Be it the Kent State University shooting or the Battle of Orgreave no country has a monopoly on state violence when it desperately needs to defend class interests. The difference is when a particular ruling group has staying power and proves to be a habitual offender.
Well the West likes to see Burma in black and white terms:Suu Kyi the Noble Freedom Fighter vs the evil junta thugs. Well they should know by now that it’s not that simple. Suu Kyi is no Mandela and it’s not a black vs white problem in Burma. Most people are sort of brownish there LOL
ASSK and the NLD have one again lost the opportunity to step up as a genuine opposition party. It’s a shame but not unsurprising that ASSK succumbed to her own political ambitions and chose to be a second-rate politician, and not the statesman figure that she could have been.
Not in defense of the action of the police nor the MM government, but what differs this particular crackdown to police crackdowns against protestors in the US or Europe? All states as Weber reminds us legalizes violence to rule. Even if Myanmar “deepen its reform efforts,” it doesn’t mean the state will be any kinder to its citizens….
Very nicely written. That moment where Islam comes under attack by forces of modernity is truly the rubber hitting the road. Where is the breaking point? Surely, the first question a new society (in the mythical sense) would ask itself is: how do we control the women? That is to say, the primary question is ensuring the paternity of the children. The whole of society rests on this. To the extent that a religion can be built on it. If this is right, then rape constitutes a core dog-whistle moment for a religion’s True Believers.
Is the reverse of this occurring on campuses in the United States? Is that a ‘performance of misandry’? The shrill demands on American campuses invoke an emotive response and allow those that scream to claim moral force in broader attempts at resource extraction from the state.
SBY executed 3 innocent Catholics in Palu for political gain. As with the Brit’s Tim Evans travesty, this case has the potential to do the same for Indon.
Our floundering is a result of reactive rather than strategic diplomacy. A comprehensive prisoner swap should have been written into the Lombok Treaty years ago to take such triggers of bilateral tension off the table.
The leadership in Jakarta are rational actors who react rationally in crises. They know what they want to gain from hard moves such as this both domestically and in the National Interest. Thus far the media have focused exclusively on the domestic panto.
Wat Dhammakaya is travesty and a scam and that be-lipsticked Abbot Dhammachayo is a con artist. Yet the Red Shirts leadership, and of course, Supremo Thaksin worship and defend this wat and this abbot.
Why is that?
Anybody with a logical explanation why the sleazy Wat Dhammakaya prospers (fastest growing Buddhist sect in the world!) nevertheless?
The brain drain has been going on for several decades especially among the non bumiputras but now the bumiputras have jumped on the bandwagon.
Historically the non bumiputras have been disadvantaged.The inequalities in education, employment, housing and freedom of speech and press and stop corruption.
I was from a very humble background in Malaysia raised by one parent with five young children to feed and school. I realised very early after my MCE results that there is no future for me, now I am one of the 1.4 million Malaysian since independence who have studied and settled successfully in Australia. It is 4 decades since I left the shores of Malaysia.
It is said the minority and the disadvantaged population is who require help and support but Malaysia is the reversal.
It is a long road ahead if the current ruling government is trying to stop the brain drain.
I said “or users” as we do not know whether the accused merely disseminated drugs or used them. You know no more than I do.
You have no evidence they are only traffickers, nor did I SAY they are ONLY
users. Read my comment again, please !
Vince, this isn’t a moral battle between Indonesia and Australia, in my opinion. The threats are coming from both sides, but Australian neo-nationalism won’t count for much; in Indonesia neo-nationalism, plays very well. If you understood what my Supervisor meant was that those in the East that call for cultural equivalency are often prepared to break it; thus SBY demanding (AND RIGHTLY SO !!!) that Saudi Arabia stop executing Indonesian homecare workers, and he put a moratorium on women going to the Gulf for a while.
So, do you think drug DISTRIBUTION is somehow worse than RAPE of Indonesian women by Arabs then ? Frankly, I do NOT. Australia is NOT using Indonesia as a scapegoat, President Jokowi is, by his foolish intent.
Australia loses two men and their families lose, not because they men are necessarily innocent, but because killing them is wrong.
IF IT WAS WRIGHT FOR SBY TO DEMAND THAT ABUSE OF INDONESIAN WOMEN, INCLUDING EXECUTION FOR WITCHCRAFT, BE STOPPED AT THE
RISK OF ANGERING THE SAUDIS, and perhaps banning Indonesian Muslim from Umrah, then it is equally correct for Australia to ask Indonesia not to execute their nationals for drug dissemination AND/OR use. In two instances, Indonesian homecare workers were found, by reasonable evidence, to have killed their mistress (though most Indonesian women on death row in Saudi Arabia) are innocent; nevertheless, SBY still asked for clemency.
In your moral framework, SBY was correct but Australia is not. Sorry, I do not agree. Capital punishment is always wrong. Full stop.
Few things that I never understand with this case are:
1. They are going to traffic drugs into Australia, why did AFP not wait till they reached Australia and apprehend them. It should give people a thought or two why they would do this.
2. They have been sentenced to death in 2006, for 8 years, what has the Australia government been doing? Have they been negotiating with Indonesia during this time?
3. Why only now that Australia Prime Minister starts to throwing out threats when negotations should have been ongoing to facilitate the appeal for the death sentence for these 2 men?
The way I look at it, Australia abandoned these men and using Indonesia as a scapegoat. Whether Indonesia execute these men or not, Australia government loses nothing.
It’s funny how you use the term “users” on these 2 people. Since when did their status as “Traffickers” become “users”?
If there are cases of Indonesian Traffickers that are caught in Indonesia and not executed, please bring it out to Mr. Jokowi. Do not change their traffickers status to something else just because you feel it is convenient or to delude people. These 2 are caught for trafficking and not “users”.
And as mentioned, if you do read, if there has been a death penalty law for trafficking drugs in Indonesia at the time these people are caught, then what is the issue? Are Foreigners holier than Indonesians? Are Foreigners above the law and a country sovereign rights and law should be ignored for them?
The best solutions at this moment is for your country’s leader to negotiate in kind and not in threat. No countries will ever respond to threats.
And, I totally agree with that statement your supervisor told you.
“Those (the countries involved) that incessantly demand cultural equivalency (to demand other country to follow their culture?) will be the first to break it (the countries involved).”
All I will say is, the more media keep burning up the tension between two countries, the dimmer the fate for these 2 men.
Considering the enforced Islamisation being imposed on Malaysians, at the behest of UMNO, Malay NGOs and itinerant Islamic fanatics, no non-Muslims needs a Qur’an. On the contrary, there are enough Malays ignorant of Islam itself, let alone any other religion like Christianity and Judaism. Some of the nonsense peddled by Imams in Malaysia is absolutely absurd, like the Shari’a Index and the make-believe world
of top Malaysian universities, which excel at education.
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Myanmar’s brutal crackdown: who is in charge?
Be it the Kent State University shooting or the Battle of Orgreave no country has a monopoly on state violence when it desperately needs to defend class interests. The difference is when a particular ruling group has staying power and proves to be a habitual offender.
Myanmar’s brutal crackdown: who is in charge?
Significantly Phyo Phyo Aung, one of the student leaders now in detention, was born in August 1988. As Min Zin wrote in The Irrawaddy the regime is backtracking as soon as it faced a genuine challenge from a new generation of students to its democratic pretensions.
Discipline and duty
Asian Correspondent’s Mark Inkey reported earlier about how the Lady’s father, a former student leader, would be horrified.
Myanmar’s brutal crackdown: who is in charge?
Well the West likes to see Burma in black and white terms:Suu Kyi the Noble Freedom Fighter vs the evil junta thugs. Well they should know by now that it’s not that simple. Suu Kyi is no Mandela and it’s not a black vs white problem in Burma. Most people are sort of brownish there LOL
Discipline and duty
I never really trusted that woman. Something in her eyes and her body language tells me she’s fake.
Discipline and duty
ASSK and the NLD have one again lost the opportunity to step up as a genuine opposition party. It’s a shame but not unsurprising that ASSK succumbed to her own political ambitions and chose to be a second-rate politician, and not the statesman figure that she could have been.
Myanmar’s brutal crackdown: who is in charge?
Not in defense of the action of the police nor the MM government, but what differs this particular crackdown to police crackdowns against protestors in the US or Europe? All states as Weber reminds us legalizes violence to rule. Even if Myanmar “deepen its reform efforts,” it doesn’t mean the state will be any kinder to its citizens….
Rape and the pantomime of misogyny
Very nicely written. That moment where Islam comes under attack by forces of modernity is truly the rubber hitting the road. Where is the breaking point? Surely, the first question a new society (in the mythical sense) would ask itself is: how do we control the women? That is to say, the primary question is ensuring the paternity of the children. The whole of society rests on this. To the extent that a religion can be built on it. If this is right, then rape constitutes a core dog-whistle moment for a religion’s True Believers.
Is the reverse of this occurring on campuses in the United States? Is that a ‘performance of misandry’? The shrill demands on American campuses invoke an emotive response and allow those that scream to claim moral force in broader attempts at resource extraction from the state.
Review of Drug Law Reform
Some facts
SBY executed 3 innocent Catholics in Palu for political gain. As with the Brit’s Tim Evans travesty, this case has the potential to do the same for Indon.
Our floundering is a result of reactive rather than strategic diplomacy. A comprehensive prisoner swap should have been written into the Lombok Treaty years ago to take such triggers of bilateral tension off the table.
The leadership in Jakarta are rational actors who react rationally in crises. They know what they want to gain from hard moves such as this both domestically and in the National Interest. Thus far the media have focused exclusively on the domestic panto.
Bangkok’s last Red Shirt fortress
Wat Dhammakaya is travesty and a scam and that be-lipsticked Abbot Dhammachayo is a con artist. Yet the Red Shirts leadership, and of course, Supremo Thaksin worship and defend this wat and this abbot.
Why is that?
Anybody with a logical explanation why the sleazy Wat Dhammakaya prospers (fastest growing Buddhist sect in the world!) nevertheless?
Myanmar’s brutal crackdown: who is in charge?
Better batons than bullets? The 2007 bloody *saffron revolution* comes to mind.
Why Malaysians leave Malaysia
The brain drain has been going on for several decades especially among the non bumiputras but now the bumiputras have jumped on the bandwagon.
Historically the non bumiputras have been disadvantaged.The inequalities in education, employment, housing and freedom of speech and press and stop corruption.
I was from a very humble background in Malaysia raised by one parent with five young children to feed and school. I realised very early after my MCE results that there is no future for me, now I am one of the 1.4 million Malaysian since independence who have studied and settled successfully in Australia. It is 4 decades since I left the shores of Malaysia.
It is said the minority and the disadvantaged population is who require help and support but Malaysia is the reversal.
It is a long road ahead if the current ruling government is trying to stop the brain drain.
Review of Drug Law Reform
I said “or users” as we do not know whether the accused merely disseminated drugs or used them. You know no more than I do.
You have no evidence they are only traffickers, nor did I SAY they are ONLY
users. Read my comment again, please !
Vince, this isn’t a moral battle between Indonesia and Australia, in my opinion. The threats are coming from both sides, but Australian neo-nationalism won’t count for much; in Indonesia neo-nationalism, plays very well. If you understood what my Supervisor meant was that those in the East that call for cultural equivalency are often prepared to break it; thus SBY demanding (AND RIGHTLY SO !!!) that Saudi Arabia stop executing Indonesian homecare workers, and he put a moratorium on women going to the Gulf for a while.
So, do you think drug DISTRIBUTION is somehow worse than RAPE of Indonesian women by Arabs then ? Frankly, I do NOT. Australia is NOT using Indonesia as a scapegoat, President Jokowi is, by his foolish intent.
Australia loses two men and their families lose, not because they men are necessarily innocent, but because killing them is wrong.
IF IT WAS WRIGHT FOR SBY TO DEMAND THAT ABUSE OF INDONESIAN WOMEN, INCLUDING EXECUTION FOR WITCHCRAFT, BE STOPPED AT THE
RISK OF ANGERING THE SAUDIS, and perhaps banning Indonesian Muslim from Umrah, then it is equally correct for Australia to ask Indonesia not to execute their nationals for drug dissemination AND/OR use. In two instances, Indonesian homecare workers were found, by reasonable evidence, to have killed their mistress (though most Indonesian women on death row in Saudi Arabia) are innocent; nevertheless, SBY still asked for clemency.
In your moral framework, SBY was correct but Australia is not. Sorry, I do not agree. Capital punishment is always wrong. Full stop.
More on Thailand’s low agricultural productivity
What is the unit in the graph (on the y axis)? Kgs per ha?
Review of Drug Law Reform
Few things that I never understand with this case are:
1. They are going to traffic drugs into Australia, why did AFP not wait till they reached Australia and apprehend them. It should give people a thought or two why they would do this.
2. They have been sentenced to death in 2006, for 8 years, what has the Australia government been doing? Have they been negotiating with Indonesia during this time?
3. Why only now that Australia Prime Minister starts to throwing out threats when negotations should have been ongoing to facilitate the appeal for the death sentence for these 2 men?
The way I look at it, Australia abandoned these men and using Indonesia as a scapegoat. Whether Indonesia execute these men or not, Australia government loses nothing.
Review of Drug Law Reform
It’s funny how you use the term “users” on these 2 people. Since when did their status as “Traffickers” become “users”?
If there are cases of Indonesian Traffickers that are caught in Indonesia and not executed, please bring it out to Mr. Jokowi. Do not change their traffickers status to something else just because you feel it is convenient or to delude people. These 2 are caught for trafficking and not “users”.
And as mentioned, if you do read, if there has been a death penalty law for trafficking drugs in Indonesia at the time these people are caught, then what is the issue? Are Foreigners holier than Indonesians? Are Foreigners above the law and a country sovereign rights and law should be ignored for them?
The best solutions at this moment is for your country’s leader to negotiate in kind and not in threat. No countries will ever respond to threats.
And, I totally agree with that statement your supervisor told you.
“Those (the countries involved) that incessantly demand cultural equivalency (to demand other country to follow their culture?) will be the first to break it (the countries involved).”
All I will say is, the more media keep burning up the tension between two countries, the dimmer the fate for these 2 men.
Discipline and duty
As Naypidaw set up an inquiry commission into the crackdown it itself ordered in Rangoon and prepares to prosecute those it just had roundly beaten up and detained the NLD demands not an immediate release of the detainees but yet another inquiry commission for the latest outrage. A whole series of those in the offing? Wonderfully “disciplined” in this new “democracy”, aren’t they?
Discipline and duty
i am a bit surprised that the Posh Lady, Suu Kyi, is not supporting the students. What happened to her? Freedom from fear?
IIS Quran distribution – one response
Considering the enforced Islamisation being imposed on Malaysians, at the behest of UMNO, Malay NGOs and itinerant Islamic fanatics, no non-Muslims needs a Qur’an. On the contrary, there are enough Malays ignorant of Islam itself, let alone any other religion like Christianity and Judaism. Some of the nonsense peddled by Imams in Malaysia is absolutely absurd, like the Shari’a Index and the make-believe world
of top Malaysian universities, which excel at education.
Discipline and duty
Breaking news: the expected crackdown at Letpadan
The shit hits the fan. The End Is Nigh!