Josh, just how many are we talking about here, how many of these things could Christians in Malaysia be expected to rccieve? Couldn’t you collect them all and sell them to Indonesia? They’ve got plenty of Muslims who’ve never reed the Quran and the money you make could be put to good charitable use. I’m sure your comparative study of the Quran could continue online or do you need a hard copy for those flights when laptops have to be switched off?
Thank you Matt for your intimate report. There are three lessons I take from it for future planning of nonviolent civil resistance.
1. While resting at night during a long march, do not position all the marchers in the same place. Disperse them to various locations so that they cannot easily be surrounded by the authorities.
2. On balance it is preferable for marchers not to hide their identities behind masks. In this way people will feel more confident in joining them. Given that the authorities will identify marchers and follow up with arrests in the months to follow, marchers should be made aware of this fact before setting off and a strategy should be in place to support them if they are one of the victims.
3. The Social Boycott (#55 of Gene Sharp’s 198 Methods on Nonviolent Action), i.e. ostracizing the guilty parties in their own community, is a highly effective and generally underrated tactic.
Your argument might carry more weight if the 200,000 + users of drugs in Indonesia were all executed. Oh wait, I forgot. INDONESIAN
drug users get rehabilitated; FOREIGN drug distributors or users get executed. Yes, that’s equitable. Too bad also for the 1 % of unaware foreign drug mules, who innocently have drugs foisted on them, and then get caught. Damn them ! They should have known better ! Funny, when it comes to Indonesians, we can come up with 100 excuses not to take harsh action because it isn’t “culturally appropriate” for them. The best thing I learned in graduate school was from my Supervisor, who once stated:
“Those that incessantly demand cultural equivalency, are usually the first to break it”.
Your views do not contradict what I am putting forward.
The fact that a small group of people are able to monopolise wealth is precisely because they are able to use emotional arguments based on race and religion to render the Malays blind and disempower them from addressing the real issues that contribute to their poverty.
Watch this excellent clip supporting what you have put forward.
Regardless of whatever discussion or logic that other countries using on the planned execution of these drug dealer/courier(?), the main point is, does Indonesia has death penalty law for drug trafficker when they brought drugs into Indonesia?
If the law has been there, why is there even so much hysteria over these execution?
If there is no such death penalty for drug trafficker during the time they brought drugs back to Indonesia, then there is still space for negotiations.
However, as long other countries think they are holier than thou and believe they could manipulate or force Indonesia to their demand, I will believe it will only achieve an opposite effect.
One thing that I will never understand on these “humane” drug law could actually achieve, I mean look at the drug war that is going on in United states for example? The emergence of Crack town, the lax attitude of people using drugs etc.
Please do not argue back drug traffickers do not kill, sure they do not kill directly but what happened to the drugs that they sold to the users?
Please do not argue that it is users fault that they bought it, sure it is just Supply and demand issue, but to argue that the seller has nothing to blame is ridiculous.
[…] and academics, also protested last week following the dismissal of exiled Thammasat University history professor Somsak Jeamteerasakul, one of few academics in […]
But you failed to see the majority 75% are only holds 10% of the countries wealth where else dispropotionate wealth distribution for 50 years of NEP had raised more questions then solutions.
The NEP is a facade for pilferage by the cronies.
Felda buying the Grand Plaza Service Apartments in Bayswater, London for RM495 million when the London Real Estate Agents Savills and Knight Frank has only valued the property at RM408 million.
The cow gate condo etc, the list is exhaustive but any of these fellows sentenced for pilfering money made for overall bumiputra- NON. ZIP, ZERO.
In the old days the media is controlled by the gomen so are today, so why can’t opposition have their own group of neutral news ?
We can be stupid for 50 years without information and knowledge, but to render us to be BLIND and use RELIGION as a scapegoat for crony enrichment, cmon dont use emotions to defy logic.
Although such a comments would clearly be a case of lèse majesté in the strictest sense of the term, it could be asked if King Bhumibol (and perhaps the Queen) are not already clinically deceased and being kept on life support. Such a conjecture may appear outrageous but there is a precedent.
Although I have no particular competence on the subtleties of Thai Buddhist practie and would appreciate the reactions of those who do (Peter Jackson?), let me quote the case of the 19th Supreme Patriarch (Sangharaja) of Thailand, Somdet Phra Nyanasamvara, a much revered teacher, admired for his embodiment of the ideals of the Therevada Buddhist monkhood.
He was hospitalized in early 2004, making his last public appearance in October 2005 at the occasion of his 92nd birthday He died eight years later at the auspicious(?) age of 100. His condition in those eight years remains a mystery although it is widely rumoured that he was on life support.
What is not mysterious is that his succession was very problematical indeed given disputes within the Council of Elders and a number of ongoing scandals in the Sangha covering subjects from sexual misconduct to corrupt fundraising schemes. In this toxic context who could replace him? Was it not better, as the Americans say, to ‘kick the can down the road’ hoping time would make the appointment of a successor feasible.
Part of the Thai elite and the military have clearly dug themselves into a large hole. By promoting the cult of the monarchy they have created a situation where no successor could ever meet the standards that King Bhumibol is portrayed as embodying. Certainly the Crown Prince, Maha Vajiralongkorn, is widely seen as the antithesis of all his father ostensibly represents.
In this context does it not make sense to maintain the myth of the King being alive while the present civilianized military junta changes the rules of the game, hoping for a more favourable climate for his son to be crowned?
You could try referring to Junya Yimprasert’s (2011) “60 Years of Oppression and Suppression in Thailand”, a report compiled for “Action for People’s Democracy in Thailand (ACT4DEM), which has a relatively comprehensive list of victims of political violence killed between 1947-2011, amounting to 11,135 people. The author estimates that the actual total could be two or three times higher than this figure, due to a lack of accurate records. Perhaps there are other more comprehensive lists I am not aware about?
As Hamish McDonald suggests Megawati is clearly a pernicious influence. It was hoped that, having had her daughter Puan Maharani looked after with an undeserved important ministerial portfolio, she would content herself with the role of the sage in comfortable retirement. Alas, I gather from sources privy to the negotiations for his cabinet that she was asked to approve the list. Initially, commendably, she wished to have half the government made up of women but in the end had to compromise and accept 6 or 8. As a ‘consolation prize’ she insisted on Indonesia having its first female foreign minister. Despite the undoubted professionalism of Retno Marsudi (and in no way linked to her gender) she is not in the same league as Marty, Hassan, Alitas, etc., i.e. articulate expounders of the Indonesian national interest able to perform an essential role as a complementary ‘voice’ of Indonesia on the world scene in language the West understands. This is doubly regrettable given, on the one hand, Jokowi’s lack of experience (and possibly interest) in foreign relations and, on the other, the launching of Jokowi’s five pillar maritime strategy. This flagship (I sorry could not resist the pun) holistic maritime programme marks a return to the tradition of Indonesia’s post-independence foreign policy where the sovereignty of the homeland (tanah-air), the sea and land, is both ‘national’ and ‘international’. Indonesia needs a spokesperson to articulate this innovative development project to a somewhat bemused international community. Megawati’s counter-productive veto role on this, and other subjects is damaging to Indonesia’s international image.
Academic freedom and beyond vis-├а-vis student movement in Burma. The future is theirs, and theirs to shape, so they won’t shirk this task as time and tide wait for no man or woman for that matter.
I know I am going to get downvoted for this, but if I want to read something that resembles the Jakarta Globe, I read the Jakarta Globe. The drug issue, KPK-Police and even the Cabinet posts mentioned shows the author is concerned about trivial issues.
There is just one issue that will determine ultimately if Jokowi succeeds or not, is getting the Indonesian economy to a higher growth trajectory. There are several key Departments, and none of them the author actually mentioned, here are the Ministries I think are important – Public Works and Spatial Planning, Finance, State Owned Enterprises, Bappenas and the New Revenue Service. How many people here know the Head of Bappenas or the Minister of Public Works? without googling?
The second issue is Jokowi has centralized a lot of power and policy making in the President Office, putting a lot of responsibility under Luhut Panjaitan, his Chief of Staff.
The third issue is Jokowi’s economic policies are high risk and high reward, whether he succeeds or not, he will take Indonesia for roller coaster ride for the next 2-3 years.
When the Rupiah hits 15000 – 16000 to the US dollar in 2 years time, I don’t think many people will be too concerned about what the KPK does.
Perhaps…however, it should not escape ones attention that the gay king, Rama 6, is quoted in (The King Never Smiles/ The Revolutionary King/ or The Devil’s Discus) as saying “The Chinese are the Jews of south-east Asia” or that the Royal Thai government was an ally of the Axis Powers during World War 2.
The regime believes it is now facing a struggle of life and death, and it judges correctly. They reckon they have no choice but to resort to “legitimate” state violence notwithstanding the changed circumstances they themselves had brought in at another critical stage with no alternatives left for them.
Given the Internet wiring up most activist citizens today, these desperate times calling for desperate measures will backfire on the regime. Once the shit hits the fan it will blow up in their face. Their time has well and truly come after a quarter century and a new generation since the fire last time in 1988.
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IIS Quran distribution – one response
Josh, just how many are we talking about here, how many of these things could Christians in Malaysia be expected to rccieve? Couldn’t you collect them all and sell them to Indonesia? They’ve got plenty of Muslims who’ve never reed the Quran and the money you make could be put to good charitable use. I’m sure your comparative study of the Quran could continue online or do you need a hard copy for those flights when laptops have to be switched off?
Jokowi: modern man of the people or divine clown?
drug issue is trivial? 6 has been executed. 10 will be soon. more then 50 are waiting for their turn..
Discipline and duty
Thank you Matt for your intimate report. There are three lessons I take from it for future planning of nonviolent civil resistance.
1. While resting at night during a long march, do not position all the marchers in the same place. Disperse them to various locations so that they cannot easily be surrounded by the authorities.
2. On balance it is preferable for marchers not to hide their identities behind masks. In this way people will feel more confident in joining them. Given that the authorities will identify marchers and follow up with arrests in the months to follow, marchers should be made aware of this fact before setting off and a strategy should be in place to support them if they are one of the victims.
3. The Social Boycott (#55 of Gene Sharp’s 198 Methods on Nonviolent Action), i.e. ostracizing the guilty parties in their own community, is a highly effective and generally underrated tactic.
Review of Drug Law Reform
Your argument might carry more weight if the 200,000 + users of drugs in Indonesia were all executed. Oh wait, I forgot. INDONESIAN
drug users get rehabilitated; FOREIGN drug distributors or users get executed. Yes, that’s equitable. Too bad also for the 1 % of unaware foreign drug mules, who innocently have drugs foisted on them, and then get caught. Damn them ! They should have known better ! Funny, when it comes to Indonesians, we can come up with 100 excuses not to take harsh action because it isn’t “culturally appropriate” for them. The best thing I learned in graduate school was from my Supervisor, who once stated:
“Those that incessantly demand cultural equivalency, are usually the first to break it”.
Malaysia – a simple institutional analysis
Thank you Styxx for these views.
Your views do not contradict what I am putting forward.
The fact that a small group of people are able to monopolise wealth is precisely because they are able to use emotional arguments based on race and religion to render the Malays blind and disempower them from addressing the real issues that contribute to their poverty.
Watch this excellent clip supporting what you have put forward.
http://youtu.be/Fzp_lJTu2V0?list=PL31g49xDYYxYx-2W08FRaFbuYDm7j1W7X
Review of Drug Law Reform
Regardless of whatever discussion or logic that other countries using on the planned execution of these drug dealer/courier(?), the main point is, does Indonesia has death penalty law for drug trafficker when they brought drugs into Indonesia?
If the law has been there, why is there even so much hysteria over these execution?
If there is no such death penalty for drug trafficker during the time they brought drugs back to Indonesia, then there is still space for negotiations.
However, as long other countries think they are holier than thou and believe they could manipulate or force Indonesia to their demand, I will believe it will only achieve an opposite effect.
One thing that I will never understand on these “humane” drug law could actually achieve, I mean look at the drug war that is going on in United states for example? The emergence of Crack town, the lax attitude of people using drugs etc.
Please do not argue back drug traffickers do not kill, sure they do not kill directly but what happened to the drugs that they sold to the users?
Please do not argue that it is users fault that they bought it, sure it is just Supply and demand issue, but to argue that the seller has nothing to blame is ridiculous.
Academic freedom in Thailand
[…] and academics, also protested last week following the dismissal of exiled Thammasat University history professor Somsak Jeamteerasakul, one of few academics in […]
Malaysia – a simple institutional analysis
But you failed to see the majority 75% are only holds 10% of the countries wealth where else dispropotionate wealth distribution for 50 years of NEP had raised more questions then solutions.
The NEP is a facade for pilferage by the cronies.
Felda buying the Grand Plaza Service Apartments in Bayswater, London for RM495 million when the London Real Estate Agents Savills and Knight Frank has only valued the property at RM408 million.
The cow gate condo etc, the list is exhaustive but any of these fellows sentenced for pilfering money made for overall bumiputra- NON. ZIP, ZERO.
In the old days the media is controlled by the gomen so are today, so why can’t opposition have their own group of neutral news ?
We can be stupid for 50 years without information and knowledge, but to render us to be BLIND and use RELIGION as a scapegoat for crony enrichment, cmon dont use emotions to defy logic.
Jokowi: modern man of the people or divine clown?
Yikes, Hassan Wirajuda and Retno Marsudi ? That’s like comparing hand-woven batik with polyester imitation, respectively.
Review of Kingdom in Crisis
Although such a comments would clearly be a case of lèse majesté in the strictest sense of the term, it could be asked if King Bhumibol (and perhaps the Queen) are not already clinically deceased and being kept on life support. Such a conjecture may appear outrageous but there is a precedent.
Although I have no particular competence on the subtleties of Thai Buddhist practie and would appreciate the reactions of those who do (Peter Jackson?), let me quote the case of the 19th Supreme Patriarch (Sangharaja) of Thailand, Somdet Phra Nyanasamvara, a much revered teacher, admired for his embodiment of the ideals of the Therevada Buddhist monkhood.
He was hospitalized in early 2004, making his last public appearance in October 2005 at the occasion of his 92nd birthday He died eight years later at the auspicious(?) age of 100. His condition in those eight years remains a mystery although it is widely rumoured that he was on life support.
What is not mysterious is that his succession was very problematical indeed given disputes within the Council of Elders and a number of ongoing scandals in the Sangha covering subjects from sexual misconduct to corrupt fundraising schemes. In this toxic context who could replace him? Was it not better, as the Americans say, to ‘kick the can down the road’ hoping time would make the appointment of a successor feasible.
Part of the Thai elite and the military have clearly dug themselves into a large hole. By promoting the cult of the monarchy they have created a situation where no successor could ever meet the standards that King Bhumibol is portrayed as embodying. Certainly the Crown Prince, Maha Vajiralongkorn, is widely seen as the antithesis of all his father ostensibly represents.
In this context does it not make sense to maintain the myth of the King being alive while the present civilianized military junta changes the rules of the game, hoping for a more favourable climate for his son to be crowned?
Academic freedom in Thailand
You could try referring to Junya Yimprasert’s (2011) “60 Years of Oppression and Suppression in Thailand”, a report compiled for “Action for People’s Democracy in Thailand (ACT4DEM), which has a relatively comprehensive list of victims of political violence killed between 1947-2011, amounting to 11,135 people. The author estimates that the actual total could be two or three times higher than this figure, due to a lack of accurate records. Perhaps there are other more comprehensive lists I am not aware about?
Jokowi: modern man of the people or divine clown?
As Hamish McDonald suggests Megawati is clearly a pernicious influence. It was hoped that, having had her daughter Puan Maharani looked after with an undeserved important ministerial portfolio, she would content herself with the role of the sage in comfortable retirement. Alas, I gather from sources privy to the negotiations for his cabinet that she was asked to approve the list. Initially, commendably, she wished to have half the government made up of women but in the end had to compromise and accept 6 or 8. As a ‘consolation prize’ she insisted on Indonesia having its first female foreign minister. Despite the undoubted professionalism of Retno Marsudi (and in no way linked to her gender) she is not in the same league as Marty, Hassan, Alitas, etc., i.e. articulate expounders of the Indonesian national interest able to perform an essential role as a complementary ‘voice’ of Indonesia on the world scene in language the West understands. This is doubly regrettable given, on the one hand, Jokowi’s lack of experience (and possibly interest) in foreign relations and, on the other, the launching of Jokowi’s five pillar maritime strategy. This flagship (I sorry could not resist the pun) holistic maritime programme marks a return to the tradition of Indonesia’s post-independence foreign policy where the sovereignty of the homeland (tanah-air), the sea and land, is both ‘national’ and ‘international’. Indonesia needs a spokesperson to articulate this innovative development project to a somewhat bemused international community. Megawati’s counter-productive veto role on this, and other subjects is damaging to Indonesia’s international image.
Academic freedom in Thailand
Academic freedom and beyond vis-├а-vis student movement in Burma. The future is theirs, and theirs to shape, so they won’t shirk this task as time and tide wait for no man or woman for that matter.
Demokrasi Indonesia Dalam Bahaya
I still support for prabowo subianto
Academic freedom in Thailand
That would mean writing a book of hundreds of pages with data on Thai Royalist elite brutality against popular and democratic forces
Review of Drug Law Reform
As they say, if they can’t do the time then don’t do the crime.
No sympathy for those who pedal in the death of thousands.
Jokowi: modern man of the people or divine clown?
I know I am going to get downvoted for this, but if I want to read something that resembles the Jakarta Globe, I read the Jakarta Globe. The drug issue, KPK-Police and even the Cabinet posts mentioned shows the author is concerned about trivial issues.
There is just one issue that will determine ultimately if Jokowi succeeds or not, is getting the Indonesian economy to a higher growth trajectory. There are several key Departments, and none of them the author actually mentioned, here are the Ministries I think are important – Public Works and Spatial Planning, Finance, State Owned Enterprises, Bappenas and the New Revenue Service. How many people here know the Head of Bappenas or the Minister of Public Works? without googling?
The second issue is Jokowi has centralized a lot of power and policy making in the President Office, putting a lot of responsibility under Luhut Panjaitan, his Chief of Staff.
The third issue is Jokowi’s economic policies are high risk and high reward, whether he succeeds or not, he will take Indonesia for roller coaster ride for the next 2-3 years.
When the Rupiah hits 15000 – 16000 to the US dollar in 2 years time, I don’t think many people will be too concerned about what the KPK does.
Academic freedom in Thailand
Is anyone aware of a comprehensive list of victims of political violence in Thailand over the last 83 years? Incidents, numbers, names? Thank you.
Rama VII and Hitler
Perhaps…however, it should not escape ones attention that the gay king, Rama 6, is quoted in (The King Never Smiles/ The Revolutionary King/ or The Devil’s Discus) as saying “The Chinese are the Jews of south-east Asia” or that the Royal Thai government was an ally of the Axis Powers during World War 2.
Academic freedom in Thailand
The far from unexpected
police crackdown of peaceful demonstrations has started, complete with the return of agents provocateur and plainclothes regime thugs.
The regime believes it is now facing a struggle of life and death, and it judges correctly. They reckon they have no choice but to resort to “legitimate” state violence notwithstanding the changed circumstances they themselves had brought in at another critical stage with no alternatives left for them.
Given the Internet wiring up most activist citizens today, these desperate times calling for desperate measures will backfire on the regime. Once the shit hits the fan it will blow up in their face. Their time has well and truly come after a quarter century and a new generation since the fire last time in 1988.