Thanks for all the clarification from the ‘locals’!
Admittedly I wasn’t aware of local conferences that invited foriegn or resident foriegn participants. Now that I think of it, I have been to one – and the pricing, if I remember right, was two-tied (as a Thai working abroad, I paid the foriegners’ rate). As it seems a common practice from what I gather here, it may be something decided at policy level. As Srithanonchai and jonfernquest points out, it is quite a complex issue related to many factors (the parents’ subsidy pointed out by Srithanonchai is not only limited to academia, but all civil services it seem), I still won’t reduce it to “greed” nor “racism”.
I have read a lot of these ‘two-tied’ pricing in postbag (usually for tourists destinations), both for and against and they are often well argued on both sides. To put things in context for myself, I can only think of my experiences in Europe and Australia, where there’s one (relatively expensive for an average Thai income) price for all. Or to India, Sri Lanka and Vietnam – where some locals are out to milk the tourists for all they are worth (not unlike many places in Thailand)! I am also aware that most Thais, unlike Europeans and Australians couldn’t afford to fly (until the recent cheap airlines phenomena) let alone afford the very high visa fees to visit a wealthy country. That can easily be branded as ‘racist’ in practice too – but again, it is far more complex than that…
I am going off on a tangent here, but many valid and important points have been raised by Srithanonchai and jonfernquest that, however difficult, should be addressed for the effective balance, for any conference, between ‘breaking even’ and intellectual vibrancy/diversity.
P.S. Srithanonchai, the once welfare state of Australia used to be like that. Economic liberalization transformed all that, for both good and bad…
That’s a good point. At Stanford and the University of California at Santa Cruz I payed for my education as both a research assistant and a teaching assistant. I worked alongside people who were doing the same from Asia, Africa, Thailand. But when I worked in the educational sector in Thailand, I saw experienced westerners treated like trash and systematically cheated, as if they covertly represented some neo-colonialist multinational foreign interest, as opposed to the humble people who wanted to help others that they actually were. In this respect, the Thai educational sector repeatedly shoots itself in the foot, failing through delusionary pride and misplaced nationalism to exploit the country’s biggest comparative advantage, the relatively free flow of people from all countries and walks of life through the country, repeated visits, people who put down roots, who create a more vibrant fusion culture.
Buying milk for my baby niece will always be a higher budget priority than academic conferences!
Carelus’s rambling speech, so puffed up with spiritual and intellectual pretension, sounds like it could be one of Bhumibol’s.
If he were more direct in what he was supposedly trying say it would most likely be something like:
“Handley’s book is subversive to Thai culture and politics – therefore potentially dangerous. Notions of honesty, transparency, and the right to question traditonal systems that may indeed be corrupt (and the propaganda machine that protects that corruption) are merely a “Western epistemological attempt to engage with a reality that is indigenous, existential and altogether unknowable by the author”.
“Justification of affirmative action programmes depend on the maintenance of the narrative integrity of the histories of collective hurt.” -Upendra Baxi
I think that maybe articulating a foreign fee there is an admittance of economic injustice which can lead to and fester discrimination, but I don’t think that ‘Foreign’ is being specifically racist toward anyone. Wouldn’t Malaysians, Cambodians, Laotians or Burmese have to pay the foreign fee too?
Determination and defiance in moral hearts have turned into recalcitrance that has given its name in history to Burma’s saffron revolution that has marked an end of price of silence in traditional Buddhist society.
The Theravada Buddhist pholosophy embodies the concept of non-violent revolution and moral code which is called Pattanikujjana overturning alms bowl, literally meaning “holding onto truth, self-reliance and sefl-motification”.
No doubt, confuses conventional political thinking–is that Burma’s Saffron Revolution is not power struggle, but a conflict between peace and moral freedom on one side and the forces of political repression on other.
For a monk to be involved in politics or to hold a political post is strictly contrary to ethical code of the Theravada Buddhism.
Not only Burmese monks today are confronting major challenges but also military rulers are indeed facing a critical phase of history–a history of judgement in their life.
While recent bloody crackdown against spiritual protestors, Buddhist monks reverberated around the world it has deeper meaning and most important point is the fate of generals who destroyed the face of nation, the Sangha.
In the truth spirit of Buddhism the general must decide the fate of the nation following in the footsteps of the great Maurya Empire kings of India Asoka (304-323 BC) and Ajatasatthu (491-461 B.CE), who dignified the history of Buddhism “from evil to worthy life”.
Ultimately, Burma’s future will be determined by faith and courage, triumph of spirit that is saffron revolution.
Dr Ashin Nayaka
Visiting Scholar
Department of History, Columbia University, New York
Sidh: P.S.: Most of the years that I spent in Germany, although I grew up there, I lived there as a foreigner, with visa and work permit. I did not have to pay anything more than the Germans.
I wouldn’t call it “racist” but in the end, charging anything at all makes the conference of very limited interest and utility.
The Chulalongkorn international conference on Mon history and culture last month was sponsored and speakers even got paid.
Real progress was made and results are going to come from it. A subject that has been ignored til now, will no longer be ignored.
I’m actively using Mon manuscripts now and not just relying on the Burmese version of events. The foremost French scholar sent me his grammar of Mon which I’ve been religiously studying ever since.
Whatever you want to call it, there are a lot of people who aren’t paid that much, Thai and Farang, who are working in **rural Thailand** teaching **non-wealthy people** (I won’t say poor, because there is some modicum of comfort and stability to their lives despite not having very high incomes), who ***could benefit from various conferences and can’t afford those conferences***.
I observed the absence last year of many rural teachers from the annual language teaching conference that was held in Bangkok who were there the year before when it was held in Chiang Mai. The particular university I taught at, no Thai or Farang attended it for the two years that I worked there, except for two of us who crashed the conference, and no we couldn’t afford it on our salaries. I attended and gave a paper on teaching economics in English at a conference in Chiang Rai for free because I was a Chiang Rai teacher, but when I received the invitation this year it was 2000 baht because I was a Bangkok teacher which I can’t afford, there’s another conference at Chula next month, 2000 baht that I can’t afford. The real question is who loses the people holding the conference or the people giving and listening to the papers.
The even bigger issue is that after the conference, there’s **no follow-up**. So you meet for a few days and talk about a topic, you need to follow up on the conference by meeting in special interest groups and this just does not happen.
Sidh, it is not at all obvious, as also Lleij points out. Besides, a PhD-level lecturer at a Thai public university earns between 9,000 to 40+thousand [?], depending on his/her years of service, age, “C” (which is in the process of being outphased), and academic rank. In addition, there is health insurance (if you are still in the state system), and pension, and sometimes subsidized housing. I also mentioned that there are unofficial sources of income, such as research projects, committee memberships, weekend, evening, international curricula, consultancies, etc. I repeat, few of the Thai participants will pay the fee themselves, I assume, for which reason their individual incomes do not matter.
Foreign lecturers earn about 34,000 baht (salary, plus housing allowance, has been this way for more than a decade), irrespective of their degree, age, and family status. And they rarely have the extra sources and fringe benefits as their Thai colleagues can draw on. (More details are welcome.)
I do think that the salary of Thai lecturers from their ordinary salaries is far too low, compared to what you can make in the private sector, and I especially hate the subsidization of academic careers by entry-level lecturers through their parents (turning a number of institutions into negative selection mode by employing those who have rich parents; it would be nice if somebody could do an empirical study on the actual situation). But I was talking about a difference of 500 baht. Under the described conditions, it will make a difference to very few people indeed.
Finally, I don’t think that this double pricing is a crime. Rather, it is narrow-minded and petty.
Your metaphor concerning “affirmative action” would be easier to digest if it weren’t for reports of the absolutely lavish junkets Thai university presidents and trustees manage to secure for themselves.
I don’t agree with Srithanonchai that the primary motivation for the double pricing is racism. For me, I fell the primary motivation is good old-fashioned greed, with racism merely as a modus operandi.
Regardless of what the mens rea actually is, we can all agree that it’s a crime.
I paid USD350 for an international conference in Thailand. A Thai academic at a public university with a PhD earns much less than that per month (so 500 baht does make a difference). I think it will be quite hard to find a Farang/Japanese willing to take that kind of salary Srithanonchai (not to say that there aren’t any).
Why make a public statement to that end? It is obvious as it is. And this also depends on where you are coming from. For me it is “affirmative action”, for you it is “racist”… Things are probably much more ideal in Germany. I dare say, here in Australia, full fee paying international students are ‘subsidizing’ the local students (at the very least their fees pays the academic staff salaries who also teaches the local students); international students also pay the full price for public transport tickets while locals pay a roughly half price concession… And the thing is most local students in the old public universities are from private schools and are thus from middle to upper income families. I won’t call this practice “racist” though…
Sidh: Will the Thai participants really pay themselves for the fees? I rather assume that their respective institutions will carry the burden (boek dai). And where is a provision for regionally-based academics to pay the Thai rate? This concerns both regional scholars and Farang/Japanese with Thai salaries, and the unemployed. Where is the official statement of the organizers that the fee structure has this reason, and will they provide a public financial statement at the end to demonstrate that this subsidization indeed took place? Re the “monthly salary” Thai lecturers would have to spend for paying the fee: The average fee would be around 2,800 baht. I can’t really believe that the 500 baht difference will make a substantial difference for the Thai participants. I also don’t believe that there are many state-employed lecturers these days whose income (official and unofficial) is as low as 2,800 baht. By the way, the upcoming KPI Congress charges a fee of 3,000 baht, and the participants are almost exclusively Thais.
From my reading of these aggressively rigid election rules, Michael’s last sentence is accurate. It is not about elections or democracy as such, but about preventing the ‘old powers’ return to government. There are two quite desperate men here, GenSonthi in government – who might well have to go into exile should Mr.Samak becomes PM – and PMThaksin, who wants lost fame and fortune back – and revenge (and PMThaksin is atypical Thai politician here – there’s no such thing as forgive and forget, hence GenSonthi’s fears)…
Simply put, these extreme measures are designed to limit, to neutralize the influence of money in politics – and naturally the largest and most well endowed parties, the opposing PPP and Democrats, are not happy. It’s logic is simple and reductive that without vote buying (whethe direct or indirect), PPP will not get the numbers in parliament. Unfortunately, this is not done in the true spirit of ‘free’ and ‘fair’ elections as it is an election hijacked by two men’s personal conflict. With these rules, it becomes an overt ‘guns’ vs. ‘money’ conflict.
With the election closing in, GenSonthi’s power is on the wane as this is PMThaksin’s game. From GenSonthi’s point of view, he has to make the most of his hand as deputy PM. After the election, the power of money will come to the fore once again. It will be a similar scenario to 2001 but will be much more costly for PMThaksin in bidding for MPs and political parties to join/support PPP (with assets from ShinCorp sale frozen, we’ll get to see the depth of his off-shore assets).
A big variable is how much PMThaksin wants back. To be prime minister again with every baht restored to family/cronies and all cases against him dropped? His political foes seem to assume so – and they probably have evidences kept from the public. For one, I am certain PMSurayud (and even PMPrem’s meeting with KYPotjaman) has been in contact with PMThaksin in the past. Contacts that didn’t lead to any deals made.
No, PMThaksin is not AjarnPridi or FMPibul. He is not willing to die in exile. GenSonthi, despite his background as a special forces soldier, is also not President Putin either and PMThaksin will not die of poisoning while watching a ManCity match…
Kulap: If you had bothered to look into the threads on the so-called “sufficiency economy” on this blog, then you would know that your points have been discussed extensively. Besides, in your opinion, is it justified under suffciency principles for Thammasat to use a hotel (4-start, I think, not 5) when the university has a large (very sufficient) number of lecture rooms?
At yesterday’s meeting of the provincial election commission of Chachoengsao, these two reallies per district were also mentioned. In past elections, PECs had organized one event per district. Candidates would speak to empty seats or to a few of their supporters they had brought with them.
By virtue of these silly regulations, all state units in a province must provide space for election posters at their offices/buildings, and urgently inform the PEC. One chief district officer said that he had no such space, but had to organize a blank board. Ok, said the PEC. But who will pay for that, asked the nai amphoe? No budget so far. One question then is who in the PEC’s office will travel to the many hundreds of state units in the province to check whether each of them had really provided “sufficient and equal” space for a) all candidates running in the constituency, and b) all political parties with party-list candidates in Chachoengsao’s region.
By the way, Thai Rat’s Sunday analysis was also quite strong. The basic problem, according to the paper, was that the coup group had not been successfull in eliminating the “old power clique”. It just had not retreated. For this reason, hidden power had to be used. One element of this was that Sonthi assumed the position as deputy prime minister with the responsibility to suppress vote buying. The second element was the ECT’s regulations. That is, the paper denied the ECT was independent and neutral, but rather part of the broader strategy of the coup plotters. On the outside, the paper concluded, this election might be about returning the power to the people. But behind the scenes, the election was about a total war between the “current powers” and the “old powers.”
Thanks a lot Nicholas Farrelly for the mention. Appreciate it!
I started Thai Folitics, Food and Fiction at the time I could not post my apologies to Samak Sundaravej (and indirectly to Histocus) for my unfounded ‘mega-corrupt’ accusations. Setting up was easy . . . but I have yet to get to know other features . . .
Srithanonchai, maybe the two-tiered admission fees could be viewed as an ‘affirmative action’ so the generally lower paid Thai academics can attend and participate. In effect, the generally higher paid (not always I acknowledge especially if from within the region) foriegn academics are subsidizing the locals. I don’t see how the two groups with common interests can effectively meet otherwise. Just look at Thai studies conferences held in Europe or the US and the relatively low attendance from Thailand-based Thai academics. They just can’t afford both the airfares and/or conference fees unless subsidized in some form.
I have attended international conferences hosted in Thailand and this was always the arrangement (between international organizers and Thai host institution) which I had no problems with. I will certainly not meet my Thai colleagues if they were to fork out an equivalent of their monthly salary to attend the conference!
“Everyone has talked about sufficiency economy. Some have argued that only applying sufficiency economy is not enough but in fact it is enough if they know how to get sufficient. The problem is that they do not know how to be sufficient, not that the theory does not work,” he said.
Col. Jeru: I take it that you you have no evidence for such accusations. Not wanting to confuse you, I was actually asking for evidence in general. There are plenty of pretty solid works on Mobutu, but there seems little available on Samak’s alleged corruption. It does seem odd to me that you want to hurl insults that are dubious when there are plenty of other insults that do have some basis in fact that could usefully be hurled at someone like Samak. But maybe Observer has got it right.
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Sufficiency economy conference in Bangkok
Thanks for all the clarification from the ‘locals’!
Admittedly I wasn’t aware of local conferences that invited foriegn or resident foriegn participants. Now that I think of it, I have been to one – and the pricing, if I remember right, was two-tied (as a Thai working abroad, I paid the foriegners’ rate). As it seems a common practice from what I gather here, it may be something decided at policy level. As Srithanonchai and jonfernquest points out, it is quite a complex issue related to many factors (the parents’ subsidy pointed out by Srithanonchai is not only limited to academia, but all civil services it seem), I still won’t reduce it to “greed” nor “racism”.
I have read a lot of these ‘two-tied’ pricing in postbag (usually for tourists destinations), both for and against and they are often well argued on both sides. To put things in context for myself, I can only think of my experiences in Europe and Australia, where there’s one (relatively expensive for an average Thai income) price for all. Or to India, Sri Lanka and Vietnam – where some locals are out to milk the tourists for all they are worth (not unlike many places in Thailand)! I am also aware that most Thais, unlike Europeans and Australians couldn’t afford to fly (until the recent cheap airlines phenomena) let alone afford the very high visa fees to visit a wealthy country. That can easily be branded as ‘racist’ in practice too – but again, it is far more complex than that…
I am going off on a tangent here, but many valid and important points have been raised by Srithanonchai and jonfernquest that, however difficult, should be addressed for the effective balance, for any conference, between ‘breaking even’ and intellectual vibrancy/diversity.
P.S. Srithanonchai, the once welfare state of Australia used to be like that. Economic liberalization transformed all that, for both good and bad…
Sufficiency economy conference in Bangkok
That’s a good point. At Stanford and the University of California at Santa Cruz I payed for my education as both a research assistant and a teaching assistant. I worked alongside people who were doing the same from Asia, Africa, Thailand. But when I worked in the educational sector in Thailand, I saw experienced westerners treated like trash and systematically cheated, as if they covertly represented some neo-colonialist multinational foreign interest, as opposed to the humble people who wanted to help others that they actually were. In this respect, the Thai educational sector repeatedly shoots itself in the foot, failing through delusionary pride and misplaced nationalism to exploit the country’s biggest comparative advantage, the relatively free flow of people from all countries and walks of life through the country, repeated visits, people who put down roots, who create a more vibrant fusion culture.
Buying milk for my baby niece will always be a higher budget priority than academic conferences!
Interview with Paul Handley
Carelus’s rambling speech, so puffed up with spiritual and intellectual pretension, sounds like it could be one of Bhumibol’s.
If he were more direct in what he was supposedly trying say it would most likely be something like:
“Handley’s book is subversive to Thai culture and politics – therefore potentially dangerous. Notions of honesty, transparency, and the right to question traditonal systems that may indeed be corrupt (and the propaganda machine that protects that corruption) are merely a “Western epistemological attempt to engage with a reality that is indigenous, existential and altogether unknowable by the author”.
Sufficiency economy conference in Bangkok
“Justification of affirmative action programmes depend on the maintenance of the narrative integrity of the histories of collective hurt.” -Upendra Baxi
I think that maybe articulating a foreign fee there is an admittance of economic injustice which can lead to and fester discrimination, but I don’t think that ‘Foreign’ is being specifically racist toward anyone. Wouldn’t Malaysians, Cambodians, Laotians or Burmese have to pay the foreign fee too?
More academic commentary on Burma
Determination and defiance in moral hearts have turned into recalcitrance that has given its name in history to Burma’s saffron revolution that has marked an end of price of silence in traditional Buddhist society.
The Theravada Buddhist pholosophy embodies the concept of non-violent revolution and moral code which is called Pattanikujjana overturning alms bowl, literally meaning “holding onto truth, self-reliance and sefl-motification”.
No doubt, confuses conventional political thinking–is that Burma’s Saffron Revolution is not power struggle, but a conflict between peace and moral freedom on one side and the forces of political repression on other.
For a monk to be involved in politics or to hold a political post is strictly contrary to ethical code of the Theravada Buddhism.
Not only Burmese monks today are confronting major challenges but also military rulers are indeed facing a critical phase of history–a history of judgement in their life.
While recent bloody crackdown against spiritual protestors, Buddhist monks reverberated around the world it has deeper meaning and most important point is the fate of generals who destroyed the face of nation, the Sangha.
In the truth spirit of Buddhism the general must decide the fate of the nation following in the footsteps of the great Maurya Empire kings of India Asoka (304-323 BC) and Ajatasatthu (491-461 B.CE), who dignified the history of Buddhism “from evil to worthy life”.
Ultimately, Burma’s future will be determined by faith and courage, triumph of spirit that is saffron revolution.
Dr Ashin Nayaka
Visiting Scholar
Department of History, Columbia University, New York
Sufficiency economy conference in Bangkok
Sidh: P.S.: Most of the years that I spent in Germany, although I grew up there, I lived there as a foreigner, with visa and work permit. I did not have to pay anything more than the Germans.
Sufficiency economy conference in Bangkok
I wouldn’t call it “racist” but in the end, charging anything at all makes the conference of very limited interest and utility.
The Chulalongkorn international conference on Mon history and culture last month was sponsored and speakers even got paid.
Real progress was made and results are going to come from it. A subject that has been ignored til now, will no longer be ignored.
I’m actively using Mon manuscripts now and not just relying on the Burmese version of events. The foremost French scholar sent me his grammar of Mon which I’ve been religiously studying ever since.
Whatever you want to call it, there are a lot of people who aren’t paid that much, Thai and Farang, who are working in **rural Thailand** teaching **non-wealthy people** (I won’t say poor, because there is some modicum of comfort and stability to their lives despite not having very high incomes), who ***could benefit from various conferences and can’t afford those conferences***.
I observed the absence last year of many rural teachers from the annual language teaching conference that was held in Bangkok who were there the year before when it was held in Chiang Mai. The particular university I taught at, no Thai or Farang attended it for the two years that I worked there, except for two of us who crashed the conference, and no we couldn’t afford it on our salaries. I attended and gave a paper on teaching economics in English at a conference in Chiang Rai for free because I was a Chiang Rai teacher, but when I received the invitation this year it was 2000 baht because I was a Bangkok teacher which I can’t afford, there’s another conference at Chula next month, 2000 baht that I can’t afford. The real question is who loses the people holding the conference or the people giving and listening to the papers.
The even bigger issue is that after the conference, there’s **no follow-up**. So you meet for a few days and talk about a topic, you need to follow up on the conference by meeting in special interest groups and this just does not happen.
Sufficiency economy conference in Bangkok
Sidh, it is not at all obvious, as also Lleij points out. Besides, a PhD-level lecturer at a Thai public university earns between 9,000 to 40+thousand [?], depending on his/her years of service, age, “C” (which is in the process of being outphased), and academic rank. In addition, there is health insurance (if you are still in the state system), and pension, and sometimes subsidized housing. I also mentioned that there are unofficial sources of income, such as research projects, committee memberships, weekend, evening, international curricula, consultancies, etc. I repeat, few of the Thai participants will pay the fee themselves, I assume, for which reason their individual incomes do not matter.
Foreign lecturers earn about 34,000 baht (salary, plus housing allowance, has been this way for more than a decade), irrespective of their degree, age, and family status. And they rarely have the extra sources and fringe benefits as their Thai colleagues can draw on. (More details are welcome.)
I do think that the salary of Thai lecturers from their ordinary salaries is far too low, compared to what you can make in the private sector, and I especially hate the subsidization of academic careers by entry-level lecturers through their parents (turning a number of institutions into negative selection mode by employing those who have rich parents; it would be nice if somebody could do an empirical study on the actual situation). But I was talking about a difference of 500 baht. Under the described conditions, it will make a difference to very few people indeed.
Finally, I don’t think that this double pricing is a crime. Rather, it is narrow-minded and petty.
Sufficiency economy conference in Bangkok
Re: Sidh>
Your metaphor concerning “affirmative action” would be easier to digest if it weren’t for reports of the absolutely lavish junkets Thai university presidents and trustees manage to secure for themselves.
I don’t agree with Srithanonchai that the primary motivation for the double pricing is racism. For me, I fell the primary motivation is good old-fashioned greed, with racism merely as a modus operandi.
Regardless of what the mens rea actually is, we can all agree that it’s a crime.
Sufficiency economy conference in Bangkok
I paid USD350 for an international conference in Thailand. A Thai academic at a public university with a PhD earns much less than that per month (so 500 baht does make a difference). I think it will be quite hard to find a Farang/Japanese willing to take that kind of salary Srithanonchai (not to say that there aren’t any).
Why make a public statement to that end? It is obvious as it is. And this also depends on where you are coming from. For me it is “affirmative action”, for you it is “racist”… Things are probably much more ideal in Germany. I dare say, here in Australia, full fee paying international students are ‘subsidizing’ the local students (at the very least their fees pays the academic staff salaries who also teaches the local students); international students also pay the full price for public transport tickets while locals pay a roughly half price concession… And the thing is most local students in the old public universities are from private schools and are thus from middle to upper income families. I won’t call this practice “racist” though…
Sufficiency economy conference in Bangkok
Sidh: Will the Thai participants really pay themselves for the fees? I rather assume that their respective institutions will carry the burden (boek dai). And where is a provision for regionally-based academics to pay the Thai rate? This concerns both regional scholars and Farang/Japanese with Thai salaries, and the unemployed. Where is the official statement of the organizers that the fee structure has this reason, and will they provide a public financial statement at the end to demonstrate that this subsidization indeed took place? Re the “monthly salary” Thai lecturers would have to spend for paying the fee: The average fee would be around 2,800 baht. I can’t really believe that the 500 baht difference will make a substantial difference for the Thai participants. I also don’t believe that there are many state-employed lecturers these days whose income (official and unofficial) is as low as 2,800 baht. By the way, the upcoming KPI Congress charges a fee of 3,000 baht, and the participants are almost exclusively Thais.
The dead hand of electoral bureaucracy
From my reading of these aggressively rigid election rules, Michael’s last sentence is accurate. It is not about elections or democracy as such, but about preventing the ‘old powers’ return to government. There are two quite desperate men here, GenSonthi in government – who might well have to go into exile should Mr.Samak becomes PM – and PMThaksin, who wants lost fame and fortune back – and revenge (and PMThaksin is atypical Thai politician here – there’s no such thing as forgive and forget, hence GenSonthi’s fears)…
Simply put, these extreme measures are designed to limit, to neutralize the influence of money in politics – and naturally the largest and most well endowed parties, the opposing PPP and Democrats, are not happy. It’s logic is simple and reductive that without vote buying (whethe direct or indirect), PPP will not get the numbers in parliament. Unfortunately, this is not done in the true spirit of ‘free’ and ‘fair’ elections as it is an election hijacked by two men’s personal conflict. With these rules, it becomes an overt ‘guns’ vs. ‘money’ conflict.
With the election closing in, GenSonthi’s power is on the wane as this is PMThaksin’s game. From GenSonthi’s point of view, he has to make the most of his hand as deputy PM. After the election, the power of money will come to the fore once again. It will be a similar scenario to 2001 but will be much more costly for PMThaksin in bidding for MPs and political parties to join/support PPP (with assets from ShinCorp sale frozen, we’ll get to see the depth of his off-shore assets).
A big variable is how much PMThaksin wants back. To be prime minister again with every baht restored to family/cronies and all cases against him dropped? His political foes seem to assume so – and they probably have evidences kept from the public. For one, I am certain PMSurayud (and even PMPrem’s meeting with KYPotjaman) has been in contact with PMThaksin in the past. Contacts that didn’t lead to any deals made.
No, PMThaksin is not AjarnPridi or FMPibul. He is not willing to die in exile. GenSonthi, despite his background as a special forces soldier, is also not President Putin either and PMThaksin will not die of poisoning while watching a ManCity match…
Colonel Jeru takes command
Congratulations! Now our dear Col. has his very own platform for throwing the first stone! All others: Go, look for shelter!
Sufficiency economy conference in Bangkok
Kulap: If you had bothered to look into the threads on the so-called “sufficiency economy” on this blog, then you would know that your points have been discussed extensively. Besides, in your opinion, is it justified under suffciency principles for Thammasat to use a hotel (4-start, I think, not 5) when the university has a large (very sufficient) number of lecture rooms?
The dead hand of electoral bureaucracy
At yesterday’s meeting of the provincial election commission of Chachoengsao, these two reallies per district were also mentioned. In past elections, PECs had organized one event per district. Candidates would speak to empty seats or to a few of their supporters they had brought with them.
By virtue of these silly regulations, all state units in a province must provide space for election posters at their offices/buildings, and urgently inform the PEC. One chief district officer said that he had no such space, but had to organize a blank board. Ok, said the PEC. But who will pay for that, asked the nai amphoe? No budget so far. One question then is who in the PEC’s office will travel to the many hundreds of state units in the province to check whether each of them had really provided “sufficient and equal” space for a) all candidates running in the constituency, and b) all political parties with party-list candidates in Chachoengsao’s region.
By the way, Thai Rat’s Sunday analysis was also quite strong. The basic problem, according to the paper, was that the coup group had not been successfull in eliminating the “old power clique”. It just had not retreated. For this reason, hidden power had to be used. One element of this was that Sonthi assumed the position as deputy prime minister with the responsibility to suppress vote buying. The second element was the ECT’s regulations. That is, the paper denied the ECT was independent and neutral, but rather part of the broader strategy of the coup plotters. On the outside, the paper concluded, this election might be about returning the power to the people. But behind the scenes, the election was about a total war between the “current powers” and the “old powers.”
Colonel Jeru takes command
Thanks a lot Nicholas Farrelly for the mention. Appreciate it!
I started Thai Folitics, Food and Fiction at the time I could not post my apologies to Samak Sundaravej (and indirectly to Histocus) for my unfounded ‘mega-corrupt’ accusations. Setting up was easy . . . but I have yet to get to know other features . . .
I will still keep in touch.
Sufficiency economy conference in Bangkok
Srithanonchai, maybe the two-tiered admission fees could be viewed as an ‘affirmative action’ so the generally lower paid Thai academics can attend and participate. In effect, the generally higher paid (not always I acknowledge especially if from within the region) foriegn academics are subsidizing the locals. I don’t see how the two groups with common interests can effectively meet otherwise. Just look at Thai studies conferences held in Europe or the US and the relatively low attendance from Thailand-based Thai academics. They just can’t afford both the airfares and/or conference fees unless subsidized in some form.
I have attended international conferences hosted in Thailand and this was always the arrangement (between international organizers and Thai host institution) which I had no problems with. I will certainly not meet my Thai colleagues if they were to fork out an equivalent of their monthly salary to attend the conference!
Sufficiency economy conference in Bangkok
Well, Srithanonchai, if you did a little study, you’d realize:
“sometimes sufficiency for different people is differently defined.”
Read on for more clarity and simplicity:
“Everyone has talked about sufficiency economy. Some have argued that only applying sufficiency economy is not enough but in fact it is enough if they know how to get sufficient. The problem is that they do not know how to be sufficient, not that the theory does not work,” he said.
Thepchai Yong on normality in Thai politics
Col. Jeru: I take it that you you have no evidence for such accusations. Not wanting to confuse you, I was actually asking for evidence in general. There are plenty of pretty solid works on Mobutu, but there seems little available on Samak’s alleged corruption. It does seem odd to me that you want to hurl insults that are dubious when there are plenty of other insults that do have some basis in fact that could usefully be hurled at someone like Samak. But maybe Observer has got it right.
Shan conference in London, December 2007
I am one of the buddhist monk like to join in your conferece,please let me know what to do?