The Singaporeans deserve to be smug about their Lee Kuan Yew, an Asian leader whose record speaks volumes about what dedication, integrity and incorruptible leadership in public service could achieve.
The contrast in the pursuit of self-interest by rogue leaders in the likes of Sukarno, Suharto, Najib, Marcos, Thaksin and Hun Sen, mega-billions of corruption that continue on and on unchecked still in the countries of Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Cambodia to these days ….. dismays, disappoints and depresses.
There is no road to redemption where mega-corruption is glorified and revered in countries like Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Cambodia, and Indonesia.v
No Burmese would recognise Daw Aung, Peter. Best stick to Suu Kyi like everybody else as it doesn’t work like a first name in this case with or without the honorific Daw. Could be worse like Aung Kyi! Or Aung San like some foreign media have referred to her that would get us completely confused because that’s her father.
Trump into outer space preferably on a one way ticket would be like reviving the practice of sending monkeys. Clinton or him, Democrat or Republican, to the rest of us especially in the Third World it’s Tweedledee or Tweedledum as the late Gore Vidal famously summarised it.
If the recently proposed Islamic airline instructs its crews to say prayers instead of carrying out a pre-flight check, I bet you’ll opt for scientific materialism and fly with someone else.
The mutation rate of master reciters in the ancient world was almost non-existent, so the vast majority of early Buddhist scriptures can in fact be attributed to Shakyamuni, or to his immediate disciples.
As for the supremacy of scientific materialism, I would suggest that after only three hundred years ‘the jury is still out’. In comparison, animism and other supernatural world views are even older than homo sapiens. Scientific materialism also falls short numerically as only 16% of the world’s population are non-religious. In the USA 83% identify as Christian and of these 47% believe that the Second Coming of Christ will occur before 2050. Some US airlines actively recruit non-Christians as back-up crew just in case both the pilot and co-pilot ascend into heaven in-flight.
As for ‘evidence’, I would point to recent advances in theoretical physics which demonstrate that reality can actually be altered by individual perception. So you could theoretically be in an alternate reality of your own creation, and be none the wiser. The evidence could be right in front of you yet be completely invisible. According to Buddha we are all suffering from this condition of non-seeing (a-vidya). So there really are no grounds for assuming that your Western scientific viewpoint is in any sense superior to that of a ‘superstitious’ Thai.
We don’t need Burmese witchcraft thank you. You worry about Daw Aung and we will worry about how to send Hillary into space (and Trump with her) permanently. Compared to our revolting candidates on both sides, we would be damn lucky to have Daw Aung or even U Shwe Mann as President of the United States.
So ‘disciplined democracy’ is a tad different from liberal democracy in that an overwhelming popular mandate does not translate into the highest political office in the land.
Hillary Clinton only needs to beat Bernie Sanders and probably Donald Trump fairly to re-enter the White House, this time as the Commander in Chief and not as the First Lady. ASSK on the other hand can never beat the CiC as things stand. Nor can she become one herself by fair means but ‘foul’?
Ironically democracy thus short changed may still be perfectly compatible with membership requirements of the New World Order so long as it turns a nice profit to its leading lights. So jog on Daw Suu, the generals are already fit for purpose with your kind assistance. You’ve been smartly outmanouvred. Now you’ve got to outgeneral the generals.
Fascinating background. I’ve often found the Sino-Burmese war of the 18th century an interesting precursor to the ties between border modern militant groups and Chinese partners. But now I’ll have to read your work on the even earlier conflicts.
I think the Chinese perspective might offer and interesting take on what Southeast Asia is as a geopolitical unit. I know that the idea of Nanyang also took on meaning to describe the area that the overseas Chinese communities lived, which must have been broadly conceived in maritime terms. And your work on tensions within Zomia is probably another way that China looked at the region.
The decades of Masculine power as well as deprivations by the west to counter the former, has made Myanmar fair sex loss ground in every way.
Once noticed for keeping own name as a real/symbolic equality in status, with Grace and Intelligence, as exemplified by the Lady is now dominated by SEXUALIZED western commercial view of women every where in Yangon and no doubt other big cities as well.
This fact alone will set the involvement and inclusion of the i/2 of Myanmar fair sex way back for years to come.
Noticed the author used an obvious Muslim kalamaH to illustrate the least status this category among the fair sex enjoy equality even among Myanmar citizenry.
Mr Kigpen need to follow the the politics of the USA more closely, comparing anything American from Hillary to the Ambassador to Myanmar risk ridicules and disdains.
The Lady on the left is attempting to realize her noble ideal of 3F (Freedom From Fear)from scratch in Myanmar while the woman on the left not only is not a lady the least in trustworthiness as well as one cycle away from jail let alone becoming anything significant.
As for the Ambassador from USA, the least said about his trips for photo opts while disregarding the devastation wrought by the USA policy the better.
That none of the sanction imposed is officially reversed while acting as the USA is a friendly west is the nadir of Hypocrisy.
Actually I’m echoing my mother-in-law’s Buddhism, just pushing a bit further than she would.
Of course you’re right that Buddha would have been superstitious by modern standards, but all he had to do was to dump a fair bit is silly stuff to establish a tradition. Given the mutation rate of oral communication, and the 400 years that lapsed before anything was written down, no account of what Buddha said is credible. All one can hope for is a general moral outlook. If that included a moral rule, “Don’t exploit people by feeding them bullshit”, then you’re there. And that includes selling people expensive dolls with bogus powers.
Dear Evan Rees, I found no indication in my research for the Ming Dynasty, that the Ming Court was able to geographically connect inner mainland Southeast Asian places such as the statelet of Ava (predecessor to modern Burma) or Tai states to coastal states or settlements, so usage of “Nanyang” for a connected region of Southeast Asia must originate in Qing Court:
Fernquest, Jon (2006) “Crucible of War: Burma and the Ming in the Tai Frontier Zone (1382-1454),” SOAS Bulletin of Burma Research, Vol. 4, No. 2, Autumn 2006.
But to read more online from the expert on this subject:
Wade, Geoff (2004). “Ming China and Southeast Asia in the 15th Century: A Reappraisal,” No. 28 Working Paper Series, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, July 2004.
Wade, Geoff. tr (2005). Southeast Asia in the Ming Shi-lu: an open access resource, Singapore: Asia Research Institute and the Singapore E-Press, NationalUniversity of Singapore, [http://epress.nus.edu.sg/msl]
Wade, Geoff (2005b). “The Chinese ‘World View’ and Rhetoric of the Ming Shi-lu,” in The Ming Shi-lu as a source for Southeast Asian History, pp. 20-34, accompanying Wade (2005).
There is one reference in the above Ming sources to the Ayutthayan King Naresuan marching north at the time of his death around 1605, so the Ming Court may have had some idea how inland polities were connected or related to coastal polities, but it seems an interesting question 🙂
Kuman Thong is a thoroughly unpleasant and non-Buddhist practice, and not at all worthy of laughter. It is non-Buddhist because it causes harm to others, not because it is ‘animistic’. Mr. Siani’s conclusion seems entirely correct. In a recent article in ‘The Nation’ entitled ‘Superstition has no place in Buddhism’ the author complains about, ‘…monks who believe in such nonsense themselves as a likely result of their own upbringing.’ He obviously means ‘rural upbringing’ as opposed to the more sophisticated Bangkok elite. Clearly, when it suits them, Thailand’s elite are prepared to use faux-rationalism to attack the peasantry, who have the temerity to consistently win elections. The article avoids specifics apart from a brief mention of ‘heaven, hell or an afterlife’. Such beliefs are part of Buddhism’s foundation in Indian religion and they are so fundamental that they cannot actually be removed. When secular Western Buddhists attempt to remove these ‘non-scientific’ elements all they succeed in doing is creating a new religious movement. Dr.David Stott discusses these developments in an interesting Tricycle article entitled, ‘We are not kind machines’.
My thanks to Mr. Siani for this excellent and thought provoking article. In reply to R.N. England, it seems that you are just restating the ‘pure moral philosophy’ myth about Buddhism which was popular with Western scholars in a bygone age, when travel to the Orient was impractical. Since Buddhism is from India you can safely bet that it has been thoroughly magical and supernatural from the beginning. Buddha never contradicted such ideas, and indeed he endorsed quite a few of them.
Malaysia is a lost cause. The Government and opposition are thoroughly corrupted and Malaysians are frozen, with no conception what to do, but clearly unwilling to take to the streets as Indonesians and Filipinos have in the past. UMNO will not be removed any other way, and even if they are, PAS will take their place. The opposition is looking more and more like tired old versions of MCA and MIA, and stalwarts like Lim have become mere status-quo mouthpieces and Anwar lost his shine 30 years ago. Malaysia has been in trouble since 1982, and has lived off of fantasies and larcenous Malaysians. Unless PAS pulls an upset, the next PM WILL be Zahid Hamidi, and what he may lack in capricious larceny, he will make up for in fascist tendencies, bullying, racism and abuse of the law; the law being what UMNO says at any given moment. Malaysia has gone from a rich colonial and post-colonial nation to a global laughing stock, where President Obama has to invite PM Najib to Los Angeles, using other ASEAN leaders as cover, to hide Najib’s ass. The real question is why Obama cares so much about a deadbeat Prime Minister who is a global embarrassment and engages in a hilarious soap opera with the “new” activist Mahathir, in his 247th role (now as friends of the Chinese-Malaysians, at least his butler and money launderer, the insane Matthias Chang) which would be even funnier, if Malaysia’s whole existence as a nation were not at stake.
…are using dolls in a way that is consonant with normal daily Buddhist practice in Buddhist Thailand…
Well, that is the question: is it consonant with Buddhist practice? Is it being discussed? It seems it being discussed – and negated by some – is also being criticised in this column. So what is to be done then?
And no: I shall not buy airline tickets either for lug thep or other straw dolls on whatever airline. I hate horror movies….
This is the article I’ve been wanting to read for a long time. I’ve been thinking a great deal about the various ways one can slice and group Southeast Asia. Much like the Balkans, I think that it depends on what you’re analyzing. Once you get into sub-units it gets even more confusing.
My question relates to how this region has been defined int he past. What, for example, was the historical meaning of Nanyang for the Chinese? It now seems to encompass precisely the bounds of what has become Southeast Asia, but I imagine it was once something else entirely.
How can we have universal human rights when there is no consensus amount people about ‘the person’. Who is the rights bearer? The notion of the person will vary from culture to culture.
Human rights discourse is really Christian theological discourse. So it comes as no surprise that non Christian peoples find the notion unintelligible .
Liew Foon Ming and Geoffrey Wade working on Ming Dynasty Yunnan, not anyone on the best seller list or James Scott and his Zomia craze, are the two great largely unrecognized scholars who have done work that is of the greatest service to pre-modern Burmese history. 🙂
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Najib and Malaysia’s road to redemption?
The Singaporeans deserve to be smug about their Lee Kuan Yew, an Asian leader whose record speaks volumes about what dedication, integrity and incorruptible leadership in public service could achieve.
The contrast in the pursuit of self-interest by rogue leaders in the likes of Sukarno, Suharto, Najib, Marcos, Thaksin and Hun Sen, mega-billions of corruption that continue on and on unchecked still in the countries of Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Cambodia to these days ….. dismays, disappoints and depresses.
There is no road to redemption where mega-corruption is glorified and revered in countries like Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Cambodia, and Indonesia.v
Najib and Malaysia’s road to redemption?
Najib and UMNO, more like malaysia’s road to perdiction.
The two would-be women presidents
No Burmese would recognise Daw Aung, Peter. Best stick to Suu Kyi like everybody else as it doesn’t work like a first name in this case with or without the honorific Daw. Could be worse like Aung Kyi! Or Aung San like some foreign media have referred to her that would get us completely confused because that’s her father.
Trump into outer space preferably on a one way ticket would be like reviving the practice of sending monkeys. Clinton or him, Democrat or Republican, to the rest of us especially in the Third World it’s Tweedledee or Tweedledum as the late Gore Vidal famously summarised it.
Silencing by means of “superstition”
If the recently proposed Islamic airline instructs its crews to say prayers instead of carrying out a pre-flight check, I bet you’ll opt for scientific materialism and fly with someone else.
Silencing by means of “superstition”
The mutation rate of master reciters in the ancient world was almost non-existent, so the vast majority of early Buddhist scriptures can in fact be attributed to Shakyamuni, or to his immediate disciples.
As for the supremacy of scientific materialism, I would suggest that after only three hundred years ‘the jury is still out’. In comparison, animism and other supernatural world views are even older than homo sapiens. Scientific materialism also falls short numerically as only 16% of the world’s population are non-religious. In the USA 83% identify as Christian and of these 47% believe that the Second Coming of Christ will occur before 2050. Some US airlines actively recruit non-Christians as back-up crew just in case both the pilot and co-pilot ascend into heaven in-flight.
As for ‘evidence’, I would point to recent advances in theoretical physics which demonstrate that reality can actually be altered by individual perception. So you could theoretically be in an alternate reality of your own creation, and be none the wiser. The evidence could be right in front of you yet be completely invisible. According to Buddha we are all suffering from this condition of non-seeing (a-vidya). So there really are no grounds for assuming that your Western scientific viewpoint is in any sense superior to that of a ‘superstitious’ Thai.
The two would-be women presidents
Moe,
We don’t need Burmese witchcraft thank you. You worry about Daw Aung and we will worry about how to send Hillary into space (and Trump with her) permanently. Compared to our revolting candidates on both sides, we would be damn lucky to have Daw Aung or even U Shwe Mann as President of the United States.
The two would-be women presidents
So ‘disciplined democracy’ is a tad different from liberal democracy in that an overwhelming popular mandate does not translate into the highest political office in the land.
Hillary Clinton only needs to beat Bernie Sanders and probably Donald Trump fairly to re-enter the White House, this time as the Commander in Chief and not as the First Lady. ASSK on the other hand can never beat the CiC as things stand. Nor can she become one herself by fair means but ‘foul’?
Ironically democracy thus short changed may still be perfectly compatible with membership requirements of the New World Order so long as it turns a nice profit to its leading lights. So jog on Daw Suu, the generals are already fit for purpose with your kind assistance. You’ve been smartly outmanouvred. Now you’ve got to outgeneral the generals.
How did Southeast Asia become a social fact?
D.G.E. Hall did not cover the Philippines in the first edition of his A History of South East Asia !?
How did Southeast Asia become a social fact?
Fascinating background. I’ve often found the Sino-Burmese war of the 18th century an interesting precursor to the ties between border modern militant groups and Chinese partners. But now I’ll have to read your work on the even earlier conflicts.
I think the Chinese perspective might offer and interesting take on what Southeast Asia is as a geopolitical unit. I know that the idea of Nanyang also took on meaning to describe the area that the overseas Chinese communities lived, which must have been broadly conceived in maritime terms. And your work on tensions within Zomia is probably another way that China looked at the region.
Shutting women out no path to peace in Myanmar
The decades of Masculine power as well as deprivations by the west to counter the former, has made Myanmar fair sex loss ground in every way.
Once noticed for keeping own name as a real/symbolic equality in status, with Grace and Intelligence, as exemplified by the Lady is now dominated by SEXUALIZED western commercial view of women every where in Yangon and no doubt other big cities as well.
This fact alone will set the involvement and inclusion of the i/2 of Myanmar fair sex way back for years to come.
Noticed the author used an obvious Muslim kalamaH to illustrate the least status this category among the fair sex enjoy equality even among Myanmar citizenry.
The two would-be women presidents
Mr Kigpen need to follow the the politics of the USA more closely, comparing anything American from Hillary to the Ambassador to Myanmar risk ridicules and disdains.
The Lady on the left is attempting to realize her noble ideal of 3F (Freedom From Fear)from scratch in Myanmar while the woman on the left not only is not a lady the least in trustworthiness as well as one cycle away from jail let alone becoming anything significant.
As for the Ambassador from USA, the least said about his trips for photo opts while disregarding the devastation wrought by the USA policy the better.
That none of the sanction imposed is officially reversed while acting as the USA is a friendly west is the nadir of Hypocrisy.
Silencing by means of “superstition”
Actually I’m echoing my mother-in-law’s Buddhism, just pushing a bit further than she would.
Of course you’re right that Buddha would have been superstitious by modern standards, but all he had to do was to dump a fair bit is silly stuff to establish a tradition. Given the mutation rate of oral communication, and the 400 years that lapsed before anything was written down, no account of what Buddha said is credible. All one can hope for is a general moral outlook. If that included a moral rule, “Don’t exploit people by feeding them bullshit”, then you’re there. And that includes selling people expensive dolls with bogus powers.
How did Southeast Asia become a social fact?
Dear Evan Rees, I found no indication in my research for the Ming Dynasty, that the Ming Court was able to geographically connect inner mainland Southeast Asian places such as the statelet of Ava (predecessor to modern Burma) or Tai states to coastal states or settlements, so usage of “Nanyang” for a connected region of Southeast Asia must originate in Qing Court:
Fernquest, Jon (2006) “Crucible of War: Burma and the Ming in the Tai Frontier Zone (1382-1454),” SOAS Bulletin of Burma Research, Vol. 4, No. 2, Autumn 2006.
But to read more online from the expert on this subject:
Wade, Geoff (2004). “Ming China and Southeast Asia in the 15th Century: A Reappraisal,” No. 28 Working Paper Series, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, July 2004.
Wade, Geoff. tr (2005). Southeast Asia in the Ming Shi-lu: an open access resource, Singapore: Asia Research Institute and the Singapore E-Press, NationalUniversity of Singapore, [http://epress.nus.edu.sg/msl]
Wade, Geoff (2005b). “The Chinese ‘World View’ and Rhetoric of the Ming Shi-lu,” in The Ming Shi-lu as a source for Southeast Asian History, pp. 20-34, accompanying Wade (2005).
There is one reference in the above Ming sources to the Ayutthayan King Naresuan marching north at the time of his death around 1605, so the Ming Court may have had some idea how inland polities were connected or related to coastal polities, but it seems an interesting question 🙂
Silencing by means of “superstition”
Kuman Thong is a thoroughly unpleasant and non-Buddhist practice, and not at all worthy of laughter. It is non-Buddhist because it causes harm to others, not because it is ‘animistic’. Mr. Siani’s conclusion seems entirely correct. In a recent article in ‘The Nation’ entitled ‘Superstition has no place in Buddhism’ the author complains about, ‘…monks who believe in such nonsense themselves as a likely result of their own upbringing.’ He obviously means ‘rural upbringing’ as opposed to the more sophisticated Bangkok elite. Clearly, when it suits them, Thailand’s elite are prepared to use faux-rationalism to attack the peasantry, who have the temerity to consistently win elections. The article avoids specifics apart from a brief mention of ‘heaven, hell or an afterlife’. Such beliefs are part of Buddhism’s foundation in Indian religion and they are so fundamental that they cannot actually be removed. When secular Western Buddhists attempt to remove these ‘non-scientific’ elements all they succeed in doing is creating a new religious movement. Dr.David Stott discusses these developments in an interesting Tricycle article entitled, ‘We are not kind machines’.
Silencing by means of “superstition”
My thanks to Mr. Siani for this excellent and thought provoking article. In reply to R.N. England, it seems that you are just restating the ‘pure moral philosophy’ myth about Buddhism which was popular with Western scholars in a bygone age, when travel to the Orient was impractical. Since Buddhism is from India you can safely bet that it has been thoroughly magical and supernatural from the beginning. Buddha never contradicted such ideas, and indeed he endorsed quite a few of them.
Najib and Malaysia’s road to redemption?
Malaysia is a lost cause. The Government and opposition are thoroughly corrupted and Malaysians are frozen, with no conception what to do, but clearly unwilling to take to the streets as Indonesians and Filipinos have in the past. UMNO will not be removed any other way, and even if they are, PAS will take their place. The opposition is looking more and more like tired old versions of MCA and MIA, and stalwarts like Lim have become mere status-quo mouthpieces and Anwar lost his shine 30 years ago. Malaysia has been in trouble since 1982, and has lived off of fantasies and larcenous Malaysians. Unless PAS pulls an upset, the next PM WILL be Zahid Hamidi, and what he may lack in capricious larceny, he will make up for in fascist tendencies, bullying, racism and abuse of the law; the law being what UMNO says at any given moment. Malaysia has gone from a rich colonial and post-colonial nation to a global laughing stock, where President Obama has to invite PM Najib to Los Angeles, using other ASEAN leaders as cover, to hide Najib’s ass. The real question is why Obama cares so much about a deadbeat Prime Minister who is a global embarrassment and engages in a hilarious soap opera with the “new” activist Mahathir, in his 247th role (now as friends of the Chinese-Malaysians, at least his butler and money launderer, the insane Matthias Chang) which would be even funnier, if Malaysia’s whole existence as a nation were not at stake.
Silencing by means of “superstition”
…are using dolls in a way that is consonant with normal daily Buddhist practice in Buddhist Thailand…
Well, that is the question: is it consonant with Buddhist practice? Is it being discussed? It seems it being discussed – and negated by some – is also being criticised in this column. So what is to be done then?
And no: I shall not buy airline tickets either for lug thep or other straw dolls on whatever airline. I hate horror movies….
How did Southeast Asia become a social fact?
This is the article I’ve been wanting to read for a long time. I’ve been thinking a great deal about the various ways one can slice and group Southeast Asia. Much like the Balkans, I think that it depends on what you’re analyzing. Once you get into sub-units it gets even more confusing.
My question relates to how this region has been defined int he past. What, for example, was the historical meaning of Nanyang for the Chinese? It now seems to encompass precisely the bounds of what has become Southeast Asia, but I imagine it was once something else entirely.
Region’s human rights watchdogs lack bite
How can we have universal human rights when there is no consensus amount people about ‘the person’. Who is the rights bearer? The notion of the person will vary from culture to culture.
Human rights discourse is really Christian theological discourse. So it comes as no surprise that non Christian peoples find the notion unintelligible .
How did Southeast Asia become a social fact?
Liew Foon Ming and Geoffrey Wade working on Ming Dynasty Yunnan, not anyone on the best seller list or James Scott and his Zomia craze, are the two great largely unrecognized scholars who have done work that is of the greatest service to pre-modern Burmese history. 🙂