Some of you think that a country could be transformed from a third to first world without consequences. How I wished some of you are from underdeveloped African countries where poverty is acute with food security deficit, unemployment surplus, corruption surplus and lack of quality educational and healthcare services.
By the way, I have not been to Singapore, but I am a good student of history and over years of teaching economic development in Africa and understanding the continent, I have come to appreciate the works of Southeast Asian leaders that developed their countries.
Some of you guys think that economically developing a country is easy. If it is easy, why are so many African countries lagging behind countries like Singapore, Malaysia and South Korea that they shared similar macroeconomic statistics in the 60s together with?
I am really amused by this writeup and some subsequent comments. Lee – a dictator. Maybe by Western Standard but at least this man left power willingly unlike here in Africa that leaders are being overthrown or forced out of power. Here where leaders stay for ever through brutal dictatorial regimes, massive corruption and nothing development wise.
At least Lee did not murder his fellow countrymen like Idi Amin, Mobutu Sese Seko and co. I think some of you should read of these men to understand what dictatorship really is. At least Lee was not corrupt, you can read about all generations of African leaders and corruption especially my country Nigeria. Lee worked with Indians and Malays, google some of African founding fathers and read about the kind of nepotism they practiced.
Its actually a funny world. While people with real obvious and fundamental concerns complain, people that were fortunate enough to have leaders like Lee also do. Here in Africa, we would have been glad to have 100s of Lee. No African leader has ever been in Lee’s line. None could take the risks he took. None was ever passionate about his country like Lee – Funny World Indeed.
One can never satisfy the entire world. For a man that did his best for his country, lifted millions out of poverty and made trips to the US begging investors to come down to his country and invest – to be written and debated like this, I can only shudder.
Life is funny obviously, while children are dying of minor diseases all over Africa because of selfish leaders, debates here are about economic freedom or political freedom. Political freedom is the democracies in African countries that are marred by rigging, godfatherism, nepotism, voting along ethnic and religious lines, lack of credible electoral institutions and sharing moneys at polling booths during elections. I will prefer economic freedom to political anytime – anyday.
Everyone is blaming Lee here, what of political repression in China and Russia?
Elitism of PAP leadership, very funny – maybe he would have created a system where caricatures that do not know anything will be leading the intellectuals like in Africa. Leadership is not for everyone, if you do not know, you cannot lead, not to talk of in a world of sharp national economic competitions and globalization.
Isn’t a dog a mans best and most loyal friend? Lovers come and go, but the relation to the dog is far closer. At least that is what I hear from dog-lovers.
I don’t know, whether dogs need a passport. If not, it can’t be revoked.
“Uneven temper and willingness to hold a grudge”? Where’s the evidence? Rather I see a man with a tremendous, typically Thai sense of humor. The Crown Prince also demonstrates incredible, awesome ability to handle Thailand’s very tricky political games. EXACTLY what is needed in a future monarch.
“overjoyed” at Diem taking over is a bit of an exaggeration I think. But the point is not outright discrimination against Christians but tensions and anxieties over intra-family inter-religious relations. Also Vietnam had been exposed to heavy Catholic proselyting and Vietnamese Catholics for many decades, and already had Catholic leaders in the French. That said, what prey tell was the “Buddhist Crisis” in the last year of Diem’s rule if not in large part inter-religious conflict? Nothing but politics and communists as Diem, family, and friends would have it?
As minorities of 2% or less, who are Catholics in Taiwan going to vote for if not Buddhist-Confucianist-Taoists?
Matthew, I suspect you might be on the right line. While my experience is purely anecdotal, it does seem that new converts to Christianity become very enthusiastic about their new faith and try to spread it to their families, leading to tensions (sometimes to conversions, but more often to irritation). But even the most sensitive of Christians will refuse to honour the ancestors, who are very much a part of Khmer ritual life – their ashes are kept in the house, or at the monastery, and they are made part of all major celebrations, especially weddings and the birth of babies.
Another note on FooFoo in the Wikileaks diplomatic cables from Andrew MacGregor Marshall’s #Thaistory (p. 101):
Chief Air Marshal was the title of Wife #2 Yuwathida (“Mom Benz”)/Mom Sujarinee’s alleged lover.
The Crown Prince’s fury over the alleged affair knew no bounds… Sujarinee, her children and the alleged lover were expelled from the kingdom in 1996…
Vajiralongkorn married Srirasmi in 2001, abandoned her around 2007, when he intensified the romance with Thai Airways et al. and moved to Germany on a semi-permanent basis for medical treatment.
He kept the poodle and threw out the wives, reminder and warning, perhaps, to those who would be disloyal.
That’s really creepy.
This changes slightly the picture of Srirasmi, Nui and whomever else fawning over his poodle, and FooFoo’s funeral featuring a picture of the dog in the air marshal’s uniform: Beware those who would violate the prince’s harem rights!
The king portrayed Thong Daeng as an ideal commoner with warm-hearted family connections — with a double message?: Thai dogs are as good as farang dogs?
The CP may have responded in the same medium: Chief Air Marshal FooFoo is a symbol of a loyal Thai subject… and the strength and power of the Crown Prince’s fury. Instead of being tortured to death, etc. they will be exiled, have their passports confiscated. They will be no longer Thai.
He not only decreed this fate for his ex-wife and her alleged lover. He threw out her sons as well.
They are exiled, deracinated, if you will… people of no nation.
Of course this interpretation only holds if stories about the CP’s uneven temper and willingness to hold a grudge are true.
really nice piece
Like Nick, I would like to hear a little more about Thammayut-Mahanikai divides… there is no single “Buddhism,” but, as the author points out, state-sponsored Buddhism under the Ninth Reign, or some strands of it at least, is heading down a dangerous path. It is traditional to downplay any Thammayut-Mahanikia divides, even claim the sectarian battles no longer exist, because division is a sign of bad karma. Tell that to Phra Phimonlatham’s socialist followers in the NE and their political descendants. The claim of indifference — choei choei — can indicate real anger. If Buddhism is no longer the state religion, that has huge implications about the monarchy, since the king unites and regulates the “two wheels of dharma,” the realm or circle of worldly things and other-worldly things (the Sangha). In removing Buddhism as a state religion, it also shifts a major support base for farmers and working-class and Isan people — or perhaps painstakingly hewed inroads into rural areas like the Northeast by the royally-sponsored Tkhammayut order as a means of social control and cultural transformation. I can see how it would seem to be a move towards national unity and healing the divide with the South, but it would also seem to be a blow to the monarchy. In any event, it would be nice if someone where to do full-scale research and analysis of the topic, if it’s not yet another LM issue. Sigh. Also, observations about decline in morality constitute indirect criticism of the Dhammaraja (decline in merit and knowledge of the king) and call for purification by a great leader. This is also embedded in Theravada traditions. To me one of the most striking events of modern times is the amulet wars… and who’s the Crown Prince’s next astrologer? No virtuosi monks, no amulets with magical powers. Also, there is a difference in analysis of Buddhism as practiced by individuals and analysis of Buddhism as part of Thai culture and political economy. I studied with many wonderful monks, and met some anomalies, like Kittiwuttho Bikkhu. Thanks for the contribution.
Including Tonkin along with all white people,
you should take care of your own nations before you take care of the so called Rohinga. Now the west and the US is going down like crazy; this is the reason the white people have nothing to do but come and argue here without having any common sense. Before you argue, study the history and sociology very carefully!!
Which explains how non-Catholic South Vietnamese were overjoyed when Ngo Dinh-Diem became Generalissimo. Disenchantment later became evident with his dictatorial ways, not his faith, and Khmers are not so different from Vietnamese, Thais, Laos, there are just more Catholic Vietnamese. I don’t buy into this contrived Roman Catholic/Taoist/Confucian clash paradigm. There are enough Catholic Taiwanese and Koreans that have no problem voting for conservative Korean or Taiwanese Buddhists
(and vice-versa). On the contrary, Catholicism might be seen more likely as the anti-Khmer Rouge and anti-Hun Sen faith, as I do not think most Khmers hate Pol Pot because he drank espresso in Paris, nor like Hun Sen because he is a puppet of Beijing.
Coggain: “The second hurdle is that Christianity has a reputation for teaching disrespect for parents. This is a little difficult to fathom given the Biblical injunction to honour one’s mother and father.”
“Honor your father and mother” (Ephesians 6:2) is for those within the Church. That Christianity has reputation for disrespecting parents might stem from Jesus saying “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me” (Matthew 10:37). Cambodians have might have seen this play out when an enthusiastic Christian convert loves Jesus more than his parents and is disgusted with their “Pagan” religion.
It is misleading to write that the attack ‘killed eight’ without identifying how many of the terrorists themselves were killed. Bearing the balance between terrorists’ fatalities and those of the innocent in mind, one is forced to say that any comparison with Paris is nonsensical.
The author’s claim that ‘JI’ perpetrated attacks in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2009 is also a slapdash way of depicting a complex situation, roughly equivalent to saying that it was the National War College that wrote this ill-informed post.
Azhari was a gifted bomb-maker, not an organiser of attacks, so calling Noordin Top his protégé is also misleading.
The National War College apparently is unaware of the role of Aman Abdurrahman in the Jakarta attack, a theme that has cropped up in the Indonesian press in the past few days. Does the National War College even know who Aman is? He is now a privileged resident of Nusakambangan.
I had the opportunity to have Aman interviewed in jail in Cirebon in 2007, where he had been transferred from Sukamiskin, a Bandung prison that had once played host to Sukarno, if I remember correctly. Aman was an interesting enough subject to warrant a further interview in 2011 when he was in West Jakarta police detention. If it turns out that Aman indeed inspired the Jakarta attacks, I will be happy to offer the interviews to the National War College.
This is a very helpful comment. I was sceptical of the Mr Walden’s emphasis on the power of local officials, but already had enough on my plate with making any remarks on this subject.
I also find it hard to believe that SBY was forced to put up with his moratorium on deforestation being undermined by bupatis and others because they were too powerful. It is more likely that he didn’t follow the issue closely enough. Just as he failed to prevent many of his ministers from ripping off the economy so blatantly that the KPK has been working overtime, his Religious Affairs Minister being the latest to cop a term in jail.
Phar-dan means brothel row, for the benefit of non-Burmese speakers. Reminds me of that phone conversation which went viral years ago, between two school friends, one working in Singapore and the other an army officer studying in Moscow. The former asked his friend a rhetorical question over the exponential rise in the number of Burmese women in the sex trade both inside Burma and in the neighbouring countries, “So do you reckon Burmese women suddenly got the itch under military rule when they didn’t before?”
It’s all supply and demand, innit? Hobson’s choice aplenty.
Mandela was the very instrument for the blacks who used to screwed by the whites now to be screwed by the very same whites as well as s few blacks themselves.
Before the “Slum Champion” Jokowi was the Surpemo 110 of 240 million Indonesians lived (barely in literal as well as metaphorical) and starved in filthy cesspools. Now 110 of 240 Indonesians live and starve in filthy cesspools.
Oh. Burma have very little number of slum dwellers and factory slaves at home at this stage. There is the opportunity to catch up.
“Ne-pyi-daw” is trul ygreat for the millions of dollars just for lighting each month. The whole half of Northern Pyinmanar is now phar-dan now also copiously staffed with “Newbies”.
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Volunteer English teaching programs in Thai temples
Hi M,
Did you find out an address or any further details for either of the above programmes? I am very interested in finding out further details.
Many thanks
Lee Kuan Yew’s political legacy – a matter of trust
Some of you think that a country could be transformed from a third to first world without consequences. How I wished some of you are from underdeveloped African countries where poverty is acute with food security deficit, unemployment surplus, corruption surplus and lack of quality educational and healthcare services.
By the way, I have not been to Singapore, but I am a good student of history and over years of teaching economic development in Africa and understanding the continent, I have come to appreciate the works of Southeast Asian leaders that developed their countries.
Some of you guys think that economically developing a country is easy. If it is easy, why are so many African countries lagging behind countries like Singapore, Malaysia and South Korea that they shared similar macroeconomic statistics in the 60s together with?
I am really amused by this writeup and some subsequent comments. Lee – a dictator. Maybe by Western Standard but at least this man left power willingly unlike here in Africa that leaders are being overthrown or forced out of power. Here where leaders stay for ever through brutal dictatorial regimes, massive corruption and nothing development wise.
At least Lee did not murder his fellow countrymen like Idi Amin, Mobutu Sese Seko and co. I think some of you should read of these men to understand what dictatorship really is. At least Lee was not corrupt, you can read about all generations of African leaders and corruption especially my country Nigeria. Lee worked with Indians and Malays, google some of African founding fathers and read about the kind of nepotism they practiced.
Its actually a funny world. While people with real obvious and fundamental concerns complain, people that were fortunate enough to have leaders like Lee also do. Here in Africa, we would have been glad to have 100s of Lee. No African leader has ever been in Lee’s line. None could take the risks he took. None was ever passionate about his country like Lee – Funny World Indeed.
One can never satisfy the entire world. For a man that did his best for his country, lifted millions out of poverty and made trips to the US begging investors to come down to his country and invest – to be written and debated like this, I can only shudder.
Life is funny obviously, while children are dying of minor diseases all over Africa because of selfish leaders, debates here are about economic freedom or political freedom. Political freedom is the democracies in African countries that are marred by rigging, godfatherism, nepotism, voting along ethnic and religious lines, lack of credible electoral institutions and sharing moneys at polling booths during elections. I will prefer economic freedom to political anytime – anyday.
Everyone is blaming Lee here, what of political repression in China and Russia?
Elitism of PAP leadership, very funny – maybe he would have created a system where caricatures that do not know anything will be leading the intellectuals like in Africa. Leadership is not for everyone, if you do not know, you cannot lead, not to talk of in a world of sharp national economic competitions and globalization.
I rest my case!
Buddhist politics and Thailand’s dangerous path
Whose identity and whose crisis?
Dog v dog: Theatrics of the Thai interregnum
Isn’t a dog a mans best and most loyal friend? Lovers come and go, but the relation to the dog is far closer. At least that is what I hear from dog-lovers.
I don’t know, whether dogs need a passport. If not, it can’t be revoked.
Dog v dog: Theatrics of the Thai interregnum
“Uneven temper and willingness to hold a grudge”? Where’s the evidence? Rather I see a man with a tremendous, typically Thai sense of humor. The Crown Prince also demonstrates incredible, awesome ability to handle Thailand’s very tricky political games. EXACTLY what is needed in a future monarch.
Forty years of Lao PDR: what’s next?
I enjoyed reading this interesting analysis while staying in Luang Prabang. I just can wish the best in the future for the lovely people of Laos
Christianity in Cambodia
“overjoyed” at Diem taking over is a bit of an exaggeration I think. But the point is not outright discrimination against Christians but tensions and anxieties over intra-family inter-religious relations. Also Vietnam had been exposed to heavy Catholic proselyting and Vietnamese Catholics for many decades, and already had Catholic leaders in the French. That said, what prey tell was the “Buddhist Crisis” in the last year of Diem’s rule if not in large part inter-religious conflict? Nothing but politics and communists as Diem, family, and friends would have it?
As minorities of 2% or less, who are Catholics in Taiwan going to vote for if not Buddhist-Confucianist-Taoists?
Christianity in Cambodia
Matthew, I suspect you might be on the right line. While my experience is purely anecdotal, it does seem that new converts to Christianity become very enthusiastic about their new faith and try to spread it to their families, leading to tensions (sometimes to conversions, but more often to irritation). But even the most sensitive of Christians will refuse to honour the ancestors, who are very much a part of Khmer ritual life – their ashes are kept in the house, or at the monastery, and they are made part of all major celebrations, especially weddings and the birth of babies.
Southeast Asian snapshots
Laura is the sister of the rape-murder victim Hannah, the other way round.
Dog v dog: Theatrics of the Thai interregnum
Another note on FooFoo in the Wikileaks diplomatic cables from Andrew MacGregor Marshall’s #Thaistory (p. 101):
Chief Air Marshal was the title of Wife #2 Yuwathida (“Mom Benz”)/Mom Sujarinee’s alleged lover.
The Crown Prince’s fury over the alleged affair knew no bounds… Sujarinee, her children and the alleged lover were expelled from the kingdom in 1996…
Vajiralongkorn married Srirasmi in 2001, abandoned her around 2007, when he intensified the romance with Thai Airways et al. and moved to Germany on a semi-permanent basis for medical treatment.
He kept the poodle and threw out the wives, reminder and warning, perhaps, to those who would be disloyal.
That’s really creepy.
This changes slightly the picture of Srirasmi, Nui and whomever else fawning over his poodle, and FooFoo’s funeral featuring a picture of the dog in the air marshal’s uniform: Beware those who would violate the prince’s harem rights!
The king portrayed Thong Daeng as an ideal commoner with warm-hearted family connections — with a double message?: Thai dogs are as good as farang dogs?
The CP may have responded in the same medium: Chief Air Marshal FooFoo is a symbol of a loyal Thai subject… and the strength and power of the Crown Prince’s fury. Instead of being tortured to death, etc. they will be exiled, have their passports confiscated. They will be no longer Thai.
He not only decreed this fate for his ex-wife and her alleged lover. He threw out her sons as well.
They are exiled, deracinated, if you will… people of no nation.
Of course this interpretation only holds if stories about the CP’s uneven temper and willingness to hold a grudge are true.
Buddhist politics and Thailand’s dangerous path
really nice piece
Like Nick, I would like to hear a little more about Thammayut-Mahanikai divides… there is no single “Buddhism,” but, as the author points out, state-sponsored Buddhism under the Ninth Reign, or some strands of it at least, is heading down a dangerous path. It is traditional to downplay any Thammayut-Mahanikia divides, even claim the sectarian battles no longer exist, because division is a sign of bad karma. Tell that to Phra Phimonlatham’s socialist followers in the NE and their political descendants. The claim of indifference — choei choei — can indicate real anger. If Buddhism is no longer the state religion, that has huge implications about the monarchy, since the king unites and regulates the “two wheels of dharma,” the realm or circle of worldly things and other-worldly things (the Sangha). In removing Buddhism as a state religion, it also shifts a major support base for farmers and working-class and Isan people — or perhaps painstakingly hewed inroads into rural areas like the Northeast by the royally-sponsored Tkhammayut order as a means of social control and cultural transformation. I can see how it would seem to be a move towards national unity and healing the divide with the South, but it would also seem to be a blow to the monarchy. In any event, it would be nice if someone where to do full-scale research and analysis of the topic, if it’s not yet another LM issue. Sigh. Also, observations about decline in morality constitute indirect criticism of the Dhammaraja (decline in merit and knowledge of the king) and call for purification by a great leader. This is also embedded in Theravada traditions. To me one of the most striking events of modern times is the amulet wars… and who’s the Crown Prince’s next astrologer? No virtuosi monks, no amulets with magical powers. Also, there is a difference in analysis of Buddhism as practiced by individuals and analysis of Buddhism as part of Thai culture and political economy. I studied with many wonderful monks, and met some anomalies, like Kittiwuttho Bikkhu. Thanks for the contribution.
Rohingya and national identities in Burma
Including Tonkin along with all white people,
you should take care of your own nations before you take care of the so called Rohinga. Now the west and the US is going down like crazy; this is the reason the white people have nothing to do but come and argue here without having any common sense. Before you argue, study the history and sociology very carefully!!
period!!
Christianity in Cambodia
Which explains how non-Catholic South Vietnamese were overjoyed when Ngo Dinh-Diem became Generalissimo. Disenchantment later became evident with his dictatorial ways, not his faith, and Khmers are not so different from Vietnamese, Thais, Laos, there are just more Catholic Vietnamese. I don’t buy into this contrived Roman Catholic/Taoist/Confucian clash paradigm. There are enough Catholic Taiwanese and Koreans that have no problem voting for conservative Korean or Taiwanese Buddhists
(and vice-versa). On the contrary, Catholicism might be seen more likely as the anti-Khmer Rouge and anti-Hun Sen faith, as I do not think most Khmers hate Pol Pot because he drank espresso in Paris, nor like Hun Sen because he is a puppet of Beijing.
Christianity in Cambodia
Coggain: “The second hurdle is that Christianity has a reputation for teaching disrespect for parents. This is a little difficult to fathom given the Biblical injunction to honour one’s mother and father.”
“Honor your father and mother” (Ephesians 6:2) is for those within the Church. That Christianity has reputation for disrespecting parents might stem from Jesus saying “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me” (Matthew 10:37). Cambodians have might have seen this play out when an enthusiastic Christian convert loves Jesus more than his parents and is disgusted with their “Pagan” religion.
Jakarta and terrorism’s top dogs
It is misleading to write that the attack ‘killed eight’ without identifying how many of the terrorists themselves were killed. Bearing the balance between terrorists’ fatalities and those of the innocent in mind, one is forced to say that any comparison with Paris is nonsensical.
The author’s claim that ‘JI’ perpetrated attacks in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2009 is also a slapdash way of depicting a complex situation, roughly equivalent to saying that it was the National War College that wrote this ill-informed post.
Azhari was a gifted bomb-maker, not an organiser of attacks, so calling Noordin Top his protégé is also misleading.
The National War College apparently is unaware of the role of Aman Abdurrahman in the Jakarta attack, a theme that has cropped up in the Indonesian press in the past few days. Does the National War College even know who Aman is? He is now a privileged resident of Nusakambangan.
I had the opportunity to have Aman interviewed in jail in Cirebon in 2007, where he had been transferred from Sukamiskin, a Bandung prison that had once played host to Sukarno, if I remember correctly. Aman was an interesting enough subject to warrant a further interview in 2011 when he was in West Jakarta police detention. If it turns out that Aman indeed inspired the Jakarta attacks, I will be happy to offer the interviews to the National War College.
Indonesian fires lit by dysfunctional democracy
This is a very helpful comment. I was sceptical of the Mr Walden’s emphasis on the power of local officials, but already had enough on my plate with making any remarks on this subject.
I also find it hard to believe that SBY was forced to put up with his moratorium on deforestation being undermined by bupatis and others because they were too powerful. It is more likely that he didn’t follow the issue closely enough. Just as he failed to prevent many of his ministers from ripping off the economy so blatantly that the KPK has been working overtime, his Religious Affairs Minister being the latest to cop a term in jail.
The NLD and NPT
Phar-dan means brothel row, for the benefit of non-Burmese speakers. Reminds me of that phone conversation which went viral years ago, between two school friends, one working in Singapore and the other an army officer studying in Moscow. The former asked his friend a rhetorical question over the exponential rise in the number of Burmese women in the sex trade both inside Burma and in the neighbouring countries, “So do you reckon Burmese women suddenly got the itch under military rule when they didn’t before?”
It’s all supply and demand, innit? Hobson’s choice aplenty.
The NLD and NPT
Mandela was the very instrument for the blacks who used to screwed by the whites now to be screwed by the very same whites as well as s few blacks themselves.
Before the “Slum Champion” Jokowi was the Surpemo 110 of 240 million Indonesians lived (barely in literal as well as metaphorical) and starved in filthy cesspools. Now 110 of 240 Indonesians live and starve in filthy cesspools.
Oh. Burma have very little number of slum dwellers and factory slaves at home at this stage. There is the opportunity to catch up.
“Ne-pyi-daw” is trul ygreat for the millions of dollars just for lighting each month. The whole half of Northern Pyinmanar is now phar-dan now also copiously staffed with “Newbies”.
The NLD and NPT
If politics is the art of the possible and compromise the art of government the realities of power sharing tell us who will be making most of the compromising.
If Indonesia is any guide the same scenario was already hinted of byShwe Mann’s sharp rebuke in the House.
A steep learning curve or disillusionment?
Christianity in Cambodia
Philip,
You could have included a short paragraph about the Muslim Malay-derived Cham, just to demonstrate the religious and cultural diversity in Cambodia.