The large-scale opium production was begun with KMT, trained, armed, advised, and imported by the US. Throughout KMT existence, their opium supply was directly exported on CIA-chartered planes through Thai airports. Now, the US wanted to impose sanctions to “Burma” for poppy production, “exempted” only because Obama said “it’s against the US “national interest” in the region”. How funny.
Nobody would like to try the realistic approach because it’s costly. Those in the US say “lives are ruined because of opium grown in least developed countries”. The argument can easily be turned the other way around, “Wars all over the globe are fueled and funded by American insatiable demand for illicit drugs”. Of course, it’s easier to stand moral high ground and deliver a moral lecture than to play a part in rural development.
R.N. is being obtuse. In this very article (Andrew Walker had honed in on one) and hundreds of threads written at NM and by the notables above mentioned alluding to Thaksin’s constitutional errr …. (hope the word choice will be subtly soothing to RNE?) indiscretions.
But Thaksin Shinawatra was ( gasp!) elected, so why should it matter? Tons of more words will be written, I betcha, about ‘does it matter’ RNE.
Perhaps Vichai N would care to explain in detail how Thaksin disrespected and abused the ’97 constitition, and how the Army defended it to the last drop of their blood?
A person of reason knows that Thaksin’s haters are just as corrupt as Thaksin. They just cannot win elections. Look at the wealth of all the generals. Enjoy your new Thailand, Mr. Vichai. It is the new Burma.
Your comment reads, to me at least, as an example of the criticism that sometimes comes from those who don’t fully understand the variety of important contributions that have been made. By their very nature, many of these will be quiet, verging on secret.
We don’t know why people make the decisions they do. Some of us can write critical analysis under our own names, and will take the consequences of doing so. Some may (or may not) also have various practical outlets for their energies. Others will keep their powder dry. There are also those who will use pseudonyms to better prosecute the battle of ideas. From where I sit, they all deserve respect in what are troubling and sometimes dangerous circumstances.
Of course, there will be productive disagreement among such people of goodwill about our collective knowledge, and about the tactics required to better inform Thailand-related political discussions.
But I don’t see where anybody gains by heaping opprobrium on those who have been doing their best. We all have little notion of what scars some people may carry from the past decade’s political turbulence in Thailand.
To you and to others, I would gently advise more caution in judging the contributions that others have made. We can all learn from each other.
Perhaps NM and the other notables mentioned above should ask themselves why they failed to communicate. The Thai Y2006 bloodless (garlands aplenty welcomed the tanks) putsch that ousted the odious Thaksin was repeated with another recent coup that ousted Thaksin’s disgraced sister Yingluck a year ago. It does appear tons of ‘no-more-coups’ words at NM and elsewhere were unheeded in Thailand: Thai academics and intelligentsia and The middle-class, merely stood aside and gave silent cheer when another disgraceful Shinawatra were booted out of power recently.
The integrity of the elected person holding Thailand’s highest elected office matters gentlemen! Sooner or later the Thai people would be outraged by the flagrant disrespect and abuses of their constitution by that very leader they had elected to protect and uphold it. More dangerously is a political party created to systemically abet that leader’s overreaching rampage of constitutional abuses for self-interest.
You are gentlemen all too self-absorbed with your intellectual persuasions and prejudices to make sense of the Thai middle-class remarkable political common sense.
To add, I think the only pragmatic way to bring Muslim MPs to parliament is proportional representation. Otherwise, there is no chance even if they are nominated by the NLD or USDP.
Muslims, especially U Razard–who didn’t enjoy support from his fellow Muslims–, played unique roles in independence. King Mindon welcomed them and carefully assimilated them. They should be proud of it rather than enjoying Arab funds and importing Wahhabism. Reintegration won’t come with madrasas popping up everywhere. Just three years ago, a new madrasa to train imams popped up in Mawlamyine. Nobody realized what was being constructed. The purchase of land was made in utmost secrecy. Once a madrasa has been built without permission, nothing can be done. Within two years, long beard, kaftans and hijabs are now increasingly worn among Mawlamyine Muslims, affirming Arabs that their funds are being used effectively.
There are now more mosques than pagodas at the center of Mawlamyine. With funds from nowhere, a mosque near Mingala Zay now owns vast tract of land behind it (according to my pseudo-Muslim friend who goes to mosque but eats pork–no pun intended). Perhaps, the mission is to turn the “land of pagodas” into the “land of mosques and madrasas”.
I’m getting tired of this boat people. Well folks, when we went from Mawlamyine to Myeik, my family took ships in conditions far worse than these Bengalis were taking. When my uncle went to Malaysia after 2000s US sanctions crippled his restaurant near fabric factory, he was nearly killed inside Thai forests. Only my mother’s dogged effort led to his release. Many who traveled with him were killed by malaria, ransom-seeking rebels, and brutal bosses. There are now 2 million Burmese working in slave-like conditions. An estimated six dozens of Burmese have been beheaded by Bengali gangs in Malaysia. Twelve Burmese killed by Bengali in Indonesia. The murderers received 2 months sentence. Nobody complained.
When these boat people arrive developed countries like Malaysia, EU, and US, they tell “harrowing tales”. But Australia makes an agreement with Cambodia and sends these boat people to Cambodia, they ask to come back to “persecuted” Myanmar to try their luck again. Their motto is, “Let’s rock on the boat until we reach Europe!”
“None of the four resettled people wanted to stay in Cambodia. They expected to get a lump sum of at least $10,000, but that was not what happened.”
I don’t think any party would take the risks to nominate a Muslim MP in Buddhist areas simply “to make a point” that they’re non-discriminatory. Of course, if they do, that MP will become a target of MaBaTha and won’t win the election, even if he is from the NLD.
I also don’t think blocking U Shwe Maung’s candidacy is racially motivated. Sure, his speeches in Hluttaw are like “our lives are more worthy than yours” in a country crippled by mismanagement and decades of sanctions. Still, they have nothing to gain by barring him. No Buddhist would contest or win in Maungdaw and Bauthitaung and MPs from there would undoubtedly be Muslims. He may well lack documents to prove his parents were citizens, as required by new law.
Rather than drawing the ire of MaBaTha to appease Western embassies, both NLD and USDP have played the “safe cards”. It’s not wrong. It may have prevented large-scale boycotts and protests from nationalists in a sensitive time like this.
Given the author’s attention to the dress of the Lao police and trying to draw significance from their attire, I am somewhat surprised that he doesn’t notice the rather obvious red shirted supporters of the Ultras group (motto: “unity and passion”) who instigated the fracas, and give some recognition to their particular dynamic in Thai soccer hooliganism, of which they have a history. The Ultras are hardcore supporters of the Muangthong United FC.
This may have as much explanatory weight than focusing mostly on nationalism considerations. Sub-national group tribalism can be as powerful motivator of violent action as nationalism, as any Bangkok technical college student would appreciate, and arguably, the same old phenomenon has now shifted to the realm of football.
A detailed study of domestic Thai soccer violence is long overdue, I would contend, especially as wealthy elites pump vast sums of money into their chosen teams and the game gets more politicised and commodified. (e.g.Newin Chidchob’s Buriram FC is apparently the wealthiest club in Thailand). I wonder how many rules of the Ultras own voluntary code of conduct were broken in Vientiane? See: http://muangthongunitedfc.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/mtu-fans-code-of-conduct.html
“Guanxi” is the root of Confucian Chinese success as well destruction. And only people like Xi, the most powerful authoritarian since Mao, currently on a slow-motion “The night of Long Knives” drama (no one has ever exposed a politburo member to a public trial before) may be able to change some aspect of it.
Bertil Lintner wrote in that most academic and fascinating book “Blood Brothers” that “Guanxi” is the secret of success of triads compared to any other criminal organizations, including Yakuza currently enjoying resurgent LDP right wing government.
But if you look at the state of people in China as a whole one finds that now “guanxi” plays as a traditional “exclusionist” system where while sticking together with “guanxi”, no one gives a second thought to people who are outside of whether being left behind or who are done a gross injustice, the very reason of the development of triads to start with.
And guess what, such phenomenon is glaringly obvious in the happy land of “Singapore” as well, where if you are poor, by definition you are lazy, useless or that Chinese curse- unlucky! You instantly become “them”.
Lee had put in the heads of his charges of that “exclusionist” ideas so much so that even Ayn Rand would get dizzy in Singapore.
The fact that poor little George Yeo was astoundingly voted out in the election before last was a pure accident, not a fundamental change of the wicked-ness of the vote-able inhabitants of the little island, and therefore there has been no swing. It simply has not moved.
I am not speaking here about people under threat and facing prison time as of right now. But, self-censoring in support of the coup, keeping your mouth shut so you can come and go in and out of the country as you please; jetting out of the country just when people here need you the most; writing self-interested hit pieces on governments elected by majority of low income voters; building an academic career safely out of reach while watching, ‘analyzing’ but doing practically nothing? I guess we all need whatever help we can get from whomever, wherever and whenever we can get it.
I believe the writer was writing more from the standpoint of the ordinary citizen coming out to protest(rather than the organisers of Bersih itself) as apropos her argument citing Arendt’s idea of the ordinary people producing political power when they come together in concert. Whether or not the majority of the protesters are partisan is besides the point, as in any mature enough democracy(yes,I know), you only really have two main choices at any one time to put into a seat in parliament or for that matter a ruling government. When enough of the populace have had enough with how things are going, they will have to act, and that usually would mean voting the present government out and the strongest opposition faction in. Arguing about whether or not one party or faction is less racist or corrupt achieves nothing. When a society is desperate enough, they will be willing to try whatever comes by. And rightly so, for what’s the worst that could happen? Frankly I think it could only get as low as it already is, and if you don’t try, how would you know?
In other words, it’s about the people who are tired of the present government acting like as if it is serious about tackling corruption etc, and not about bersih being just a street protest arm of the opposition. It would be just as na├пve for a person to think that politicians and their respective parties do not resort to whatever form of weaponry they are capable of procuring to further their aims and agendas.
I think the writer or editor made a mistake on the title, as I think it’s fairly clear that the piece is not meant to be a treatise on “citizenship” or “civics”, although the writer seems to have asked some rather “big” sociological questions at the end.
I do not concerned with the ‘faith’ of a person as long as the person serves the nation and people under the rule of law. The issue here is not the ‘faith’ of a person but it is the ‘faith’ of politics that we are lacked to articulate on it. If we asked the candidates and current MPs on their ‘faith’, they may declared it as they are heritages from the generation in any faiths.
the back drop of the question is again linked to the ‘citizenship’ and ‘civil right’ according to the constitution. This is the key point most that Daw Suu have to articulate on it.
Faith group leaders / religious leaders ought to take their home work. It is just non-political affair. It is spirituality, healing the people as well as conducting human’s ceremonial such as funeral services etc.
Like wise, politicians have to stay clean that they are not exploiting any religions for a vote. They too have to be in a clean skin.
As we are well informed, conservative ‘theravada’ Buddhist monks live under the 227 rules of Monkshood. They do not engage in politics. Likewise, other faith leaders ought to separate the agenda.
Above all, Daw Suu and a new elected president ought to call a National Faith Leader Summit in 2016 or 2017 that could bring the divide religious line to the public discourse. But, it is not an agenda for politics.
Finally, racial discrimination laws shall be passed in the parliament as an urgent matter.
Burma’s scholars and writers failed to articulate this issues in the last 65 years but it is time that the new scholars and writers bring the debate with wisdom.
If a man or a monk (anyone from religious duty) have an aspiration to be a politicians, he or she leave the temple, monastery, church but contest for a seat in parliament. Do not ask for a ‘free kick’ from the bench. Let’s play a a fair game here.
[…] protests in Malaysia. The local turnout alone is incredible given that freedom of assembly there is not a protected right. An additional 10,000 people attended solidarity rallies in more than 70 cities worldwide,including […]
Mike,
I think your sentence: “By attempting to dampen the celebrations in the Thai supporters section of the stands, the Lao police were tacitly joining the side of the battered Vietnamese team” is rather ill chosen. Of course that certainly was the perception of the Thai supporters – but police everywhere surely have a duty to keep order and control the risk of harm to the public. Isn’t that a much better explanation of their motive in moving into the stand than that they were somehow attempting to redress the balance of the score?
Facebook 
Twitter 
Soundcloud 
Youtube 
Rss
Reassessing Myanmar’s poppy problem
The large-scale opium production was begun with KMT, trained, armed, advised, and imported by the US. Throughout KMT existence, their opium supply was directly exported on CIA-chartered planes through Thai airports. Now, the US wanted to impose sanctions to “Burma” for poppy production, “exempted” only because Obama said “it’s against the US “national interest” in the region”. How funny.
Nobody would like to try the realistic approach because it’s costly. Those in the US say “lives are ruined because of opium grown in least developed countries”. The argument can easily be turned the other way around, “Wars all over the globe are fueled and funded by American insatiable demand for illicit drugs”. Of course, it’s easier to stand moral high ground and deliver a moral lecture than to play a part in rural development.
9 years ago today
R.N. is being obtuse. In this very article (Andrew Walker had honed in on one) and hundreds of threads written at NM and by the notables above mentioned alluding to Thaksin’s constitutional errr …. (hope the word choice will be subtly soothing to RNE?) indiscretions.
But Thaksin Shinawatra was ( gasp!) elected, so why should it matter? Tons of more words will be written, I betcha, about ‘does it matter’ RNE.
9 years ago today
10th cavalry I weary of “it is cool to be corrupt in Thailand” argument. You should too.
9 years ago today
Perhaps Vichai N would care to explain in detail how Thaksin disrespected and abused the ’97 constitition, and how the Army defended it to the last drop of their blood?
9 years ago today
A person of reason knows that Thaksin’s haters are just as corrupt as Thaksin. They just cannot win elections. Look at the wealth of all the generals. Enjoy your new Thailand, Mr. Vichai. It is the new Burma.
9 years ago today
Thanks Wester,
Your comment reads, to me at least, as an example of the criticism that sometimes comes from those who don’t fully understand the variety of important contributions that have been made. By their very nature, many of these will be quiet, verging on secret.
We don’t know why people make the decisions they do. Some of us can write critical analysis under our own names, and will take the consequences of doing so. Some may (or may not) also have various practical outlets for their energies. Others will keep their powder dry. There are also those who will use pseudonyms to better prosecute the battle of ideas. From where I sit, they all deserve respect in what are troubling and sometimes dangerous circumstances.
Of course, there will be productive disagreement among such people of goodwill about our collective knowledge, and about the tactics required to better inform Thailand-related political discussions.
But I don’t see where anybody gains by heaping opprobrium on those who have been doing their best. We all have little notion of what scars some people may carry from the past decade’s political turbulence in Thailand.
To you and to others, I would gently advise more caution in judging the contributions that others have made. We can all learn from each other.
Best wishes to all,
Nich
9 years ago today
Perhaps NM and the other notables mentioned above should ask themselves why they failed to communicate. The Thai Y2006 bloodless (garlands aplenty welcomed the tanks) putsch that ousted the odious Thaksin was repeated with another recent coup that ousted Thaksin’s disgraced sister Yingluck a year ago. It does appear tons of ‘no-more-coups’ words at NM and elsewhere were unheeded in Thailand: Thai academics and intelligentsia and The middle-class, merely stood aside and gave silent cheer when another disgraceful Shinawatra were booted out of power recently.
The integrity of the elected person holding Thailand’s highest elected office matters gentlemen! Sooner or later the Thai people would be outraged by the flagrant disrespect and abuses of their constitution by that very leader they had elected to protect and uphold it. More dangerously is a political party created to systemically abet that leader’s overreaching rampage of constitutional abuses for self-interest.
You are gentlemen all too self-absorbed with your intellectual persuasions and prejudices to make sense of the Thai middle-class remarkable political common sense.
Fortifying the Union
To add, I think the only pragmatic way to bring Muslim MPs to parliament is proportional representation. Otherwise, there is no chance even if they are nominated by the NLD or USDP.
Muslims, especially U Razard–who didn’t enjoy support from his fellow Muslims–, played unique roles in independence. King Mindon welcomed them and carefully assimilated them. They should be proud of it rather than enjoying Arab funds and importing Wahhabism. Reintegration won’t come with madrasas popping up everywhere. Just three years ago, a new madrasa to train imams popped up in Mawlamyine. Nobody realized what was being constructed. The purchase of land was made in utmost secrecy. Once a madrasa has been built without permission, nothing can be done. Within two years, long beard, kaftans and hijabs are now increasingly worn among Mawlamyine Muslims, affirming Arabs that their funds are being used effectively.
There are now more mosques than pagodas at the center of Mawlamyine. With funds from nowhere, a mosque near Mingala Zay now owns vast tract of land behind it (according to my pseudo-Muslim friend who goes to mosque but eats pork–no pun intended). Perhaps, the mission is to turn the “land of pagodas” into the “land of mosques and madrasas”.
Living in Singapore’s material world
Got it!
” adopt the most successful policy from East and West”
” Haven for the most crooked rich thugs that should go straight to Hell”
Nugget: : Let’s be RICH, F’m.
Living in Singapore’s material world
Singapore is successful b/c of the Education, Heath Care and Economic/ Social safety it provide it citizenry.
Allow the Island nation to adopt the most successful policy from East and West making above enviable possible.
The Good: All the complaints of outsiders’ definition e.g. “Materialistic”.
Make them all the “Wan-a-be Singaporeans’ as opposed to “Is-a-be Singaporeans” who contribute to the world needy quietly.
The Bad: Haven for the most crooked rich thugs that should go straight to Hell.
Knowing all these thugs are from neighboring countries that obtain their wealth without scruple.
For the above reason alone #1.1 is guilty of #1
The root cause of Rohingya persecution
I’m getting tired of this boat people. Well folks, when we went from Mawlamyine to Myeik, my family took ships in conditions far worse than these Bengalis were taking. When my uncle went to Malaysia after 2000s US sanctions crippled his restaurant near fabric factory, he was nearly killed inside Thai forests. Only my mother’s dogged effort led to his release. Many who traveled with him were killed by malaria, ransom-seeking rebels, and brutal bosses. There are now 2 million Burmese working in slave-like conditions. An estimated six dozens of Burmese have been beheaded by Bengali gangs in Malaysia. Twelve Burmese killed by Bengali in Indonesia. The murderers received 2 months sentence. Nobody complained.
When these boat people arrive developed countries like Malaysia, EU, and US, they tell “harrowing tales”. But Australia makes an agreement with Cambodia and sends these boat people to Cambodia, they ask to come back to “persecuted” Myanmar to try their luck again. Their motto is, “Let’s rock on the boat until we reach Europe!”
“None of the four resettled people wanted to stay in Cambodia. They expected to get a lump sum of at least $10,000, but that was not what happened.”
Fortifying the Union
I don’t think any party would take the risks to nominate a Muslim MP in Buddhist areas simply “to make a point” that they’re non-discriminatory. Of course, if they do, that MP will become a target of MaBaTha and won’t win the election, even if he is from the NLD.
I also don’t think blocking U Shwe Maung’s candidacy is racially motivated. Sure, his speeches in Hluttaw are like “our lives are more worthy than yours” in a country crippled by mismanagement and decades of sanctions. Still, they have nothing to gain by barring him. No Buddhist would contest or win in Maungdaw and Bauthitaung and MPs from there would undoubtedly be Muslims. He may well lack documents to prove his parents were citizens, as required by new law.
Rather than drawing the ire of MaBaTha to appease Western embassies, both NLD and USDP have played the “safe cards”. It’s not wrong. It may have prevented large-scale boycotts and protests from nationalists in a sensitive time like this.
Soccer wars in Southeast Asia
Given the author’s attention to the dress of the Lao police and trying to draw significance from their attire, I am somewhat surprised that he doesn’t notice the rather obvious red shirted supporters of the Ultras group (motto: “unity and passion”) who instigated the fracas, and give some recognition to their particular dynamic in Thai soccer hooliganism, of which they have a history. The Ultras are hardcore supporters of the Muangthong United FC.
This may have as much explanatory weight than focusing mostly on nationalism considerations. Sub-national group tribalism can be as powerful motivator of violent action as nationalism, as any Bangkok technical college student would appreciate, and arguably, the same old phenomenon has now shifted to the realm of football.
A detailed study of domestic Thai soccer violence is long overdue, I would contend, especially as wealthy elites pump vast sums of money into their chosen teams and the game gets more politicised and commodified. (e.g.Newin Chidchob’s Buriram FC is apparently the wealthiest club in Thailand). I wonder how many rules of the Ultras own voluntary code of conduct were broken in Vientiane? See:
http://muangthongunitedfc.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/mtu-fans-code-of-conduct.html
Living in Singapore’s material world
“Guanxi” is the root of Confucian Chinese success as well destruction. And only people like Xi, the most powerful authoritarian since Mao, currently on a slow-motion “The night of Long Knives” drama (no one has ever exposed a politburo member to a public trial before) may be able to change some aspect of it.
Bertil Lintner wrote in that most academic and fascinating book “Blood Brothers” that “Guanxi” is the secret of success of triads compared to any other criminal organizations, including Yakuza currently enjoying resurgent LDP right wing government.
But if you look at the state of people in China as a whole one finds that now “guanxi” plays as a traditional “exclusionist” system where while sticking together with “guanxi”, no one gives a second thought to people who are outside of whether being left behind or who are done a gross injustice, the very reason of the development of triads to start with.
And guess what, such phenomenon is glaringly obvious in the happy land of “Singapore” as well, where if you are poor, by definition you are lazy, useless or that Chinese curse- unlucky! You instantly become “them”.
Lee had put in the heads of his charges of that “exclusionist” ideas so much so that even Ayn Rand would get dizzy in Singapore.
The fact that poor little George Yeo was astoundingly voted out in the election before last was a pure accident, not a fundamental change of the wicked-ness of the vote-able inhabitants of the little island, and therefore there has been no swing. It simply has not moved.
9 years ago today
I am not speaking here about people under threat and facing prison time as of right now. But, self-censoring in support of the coup, keeping your mouth shut so you can come and go in and out of the country as you please; jetting out of the country just when people here need you the most; writing self-interested hit pieces on governments elected by majority of low income voters; building an academic career safely out of reach while watching, ‘analyzing’ but doing practically nothing? I guess we all need whatever help we can get from whomever, wherever and whenever we can get it.
Bersih 4, citizenship and civics in Malaysia
Mr. Calvin,
I believe the writer was writing more from the standpoint of the ordinary citizen coming out to protest(rather than the organisers of Bersih itself) as apropos her argument citing Arendt’s idea of the ordinary people producing political power when they come together in concert. Whether or not the majority of the protesters are partisan is besides the point, as in any mature enough democracy(yes,I know), you only really have two main choices at any one time to put into a seat in parliament or for that matter a ruling government. When enough of the populace have had enough with how things are going, they will have to act, and that usually would mean voting the present government out and the strongest opposition faction in. Arguing about whether or not one party or faction is less racist or corrupt achieves nothing. When a society is desperate enough, they will be willing to try whatever comes by. And rightly so, for what’s the worst that could happen? Frankly I think it could only get as low as it already is, and if you don’t try, how would you know?
In other words, it’s about the people who are tired of the present government acting like as if it is serious about tackling corruption etc, and not about bersih being just a street protest arm of the opposition. It would be just as na├пve for a person to think that politicians and their respective parties do not resort to whatever form of weaponry they are capable of procuring to further their aims and agendas.
I think the writer or editor made a mistake on the title, as I think it’s fairly clear that the piece is not meant to be a treatise on “citizenship” or “civics”, although the writer seems to have asked some rather “big” sociological questions at the end.
Fortifying the Union
Dear Sir
I do not concerned with the ‘faith’ of a person as long as the person serves the nation and people under the rule of law. The issue here is not the ‘faith’ of a person but it is the ‘faith’ of politics that we are lacked to articulate on it. If we asked the candidates and current MPs on their ‘faith’, they may declared it as they are heritages from the generation in any faiths.
the back drop of the question is again linked to the ‘citizenship’ and ‘civil right’ according to the constitution. This is the key point most that Daw Suu have to articulate on it.
Faith group leaders / religious leaders ought to take their home work. It is just non-political affair. It is spirituality, healing the people as well as conducting human’s ceremonial such as funeral services etc.
Like wise, politicians have to stay clean that they are not exploiting any religions for a vote. They too have to be in a clean skin.
As we are well informed, conservative ‘theravada’ Buddhist monks live under the 227 rules of Monkshood. They do not engage in politics. Likewise, other faith leaders ought to separate the agenda.
Above all, Daw Suu and a new elected president ought to call a National Faith Leader Summit in 2016 or 2017 that could bring the divide religious line to the public discourse. But, it is not an agenda for politics.
Finally, racial discrimination laws shall be passed in the parliament as an urgent matter.
Burma’s scholars and writers failed to articulate this issues in the last 65 years but it is time that the new scholars and writers bring the debate with wisdom.
If a man or a monk (anyone from religious duty) have an aspiration to be a politicians, he or she leave the temple, monastery, church but contest for a seat in parliament. Do not ask for a ‘free kick’ from the bench. Let’s play a a fair game here.
Malaysia – Assembling the Peaceful Assembly Act
[…] protests in Malaysia. The local turnout alone is incredible given that freedom of assembly there is not a protected right. An additional 10,000 people attended solidarity rallies in more than 70 cities worldwide,including […]
Soccer wars in Southeast Asia
Mike,
I think your sentence: “By attempting to dampen the celebrations in the Thai supporters section of the stands, the Lao police were tacitly joining the side of the battered Vietnamese team” is rather ill chosen. Of course that certainly was the perception of the Thai supporters – but police everywhere surely have a duty to keep order and control the risk of harm to the public. Isn’t that a much better explanation of their motive in moving into the stand than that they were somehow attempting to redress the balance of the score?
The perils of Prayuth
Here’s a start on that collection, David Russell. More to come , I’m sure
http://thaiwomantalks.com/2015/09/08/making-sense-of-thai-juntaland-a-glossary/