I met a ethnic Chinese shop owner in Kutkai who visited his relatives from Taipei by crossing into China to visit them while they were on vacation. Chiang Kai Shek and Mao must have been turning over in their graves.
Chula bookstore certainly is not the only one with whom Ji has “running feuds.” His extremely dogmatic personality and approach in propagating his “socialist” vision for Thailand, makes him a difficult person to deal with for many people. Having said this, I am all for selling his book, whether it is academic, as he claims, or whether it merely is a political pamphlet, which is much more probable (judging from his previous publications), does not matter at all.
Jon: Thanks for the rephrasing. Still, I would suggest to omit the reference to the “poor.” These policies were aimed at ALL voters, poor or otherwise. As has been pointed out previously, the “poor” section of the Thai population is far too small to base a sucessful election campaign on it. The point of Thaksin’s approach exactly was to go beyond the poor–that’s why his policies has been called “populist.” Whether the poor even were the group that benefited the most from these policies, and not rather people with a stable income, is an open question. I still wonder about the “substantial poverty in Bangkok”, because I don’t quite know what constitutes “substantial.”
Admittedly statistical demographic analysis is distasteful because from the standpoint of individuals, but techniques like clustering at least would allow political analysts to get a better handle on what is actually happening, rather than speculating with their own ad hoc categorizations. An intro just popped up on the newsfeed:
One doesn’t know how many urban voters used health card and company medical insurance vs. 30 baht programme until someone starts the hard work of counting. There is fantastic open-sourced clustering software available:
“…the village fund and the 30-baht health program (that had precursors in the Miyazawa Fund and the long-standing health card programme)…are often said to be about the “rural electorate.” In fact, they were aimed at ALL voters, whether rural or urban…”
Rephrased: Redistributing money to the rural and urban poor surely must be accounted as a positive Thaksin legacy, worthy of emulation, despite the flaws and lack of transparency in the way that it was redistributed that Pridiyathorn revealed.
A lot of the writing that addresses the Urban-Rural wealth divide seems to ignore the substantial poverty in Bangkok. Ideas about the political influence of different social groups in the end are kind of meaningless without hard demographic statistics.
Somehow, the village fund and the 30-baht health program (that had precursors in the Miyazawa Fund and the long-standing health card programme) are often said to be about the “rural electorate.” In fact, they were aimed at ALL voters, whether rural or urban. The name of the “village fund” even contains a reference to “urban communities” (remember that municipalities in Thailand are administratively sub-divided into communities).
Well, this is one element of an iconography of Thailand’s economic past. As such, it is all right. It only become problematic when confused with the present. Even in the past, this picture could not always be taken, because cattle theft was widespread in the imagined idyllic village life of the past.
Cambodians start 2-week march demanding more freedom of expression
The Associated Press
Published: February 28, 2007
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: Activists and Buddhist monks led about 150 people in Cambodia as they began a two-week march on Wednesday to demand more freedom of expression.
A statement from organizers said more people were expected to join the 230-kilometer (145-mile) march from the capital, Phnom Penh, to Siem Reap province, home of the famed Angkor Wat temple complex – an ancient symbol of the Cambodian nation.
The organizers call themselves the Alliance for Freedom of Expression in Cambodia, which includes the nongovernment group Cambodian Center for Human Rights.
“The door for exercising freedom is just narrowly open due to government restrictions, and we need to have it open wider for all the people,” said the march’s leader Kem Sokha, a well-known critic of the government.
He was among three human rights activists jailed for several weeks last year on criminal defamation charges filed by Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government.
From my memory of the 80s and in the 90s, the local press always reported such stories from foreign agencies, when they dared at all. A strange way of avoiding blame for something or other.
From the photos, this is a march led by Kem Sokha of the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights. They have done similar public actions around freedom of expression before. In fact the last one got 3 or 4 of them jailed under rather dubious defamation charges, at the begining of 2006. CCHR also runs a radio show which has quite a broad audeince (particularly around the markets I hear) which focuses on human rights and democracy issues: one of the pictures shows them having a round table talk which was probably broadcast.
John Francis: Would you mind telling readers what exactly it was that you found “appalling”, and what, from your perspectice, a “sympathetic vision” would look like, and what it might be good for? Thank you.
“Most projects are subjected to withering criticism and gossip–….It is in this context that the language of transparency becomes crucial both in defending ones own initiatives and in casting aspersions on the implementers of other projects.”
I think you err Andrew in relegating this all to the realm of discourse.
Gossip, in my experience, can be the only form of real communication and news in rural areas, especially in large Thai bureaucracies such as universities. Even in urban areas many sources are not willing to be attributed.
For example, suddenly one day a professor of law and a vice president of a university are arrested by the police for running a child prostitution ring.
This is reported in Matichon newspaper. Colleague A tells colleague B that he saw it reported in the Matichon RSS newsfeed on his computer at the university. He had informed the president of the university who had promptly blocked the newsfeed to the university, depriving both students and staff of the university of this information.
These are facts that these colleagues and some other people know directly and others might know by true “gossip” or news “through the grapevine.”
This article was, let’s say the first of a couple Matichon articles, but the only article that explicitly mentioned the university’s name, a name that is sensitive, let’s say, because it is associated with royalty.
Now, besides various pieces of “withering criticism and gossip” this is the last anyone hears publicly about the case. Rather strange given the gravity of the case. Virtually no public mention or discussion of the case is made at all in the university.
An election for president of the university occurs shortly afterwards. There was no choice in the “election” so it is not really an “election”.
The fact remains that some people remember that these events happened and little traces of it remain in some very public newspaper articles. This cannot be said to be the case for some local militia incidents, that remain wholly documented only in the memories of locals who might pass them on to others in the form of “gossip.” (An Matthew McDaniel who was plugged into local gossip networks/newsfeeds, this is one aspect of his work that academics would have a hard time emulating) For example, there’s a village just outside of Maesai whose militia supposedly shot in cold blood a group of escaped Burmese convicts who had entered Thailand via the adjacent hills and were huddling in the restroom of a local school. Thieves being shot and their bodies dumped in the Maesai river. A kidnap and killing by drug overdose of a Thai who had supposedly “raped” the daughter of someone on the Burmese side, these are sort of largely true “gossip” that nevers makes the newspaper.
Since things like the village fund and 30 baht health were entirely new, they were seen by many as being a direct gift from Thaksin, a gift that of course would no longer exist if he was not re-elected.
The one lasting memory I have from before the last election were the signs along the road from Chiang Rai up to Kun Khorn waterfall, if you don’t vote for Thaksin, you’ll lose 30 baht health care.
I also wouldn’t underestimate the power of informal neighborhood organisations such as the local funeral fund and associated meetings for organising villagers. There was a membership drive in our village right before the election and it certainly had a compulsive and non-voluntary feel about it.
IMHO redistributing money to the rural electorate, but he erred in trying to completely monopolize the political and electoral process. The details of Pasuk’s biography should never be forgotten.
> Thanom’s great grand-daughter has some
>comments on her blog.
That link was fascinating.
Actually, that Thailand does so readily accommodate former military rulers that may have, by contemporary standards, some crimes in their past, actually probably allows them to relinquish power more easily, unlike some neighboring countries that can never seem to get rid of military rule.
Thais are pragmatic people and their pragmatic approach to politics certainly seems to work better than any other country in Southeast Asia, even if there are bumps along the way.
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A Sino-Burmese border hop
I met a ethnic Chinese shop owner in Kutkai who visited his relatives from Taipei by crossing into China to visit them while they were on vacation. Chiang Kai Shek and Mao must have been turning over in their graves.
Great picture, and I look forward to more.
The Chula bookshop saga
Chula bookstore certainly is not the only one with whom Ji has “running feuds.” His extremely dogmatic personality and approach in propagating his “socialist” vision for Thailand, makes him a difficult person to deal with for many people. Having said this, I am all for selling his book, whether it is academic, as he claims, or whether it merely is a political pamphlet, which is much more probable (judging from his previous publications), does not matter at all.
The Chula bookshop saga
[…] post by Andrew Walker and software by Elliott Back […]
р╕гр╕▒р╕Рр╕Шр╕гр╕гр╕бр╕Щр╕╣р╕Н р╕Кр╕▓р╕зр╕Ър╣Йр╕▓р╕Щ – the “rural constitution”
Jon: Thanks for the rephrasing. Still, I would suggest to omit the reference to the “poor.” These policies were aimed at ALL voters, poor or otherwise. As has been pointed out previously, the “poor” section of the Thai population is far too small to base a sucessful election campaign on it. The point of Thaksin’s approach exactly was to go beyond the poor–that’s why his policies has been called “populist.” Whether the poor even were the group that benefited the most from these policies, and not rather people with a stable income, is an open question. I still wonder about the “substantial poverty in Bangkok”, because I don’t quite know what constitutes “substantial.”
р╕гр╕▒р╕Рр╕Шр╕гр╕гр╕бр╕Щр╕╣р╕Н р╕Кр╕▓р╕зр╕Ър╣Йр╕▓р╕Щ – the “rural constitution”
Admittedly statistical demographic analysis is distasteful because from the standpoint of individuals, but techniques like clustering at least would allow political analysts to get a better handle on what is actually happening, rather than speculating with their own ad hoc categorizations. An intro just popped up on the newsfeed:
http://www.wired.com/news/columns/0,72900-0.html?tw=wn_culture_1
One doesn’t know how many urban voters used health card and company medical insurance vs. 30 baht programme until someone starts the hard work of counting. There is fantastic open-sourced clustering software available:
http://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/ml/weka/
р╕гр╕▒р╕Рр╕Шр╕гр╕гр╕бр╕Щр╕╣р╕Н р╕Кр╕▓р╕зр╕Ър╣Йр╕▓р╕Щ – the “rural constitution”
“…the village fund and the 30-baht health program (that had precursors in the Miyazawa Fund and the long-standing health card programme)…are often said to be about the “rural electorate.” In fact, they were aimed at ALL voters, whether rural or urban…”
Rephrased: Redistributing money to the rural and urban poor surely must be accounted as a positive Thaksin legacy, worthy of emulation, despite the flaws and lack of transparency in the way that it was redistributed that Pridiyathorn revealed.
A lot of the writing that addresses the Urban-Rural wealth divide seems to ignore the substantial poverty in Bangkok. Ideas about the political influence of different social groups in the end are kind of meaningless without hard demographic statistics.
р╕гр╕▒р╕Рр╕Шр╕гр╕гр╕бр╕Щр╕╣р╕Н р╕Кр╕▓р╕зр╕Ър╣Йр╕▓р╕Щ – the “rural constitution”
Somehow, the village fund and the 30-baht health program (that had precursors in the Miyazawa Fund and the long-standing health card programme) are often said to be about the “rural electorate.” In fact, they were aimed at ALL voters, whether rural or urban. The name of the “village fund” even contains a reference to “urban communities” (remember that municipalities in Thailand are administratively sub-divided into communities).
Bring back the buffalo!
Well, this is one element of an iconography of Thailand’s economic past. As such, it is all right. It only become problematic when confused with the present. Even in the past, this picture could not always be taken, because cattle theft was widespread in the imagined idyllic village life of the past.
Lao explorers reach Vietnam on Italian Scooters
Good stuff mate, loving it.
Must read but must not write?
It seems you already know the answer when you ask the question. That they print it at all is enough courage already.
Cambodia rights march
from the IHT:
Cambodians start 2-week march demanding more freedom of expression
The Associated Press
Published: February 28, 2007
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: Activists and Buddhist monks led about 150 people in Cambodia as they began a two-week march on Wednesday to demand more freedom of expression.
A statement from organizers said more people were expected to join the 230-kilometer (145-mile) march from the capital, Phnom Penh, to Siem Reap province, home of the famed Angkor Wat temple complex – an ancient symbol of the Cambodian nation.
The organizers call themselves the Alliance for Freedom of Expression in Cambodia, which includes the nongovernment group Cambodian Center for Human Rights.
“The door for exercising freedom is just narrowly open due to government restrictions, and we need to have it open wider for all the people,” said the march’s leader Kem Sokha, a well-known critic of the government.
He was among three human rights activists jailed for several weeks last year on criminal defamation charges filed by Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government.
New Mandala in Yunnan
So this is the trip to sunnier climes you mentioned earlier? haha. Looking forward to your write ups.
Must read but must not write?
From my memory of the 80s and in the 90s, the local press always reported such stories from foreign agencies, when they dared at all. A strange way of avoiding blame for something or other.
Cambodia rights march
From the photos, this is a march led by Kem Sokha of the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights. They have done similar public actions around freedom of expression before. In fact the last one got 3 or 4 of them jailed under rather dubious defamation charges, at the begining of 2006. CCHR also runs a radio show which has quite a broad audeince (particularly around the markets I hear) which focuses on human rights and democracy issues: one of the pictures shows them having a round table talk which was probably broadcast.
Sufficiency going forward, diversity going backward
John Francis: Would you mind telling readers what exactly it was that you found “appalling”, and what, from your perspectice, a “sympathetic vision” would look like, and what it might be good for? Thank you.
More on the rural constitution …
“Most projects are subjected to withering criticism and gossip–….It is in this context that the language of transparency becomes crucial both in defending ones own initiatives and in casting aspersions on the implementers of other projects.”
I think you err Andrew in relegating this all to the realm of discourse.
Gossip, in my experience, can be the only form of real communication and news in rural areas, especially in large Thai bureaucracies such as universities. Even in urban areas many sources are not willing to be attributed.
For example, suddenly one day a professor of law and a vice president of a university are arrested by the police for running a child prostitution ring.
This is reported in Matichon newspaper. Colleague A tells colleague B that he saw it reported in the Matichon RSS newsfeed on his computer at the university. He had informed the president of the university who had promptly blocked the newsfeed to the university, depriving both students and staff of the university of this information.
These are facts that these colleagues and some other people know directly and others might know by true “gossip” or news “through the grapevine.”
This article was, let’s say the first of a couple Matichon articles, but the only article that explicitly mentioned the university’s name, a name that is sensitive, let’s say, because it is associated with royalty.
Now, besides various pieces of “withering criticism and gossip” this is the last anyone hears publicly about the case. Rather strange given the gravity of the case. Virtually no public mention or discussion of the case is made at all in the university.
An election for president of the university occurs shortly afterwards. There was no choice in the “election” so it is not really an “election”.
The fact remains that some people remember that these events happened and little traces of it remain in some very public newspaper articles. This cannot be said to be the case for some local militia incidents, that remain wholly documented only in the memories of locals who might pass them on to others in the form of “gossip.” (An Matthew McDaniel who was plugged into local gossip networks/newsfeeds, this is one aspect of his work that academics would have a hard time emulating) For example, there’s a village just outside of Maesai whose militia supposedly shot in cold blood a group of escaped Burmese convicts who had entered Thailand via the adjacent hills and were huddling in the restroom of a local school. Thieves being shot and their bodies dumped in the Maesai river. A kidnap and killing by drug overdose of a Thai who had supposedly “raped” the daughter of someone on the Burmese side, these are sort of largely true “gossip” that nevers makes the newspaper.
р╕гр╕▒р╕Рр╕Шр╕гр╕гр╕бр╕Щр╕╣р╕Н р╕Кр╕▓р╕зр╕Ър╣Йр╕▓р╕Щ – the “rural constitution”
Since things like the village fund and 30 baht health were entirely new, they were seen by many as being a direct gift from Thaksin, a gift that of course would no longer exist if he was not re-elected.
The one lasting memory I have from before the last election were the signs along the road from Chiang Rai up to Kun Khorn waterfall, if you don’t vote for Thaksin, you’ll lose 30 baht health care.
I also wouldn’t underestimate the power of informal neighborhood organisations such as the local funeral fund and associated meetings for organising villagers. There was a membership drive in our village right before the election and it certainly had a compulsive and non-voluntary feel about it.
IMHO redistributing money to the rural electorate, but he erred in trying to completely monopolize the political and electoral process. The details of Pasuk’s biography should never be forgotten.
Greenhouse gas
[…] Original post by savers tips » Greenhouse gas […]
Banned but scanned
> Thanom’s great grand-daughter has some
>comments on her blog.
That link was fascinating.
Actually, that Thailand does so readily accommodate former military rulers that may have, by contemporary standards, some crimes in their past, actually probably allows them to relinquish power more easily, unlike some neighboring countries that can never seem to get rid of military rule.
Thais are pragmatic people and their pragmatic approach to politics certainly seems to work better than any other country in Southeast Asia, even if there are bumps along the way.
New Mandala in Yunnan
Looking forward to hear about this.