It seems that key background documents were removed from the Ministry of Energy’s website just prior to the announcement of a public hearing on the nuclear power plants. The public hearing itself was held in a military compound surrounded by over a hundred armed soldiers.
Not surprising of Dr. Piyasawat – typical aristrocratic way of running things.
“He is symbolic of the fear they have of letting the villagers, workers and others have their say.”
Unfortunately, I too, have that fear, but for different reasons than being “scared witless that they will lose their privileges and power”
I am amazed that Thaksin continued to receive support even after he had outserved his initial usefulness to the masses.
Perhaps the visits to the fortune tellers made all the difference:) (apart from gaving him some forewarning to stash funds away for a rainy day, it also seems to have kept the masses on side)
Ultimately Thaksin was trying to outdo the elite at their own game, and got tripped up by his own greed.
[…] to my previous comments about the “unrepresentative swill” of Senates, I was interested to read the following snippet from The Nation: Controversy over […]
Re 4 Anti-Thaksin and Anti Coup. Isn’t this being critical of his policies and actions and wanting to reject him at an election but not by coup? It is acknowledging his electorate mandate- not rejecting it.
Andrew, could you please clarify one point: what do the numbers in the matrix represent?
Are they just labels? Or are they the actual number of academics that you’ve identified in each segment based on email exchanges and web-board posts? Or are they your gut feel of the relative number of academics in each segment?
In 2000, Suchart Sriyaranya authored a very good piece of research for the Universit├дt Bielefeld that identified and ranked the 98 most influential public intellectuals in Thailand. The work is a bit outdate, but it would be interesting to evaluate where the most influential Thai intellectuals/academics stand with respect to your matrix. You might also want to add one additional axis of data: an estimate for how loudly they have made their views known to the public. My initial thinking for what Suchart identified as the top 9 most influential intellectuals (Sippanont Ketuthat, one of the top 10, past away last year):
Srithanonchai is right to be skeptical. Thailand’s coal-fired power stations have already caused significant environmental degradation. The past record of EGAT gives no cause for confidence.
Sondhi explained the other day that this is all part of a plan that has been gradually put into place. Controlling ISOC and having it back with the military means that Sondhi can probably stay on in a powerful position post-retirement. It will ensure that the military will continue to be able to play and control politics after the next election.
But the elite maintain their power. Of course, that is what all this is about. Thaksin is not the issue that worries the elite now in control. He is symbolic of the fear they have of letting the villagers, workers and others have their say. They are scared witless that they will lose their privileges and power. They seek a democracy – Thai-style democracy with the king as head of state – that preserves that power.
Yes, you are right. Suthichai loves the coup, but hates the coup-makers.
It is getting harder to obsess about Thaksin. Even the Nation is starting to realizing that the issue now is whether the new boss is any better than the old boss.
Who will actually operate the plants — Thailand does not have the manpower? Where is Egat going to store the waste, which will have to be taken very good care of for hundreds of years? I shudder seeing the mai pen rai attitude applied to nuclear power plants…
I would like to know how South Korea got to the point that the military is no longer actively involved in politics like the military is in Thailand, i.e. South Korea has a “professional” not political or politicized army, but I think it is a rather artificial stance to assume that someone has to have one consistent stance about coups before and after they occur. History and people’s opinion about what goes next are path dependent and in the Thai case with HMK legitimizing it after it happened, this has led to political stability. There is still no bloodshed. No opportunitic factions have even tried to use this as a political catalyst it seems. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Path_dependency
One can be against coups in general, but once they’ve happened is rewind really an option? The Thai military seems to have become less politicized and the public seems to be successfully checking most attempts to repoliticize it.
No coup, no Thaksin wasn’t on the menu. One could weave counterfactual histories of what such a scenario might have been like. Counterfactual coup history might be rather interesting. I’m surprised no one has looked at this angle.
How many juniors will stand up to their seniors in Thailand, I wonder? If the Sondhi protests and the coup and its aftermath have shown anything, it is that the Bangkok educated elite is not superior to the Po 6 villagers, neither in terms of morality nor political knowledge.
It seems that Suthichai is more like “anti-Thaksin” and “anti-military” rather than “anti-coup.” He needed to be “pro-coup” to realize his “anti-Thaksin” position. But that doesn’t mean that he wants to see the military as a permanent player in politics.
I gather that another one is planned for the banks of the Mekong opposite the Royal Steps in Luang Prabang. I am not sure that it will be of the same Disney Park dimensions, but nevertheless it will no doubt be of the similar Mad Ling Ludwig dimensions as all the other so called cultural gifts from China.
There is one going up in Udomxai that looks a bit like one of those huge places that builders erect to show how well they are doing. It is I gather from my Lao colleague that it is part of the Boten chain as will be the one in Vientiane Province. There is a law that says that you cannot build more than one, so they are licenced as being subbranches of the Boten one.. Learned from the King of franchising, Soeharto.
A huge golf course is being planned outside Vientiane and in LP.. Gosh how did they know we all wanted such things.
Has anyone seen actual text of this act? I have heard that it does merely empower the ISOC to handle “new forms of threats”, but actually puts them above the government. This came from a very reputable source.
Details from a Thai paper, I believe Thai Post, suggested that the ISOC would control all investigaive agencies, could order all government agencies to do their bidding, declare states of emergency, etc., etc without having to get any approval or even state their intentions. All of this would not be subject to court review and the ISOC would bbe imune from scrutiny or procecution.
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Nuclear sufficiency
It seems that key background documents were removed from the Ministry of Energy’s website just prior to the announcement of a public hearing on the nuclear power plants. The public hearing itself was held in a military compound surrounded by over a hundred armed soldiers.
Not surprising of Dr. Piyasawat – typical aristrocratic way of running things.
http://www.palangthai.org/en/story/83
Will rural voters be “confused to death”?
“He is symbolic of the fear they have of letting the villagers, workers and others have their say.”
Unfortunately, I too, have that fear, but for different reasons than being “scared witless that they will lose their privileges and power”
I am amazed that Thaksin continued to receive support even after he had outserved his initial usefulness to the masses.
Perhaps the visits to the fortune tellers made all the difference:) (apart from gaving him some forewarning to stash funds away for a rainy day, it also seems to have kept the masses on side)
Ultimately Thaksin was trying to outdo the elite at their own game, and got tripped up by his own greed.
“Unrepresentative swill”
[…] to my previous comments about the “unrepresentative swill” of Senates, I was interested to read the following snippet from The Nation: Controversy over […]
Mapping the post-coup academic landscape
Re 4 Anti-Thaksin and Anti Coup. Isn’t this being critical of his policies and actions and wanting to reject him at an election but not by coup? It is acknowledging his electorate mandate- not rejecting it.
Mapping the post-coup academic landscape
The numbers in the table are just labels.
“In Thailand we respect the king. Nobody dares to make a copy.”
comment one please note
http://www.ethaicd.com
sell only license King Naresuan VCD and DVD not the fake one
-_-“
Mapping the post-coup academic landscape
Andrew, could you please clarify one point: what do the numbers in the matrix represent?
Are they just labels? Or are they the actual number of academics that you’ve identified in each segment based on email exchanges and web-board posts? Or are they your gut feel of the relative number of academics in each segment?
In 2000, Suchart Sriyaranya authored a very good piece of research for the Universit├дt Bielefeld that identified and ranked the 98 most influential public intellectuals in Thailand. The work is a bit outdate, but it would be interesting to evaluate where the most influential Thai intellectuals/academics stand with respect to your matrix. You might also want to add one additional axis of data: an estimate for how loudly they have made their views known to the public. My initial thinking for what Suchart identified as the top 9 most influential intellectuals (Sippanont Ketuthat, one of the top 10, past away last year):
– Anti-Thaksin, Pro-Coup: Chai-anand Samutwanit (very loud), Thirayuth Boonmee (very loud), Prawes Wasi (very loud), Anand Panyarachun (loud)
– Anti-Thaksin, Anti-Coup:Sulak Siwarak (very loud), Nithi Eawsriwong (loud)
– Pro-Thaksin, Anti-Coup: Likit Thirawekin (quiet)
– Unknown: Saneh Jammarik, Pra Thammapidok (Prayut Payutto)
Nuclear sufficiency
Srithanonchai is right to be skeptical. Thailand’s coal-fired power stations have already caused significant environmental degradation. The past record of EGAT gives no cause for confidence.
Football and the freeze
He has officially bid for Man City with an offer of ┬г81.6 million.
Nuclear sufficiency
I volunteer South Australia for the waste!
Haha, a SECURATIZED Thailand. Imagine if the peaceful Buddhists get a weapon! Have they signed the NPT?
Srithanonchai, with this mai pen rai attitude you speak of, how long would it take EGAT to build one of these plants??
“Thailand – a national security state”
Sondhi explained the other day that this is all part of a plan that has been gradually put into place. Controlling ISOC and having it back with the military means that Sondhi can probably stay on in a powerful position post-retirement. It will ensure that the military will continue to be able to play and control politics after the next election.
Will rural voters be “confused to death”?
But the elite maintain their power. Of course, that is what all this is about. Thaksin is not the issue that worries the elite now in control. He is symbolic of the fear they have of letting the villagers, workers and others have their say. They are scared witless that they will lose their privileges and power. They seek a democracy – Thai-style democracy with the king as head of state – that preserves that power.
Mapping the post-coup academic landscape
Srithanochai,
Yes, you are right. Suthichai loves the coup, but hates the coup-makers.
It is getting harder to obsess about Thaksin. Even the Nation is starting to realizing that the issue now is whether the new boss is any better than the old boss.
Nuclear sufficiency
Who will actually operate the plants — Thailand does not have the manpower? Where is Egat going to store the waste, which will have to be taken very good care of for hundreds of years? I shudder seeing the mai pen rai attitude applied to nuclear power plants…
Mapping the post-coup academic landscape
I would like to know how South Korea got to the point that the military is no longer actively involved in politics like the military is in Thailand, i.e. South Korea has a “professional” not political or politicized army, but I think it is a rather artificial stance to assume that someone has to have one consistent stance about coups before and after they occur. History and people’s opinion about what goes next are path dependent and in the Thai case with HMK legitimizing it after it happened, this has led to political stability. There is still no bloodshed. No opportunitic factions have even tried to use this as a political catalyst it seems.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Path_dependency
One can be against coups in general, but once they’ve happened is rewind really an option? The Thai military seems to have become less politicized and the public seems to be successfully checking most attempts to repoliticize it.
No coup, no Thaksin wasn’t on the menu. One could weave counterfactual histories of what such a scenario might have been like. Counterfactual coup history might be rather interesting. I’m surprised no one has looked at this angle.
Will rural voters be “confused to death”?
How many juniors will stand up to their seniors in Thailand, I wonder? If the Sondhi protests and the coup and its aftermath have shown anything, it is that the Bangkok educated elite is not superior to the Po 6 villagers, neither in terms of morality nor political knowledge.
Mapping the post-coup academic landscape
It seems that Suthichai is more like “anti-Thaksin” and “anti-military” rather than “anti-coup.” He needed to be “pro-coup” to realize his “anti-Thaksin” position. But that doesn’t mean that he wants to see the military as a permanent player in politics.
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan …
I gather that another one is planned for the banks of the Mekong opposite the Royal Steps in Luang Prabang. I am not sure that it will be of the same Disney Park dimensions, but nevertheless it will no doubt be of the similar Mad Ling Ludwig dimensions as all the other so called cultural gifts from China.
There is one going up in Udomxai that looks a bit like one of those huge places that builders erect to show how well they are doing. It is I gather from my Lao colleague that it is part of the Boten chain as will be the one in Vientiane Province. There is a law that says that you cannot build more than one, so they are licenced as being subbranches of the Boten one.. Learned from the King of franchising, Soeharto.
A huge golf course is being planned outside Vientiane and in LP.. Gosh how did they know we all wanted such things.
“Thailand – a national security state”
Has anyone seen actual text of this act? I have heard that it does merely empower the ISOC to handle “new forms of threats”, but actually puts them above the government. This came from a very reputable source.
Details from a Thai paper, I believe Thai Post, suggested that the ISOC would control all investigaive agencies, could order all government agencies to do their bidding, declare states of emergency, etc., etc without having to get any approval or even state their intentions. All of this would not be subject to court review and the ISOC would bbe imune from scrutiny or procecution.
Even more powerful than in Prem’s day!
Thaksin come home!
60 % is majority control and 80% is majority control so that’s not the issue. Perhaps he wants 80% of profits.