It’s a curious state of affairs if peace does not generally mean cessation of ALL hostility to the Burmese despite the unenviable track record of failed peace parleys in their blighted land. Sadly the political will is conspicuous by its absence in top military circles where peace making has always been interpreted as pacification.
The new government’s efforts towards a genuine and inclusive peace based on a federal union will be thwarted by the generals leading to a constitutional crisis.
Thursday 10 Mar is being awaited with bated breath by the Burmese even as the NLD had to deny a hoax floated on social media and her incorrigible ‘spokesman’ couldn’t resist hinting at the name. It gets curiouser and curiouser.
if nothing else, the Boworadet revolt and the Holy Men uprisings of 1901-04 are of intrinsic interest …
journalists and contemporary scholars may not think they are of interest, and they are often written out of official history, but uprisings from the Lao periphery remain encoded in monastic lineages, passed down from monks to their novices…believe me, when people from Isan participate in a democratic movement like Thaksin’s, they carry very fresh memories of repression from the center in Bangkok … events that happened more than a century ago, like using Gatling guns or some equivalent on unarmed villagers … The point is to get the discussion beyond personal attacks. note historical parallels The Bangkok Post just had a piece on how social media is disrupting the traditional order … The subject is of intrinsic interest in light of weird twists in LM laws…If you don’t like my work, there are other works referenced.
I think the point is it’s a breaking situation, with silence imposed on discussion of the monarchy, and anything relevant. Usually it’s Pasuk & Baker, but they are inside the country and therefore must edge around the topic.
It would take an outside voice, someone who was willing to give up research access. Social media enables global, inside-outside partnerships.
Since all the key players operate globally with offshore wealth, this raises new questions about “Thai-ness,” and who has the highest stakes in elections and localized, on-shore profits.
In centuries past the king never left the palace, or capital. It was taboo, bad luck.
Truly a unique situation.
The breakthrough of Andrew MacGregor M.'”The Hammer’s” book is simply taking the topic of the monarchy head on. Breaking the taboo when the obvious became overwhelming. Plus he’s currently the most or perhaps determined, consistent journalist on the topic, the very study of which is dangerous and burns people out.
What’s making people a little nuts is proportionality: having broken the taboo big time, how is one to assess this information? Or provide more accurate versions…
Andrew Walker is senior enough scholar to take this on.
I have hope for a new generation of scholars like Serhat Unaldi, whose book “Working Towards the Monarchy” should be out soon…Claudio Sopranzetti, and Eugenie Merieau.
Let’s not create such a bitter environment that we eat the young. Obviously the field is sexist as hell, leaving a huge blank about gender issues in Bangkok day-life. Cherchez les femmes. What femmes?
People used to ask me, “What does the king think?”
Go ask him.
Seems that now, a few days after the sentence things have changed again, and Vivat is the hero again.
A day after the trial, Veera Somkwamkid posted on facebook that he is a hero, and should not be forgotten. A day later, Buddha Isara posted on his facebook page that he pays 15 000 Baht a month to Vivat’s family. Both were still continuing with the fable that Vivat (and his dozens of armed friends) were supposedly saving ordinary PDRC protesters from heavily armed Red Shirts.
Succinct and highly accurate as usual R.N. Trump is a different beast from Thaksin. http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_revenge_of_the_lower_classes_and_the_rise_of_american_fascism_20160302
I question whether ‘Thai-ification’ has actually worked on the Thai-Chinese. Thaksin is a classic mercantile ‘big boss’. He will try to become as rich as possible, without ‘losing face’. He is conservative and quite predictable. Trump, on the other hand, has no traditional restraints and he is dangerously unpredictable.
So who are the people to read on the current state of Thailand – or a true(r) history – in addition to Mr MacGregor, in order to get a more nuanced view? Can anyone recommend?
A promisingly fruitful debate sparked by the two Andrews. But I wonder how much MacGregor’s second edition is out of date, as soon as it is published, espe cially in relation to such matters as Queen Sirikit taking over as Regent. We know Her Majesty suffered a stroke on July 21, 2012, Queen Sirikit, in public view, and that this was so severe she was not seen again in public until August 2013, and rarely appears today. This has surely ruled out any possibility of her Regency, if in fact such was ever planned.
You seem comfortable making sweeping statement about sexuality in Indonesia, which to my mind is more problematic than the author not dealing with a well-trodden path that his article clearly does not seek to address.
Do you have anything to back up your claim that “for all we know 25% of Indonesian soldiers are crossed dressers”?
How do you conceptualise “crossed dressers” in relation to LGBT? Is Richard Branson “LGBT” because he cross-dressed as a stewardess? Does cross-dressing makes soldiers more tolerant toward “LGBT”?
It’s very clear that the author’s aim is to explore the implications of linking anti-LGBT discourse with war. I doubt that anyone would come away with the impression that the author argues that TNI is behind the anti-LGBT hysteria.
Tying anti-LGBT sentiments to the military has its limits. For all you know 25 % of soldiers are cross-dressers. This piece fails to mention primary opposition from Islamic Parties and from Islamic NGOs that have as much influence on negative views of LGBT individuals as the Indonesian military, which by the way, is also criticized by Islamic Parties and Islamic NGOs as being too secular. The interplay between the military (whether hardliners or something else) and the Islamic Parties/NGOs is not given sufficient attention in this commentary. One would be left with the impression, among other human rights abuses, the military is solely responsible for anti-LGBT behavior. That is not correct and is not logical, given the pervasive influence of radical Islamic forces in Indonesia that are in no way tied to the military.
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Peace in President Thein Sein’s time?
It’s a curious state of affairs if peace does not generally mean cessation of ALL hostility to the Burmese despite the unenviable track record of failed peace parleys in their blighted land. Sadly the political will is conspicuous by its absence in top military circles where peace making has always been interpreted as pacification.
The new government’s efforts towards a genuine and inclusive peace based on a federal union will be thwarted by the generals leading to a constitutional crisis.
Thailand’s new politics and a double wrecking ball
“Deep State” is a term with a long heritage (http://conscience-sociale.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/deep-politics-and-deep-state.html), back to the 1930s, so is hardly likely to “win prize [sic.] for shockingly hip fecund intellectual cross-fertilization).”
Predicting Myanmar’s next president
Thursday 10 Mar is being awaited with bated breath by the Burmese even as the NLD had to deny a hoax floated on social media and her incorrigible ‘spokesman’ couldn’t resist hinting at the name. It gets curiouser and curiouser.
Thailand’s new politics and a double wrecking ball
which is why there are references
if nothing else, the Boworadet revolt and the Holy Men uprisings of 1901-04 are of intrinsic interest …
journalists and contemporary scholars may not think they are of interest, and they are often written out of official history, but uprisings from the Lao periphery remain encoded in monastic lineages, passed down from monks to their novices…believe me, when people from Isan participate in a democratic movement like Thaksin’s, they carry very fresh memories of repression from the center in Bangkok … events that happened more than a century ago, like using Gatling guns or some equivalent on unarmed villagers … The point is to get the discussion beyond personal attacks. note historical parallels The Bangkok Post just had a piece on how social media is disrupting the traditional order … The subject is of intrinsic interest in light of weird twists in LM laws…If you don’t like my work, there are other works referenced.
Andrew MacGregor Marshall’s royalist history
I think the point is it’s a breaking situation, with silence imposed on discussion of the monarchy, and anything relevant. Usually it’s Pasuk & Baker, but they are inside the country and therefore must edge around the topic.
It would take an outside voice, someone who was willing to give up research access. Social media enables global, inside-outside partnerships.
Since all the key players operate globally with offshore wealth, this raises new questions about “Thai-ness,” and who has the highest stakes in elections and localized, on-shore profits.
In centuries past the king never left the palace, or capital. It was taboo, bad luck.
Truly a unique situation.
The breakthrough of Andrew MacGregor M.'”The Hammer’s” book is simply taking the topic of the monarchy head on. Breaking the taboo when the obvious became overwhelming. Plus he’s currently the most or perhaps determined, consistent journalist on the topic, the very study of which is dangerous and burns people out.
What’s making people a little nuts is proportionality: having broken the taboo big time, how is one to assess this information? Or provide more accurate versions…
Andrew Walker is senior enough scholar to take this on.
I have hope for a new generation of scholars like Serhat Unaldi, whose book “Working Towards the Monarchy” should be out soon…Claudio Sopranzetti, and Eugenie Merieau.
Let’s not create such a bitter environment that we eat the young. Obviously the field is sexist as hell, leaving a huge blank about gender issues in Bangkok day-life. Cherchez les femmes. What femmes?
People used to ask me, “What does the king think?”
Go ask him.
The myth of the popcorn gunman
Seems that now, a few days after the sentence things have changed again, and Vivat is the hero again.
A day after the trial, Veera Somkwamkid posted on facebook that he is a hero, and should not be forgotten. A day later, Buddha Isara posted on his facebook page that he pays 15 000 Baht a month to Vivat’s family. Both were still continuing with the fable that Vivat (and his dozens of armed friends) were supposedly saving ordinary PDRC protesters from heavily armed Red Shirts.
Today, PDRC supporters dressed in popcorn t-shirts went to prison to see Vivat: http://khaosodenglish.com/detail.php?newsid=1457440390&typecate=06§ion=
Seems that we are now back to myth building…
Thailand’s new politics and a double wrecking ball
Succinct and highly accurate as usual R.N. Trump is a different beast from Thaksin.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_revenge_of_the_lower_classes_and_the_rise_of_american_fascism_20160302
I question whether ‘Thai-ification’ has actually worked on the Thai-Chinese. Thaksin is a classic mercantile ‘big boss’. He will try to become as rich as possible, without ‘losing face’. He is conservative and quite predictable. Trump, on the other hand, has no traditional restraints and he is dangerously unpredictable.
Andrew MacGregor Marshall’s royalist history
So who are the people to read on the current state of Thailand – or a true(r) history – in addition to Mr MacGregor, in order to get a more nuanced view? Can anyone recommend?
The myth of the popcorn gunman
The article got shared quite widely on social media, so I’m guessing many of those thumbs down were from your yellow-shirt friends. 🙂
An education in captivity
Your article is very helpful. Thanks a lot.
Thailand’s new politics and a double wrecking ball
Being myself neither Thai nor a native Engish speaker, I found this article quite confusing and full of obscure verbiage.
Andrew MacGregor Marshall’s royalist history
A promisingly fruitful debate sparked by the two Andrews. But I wonder how much MacGregor’s second edition is out of date, as soon as it is published, espe cially in relation to such matters as Queen Sirikit taking over as Regent. We know Her Majesty suffered a stroke on July 21, 2012, Queen Sirikit, in public view, and that this was so severe she was not seen again in public until August 2013, and rarely appears today. This has surely ruled out any possibility of her Regency, if in fact such was ever planned.
Ryamizard’s proxy wars
You seem comfortable making sweeping statement about sexuality in Indonesia, which to my mind is more problematic than the author not dealing with a well-trodden path that his article clearly does not seek to address.
Do you have anything to back up your claim that “for all we know 25% of Indonesian soldiers are crossed dressers”?
How do you conceptualise “crossed dressers” in relation to LGBT? Is Richard Branson “LGBT” because he cross-dressed as a stewardess? Does cross-dressing makes soldiers more tolerant toward “LGBT”?
It’s very clear that the author’s aim is to explore the implications of linking anti-LGBT discourse with war. I doubt that anyone would come away with the impression that the author argues that TNI is behind the anti-LGBT hysteria.
Thailand’s new politics and a double wrecking ball
https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:856847/FULLTEXT01.pdf
Thailand’s new politics and a double wrecking ball
the above work help lay the theoretical and empirical foundations for https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:856847/FULLTEXT01.pdf
Thailand’s new politics and a double wrecking ball
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02666286.1995.10435916
Thailand’s new politics and a double wrecking ball
http://www.jstor.org/stable/2803474?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
Thailand’s new politics and a double wrecking ball
http://www.culanth.org/articles/500-royal-words-and-their-unroyal-consequences
Thailand’s new politics and a double wrecking ball
It is simply commentary from an academic tradition with which you are unfamiliar, Cambridge-Chicago-Harvard. http://www.haujournal.org/index.php/hau/article/view/hau3.3.033/716
Ryamizard’s proxy wars
Tying anti-LGBT sentiments to the military has its limits. For all you know 25 % of soldiers are cross-dressers. This piece fails to mention primary opposition from Islamic Parties and from Islamic NGOs that have as much influence on negative views of LGBT individuals as the Indonesian military, which by the way, is also criticized by Islamic Parties and Islamic NGOs as being too secular. The interplay between the military (whether hardliners or something else) and the Islamic Parties/NGOs is not given sufficient attention in this commentary. One would be left with the impression, among other human rights abuses, the military is solely responsible for anti-LGBT behavior. That is not correct and is not logical, given the pervasive influence of radical Islamic forces in Indonesia that are in no way tied to the military.