The title of your tweet is “Carving up Cambodia’s national parks” which turns into “Carving up Cambodia’s forests” which turns into an article about one protected area. While this is an important issue, broadly speaking, the title is nonetheless at odds with the scope of the story.
Nothing new here though, is there? All undoubtedly true, but nothing constructive is likely to come out of just identifying a problem that has always been entirely obvious.
In light of democracy being in retreat everywhere in the World, one wonders what the fascination is with Thai politics alone. We are unlikely to see any real success stories here in the next few decades. Locals might sometime in the distant future get a real grip on their own affairs. Hopefully they will – in their own time and in their own way. But the current World doesn’t really present them with any concrete options other than free-market monetarist pseudo-democracy which has so obviously (and so abysmally) failed in the majority of nations in recent decades. Bureaucrats are basically a pain in the arse everywhere these days, unless you have the economic clout to circumvent them or put them on your own payroll. Try just being an ordinary punter, and you will find such observations very thammada.
Mr. Farrelly is coming closer to the truth about “ethnic strife” in Burma (he should go interview Khin Nyunt!)
As I have often said: a lot of smoke and mirrors, cloaks and daggers in Burma, but basically it’s all about well-armed gangsters (who is selling them those weapons?) fighting for turf to conduct illegal activities. Burma, where I was born, is a country without moral and territorial integrity. To be honest is considered stupid in that country. Only despots, smugglers, drug war-lords (Khun Sa, Lo Hsinghan, etc.) and their corrupt families seem to get rich and powerful there.
Classic understatement. You cannot further stain what is already completely stained. The stain happened 46 years ago on 13/5/1969, and it has not washed out since. The MARA scandal is one of innumerable corruption and venal scandals, not the least of which is the C-4 bombing of a Mongolian model, ordered at the highest levels of Government, and a famous Sikh politician, whom I think most Malaysians still honestly believe met with a fatal “accident” (rest assured, he did not). The venality of Malaysia only begins with UMNO and the Government; it would be wrong to believe it ends there. There are willing Malaysian citizens who participate in the debasement of their own nation, for greed and false fame, and they know who they are. For those Malaysians who are honest and want better for all citizens, they are crushed by a putrid autocracy that hypocritically manipulates Malaysian’s fears, and uses Islamic and Malay nationalistic paradigms to batter the non-Malay population into Dhimmi-like submission; when well-minded Malays, especially ones who don’t take crap from anyone, like Datuk Noor Farida Ariffin, warn the Government and Nation, that they are headed down a dangerous path, the brilliant Muftis of Malaysia pander sage advice on sex on camels, female Malay athletic crotches, and why Chinese female dresses (the kind most older Chinese-Malaysian women have worn for 30 years with no complaint) are still too short when they are four inches from the ground. Such sage advice and heights of Qur’anic exegesis must surely leave the average intelligent Malay (meaning, those who aren’t in Government, Judiciary, Police, Perkasa, Pekida, Isma, JAIS, JAKIM, etc.) astonished at the scholarship of Malaysia’s finest Islamic Muftis, Imams, Hajis and assorted self-anointed Islamic experts.
If you count the number of Malaysians, of all backgrounds, who are simply fed up with the passionate and right-minded dreams of Malaysia’s Father, Tunku Abdul Rahman, that have all soured long ago, you will find that 25 % of Malaysia’s future, now resides outside Malaysia, in Australia, UK, Canada, New Zealand, US and Europe; that is, if they can afford to. Expect that number to increase, exponentially, leaving behind those least able to manage, sadly and with little irony, the actual indigenous inhabitants of Malaysia. Bully for them.
“Malaysia, truly Aphasia”…..
Some of the most corrupt people in all of Thailand are the Bureaucrats who claim so enthusiastically to be card-carrying members of the “Good People” group, Generals and Royalists who are now running Thailand.
Many of these Bureaucrats have become more than “Unusually Wealthy” despite their modest salaries. They are the Gatekeepers…and to get the gate to open, one needs to pay them suitcases full of cash.
They are often arrogant, snobbish, disdainful of ordinary working people and Thai citizens of what they regard as “Inferior Ethnicity” such as Isan-Thai, Khmer-Thai, Malay-Thai, Hill Tribe-Thai, etc.
TO these malignant Hypocrites, Dark Skin Color is almost always a sign of “Bad Karma” and not being one of the “Good People”.
The Thai Bureaucratic Class is basically a tribe of Vampires sucking the money and life out of the Thai System and working tirelessly to prevent a modern version of Thailand from being born.
Peter Augustine Goh also known as Iskandar Goh? Well done, congratulations. I knew he was shortlisted one year in the Malay poetry category, but I’m not sure if he actually won. This shows, as I state in my article, that there are a few Chinese writing in Malay. The fact that they may have done some of their education in Malaysia may have something to do with why they write in Malay. This is good considering the importance of Malay in the region.
Deep down these ruling elites are all in the same reactionary conservative club whatever name they give themselves with a varying degree of finesse in window dressing but with the same agenda – self aggrandizement and enrichment carving out as large a chunk of the national pie as they can get away with.
Ending Cobra Gold in Thailand in 2016 makes a great deal of sense, especially since the Thai junta have decided to stick a thumb in the eye of the United States and purchase 3 Chinese submarines for 36 billion Thai Baht and then station them at their Sattahip Naval Base (which was built and paid for by the Americans). In lieu of Chinese military expansion in the South China Sea, the Pentagon should wake up and realize that the Thai military are now siding with the Chinese in military and diplomatic matters, and are no longer one of their allies.
Social and “political ecology” is a fashion in search of a cause. Natural disasters are prevented, if at all possible, by scientific analysis. Geotechnical engineers are experts at addressing issues of landslides and geophysicists are experts at studying earthquakes. Large balloon effigies of Bakrie, falling into trances, and reciting poetry is ideological sublimation and will do nothing to empower Indonesians subject to natural disasters, many of which cannot be inhibited anyway. When and where they can, it is scientific principles and physical aid relief, that can actually help Indonesians traumatized by natural or man-made disasters, not conjurers, Dukuns and artificial academic fields of endeavor.
Is this a linguistics web site or what? It is so cute how some of this insects believe that English ability is some sort of litmus test of intellectual ability while at the same time don’t want Farang-meaning Western social and political normatives including freedom of speech especially the right to criticize- to come in and poison Thai “good society”. Decide now, are you ready to accept international standards of political responsibility or is it just so much fun to deceive yourself into thinking that your are better than “others” because you can read and write English.
What a surprise! Indonesia taken off FATF’s money laundering and terror financing blacklist in Brisbane. Cleanskins, Yay! Widodo is SUCH a weak President isn’t he, golly that simpleton just doesn’t know what he’s doing.
There has been a slow genocide and Islamisation of the Orang Asli. Mahathir put in place a policy to intentionally mix the Orang Asli with Malays to “breed-out” the Orang Asli ‘genes’ and make them token Malays and Muslims. Their villages in Perak, Pahang and Kelantan, have been uprooted and the same policy of Islamisation and Ketuanan Melayu is practiced in Sabah and Sarawak with the en masse importation of Indonesian, Filipino and other Muslims to make the Malay ratio in Eastern Malaysia far exceed that of indigenous people and ethnic Chinese and Indians. For all the nonsense and blabber from Mahathir about ‘Palestine’, he and his fellow PMs (starting with Tun Razak, in fact) have been practicing actual cultural genocide against ALL Orang Asal (as well as other non-Muslims and non-Malays) for 40 years. When will the debt be paid for this calumny ? Looking at how Malaysia has allowed itself to be debased; likely, never.
What about the land grabbed from Orang ASLI when will this be given back? When were they consulted as stakeholders in MP s. There is a lack of meritocratic and multicultural policies in this plan too.
I’m against economic sanctions. They are meant cause the people to suffer in the hope that they will blame the government. What is the point of that? The majority of Thais are already against the dictatorship. Are they supposed to rise up against it and be slaughtered in millions?
Serious sanctions against the Thai military would be much more effective. No more weapons and no spare parts would be a good start. The problem is that no US government can be elected without the financial support of the US arms industry. That’s the only possible explanation for their stupid foreign policy and stupid domestic arms policy. No US government is going to cause the Thai military to sell their M16s and turn to the Chinese for AK47s. The Americans don’t have the moral backbone to do the one thing, and the Chinese don’t have it to resist the other.
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Carving up Cambodia’s forests
The title of your tweet is “Carving up Cambodia’s national parks” which turns into “Carving up Cambodia’s forests” which turns into an article about one protected area. While this is an important issue, broadly speaking, the title is nonetheless at odds with the scope of the story.
Rice, repression and rule by force
Dr. Surin Pitsuwan
The myth of Thailand’s bureaucratic state
“Good People” group? Do you mean “GoodFellas”?
The myth of Thailand’s bureaucratic state
Nothing new here though, is there? All undoubtedly true, but nothing constructive is likely to come out of just identifying a problem that has always been entirely obvious.
In light of democracy being in retreat everywhere in the World, one wonders what the fascination is with Thai politics alone. We are unlikely to see any real success stories here in the next few decades. Locals might sometime in the distant future get a real grip on their own affairs. Hopefully they will – in their own time and in their own way. But the current World doesn’t really present them with any concrete options other than free-market monetarist pseudo-democracy which has so obviously (and so abysmally) failed in the majority of nations in recent decades. Bureaucrats are basically a pain in the arse everywhere these days, unless you have the economic clout to circumvent them or put them on your own payroll. Try just being an ordinary punter, and you will find such observations very thammada.
A state of peace for Myanmar?
Mr. Farrelly is coming closer to the truth about “ethnic strife” in Burma (he should go interview Khin Nyunt!)
As I have often said: a lot of smoke and mirrors, cloaks and daggers in Burma, but basically it’s all about well-armed gangsters (who is selling them those weapons?) fighting for turf to conduct illegal activities. Burma, where I was born, is a country without moral and territorial integrity. To be honest is considered stupid in that country. Only despots, smugglers, drug war-lords (Khun Sa, Lo Hsinghan, etc.) and their corrupt families seem to get rich and powerful there.
Dodgy deals stain Malaysia’s image
Classic understatement. You cannot further stain what is already completely stained. The stain happened 46 years ago on 13/5/1969, and it has not washed out since. The MARA scandal is one of innumerable corruption and venal scandals, not the least of which is the C-4 bombing of a Mongolian model, ordered at the highest levels of Government, and a famous Sikh politician, whom I think most Malaysians still honestly believe met with a fatal “accident” (rest assured, he did not). The venality of Malaysia only begins with UMNO and the Government; it would be wrong to believe it ends there. There are willing Malaysian citizens who participate in the debasement of their own nation, for greed and false fame, and they know who they are. For those Malaysians who are honest and want better for all citizens, they are crushed by a putrid autocracy that hypocritically manipulates Malaysian’s fears, and uses Islamic and Malay nationalistic paradigms to batter the non-Malay population into Dhimmi-like submission; when well-minded Malays, especially ones who don’t take crap from anyone, like Datuk Noor Farida Ariffin, warn the Government and Nation, that they are headed down a dangerous path, the brilliant Muftis of Malaysia pander sage advice on sex on camels, female Malay athletic crotches, and why Chinese female dresses (the kind most older Chinese-Malaysian women have worn for 30 years with no complaint) are still too short when they are four inches from the ground. Such sage advice and heights of Qur’anic exegesis must surely leave the average intelligent Malay (meaning, those who aren’t in Government, Judiciary, Police, Perkasa, Pekida, Isma, JAIS, JAKIM, etc.) astonished at the scholarship of Malaysia’s finest Islamic Muftis, Imams, Hajis and assorted self-anointed Islamic experts.
If you count the number of Malaysians, of all backgrounds, who are simply fed up with the passionate and right-minded dreams of Malaysia’s Father, Tunku Abdul Rahman, that have all soured long ago, you will find that 25 % of Malaysia’s future, now resides outside Malaysia, in Australia, UK, Canada, New Zealand, US and Europe; that is, if they can afford to. Expect that number to increase, exponentially, leaving behind those least able to manage, sadly and with little irony, the actual indigenous inhabitants of Malaysia. Bully for them.
“Malaysia, truly Aphasia”…..
Front row seat in fast-changing Myanmar
A week in the field with the farmer during the monsoon season.
A season within an austere monastic living, will guarantee experience in culture and knowledge of redemption within Buddhism.
This routine is still in practice for most Buddhist city dwellers.
The myth of Thailand’s bureaucratic state
Some of the most corrupt people in all of Thailand are the Bureaucrats who claim so enthusiastically to be card-carrying members of the “Good People” group, Generals and Royalists who are now running Thailand.
Many of these Bureaucrats have become more than “Unusually Wealthy” despite their modest salaries. They are the Gatekeepers…and to get the gate to open, one needs to pay them suitcases full of cash.
They are often arrogant, snobbish, disdainful of ordinary working people and Thai citizens of what they regard as “Inferior Ethnicity” such as Isan-Thai, Khmer-Thai, Malay-Thai, Hill Tribe-Thai, etc.
TO these malignant Hypocrites, Dark Skin Color is almost always a sign of “Bad Karma” and not being one of the “Good People”.
The Thai Bureaucratic Class is basically a tribe of Vampires sucking the money and life out of the Thai System and working tirelessly to prevent a modern version of Thailand from being born.
Interview with Cambodian writer Tararith Kho
Keep you good job and keep improving we want to hear from you more!
The double captivity of ‘Chinese privilege’
Peter Augustine Goh also known as Iskandar Goh? Well done, congratulations. I knew he was shortlisted one year in the Malay poetry category, but I’m not sure if he actually won. This shows, as I state in my article, that there are a few Chinese writing in Malay. The fact that they may have done some of their education in Malaysia may have something to do with why they write in Malay. This is good considering the importance of Malay in the region.
Dear Mr President
And Obama has indeed become the Burmese generals’ new best friend. They practise the same kind of ‘rule of law’ for ‘national security’ reasons too.
Deep down these ruling elites are all in the same reactionary conservative club whatever name they give themselves with a varying degree of finesse in window dressing but with the same agenda – self aggrandizement and enrichment carving out as large a chunk of the national pie as they can get away with.
Dear Mr President
The pivot working in mysterious ways winning Burma and losing Thailand? The Great Game in Asia between the US and China down southeast.
Dear Mr President
Ending Cobra Gold in Thailand in 2016 makes a great deal of sense, especially since the Thai junta have decided to stick a thumb in the eye of the United States and purchase 3 Chinese submarines for 36 billion Thai Baht and then station them at their Sattahip Naval Base (which was built and paid for by the Americans). In lieu of Chinese military expansion in the South China Sea, the Pentagon should wake up and realize that the Thai military are now siding with the Chinese in military and diplomatic matters, and are no longer one of their allies.
Stuck in the mud in the shadow of Bakrie
Social and “political ecology” is a fashion in search of a cause. Natural disasters are prevented, if at all possible, by scientific analysis. Geotechnical engineers are experts at addressing issues of landslides and geophysicists are experts at studying earthquakes. Large balloon effigies of Bakrie, falling into trances, and reciting poetry is ideological sublimation and will do nothing to empower Indonesians subject to natural disasters, many of which cannot be inhibited anyway. When and where they can, it is scientific principles and physical aid relief, that can actually help Indonesians traumatized by natural or man-made disasters, not conjurers, Dukuns and artificial academic fields of endeavor.
Dear Mr President
Is this a linguistics web site or what? It is so cute how some of this insects believe that English ability is some sort of litmus test of intellectual ability while at the same time don’t want Farang-meaning Western social and political normatives including freedom of speech especially the right to criticize- to come in and poison Thai “good society”. Decide now, are you ready to accept international standards of political responsibility or is it just so much fun to deceive yourself into thinking that your are better than “others” because you can read and write English.
The suffering of sovereignty
What a surprise! Indonesia taken off FATF’s money laundering and terror financing blacklist in Brisbane. Cleanskins, Yay! Widodo is SUCH a weak President isn’t he, golly that simpleton just doesn’t know what he’s doing.
https://twitter.com/agusppatk
Malaysia’s 11th Five Year Plan
There has been a slow genocide and Islamisation of the Orang Asli. Mahathir put in place a policy to intentionally mix the Orang Asli with Malays to “breed-out” the Orang Asli ‘genes’ and make them token Malays and Muslims. Their villages in Perak, Pahang and Kelantan, have been uprooted and the same policy of Islamisation and Ketuanan Melayu is practiced in Sabah and Sarawak with the en masse importation of Indonesian, Filipino and other Muslims to make the Malay ratio in Eastern Malaysia far exceed that of indigenous people and ethnic Chinese and Indians. For all the nonsense and blabber from Mahathir about ‘Palestine’, he and his fellow PMs (starting with Tun Razak, in fact) have been practicing actual cultural genocide against ALL Orang Asal (as well as other non-Muslims and non-Malays) for 40 years. When will the debt be paid for this calumny ? Looking at how Malaysia has allowed itself to be debased; likely, never.
Front row seat in fast-changing Myanmar
I am always surprised, and sceptical, when someone is experiencing the “real” culture.
Malaysia’s 11th Five Year Plan
What about the land grabbed from Orang ASLI when will this be given back? When were they consulted as stakeholders in MP s. There is a lack of meritocratic and multicultural policies in this plan too.
Dear Mr President
I’m against economic sanctions. They are meant cause the people to suffer in the hope that they will blame the government. What is the point of that? The majority of Thais are already against the dictatorship. Are they supposed to rise up against it and be slaughtered in millions?
Serious sanctions against the Thai military would be much more effective. No more weapons and no spare parts would be a good start. The problem is that no US government can be elected without the financial support of the US arms industry. That’s the only possible explanation for their stupid foreign policy and stupid domestic arms policy. No US government is going to cause the Thai military to sell their M16s and turn to the Chinese for AK47s. The Americans don’t have the moral backbone to do the one thing, and the Chinese don’t have it to resist the other.