Below is a link to a nice TV news report on the plight of the displaced Karen from Canadian TV Scroll down to the two-part report entitled “A better tomorrow.”
Canada has beed very receptive to receiving both Karen and other refugees (IDPs) from Burma. Here in the US, progress has been slower
Dear all,
We are Rohigya living in Burma Arakan since 1200 years ago. The Burmesed Military cleaned & removed us day by day. In this situation Rohingya Muslim will be finisheed within some years. This unjustfy government Confiscated our properties.Toture, robbering and killing is the minor case.
I appeal all over the world and media let to help all our people and pray for our Rohigya.
Your colleague at ANU, Yoshinori Nishizaki, might be able to tell you something about political culture, civil society, public, or political participation in Supanburi.
I share your impression as to the reach of civil society in rural areas as far as organized forms (especially NGOs) or movements are concerned. But, of course, one needs to know what “civil society” is and how it relates to local (province, district, constituency, tambon, village) administrative and political structures. And whether other terms such as “public” would not be better. NGOs are just a very small faction of “civil society” (just in case it exists), about which a lot has been written in the past few years. Have you done some sort of comprehensive literature survey on the subject already? Some points are summarized in:
Orlandini, Barbara. 2004. “Civic Engagement in Local Governance: The Case of Thailand.” In Citizen Participation in Local Governance: Experiences from Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines, by Hans Antlöv et al., pp. 89-13. Manila, Philippines: Institute for Popular Democracy (IPD) for Logolink, Learning Initiative on Citizen Participation and Local Governance, Southeast Asia. Also available at http://www.ipd.ph/logolinksea/resources/resources.html.
Have you come across things such as р╕Чр╕│р╣Ар╕Щuр╕╡р╕вр╕Ър╕нр╕Зр╕Др╣Мр╕Бр╕гр╕Юр╕▒р╕Тр╕Щр╕▓р╣Ар╕нр╕Бр╕Кр╕Щ 2546 — 2003 Directory of Non-Governmental Organizations?
HP: Your conclusion is certainly correct. Moreover, before the 30 baht plan was introduced, we already had the health card program and free care for the poor (though bureaucratized). TRT could have improved on these things–but this would not have had the broad electoral effect aimed for.
An unexpected person has also drawn some lessons from the Thaksin era: Somkid Jatusripitak. Remember, that’s one of the main architects of TRT’s election victories, and the guy who was tipped to take over from Thaksin as PM when he “stepped down” after the April 2006 election.
Somkid has been tipped in the past few weeks to be a serious contender for the premiership after the next election, i.e. as a member of Somsak Thepsuthin’s new ourfot “Matchima.” Some of Somkid’s close aids reportedly already work with this new group.
Now the plot thickens as Somkid seem to have seen it necessary to fall into line with the “sufficiency economy” approach in order to qualify for the post–not in the eyes of the voters, of course, but those of the royalist-military-bureaucratic forces that are set to keep things under control after the next election.
NIDA, will give him the opportunity to deliver a key note address on the topic of “Sufficiency economy: the heart for the building the nation” on February 15. In a summarized interview (Matichon, February 12, p. 2), Somkid defined sufficiency economy by referring to three core concepts: mindfulness concerning moderation (which is said to mean different things to different people, and different things to people during the course of their biography, in short: the Rolex doesn’t come at the beginning of one’s career); knowledge and reason (one needs to develop oneself); not being careless or imprudent (here is were planning and step-by-step procedures come in as means to reduce risks).
And since Somkid thought that the foreigners simply cannot understood this approach, he graciously explained that all this pho phiang stuff was equivalent to what in western economic theory has been called “optimization” (he uses the English-language word).
Now we understand why all these platitudes sound so familiar to those westeners who don’t misunderstand “sufficiency” as “self-sufficiency.” The sufficiency economy merely is optimized and risk-reduced capitalism, as we have known it for quite some time. However, concerning the rural economy, Somkid seems to tend to some sort of collectivist approach centered on the concept of “community.”
This way, Somkid might well become Thailand’s nex prime minister, and, as a truly Thai friend of mine remarked, the first one who has not fully mastered the Thai language (this refers to his strong Chinese pronunciation).
Mr Conners: having looked in depth at government figures, research methodologies, and private company financial accounts, I would strongly urge everyone NEVER to take any figures “at face value”. Unquestioning acceptance of figures allows analytic laziness and willfull manipulation to seep into policymaking often with tragic consequences. Health care is a case in point – the underlying data use to calculate health care costs is appallingly bad. Let me give you an example – if you compare birth records from Bangkok hospitals to census data of the age distribution in Bangkok, you get a disparities of over 100% – that is the numer of people between ages x and y is over twice from one set of records as from another. Now, you can accept a disparity of perhaps up to even 30% as differences between official records of residence vs. actual domicile, but 100%? Clearly there are severe data problems in the system – so how can you even begin to calculate health care costs when you’re not even sure how many people you’re dealing with?
jeplang – the 30 B plan brought cheap health care to rural people through a shift to primary care and government subsidies. As the beneficiaries have no direct contact with the liabilities (the definition of moral hazard), it’s not surprising that they would approve. If you gave me something that someone else had to pay for, I’d approve too. The question here is one of sustainability, which cannot be answered by opinion polls.
The TDRI article is more on the mark. It clearly shows through some fairly simple analysis that the funding mechanisms behind the scheme are unsustainable – the same conclusions reached by the BMJ article. This isn’t rocket science – the same as been shown in any systematic review of health care financing. That the TRT plan never made such analysis and never took the global experience in health financing into account in creating their 30-B scheme is what makes me believe that this was intended more as a short-term vote-grabbing ploy than a serious attempt to solve rural health care issues.
The first anti-coup book to be published is not for sale at the Chulalongkorn Book Centre in Siam Square in spite of claims to the contrary from its manager.
“September 19 coup: A coup for a democratic regime under a constitutional monarchy” is nowhere to be found at the Siam Square branch.
On Friday, The Nation reported the shop had decided not to sell it.
Shop manager Uraiwan Kornwitysinn denied in the Bangkok Post that the book had been banned out of fear of angering the junta. She said she had 500 copies in stock.
The collection of anti-coup essays from Nidhi Aoseewong, Thongchai Winichakul, Chaiwat Satha-anand, two senior journalists at The Nation and others is published by Fah Diew Kan and was released on January 19.
An employee of distributor Kledthai said the university had ordered 100 copies only and the bookshop had informed the company it would not stock the title.
“How could they have 500 books?” Tichakorn Chatanan of Kledthai said. The shop told Kledthai it was deemed unsuitable for sale at the official bookshops of the university, Tichakorn said.
Some Chulalongkorn University lecturers yesterday prepared a petition asking its president to intervene for the sake of the school’s reputation and academic freedom.
The book’s publisher and editor Thanapol Eiwsakul has been accused by Uraiwan of using the alleged ban to boost sales.
“She lied. If she were smart she would have just placed the book on the shelves. They must have lost face because it’s supposed to be an academic bookshop. It’s a reminder that the university lacks freedom,” he said, adding that sellers such as Dork Ya had been offering it for weeks.
I have not had time to read the paper quite yet, but I am very familiar with one village mentioned, Baan Mai Mok Cham, one of whose founders was the late Sao Chaang, who I believe was son of Sao Shwe Thaik, the first president of Burma. Thus I am not surprised that there is a strong sense of communal Shan identity in that town. Now that housing extends to the new bridge across the Mae Kok River, it hardly qualifies as a village, and the recent population growth of Mok Cham was certainly not generated internally, so I am not surprised that it now houses a much more diverse population than it did when I was a regular visitor.
Not quite the most northern village in Mae Ai province, as Muang Ngaam, Baan (the ever notorious and now incarcerated) Laota, Hua Muang Ngaam, and Baan Linchee are even a bit further afield, it is the last large village in the district. When I lived nearby in the early 1980s it was, to the best of my knowledge, almost entirely Shan, with a few Chinese, such as the owner of the small petrol station along the river and this chemist who had worked in Switzerland and who had retired to Mok Cham and married two young teenage sisters a fraction of his age. There was also a small Border Patrol Unit (BPP) stationed in Mok Cham, as well as a very tacky Karaoke place to cater to those at that station.
As idyllic as a Shan village as it appeared walking around, rice in the fields and saa paper drying in front of the homes, reality is not quite as pleasant. A number of the younger women worked the red-light district in Fang. And I think it was in the late 1980s that a good acquaintance of mine, Kamnaan Sang, the head of sub-district and the head of Mok Cham, was brutally murdered. Rumors were it involved land disputes and no doubt that much of the neighboring land came into the possesion of agribusiness and was turned into large orange groves.
But the local area around Mok Cham remains one of the most ethnically diverse neighborhoods I have encountered in Thailand. Within a few hours walk, now mostly a short drive, one can visit Khon Muang (Tamakeng), Karen (Muang Ngaam), Lisu (Laota), Lahu (several flavors), Mien, Akha, and a KMT Chinese village. At the time I lived in the area, the lingua franca of the region, once you crossed the bridge at at Thaton, was still Lahu. And other than when Laota was flexing his muscle, blessedly no longer possible, this diverse group of people all got along remarkably well with very minimal government presence.
Of course, in the countryside, there are many families too poor to even consider any of this. A friend of mine simply cremated his father in a field and then brought as many of the bones and ashes as he could to the temple and buried them in the ground.
I guess there are people even poorer than one’s I have met in rural Thailand. In the area I have lived, even the poorest of the poor, from what I have witnessed, are provided burial rites. The minimal cost was usually shared by the family, fellow villagers, and close neighbors. Someone would volunteer to pick up a few monks, a few of the village women would arrange to do a little cooking for guests, all of whom would donate a few baat. Usually the headman and other better off village leaders, and hapless resident Farangs, would cover any other expenses such as paying the two or three men who volunteer to insure the body is properly cremated, the pay being in the form of a few bottles of local whiskey.
I am very late to this page and the comments. There are some minor factual errors in the book, but nothing major, so Kasumo’s points are about trivial items. In any case, if Kasumo is to demand accuracy about trivial things, get your own facts right. Kasumo says, “on the first page of the book, Handley already got it wrong. King Bhumibol was born at the Mt. Auburn Hospital in Cambridge Mass., not in Brookline.” The fact is that this item does NOT appear on page 1. It is on page 12. But really, how trivial is the point? Brookline is where the family lived, and the Cambridge hospital is spitting distance away. Come up with some substantive criticism instead of this silly and disingenuous trash.
As far as I know, the author did request interviews with the king. However, his request was rejected. Any serious author, and Paul Handley is a serious author, would love nothing more than being allowed to make a number of wide-ranging interviews with the subjects of his or her research (and possibly allowed access to relevant documents). Yet, if they don’t cooperate, what can they do? Authors are then forced to rely on other sources.
Did the Author who wrote The King Never Smile?
Had met the King? Did he make personel interview with King?
If, Not why? and How can this book named a King Biography??
All contents might be a full true facts!
This is not Fair to the King!!
Do you agree??
====================
Every Year Dec 5, the King Birthday, he got the chance to
speak to public only once a year.
Why the Book Author go to meet the King and have
personel interview with him.
This is Fair to him!!
=========================
The King has done so much beneficial projects to Thai people.
Thai constitution made meaningless , a grand airport made useless, due process rule of law disregarded, tax obligations evaded, election laws violated – – – what other Thaksin accomplishments have I missed?
Those millions of defaced votes with poetic obscenities celebrated Thaksin’s ‘achievements’ indeed!
Only that 1) defaced ballots counted as invalid, not as no vote; 2) most of the no vote ballots were due to the absence of the Democrat etc. parties, and thus did not necessarily constitute protest votes; and 3) a bigger proportion of people voted for Thaksin…Thus, we will also have a cremation volume celebrating Thaksin’s achievements.
Facebook 
Twitter 
Soundcloud 
Youtube 
Rss
Thaksin down under
Maybe while he’s here he can hand out some of those cheques Vichai keeps promising he’ll give us?
The King Never Smiles?
Ian Buruma just published another review of Handley’s The King Never Smiles, in the March 1, 2007 issue of the New York Review of Books.
Karen in-between
Below is a link to a nice TV news report on the plight of the displaced Karen from Canadian TV Scroll down to the two-part report entitled “A better tomorrow.”
Canada has beed very receptive to receiving both Karen and other refugees (IDPs) from Burma. Here in the US, progress has been slower
http://www.cbc.ca/national/
Rohingya in Phang Nga
Dear all,
We are Rohigya living in Burma Arakan since 1200 years ago. The Burmesed Military cleaned & removed us day by day. In this situation Rohingya Muslim will be finisheed within some years. This unjustfy government Confiscated our properties.Toture, robbering and killing is the minor case.
I appeal all over the world and media let to help all our people and pray for our Rohigya.
The King Never Smiles?
Dancan McCargo writes a review of this book in the latest issue of New Left Review.
Lessons from the Thaksin era
Sorry, Sasin, not NIDA.
The demographic reach of rural civil society
Your colleague at ANU, Yoshinori Nishizaki, might be able to tell you something about political culture, civil society, public, or political participation in Supanburi.
The demographic reach of rural civil society
I share your impression as to the reach of civil society in rural areas as far as organized forms (especially NGOs) or movements are concerned. But, of course, one needs to know what “civil society” is and how it relates to local (province, district, constituency, tambon, village) administrative and political structures. And whether other terms such as “public” would not be better. NGOs are just a very small faction of “civil society” (just in case it exists), about which a lot has been written in the past few years. Have you done some sort of comprehensive literature survey on the subject already? Some points are summarized in:
Orlandini, Barbara. 2004. “Civic Engagement in Local Governance: The Case of Thailand.” In Citizen Participation in Local Governance: Experiences from Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines, by Hans Antlöv et al., pp. 89-13. Manila, Philippines: Institute for Popular Democracy (IPD) for Logolink, Learning Initiative on Citizen Participation and Local Governance, Southeast Asia. Also available at http://www.ipd.ph/logolinksea/resources/resources.html.
Have you come across things such as р╕Чр╕│р╣Ар╕Щuр╕╡р╕вр╕Ър╕нр╕Зр╕Др╣Мр╕Бр╕гр╕Юр╕▒р╕Тр╕Щр╕▓р╣Ар╕нр╕Бр╕Кр╕Щ 2546 — 2003 Directory of Non-Governmental Organizations?
Evaluating the 30 baht health care program
HP: Your conclusion is certainly correct. Moreover, before the 30 baht plan was introduced, we already had the health card program and free care for the poor (though bureaucratized). TRT could have improved on these things–but this would not have had the broad electoral effect aimed for.
Lessons from the Thaksin era
An unexpected person has also drawn some lessons from the Thaksin era: Somkid Jatusripitak. Remember, that’s one of the main architects of TRT’s election victories, and the guy who was tipped to take over from Thaksin as PM when he “stepped down” after the April 2006 election.
Somkid has been tipped in the past few weeks to be a serious contender for the premiership after the next election, i.e. as a member of Somsak Thepsuthin’s new ourfot “Matchima.” Some of Somkid’s close aids reportedly already work with this new group.
Now the plot thickens as Somkid seem to have seen it necessary to fall into line with the “sufficiency economy” approach in order to qualify for the post–not in the eyes of the voters, of course, but those of the royalist-military-bureaucratic forces that are set to keep things under control after the next election.
NIDA, will give him the opportunity to deliver a key note address on the topic of “Sufficiency economy: the heart for the building the nation” on February 15. In a summarized interview (Matichon, February 12, p. 2), Somkid defined sufficiency economy by referring to three core concepts: mindfulness concerning moderation (which is said to mean different things to different people, and different things to people during the course of their biography, in short: the Rolex doesn’t come at the beginning of one’s career); knowledge and reason (one needs to develop oneself); not being careless or imprudent (here is were planning and step-by-step procedures come in as means to reduce risks).
And since Somkid thought that the foreigners simply cannot understood this approach, he graciously explained that all this pho phiang stuff was equivalent to what in western economic theory has been called “optimization” (he uses the English-language word).
Now we understand why all these platitudes sound so familiar to those westeners who don’t misunderstand “sufficiency” as “self-sufficiency.” The sufficiency economy merely is optimized and risk-reduced capitalism, as we have known it for quite some time. However, concerning the rural economy, Somkid seems to tend to some sort of collectivist approach centered on the concept of “community.”
This way, Somkid might well become Thailand’s nex prime minister, and, as a truly Thai friend of mine remarked, the first one who has not fully mastered the Thai language (this refers to his strong Chinese pronunciation).
Evaluating the 30 baht health care program
Mr Conners: having looked in depth at government figures, research methodologies, and private company financial accounts, I would strongly urge everyone NEVER to take any figures “at face value”. Unquestioning acceptance of figures allows analytic laziness and willfull manipulation to seep into policymaking often with tragic consequences. Health care is a case in point – the underlying data use to calculate health care costs is appallingly bad. Let me give you an example – if you compare birth records from Bangkok hospitals to census data of the age distribution in Bangkok, you get a disparities of over 100% – that is the numer of people between ages x and y is over twice from one set of records as from another. Now, you can accept a disparity of perhaps up to even 30% as differences between official records of residence vs. actual domicile, but 100%? Clearly there are severe data problems in the system – so how can you even begin to calculate health care costs when you’re not even sure how many people you’re dealing with?
jeplang – the 30 B plan brought cheap health care to rural people through a shift to primary care and government subsidies. As the beneficiaries have no direct contact with the liabilities (the definition of moral hazard), it’s not surprising that they would approve. If you gave me something that someone else had to pay for, I’d approve too. The question here is one of sustainability, which cannot be answered by opinion polls.
The TDRI article is more on the mark. It clearly shows through some fairly simple analysis that the funding mechanisms behind the scheme are unsustainable – the same conclusions reached by the BMJ article. This isn’t rocket science – the same as been shown in any systematic review of health care financing. That the TRT plan never made such analysis and never took the global experience in health financing into account in creating their 30-B scheme is what makes me believe that this was intended more as a short-term vote-grabbing ploy than a serious attempt to solve rural health care issues.
Best regards,
HP Boothe
Saprang on the three pillars
Anti-coup title in clampdown row
The first anti-coup book to be published is not for sale at the Chulalongkorn Book Centre in Siam Square in spite of claims to the contrary from its manager.
“September 19 coup: A coup for a democratic regime under a constitutional monarchy” is nowhere to be found at the Siam Square branch.
On Friday, The Nation reported the shop had decided not to sell it.
Shop manager Uraiwan Kornwitysinn denied in the Bangkok Post that the book had been banned out of fear of angering the junta. She said she had 500 copies in stock.
The collection of anti-coup essays from Nidhi Aoseewong, Thongchai Winichakul, Chaiwat Satha-anand, two senior journalists at The Nation and others is published by Fah Diew Kan and was released on January 19.
An employee of distributor Kledthai said the university had ordered 100 copies only and the bookshop had informed the company it would not stock the title.
“How could they have 500 books?” Tichakorn Chatanan of Kledthai said. The shop told Kledthai it was deemed unsuitable for sale at the official bookshops of the university, Tichakorn said.
Some Chulalongkorn University lecturers yesterday prepared a petition asking its president to intervene for the sake of the school’s reputation and academic freedom.
The book’s publisher and editor Thanapol Eiwsakul has been accused by Uraiwan of using the alleged ban to boost sales.
“She lied. If she were smart she would have just placed the book on the shelves. They must have lost face because it’s supposed to be an academic bookshop. It’s a reminder that the university lacks freedom,” he said, adding that sellers such as Dork Ya had been offering it for weeks.
Subhatra Bhumiprabhas
The Nation 11 February 2007
The cross-border Shan
I have not had time to read the paper quite yet, but I am very familiar with one village mentioned, Baan Mai Mok Cham, one of whose founders was the late Sao Chaang, who I believe was son of Sao Shwe Thaik, the first president of Burma. Thus I am not surprised that there is a strong sense of communal Shan identity in that town. Now that housing extends to the new bridge across the Mae Kok River, it hardly qualifies as a village, and the recent population growth of Mok Cham was certainly not generated internally, so I am not surprised that it now houses a much more diverse population than it did when I was a regular visitor.
Not quite the most northern village in Mae Ai province, as Muang Ngaam, Baan (the ever notorious and now incarcerated) Laota, Hua Muang Ngaam, and Baan Linchee are even a bit further afield, it is the last large village in the district. When I lived nearby in the early 1980s it was, to the best of my knowledge, almost entirely Shan, with a few Chinese, such as the owner of the small petrol station along the river and this chemist who had worked in Switzerland and who had retired to Mok Cham and married two young teenage sisters a fraction of his age. There was also a small Border Patrol Unit (BPP) stationed in Mok Cham, as well as a very tacky Karaoke place to cater to those at that station.
As idyllic as a Shan village as it appeared walking around, rice in the fields and saa paper drying in front of the homes, reality is not quite as pleasant. A number of the younger women worked the red-light district in Fang. And I think it was in the late 1980s that a good acquaintance of mine, Kamnaan Sang, the head of sub-district and the head of Mok Cham, was brutally murdered. Rumors were it involved land disputes and no doubt that much of the neighboring land came into the possesion of agribusiness and was turned into large orange groves.
But the local area around Mok Cham remains one of the most ethnically diverse neighborhoods I have encountered in Thailand. Within a few hours walk, now mostly a short drive, one can visit Khon Muang (Tamakeng), Karen (Muang Ngaam), Lisu (Laota), Lahu (several flavors), Mien, Akha, and a KMT Chinese village. At the time I lived in the area, the lingua franca of the region, once you crossed the bridge at at Thaton, was still Lahu. And other than when Laota was flexing his muscle, blessedly no longer possible, this diverse group of people all got along remarkably well with very minimal government presence.
From the archives: funding funerals
Of course, in the countryside, there are many families too poor to even consider any of this. A friend of mine simply cremated his father in a field and then brought as many of the bones and ashes as he could to the temple and buried them in the ground.
I guess there are people even poorer than one’s I have met in rural Thailand. In the area I have lived, even the poorest of the poor, from what I have witnessed, are provided burial rites. The minimal cost was usually shared by the family, fellow villagers, and close neighbors. Someone would volunteer to pick up a few monks, a few of the village women would arrange to do a little cooking for guests, all of whom would donate a few baat. Usually the headman and other better off village leaders, and hapless resident Farangs, would cover any other expenses such as paying the two or three men who volunteer to insure the body is properly cremated, the pay being in the form of a few bottles of local whiskey.
The King Never Smiles?
I am very late to this page and the comments. There are some minor factual errors in the book, but nothing major, so Kasumo’s points are about trivial items. In any case, if Kasumo is to demand accuracy about trivial things, get your own facts right. Kasumo says, “on the first page of the book, Handley already got it wrong. King Bhumibol was born at the Mt. Auburn Hospital in Cambridge Mass., not in Brookline.” The fact is that this item does NOT appear on page 1. It is on page 12. But really, how trivial is the point? Brookline is where the family lived, and the Cambridge hospital is spitting distance away. Come up with some substantive criticism instead of this silly and disingenuous trash.
More debate on The King Never Smiles
As far as I know, the author did request interviews with the king. However, his request was rejected. Any serious author, and Paul Handley is a serious author, would love nothing more than being allowed to make a number of wide-ranging interviews with the subjects of his or her research (and possibly allowed access to relevant documents). Yet, if they don’t cooperate, what can they do? Authors are then forced to rely on other sources.
From the archives: funding funerals
Those Thais who will prepare the cremation volume won’t share your views.
More debate on The King Never Smiles
I totally agree with Paul Chen —>
Did the Author who wrote The King Never Smile?
Had met the King? Did he make personel interview with King?
If, Not why? and How can this book named a King Biography??
All contents might be a full true facts!
This is not Fair to the King!!
Do you agree??
====================
Every Year Dec 5, the King Birthday, he got the chance to
speak to public only once a year.
Why the Book Author go to meet the King and have
personel interview with him.
This is Fair to him!!
=========================
The King has done so much beneficial projects to Thai people.
From the archives: funding funerals
Thai constitution made meaningless , a grand airport made useless, due process rule of law disregarded, tax obligations evaded, election laws violated – – – what other Thaksin accomplishments have I missed?
Those millions of defaced votes with poetic obscenities celebrated Thaksin’s ‘achievements’ indeed!
From the archives: funding funerals
Only that 1) defaced ballots counted as invalid, not as no vote; 2) most of the no vote ballots were due to the absence of the Democrat etc. parties, and thus did not necessarily constitute protest votes; and 3) a bigger proportion of people voted for Thaksin…Thus, we will also have a cremation volume celebrating Thaksin’s achievements.