Oh Republican . . an ‘academic website’ demands what exact decorum exactly? If you puff out your ‘extensive’ knowledge of your favorite subject and in humility I merely offer my common sense against yiour ‘reasoned debate’, I am not behaving properly?
You really think I was trying to draw out your sympathy? lese stupidus indeed.
BTW abolishing the lese majeste law is a simple concept we can both agree upon. But how do we convince that same woman that ‘yellow’ is an academically feudal color?
I find the claim that no-one is talking about Islamic fundamentalism, extremism, and terrorism in the South extraordinary. Haven’t you been following the news headlines, the seminars, the books, the articles, the websites, the government reports, the government’s security policies? This “elephant” is everywhere. If you ask Joe Average about the reason for the violence in the south, they will inevitably answer, “Muslim terrorists”. Straight out of the George W. Bush textbook on the war on terror.
“dhimmi” is a category of status for non-Muslims that belongs to premodern Muslim states. It has no relevance to modern Muslim states, where non-Muslim citizens have formal equal status as citizens. It is a bit unfair to use this premodern term in debate to imply that you are being treated like a second class citizen as a non-Muslim.
And to pick out a selection of verses from the Qur’an and talk about them as representing Islam’s “contribution to the world” is unfortunate. One could do the same with the Bible, the Torah and no doubt any other major religious scripture (even those of the Buddhists).
This Zen Buddhist concept of seeing the “world as it is” is interesting. So the rest of us non-Buddhists do not see the world “as it is”?
“…why other culturally and economically marginal minority populations in Thailand (such as the “hill tribes” in the north) had not reacted in the same way as the south. The answer was that, whatever their religious or cultural differences, the “hill tribes” did succeed in various forms of integration with the majority population. This was not the case in the south where cultural differences were more profound….
“During question time there was also some comment about the violence perpetrated by the large number of paramilitary Rangers who had been posted to the south. That was about as close as the seminar got to talking about politics!”
Is the only the only book that I’ve seen recently that attempts to rigorously sift through the data from the bottom up rather than impose a priori hypotheses on the conflict.
Supposing that the southern Muslim does face a similar situation as the Akha in Chiang Rai. You would then have to conclude that we (the academics) really know nothing about the real situation on the ground at all, because the work of Mathew McDaniel for one, revealed that people really didn’t know the Inthiphon Meud of Akha land very well at all.
Furthermore, supporting this contention are the vapid ritualistic conversations I experienced with the dean of our university department (not), where everyone mindlessly echos sentiments of regret and sorrow. Sorrow and regret are legitimate expressions, but this simply does not explain anything, to explain you need to ask hard challenging questions and pull up the curtain a little and see what is going on inside. That is what a real scholars in a real university (not a ritualized simulcra) would do.
ps., Islam is a great religion which has contributed so much to the world. People who never bother to study it shouldn’t speak, directly or indirectly, ill of it.
Sawarin, in case that was directed at me, just letting you know that I did not raise the topic to attack Islam.
I was merely trying to find out if the issue had again been ignored, because even though the resolution of cultural & linguistic differences is needed, there will still be a problem unless the fundamentalists are weeded out (hopefully by the moderates).
IMO the latest spate of protest/blockades suggest there is a long way to go, and the southern population still mistrusts the authorities due to past (continuing?) abuses, or the radicals have cowed the moderates (or even worse, the moderates are being radicalised)
Jeru: simple – abolish lese majeste. After all, if the king is so morally pure and all the Thai people love him then he has nothing to fear, right?
By the way, if you want to join the debate on an academic website you should accept the rules of the game, which are to engage in a reasoned debate about issues in SEA Studies. Crying “humility” because you feel intimidated by others looks quite pathetic. If you disagree then argue your point, rather than looking for sympathy.
Excellent post Sawarin. Agree that it’s an extraordinarily complex situation, and can not be reduced to simple models. Actually it would make a good case study of the failure of social science to make much sense of what’s going on, at least in a way that might offer some policy alternatives.
Handbag prices at New Mandala hit an astonishing low as a result of both Republican and jeru’s tustle over a beige and too large to be practical Asia Times number. While King Solomon delt with the tustle, rival producer The Nation flooded the market with cheap imitations. The imitations all came with a distinct error marking them fake: the use of bright yellow cotton for the stiching.
New Mandala needs a fat lady (in yellow?) to sing!
Re: Sawarin> ps., Islam is a great religion which has contributed so much to the world. People who never bother to study it shouldn’t speak, directly or indirectly, ill of it. Thanks.
Actually, I have studied it, both the Quran and the Hadith of both Bhukari and Muslim. Where’s your thinly-veiled ad hominem attack now?
But indeed, let’s discuss Islam’s contributions to the world. I’m especially interested in Islam’s contribution to the South of Thailand, in light of Quran 8:39, 8:67, 9:5, 9:29, 9:33 and Sirat Rasul Allah pages 367, and 463-4 (the Alfred Guillaume translation)? And since you imply that you are such a great scholar of Islam, Sawarin, I trust that you won’t have to look up these passages.
As far as I know, Sawarin, in Thailand, it is perfectly legal to speak ill, directly or indirectly of Islam whether one had studied it or not. I will not allow you to pressure me into acting like a subdued dhimmi. Thanks.
Re: Republican> I have great respect for your passionate and erudite comments on Thai politics and culture; however, if in your zeal for liberty, you blame the monarchy more than Islamist ideology for the Southern insurgency, then, in all due respect, you, sir, need to get off your Lockean hobbyhorse.
I’m a Zen Buddhist, and as such, I endevor for sammaditthi (Right View); that is, seeing the world for what it is, not as one would wish it to be. If you feel that either I or nganadeeleg have incorrectly represented Islam, then please provide detailed counter-examples. Don’t think that you can stifle debate through name-calling. I’ll admit to a mistake due to ignorance of facts, but merely stating unpleasant, “inconvenient truths” is not bigotry.
Indeed, I see no white elephants in the room, my friend, but I see a lot of sacred cows heading to slaughter. Care for a steak?
it is when I am humbled by people with superior standards, complete with documented theses and intimidating vocabulary, that i revert to common sense.
But you are right again Republican. Your high principles I find very difficult to digest. While I understand why a woman, with child in tow, would overcome her fears of guns, bullets and uniform, to hang her fresh flowers to that fascist tank.
Now how can we help that woman in yellow, Republican and cure her out of her feudal mind?
“invites scholars from various disciplines to contribute to our understanding of harmony as a **contested discourse**, constructed and negotiated in the Southeast Asian region…how can state harmony, a seemingly internal condition, be maintained in the face of neo-liberalism, regionalisation and globalization movements”.
a. “Contested discourse” implies in its very nature some “lack of harmony.”
b. In my studies of the pre-modern era c. 1350-1600 there was already a high degree of regionalisation five hundred years ago, regionalisation that included Yunnan and India as well.
c. There might be unity and harmony in some sense, but if you read the newspaper each today there are obviously daily news events that bespeak of disharmony and a lack of unity, and this is not some new phenomena.
d. This sounds like a discourse that nationalism has taught some scholars, that creates a self-referential intellectual habit difficult to kick, that is inherently uninteresting to outsiders, and more than anything reifies the existing power structure that they depend on for legitimacy.
e. This nationalistic discourse not unique to Thailand. I used to get this all the time in the essays of South Korean students whose nationalistic doctrination is more intense than any state in Southeast Asia, to be sure. Many histories of the US doused heavily in nostalgia suffer in a likewise fashion.
It’s very clear that your standard is the standard of the tank and gun and the yellow feudal flags. Just don’t misrepresent it as democracy. Maybe your inability to digest simple concepts is what is giving you the upset stomach.
And who decides whether your standards, Republican, are as high as Thaksin\’s? And while I puke trying to meet both high standards, Republican, in came those tanks, without standards BTW, to give me welcome relief.
“…elephant in the room …”? I thought you were talking about the royal white elephant. Of course no one mentions that elephant. Yes, discussion of the involvement of the monarchy and its “network” in the south would be most interesting; see McCargo and Askew’s recent papers. But if you’re talking about bigoted misrepresetation of Muslims and Islam, these elephants roam around Thailand freely and in large numbers, especially in Bangkok.
Was there any mention of the elephant in the room? (the influence of fundamental islamists, global jihad, even possible ethnic cleansing?)
I didn’t attended the seminar, but I can tell you answer…of course not! From what I see, it was an al-taqqiya fest, plain and simple.
And all the time, I’m sure many in the audience were content to sit and lap up the panelists’ pernicious dissimulation, while wearing smug, sanctimonious smiles as they congratulated themselves on how “tolerant” they all are. Most people would rather continue to speak and act in ignorance than admit that perhaps the “Religion of Peace tm” has elements that predispose believers to violence, and that such elements are inherent within it.
Of course, to draw a comparison between the situation in the South of Thailand to that of many Hispanic Americans* who also are dealing with a form of linguisitic imperalism and also advocate bilingual education, and yet do not engage in violent insurgency and genocide, would be politik verboten. I mean, what are you, some kind of Islamophobe?
Kind of strange that two Southeast Asian universities should choose a neo-Confucian concept from East Asia to apply to state-society relations in Southeast Asia, whose traditions of political thinking (not to mention present circumstances) one would have thought owe very little to Confucianism. I was also not aware that this theory had “gained ground” in analysing SEA politics in recent decades (as stated in the blurb), although I know that authoritarian regimes in East Asia were very susceptible to this type of argument at one time. Most of the governments of these countries now prefer the trappings and much of the substance of “liberal” political discourse, given the process of democratization or at least liberalization that has occurred throughout the region – Taiwan, South Korea, Indonesia, even to an extent Singapore (just ask young Singaporeans what they think about Confucianism). But instead of holding a conference on that terrifying model of state-individual relations known as “liberalism” these universities seem to prefer a 1000 year old theory appropriate to Chinese imperial rule. Each to his own, I guess. (In fact, it’s quite appropriate that such a theory is to be debated on the 60th anniversary of HMK. Dictarships, whether they are communist or royalist, need all the friends they can find these days).
Nganadeeleg, surely you are not surprised it was not mentioned? As long as no one sees the elephant, talks about the elephant, or hears the elephant, the elephant doesn’t really exist. Dare I say, this is not an uncommon view and one that permeates academia and elements of the Thai bureaucracy.
“We cannot accept that [proposal] as we are Thai. The country is Thai and the language is Thai. So we have to make efforts to learn Thai and [everyone should have a uniform] command with the rest of the Kingdom,” he said.
…
“We have to be proud to be Thai and have the Thai language as the sole national language,” Prem told locals at the gathering.
___
There is no misunderstanding. This is no out-of-context quote. Prem did anything when he was PM for 8 years to make Malay a working language either so it is not as if we only have the above quotes to go on.
On the economic situation, well, sorry for the shameless self-plug, but the economic situation improved in the South in the two decades when there was no violence. The percentage of residents in the 3 southern border provinces living below the poverty line dropped from 37% in 2000 to 18% in 2004. Yet, the intensity of the violence increased in 2004. Yes, the residents of the southern border provinces aren’t the richest in Thailand, but given the choice of subjects some students study, whose fault is that?
Internationally, some scholars are sceptical of the links between poverty and terrorism. See this Working Paper at SSRN (which unfortunately you have to pay for). The authors wrote this piece at TNR which is freely available and the paper was discussed in this Becker-Posner post. From the TNR Piece:
“Falsely connecting terrorism to poverty serves only to deflect attention from the real roots of terrorism.”
Finally, on one hand, terrorism is blamed on poverty and economical marginalisation, but on the other hand when the government puts in more money, it will then be blamed for creating a culture of consumerism and capitalism. The government can’t win really.
I too find this whole idea of toy guns at festivals very interesting. Last month I spent a few weeks photo-documenting Shan Poi Sang Long festivals here in Chiang Mai. I was amused as young boys had mock gun battles throughout the temple grounds, hiding behind naga statues with their pistols ready. In fact, on the eve of one Poi Sang Long, even some of the sang longs with freshly shaved heads were having one last machine gun battle before their ordination ceremonies. Interesting imagery. Thanks for bringing up this topic Nic! 🙂
There’s nothing very intangible to grasp here. Either you have a government that is elected by the people or you have one installed by the military. But as I said above, the standards in Thai political science – both Thai and Western it seems – are so low that a military coup can be portrayed as “democratic” if it is painted yellow.
[…] announcement’s stated approach will not surprise New Mandala readers who have followed the debate about the International Conference of Thai Studies that will be held in Bangkok in December. Of […]
Facebook 
Twitter 
Soundcloud 
Youtube 
Rss
What about an anti-coup-coup coup?
Oh Republican . . an ‘academic website’ demands what exact decorum exactly? If you puff out your ‘extensive’ knowledge of your favorite subject and in humility I merely offer my common sense against yiour ‘reasoned debate’, I am not behaving properly?
You really think I was trying to draw out your sympathy? lese stupidus indeed.
BTW abolishing the lese majeste law is a simple concept we can both agree upon. But how do we convince that same woman that ‘yellow’ is an academically feudal color?
Sticking to the southern script
I find the claim that no-one is talking about Islamic fundamentalism, extremism, and terrorism in the South extraordinary. Haven’t you been following the news headlines, the seminars, the books, the articles, the websites, the government reports, the government’s security policies? This “elephant” is everywhere. If you ask Joe Average about the reason for the violence in the south, they will inevitably answer, “Muslim terrorists”. Straight out of the George W. Bush textbook on the war on terror.
“dhimmi” is a category of status for non-Muslims that belongs to premodern Muslim states. It has no relevance to modern Muslim states, where non-Muslim citizens have formal equal status as citizens. It is a bit unfair to use this premodern term in debate to imply that you are being treated like a second class citizen as a non-Muslim.
And to pick out a selection of verses from the Qur’an and talk about them as representing Islam’s “contribution to the world” is unfortunate. One could do the same with the Bible, the Torah and no doubt any other major religious scripture (even those of the Buddhists).
This Zen Buddhist concept of seeing the “world as it is” is interesting. So the rest of us non-Buddhists do not see the world “as it is”?
Sticking to the southern script
“…why other culturally and economically marginal minority populations in Thailand (such as the “hill tribes” in the north) had not reacted in the same way as the south. The answer was that, whatever their religious or cultural differences, the “hill tribes” did succeed in various forms of integration with the majority population. This was not the case in the south where cultural differences were more profound….
“During question time there was also some comment about the violence perpetrated by the large number of paramilitary Rangers who had been posted to the south. That was about as close as the seminar got to talking about politics!”
Militia Redux by Desmond Ball and David Scott Mathieson (2007) on the paramilitary
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/IE11Ae01.html
Is the only the only book that I’ve seen recently that attempts to rigorously sift through the data from the bottom up rather than impose a priori hypotheses on the conflict.
Supposing that the southern Muslim does face a similar situation as the Akha in Chiang Rai. You would then have to conclude that we (the academics) really know nothing about the real situation on the ground at all, because the work of Mathew McDaniel for one, revealed that people really didn’t know the Inthiphon Meud of Akha land very well at all.
Furthermore, supporting this contention are the vapid ritualistic conversations I experienced with the dean of our university department (not), where everyone mindlessly echos sentiments of regret and sorrow. Sorrow and regret are legitimate expressions, but this simply does not explain anything, to explain you need to ask hard challenging questions and pull up the curtain a little and see what is going on inside. That is what a real scholars in a real university (not a ritualized simulcra) would do.
Sticking to the southern script
ps., Islam is a great religion which has contributed so much to the world. People who never bother to study it shouldn’t speak, directly or indirectly, ill of it.
Sawarin, in case that was directed at me, just letting you know that I did not raise the topic to attack Islam.
I was merely trying to find out if the issue had again been ignored, because even though the resolution of cultural & linguistic differences is needed, there will still be a problem unless the fundamentalists are weeded out (hopefully by the moderates).
IMO the latest spate of protest/blockades suggest there is a long way to go, and the southern population still mistrusts the authorities due to past (continuing?) abuses, or the radicals have cowed the moderates (or even worse, the moderates are being radicalised)
What about an anti-coup-coup coup?
For those who want a more sophisticated analysis than they got at the Asia Foundation see Phichit Likhitkitsombun’s nice piece in Prachatai a couple of months ago:
http://www.prachatai.com/05web/th/home/page2.php?mod=mod_ptcms&ContentID=7319&SystemModuleKey=HilightNews
What about an anti-coup-coup coup?
Jeru: simple – abolish lese majeste. After all, if the king is so morally pure and all the Thai people love him then he has nothing to fear, right?
By the way, if you want to join the debate on an academic website you should accept the rules of the game, which are to engage in a reasoned debate about issues in SEA Studies. Crying “humility” because you feel intimidated by others looks quite pathetic. If you disagree then argue your point, rather than looking for sympathy.
Sticking to the southern script
Excellent post Sawarin. Agree that it’s an extraordinarily complex situation, and can not be reduced to simple models. Actually it would make a good case study of the failure of social science to make much sense of what’s going on, at least in a way that might offer some policy alternatives.
What about an anti-coup-coup coup?
Handbag prices at New Mandala hit an astonishing low as a result of both Republican and jeru’s tustle over a beige and too large to be practical Asia Times number. While King Solomon delt with the tustle, rival producer The Nation flooded the market with cheap imitations. The imitations all came with a distinct error marking them fake: the use of bright yellow cotton for the stiching.
New Mandala needs a fat lady (in yellow?) to sing!
Sticking to the southern script
Re: Sawarin> ps., Islam is a great religion which has contributed so much to the world. People who never bother to study it shouldn’t speak, directly or indirectly, ill of it. Thanks.
Actually, I have studied it, both the Quran and the Hadith of both Bhukari and Muslim. Where’s your thinly-veiled ad hominem attack now?
But indeed, let’s discuss Islam’s contributions to the world. I’m especially interested in Islam’s contribution to the South of Thailand, in light of Quran 8:39, 8:67, 9:5, 9:29, 9:33 and Sirat Rasul Allah pages 367, and 463-4 (the Alfred Guillaume translation)? And since you imply that you are such a great scholar of Islam, Sawarin, I trust that you won’t have to look up these passages.
As far as I know, Sawarin, in Thailand, it is perfectly legal to speak ill, directly or indirectly of Islam whether one had studied it or not. I will not allow you to pressure me into acting like a subdued dhimmi. Thanks.
Re: Republican> I have great respect for your passionate and erudite comments on Thai politics and culture; however, if in your zeal for liberty, you blame the monarchy more than Islamist ideology for the Southern insurgency, then, in all due respect, you, sir, need to get off your Lockean hobbyhorse.
I’m a Zen Buddhist, and as such, I endevor for sammaditthi (Right View); that is, seeing the world for what it is, not as one would wish it to be. If you feel that either I or nganadeeleg have incorrectly represented Islam, then please provide detailed counter-examples. Don’t think that you can stifle debate through name-calling. I’ll admit to a mistake due to ignorance of facts, but merely stating unpleasant, “inconvenient truths” is not bigotry.
Indeed, I see no white elephants in the room, my friend, but I see a lot of sacred cows heading to slaughter. Care for a steak?
What about an anti-coup-coup coup?
Simple concepts I like a lot Republican.
it is when I am humbled by people with superior standards, complete with documented theses and intimidating vocabulary, that i revert to common sense.
But you are right again Republican. Your high principles I find very difficult to digest. While I understand why a woman, with child in tow, would overcome her fears of guns, bullets and uniform, to hang her fresh flowers to that fascist tank.
Now how can we help that woman in yellow, Republican and cure her out of her feudal mind?
Harmony conference at Mahidol
“invites scholars from various disciplines to contribute to our understanding of harmony as a **contested discourse**, constructed and negotiated in the Southeast Asian region…how can state harmony, a seemingly internal condition, be maintained in the face of neo-liberalism, regionalisation and globalization movements”.
a. “Contested discourse” implies in its very nature some “lack of harmony.”
b. In my studies of the pre-modern era c. 1350-1600 there was already a high degree of regionalisation five hundred years ago, regionalisation that included Yunnan and India as well.
c. There might be unity and harmony in some sense, but if you read the newspaper each today there are obviously daily news events that bespeak of disharmony and a lack of unity, and this is not some new phenomena.
d. This sounds like a discourse that nationalism has taught some scholars, that creates a self-referential intellectual habit difficult to kick, that is inherently uninteresting to outsiders, and more than anything reifies the existing power structure that they depend on for legitimacy.
e. This nationalistic discourse not unique to Thailand. I used to get this all the time in the essays of South Korean students whose nationalistic doctrination is more intense than any state in Southeast Asia, to be sure. Many histories of the US doused heavily in nostalgia suffer in a likewise fashion.
What about an anti-coup-coup coup?
It’s very clear that your standard is the standard of the tank and gun and the yellow feudal flags. Just don’t misrepresent it as democracy. Maybe your inability to digest simple concepts is what is giving you the upset stomach.
What about an anti-coup-coup coup?
And who decides whether your standards, Republican, are as high as Thaksin\’s? And while I puke trying to meet both high standards, Republican, in came those tanks, without standards BTW, to give me welcome relief.
Sticking to the southern script
“…elephant in the room …”? I thought you were talking about the royal white elephant. Of course no one mentions that elephant. Yes, discussion of the involvement of the monarchy and its “network” in the south would be most interesting; see McCargo and Askew’s recent papers. But if you’re talking about bigoted misrepresetation of Muslims and Islam, these elephants roam around Thailand freely and in large numbers, especially in Bangkok.
Sticking to the southern script
Was there any mention of the elephant in the room? (the influence of fundamental islamists, global jihad, even possible ethnic cleansing?)
I didn’t attended the seminar, but I can tell you answer…of course not! From what I see, it was an al-taqqiya fest, plain and simple.
And all the time, I’m sure many in the audience were content to sit and lap up the panelists’ pernicious dissimulation, while wearing smug, sanctimonious smiles as they congratulated themselves on how “tolerant” they all are. Most people would rather continue to speak and act in ignorance than admit that perhaps the “Religion of Peace tm” has elements that predispose believers to violence, and that such elements are inherent within it.
Of course, to draw a comparison between the situation in the South of Thailand to that of many Hispanic Americans* who also are dealing with a form of linguisitic imperalism and also advocate bilingual education, and yet do not engage in violent insurgency and genocide, would be politik verboten. I mean, what are you, some kind of Islamophobe?
*[Except for José Padilla, of course. 🙂 ]
Harmony conference at Mahidol
Kind of strange that two Southeast Asian universities should choose a neo-Confucian concept from East Asia to apply to state-society relations in Southeast Asia, whose traditions of political thinking (not to mention present circumstances) one would have thought owe very little to Confucianism. I was also not aware that this theory had “gained ground” in analysing SEA politics in recent decades (as stated in the blurb), although I know that authoritarian regimes in East Asia were very susceptible to this type of argument at one time. Most of the governments of these countries now prefer the trappings and much of the substance of “liberal” political discourse, given the process of democratization or at least liberalization that has occurred throughout the region – Taiwan, South Korea, Indonesia, even to an extent Singapore (just ask young Singaporeans what they think about Confucianism). But instead of holding a conference on that terrifying model of state-individual relations known as “liberalism” these universities seem to prefer a 1000 year old theory appropriate to Chinese imperial rule. Each to his own, I guess. (In fact, it’s quite appropriate that such a theory is to be debated on the 60th anniversary of HMK. Dictarships, whether they are communist or royalist, need all the friends they can find these days).
Sticking to the southern script
Nganadeeleg, surely you are not surprised it was not mentioned? As long as no one sees the elephant, talks about the elephant, or hears the elephant, the elephant doesn’t really exist. Dare I say, this is not an uncommon view and one that permeates academia and elements of the Thai bureaucracy.
I don’t think Prem’s opposition was based on a misunderstanding. It was based on politics. He said in direct response to the NRC’s recommendation to make Yawi “working language” that it was for Yawi to be an “official language”. Prem knew the nationalists would be outraged even if Yawi was made a working language as it would be construed as making Yawi an official language. Here is what he said:
“We won’t solve this problem through language. What is needed is love and understanding throughout the country.”
Yes, Prem the hippy! Love and understanding will solve everything.
He also stated:
“We cannot accept that [proposal] as we are Thai. The country is Thai and the language is Thai. So we have to make efforts to learn Thai and [everyone should have a uniform] command with the rest of the Kingdom,” he said.
…
“We have to be proud to be Thai and have the Thai language as the sole national language,” Prem told locals at the gathering.
___
There is no misunderstanding. This is no out-of-context quote. Prem did anything when he was PM for 8 years to make Malay a working language either so it is not as if we only have the above quotes to go on.
On the economic situation, well, sorry for the shameless self-plug, but the economic situation improved in the South in the two decades when there was no violence. The percentage of residents in the 3 southern border provinces living below the poverty line dropped from 37% in 2000 to 18% in 2004. Yet, the intensity of the violence increased in 2004. Yes, the residents of the southern border provinces aren’t the richest in Thailand, but given the choice of subjects some students study, whose fault is that?
Internationally, some scholars are sceptical of the links between poverty and terrorism. See this Working Paper at SSRN (which unfortunately you have to pay for). The authors wrote this piece at TNR which is freely available and the paper was discussed in this Becker-Posner post. From the TNR Piece:
“Falsely connecting terrorism to poverty serves only to deflect attention from the real roots of terrorism.”
Finally, on one hand, terrorism is blamed on poverty and economical marginalisation, but on the other hand when the government puts in more money, it will then be blamed for creating a culture of consumerism and capitalism. The government can’t win really.
Guns and other weapons at a Manau festival
I too find this whole idea of toy guns at festivals very interesting. Last month I spent a few weeks photo-documenting Shan Poi Sang Long festivals here in Chiang Mai. I was amused as young boys had mock gun battles throughout the temple grounds, hiding behind naga statues with their pistols ready. In fact, on the eve of one Poi Sang Long, even some of the sang longs with freshly shaved heads were having one last machine gun battle before their ordination ceremonies. Interesting imagery. Thanks for bringing up this topic Nic! 🙂
What about an anti-coup-coup coup?
There’s nothing very intangible to grasp here. Either you have a government that is elected by the people or you have one installed by the military. But as I said above, the standards in Thai political science – both Thai and Western it seems – are so low that a military coup can be portrayed as “democratic” if it is painted yellow.
A Thai Studies boycott?
[…] announcement’s stated approach will not surprise New Mandala readers who have followed the debate about the International Conference of Thai Studies that will be held in Bangkok in December. Of […]