I have been collecting, researching and writing about the financial instruments of Myanmar, Lao, Cambodia and Viet Nam and their colonial pasts since 1964. Lottery tickets have artwork much like matchbook labels, and their are some other pieces with similar artwork. I have been sending my books to universities history and economics departments to convince the students to use financial instruments in their papers. I have had some success but it is true that it will take awhile to convince them to use collectibles.
It isn’t the case that the number of insurgent attacks has declined in recent months. They have in fact risen.
“Incidents involving improvised explosive devices surged from 12 in January to more than 30 in April, while gun attacks against both civilians and off-duty security force personnel rose from 15 in January to 40 in March.â€
Timely article, esp. with regards to what has transpired in Thailand since those two books were published. I do not think those two books are outdated. I do think they were timely at that time and more details and facts can be added as an update.
Regarding the succession, I have no doubt that a deal has been made, and on paper, the CP will become the next King. Yet I also believe that anything and everything is possible in present day Thailand. A number of unforeseen events could transpire to derail his ascension or even if he ascends to the throne, his reign will be short lived.
One must not lose sight of the reality and relevant facts: The CP is very much disliked by most Thais, despite the well funded palace PR machine. He has done so much damage and has lost all credibility and respect. Not to mention he has gained so many enemies who will do whatever they can, to plot his downfall. Plus the serious health issues he is living with. I do believe his days are numbered and hope, for the sake of the millions of Thais, that this “false demigod” the palace PR machine has constructed and erected, will be shown for what it is. In hindsight, it would have been so much better for Thailand today, if the monarchy was abolished during Pridi Banomyong’s time.
The Thai Royal Family has done more harm than good for Thailand and no amount of money spent can hide the truth from the Thai people. They now know more details than they ever have and that is one more reason why this illegitimate military junta is using the lese majeste law and article 44 and all means at their disposal, to stamp out any form or manner of talk about the Thai royal family, esp. the CP. The truth cannot be hidden and it is only a matter of time, before the whole truth is uncovered for all to see.
Traditional attitudes towards other ASEAN member countries by member countries of ASEAN still seem to run deep. Thai attitudes towards Burmese, Laotians and Cambodians are still redolent of past wars and conflicts going back 500-600 years. At the moment ASEAN and the AEC seem to be the career corner stones of high level civil servants, and there is little to be seen of them at street level. Thailand has imposed English language as a subject on supposedly all school kids, as English has been adopted as, what, the diplomatic language of ASEAN, but the vast majority of Thais are utterly indifferent to learning English; in many cases quite hostile in fact. The Thai government’s obvious moves towards China and now Russia and now almost hostile attitude towards the USA must also be seen as a stress point in ASEAN with the situation arising in the South China Sea. Thai defense relations with China as against the China versus Philipines and Vietnam claims in the SCS do not bode well for the secure future of ASEAN as a cohesive entity.
“But these economic ties must be further strengthened to justify any pivot, as President Obama is well aware. He signaled this when he met with leaders of the ten member states of ASEAN in February”
At which meeting, the ASEAN heads of state unanimously told the President that they wanted nothing to do with his SCS Code of Conduct.
In a further, also-unmentioned unpivot, the Philippines is considering withdrawing its bogus, US-initiated and funded lawsuit.
The pivot is no more likely to succeed than the equally clueless TPP.
“But these economic ties must be further strengthened to justify any pivot, as President Obama is well aware. He signaled this when he met with leaders of the ten member states of ASEAN in February”
At which meeting, the ASEAN heads of state unanimously told the President that they wanted nothing to do with his SCS Code of Conduct.
In a further, also-unmentioned unpivot, the Philippines is considering withdrawing its bogus, US-initiated and funded lawsuit.
The pivot is no more likely to succeed than the equally clueless TPP.
“And yet we do not face sustained criticism for calling ourselves Australian.”
The astonishing irrelevance of this is almost beyond the capacity of an educated non-Australian to take in.
Maybe if the arrival of the Rohingya had resulted in the death of 90% of those who’d previously lived in Burma there would be no criticism, “sustained” or otherwise, of their calling themselves whatever they wanted.
At the time when Yingluck became PM many people didn’t believe her administration would last the first 6 months. The army was clearly not happy. The Democrat party was arguing that if election promises were not implemented within 3 months, the government had lost its legitimacy and should be held accountable by legal means.
Thaksin governments have never threatened to freeze or confiscate assets. The yellow side has done so repeatedly. Remember that the upper-class is split in the middle politically. It’s the middle-class that are supporting the yellow side. It’s the rich families in Bangkok, actively supporting the red side, who have reasons to worry about keeping their assets in Thailand.
Even as the migration chickens are coming home to roost on the shores of Europe and America’s border with Mexico the historic legacy of colonial settlers and indentured workers the world over still impacts on the lives of millions, not to mention communal strife leading to violent conflict. Northern Ireland and Sri Lanka are just a couple of well known examples.
The current ‘irregular migrants’ are themselves a product of recent history as the big powers continue to stir up trouble and follow it through with direct or indirect intervention. Then it’s time to play the cavalry to the rescue completing the full circle.
Whilst it may be too un-PC to point out a common denominator, and whilst it’s true to some extent the host society benefits from the injection of some new blood if you will, does the trouble nowadays outweigh the benefit? Is it ironic that the UK’s imminent referendum is being fought by and large over the issue of immigration, not so much the coloured kind from the old Commonwealth as white East European? The chickens sure are coming home to roost.
Two points of contention with this post:
1)Migration has benefited Myanmar, or migration is generally beneficial.
2)Using misleading and disingenuous statements to support political agendas.
Point One: “Myanmar has benefited from countless waves of migrants…â€: this declaration is not simply an over simplification, saying “Myanmar has benefited from countless waves of migrants…†is perhaps true, but as a standalone statement it is one-sided and disingenuous. Why not say “Myanmar has suffered from countless waves of migrants…â€, is this not equally true? Of course suffering caused by migrants does not fit the proposed political agenda that follows.
Or, perhaps it is that Burmese Buddhists (and myself) are simply are too ignorant to realize that they only benefited from migrants. The Burmese who rioted against Indians in 1930-31 and again in 1938 (this time more specifically against Indian Muslims) were simply too ignorant to realize just how beneficial those Indian economic entrepreneurs, civil servants and occasional Muslim missionaries were for them. That the Burmese were migrants too at one time only reinforces my argument.
Obviously someone benefits from migration to a host country or area, particularly when this migration is locally controlled. However, when elites control migration, local commoners most often do not benefit to the point where the benefits outweigh the deficits. Great Britain controlled migration in its colonies and she benefited greatly from the migration of Indians to Myanmar and Chinese to Malaysia; is that the standard to declare “benefit� Several high profile conflicts that still exist today in Southeast Asia stem from just this local commoner loss of control over migration: Bengali Muslims to Myanmar; Chinese to Malaysia, Filipino Christians to Mindanao, and more recently Javanese Muslims to Sulawesi and West Papua. In the case of Malaysia, are we to recognize the economic prosperity that the Chinese migrants have produced and thus state that Malay Muslims have benefited and leave it at that?
Finally, let’s remember that migrants are equally racist, religionist and ethnocentric as the host people, only migrants usually have to be on their best behavior because, at first at least, they are minorities with no standing in the community.
Point Two: Certainly writers should not use one-sided disingenuous statements to support political agendas, particularly when that writer is an academic (I self-identify as an academic). Unfortunately, this type of post is fairly common on New Mandala as they are elsewhere. The standalone statement “Myanmar has benefited from countless waves of migrants…†means to disarm the reader in order to open the reader up to the proposed political program that follows. “Migrants and migration are beneficial, so why worry? So, let’s do this…â€
Why not say something like:
“Migration is a fact of human existence and we need to find ways to address migration that is fair to all. Many aspects of migration are beneficial…â€
This type of statement neither misleads (though it still leads the reader) nor is it disingenuous and it remains in line with the political agenda that follows.
I wonder if the marked increase between 2011 and 2012 may reflect those who, possibly with some justification(!), felt that their personal capital interests could be threatened by a Shinawatra-led government with a redistributive economic programme.
Suharto didn’t use Pancasila to mean unity in diversity. Pancasila was the basic state ideology in Indonesia, and its not unique to Suharto. It was drafted in 1945, long before Suharto to came to power.
Bhinneka Tunggal Ika comes from a phrase in Javanese poem of the Majapahit era. It is used to describe the unity of the truth between Shiva and Buddha. In the poem it meant, while there are different, in reality they are the same.
Bhinneka Tunngal Ika serves as the national motto of Indonesia. It written underneath the national symbol, the Garuda. All these Hindu-Buddhist symbols are also shared by the Sundanese, Balinese and Sasak of Lombok, its not exclusively Javanese.
Suharto was a middle nationalist in reality, much more so that Sukarno. Suharto gets blame, but Sukarno initiated. Whether its invasion of Papua, gets off free often for doing much worse, whether its persecution of Chinese Indonesian, transmigration, Javanese colonialism
Why the Panama Papers should concern us Thais and Asians all: In 2012, $35.56 billion flowed out of the Thailand illegally through misinvoicing in trade transactions – which can allow exporters and imports to keep money out of the country – and through other forms of graft, such as money laundering, smuggling and tax evasion.
That figure marked a 21.3% increase from 2011, when $29.3 million illicitly flowed out of the kingdom. Illegal capital movements totalled $24.2 billion in 2010 and just $14.8 billion in 2009.
Or maybe, it was intentional from the government to keep their citizens not as educated. After all, Indonesia briefly had a president whose campaign is “You do not need to be educated as President, SD (Primary School) is enough.”
Even with this state of education, Indonesia constantly demanding free education. Will free education ever works? Maybe only in certain very rich country with enough capability to subsidy all the related cost that the students have to pay to the school.
Realistically wise, not possible.
Ideally wise, teachers should be robot that will perform to perfection regardless of pay/no pay.
When addressing corruption in Indonesia, I feel that one should focus more on the punishment rather than the prosecution of the corrupter.
Does handing out punishment of 2-6 years jail sentence, that we do not even sure if it is being sentenced properly, and fines justify the amount that is corrupted?
Given the best example of the previous religious minister of Indonesia, Suryadharma Ali, who corrupted Hajj funds and only sentenced for 6 years (at the moment of writing, he is claiming ill in hospital). If, even Hajj funds can be corrupted in Indonesia, is there even anything that is forbidden?
Not to mention the Freeport Incident, on how casual the incident ended, one would wonder what is actually happening. (My theory is, whoever get the money by the end of the day if the incident was not known, then that individual is the culprit).
Corruption is everywhere in Indonesia and thriving, as in, why not if there were not equivalent punishment for the crime?
I personally do not feel anything will change in Indonesia for decades to come, as long the government willing to mete out punishment that can serve as deterrence for the corrupter.
“Strength in diversity” applies well in the case of multidisciplinary teams working on a scientific problem. But these people have something in common already: a tendency to form beliefs based on evidence. When diverse beliefs are based on differing authority or tradition, people don’t communicate, form ghettos, and at some stage start bashing each other over the head. Typical multiculturalists are in denial about this.
Good government consolidates its power by uniting its citizens around good governance, championing social justice and embraces diversity, inclusiveness and rule of law. Bad government consolidates its power via abusing law and manipulating the legislature, divide and rule. Detention without trial is a very divisive and unjust law. Bad government must be opposed.
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Colonial Burma, history and phillumeny
I have been collecting, researching and writing about the financial instruments of Myanmar, Lao, Cambodia and Viet Nam and their colonial pasts since 1964. Lottery tickets have artwork much like matchbook labels, and their are some other pieces with similar artwork. I have been sending my books to universities history and economics departments to convince the students to use financial instruments in their papers. I have had some success but it is true that it will take awhile to convince them to use collectibles.
Washington’s pivot to Southeast Asia
Guess the first thing Obama did when he visit Vietnam? Sell Arms! yes, the war mongering never stops…
Keeping everyone on the edge of war is the US way of maintaining influence… the world better wake up to it.
The school in the middle
It isn’t the case that the number of insurgent attacks has declined in recent months. They have in fact risen.
“Incidents involving improvised explosive devices surged from 12 in January to more than 30 in April, while gun attacks against both civilians and off-duty security force personnel rose from 15 in January to 40 in March.â€
http://asia.nikkei.com/Politics-Economy/Policy-Politics/War-and-peace-in-southern-Thailand
The king still never smiles
Timely article, esp. with regards to what has transpired in Thailand since those two books were published. I do not think those two books are outdated. I do think they were timely at that time and more details and facts can be added as an update.
Regarding the succession, I have no doubt that a deal has been made, and on paper, the CP will become the next King. Yet I also believe that anything and everything is possible in present day Thailand. A number of unforeseen events could transpire to derail his ascension or even if he ascends to the throne, his reign will be short lived.
One must not lose sight of the reality and relevant facts: The CP is very much disliked by most Thais, despite the well funded palace PR machine. He has done so much damage and has lost all credibility and respect. Not to mention he has gained so many enemies who will do whatever they can, to plot his downfall. Plus the serious health issues he is living with. I do believe his days are numbered and hope, for the sake of the millions of Thais, that this “false demigod” the palace PR machine has constructed and erected, will be shown for what it is. In hindsight, it would have been so much better for Thailand today, if the monarchy was abolished during Pridi Banomyong’s time.
The Thai Royal Family has done more harm than good for Thailand and no amount of money spent can hide the truth from the Thai people. They now know more details than they ever have and that is one more reason why this illegitimate military junta is using the lese majeste law and article 44 and all means at their disposal, to stamp out any form or manner of talk about the Thai royal family, esp. the CP. The truth cannot be hidden and it is only a matter of time, before the whole truth is uncovered for all to see.
The future of the EU-ASEAN relationship
Traditional attitudes towards other ASEAN member countries by member countries of ASEAN still seem to run deep. Thai attitudes towards Burmese, Laotians and Cambodians are still redolent of past wars and conflicts going back 500-600 years. At the moment ASEAN and the AEC seem to be the career corner stones of high level civil servants, and there is little to be seen of them at street level. Thailand has imposed English language as a subject on supposedly all school kids, as English has been adopted as, what, the diplomatic language of ASEAN, but the vast majority of Thais are utterly indifferent to learning English; in many cases quite hostile in fact. The Thai government’s obvious moves towards China and now Russia and now almost hostile attitude towards the USA must also be seen as a stress point in ASEAN with the situation arising in the South China Sea. Thai defense relations with China as against the China versus Philipines and Vietnam claims in the SCS do not bode well for the secure future of ASEAN as a cohesive entity.
Washington’s pivot to Southeast Asia
“But these economic ties must be further strengthened to justify any pivot, as President Obama is well aware. He signaled this when he met with leaders of the ten member states of ASEAN in February”
At which meeting, the ASEAN heads of state unanimously told the President that they wanted nothing to do with his SCS Code of Conduct.
In a further, also-unmentioned unpivot, the Philippines is considering withdrawing its bogus, US-initiated and funded lawsuit.
The pivot is no more likely to succeed than the equally clueless TPP.
Washington’s pivot to Southeast Asia
“But these economic ties must be further strengthened to justify any pivot, as President Obama is well aware. He signaled this when he met with leaders of the ten member states of ASEAN in February”
At which meeting, the ASEAN heads of state unanimously told the President that they wanted nothing to do with his SCS Code of Conduct.
In a further, also-unmentioned unpivot, the Philippines is considering withdrawing its bogus, US-initiated and funded lawsuit.
The pivot is no more likely to succeed than the equally clueless TPP.
Should ethnicity be reconsidered?
“And yet we do not face sustained criticism for calling ourselves Australian.”
The astonishing irrelevance of this is almost beyond the capacity of an educated non-Australian to take in.
Maybe if the arrival of the Rohingya had resulted in the death of 90% of those who’d previously lived in Burma there would be no criticism, “sustained” or otherwise, of their calling themselves whatever they wanted.
Thai junta to get its report card
At the time when Yingluck became PM many people didn’t believe her administration would last the first 6 months. The army was clearly not happy. The Democrat party was arguing that if election promises were not implemented within 3 months, the government had lost its legitimacy and should be held accountable by legal means.
Thaksin governments have never threatened to freeze or confiscate assets. The yellow side has done so repeatedly. Remember that the upper-class is split in the middle politically. It’s the middle-class that are supporting the yellow side. It’s the rich families in Bangkok, actively supporting the red side, who have reasons to worry about keeping their assets in Thailand.
Should ethnicity be reconsidered?
Even as the migration chickens are coming home to roost on the shores of Europe and America’s border with Mexico the historic legacy of colonial settlers and indentured workers the world over still impacts on the lives of millions, not to mention communal strife leading to violent conflict. Northern Ireland and Sri Lanka are just a couple of well known examples.
The current ‘irregular migrants’ are themselves a product of recent history as the big powers continue to stir up trouble and follow it through with direct or indirect intervention. Then it’s time to play the cavalry to the rescue completing the full circle.
Whilst it may be too un-PC to point out a common denominator, and whilst it’s true to some extent the host society benefits from the injection of some new blood if you will, does the trouble nowadays outweigh the benefit? Is it ironic that the UK’s imminent referendum is being fought by and large over the issue of immigration, not so much the coloured kind from the old Commonwealth as white East European? The chickens sure are coming home to roost.
Should ethnicity be reconsidered?
Two points of contention with this post:
1)Migration has benefited Myanmar, or migration is generally beneficial.
2)Using misleading and disingenuous statements to support political agendas.
Point One: “Myanmar has benefited from countless waves of migrants…â€: this declaration is not simply an over simplification, saying “Myanmar has benefited from countless waves of migrants…†is perhaps true, but as a standalone statement it is one-sided and disingenuous. Why not say “Myanmar has suffered from countless waves of migrants…â€, is this not equally true? Of course suffering caused by migrants does not fit the proposed political agenda that follows.
Or, perhaps it is that Burmese Buddhists (and myself) are simply are too ignorant to realize that they only benefited from migrants. The Burmese who rioted against Indians in 1930-31 and again in 1938 (this time more specifically against Indian Muslims) were simply too ignorant to realize just how beneficial those Indian economic entrepreneurs, civil servants and occasional Muslim missionaries were for them. That the Burmese were migrants too at one time only reinforces my argument.
Obviously someone benefits from migration to a host country or area, particularly when this migration is locally controlled. However, when elites control migration, local commoners most often do not benefit to the point where the benefits outweigh the deficits. Great Britain controlled migration in its colonies and she benefited greatly from the migration of Indians to Myanmar and Chinese to Malaysia; is that the standard to declare “benefit� Several high profile conflicts that still exist today in Southeast Asia stem from just this local commoner loss of control over migration: Bengali Muslims to Myanmar; Chinese to Malaysia, Filipino Christians to Mindanao, and more recently Javanese Muslims to Sulawesi and West Papua. In the case of Malaysia, are we to recognize the economic prosperity that the Chinese migrants have produced and thus state that Malay Muslims have benefited and leave it at that?
Finally, let’s remember that migrants are equally racist, religionist and ethnocentric as the host people, only migrants usually have to be on their best behavior because, at first at least, they are minorities with no standing in the community.
Point Two: Certainly writers should not use one-sided disingenuous statements to support political agendas, particularly when that writer is an academic (I self-identify as an academic). Unfortunately, this type of post is fairly common on New Mandala as they are elsewhere. The standalone statement “Myanmar has benefited from countless waves of migrants…†means to disarm the reader in order to open the reader up to the proposed political program that follows. “Migrants and migration are beneficial, so why worry? So, let’s do this…â€
Why not say something like:
“Migration is a fact of human existence and we need to find ways to address migration that is fair to all. Many aspects of migration are beneficial…â€
This type of statement neither misleads (though it still leads the reader) nor is it disingenuous and it remains in line with the political agenda that follows.
Thai junta to get its report card
I wonder if the marked increase between 2011 and 2012 may reflect those who, possibly with some justification(!), felt that their personal capital interests could be threatened by a Shinawatra-led government with a redistributive economic programme.
The school in the middle
Suharto didn’t use Pancasila to mean unity in diversity. Pancasila was the basic state ideology in Indonesia, and its not unique to Suharto. It was drafted in 1945, long before Suharto to came to power.
Bhinneka Tunggal Ika comes from a phrase in Javanese poem of the Majapahit era. It is used to describe the unity of the truth between Shiva and Buddha. In the poem it meant, while there are different, in reality they are the same.
Bhinneka Tunngal Ika serves as the national motto of Indonesia. It written underneath the national symbol, the Garuda. All these Hindu-Buddhist symbols are also shared by the Sundanese, Balinese and Sasak of Lombok, its not exclusively Javanese.
Suharto was a middle nationalist in reality, much more so that Sukarno. Suharto gets blame, but Sukarno initiated. Whether its invasion of Papua, gets off free often for doing much worse, whether its persecution of Chinese Indonesian, transmigration, Javanese colonialism
Out of sight, out of mind
Let’s go with shrewd governance! Anyways, there’s no such thing as ‘bad governance’. That’s tyranny to me. TGIF!
Thai junta to get its report card
Why the Panama Papers should concern us Thais and Asians all: In 2012, $35.56 billion flowed out of the Thailand illegally through misinvoicing in trade transactions – which can allow exporters and imports to keep money out of the country – and through other forms of graft, such as money laundering, smuggling and tax evasion.
That figure marked a 21.3% increase from 2011, when $29.3 million illicitly flowed out of the kingdom. Illegal capital movements totalled $24.2 billion in 2010 and just $14.8 billion in 2009.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/print/450212/
Indonesia’s education system sorely lacking leadership
Or maybe, it was intentional from the government to keep their citizens not as educated. After all, Indonesia briefly had a president whose campaign is “You do not need to be educated as President, SD (Primary School) is enough.”
Even with this state of education, Indonesia constantly demanding free education. Will free education ever works? Maybe only in certain very rich country with enough capability to subsidy all the related cost that the students have to pay to the school.
Realistically wise, not possible.
Ideally wise, teachers should be robot that will perform to perfection regardless of pay/no pay.
Indonesia’s anti-corruption drive (part two)
When addressing corruption in Indonesia, I feel that one should focus more on the punishment rather than the prosecution of the corrupter.
Does handing out punishment of 2-6 years jail sentence, that we do not even sure if it is being sentenced properly, and fines justify the amount that is corrupted?
Given the best example of the previous religious minister of Indonesia, Suryadharma Ali, who corrupted Hajj funds and only sentenced for 6 years (at the moment of writing, he is claiming ill in hospital). If, even Hajj funds can be corrupted in Indonesia, is there even anything that is forbidden?
Not to mention the Freeport Incident, on how casual the incident ended, one would wonder what is actually happening. (My theory is, whoever get the money by the end of the day if the incident was not known, then that individual is the culprit).
Corruption is everywhere in Indonesia and thriving, as in, why not if there were not equivalent punishment for the crime?
I personally do not feel anything will change in Indonesia for decades to come, as long the government willing to mete out punishment that can serve as deterrence for the corrupter.
The school in the middle
“Strength in diversity” applies well in the case of multidisciplinary teams working on a scientific problem. But these people have something in common already: a tendency to form beliefs based on evidence. When diverse beliefs are based on differing authority or tradition, people don’t communicate, form ghettos, and at some stage start bashing each other over the head. Typical multiculturalists are in denial about this.
The school in the middle
“Unity in diversity” is indeed meaningless. “Strength in diversity” on the other hand is much more useful.
Out of sight, out of mind
Good government consolidates its power by uniting its citizens around good governance, championing social justice and embraces diversity, inclusiveness and rule of law. Bad government consolidates its power via abusing law and manipulating the legislature, divide and rule. Detention without trial is a very divisive and unjust law. Bad government must be opposed.