Well, Thaksin did resign from the police force when he started getting serious about business. Although it was a bit premature – most of his early investments were failures. It was several years after he left the police that he got his big break by getting into the mobile phone business.
Compare him to Surayud, a military officer for his entire career (and the son of a military officer who died penniless in Beijing). Yet somehow, Surayud drove a Porsche and has assets of nearly a hundred million baht.
I have to say, I have found your criticisms of Ajaan Thongchai rather harsh. It is not as if anyone would mistake him as an apologist for the monarchy or the military. I wonder who actually could pass the test of purity and virtue in political intent and action against which you would seem to judge academics and public intellectuals.
In fact, I wonder how you would hold up under scrutiny. Of course, we will never know since you only exist as a pen name on this website. Thus, we aren’t able to judge you by your actions and words out in the “real world” as you have judged Ajaan Thongchai. I understand, I think, why you post under a pen name. I do, however, think it worth pointing out the considerable asymmetry in the debate between you and Thongchai. He cannot possibly question you on the same issues and using the same criteria as you have applied to him. You are quite literally beyond criticism in this way due to the nature of this website and your decision about how to participate in it.
Not that Thongchai is above criticism. I just find the asymmetry of the exchange in combination with the tone of uncompromising moral condemnation, a bit disturbing. You come across as presenting yourself as much more honest, clear-sighted and morally upright than Ajaan Thongchai. Alas, we will never know if that is the case.
Do you think that the rural people in question consider that their potential for political engagement has been stultified by NGO & academic romanticism?
According to Paiboon Watthasiritham’s revised community assembly bill, currently being debated by the government, such councils’ major task would be “to support communities in conserving or restoring customs, local wisdom, good communal and national art and culture…” (article 19, No. 1).
Rep: Thanks for the information. So, Thammasat really has adopted a two-tier pricing approach? Would Thongchai (whom you could have treated more fairly, IMO) or Surin count as (poor) Thai scholars and pay the Thai rate, while Jon or I,farang scholars living in Thailand on or on less than a local income, pay the rate for (rich) foreign scholars? Many of the Thai scholars, by the way, might well be able to get a refund from their educational institutions. As a matter of principle, I don’t support double-tier racist pricing of this sort, and never take part in it. It’s disgusting.
As I said above, right now we need to try to guess how the “ignorant peasants” – many of whom voted Thai Rak Thai – are thinking about the regime. For those who can’t or don’t have time to read the Thai Rath news columns the cartoon is an interesting, quick ( though not always accurate) way to gauge the newspapers’ stance, and the newspaper’s own conclusion about which direction politics is heading in. To access Thai Rath cartoons here’s the link: http://www.thairath.co.th/showcartoon.php?cat=463
Patiwat: It’s interesting how a policeman can become a billionaire.
Investigating how policemen (& generals) became so wealthy would be a big job (& probably dangerous).
I’m not opposed to a freeze, and was really surprised that it did not happen as soon as Thaksin was removed. They are still earning interest on the accounts, and at this stage nothing has been confiscated, so what’s the big deal?
It looks like they got spooked after 21 billion disappeared.
Let’s not forget that Thaksin was a billionare long before he became Prime Minister.
Yet the AEC is freezing every single satang of his assets – not just the increase in his wealth that accumulated after he became Premier. Justice indeed!
“one would assume that the bid is designed to keep himself in the contact with Thai football fans, many of them Thai Rak Thai voters, under the most difficult of circumstances.”
But I thought he was finished with politics – he has said it so many times, and it would be nice to be able to believe it.
I wonder what the fans think about that as a reason to buy the club?
Personally, I think the ASC should only have frozen the suspect portion of his funds, and not given him an easy excuse to pull out of the Manchester deal.
“One Step Backward to Restart Democracy” was the common justification by the pro-coup intelligentsia. I also wonder how it could be, and strongly disagree with this justification. It put it up in the title and started the talk refering to it in order to offer a critique, that the coup is one step further or deeper, “Forward” in this sense, in a wrong direction, i.e. royalist demination. I wonder if the content of the talk was not enough for Mr Republican that I oppose the coup. Perhaps he already misinterprets that phrase in the title and already judged, regardless of the talk.
I don’t understand why you put the “fair” in my mouth. I did not ask for it. I do think you put the blame in the wrong place. We may question and criticise the judgment of those hosts for allowing the propaganda team to speak. But I only want to inform that they also welcomed people like me to speak as well.
I did not look down on webboards. Instead, I ask you not to look down on what other things other people are doing as they can, and urge that you can do it too instead of putting blames on the wrong place wrong people.
All other ciriticsms about myself enjoy the privilieges of living outside Thailand, never having to suffer or take a risk for opposing the coup, gaining benefits and reputations for opposing the coup, so on and and so forth are irrelevant. Indeed, I am very disappointed and feel very sad when I read them.
I wonder what they have to do with the points we are discussing. Nothing. Then, why doing this? Mr Republican should be smart enough to know that they are trash.
If an anti-royalist like Mr. Republican wants to get some respect, please do not do this again, ever.
Interestingly, those criticisms are along the same line as what the pro-coup intellectuals like Surin Maisrikrod and some others before him said to non-Thai academics who are critical to the coup, i.e. they never understand Thailand, never suffer under Thaksin, being neo-colonialist, etc. etc. Thai intellectuals in Thailand who oppose the coup also got the same reactions, i.e. being too farang, etc. I myself got almost exactly the same reactions from The Manager, a leading NGO activist who supported the coup, and some well known academic colleagues. They all said I oppose the coup because I live comfortably outside Thailand, never have to take any risk therefore can say anything I like to, enjoying being tenured professor, looking down on Thai intellectuals, etc. These are convenient but irrelevant reactions to the “outsiders” (either a Thai like me or non-Thais) who make a criticism to the “insider” (either those pro-coup or anti-coup, either royalist or anti-royalist).
To make an argument along the inside/outside term, Mr Republican contrasts actions, risks, and so on between the inside and outside Thailand. There are differences for sure. But the contrasts only serve the inside/outside rhetorics with no substantive grounds.
Just one example: It is not true that only people outside Thailand can speak openly opposing the coup while people in Thailand cannot. There are also many Thais inside Thailand who spoke up in public even more often than myself and stronger than myself. Therefore, it is no heroic act in doing this outside Thailand. Instead of claiming any credentials as Mr Republican suggests, I think it is some little contributions I could do. I never advertised my talks. I inform the readers here to make my point that the blame was put on the wrong gplace.
By the way, it has been one and a half year already that my academic outputs have been suffered badly. Academic works are what I have been known for outside Thailand. My politics, ideology are never parts of my credentials as an academic. My colleagues don’t care and most don’t know. Engaging with Thai politics since the late 2005 has not been good for my career or reputation because I cannot concentrate on my writings. The next book has been long overdue. All of those trash criticisms are … (I lost the word — too disappointed to find an appropriate one).
“… At the least, please open your mind, eyes and ears …”
From a “closed” mind, a deaf and blind man:
Perhaps for people who are living and enjoying democratic rights in prosperous Western countries it is very easy to be “tolerant”. It is very easy to be magnanimous and evenhanded and “fair”, especially in a university, and as a tenured academic. It is very easy to call for respect for different political opinions. Because whatever the political situation in Thailand, it has absolutely NO DIRECT EFFECT ON YOU WHATSOEVER. In fact, it may actually increase your social and academic status outside Thailand as someone who “speaks for” the “progressive” forces in Thailand. At the very least, a coup increases international interest in Thailand which, given the situation of Thai Studies programs internationally, automatically means that one gains status as a kind of “spokesperson for Thailand”. One gets interviewed by the media. One gets invited to present papers at prestigious academic institutions to “explain the situation” in Thailand. One writes articles that are accepted in academic journals, given the increased interest in Thailand. One gains an international reputation as a “progressive academic” who opposes the coup, with the added authenticity of being a national of Thailand, but without the risk of being a resident.
For your academic colleagues in Thailand who may not support the coup (minority that they may be) it is not so easy. One can not say the things publicly that you say so easily in Wisconsin or SOAS or LSE or Stanford or New York. If one did say those things at seminars or to the media in Thailand one would risk a ruined career, a long jail term, or worse (which is why these things are said on webboards, which you clearly look down upon). In Thailand things are not as “fair” as in the international universities whom you contacted to host you to speak out against the coup.
Which is why, when those Thai academics who do not support the coup or the CNS view the spectacle of international Thai Studies programs hosting apologists for a dictatorship, who have absolutely NO GENUINE ACADEMIC OBJECTIVE OTHER THAN TO CREATE INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT FOR THE COUP, and who travel to these universities IN THE PAY OF THE DICTATORSHIP, the argument that these institutions are merely being “fair” and even-handed academically rubs a little thin. In fact it raises the question whether these programs really understand what is happening in Thailand, supposedly their area of expertise. It is comparable to the hypothetical situation where, in “fairness” to the military junta in Burma one were to give them the same opportunity to the junta to explain their case as one might give Aung San Suu Kyi – even though the junta is in total control politically.
So the CNS propaganda teams initiated the contact with theses universities? And you are saying that the universities are obliged to accept, even though the function of these talks is nothing more than to provide a loudspeaker to give academic credibility to dictatorships? And you want to defend these Thai Studies programs for that?!
I am astounded why, at this moment, after the CNS has crushed in the most outrageous way resistance to the regime, you should suddenly want to defend international Thai Studies programs for their even-handedness with representatives of the royalist-military junta, which is, as you say, so well financed, so politically dominant, which totally controls the Thai media, and which enjoys such strong royal support? Under these circumstances your “fairness” – IN THIS SPECIAL SITUATION OF A ROYALIST DICTATORSHIP – in my opinion effectively means lending support to the CNS, to the anti-democratic forces in Thailand, and to the CNS’s attempted eradication of the only possible anti-CNS force: Thai Rak Thai.
“…But a political battle of this kind is never fair. We only have to fight as we can, when we can, and where we can …”
If this is the case then all I can say is, you have your fight, I have mine.
PS. Since you raised this issue in your post, some of us still wonder about the title for your talk at SOAS in November 2006: “Thailand’s September Coup: One Step Backward to Restart Democracy or One Step Forward in a Wrong Direction?”. We are wondering how a coup can be conceived of as an attempt to “restart democracy” (overthrowing a democratically elected government), or a “step forward”?
“I recall that you had some problems with a certain fascist educational establishment whose name you have yet to reveal.”
I have a good employer now. I could go to South Korea or the Middle East and accumulate money like many Farang with Thai familes, who want to do well for their Thai familes, but Thailand is a very comfortable place to live in, so I don’t. I don’t “thiaw” I have a little house with a wife and a mother in law and eight dogs and I go to the Wat with them on “Wan Phra” and “Tham Boon”. They “pai ha het, naaw mai, nai pa” so we have a lot of bitter bamboo shoot curry which I’ve developed a taste for. (There are even special bamboo shoots from Sipsongpanna you can buy in Maesai market)
“However if you are an agricutural or industrial worker or day labourer like the majority of the population, and especially a Thai Rak Thai voter right now,…”
Our neighbors who probably all voted for Thaksin because it is Chiang Rai all seem to be weathering the events pretty well. They never say anything and their life doesn’t seem to have changed. I do know one rice miller whose business was disrupted for a while with subsidised rice prices that were very convoluted and difficult to figure out and bore no relation to market reality, that some made abnormally high returns off their rice of for a while. Better income distribution would be nice, but it probably has to come from doing something new of value like OTOP or developing the fashion industry (Thaksin entrepreneurship ideas), not dropping cash subsidies from helicopters.
My mother-in-law is just glad the protests are not on TV anymore because it was giving her a bad case of “Jai Rawn” anyway she goes along with what people tell her, because she is so “Jai Yen” even more so than my boss so everything is fine, no major crises, the noral steady state of Thai society, I guess. Maybe, I have to visit another province or look harder, but I live literally in a village in Chiang Rai, next to the old airport, and it sure seems better than where I grew up in the states. People jogging around the lake and then down our road to the old airport (suan sukhapap) with their families. Lots of pragmatism and no major problems. It could be better. The Farang in Chiang Rai include former museum directors from European countries. computer entrepreneurs, former CEOs, all of these could be harnessed in the Thai educational system, but the forces that be are too conservative and will always give you the standard “this is the way we do it in Thailand” line, cooperation with some of those wise old Farang who could help make Thailand a better place. From reading this blog for a long time anyone would understand that there are many different “ways of doing it in Thailand” and that anyone who claims to have the final answer is probably just making a rhetorical power-assertion move over you.
No conference for me, I’m a foreign scholar on a Thai income. That’s too much money.
I, Thongchai Winichakul, also gave a talk about the coup at SOAS in November 2006, as reported on New Mandala as well. Given all the imperfect wording and ideas, I hope nobody, including Mr. Republican and the like, would say that my talk was a pro-royalist or pro-coup.
I also gave talks against the royalist coup at New York University, Stanford University, LSE, Humboldt Unviersity, and to Thai students in Germany November 2006, and finally at University of Washington in Seattle in May 2007, and of course here in Madison and a few other places since the coup. I also gave interviews to more than a dozen local and international broadcasts in the US, UK, Japan, and Jamaica.
The reason I state these fact is not to boast my anti-coup resume. (who knows if these records are assets or liability on my resume!). Rather, I would like to state these facts because the comment by Mr. Republican above can be turned another way that, “Thanks SOAS, LSE, Stanford, U. Washington, and several other institutions and international broadcasts, for hosting Thongchai Winichakul, for giving international credibility to the anti-royalist-coup people like him.”
Sure, Sondhi and the propaganda team of the royalist coup have more resources to go further and more often with much larger audience (plus nicer food and hotels). But a political battle of this kind is never fair. We only have to fight as we can, when we can, and where we can. The efforts may be too little to fight the propaganda mechines and may be in vain, but it is unfair to put the blames on those hosts.
I have to thank SOAS, U Washington, NYU, Stanford, Humboldt, Thai students in Germany and more, for their support to my talks. As far as I know, these host people do not favor the pro-coup propaganda at all. Far from it. ALL of them, as far as I know, do not support the coup. But they provided the forum and opportunites for all to take.
As a matter of fact, in many cases, the coup propoganda team and/or Thai reps in those countries inititated the contacts, asking for a forum to speak. Once I learned about this, I initiated the contacts to some of those places, asking for the opportunity for my talk against the royalist coup. Those hosts welcomed me with open arms and with supports.
I wish more anti-coup academics, including Mr. Republican and his famous fellows, try to create and/or take these possible opportunities to fight the royalist coup. At the least, please open your mind, eyes and ears, before putting blames on the wrong place. If one does not want to do anything beyond the webboards, that is fine too. But please tolerate people who are trying to do what they can but whose acts and words may not be exactly, precisely what you would like to hear and see.
More on the Thai Studies Conference — I promise. But not today.
Not a “thiao” conference, Sri, really? hmmm … then all this time I was thinking …. note that these “nice” images on the website come to us courtesy of Thammasat, supposedly Thailand’s number 2 university, but number 1 in terms of its “progressive” politics: 555 – I think of all the Thammasat academics who cheered on the PAD, welcomed in the CNS, joined the military junta committees, wrote the media articles in Matichon about the dangers of “electocracy”, 555555. And what about Thammasat’s famous radical student body? Today they are being put to shame by … the Chula students … 555555.
It’s a little difficult to take these things seriously – as one Thammasat academic who IS worthy of respect noted at a recent conference: as under the communist regimes of eastern Europe during the Cold War, the only rational stance in this type of situation is absolute cynicism.
But while we are on the topic of conference registration fees, it seems to me that one sphere in which we must at least attempt to reject the clutches of the tentacles of the sufficiency octopus is academic quality. If Thammasat University is going to charge foreign academics 2-3 times the registration fee of the AAS conference, then they damn well ought to ensure that the quality of the conference, including the papers, is at least equal to if not superior to the quality of the AAS.
It’s very easy to be flippant, cynical and a little condescending about Thaksin’s Manchester City bid. Given the heavy censorship the royalist-miiltary regime has imposed in Thailand now in relation to Thaksin and Thai Rak Thai’s activities it is difficult to be sure what to make of the reported bid. But given the difficulty he has been experiencing communicating with the Thai Rak Thai voter base as a result of the regime’s censorship (the ban on party campaigning was only lifted last week, TV and radio interviews have been censored and websites blocked until recently – not that many Thai Rak Thai voters use the internet – and the middle class Bangkok media hate him anyway) one would assume that the bid is designed to keep himself in the contact with Thai football fans, many of them Thai Rak Thai voters, under the most difficult of circumstances.
There are a number of graphics that I would like to post but can not due to the system on this blogsite. I’m not sure if it’s possible Andrew, but one thing we could consider doing is instead of taking too much notice of The Nation (or “The Na-chua” as it is better known these days) how about a few cartoons from Thai Rath, which is after all the daily with the biggest circulation, and, as I mentioned in an earlier email, has been taking a more anti-CNS stance since the Constitutional Tribunal’s decision on May 30. Some of the recent cartoons “say a 1000 words”, as they say. Focussing a bit more on Thai Rath may help us understand more about how the “uneducated”, “ignorant”, “immoral” masses are feeling about the regime’s treatment of Thai Rak Thai. We already know all too well how the Na-chua and the Bangkok Past feel about Thai Rak Thai and the peasants.
Well, on its web site, the ICTS (although it is supposed to be an academic, not a “thiao” conference) presents that “nice” cultural-historical image of Thailand — no reality, no industrial workers or day laborers, no sex tourists, etc.
I guess for this price foreigners can be confident of the superb international quality of the papers presented at the ICTS conference, because I understand that at this year’s AAS conference at Boston the registration fee for AAS members was $95 for members and $145 for non-members – no racial discrimination here. Or maybe Thailand’s market economy doesn’t work quite as well in the universities. Having already paid for an international airfare, hotel accommodation and almost double the registation fee paid by the Thai participants one would hope that one is getting one’s money’s worth.
I was talking about attending an academic conference, not living in Thailand. But seeing that you raised the issue of the quality of life in Thailand, yes, if you’re a white man with a disposable, independent income it is a rather pleasant place to live – although I recall that you had some problems with a certain fascist educational establishment whose name you have yet to reveal. However if you are an agricutural or industrial worker or day labourer like the majority of the population, and especially a Thai Rak Thai voter right now, things might not be quite as “nice” as they are for you. If you are simply treating the conference as an excuse to “thiao” to a nice place for foreigners, where you can get value for money from the great market economy they have here then I would agree, although I think there are cheaper ways of “thiao” than attending the ICTS.
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Football and the freeze
Well, Thaksin did resign from the police force when he started getting serious about business. Although it was a bit premature – most of his early investments were failures. It was several years after he left the police that he got his big break by getting into the mobile phone business.
Compare him to Surayud, a military officer for his entire career (and the son of a military officer who died penniless in Beijing). Yet somehow, Surayud drove a Porsche and has assets of nearly a hundred million baht.
Thai Studies Conference: The extended deadline
Republican,
I have to say, I have found your criticisms of Ajaan Thongchai rather harsh. It is not as if anyone would mistake him as an apologist for the monarchy or the military. I wonder who actually could pass the test of purity and virtue in political intent and action against which you would seem to judge academics and public intellectuals.
In fact, I wonder how you would hold up under scrutiny. Of course, we will never know since you only exist as a pen name on this website. Thus, we aren’t able to judge you by your actions and words out in the “real world” as you have judged Ajaan Thongchai. I understand, I think, why you post under a pen name. I do, however, think it worth pointing out the considerable asymmetry in the debate between you and Thongchai. He cannot possibly question you on the same issues and using the same criteria as you have applied to him. You are quite literally beyond criticism in this way due to the nature of this website and your decision about how to participate in it.
Not that Thongchai is above criticism. I just find the asymmetry of the exchange in combination with the tone of uncompromising moral condemnation, a bit disturbing. You come across as presenting yourself as much more honest, clear-sighted and morally upright than Ajaan Thongchai. Alas, we will never know if that is the case.
The end of phum panyaa
Do you think that the rural people in question consider that their potential for political engagement has been stultified by NGO & academic romanticism?
This is the fatalism of modernity.
The end of phum panyaa
According to Paiboon Watthasiritham’s revised community assembly bill, currently being debated by the government, such councils’ major task would be “to support communities in conserving or restoring customs, local wisdom, good communal and national art and culture…” (article 19, No. 1).
Sounds very modern, doesn’t it?
Thai Studies Conference: The extended deadline
Rep: Thanks for the information. So, Thammasat really has adopted a two-tier pricing approach? Would Thongchai (whom you could have treated more fairly, IMO) or Surin count as (poor) Thai scholars and pay the Thai rate, while Jon or I,farang scholars living in Thailand on or on less than a local income, pay the rate for (rich) foreign scholars? Many of the Thai scholars, by the way, might well be able to get a refund from their educational institutions. As a matter of principle, I don’t support double-tier racist pricing of this sort, and never take part in it. It’s disgusting.
Football and the freeze
I wonder what will become of Thaksin’s frozen assests. They’ll probably be confiscated and used to “help the country”.
Football and the freeze
As I said above, right now we need to try to guess how the “ignorant peasants” – many of whom voted Thai Rak Thai – are thinking about the regime. For those who can’t or don’t have time to read the Thai Rath news columns the cartoon is an interesting, quick ( though not always accurate) way to gauge the newspapers’ stance, and the newspaper’s own conclusion about which direction politics is heading in. To access Thai Rath cartoons here’s the link: http://www.thairath.co.th/showcartoon.php?cat=463
Football and the freeze
Patiwat: It’s interesting how a policeman can become a billionaire.
Investigating how policemen (& generals) became so wealthy would be a big job (& probably dangerous).
I’m not opposed to a freeze, and was really surprised that it did not happen as soon as Thaksin was removed. They are still earning interest on the accounts, and at this stage nothing has been confiscated, so what’s the big deal?
It looks like they got spooked after 21 billion disappeared.
Football and the freeze
Let’s not forget that Thaksin was a billionare long before he became Prime Minister.
Yet the AEC is freezing every single satang of his assets – not just the increase in his wealth that accumulated after he became Premier. Justice indeed!
Thai Studies Conference: The extended deadline
“I am astounded why, at this moment, after the CNS has crushed in the most outrageous way resistance to the regime…………”
It looks to me that the CNS has been very soft as far as military regimes go, and they have even allowed Thaksin to get back on the front foot.
Somehow I find extrajudicial killingss and ‘disappearances’ of opponents as more outrageous than a bit of media censorship.
BTW, the only ‘disappearance’ I know of is Fonzi (Tosakan) from TJTS.
Football and the freeze
“one would assume that the bid is designed to keep himself in the contact with Thai football fans, many of them Thai Rak Thai voters, under the most difficult of circumstances.”
But I thought he was finished with politics – he has said it so many times, and it would be nice to be able to believe it.
I wonder what the fans think about that as a reason to buy the club?
Personally, I think the ASC should only have frozen the suspect portion of his funds, and not given him an easy excuse to pull out of the Manchester deal.
Thai Studies Conference: The extended deadline
“One Step Backward to Restart Democracy” was the common justification by the pro-coup intelligentsia. I also wonder how it could be, and strongly disagree with this justification. It put it up in the title and started the talk refering to it in order to offer a critique, that the coup is one step further or deeper, “Forward” in this sense, in a wrong direction, i.e. royalist demination. I wonder if the content of the talk was not enough for Mr Republican that I oppose the coup. Perhaps he already misinterprets that phrase in the title and already judged, regardless of the talk.
I don’t understand why you put the “fair” in my mouth. I did not ask for it. I do think you put the blame in the wrong place. We may question and criticise the judgment of those hosts for allowing the propaganda team to speak. But I only want to inform that they also welcomed people like me to speak as well.
I did not look down on webboards. Instead, I ask you not to look down on what other things other people are doing as they can, and urge that you can do it too instead of putting blames on the wrong place wrong people.
All other ciriticsms about myself enjoy the privilieges of living outside Thailand, never having to suffer or take a risk for opposing the coup, gaining benefits and reputations for opposing the coup, so on and and so forth are irrelevant. Indeed, I am very disappointed and feel very sad when I read them.
I wonder what they have to do with the points we are discussing. Nothing. Then, why doing this? Mr Republican should be smart enough to know that they are trash.
If an anti-royalist like Mr. Republican wants to get some respect, please do not do this again, ever.
Interestingly, those criticisms are along the same line as what the pro-coup intellectuals like Surin Maisrikrod and some others before him said to non-Thai academics who are critical to the coup, i.e. they never understand Thailand, never suffer under Thaksin, being neo-colonialist, etc. etc. Thai intellectuals in Thailand who oppose the coup also got the same reactions, i.e. being too farang, etc. I myself got almost exactly the same reactions from The Manager, a leading NGO activist who supported the coup, and some well known academic colleagues. They all said I oppose the coup because I live comfortably outside Thailand, never have to take any risk therefore can say anything I like to, enjoying being tenured professor, looking down on Thai intellectuals, etc. These are convenient but irrelevant reactions to the “outsiders” (either a Thai like me or non-Thais) who make a criticism to the “insider” (either those pro-coup or anti-coup, either royalist or anti-royalist).
To make an argument along the inside/outside term, Mr Republican contrasts actions, risks, and so on between the inside and outside Thailand. There are differences for sure. But the contrasts only serve the inside/outside rhetorics with no substantive grounds.
Just one example: It is not true that only people outside Thailand can speak openly opposing the coup while people in Thailand cannot. There are also many Thais inside Thailand who spoke up in public even more often than myself and stronger than myself. Therefore, it is no heroic act in doing this outside Thailand. Instead of claiming any credentials as Mr Republican suggests, I think it is some little contributions I could do. I never advertised my talks. I inform the readers here to make my point that the blame was put on the wrong gplace.
By the way, it has been one and a half year already that my academic outputs have been suffered badly. Academic works are what I have been known for outside Thailand. My politics, ideology are never parts of my credentials as an academic. My colleagues don’t care and most don’t know. Engaging with Thai politics since the late 2005 has not been good for my career or reputation because I cannot concentrate on my writings. The next book has been long overdue. All of those trash criticisms are … (I lost the word — too disappointed to find an appropriate one).
Thai Studies Conference: The extended deadline
Reply to #11
“… At the least, please open your mind, eyes and ears …”
From a “closed” mind, a deaf and blind man:
Perhaps for people who are living and enjoying democratic rights in prosperous Western countries it is very easy to be “tolerant”. It is very easy to be magnanimous and evenhanded and “fair”, especially in a university, and as a tenured academic. It is very easy to call for respect for different political opinions. Because whatever the political situation in Thailand, it has absolutely NO DIRECT EFFECT ON YOU WHATSOEVER. In fact, it may actually increase your social and academic status outside Thailand as someone who “speaks for” the “progressive” forces in Thailand. At the very least, a coup increases international interest in Thailand which, given the situation of Thai Studies programs internationally, automatically means that one gains status as a kind of “spokesperson for Thailand”. One gets interviewed by the media. One gets invited to present papers at prestigious academic institutions to “explain the situation” in Thailand. One writes articles that are accepted in academic journals, given the increased interest in Thailand. One gains an international reputation as a “progressive academic” who opposes the coup, with the added authenticity of being a national of Thailand, but without the risk of being a resident.
For your academic colleagues in Thailand who may not support the coup (minority that they may be) it is not so easy. One can not say the things publicly that you say so easily in Wisconsin or SOAS or LSE or Stanford or New York. If one did say those things at seminars or to the media in Thailand one would risk a ruined career, a long jail term, or worse (which is why these things are said on webboards, which you clearly look down upon). In Thailand things are not as “fair” as in the international universities whom you contacted to host you to speak out against the coup.
Which is why, when those Thai academics who do not support the coup or the CNS view the spectacle of international Thai Studies programs hosting apologists for a dictatorship, who have absolutely NO GENUINE ACADEMIC OBJECTIVE OTHER THAN TO CREATE INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT FOR THE COUP, and who travel to these universities IN THE PAY OF THE DICTATORSHIP, the argument that these institutions are merely being “fair” and even-handed academically rubs a little thin. In fact it raises the question whether these programs really understand what is happening in Thailand, supposedly their area of expertise. It is comparable to the hypothetical situation where, in “fairness” to the military junta in Burma one were to give them the same opportunity to the junta to explain their case as one might give Aung San Suu Kyi – even though the junta is in total control politically.
So the CNS propaganda teams initiated the contact with theses universities? And you are saying that the universities are obliged to accept, even though the function of these talks is nothing more than to provide a loudspeaker to give academic credibility to dictatorships? And you want to defend these Thai Studies programs for that?!
I am astounded why, at this moment, after the CNS has crushed in the most outrageous way resistance to the regime, you should suddenly want to defend international Thai Studies programs for their even-handedness with representatives of the royalist-military junta, which is, as you say, so well financed, so politically dominant, which totally controls the Thai media, and which enjoys such strong royal support? Under these circumstances your “fairness” – IN THIS SPECIAL SITUATION OF A ROYALIST DICTATORSHIP – in my opinion effectively means lending support to the CNS, to the anti-democratic forces in Thailand, and to the CNS’s attempted eradication of the only possible anti-CNS force: Thai Rak Thai.
“…But a political battle of this kind is never fair. We only have to fight as we can, when we can, and where we can …”
If this is the case then all I can say is, you have your fight, I have mine.
PS. Since you raised this issue in your post, some of us still wonder about the title for your talk at SOAS in November 2006: “Thailand’s September Coup: One Step Backward to Restart Democracy or One Step Forward in a Wrong Direction?”. We are wondering how a coup can be conceived of as an attempt to “restart democracy” (overthrowing a democratically elected government), or a “step forward”?
Thai Studies Conference: The extended deadline
“I recall that you had some problems with a certain fascist educational establishment whose name you have yet to reveal.”
I have a good employer now. I could go to South Korea or the Middle East and accumulate money like many Farang with Thai familes, who want to do well for their Thai familes, but Thailand is a very comfortable place to live in, so I don’t. I don’t “thiaw” I have a little house with a wife and a mother in law and eight dogs and I go to the Wat with them on “Wan Phra” and “Tham Boon”. They “pai ha het, naaw mai, nai pa” so we have a lot of bitter bamboo shoot curry which I’ve developed a taste for. (There are even special bamboo shoots from Sipsongpanna you can buy in Maesai market)
“However if you are an agricutural or industrial worker or day labourer like the majority of the population, and especially a Thai Rak Thai voter right now,…”
Our neighbors who probably all voted for Thaksin because it is Chiang Rai all seem to be weathering the events pretty well. They never say anything and their life doesn’t seem to have changed. I do know one rice miller whose business was disrupted for a while with subsidised rice prices that were very convoluted and difficult to figure out and bore no relation to market reality, that some made abnormally high returns off their rice of for a while. Better income distribution would be nice, but it probably has to come from doing something new of value like OTOP or developing the fashion industry (Thaksin entrepreneurship ideas), not dropping cash subsidies from helicopters.
My mother-in-law is just glad the protests are not on TV anymore because it was giving her a bad case of “Jai Rawn” anyway she goes along with what people tell her, because she is so “Jai Yen” even more so than my boss so everything is fine, no major crises, the noral steady state of Thai society, I guess. Maybe, I have to visit another province or look harder, but I live literally in a village in Chiang Rai, next to the old airport, and it sure seems better than where I grew up in the states. People jogging around the lake and then down our road to the old airport (suan sukhapap) with their families. Lots of pragmatism and no major problems. It could be better. The Farang in Chiang Rai include former museum directors from European countries. computer entrepreneurs, former CEOs, all of these could be harnessed in the Thai educational system, but the forces that be are too conservative and will always give you the standard “this is the way we do it in Thailand” line, cooperation with some of those wise old Farang who could help make Thailand a better place. From reading this blog for a long time anyone would understand that there are many different “ways of doing it in Thailand” and that anyone who claims to have the final answer is probably just making a rhetorical power-assertion move over you.
No conference for me, I’m a foreign scholar on a Thai income. That’s too much money.
Thai Studies Conference: The extended deadline
Just a matter of fact:
I, Thongchai Winichakul, also gave a talk about the coup at SOAS in November 2006, as reported on New Mandala as well. Given all the imperfect wording and ideas, I hope nobody, including Mr. Republican and the like, would say that my talk was a pro-royalist or pro-coup.
I also gave talks against the royalist coup at New York University, Stanford University, LSE, Humboldt Unviersity, and to Thai students in Germany November 2006, and finally at University of Washington in Seattle in May 2007, and of course here in Madison and a few other places since the coup. I also gave interviews to more than a dozen local and international broadcasts in the US, UK, Japan, and Jamaica.
The reason I state these fact is not to boast my anti-coup resume. (who knows if these records are assets or liability on my resume!). Rather, I would like to state these facts because the comment by Mr. Republican above can be turned another way that, “Thanks SOAS, LSE, Stanford, U. Washington, and several other institutions and international broadcasts, for hosting Thongchai Winichakul, for giving international credibility to the anti-royalist-coup people like him.”
Sure, Sondhi and the propaganda team of the royalist coup have more resources to go further and more often with much larger audience (plus nicer food and hotels). But a political battle of this kind is never fair. We only have to fight as we can, when we can, and where we can. The efforts may be too little to fight the propaganda mechines and may be in vain, but it is unfair to put the blames on those hosts.
I have to thank SOAS, U Washington, NYU, Stanford, Humboldt, Thai students in Germany and more, for their support to my talks. As far as I know, these host people do not favor the pro-coup propaganda at all. Far from it. ALL of them, as far as I know, do not support the coup. But they provided the forum and opportunites for all to take.
As a matter of fact, in many cases, the coup propoganda team and/or Thai reps in those countries inititated the contacts, asking for a forum to speak. Once I learned about this, I initiated the contacts to some of those places, asking for the opportunity for my talk against the royalist coup. Those hosts welcomed me with open arms and with supports.
I wish more anti-coup academics, including Mr. Republican and his famous fellows, try to create and/or take these possible opportunities to fight the royalist coup. At the least, please open your mind, eyes and ears, before putting blames on the wrong place. If one does not want to do anything beyond the webboards, that is fine too. But please tolerate people who are trying to do what they can but whose acts and words may not be exactly, precisely what you would like to hear and see.
More on the Thai Studies Conference — I promise. But not today.
Thai Studies Conference: The extended deadline
Not a “thiao” conference, Sri, really? hmmm … then all this time I was thinking …. note that these “nice” images on the website come to us courtesy of Thammasat, supposedly Thailand’s number 2 university, but number 1 in terms of its “progressive” politics: 555 – I think of all the Thammasat academics who cheered on the PAD, welcomed in the CNS, joined the military junta committees, wrote the media articles in Matichon about the dangers of “electocracy”, 555555. And what about Thammasat’s famous radical student body? Today they are being put to shame by … the Chula students … 555555.
It’s a little difficult to take these things seriously – as one Thammasat academic who IS worthy of respect noted at a recent conference: as under the communist regimes of eastern Europe during the Cold War, the only rational stance in this type of situation is absolute cynicism.
But while we are on the topic of conference registration fees, it seems to me that one sphere in which we must at least attempt to reject the clutches of the tentacles of the sufficiency octopus is academic quality. If Thammasat University is going to charge foreign academics 2-3 times the registration fee of the AAS conference, then they damn well ought to ensure that the quality of the conference, including the papers, is at least equal to if not superior to the quality of the AAS.
Football and the freeze
It’s very easy to be flippant, cynical and a little condescending about Thaksin’s Manchester City bid. Given the heavy censorship the royalist-miiltary regime has imposed in Thailand now in relation to Thaksin and Thai Rak Thai’s activities it is difficult to be sure what to make of the reported bid. But given the difficulty he has been experiencing communicating with the Thai Rak Thai voter base as a result of the regime’s censorship (the ban on party campaigning was only lifted last week, TV and radio interviews have been censored and websites blocked until recently – not that many Thai Rak Thai voters use the internet – and the middle class Bangkok media hate him anyway) one would assume that the bid is designed to keep himself in the contact with Thai football fans, many of them Thai Rak Thai voters, under the most difficult of circumstances.
There are a number of graphics that I would like to post but can not due to the system on this blogsite. I’m not sure if it’s possible Andrew, but one thing we could consider doing is instead of taking too much notice of The Nation (or “The Na-chua” as it is better known these days) how about a few cartoons from Thai Rath, which is after all the daily with the biggest circulation, and, as I mentioned in an earlier email, has been taking a more anti-CNS stance since the Constitutional Tribunal’s decision on May 30. Some of the recent cartoons “say a 1000 words”, as they say. Focussing a bit more on Thai Rath may help us understand more about how the “uneducated”, “ignorant”, “immoral” masses are feeling about the regime’s treatment of Thai Rak Thai. We already know all too well how the Na-chua and the Bangkok Past feel about Thai Rak Thai and the peasants.
Thai Studies Conference: The extended deadline
Well, on its web site, the ICTS (although it is supposed to be an academic, not a “thiao” conference) presents that “nice” cultural-historical image of Thailand — no reality, no industrial workers or day laborers, no sex tourists, etc.
Thai Studies Conference: The extended deadline
Sri: Registration before 31 October:
Foreign Scholars: US$250
Thai Scholars: 4800 baht
Registration after 31 October:
Foreign Scholars: US$ 275
Thai Scholars: 5000 baht
I guess for this price foreigners can be confident of the superb international quality of the papers presented at the ICTS conference, because I understand that at this year’s AAS conference at Boston the registration fee for AAS members was $95 for members and $145 for non-members – no racial discrimination here. Or maybe Thailand’s market economy doesn’t work quite as well in the universities. Having already paid for an international airfare, hotel accommodation and almost double the registation fee paid by the Thai participants one would hope that one is getting one’s money’s worth.
Thai Studies Conference: The extended deadline
I was talking about attending an academic conference, not living in Thailand. But seeing that you raised the issue of the quality of life in Thailand, yes, if you’re a white man with a disposable, independent income it is a rather pleasant place to live – although I recall that you had some problems with a certain fascist educational establishment whose name you have yet to reveal. However if you are an agricutural or industrial worker or day labourer like the majority of the population, and especially a Thai Rak Thai voter right now, things might not be quite as “nice” as they are for you. If you are simply treating the conference as an excuse to “thiao” to a nice place for foreigners, where you can get value for money from the great market economy they have here then I would agree, although I think there are cheaper ways of “thiao” than attending the ICTS.