Vietnamese Communists are no nationalists, they’re murderers, killing thousands of innocent southern Vietnameses, they committed the massacre at Huế in1968. Victims included women, men, children, and even infants. Estimated death toll was between 2800-6000 people. Victims were found bound, torttured, and buried alive. Many victims were also clubbed to death.
After taking over south VN 1975, they imprisoned people considered intellectuals in south VN, taking their houses, wives and tortured them to death in the so called “reeducation camps”
Please, educate yourself! VCs are no nationalists!
Shane Tarr : “trying to deconstruct Cambodia’s Constitution or the constitution of any society in transition is a waste of time”. Would you say that about Thailand’s current constitutional attempts ?
Putting aside whether it is a joke or not by this guy, I actually find it more hilarious when his supporters “warned” Australia to stay out of “Philippines Politics”.
Lesson learn, rape joke is part of Philippines politics, noted!
For aspiring Philippines politicians, remember to brush up your rape jokes now~
(To be fair, there is equally or worse soon-possibly-elect-president on the other side of the world)
Couldn’t agree more that workers’ rights and working conditions must be one of the NLD government’s top priorities.
Time to draw a line under the generals’ nauseating rhetoric and lip service constantly banging on about “the workers” and “the people”, abusing those terms for their own selfish reasons spattering them all over the place, while ruthlessly repressing and exploiting them at the same time.
Kudos to Trevor Wilson for addressing this bread and butter issue as important as the farmland issue.
Don’t blame you , Ohn. Has it ever stopped them from telling others how to run their affairs just because they can’t put their own house in order themselves?
Now we have the Chinese and the West in a tug of war over the Burmese market (that’s what it’s all about after all) hand in hand with a domestic tug of war between the new government and the generals over who’s really going to run the country.
Who wins? Who knows? I bet it won’t be all doom and gloom. Best laid plans and unintended consequences, eh? Just do not dismiss the public too readily. They are going to be as proactive an agent as the rest, powerless or no, and personality cult notwithstanding.
Popular struggle will never cease, and their spirit is irrepressible, their appetite for democratic freedoms only whetted for more. Expectations are running high and we are indeed privileged to be living in very interesting times.
[…] based at the Australian National University in Canberra, has argued that Suu Kyi and her party will need to think realistically about how to accommodate their prerogatives. “In considering the way ahead, Aung San Suu Kyi and […]
yes, remember teh porr taxi driver soon after the coup, who expressed his opinion on various matters to a passenger. The passenger was recordning teh conversation, took it to the police and presto to jail he goes.
In my last trip in bangkok I asked the driver what he thought of Ying Luck “jai dee. Jai dee!”
and then, the Military I questioned?. He almost turned white.
” jai dee ”
End of conversation
[…] Malaysia will never replace Indonesia as the main Australian focus in Southeast Asia but there are many critical links which makes Malaysia an important partner. […]
I am not sure where Ana McKenzie is coming from but the “analysis” above reads as though it was something lifted out of a Politics 101 course on Comparative Politics. Trying to deconstruct the Cambodian Constitution or indeed any constitution in a transitional society is a sheer waste of time. Hun Sen and the likes (rightly or wrongly) simply don’t play by sacred or in voidable laws and will do as they please. Cambodia may have a huge Facebook Culture but amongst which groups and classes in Cambodian society. The likes of Hun Sen will use whatever means he has at his disposal to deal with those he dislikes and unless the latter are able and willing to run the gauntlet of the Hun Sen CPP political machine – which I suspect not – they will have minimal impact on Cambodian politics.
This is 50th modernization concepts. We have to face it. Thailand is not a traditional society, but part of modern world society, even if some Thai leaders don’t want to acknowledge it.
In a traditional society a king is the leader of the country. Around him there are generals, judges and bureaucrats administering the country. These are the people at the top. Then you have rich businessmen, possibly a middle-class, and a great majority of poor people. It is a strictly hierarchal order with little social mobility.
In a modern society with democracy, this traditional order is thrown up in the air. People from the bottom can rise to become leaders of the country, and privileged people at the top can fall down to the bottom.
Thailand is still a traditional society in transit into a modern one. When conservative people in Thailand argue for a democracy that fits into the Thai context, what they mean is a democracy with the traditional order intact. In other words, an elected prime minister and parliament that has power in appearance, but are still tightly controlled from the top.
Thailand has experimented with this for a while. What keeps going wrong is that civilian governments tend to forget their place and start initiating their own policies. When not following the scripts they are given, coups are necessary. Corruption, vote buying etc, are just a bogeyman.
The riddle the army is trying to solve now is to find a system where governments can easily be disposed at will without having to go though the mess of coups, which is still accepted by the people.
This super rosy depiction is sickening . Funny coming from the wonderful “Western Democracies” who are s bankrupt even after looting off the world that even stoooopidest things like multiple and repeated QE’s and negative interest rates- repeat negative interest rates- would not put their own miserable deflative productivity slum into abyss.
At the end of the day the Burmese are shooed by Chinese beaters into the Western gunmen whereas in modern Africa, the Africans getting sick of centuries of “Western” ripping off (of which dear Cecil or Leopold II is only a tip of the iceberg) are suckling off the Chinese bosom.
Who wins? The usual suspects. Except this is only transitory but not before wasteland Burma will become.
I suppose that, coupled with some other factors, Mahathir was better at pressing the right buttons to keep people (and dissent) where he wanted them to be.
Be careful there, runyonalfredd, you may just get what you wish for.
After all, Thailand is BOTH “in its way of functionalizing democracy” and “not a democracy at all”.
And this has been the case for 84 years.
South Korea, on the other hand, went from Japanese colony to US-occupied to US-appointed to military dictatorship to a functioning democracy in just 40-odd years.
Vichai’s point is well-taken and needs to be emphasized in any discussion of these endlessly “developing” so-called democracies in ASEAN.
“If only a growth in GDP always translates into that. We should be so lucky.”
Not just only, NEVER does it relate to anything except money makers making more money. Neat though, at the same time those “citizenry” also feel buoyant, buoyant living in the squatter swamps because they now living in a High Class Country o RICH deportment.
IMF’s desperate attempt to fool the fools seem to be working on the surface but still hard to know (in fact unlikely) that those “fundamentals” such as guaranteed land confiscations and profit split dumping of consumer goods and labor exploitation can be done together with the military and the now “Human rights” educated Police. The very basis of “Democratic Economy”.
Most important secret ingredient in the recipe of modern DEEEmocracy is armed, ruthless rabid Police Force although they are also often drugged- sorry in other countries as well.
Certainly Khaen Phet. Though your first question is enormous, I’ll attempt to answer it briefly. Thai humour has long seen to me to revolve around karma, power, and face. It is marked typically by a lot of word games, eg. double entendres, symbolism, and theatricality, of which the Thai language is particularly enabling, eg. through its’ tonal system, succinctness, honorifics, etc. In sum, as a long time Thailand-resident once said to me : “they have a wicked sense of humour “.
As for the CP, one only has to look as far as the Field Marshall Fufu saga. Though there’s plenty more – eg. ramming a Japanese plane, his first marriage, gun-slinging, etc.
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Review of Vietnam 1946: How the War Began
Vietnamese Communists are no nationalists, they’re murderers, killing thousands of innocent southern Vietnameses, they committed the massacre at Huế in1968. Victims included women, men, children, and even infants. Estimated death toll was between 2800-6000 people. Victims were found bound, torttured, and buried alive. Many victims were also clubbed to death.
After taking over south VN 1975, they imprisoned people considered intellectuals in south VN, taking their houses, wives and tortured them to death in the so called “reeducation camps”
Please, educate yourself! VCs are no nationalists!
The quiet erosion of parliamentary immunity in Cambodia
Shane Tarr : “trying to deconstruct Cambodia’s Constitution or the constitution of any society in transition is a waste of time”. Would you say that about Thailand’s current constitutional attempts ?
Duterte’s rape joke no laughing matter
Putting aside whether it is a joke or not by this guy, I actually find it more hilarious when his supporters “warned” Australia to stay out of “Philippines Politics”.
Lesson learn, rape joke is part of Philippines politics, noted!
For aspiring Philippines politicians, remember to brush up your rape jokes now~
(To be fair, there is equally or worse soon-possibly-elect-president on the other side of the world)
The seeds of hope
[…] New Mandala […]
NLD needs to prioritise labour reform
Couldn’t agree more that workers’ rights and working conditions must be one of the NLD government’s top priorities.
Time to draw a line under the generals’ nauseating rhetoric and lip service constantly banging on about “the workers” and “the people”, abusing those terms for their own selfish reasons spattering them all over the place, while ruthlessly repressing and exploiting them at the same time.
Kudos to Trevor Wilson for addressing this bread and butter issue as important as the farmland issue.
Myanmar: an economy ready for takeoff
Don’t blame you , Ohn. Has it ever stopped them from telling others how to run their affairs just because they can’t put their own house in order themselves?
Now we have the Chinese and the West in a tug of war over the Burmese market (that’s what it’s all about after all) hand in hand with a domestic tug of war between the new government and the generals over who’s really going to run the country.
Who wins? Who knows? I bet it won’t be all doom and gloom. Best laid plans and unintended consequences, eh? Just do not dismiss the public too readily. They are going to be as proactive an agent as the rest, powerless or no, and personality cult notwithstanding.
Popular struggle will never cease, and their spirit is irrepressible, their appetite for democratic freedoms only whetted for more. Expectations are running high and we are indeed privileged to be living in very interesting times.
Duterte’s rape joke no laughing matter
Shameful and disgusting. This man does not deserve to be the president of the Philippines. IO hope the Filipino people will give him a strong rebuke
The realities of power in Myanmar
[…] based at the Australian National University in Canberra, has argued that Suu Kyi and her party will need to think realistically about how to accommodate their prerogatives. “In considering the way ahead, Aung San Suu Kyi and […]
Alice in Juntaland and autocracy in Thailand
yes, remember teh porr taxi driver soon after the coup, who expressed his opinion on various matters to a passenger. The passenger was recordning teh conversation, took it to the police and presto to jail he goes.
In my last trip in bangkok I asked the driver what he thought of Ying Luck “jai dee. Jai dee!”
and then, the Military I questioned?. He almost turned white.
” jai dee ”
End of conversation
Australia-Malaysia relations
[…] Malaysia will never replace Indonesia as the main Australian focus in Southeast Asia but there are many critical links which makes Malaysia an important partner. […]
The quiet erosion of parliamentary immunity in Cambodia
I am not sure where Ana McKenzie is coming from but the “analysis” above reads as though it was something lifted out of a Politics 101 course on Comparative Politics. Trying to deconstruct the Cambodian Constitution or indeed any constitution in a transitional society is a sheer waste of time. Hun Sen and the likes (rightly or wrongly) simply don’t play by sacred or in voidable laws and will do as they please. Cambodia may have a huge Facebook Culture but amongst which groups and classes in Cambodian society. The likes of Hun Sen will use whatever means he has at his disposal to deal with those he dislikes and unless the latter are able and willing to run the gauntlet of the Hun Sen CPP political machine – which I suspect not – they will have minimal impact on Cambodian politics.
Sticking it to the crown
Thanks for all the comments so far! I’ve learned a lot about the Royal family I didn’t know previously
Best wishes
Mish Khan
Donald Trump is Thailand’s friend
This is 50th modernization concepts. We have to face it. Thailand is not a traditional society, but part of modern world society, even if some Thai leaders don’t want to acknowledge it.
Donald Trump is Thailand’s friend
In a traditional society a king is the leader of the country. Around him there are generals, judges and bureaucrats administering the country. These are the people at the top. Then you have rich businessmen, possibly a middle-class, and a great majority of poor people. It is a strictly hierarchal order with little social mobility.
In a modern society with democracy, this traditional order is thrown up in the air. People from the bottom can rise to become leaders of the country, and privileged people at the top can fall down to the bottom.
Thailand is still a traditional society in transit into a modern one. When conservative people in Thailand argue for a democracy that fits into the Thai context, what they mean is a democracy with the traditional order intact. In other words, an elected prime minister and parliament that has power in appearance, but are still tightly controlled from the top.
Thailand has experimented with this for a while. What keeps going wrong is that civilian governments tend to forget their place and start initiating their own policies. When not following the scripts they are given, coups are necessary. Corruption, vote buying etc, are just a bogeyman.
The riddle the army is trying to solve now is to find a system where governments can easily be disposed at will without having to go though the mess of coups, which is still accepted by the people.
Myanmar: an economy ready for takeoff
This super rosy depiction is sickening . Funny coming from the wonderful “Western Democracies” who are s bankrupt even after looting off the world that even stoooopidest things like multiple and repeated QE’s and negative interest rates- repeat negative interest rates- would not put their own miserable deflative productivity slum into abyss.
At the end of the day the Burmese are shooed by Chinese beaters into the Western gunmen whereas in modern Africa, the Africans getting sick of centuries of “Western” ripping off (of which dear Cecil or Leopold II is only a tip of the iceberg) are suckling off the Chinese bosom.
Who wins? The usual suspects. Except this is only transitory but not before wasteland Burma will become.
Why we marched for Malaysia
I suppose that, coupled with some other factors, Mahathir was better at pressing the right buttons to keep people (and dissent) where he wanted them to be.
It takes a nation to raise a dictator’s son
Be careful there, runyonalfredd, you may just get what you wish for.
After all, Thailand is BOTH “in its way of functionalizing democracy” and “not a democracy at all”.
And this has been the case for 84 years.
South Korea, on the other hand, went from Japanese colony to US-occupied to US-appointed to military dictatorship to a functioning democracy in just 40-odd years.
Vichai’s point is well-taken and needs to be emphasized in any discussion of these endlessly “developing” so-called democracies in ASEAN.
Myanmar: an economy ready for takeoff
“If only a growth in GDP always translates into that. We should be so lucky.”
Not just only, NEVER does it relate to anything except money makers making more money. Neat though, at the same time those “citizenry” also feel buoyant, buoyant living in the squatter swamps because they now living in a High Class Country o RICH deportment.
IMF’s desperate attempt to fool the fools seem to be working on the surface but still hard to know (in fact unlikely) that those “fundamentals” such as guaranteed land confiscations and profit split dumping of consumer goods and labor exploitation can be done together with the military and the now “Human rights” educated Police. The very basis of “Democratic Economy”.
Most important secret ingredient in the recipe of modern DEEEmocracy is armed, ruthless rabid Police Force although they are also often drugged- sorry in other countries as well.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-11-28/dupont-sends-in-former-cops-to-enforce-seed-patents-commodities
http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21650158-angry-youths-burn-their-own-neighbourhood-why-rioting-makes-things-worse
Sticking it to the crown
Certainly Khaen Phet. Though your first question is enormous, I’ll attempt to answer it briefly. Thai humour has long seen to me to revolve around karma, power, and face. It is marked typically by a lot of word games, eg. double entendres, symbolism, and theatricality, of which the Thai language is particularly enabling, eg. through its’ tonal system, succinctness, honorifics, etc. In sum, as a long time Thailand-resident once said to me : “they have a wicked sense of humour “.
As for the CP, one only has to look as far as the Field Marshall Fufu saga. Though there’s plenty more – eg. ramming a Japanese plane, his first marriage, gun-slinging, etc.
Ceremony and pomp in Papua
I always feel weird, any discussion of Papua and Indonesia are always filled with controversy… that so concerned.