroyed by drugs.
Additionally, may i point “jonfernquest” to a speech of H.M. the King, given on Dec. 4th 2003, quoted from the Bangkok Post transalation:
Quote begin:
““Victory in the war on drugs is good. They may blame the crackdown for more than 2,500 deaths, but this is a small price to pay. If the prime minister failed to curb [the drugs trade], over the years the number of deaths would easily surpass this toll. The lives of many officials are lost in working to bring the drug trade under control. These figures are often not counted, but it could be as high as the number of victims in the war on drugs.
They blame the prime minister for the drug deaths. Not all the deaths have been counted, but most of victims were killed by those involved in the drugs trade. There may be only a few deaths for which authorities must take responsibility, so we have to classify those who were killed by fellow dealers, buyers and addicts, and those killed by authorities. ”
Quote end.
Where “jonfernquest” may have a point is the lack of attention by the international media. The reason however is not so much the foreign correspondents based here he accuses of having ignored the problem, but that the drug war happened at the same time the Iraq war began. There simply was no space in foreign publications or interest by its editorial offices.
This photographer here, for example, has in fact spent much time and own funds on photographing and investing the drug war killings, and to his great distress was at the time not able to get any image published anywhere (this photographer here nearly gave up his profession because of this, and has for more than 6 months after the drug war not touched his cameras). Only more than 3 years after the end of the drug war has this photographer been able to sell images of the drug war killings to numerous publications.
Journalists do not live from love and fresh air alone – also journalists need money to pay their bills and feed their families, which is difficult enough.
In “jonfernquest’s” rants against journalists, the FCCT, and anybody who does not share his views, he betrays a multitude of strange personal grudges, and a complete lack of understanding of the workings of the international media, and uses expert sophistry to defend the indefensible. Yet he is completely missing the issue at hand – that the lese majeste accusations against the FCCT are possibly the worst abuse of the lese majeste laws so far, and are most damaging to the institution these accusers pretend to protect.
Got to wonder why jonfernquest presents Singapore as a beacon of anything to do with freedoms…….. As Ralph Kramden (oh, I really couldn’t care less if that’s a pseudonym – I suspect that Susie Wong, dudeist, brainface, Very Funny etc may also be pseudonyms……. what do you think?) points out, the tirade in #12 completely ignores the point made in #11.
Confining my comment about “moral leader” to just Abhisit (for reasons that should be obvious even to jonfernquest) – just what has he actually DONE to qualify for that title? Slick, well-oiled words to the fellows at Oxford and in multiple interviews – and what action? You don’t have to be a fan of “Yes, Minister” to know that setting up a panel to review the LM law and its application is almost invariably about kicking another ball into the long grass: cf. the Rohingya “investigation” – what a triumph of “transparency” and thoroughness that was………
Same old game, slicker PR than his predecessors – and still a captive of the people who put him where he is.
And the notion that “Thailand is the only place where there seems to be a complete free for all” ? Bizarre………. In addition to the valid (and obvious to most – but not to jonfernquest) examples raised by Ralph Kramden – just a couple more: how many websites has the ICT blocked and how many issues of The Economist have not been distributed? Not “free for all” – just free for the chosen few to crank out distortions and a tightly restricted selection of what’s deemed allowable. Others get jumped on from a great height or self-censor to avoid exactly that.
Ok, that’s the first I’ve heard about this but that’s pretty fascinating. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some money changing hands…
The thing that I think is funny about the swine flu/A(H1N1) case (if I can say that) is that government teachers told children they should wear face masks to school, after which the price of face masks jumped from something like 50 kyats to 500 kyats (5 cents to 50 cents).
That’s despite the WHO says only health care workers/carers or those with flu-like symptoms should wear face masks.
Thanks Andy, yes I think you are right about English version of Anake’s works. There are more interesing images of advertisments to come in the next several weeks.
Andrew, i like the way you ‘exposed’ to the world how to love my country. Sarcastic, humorous but true!
PostScript: Instiutions, no matter how prestigious they are, cant garantee their members’ morality and other virtuous identities. Possibly because some institutions themselves lack of such characteristics as well.
Why rely on hearsay or getting journalists to investigate this? There are academic studies before, during and, I suspect (but don’t know for sure) after Thaksin’s health care innovations that reflect on who could or couldn’t get free or cheap health care.
The good folks at Mahidol’s Institute for Population and Social Research certainly produced reports on the pre-Thaksin period. These would have been in the days prior to easy web access, so I am unsure if they are available except by contacting them or through a library. However, they do have a number of PDFs on their website that might be of relevance. e.g. from their journal, this:
Patterns of Household Expenditure on Health Care in Thailand
Woottipong Satayavongthip
“Objective of this study was to investigate the patterns of household expenditure on health care according to region, administrative area (municipal, sanitary, rural), income, and occupation of the household head. The study emphasized on the pattern of expenditure and the pattern of health service purchasing. This study was an analysis of secondary data. The unit of analysis was the household. The Socio-Economic Survey 1996 conducted by the National Statistical Office was the database.
The results showed that there were 71 percent from 25,110 households that had health expenditure in 30 days before the survey. The average monthly health expenditure for the households that paid for health care was 144.05 baht per household. Almost half of the households (48 percent) were in the pattern of self-treatment only, one-third (33 percent) were in the pattern on principal treatment in the private sector and/or health examination, and one-fifth (20 percent) were in the pattern of principal treatment in the public sector. The average monthly health expenditure and health purchasing patterns were different among households according to household characteristics such as region, area of residence, income, and occupation of the household heads.”
There’s more like this.
I also recall that there were a number of academic studies and international reports that examined health care in the Thaksin period. They could be sought out through the usual literature search methods.
jonfernquest misses the point at #12: My comment was not about the war on drugs, but your undocumented accusation that “Likewise, Thaksin’s bloody hands (~3,000 extrajudicial executions during “Drug War” , Tak Bai, Krue Se Mosque) are washed conviently clean in the short spans of the memories of academics or blamed entirely on PM Abhisit…”. This is unfounded nonsense. That you dislike Thaksin and love the king and Abhisit as so-called moral leaders is quite another point.
At #13, you do realise that your comment fits nicely with Thaksin’s own views on Singapore and the media? That aside, your view that Thailand is a media “free for all” is also nonsense and ignores LM laws, self censorship, your own point about the failure to investigate murders of local journalists (in the domestic press) and so on. There is nothing “natural” about controlling free expression. It is a deliberate act.
It is sad that (to my knowledge) none of the books of Ananke was ever translated into English, to make his plethora of writing accessible to those not able to read Thai yet. Though it won’t be that many, I still believe there should be a lot of people who’d love to have this part of cultural history unlocked.
Be careful opening the link to “Boy Scout Event”. My virus scanner just warned me of a malicious Java on that site, and I recall not too long ago that sub-site of the Public Relations Department had been in Google site warning and thus did not open in Firefox at all. Seems like the webmaster failed to protect the site from all the naughty things like SQL injection, and now tries to collect drones in a botnet.
[Thanks for the tip about the link Andy. I have replaced the link with a jpg image of the story. Andrew Walker]
DTNA#7: First of all, there’s absolutely no concrete evidence that Abhisit wants to do anything about LM abuse (sweet-talk is not concrete evidence), in fact quite the opposite – he recently became Member No. 1 in a covert operation set up by his govt, in which Thai subjects above the age of 15 will be trained & sent out to spy on their workmates, neighbours, etc., reporting back to the Ministry of Thai Justice (if you see my point!) so that they can be dealt with. A major concern of this spyforce will be LM accusations.
Secondly, throwing the cretinous & sychophantic Akbar K out will not simplify the ‘entire thing,’ because it’s much bigger than the FCCT case, apalling as that is. A.K. is not the only accuser, by a long shot – he’s not even the accuser in the FCCT board case. A 57 year-old female rottweiller with stunning Thai fascist connections (thanks, Susie W #3) is the perpetrator of this current abuse. If you look around, you’ll find there are videos on You Tube & still photos of her on various Press & blog sites, formally submitting her accusation. And there are many other perpetrators, mostly Thais.
I feel that I should explain that the adjectives I append to Akbar’s name are due to my reading of his blogs, which are outstandingly artless, amateurish, misspelt, ungrammatical & vulgar, & may be found all over the place. There’s also a photo of him with his apparently, at the time, close friend, Mr Thaksin (Well, they both have big, leery smiles, so I’m assuming AK wants to give the message, ‘friends’.).
I must say I’m actually really pleased about the FCCT case. News of it has now gone out all over the world, showing everyone – at last! – what kind of ludicrous, self-involved, obsessive idiots run this country. As a sort of reverse-PR campaign, it’s magnificent. The timing & staging has so far been great. The Harry N debacle spread the word worldwide & made people sit up; then we had the Ji saga, & PM Opposite’s greasy Oxford visit, & the case of the student who wouldn’t stand up for the Anthem, & Sulak (Buddhist academic) being thrown into media coverage as further evidence of the spreading of moral idiocy. And now, they’ve declared war on the world’s FREE press. GREAT PUBLICITY! Brilliantly campaigned.
But, in the light of Thailand’s recent non-LM international media coverage (extortion of tourists by police; murders of tourists by police; the Santika fire & the behaviour of police & judiciary in that matter; the peculiarities of constitutional law in relation to the removal of 3 recent PMs and the miraculous metamorphosis of the former Leader of the fairly minor Opposition into PM; the invasion & hijacking of the houses of parliament & the international airport by insurgents with absolute impunity…) the country’s reputation would appear to be already at rock-bottom & therefore not in need of much further help in the direction of down.
The image of the Royals, the justice system, the Thai people & their entire culture is being most effectively ‘made over,’ from relatively positive to scarily negative – by the government, with this LM campaign. And it will stick. So – why? Why would they be sabotaging their own country ?
BTW, I’m not unduly concerned about the individuals on the FCCT board. They’re big enough & ugly enough to look after themselves, & no doubt provide the world with some damned good entertainment, and some pretty stirring articles, on the way. I don’t think it’ll get to court (the idiots will get cold feet), which will be a huge pity.
Akbar Khan, in another of his alleged aliases (as seen following links), is/was chief reporter at a newspaper down south. Why is it that the charge against Harry Ionides suddenly springs to mind!?!
“What jonfernquest seems more to imply by his negative statements is to deny non-Thai journalists the fundamental right to free expression.”
Why should they be completely free? Singapore limits what they can say and after Jakrapop’s little Black Songkran attempt at a revolution, it would only be natural that limits be imposed.
Thailand is the only place where there seems to be a complete free for all. One should really be thankful that the conflict is taking place at this war of words level. In a Tianamen like situation FCCT really becomes irrelevant.
No, (person whose pseudonym is Ralph Kramden) that is simply not true. Every element of the argument can be backed up with evidence.
Rather, once again it is not clear what you are talking about.
Thaksin goaded people on to do the killing and then people died. The evidence is abundant in newspapers from the time, from Pasuk and Baker’s biography.
It was truly nauseating afterwards to listen to taxi drivers explain to you that this mass slaughter and goading on of people to kill was somehow a good and effective policy in a Buddhist nation.
There is (duh) a causal relationship between encouraging people to kill and then when they kill, the deaths that happen. The mechanics in between are not clear and may never be because many hands were bloodied in the process. The itiphon meud side of Thai society has not been adequately explained yet. Thaksin lost his legitimacy completely at this point and even more so when supposedly Buddhist taxi drivers were explaining to their passengers that this was a good policy (in a Buddhist nation).
That someone who miss used his power as much as Thaksin could still be re-elected democratically due to some mass amnesia of what happened and lack of understanding of the significance of what happened is besides the point.
Thailand has a moral leader in His Majesty the King and PM Abhisit, not just a populist give the people whatever they want, even if it is morally wrong leader like Thaksin, and I would wager that no matter how many signatures the red shirts get, Thaksin will never be pardoned. There are some things that are beyond mere votes and bread and circuses.
The red shirts should really stick to the main issue which is righting rural economic inequalities.
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The Devil’s Discus – in Thai
Something you guys might be interested in: a project by the Pridi Institute to gather & restore a lot of valuable & hitherto inaccessable historical stuff relating to Thai political history post 1932, & make it available through an ‘E-Library.’
Initially the works will consist of printed & AV materials mainly related to Pridi & his wife Poonsuk, although “Websites for other prominent persons such as Puey Ungpakorn, Kularb Saipradit and Jit Pumisak, who are not mentioned in school text books and official histories, will be produced as well.”
Just to get your juices flowing: “… audio clips of Tee Srisuwan making a confession to the late Panyananta Bhikku in 1979 for having framed Pridi in the case of King Ananda’s death were also available on the website.”
Read all about it @ http://www.prachatai.com/english/node/1235
Thai: http://www.prachatai.com/05web/th/home/16988 or go straight there: http://www.pridi-phoonsuk.org/pridi-by-pridi/
Pridi By Pridi; Selected Writings on Life, Politics, and Economy
translated by Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit is also available for download (pdf).
The Devil’s Discus – in Thai
Anyone not think this is expensive?!!
http://www.maggs.com/title/MO49880.asp
“An attack on the rights of journalists”
Billy, if there is no LM law it can’t be abused. Reform by royalists is unlikely to bring meaningful change. The law is there because it suits the palace just fine. It also suits conservatives. When the political going gets tough they use the law against opponents. They have done so several times. Data suggests that the law has been most used in 1976-77 and now, since 2005.
Review of Southern Thai Encyclopedia
Currently, some scholars began to write in the direction of Siam as a diverse ethnics country. I wonder why didn’t they do so much earlier. This information is not a new finding either to Siamese or Western scholars. Western scholars in Southeast Asian history are well-versed on this kind of literature, especially from historiography aspect. As for Siamese, it is implicitly known among its citizen about ethnics differences in the north, northeast, south, and central. It has never been an issue for Siam’s sovereignty until recent past.
So my questions are the following:
1. Why the issue of ethnics diversity come up now?
(According to this article, the compilation of the Southern ethnics difference began in 1981)
2. What is the importance of the South to Thailand and Southeast Asia geo-strategic?
I would like to argue that even though Siam currently is facing various crises, however, I believe its citizens and Siamese government would keep its sovereignty intact. Even though there are domestic political differences, I believe Siamese support Abhisit government in making the contract with China to build railways across the country to keep the country’s unity and sovereign. I would like to say thank you to Siamese military for its far-sighted on Siam-China special relationship for peace and security of Southeast Asian countries.
Thai ephemera
Have to correct myself – one book is available in English, i.e. A Century of Thai Graphic Design published by River Books. But still almost nothing compared with the more than 100 books he wrote in Thai.
“An attack on the rights of journalists”
Ralph Kramden suggests that the LM law be abolished. Easy to say, harder to do. The issue right now is how to prevent it from being abused by the likes of Akbar Khan, or political elites with grudges against other political elites, or yellows vs. reds. Reform is what can be done, and this is what political will should be mustered to do. Ralph, let’s not make the perfect the enemy of the good
Review of Southern Thai Encyclopedia
Fantastic book and fantastic review.
Been wondering what is in these volumes.
Very useful.
“An attack on the rights of journalists”
“jonfernquest”…
…is comically wrong in his analyzes on the drug war, and in particular regarding the killings, and its relevance to the ouster of Thaksin.
The drug war killings had no relevance whatsoever in the rise of the PAD or the military coup. On the contrary – the military was an active partner in the drug war (as was the civil service, and all other institutions of the state). A PAD leader such as Sondhi Limthongkul has during the killings actively supported the drug war killings through favorable reporting. He has even accused Thaksin during the first Royal Plaza meeting that he has lately been too easy on drug dealers (this photographer here has listened carefully to Sondhi’s speech at the time). Also Chamlong Srimuang has not uttered one word against the killings at the time they happened. And neither do i remember any other PAD having been protesting against the drug war killings at the time.
“Taxi drivers” and most other Thais have supported the drug war not just out of “lack of understanding of the significance”, but because their communities were directly affected by a drug problem that was way out of hand, and not to a small part because the previous Democrat government has done nothing to stop the rise of drugs other than holding speeches of good intent.
Maybe “jonfernquest” lacks understanding of the significance of the drug problem in the communities. The drug war, and the killings, are a far too complex matter to just simplify them for the sake of a personal political agenda. Of course there are human rights issues involved, no doubt about that. But there are also the human rights issues to consider of the many Thais whose families got destroyed by drugs.
Additionally, may i point “jonfernquest” to a speech of H.M. the King, given on Dec. 4th 2003, quoted from the Bangkok Post transalation:
Quote begin:
““Victory in the war on drugs is good. They may blame the crackdown for more than 2,500 deaths, but this is a small price to pay. If the prime minister failed to curb [the drugs trade], over the years the number of deaths would easily surpass this toll. The lives of many officials are lost in working to bring the drug trade under control. These figures are often not counted, but it could be as high as the number of victims in the war on drugs.
They blame the prime minister for the drug deaths. Not all the deaths have been counted, but most of victims were killed by those involved in the drugs trade. There may be only a few deaths for which authorities must take responsibility, so we have to classify those who were killed by fellow dealers, buyers and addicts, and those killed by authorities. ”
Quote end.
Where “jonfernquest” may have a point is the lack of attention by the international media. The reason however is not so much the foreign correspondents based here he accuses of having ignored the problem, but that the drug war happened at the same time the Iraq war began. There simply was no space in foreign publications or interest by its editorial offices.
This photographer here, for example, has in fact spent much time and own funds on photographing and investing the drug war killings, and to his great distress was at the time not able to get any image published anywhere (this photographer here nearly gave up his profession because of this, and has for more than 6 months after the drug war not touched his cameras). Only more than 3 years after the end of the drug war has this photographer been able to sell images of the drug war killings to numerous publications.
Journalists do not live from love and fresh air alone – also journalists need money to pay their bills and feed their families, which is difficult enough.
In “jonfernquest’s” rants against journalists, the FCCT, and anybody who does not share his views, he betrays a multitude of strange personal grudges, and a complete lack of understanding of the workings of the international media, and uses expert sophistry to defend the indefensible. Yet he is completely missing the issue at hand – that the lese majeste accusations against the FCCT are possibly the worst abuse of the lese majeste laws so far, and are most damaging to the institution these accusers pretend to protect.
“An attack on the rights of journalists”
Got to wonder why jonfernquest presents Singapore as a beacon of anything to do with freedoms…….. As Ralph Kramden (oh, I really couldn’t care less if that’s a pseudonym – I suspect that Susie Wong, dudeist, brainface, Very Funny etc may also be pseudonyms……. what do you think?) points out, the tirade in #12 completely ignores the point made in #11.
Confining my comment about “moral leader” to just Abhisit (for reasons that should be obvious even to jonfernquest) – just what has he actually DONE to qualify for that title? Slick, well-oiled words to the fellows at Oxford and in multiple interviews – and what action? You don’t have to be a fan of “Yes, Minister” to know that setting up a panel to review the LM law and its application is almost invariably about kicking another ball into the long grass: cf. the Rohingya “investigation” – what a triumph of “transparency” and thoroughness that was………
Same old game, slicker PR than his predecessors – and still a captive of the people who put him where he is.
And the notion that “Thailand is the only place where there seems to be a complete free for all” ? Bizarre………. In addition to the valid (and obvious to most – but not to jonfernquest) examples raised by Ralph Kramden – just a couple more: how many websites has the ICT blocked and how many issues of The Economist have not been distributed? Not “free for all” – just free for the chosen few to crank out distortions and a tightly restricted selection of what’s deemed allowable. Others get jumped on from a great height or self-censor to avoid exactly that.
Swine flu comes between Myanmar journalists
Ok, that’s the first I’ve heard about this but that’s pretty fascinating. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some money changing hands…
The thing that I think is funny about the swine flu/A(H1N1) case (if I can say that) is that government teachers told children they should wear face masks to school, after which the price of face masks jumped from something like 50 kyats to 500 kyats (5 cents to 50 cents).
That’s despite the WHO says only health care workers/carers or those with flu-like symptoms should wear face masks.
Thai ephemera
Thanks Andy, yes I think you are right about English version of Anake’s works. There are more interesing images of advertisments to come in the next several weeks.
Two ways to love Thailand
Andrew, i like the way you ‘exposed’ to the world how to love my country. Sarcastic, humorous but true!
PostScript: Instiutions, no matter how prestigious they are, cant garantee their members’ morality and other virtuous identities. Possibly because some institutions themselves lack of such characteristics as well.
kebenaran terkini menyangkut Permainan Bandarq
Why rely on hearsay or getting journalists to investigate this? There are academic studies before, during and, I suspect (but don’t know for sure) after Thaksin’s health care innovations that reflect on who could or couldn’t get free or cheap health care.
The good folks at Mahidol’s Institute for Population and Social Research certainly produced reports on the pre-Thaksin period. These would have been in the days prior to easy web access, so I am unsure if they are available except by contacting them or through a library. However, they do have a number of PDFs on their website that might be of relevance. e.g. from their journal, this:
Patterns of Household Expenditure on Health Care in Thailand
Woottipong Satayavongthip
“Objective of this study was to investigate the patterns of household expenditure on health care according to region, administrative area (municipal, sanitary, rural), income, and occupation of the household head. The study emphasized on the pattern of expenditure and the pattern of health service purchasing. This study was an analysis of secondary data. The unit of analysis was the household. The Socio-Economic Survey 1996 conducted by the National Statistical Office was the database.
The results showed that there were 71 percent from 25,110 households that had health expenditure in 30 days before the survey. The average monthly health expenditure for the households that paid for health care was 144.05 baht per household. Almost half of the households (48 percent) were in the pattern of self-treatment only, one-third (33 percent) were in the pattern on principal treatment in the private sector and/or health examination, and one-fifth (20 percent) were in the pattern of principal treatment in the public sector. The average monthly health expenditure and health purchasing patterns were different among households according to household characteristics such as region, area of residence, income, and occupation of the household heads.”
There’s more like this.
I also recall that there were a number of academic studies and international reports that examined health care in the Thaksin period. They could be sought out through the usual literature search methods.
“An attack on the rights of journalists”
jonfernquest misses the point at #12: My comment was not about the war on drugs, but your undocumented accusation that “Likewise, Thaksin’s bloody hands (~3,000 extrajudicial executions during “Drug War” , Tak Bai, Krue Se Mosque) are washed conviently clean in the short spans of the memories of academics or blamed entirely on PM Abhisit…”. This is unfounded nonsense. That you dislike Thaksin and love the king and Abhisit as so-called moral leaders is quite another point.
At #13, you do realise that your comment fits nicely with Thaksin’s own views on Singapore and the media? That aside, your view that Thailand is a media “free for all” is also nonsense and ignores LM laws, self censorship, your own point about the failure to investigate murders of local journalists (in the domestic press) and so on. There is nothing “natural” about controlling free expression. It is a deliberate act.
Thai ephemera
It is sad that (to my knowledge) none of the books of Ananke was ever translated into English, to make his plethora of writing accessible to those not able to read Thai yet. Though it won’t be that many, I still believe there should be a lot of people who’d love to have this part of cultural history unlocked.
Where’s Vajiralongkorn?
Be careful opening the link to “Boy Scout Event”. My virus scanner just warned me of a malicious Java on that site, and I recall not too long ago that sub-site of the Public Relations Department had been in Google site warning and thus did not open in Firefox at all. Seems like the webmaster failed to protect the site from all the naughty things like SQL injection, and now tries to collect drones in a botnet.
[Thanks for the tip about the link Andy. I have replaced the link with a jpg image of the story. Andrew Walker]
The lese majeste circus continues
DTNA#7: First of all, there’s absolutely no concrete evidence that Abhisit wants to do anything about LM abuse (sweet-talk is not concrete evidence), in fact quite the opposite – he recently became Member No. 1 in a covert operation set up by his govt, in which Thai subjects above the age of 15 will be trained & sent out to spy on their workmates, neighbours, etc., reporting back to the Ministry of Thai Justice (if you see my point!) so that they can be dealt with. A major concern of this spyforce will be LM accusations.
Secondly, throwing the cretinous & sychophantic Akbar K out will not simplify the ‘entire thing,’ because it’s much bigger than the FCCT case, apalling as that is. A.K. is not the only accuser, by a long shot – he’s not even the accuser in the FCCT board case. A 57 year-old female rottweiller with stunning Thai fascist connections (thanks, Susie W #3) is the perpetrator of this current abuse. If you look around, you’ll find there are videos on You Tube & still photos of her on various Press & blog sites, formally submitting her accusation. And there are many other perpetrators, mostly Thais.
I feel that I should explain that the adjectives I append to Akbar’s name are due to my reading of his blogs, which are outstandingly artless, amateurish, misspelt, ungrammatical & vulgar, & may be found all over the place. There’s also a photo of him with his apparently, at the time, close friend, Mr Thaksin (Well, they both have big, leery smiles, so I’m assuming AK wants to give the message, ‘friends’.).
I must say I’m actually really pleased about the FCCT case. News of it has now gone out all over the world, showing everyone – at last! – what kind of ludicrous, self-involved, obsessive idiots run this country. As a sort of reverse-PR campaign, it’s magnificent. The timing & staging has so far been great. The Harry N debacle spread the word worldwide & made people sit up; then we had the Ji saga, & PM Opposite’s greasy Oxford visit, & the case of the student who wouldn’t stand up for the Anthem, & Sulak (Buddhist academic) being thrown into media coverage as further evidence of the spreading of moral idiocy. And now, they’ve declared war on the world’s FREE press. GREAT PUBLICITY! Brilliantly campaigned.
But, in the light of Thailand’s recent non-LM international media coverage (extortion of tourists by police; murders of tourists by police; the Santika fire & the behaviour of police & judiciary in that matter; the peculiarities of constitutional law in relation to the removal of 3 recent PMs and the miraculous metamorphosis of the former Leader of the fairly minor Opposition into PM; the invasion & hijacking of the houses of parliament & the international airport by insurgents with absolute impunity…) the country’s reputation would appear to be already at rock-bottom & therefore not in need of much further help in the direction of down.
The image of the Royals, the justice system, the Thai people & their entire culture is being most effectively ‘made over,’ from relatively positive to scarily negative – by the government, with this LM campaign. And it will stick. So – why? Why would they be sabotaging their own country ?
BTW, I’m not unduly concerned about the individuals on the FCCT board. They’re big enough & ugly enough to look after themselves, & no doubt provide the world with some damned good entertainment, and some pretty stirring articles, on the way. I don’t think it’ll get to court (the idiots will get cold feet), which will be a huge pity.
The lese majeste circus continues
Akbar Khan, in another of his alleged aliases (as seen following links), is/was chief reporter at a newspaper down south. Why is it that the charge against Harry Ionides suddenly springs to mind!?!
“An attack on the rights of journalists”
“What jonfernquest seems more to imply by his negative statements is to deny non-Thai journalists the fundamental right to free expression.”
Why should they be completely free? Singapore limits what they can say and after Jakrapop’s little Black Songkran attempt at a revolution, it would only be natural that limits be imposed.
Thailand is the only place where there seems to be a complete free for all. One should really be thankful that the conflict is taking place at this war of words level. In a Tianamen like situation FCCT really becomes irrelevant.
“An attack on the rights of journalists”
No, (person whose pseudonym is Ralph Kramden) that is simply not true. Every element of the argument can be backed up with evidence.
Rather, once again it is not clear what you are talking about.
Thaksin goaded people on to do the killing and then people died. The evidence is abundant in newspapers from the time, from Pasuk and Baker’s biography.
It was truly nauseating afterwards to listen to taxi drivers explain to you that this mass slaughter and goading on of people to kill was somehow a good and effective policy in a Buddhist nation.
There is (duh) a causal relationship between encouraging people to kill and then when they kill, the deaths that happen. The mechanics in between are not clear and may never be because many hands were bloodied in the process. The itiphon meud side of Thai society has not been adequately explained yet. Thaksin lost his legitimacy completely at this point and even more so when supposedly Buddhist taxi drivers were explaining to their passengers that this was a good policy (in a Buddhist nation).
That someone who miss used his power as much as Thaksin could still be re-elected democratically due to some mass amnesia of what happened and lack of understanding of the significance of what happened is besides the point.
Thailand has a moral leader in His Majesty the King and PM Abhisit, not just a populist give the people whatever they want, even if it is morally wrong leader like Thaksin, and I would wager that no matter how many signatures the red shirts get, Thaksin will never be pardoned. There are some things that are beyond mere votes and bread and circuses.
The red shirts should really stick to the main issue which is righting rural economic inequalities.