karmablues: you have really made my point I think. Use the rules as they suit you and ignore them when they don’t suit.
kuson: I know plenty of PADites and consider them as misguided as you. Do I have a better solution than that offered by PAD. Yes, I do, but you won’t accept it. It involves listening to the electorate, following the law (whether it suits or not and subjecting everyone equally to the law) and working for change peacefully, through reasoned and reasonable civic action and through parliament and the ballot box.
msot: “like the rest of us” – we all most certainly do not require critical attention. Most of us are not public figures and nor do we take billions of whatever currency from state coffers to support us.
Hmmm, I will try to make a few points by this story:
PM Samak has endorsed a second war on drugs (this is actually a fact, with Chalerm having boasted that this time there could be a 3000 – 4000 body count).
So let’s say the government implements this second war on drugs. Like the first war against its own people (of course, for RNE, this is probably a much more preferable situation than threats of aggession against a foreign country which hasn’t resulted in any deaths yet), the second war resulted in thousands of extra-judicial killings of Thais (including, like in the first war, deaths of children and a pregnant woman).
Human rights NGO representing the thousands of victim’s families petitions the Court that the government’s second phase of war on drugs has violated several of the victim’s rights which are guaranteed and protected by provisions in Chapter III (Rights and Liberties of Thai People) of the 2007 Constitution.
Having considered the overwhelming evidence of extrajudicial killings produced by independent commissions, the Court rules in favour of the victims’ families that the government had indeed violated the Constitution.
Here is an abridged version of the Court room drama:
Court: There is much evidence that the government’s war on drugs has violated the provisions of Chapter III of the Constitution.
What does the defendant have to say?
RNE (representing the TRT/PPP mafia): “The present Thai Consititution was forced on the electorate at gun-point. It is the instrument of the militarist-royalist faction in the struggle for control of the country, and is designed to paralyse the elected government. Only members of the militarist-royalist faction would wish to serve on the Court upholding it”
Court: Please calm down Mr. RNE. I would advise that for the best interests of the defendant you please provide some other arguments in favour of the defendant’s innocence.
RNE: “Though Thais are amongst the world’s most charming and generous people, they show less taste for living and doing business by mutually agreed abstract rules than wealthier and more egalitarian societies. The rule of law [and human rights] is an import that has not flourished in Thailand. Thai Judges are regarded with suspicion, and lawyers with contempt both at home and abroad. Great benefit comes when people compete according to well thought-out rules rather than by the exercise of naked power, or the silly laws which are its by-product.”
Court: We have considered the arguments of the defendant and have not been persuaded. Exercising our duty to uphold the integrity of Constitution, we therefore, rule that the government’s war on drugs is in violation of the Constitution. The victims families, accordingly, are also entitled to appropriate compensation by the government.
RNE: My clients will never accept the legitimacy of this judgement handed down by “stick-faction agents on the Constitutional Court”!!!
Court: Guards, please escort this gentlemen to the exit.
No I haven’t had enough of sufficiency. It is a perverse fait accompli and without it, this site would have much less content. We get to stare at stagnating development and wonder why — it is slowly becoming a part of Thai culture (or has always been? haha), which I’m not in – but am curious about. Maybe to satiate Che urges it would be better to ask this in Thai?
If a sufficiency economy was implemented in Bangkok, many tourists would have to have hotel stays without air conditioning. Could Bangkok find a different industry to butter it’s bread? I think tourism in South East Asia depends so much on all the stereotypes in that Ruby Wax article you posted and in the minds of Westerners who are captivated by seeing what they imagined in books from childhood. Exploring.
If South East Asia, and Thailand in particular didn’t look like it does, if it didn’t have the class issues, the rural poor contrasted with the Bangkok elite – if there was development like there has been in tiger economies throughout Thailand, would people still flock to Thailand in droves? I doubt it. You can’t have an ‘authentic adventure experience’ in a place where nobody starves, everyone has a tractor and air conditioning. Maybe it is the conservative elite attitude in Thailand and the nostalgic, romantic notion of what we see Thailand as that prevents practical development and promotes silly ideas like segregated sufficiency economy.
Maybe if Bhumibol didn’t buy into this sort of conservatism, he would have instead advocated for constructing solar panel factories and geothermal technology centers? This way Thailand could take advantage of a projected international business boom in being –sustainable–, rather than sufficient. Consequently allowing Thailand to emerge as the latest ‘tiger economy’.
So I am very interested in sufficiency because it fuels my inefficient digressions!
Suranan’s comments seem pretty much par for the course. From what I have seen discussions of the sustainability economy consist almost entirely of rich Bangkok residents telling the poor to stay poor.
The present Thai Consititution was forced on the electorate at gun-point. It is the instrument of the militarist-royalist faction in the struggle for control of the country, and is designed to paralyse the elected government. Only members of the militarist-royalist faction would wish to serve on the Court upholding it.
If Thaksin were run over by a bus tomorrow, the factional struggle would continue because, for all his faults, he has demonstrated that governments need to do a few things for ordinary people to win their votes consistently. The cat is out of the bag in Thailand. Now the carrot faction will generally beat the stick faction in a free election. There are exceptions. Unless carrots are managed well, the government can very easily run out of them. The stick faction can become popular by provoking conflict with neighbouring countries. This tactic, a favourite of stick factions the world over, and the cause of most wars, has been used in the last couple of weeks in Thailand with the aid of stick-faction agents on the Constitutional Court.
The stick faction does have its token carrots. Every now and then it puts on lavish ceremonies with actors dressed in gold etc.. Though almost everyone is happy to go to the circus, this will change if the circus allows itself to remain the captive of the stick faction.
Though Thais are amongst the world’s most charming and generous people, they show less taste for living and doing business by mutually agreed abstract rules than wealthier and more egalitarian societies. The rule of law is an import that has not flourished in Thailand. Thai Judges are regarded with suspicion, and lawyers with contempt both at home and abroad. Great benefit comes when people compete according to well thought-out rules rather than by the exercise of naked power, or the silly laws which are its by-product. With luck Thai culture can change for the better in this resect without losing its charm.
that’s what u have: “stealing from the others”.i’m pround to be born as thai,but after the researching i see that our culture is mostly from the neighbor country,isn’t that true?and the activities at the border side between cambodia and thailand is holding a big arguments,why do we need to steal their territory?all we have is enough,u guy have made the big mistake,and people around the world will see what we r doing.i hope the goverments should stop that, i wish i could live in a peace:-)
The nasty, brutal war between Burmese and Karen have been going on for more than sixty years now since that incidents between British-trained and armed Karen militia and Kyaw Zaw led BIA battalion in the delta in the early forties. (If interested, you can read the details in Major General Kyaw Zaw’s autobiography on the Burmese Communist Party’s website.)
If the top layers of independence, democracy, and human rights are peeled off, the ugly core of this war is basically a bitter racial conflict. A minority armed rebellion against the majority will eventually fail, even with the initial advantage of massive arms leftover from the British and the existence of well trained fighting battalions called the Karen Rifles. Well documented atrocities were committed by both sides during the height of civil war between the Karen and Burmese.
The most notorious case was the violent gang rape and eventual selling to the Thai brothels of a group of young Burmese girls kidnapped from Moulmein University by KNDO Lin Htin. One of the girls was a fiancee of a young Burmes lieutenant who shot Lin Htin dead later during the ceasefire talk between KNDO and Burmese Government. All the girls finally died of Syphilis in Thai brothels and that lieutenant was rumored to become the Burmese ambassador to Thailand in the eighties.
At the beginning of this civil war, the Union Government of Burma was even labeled the Rangoon Government as the Karen controlled almost half of the country. But gradually they lost the territory and eventually stranded only on the Thai-Burma border. During the Ne Win’s Socialist rule, they thrived from the massive profits from the smuggling operations across the border. Once the socialist were gone and the border is reopened and the goods flow freely across the border, the cash flow was stopped forever and the rebellion is strangled to a slow death.
The main reason the Karen rebellion will never become the spearhead of fight against the military government in Burma is that most Burmese will never support them even though they hate their own military government with their guts. Even Aung San Su Kyi knows that clear fact and so she stays well away from the Karen rebellion.
I’m not a loyalist. But I would say that this concept works not for Thailand’s villages but global problems. All conflicts in the world could be solved if each of us learn to be content in what we have. I’m not that naive or dreamy to say that human beings should give in to one another. We still have to protect our rights, but not trespass others. What is ours is ours. What is not ours, we must not want to get it. Let’s say we can have fun, but we must know the limit. Thais need not cut back either trip to europe or luxuaries, so long as they can afford it.
From the context of capitalism, it may be difficult for the Bangkokian middle class to understand the sufficiency economy concept. Suranand may focus on the villages because it made it easier to communicate. If he focuses on only village, he is missing the point.
It looks like real life imitating Hollywood. This Bleming character has a taste for self promotion . It took me all of two minutes to have an aerial satellite picture of his spread outside of Lusk, Wyoming. His face is posed in the Asian Tribune. In so doing he has put himself in danger and exposed the operation. This is amateur hour at its worst…And then there is the ill contrived alias of Jack Slade. Is this his idea straight from an action hero comic book ? I submit to you that these gentlemen may have noble intentions, but are not being very smart…A cadre of approximately 4000 troops preparing to lock horns with a 500,000 man army with a direct conduit to unlimited aid from China ? Any fight by the Karens against such odds would make the Chosin Reservoir look like a Sunday drive to granny’s house. This type of operation requires formidable allies. The Burmese tribes cannot even get along with each other long enough to create a situation conducive to a successful revolution. A political solution seems more realistic but that would deprive the adrenaline junkies of their glory. Who the fuck am I ? Does 3rd Force Recon 3rd Marine Division, Republic of Vietnam sound competent enough to have solid opinions ? [email protected]
I’ve been to Laos, but I didn’t see any Starbucks–yet. Maybe there are already a few? Nonetheless, it is a country that everyone should visit for atleast a month!
Again I would invite you to quote the parts of the rulings which you find to be absurd legal reasoning or not based on any of the known methods of constitutional interpretation. As far as I can tell, the rulings have shown the court to be applying the law as they are supposed to.
Why else would 7 of the 8 judges of that Court involve themselves in an affront to the Unitied Nations and threats of aggression against Cambodia?
First of all the Court got involved with the Prear Vihear issue because a petition was submitted to it by the President of the Senate and the President of the House of Representatives in accordance with sections 154(1) and 190(6) of the Constitution, requesting the Court to decide whether the Foreign Minister was required to seek parliamentary approval before concluding the treaty with Cambodia. Thereby the Court is under a duty to be involved, ie. to decide upon the case presented before it in accordance with the Constitution. So it had no choice about whether to get involved or not.
Also, I can’t understand how a court ruling which basically says that the Constitution required the FM to seek parliamentary approval before signing the treaty could be viewed as being made intentionally to cause “threats of aggression against Cambodia” or “an affront to the UN”? Remember, this is a ruling which is about domestic constitutional requirements . ie. the Court is basically saying the FM was required by Section 190 to seek Parliamentary approval before signing the treaty. So the fact that he deliberately (or negligently – another honest mistake?) had chosen not to put the matter before Parliament (presumably because he did not want to risk the deal not going through if the public were to know about it) was the Court’s fault? So the Court should have just said, ok, Mr. Ex Thaksin Lawyer turned Foreign Minister, you are cordially invited to ignore the provisions of the Constitution so that Big Boss can get his business concessions in Cambodia? Whatever the case, the Court can’t just let a Minister ignore the provisions of the Constitution (the highest law in the land don’t forget) for whatever reason, including to promote friendly relations with neighbours. The Court itself would be breaking the law if it did that.
Anyways, as a last note since you had mentioned about affronts to the UN, that just reminds me of the infamous, “the UN is not my father” comment by Big Boss himself. Yeah, biggest affront to the UN in Thai history I would say especially since it was made in relation to gross violations of human rights committed against thousands of fellow Thai citizens.
@Erick:
Thanks for these – this last is especially provocative. Since my dissertation is essentially about the transformations of ‘value’ via death in Khmer society, the issue of exchange is a key one. (The relationship is precisely the one that practically founded anthropology – the existence of symbols of fertility and wealth in death rituals). Though I’m comfortable with the existence of a transactional analysis here, I don’t think we must necessarily limit our understanding of this proverb to an analysis that provides that level of precision. More basically, my take on it is that each line lists a number of things that are valued, or valuable, to/for/with reference to the person or entity named. In that general reading, which doesn’t obviate the more precise transactional possibility, the proverb points to the existence of different notions of value within a single cosmology, where value is dependent on the person’s status and ontological position. Thanks,
Those not familiar with the East West Center may also be interested with a few of their publications;
Political Authority in Burma’s Ethnic Minority States: Devolution, Occupation and Coexistence by Mary P. Callahan
The Karen Revolution in Burma: Diverse Voices, Uncertain Ends by Ardeth Maung Thawnghmung
and
Assessing Burma’s Ceasefire Accords by Zaw Oo and Win Min
Just to name a few.
(On a side note, each East West Center publication cost $10 dollars no matter where you by it, personally I prefer to buy via Amazon than directly through them because they sell their books through a publisher in Singapore.)
I will certainly be interested to look into South’s book, as even though the above mentioned publications are academic, I found a few area’s of concern to be just a little lacking. but then again when it comes to Burma, not even the scholars are 100% thorough. That really Sucks.
Somebody at Munich Airport told me he makes his Aviation Licence at Lufthansa. Seems like he dont had one before but had one Charity Flight some time back lol
Back in 2007 Jon asked about that nun who was arrested for lese majeste,wondering about details of the case.
I am still translating some of the various reports on it, but to date it is revealed that she was implicated by a novice who used to be close to her and was transferred to a temple in Chiangmai. While there he was arrested by police for lese majeste – seems he was pretending to be a royal heir. In facing a sentence of 50 years!, he confessed all and implicated the nun in supporting his claim and being involved. Police in both provinces coordinated evidence and then went to her temple in Ayutyaha in 2005 and arrested her. She was taken right off to interrogation and jailed. The novice’s sentence was reduced to 25 years, but I don’t know yet if he is still in jail or was released.
I gave Lord Justice Jeffreys as an example of someone who participated enthusiastically in a simmering civil conflict FROM THE BENCH. His judgements reflected this fact, as do the judgements of the Thai Constitutional Court, for example. Why else would 7 of the 8 judges of that Court involve themselves in an affront to the Unitied Nations and threats of aggression against Cambodia?
Dear Reg, I am not referring to illegitimacy by any means. My point is that, the way things are, there is nothing you can do about it, critical attention or not. So calm down and let nature take its course.
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Time to go home
karmablues: you have really made my point I think. Use the rules as they suit you and ignore them when they don’t suit.
kuson: I know plenty of PADites and consider them as misguided as you. Do I have a better solution than that offered by PAD. Yes, I do, but you won’t accept it. It involves listening to the electorate, following the law (whether it suits or not and subjecting everyone equally to the law) and working for change peacefully, through reasoned and reasonable civic action and through parliament and the ballot box.
Crown Prince scouting European airports
BTW, the prince is back on TV for kaho phansa.
Crown Prince scouting European airports
msot: “like the rest of us” – we all most certainly do not require critical attention. Most of us are not public figures and nor do we take billions of whatever currency from state coffers to support us.
“Let the electorate judge”
Re: R.N. England (RNE) #19
Hmmm, I will try to make a few points by this story:
PM Samak has endorsed a second war on drugs (this is actually a fact, with Chalerm having boasted that this time there could be a 3000 – 4000 body count).
So let’s say the government implements this second war on drugs. Like the first war against its own people (of course, for RNE, this is probably a much more preferable situation than threats of aggession against a foreign country which hasn’t resulted in any deaths yet), the second war resulted in thousands of extra-judicial killings of Thais (including, like in the first war, deaths of children and a pregnant woman).
Human rights NGO representing the thousands of victim’s families petitions the Court that the government’s second phase of war on drugs has violated several of the victim’s rights which are guaranteed and protected by provisions in Chapter III (Rights and Liberties of Thai People) of the 2007 Constitution.
Having considered the overwhelming evidence of extrajudicial killings produced by independent commissions, the Court rules in favour of the victims’ families that the government had indeed violated the Constitution.
Here is an abridged version of the Court room drama:
Court: There is much evidence that the government’s war on drugs has violated the provisions of Chapter III of the Constitution.
What does the defendant have to say?
RNE (representing the TRT/PPP mafia): “The present Thai Consititution was forced on the electorate at gun-point. It is the instrument of the militarist-royalist faction in the struggle for control of the country, and is designed to paralyse the elected government. Only members of the militarist-royalist faction would wish to serve on the Court upholding it”
Court: Please calm down Mr. RNE. I would advise that for the best interests of the defendant you please provide some other arguments in favour of the defendant’s innocence.
RNE: “Though Thais are amongst the world’s most charming and generous people, they show less taste for living and doing business by mutually agreed abstract rules than wealthier and more egalitarian societies. The rule of law [and human rights] is an import that has not flourished in Thailand. Thai Judges are regarded with suspicion, and lawyers with contempt both at home and abroad. Great benefit comes when people compete according to well thought-out rules rather than by the exercise of naked power, or the silly laws which are its by-product.”
Court: We have considered the arguments of the defendant and have not been persuaded. Exercising our duty to uphold the integrity of Constitution, we therefore, rule that the government’s war on drugs is in violation of the Constitution. The victims families, accordingly, are also entitled to appropriate compensation by the government.
RNE: My clients will never accept the legitimacy of this judgement handed down by “stick-faction agents on the Constitutional Court”!!!
Court: Guards, please escort this gentlemen to the exit.
End of story.
Have you had enough of sufficiency?
No I haven’t had enough of sufficiency. It is a perverse fait accompli and without it, this site would have much less content. We get to stare at stagnating development and wonder why — it is slowly becoming a part of Thai culture (or has always been? haha), which I’m not in – but am curious about. Maybe to satiate Che urges it would be better to ask this in Thai?
If a sufficiency economy was implemented in Bangkok, many tourists would have to have hotel stays without air conditioning. Could Bangkok find a different industry to butter it’s bread? I think tourism in South East Asia depends so much on all the stereotypes in that Ruby Wax article you posted and in the minds of Westerners who are captivated by seeing what they imagined in books from childhood. Exploring.
If South East Asia, and Thailand in particular didn’t look like it does, if it didn’t have the class issues, the rural poor contrasted with the Bangkok elite – if there was development like there has been in tiger economies throughout Thailand, would people still flock to Thailand in droves? I doubt it. You can’t have an ‘authentic adventure experience’ in a place where nobody starves, everyone has a tractor and air conditioning. Maybe it is the conservative elite attitude in Thailand and the nostalgic, romantic notion of what we see Thailand as that prevents practical development and promotes silly ideas like segregated sufficiency economy.
Maybe if Bhumibol didn’t buy into this sort of conservatism, he would have instead advocated for constructing solar panel factories and geothermal technology centers? This way Thailand could take advantage of a projected international business boom in being –sustainable–, rather than sufficient. Consequently allowing Thailand to emerge as the latest ‘tiger economy’.
So I am very interested in sufficiency because it fuels my inefficient digressions!
Have you had enough of sufficiency?
Suranan’s comments seem pretty much par for the course. From what I have seen discussions of the sustainability economy consist almost entirely of rich Bangkok residents telling the poor to stay poor.
“Let the electorate judge”
The present Thai Consititution was forced on the electorate at gun-point. It is the instrument of the militarist-royalist faction in the struggle for control of the country, and is designed to paralyse the elected government. Only members of the militarist-royalist faction would wish to serve on the Court upholding it.
If Thaksin were run over by a bus tomorrow, the factional struggle would continue because, for all his faults, he has demonstrated that governments need to do a few things for ordinary people to win their votes consistently. The cat is out of the bag in Thailand. Now the carrot faction will generally beat the stick faction in a free election. There are exceptions. Unless carrots are managed well, the government can very easily run out of them. The stick faction can become popular by provoking conflict with neighbouring countries. This tactic, a favourite of stick factions the world over, and the cause of most wars, has been used in the last couple of weeks in Thailand with the aid of stick-faction agents on the Constitutional Court.
The stick faction does have its token carrots. Every now and then it puts on lavish ceremonies with actors dressed in gold etc.. Though almost everyone is happy to go to the circus, this will change if the circus allows itself to remain the captive of the stick faction.
Though Thais are amongst the world’s most charming and generous people, they show less taste for living and doing business by mutually agreed abstract rules than wealthier and more egalitarian societies. The rule of law is an import that has not flourished in Thailand. Thai Judges are regarded with suspicion, and lawyers with contempt both at home and abroad. Great benefit comes when people compete according to well thought-out rules rather than by the exercise of naked power, or the silly laws which are its by-product. With luck Thai culture can change for the better in this resect without losing its charm.
The Nation on “what Thai people want…”
that’s what u have: “stealing from the others”.i’m pround to be born as thai,but after the researching i see that our culture is mostly from the neighbor country,isn’t that true?and the activities at the border side between cambodia and thailand is holding a big arguments,why do we need to steal their territory?all we have is enough,u guy have made the big mistake,and people around the world will see what we r doing.i hope the goverments should stop that, i wish i could live in a peace:-)
The Republic of Kawthoolei and Thomas Bleming
The nasty, brutal war between Burmese and Karen have been going on for more than sixty years now since that incidents between British-trained and armed Karen militia and Kyaw Zaw led BIA battalion in the delta in the early forties. (If interested, you can read the details in Major General Kyaw Zaw’s autobiography on the Burmese Communist Party’s website.)
If the top layers of independence, democracy, and human rights are peeled off, the ugly core of this war is basically a bitter racial conflict. A minority armed rebellion against the majority will eventually fail, even with the initial advantage of massive arms leftover from the British and the existence of well trained fighting battalions called the Karen Rifles. Well documented atrocities were committed by both sides during the height of civil war between the Karen and Burmese.
The most notorious case was the violent gang rape and eventual selling to the Thai brothels of a group of young Burmese girls kidnapped from Moulmein University by KNDO Lin Htin. One of the girls was a fiancee of a young Burmes lieutenant who shot Lin Htin dead later during the ceasefire talk between KNDO and Burmese Government. All the girls finally died of Syphilis in Thai brothels and that lieutenant was rumored to become the Burmese ambassador to Thailand in the eighties.
At the beginning of this civil war, the Union Government of Burma was even labeled the Rangoon Government as the Karen controlled almost half of the country. But gradually they lost the territory and eventually stranded only on the Thai-Burma border. During the Ne Win’s Socialist rule, they thrived from the massive profits from the smuggling operations across the border. Once the socialist were gone and the border is reopened and the goods flow freely across the border, the cash flow was stopped forever and the rebellion is strangled to a slow death.
The main reason the Karen rebellion will never become the spearhead of fight against the military government in Burma is that most Burmese will never support them even though they hate their own military government with their guts. Even Aung San Su Kyi knows that clear fact and so she stays well away from the Karen rebellion.
Have you had enough of sufficiency?
I’m not a loyalist. But I would say that this concept works not for Thailand’s villages but global problems. All conflicts in the world could be solved if each of us learn to be content in what we have. I’m not that naive or dreamy to say that human beings should give in to one another. We still have to protect our rights, but not trespass others. What is ours is ours. What is not ours, we must not want to get it. Let’s say we can have fun, but we must know the limit. Thais need not cut back either trip to europe or luxuaries, so long as they can afford it.
From the context of capitalism, it may be difficult for the Bangkokian middle class to understand the sufficiency economy concept. Suranand may focus on the villages because it made it easier to communicate. If he focuses on only village, he is missing the point.
The Republic of Kawthoolei and Thomas Bleming
Every vet I’ve ever met thinks he has the answer. You’re no different. That’s not good or bad – just an observation.
The Republic of Kawthoolei and Thomas Bleming
It looks like real life imitating Hollywood. This Bleming character has a taste for self promotion . It took me all of two minutes to have an aerial satellite picture of his spread outside of Lusk, Wyoming. His face is posed in the Asian Tribune. In so doing he has put himself in danger and exposed the operation. This is amateur hour at its worst…And then there is the ill contrived alias of Jack Slade. Is this his idea straight from an action hero comic book ? I submit to you that these gentlemen may have noble intentions, but are not being very smart…A cadre of approximately 4000 troops preparing to lock horns with a 500,000 man army with a direct conduit to unlimited aid from China ? Any fight by the Karens against such odds would make the Chosin Reservoir look like a Sunday drive to granny’s house. This type of operation requires formidable allies. The Burmese tribes cannot even get along with each other long enough to create a situation conducive to a successful revolution. A political solution seems more realistic but that would deprive the adrenaline junkies of their glory. Who the fuck am I ? Does 3rd Force Recon 3rd Marine Division, Republic of Vietnam sound competent enough to have solid opinions ? [email protected]
“Starbucked to death” and other one-liners
I’ve been to Laos, but I didn’t see any Starbucks–yet. Maybe there are already a few? Nonetheless, it is a country that everyone should visit for atleast a month!
“Let the electorate judge”
Re #17
Again I would invite you to quote the parts of the rulings which you find to be absurd legal reasoning or not based on any of the known methods of constitutional interpretation. As far as I can tell, the rulings have shown the court to be applying the law as they are supposed to.
Why else would 7 of the 8 judges of that Court involve themselves in an affront to the Unitied Nations and threats of aggression against Cambodia?
First of all the Court got involved with the Prear Vihear issue because a petition was submitted to it by the President of the Senate and the President of the House of Representatives in accordance with sections 154(1) and 190(6) of the Constitution, requesting the Court to decide whether the Foreign Minister was required to seek parliamentary approval before concluding the treaty with Cambodia. Thereby the Court is under a duty to be involved, ie. to decide upon the case presented before it in accordance with the Constitution. So it had no choice about whether to get involved or not.
Also, I can’t understand how a court ruling which basically says that the Constitution required the FM to seek parliamentary approval before signing the treaty could be viewed as being made intentionally to cause “threats of aggression against Cambodia” or “an affront to the UN”? Remember, this is a ruling which is about domestic constitutional requirements . ie. the Court is basically saying the FM was required by Section 190 to seek Parliamentary approval before signing the treaty. So the fact that he deliberately (or negligently – another honest mistake?) had chosen not to put the matter before Parliament (presumably because he did not want to risk the deal not going through if the public were to know about it) was the Court’s fault? So the Court should have just said, ok, Mr. Ex Thaksin Lawyer turned Foreign Minister, you are cordially invited to ignore the provisions of the Constitution so that Big Boss can get his business concessions in Cambodia? Whatever the case, the Court can’t just let a Minister ignore the provisions of the Constitution (the highest law in the land don’t forget) for whatever reason, including to promote friendly relations with neighbours. The Court itself would be breaking the law if it did that.
Anyways, as a last note since you had mentioned about affronts to the UN, that just reminds me of the infamous, “the UN is not my father” comment by Big Boss himself. Yeah, biggest affront to the UN in Thai history I would say especially since it was made in relation to gross violations of human rights committed against thousands of fellow Thai citizens.
“The treasures of man are women, wine, cars and villas…”
@Erick:
Thanks for these – this last is especially provocative. Since my dissertation is essentially about the transformations of ‘value’ via death in Khmer society, the issue of exchange is a key one. (The relationship is precisely the one that practically founded anthropology – the existence of symbols of fertility and wealth in death rituals). Though I’m comfortable with the existence of a transactional analysis here, I don’t think we must necessarily limit our understanding of this proverb to an analysis that provides that level of precision. More basically, my take on it is that each line lists a number of things that are valued, or valuable, to/for/with reference to the person or entity named. In that general reading, which doesn’t obviate the more precise transactional possibility, the proverb points to the existence of different notions of value within a single cosmology, where value is dependent on the person’s status and ontological position. Thanks,
Ethnic Politics in Burma: States of Conflict
Those not familiar with the East West Center may also be interested with a few of their publications;
Political Authority in Burma’s Ethnic Minority States: Devolution, Occupation and Coexistence by Mary P. Callahan
The Karen Revolution in Burma: Diverse Voices, Uncertain Ends by Ardeth Maung Thawnghmung
and
Assessing Burma’s Ceasefire Accords by Zaw Oo and Win Min
Just to name a few.
(On a side note, each East West Center publication cost $10 dollars no matter where you by it, personally I prefer to buy via Amazon than directly through them because they sell their books through a publisher in Singapore.)
I will certainly be interested to look into South’s book, as even though the above mentioned publications are academic, I found a few area’s of concern to be just a little lacking. but then again when it comes to Burma, not even the scholars are 100% thorough. That really Sucks.
Crown Prince scouting European airports
Somebody at Munich Airport told me he makes his Aviation Licence at Lufthansa. Seems like he dont had one before but had one Charity Flight some time back lol
Pardon me, Jufer free
19 July 2008
Back in 2007 Jon asked about that nun who was arrested for lese majeste,wondering about details of the case.
I am still translating some of the various reports on it, but to date it is revealed that she was implicated by a novice who used to be close to her and was transferred to a temple in Chiangmai. While there he was arrested by police for lese majeste – seems he was pretending to be a royal heir. In facing a sentence of 50 years!, he confessed all and implicated the nun in supporting his claim and being involved. Police in both provinces coordinated evidence and then went to her temple in Ayutyaha in 2005 and arrested her. She was taken right off to interrogation and jailed. The novice’s sentence was reduced to 25 years, but I don’t know yet if he is still in jail or was released.
“Let the electorate judge”
I gave Lord Justice Jeffreys as an example of someone who participated enthusiastically in a simmering civil conflict FROM THE BENCH. His judgements reflected this fact, as do the judgements of the Thai Constitutional Court, for example. Why else would 7 of the 8 judges of that Court involve themselves in an affront to the Unitied Nations and threats of aggression against Cambodia?
Crown Prince scouting European airports
Dear Reg, I am not referring to illegitimacy by any means. My point is that, the way things are, there is nothing you can do about it, critical attention or not. So calm down and let nature take its course.