I think somebody should submit a paper called “An argument for a Thai republic” and expose the academic freedom charade in Thailand for all its worth.
Or why not invite Paul Handley to speak on a panel about Why the King Never Smiles? That way he can be held accountable, not only for his courage, but for the errors in the book also.
Let us be honest: There won’t be any Thai academics writing anything remotely controversial, especially in regards to the monarchy.
And I seriously doubt that foreign academics are going to upset the hosts.
All this talk about academic freedom and promoting discussion of controversial issues really is a lot of bullshit.
It will be an kissass festival with a lot of self-congratulatory academics patting each other on the backs for their mediocre work, plus many heart felt homages to the king thrown in for good measure.
When all is said and done, I hope Thai undergraduate and graduate students give all these academics the finger, because in my humble opinion, it is the Thai academy that has failed to sustain democracy in Thailand more than any other institution.
75 years later?
What exactly is the legacy of the Thai academy in preparing Thais for a democratic global age?
Nobody can really speak on the behalf of the others. I neither wish to speak for anybody nor do I intend to be sarcastic, but I would appreciate it if the organiser of the 10th ICTS, Thongchai, New Mandala, or anyone who ‘have the concern’ in Thailand’s current state of democracy can clarify me with this issue:
The following is copied word-to-word from the webpage of the 10th ICTS:
‘Thammsat University, the second oldest university in Thailand known for its academic excellence in humanities and social sciences, and the Thai Khadi Research Institute, the first institution in Thailand to devote itself to Thai studies, invite scholars from all disciplines and intellectual perpspectives to participate in the 10th International Conference on Thai societies in a Transnationalized World. The conference is a continuation of a well-established academic tradition which aims to promote research and in-depth study of Thai culture and society as well as to provide a forum for academics to present their viewpoints and research findings. Besides the academic focus, the conference will be an event to celebrate the auspicious occassion of the 80th birth anniversary of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej in recognition of His Majesty’s great benevolence and life-long work for the well-being of the Thai people’.
The line four lines is my reason for not submitting a proposal to this conference. This webpage has been on the internet for many months. There’s no sign which suggests the Thai Khadi Research Centre will do anything to amend it. After New Mandala has written to the organiser, and after the boycott proposal has been going round for some time, there is yet an official line to inform and ensure me that my participation in this conference will not, literally and figuratively, become part of the regime that prevents the cause of democracy in Thailand. Particularly, I’d like to know for sure how the organiser(s) will coordinate with the media. Every international conference, no matter big or small, is generally reported in newspapers. The papers in Thailand will be very keen to report on this one (I don’t need to say more on the media issue).
I doubt that Thongchai will receive many ‘critical papers’ on the important issues he raised. The chance of receiving critical papers for this conference is likely to stem from the people who are thinking of boycotting it. Many thanks for your attention everyone.
Thongchai, who was certainly Thailand’s prophet without honor last year for accurately warning where things were headed due to the unthinking and self-righteous anti-Thaksin movement, is surely right again.
It seems to me that in this case, a boycott amounts to an evasion — by all sides. All it says it that a few people are pissed off at Thailand. That doesn’t even force any kind of response. To engage on the critical issues much better exposes where things stand, for better or worse.
I am also uneasy with promoting the concept of boycotts, when in the field of Southeast Asian studies we have seen examples of governments “boycotting” scholars, i.e., denying them visas (I’m thinking of Suharto’s Indonesia, specifically, and Burma as well.) Wouldn’t it be better to hold the moral high ground on this sort of thing?
If the interim government’s position was really interim, why is there such concern over the topics that may be discussed? If anything, an interim government should be promoting dialog.
An instance in history where dialog was promoted can be seen with de Gaulle and the introduction of the impossible Fourth Republic (not in that there was a coup, but there was a nation in disarray). Possibly for a similar outcome the guillotine may have to be wheeled out in Thailand – that way there would not just be Buddhist, nationalised enlightenment – but civil enlightenment too…!
(ps apologies if this site now becomes irrationally censored in Thailand for my reference to the fina.. i mean A solution…. 😉 😉 )
QUOTE If Jufer had been a Thai nobody would have cared of that story…
Crazy world. UNQUOTE
Charity begins at home. Right? Farangs may be stupid, but in most cases they know better than to try and interfere with local laws that most locals couldn’t care a toss about changing.
por favor, dejenos en paz. nuestro querido rey ha hecho mucha buena cosa para que tailandia pase los putos criticos que povocan por los putos politicos.
Streckfuss’s op-ed piece is notable in many respects.
First, that he uses examples outside of Thailand, like how a lese majeste action can only be instituted by the king himself in some European countries. IMHO more cross-cultural examples should be used in Southeast history/studies instead of treating countries such as Thailand and Burma as insular special cases all the time.
Second, Streckfuss outlines the situation of Thais and the lese majeste law as essentially being one of the prisoner’s dilemma in game theory, one way out of is to have a powerful arbitrator break the impasse, which is exactly what HMK has done over and over again in recent history, save his nation from being ripped apart by factionalism. It’s a pity that the Thai elite cannot do what he wants, namely get rid of the lese majeste law or modify it so that only HMK himself can use it. Might it even be lese majeste to disregard HMKs word like this? Or more likely, lese majeste for me to make this suggestion.
I think the bottom-line is that information travels fast nowadays over the internet and can’t be suppressed, so they are rethinking the free-wheeling way they used to use the law in the past, with foreigners, but not with non-elite Thais, like whatever happened to the Buddhist Nun who got charged with lese majeste? And what did she do? What the “offenders” did is what everyone always wants to know, but apparently can’t be reported legally, which again seems to contradict what HMK ordered Thai elites to do in 2005.
If Thongchai’s very courageous agenda of critical issues is going to be put forward at the conference, then a boycott would actually stifle free debate about the current state of Thailand. This letter is a much-needed voice of leadership among the current hysterics.
I remember the Dai in Sipsongpanna (Xishuangbanna) hold their New Year (or what the atheist Chinese call “Water splashing festival”) in April as well.
The atheist Chinese have a “Dai” water splashing festival everyday! I wonder how much of the commercial “Dai” culture in Sipsongpanna is the invention of the Chinese, using Thailand as their model.
…Yep. And the Burmese New Year too.
Yeah. That’s my question.
The Romans liked to “grill” people as well… Valerian grilled St. Lawrence and Diocletain grilled St. Foy, for example. I’ll always remember Giulieta Masina’s grandfather saving her from Foy’s fate in Juliet of the Spirits.
…ike giving gifts and paying respect/bowing to elders and going to the temple and making offerings to people in your family who’ve died, carrying buckets of sand from the river to build a sand pagoda (Tais everywhere do this, according to Terwiel’s study of Tai ritual) IMHO this is all fun stuff.
Yeah, that sounds like fun to me too, but it’s completely overwhelmed in my experience by the “exuberance” in the streets. I’m just an old curmudgeon holed up myself just as you are. I’ll look for Terwiel’s study of Thai ritual. Thanks.
But why should the sorts of papers TW suggests be presented at THIS Conference? Suppose only a handful of such papers canbe presented because, after all, not many people have been working on such topics, wouldn’t a boycott (including by those who may not be specialists in “various aspects related to or help us understand those current issues”) be more effective in “send[ing] a strong message to the Thai public and would reflect the concerns of our academic community”?
P.S. Even if there is no more special celebration than the opening by the Princess – a “typical” function of such event, you might say – wouldn’t that opening itself be happening in not so typical circumstances? In other word, should one not view a ceremony only at its outward – more or less the same-as-usual (i.e. “typical”) form, but in its historical context? And how about the organizer’s already declared aim of BEING PART OF HMK’s 80th Birthday Celebration? Surely, that’s not “typical”? I certainly don’t recall any previous ICTS coinciding with the King’s 80th Birthday Celebration or a Coup d’tat widely believed to be engineered by the Palace circles?
Singapore has the solution to those formerly beyond their control speaking up at a conference within their borders : “foreigners should not abuse their privilege by interfering in our domestic politics”
Singapore has been accused of acting like an “authoritarian state” after refusing to allow European Parliament members to speak during a visit.
The seven MEPs, as well as a Cambodian and a Philippines congresswoman, were denied permission to speak at a forum on democracy in Europe and Asia.
One MEP likened the Singaporeans’ to repressive regimes such as North Korea.
The Singapore government said foreigners did not have permission to address the event.
I wonder if the Thai government will emulate the one in Singapore? I know that there’s supposed to be a civilian government in Thailand by the time the conference is held… but that will be after 15 rather than the originally forecast 12 months of military rule, if it actually does take place. And with an appointed senate, for starters.
I think Thongchai’s got the right idea in going forth to meet the situation rather than recoiling in disdain.
It looks like it was a wonderful ride. I would love to join the group next year. What would it take? I live in Napa, California, USA where I ride a 4-year old ET-2.
Would there be a Vespa I could rent to go with the group next year??
Charlie
An presentation at Australian National University in Sept 2006 that bears on the topic under discussion. Unfortunately, I didn’t hear it, but here is the description.
*Tuesday 26 September 2006*
*Peter Jackson – PAH*
*God-King as Commodity: Thailand’s King Bhumiphol as a “Virtual Deity”*
*Abstract *
In this work-in-progress seminar I will discuss the re-emergence of the
discourse of “deva-raja” (god-king) around the present King of Thailand,
Bhumiphol. Historically the legitimacy of monarchical rule in Thailand
drew both on Buddhist notions of “dhamma-raja” (righteous monarch) and
Brahmanical notions of “deva-raja” (god-king). There was never a clearly
formulated resolution of the tension between these different conceptions
of kingship, with the alternative Buddhist and Brahmanical symbolisms of
royal rule rising and falling in prominence in different periods. In the
modern period, ideas of Buddhist kingship have generally been more
popular and linked with notions of modernity, scientific rationality,
and progressive democratic rule. In contrast, Brahmanical symbolisms
have at times been critiqued for their historical association with
“irrational” beliefs and “dictatorial” government. However, in the past
couple of decades the notion of Thailand’s king as a “deva-raja” or
“god-king” has begun to reappear in nationalist discourse, even if in
the somewhat ironic idiom of a “virtual god-king” (sammuti deva-raja). I
will consider the partial rehabilitation of the discourse of “god-king”
in the context of the June 2006 celebrations of the 60th anniversary of
King Bhumipol’s accesion to the throne. I will reflect on the place of
“god-king” discourse in the current intense polarisation of Thai public
opinion around the rule of “interim prime minister” Thaksin Shinawatra
and the ways that royalist discourse constrains otherwise “rationalist”
Thais to voice public support for “supernatural” accounts of the place
of the King in contemporary Thai social and political life.**
There’s a great Songkran Story about a Pagan King who orders one of his servants to surreptitiously throw water at his queen, who gets angry, tries to poison his food, the food is eaten by a poor dog who dies, the King roasts the queen alive, then can’t sleep at night, dreaming of the wife he just roasted. Moving story. (I’ve always been at a loss to find a culturally sensitive way to translate this ancient form of execution, literally it would be rendered as “fried on a grill” which sounds too much like Burger King)
The private part of Songkran, like giving gifts and paying respect/bowing to elders and going to the temple and making offerings to people in your family who’ve died, carrying buckets of sand from the river to build a sand pagoda (Tais everywhere do this, according to Terwiel’s study of Tai ritual) IMHO this is all fun stuff.
Nowadays, I avoid the carnival aspect though, in which people drink home brew Sato (like Korean Makkoli) beat drums and dance themselves into a frenzy in the streets. The neighbors even tried to get poor old mother drunk after marching in the parade two years ago.
A little water throwing in front of the house is fun, but for the last two years I’ve stayed indoors with my nine dogs and read. This year I’m doing Burmese inscriptions. They’re like puzzles.
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More on the 2008 Thai Studies conference
I think somebody should submit a paper called “An argument for a Thai republic” and expose the academic freedom charade in Thailand for all its worth.
Or why not invite Paul Handley to speak on a panel about Why the King Never Smiles? That way he can be held accountable, not only for his courage, but for the errors in the book also.
Let us be honest: There won’t be any Thai academics writing anything remotely controversial, especially in regards to the monarchy.
And I seriously doubt that foreign academics are going to upset the hosts.
All this talk about academic freedom and promoting discussion of controversial issues really is a lot of bullshit.
It will be an kissass festival with a lot of self-congratulatory academics patting each other on the backs for their mediocre work, plus many heart felt homages to the king thrown in for good measure.
When all is said and done, I hope Thai undergraduate and graduate students give all these academics the finger, because in my humble opinion, it is the Thai academy that has failed to sustain democracy in Thailand more than any other institution.
75 years later?
What exactly is the legacy of the Thai academy in preparing Thais for a democratic global age?
Now that is a paper I would read.
More on the 2008 Thai Studies conference
Nobody can really speak on the behalf of the others. I neither wish to speak for anybody nor do I intend to be sarcastic, but I would appreciate it if the organiser of the 10th ICTS, Thongchai, New Mandala, or anyone who ‘have the concern’ in Thailand’s current state of democracy can clarify me with this issue:
The following is copied word-to-word from the webpage of the 10th ICTS:
‘Thammsat University, the second oldest university in Thailand known for its academic excellence in humanities and social sciences, and the Thai Khadi Research Institute, the first institution in Thailand to devote itself to Thai studies, invite scholars from all disciplines and intellectual perpspectives to participate in the 10th International Conference on Thai societies in a Transnationalized World. The conference is a continuation of a well-established academic tradition which aims to promote research and in-depth study of Thai culture and society as well as to provide a forum for academics to present their viewpoints and research findings. Besides the academic focus, the conference will be an event to celebrate the auspicious occassion of the 80th birth anniversary of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej in recognition of His Majesty’s great benevolence and life-long work for the well-being of the Thai people’.
The line four lines is my reason for not submitting a proposal to this conference. This webpage has been on the internet for many months. There’s no sign which suggests the Thai Khadi Research Centre will do anything to amend it. After New Mandala has written to the organiser, and after the boycott proposal has been going round for some time, there is yet an official line to inform and ensure me that my participation in this conference will not, literally and figuratively, become part of the regime that prevents the cause of democracy in Thailand. Particularly, I’d like to know for sure how the organiser(s) will coordinate with the media. Every international conference, no matter big or small, is generally reported in newspapers. The papers in Thailand will be very keen to report on this one (I don’t need to say more on the media issue).
I doubt that Thongchai will receive many ‘critical papers’ on the important issues he raised. The chance of receiving critical papers for this conference is likely to stem from the people who are thinking of boycotting it. Many thanks for your attention everyone.
More on the 2008 Thai Studies conference
Thongchai, who was certainly Thailand’s prophet without honor last year for accurately warning where things were headed due to the unthinking and self-righteous anti-Thaksin movement, is surely right again.
It seems to me that in this case, a boycott amounts to an evasion — by all sides. All it says it that a few people are pissed off at Thailand. That doesn’t even force any kind of response. To engage on the critical issues much better exposes where things stand, for better or worse.
I am also uneasy with promoting the concept of boycotts, when in the field of Southeast Asian studies we have seen examples of governments “boycotting” scholars, i.e., denying them visas (I’m thinking of Suharto’s Indonesia, specifically, and Burma as well.) Wouldn’t it be better to hold the moral high ground on this sort of thing?
More on the 2008 Thai Studies conference
If the interim government’s position was really interim, why is there such concern over the topics that may be discussed? If anything, an interim government should be promoting dialog.
An instance in history where dialog was promoted can be seen with de Gaulle and the introduction of the impossible Fourth Republic (not in that there was a coup, but there was a nation in disarray). Possibly for a similar outcome the guillotine may have to be wheeled out in Thailand – that way there would not just be Buddhist, nationalised enlightenment – but civil enlightenment too…!
(ps apologies if this site now becomes irrationally censored in Thailand for my reference to the fina.. i mean A solution…. 😉 😉 )
More on the 2008 Thai Studies conference
thorn, Thai standards for “academics” aren’t very high…
“Is Songkran fun?”
Happy Songkran!
And long life to this blog !
More on the 2008 Thai Studies conference
Thongchai’s seem to be a voice of reason.
Pardon me, Jufer free
QUOTE If Jufer had been a Thai nobody would have cared of that story…
Crazy world. UNQUOTE
Charity begins at home. Right? Farangs may be stupid, but in most cases they know better than to try and interfere with local laws that most locals couldn’t care a toss about changing.
The King Never Smiles?
por favor, dejenos en paz. nuestro querido rey ha hecho mucha buena cosa para que tailandia pase los putos criticos que povocan por los putos politicos.
Pardon me, Jufer free
Streckfuss’s op-ed piece is notable in many respects.
First, that he uses examples outside of Thailand, like how a lese majeste action can only be instituted by the king himself in some European countries. IMHO more cross-cultural examples should be used in Southeast history/studies instead of treating countries such as Thailand and Burma as insular special cases all the time.
Second, Streckfuss outlines the situation of Thais and the lese majeste law as essentially being one of the prisoner’s dilemma in game theory, one way out of is to have a powerful arbitrator break the impasse, which is exactly what HMK has done over and over again in recent history, save his nation from being ripped apart by factionalism. It’s a pity that the Thai elite cannot do what he wants, namely get rid of the lese majeste law or modify it so that only HMK himself can use it. Might it even be lese majeste to disregard HMKs word like this? Or more likely, lese majeste for me to make this suggestion.
I think the bottom-line is that information travels fast nowadays over the internet and can’t be suppressed, so they are rethinking the free-wheeling way they used to use the law in the past, with foreigners, but not with non-elite Thais, like whatever happened to the Buddhist Nun who got charged with lese majeste? And what did she do? What the “offenders” did is what everyone always wants to know, but apparently can’t be reported legally, which again seems to contradict what HMK ordered Thai elites to do in 2005.
More on the 2008 Thai Studies conference
If Thongchai’s very courageous agenda of critical issues is going to be put forward at the conference, then a boycott would actually stifle free debate about the current state of Thailand. This letter is a much-needed voice of leadership among the current hysterics.
“Is Songkran fun?”
I remember the Dai in Sipsongpanna (Xishuangbanna) hold their New Year (or what the atheist Chinese call “Water splashing festival”) in April as well.
The atheist Chinese have a “Dai” water splashing festival everyday! I wonder how much of the commercial “Dai” culture in Sipsongpanna is the invention of the Chinese, using Thailand as their model.
…Yep. And the Burmese New Year too.
Yeah. That’s my question.
The Romans liked to “grill” people as well… Valerian grilled St. Lawrence and Diocletain grilled St. Foy, for example. I’ll always remember Giulieta Masina’s grandfather saving her from Foy’s fate in Juliet of the Spirits.
…ike giving gifts and paying respect/bowing to elders and going to the temple and making offerings to people in your family who’ve died, carrying buckets of sand from the river to build a sand pagoda (Tais everywhere do this, according to Terwiel’s study of Tai ritual) IMHO this is all fun stuff.
Yeah, that sounds like fun to me too, but it’s completely overwhelmed in my experience by the “exuberance” in the streets. I’m just an old curmudgeon holed up myself just as you are. I’ll look for Terwiel’s study of Thai ritual. Thanks.
More on the 2008 Thai Studies conference
But why should the sorts of papers TW suggests be presented at THIS Conference? Suppose only a handful of such papers canbe presented because, after all, not many people have been working on such topics, wouldn’t a boycott (including by those who may not be specialists in “various aspects related to or help us understand those current issues”) be more effective in “send[ing] a strong message to the Thai public and would reflect the concerns of our academic community”?
P.S. Even if there is no more special celebration than the opening by the Princess – a “typical” function of such event, you might say – wouldn’t that opening itself be happening in not so typical circumstances? In other word, should one not view a ceremony only at its outward – more or less the same-as-usual (i.e. “typical”) form, but in its historical context? And how about the organizer’s already declared aim of BEING PART OF HMK’s 80th Birthday Celebration? Surely, that’s not “typical”? I certainly don’t recall any previous ICTS coinciding with the King’s 80th Birthday Celebration or a Coup d’tat widely believed to be engineered by the Palace circles?
More on the 2008 Thai Studies conference
P’Patiwat
“Academics included Wuttipong Piebjriya-wat, Sophon Supapong, Narong Phet-prasert, Somkiat Osotspa”
You must be kidding me to agree with the article that they (at least the first two) are academics.
More on the 2008 Thai Studies conference
Singapore has the solution to those formerly beyond their control speaking up at a conference within their borders : “foreigners should not abuse their privilege by interfering in our domestic politics”
Europe MPs ‘gagged’ by Singapore
I wonder if the Thai government will emulate the one in Singapore? I know that there’s supposed to be a civilian government in Thailand by the time the conference is held… but that will be after 15 rather than the originally forecast 12 months of military rule, if it actually does take place. And with an appointed senate, for starters.
I think Thongchai’s got the right idea in going forth to meet the situation rather than recoiling in disdain.
Lao explorers reach Vietnam on Italian Scooters
It looks like it was a wonderful ride. I would love to join the group next year. What would it take? I live in Napa, California, USA where I ride a 4-year old ET-2.
Would there be a Vespa I could rent to go with the group next year??
Charlie
More on the 2008 Thai Studies conference
Does the fact that many Thai academics are under the junta’s payroll have anything to do with this?
The regime’s royal ridicule
An presentation at Australian National University in Sept 2006 that bears on the topic under discussion. Unfortunately, I didn’t hear it, but here is the description.
*Tuesday 26 September 2006*
*Peter Jackson – PAH*
*God-King as Commodity: Thailand’s King Bhumiphol as a “Virtual Deity”*
*Abstract *
In this work-in-progress seminar I will discuss the re-emergence of the
discourse of “deva-raja” (god-king) around the present King of Thailand,
Bhumiphol. Historically the legitimacy of monarchical rule in Thailand
drew both on Buddhist notions of “dhamma-raja” (righteous monarch) and
Brahmanical notions of “deva-raja” (god-king). There was never a clearly
formulated resolution of the tension between these different conceptions
of kingship, with the alternative Buddhist and Brahmanical symbolisms of
royal rule rising and falling in prominence in different periods. In the
modern period, ideas of Buddhist kingship have generally been more
popular and linked with notions of modernity, scientific rationality,
and progressive democratic rule. In contrast, Brahmanical symbolisms
have at times been critiqued for their historical association with
“irrational” beliefs and “dictatorial” government. However, in the past
couple of decades the notion of Thailand’s king as a “deva-raja” or
“god-king” has begun to reappear in nationalist discourse, even if in
the somewhat ironic idiom of a “virtual god-king” (sammuti deva-raja). I
will consider the partial rehabilitation of the discourse of “god-king”
in the context of the June 2006 celebrations of the 60th anniversary of
King Bhumipol’s accesion to the throne. I will reflect on the place of
“god-king” discourse in the current intense polarisation of Thai public
opinion around the rule of “interim prime minister” Thaksin Shinawatra
and the ways that royalist discourse constrains otherwise “rationalist”
Thais to voice public support for “supernatural” accounts of the place
of the King in contemporary Thai social and political life.**
Thailand? Siam? Who cares?
sorry for this late addition, but obviously Charnvit has initiated a petition on this:
http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/petition-sign.cgi?siam2007
If you look on the signatures you are not sure whether all take that for serious….
“Is Songkran fun?”
“…is Songkron… the Tai New Year? Or not?”
Yep. And the Burmese New Year too.
There’s a great Songkran Story about a Pagan King who orders one of his servants to surreptitiously throw water at his queen, who gets angry, tries to poison his food, the food is eaten by a poor dog who dies, the King roasts the queen alive, then can’t sleep at night, dreaming of the wife he just roasted. Moving story. (I’ve always been at a loss to find a culturally sensitive way to translate this ancient form of execution, literally it would be rendered as “fried on a grill” which sounds too much like Burger King)
The private part of Songkran, like giving gifts and paying respect/bowing to elders and going to the temple and making offerings to people in your family who’ve died, carrying buckets of sand from the river to build a sand pagoda (Tais everywhere do this, according to Terwiel’s study of Tai ritual) IMHO this is all fun stuff.
Nowadays, I avoid the carnival aspect though, in which people drink home brew Sato (like Korean Makkoli) beat drums and dance themselves into a frenzy in the streets. The neighbors even tried to get poor old mother drunk after marching in the parade two years ago.
A little water throwing in front of the house is fun, but for the last two years I’ve stayed indoors with my nine dogs and read. This year I’m doing Burmese inscriptions. They’re like puzzles.