Not everyone is a politician. Kassim Ahmad is not a politician, but he is the bane of the political cult in power. Graham Greene wrote that “We must all choose sides”. He is right. Kassim has chosen the side of freedom of belief, while the Malaysian Government has chosen no freedom from belief. There are actually three kinds of politicians: Dumb politicians, smart politicians and no politicians. The last
is not an absence of politics, just the absence of those who make a professional habit of it. Maybe that is why Prime Minister Najib is so afraid of Kassim Ahmad.
I’m sorry, but I think you are the one who is highly immature, succumbing to societal stereotypes and blindly following the norms without thinking their implications. No i no longer studied in Singapore. That place is engineered beyond belief. I’m staying in the US. And if you’re not happy, then accept it. As far as I know, my cultural heritage is the past. We at the present moment create our own heritage to be remembered, the heritage as a nation of diversity.
The point is not about who wrote it but whether the points are accurate and valid- to change the focus is to concede that the points made are good ones. A military dictatorship with no means for citizens (I presume you are a Thai citizen) to participate in political discussion is not a healthy and sustainable way for Thailand to go on. It will end badly.. it is going bad already. The people who wish to see democracy (democracy is not only about elections… it is about equality- before the law or equality of opportunity or equal access to your own political system… it is about access to information, protection of minorities, freedom of speech etc) are doing so because of a desire to free the system from the shackles it is in.. shackles of information control, corruption, theft, shameless hierarchies based on birth rights, a huge concentration of wealth and power in the hands of an elite, a law that doesn’t work and a culture that puts shame and embarrassment on those that speak out against the injustice and inefficiency of a system run for a small group at the expense of the Thai people. Extreme deference to authority and a ‘ask no questions’ mentality just ends up in a very rich and powerful elite who are totally unaccountable and who can do anything to increase their wealth and power including shady business deals that the public cannot check, disregard for the institutions of state (including the monarchy!)… do we really believe that if you give people total power, that they wont get corrupted by it, that they wont use that power, wealth and influence to further cement their advantages and to make their privilege permanent? How can people trust them when they refuse to share power, wealth and opportunity throughout Thai society? Why are they blocking information? Why are they stealing public money? Why are they not allowing the government to do its job and get on with trying to govern properly and justly? Because they say they have the best interests of Thailand? That is what anybody would say.. would you let anyone run the country? They have the guns, the wealth and the power and so they can shape public opinion and crush helpful criticism of their looting of the public purse. This is a question of what is best for every Thai person. Thais seem reluctant to actually consider the reality of the situation sometimes (probably because it has been drummed into them everyday since childhood not to) and that is sad because we can all see what is happening now.
Rose makes some interesting remarks regarding the three men executed for apparently engineering the murder of the previous King. If, as everyone seems to believe, they were indeed innocent then perhaps the time is right to set up an on-line petition asking for a royal pardon. How about it NM? Or is this taking the site beyond its remit. In Britain we saw the recent pardon of Turing.
I think those are weak arguments, Ken Westmoreland.
The Enlightenment’s main political influence has been to mitigate xenophobia on all scales from local to geopolitical. Pakistan is the local centre of a culture (Islam) that has more consistently rejected the Enlightenment than the rest of the subcontinent. That same culture affects Indonesia, but not so strongly. Malaysia has drunk from the same poisoned well. The Timor conflict is between two rival pre-Enlightenment cultures (Islam and ancient, backwoods Roman Catholicism). The island is riven by xenophobia.
Goa is a busy trading port. Timor is the end of the line. The traders of Goa were happy to see the borders between the former colony and a comparatively secular, Congress-run India swept away. It may have been different if India had fallen into the hands of the people who murdered Mahatma Ghandi.
Did you learn your “refined” manners from
Suharto, your parents, or Dutch Leftists ? It needs work.
=========================================
Heeft u uw “verfijnde” omgangsvormen leren van Suharto, je ouders, of Nederlandse linksen? Het moet werken.
==========================================
Apakah Saudara belajar anda “halus” sopan santun dari Suharto, orang tua anda, atau Belanda ‘kaum kiri’? Ini perlu bekerja.
Peter Cohen’s comment is puzzling. My piece is about Suharto’s New Order and post-Suharto Indonesia problems and struggle to come to terms with her bloody past 2000-2014. Nothing to do with Sukarno who died in 1970. This alone doesn’t make it worthwhile to response further on Cohen’s comment. Perhaps he should learn more about Indonesia’s history.
Xanana’s image is no doubt part myth, part reality. A nuanced examination of his role (as well as those of other Timorese leaders) is always warranted. Yet, it is important to not overstate the case here. To observers of democracy in Southeast Asia, it is a bit pedestrian to sound the alarms that Timor-Leste is far from realizing democratic consolidation and is plagued by corruption.
To whatever extent the Xanana myth is rightly punctured by his protection of corrupt politicians and his deal-making with oil giants, let’s not sabotage the needed development of opposition politics and the rule of law in Timor Leste with premature charges of “despotism,” at least not until we see more markers of it. (I found the “lost leadership” label from an earlier NM article by Bexley and Nygaard-Christensen more to the point.)
If Xanana is a despot, he’s pretty bad at it, isn’t he? Where is the evidence of secret police, disappearing opponents, mass graves, and the full and complete disregard for the human rights and dignity of anyone openly criticizing his leadership? Rather, Xanana is evolving into a typical modern Asian leader captured by patronage, clientalistic networks, and shady deal-making between public and private entities. I frequently remind my students, “Che Guevara never had to govern.” Revolutionaries who survive always taint their myth by having to actually govern: Castro, Mandela, Lech Welesa, all lost their purity once they began governing.
Foreign Bar Associations are no doubt worthy judges of corrupt and unlawful practices, but the markers of despotism are far more appalling, violent, and self-evident than what we see emanating from Timor Leste today. Xanana’s record as a “despot” has yet to stand up to the likes of those in the annals of Asian history (and beyond) who are deserving of the label (Mao, Chiang Kai Shek, Pol Pot, New Win, Marcos, the Kim clan, Saddam Hussein). So, to say the Xanana myth deserves serious scrutiny may not be saying that he is indeed now a despot.
Also, for the record, the 2014 Failed State Index (as opposed to the 2007 one cited by the authors) ranks the Asian countries of Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and North Korea lower than Timor Leste. For a state barely a decade old, can we really expect much more? (South Sudan, the world’s other new state, is #1 on the FSI list. It seems don’t have enough founder myths to keep them together at all, and they have oil too).
Writing an article about Xanana using (unreliable) secondary data will lead you to a very far from the truth conclusion and certainly will not help to develop true understanding of what he is exactly doing. I suggest the authors to spend much more time in Timor to gather insights into Xanana’s actions. Unlike the authors’ “open book” suggestion, I am fully convinced that there is more to learn from Xanana.
Being colonised by an enlightened country is no guarantee of a democratic political culture – look at formerly British Pakistan, or more appropriately, formerly Dutch Indonesia. The insistence of the Dutch on governing the East Indies as a centralised unitary state rather than as a looser federation, as the British did India and Malaya, accounts for why the Indonesian incorporation of East Timor was a failure compared to the Indian incorporation of Goa.
400 years of Enlightenment-free Portuguese rule in East Timor was never a foundation for democracy. That bleak historical fact trumps the romantic illusion peddled around the world by the salesman Ramos-Horta.
We can clearly see by the negative reactions here that Thai royalists are reactionary, insecure & living in denial about the true status of their so called father. If he is truly so great as the Thai monarchy myth making machine has made this man out to be, then why would any Thai ultra royalists need to take any notice of any form of criticism aimed at their precious father? The answer to this question in my estimation is this; Thai ultra royalists are no different from Muslim extremists or fundamental Christians. And they are not happy or satisfied until EVERYONE bows down to their god head. Any form of criticism based on logic,transparency,or truth is automatically rejected as blasphemy in which the perpetrators must be singled out and punished publicly in order to quash any more forms of dissent. Welcome to р╕Бр╕░р╕ер╕▓р╣Бр╕ер╕Щр╕Фр╣М р╕вр╕┤р╕Щр╕Фр╕╡р╕Хр╣Йр╕нр╕Щр╕гр╕▒р╕Ъ
A very nicely done analysis of Timor-Leste and its all too sad travails, mirroring in fact almost every other nation, where hero worship alternates with profound scorn, something Indonesia is well-familiar with. As Shakespeare (or Christopher Marlowe as Shakespeare) said, “Without the villain, where doth the play ? Without the hero, whence then the villain” ?
Thanks so much for this Melissa. I never met Andrew Huxley either, but have enormous respect for his contributions over the years. You do him proud, and also in your article in the Pacific Rim Law and Policy Journal (which deserves wider circulation, including to the people of the Australia Myanmar Institute).
Boon, could you please point us to some videos or tapes displaying the current dictator’s English language skills? Just one would be sufficient. Thanks in advance.
1. Since you are the one challenging the authorship of this article it is incumbent upon you to prove that she was not the author, not the other way around.
2. Rather than claim that what Rose wrote contains half truths and disseminations [sic]*, why don’t you take a moment and let us know exactly what ‘prevarications’ she engaged in? Educate us, please.
3. Regarding the issue of fluency, I have no doubt that this was edited, but that is hardly surprising or unusual. In grad school I had a number of Thai friends and classmates at the Master’s and Ph.D. level, none of whom could write as well as a native speaker, even those whose scholarly skills were first rate. It is very unusual for someone to be able to write fluently in a language unless they spent years submersed in the language, usually from a fairly young age. Having said that, I know nothing of Rose’s English write skills and she may well not have required any proofing or editing.
*You clearly don’t understand the meaning of disseminate, so perhaps you could swallow your pride and take advantage of the help of an editor or ghost writer.
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Everyone is a politician
Not everyone is a politician. Kassim Ahmad is not a politician, but he is the bane of the political cult in power. Graham Greene wrote that “We must all choose sides”. He is right. Kassim has chosen the side of freedom of belief, while the Malaysian Government has chosen no freedom from belief. There are actually three kinds of politicians: Dumb politicians, smart politicians and no politicians. The last
is not an absence of politics, just the absence of those who make a professional habit of it. Maybe that is why Prime Minister Najib is so afraid of Kassim Ahmad.
Striving for safety
I’m sorry, but I think you are the one who is highly immature, succumbing to societal stereotypes and blindly following the norms without thinking their implications. No i no longer studied in Singapore. That place is engineered beyond belief. I’m staying in the US. And if you’re not happy, then accept it. As far as I know, my cultural heritage is the past. We at the present moment create our own heritage to be remembered, the heritage as a nation of diversity.
Thai Coup: A normal way of life
The point is not about who wrote it but whether the points are accurate and valid- to change the focus is to concede that the points made are good ones. A military dictatorship with no means for citizens (I presume you are a Thai citizen) to participate in political discussion is not a healthy and sustainable way for Thailand to go on. It will end badly.. it is going bad already. The people who wish to see democracy (democracy is not only about elections… it is about equality- before the law or equality of opportunity or equal access to your own political system… it is about access to information, protection of minorities, freedom of speech etc) are doing so because of a desire to free the system from the shackles it is in.. shackles of information control, corruption, theft, shameless hierarchies based on birth rights, a huge concentration of wealth and power in the hands of an elite, a law that doesn’t work and a culture that puts shame and embarrassment on those that speak out against the injustice and inefficiency of a system run for a small group at the expense of the Thai people. Extreme deference to authority and a ‘ask no questions’ mentality just ends up in a very rich and powerful elite who are totally unaccountable and who can do anything to increase their wealth and power including shady business deals that the public cannot check, disregard for the institutions of state (including the monarchy!)… do we really believe that if you give people total power, that they wont get corrupted by it, that they wont use that power, wealth and influence to further cement their advantages and to make their privilege permanent? How can people trust them when they refuse to share power, wealth and opportunity throughout Thai society? Why are they blocking information? Why are they stealing public money? Why are they not allowing the government to do its job and get on with trying to govern properly and justly? Because they say they have the best interests of Thailand? That is what anybody would say.. would you let anyone run the country? They have the guns, the wealth and the power and so they can shape public opinion and crush helpful criticism of their looting of the public purse. This is a question of what is best for every Thai person. Thais seem reluctant to actually consider the reality of the situation sometimes (probably because it has been drummed into them everyday since childhood not to) and that is sad because we can all see what is happening now.
The changing face of Xanana Gusmao
Nice article that identifies a real problem.
Thai Coup: A normal way of life
Rose makes some interesting remarks regarding the three men executed for apparently engineering the murder of the previous King. If, as everyone seems to believe, they were indeed innocent then perhaps the time is right to set up an on-line petition asking for a royal pardon. How about it NM? Or is this taking the site beyond its remit. In Britain we saw the recent pardon of Turing.
Remembering the work of Professor Andrew Huxley
I only knew Andrew from email communications … I regret that we never had the opportunity to meet. This is a fine tribute. Don
The changing face of Xanana Gusmao
I think those are weak arguments, Ken Westmoreland.
The Enlightenment’s main political influence has been to mitigate xenophobia on all scales from local to geopolitical. Pakistan is the local centre of a culture (Islam) that has more consistently rejected the Enlightenment than the rest of the subcontinent. That same culture affects Indonesia, but not so strongly. Malaysia has drunk from the same poisoned well. The Timor conflict is between two rival pre-Enlightenment cultures (Islam and ancient, backwoods Roman Catholicism). The island is riven by xenophobia.
Goa is a busy trading port. Timor is the end of the line. The traders of Goa were happy to see the borders between the former colony and a comparatively secular, Congress-run India swept away. It may have been different if India had fallen into the hands of the people who murdered Mahatma Ghandi.
A Spanish lesson for Indonesia’s 1965
Saudara Santoso,
Did you learn your “refined” manners from
Suharto, your parents, or Dutch Leftists ? It needs work.
=========================================
Heeft u uw “verfijnde” omgangsvormen leren van Suharto, je ouders, of Nederlandse linksen? Het moet werken.
==========================================
Apakah Saudara belajar anda “halus” sopan santun dari Suharto, orang tua anda, atau Belanda ‘kaum kiri’? Ini perlu bekerja.
A Spanish lesson for Indonesia’s 1965
Peter Cohen’s comment is puzzling. My piece is about Suharto’s New Order and post-Suharto Indonesia problems and struggle to come to terms with her bloody past 2000-2014. Nothing to do with Sukarno who died in 1970. This alone doesn’t make it worthwhile to response further on Cohen’s comment. Perhaps he should learn more about Indonesia’s history.
The changing face of Xanana Gusmao
Xanana’s image is no doubt part myth, part reality. A nuanced examination of his role (as well as those of other Timorese leaders) is always warranted. Yet, it is important to not overstate the case here. To observers of democracy in Southeast Asia, it is a bit pedestrian to sound the alarms that Timor-Leste is far from realizing democratic consolidation and is plagued by corruption.
To whatever extent the Xanana myth is rightly punctured by his protection of corrupt politicians and his deal-making with oil giants, let’s not sabotage the needed development of opposition politics and the rule of law in Timor Leste with premature charges of “despotism,” at least not until we see more markers of it. (I found the “lost leadership” label from an earlier NM article by Bexley and Nygaard-Christensen more to the point.)
If Xanana is a despot, he’s pretty bad at it, isn’t he? Where is the evidence of secret police, disappearing opponents, mass graves, and the full and complete disregard for the human rights and dignity of anyone openly criticizing his leadership? Rather, Xanana is evolving into a typical modern Asian leader captured by patronage, clientalistic networks, and shady deal-making between public and private entities. I frequently remind my students, “Che Guevara never had to govern.” Revolutionaries who survive always taint their myth by having to actually govern: Castro, Mandela, Lech Welesa, all lost their purity once they began governing.
Foreign Bar Associations are no doubt worthy judges of corrupt and unlawful practices, but the markers of despotism are far more appalling, violent, and self-evident than what we see emanating from Timor Leste today. Xanana’s record as a “despot” has yet to stand up to the likes of those in the annals of Asian history (and beyond) who are deserving of the label (Mao, Chiang Kai Shek, Pol Pot, New Win, Marcos, the Kim clan, Saddam Hussein). So, to say the Xanana myth deserves serious scrutiny may not be saying that he is indeed now a despot.
Also, for the record, the 2014 Failed State Index (as opposed to the 2007 one cited by the authors) ranks the Asian countries of Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and North Korea lower than Timor Leste. For a state barely a decade old, can we really expect much more? (South Sudan, the world’s other new state, is #1 on the FSI list. It seems don’t have enough founder myths to keep them together at all, and they have oil too).
The changing face of Xanana Gusmao
Writing an article about Xanana using (unreliable) secondary data will lead you to a very far from the truth conclusion and certainly will not help to develop true understanding of what he is exactly doing. I suggest the authors to spend much more time in Timor to gather insights into Xanana’s actions. Unlike the authors’ “open book” suggestion, I am fully convinced that there is more to learn from Xanana.
The changing face of Xanana Gusmao
Being colonised by an enlightened country is no guarantee of a democratic political culture – look at formerly British Pakistan, or more appropriately, formerly Dutch Indonesia. The insistence of the Dutch on governing the East Indies as a centralised unitary state rather than as a looser federation, as the British did India and Malaya, accounts for why the Indonesian incorporation of East Timor was a failure compared to the Indian incorporation of Goa.
The changing face of Xanana Gusmao
400 years of Enlightenment-free Portuguese rule in East Timor was never a foundation for democracy. That bleak historical fact trumps the romantic illusion peddled around the world by the salesman Ramos-Horta.
Thai Coup: A normal way of life
We can clearly see by the negative reactions here that Thai royalists are reactionary, insecure & living in denial about the true status of their so called father. If he is truly so great as the Thai monarchy myth making machine has made this man out to be, then why would any Thai ultra royalists need to take any notice of any form of criticism aimed at their precious father? The answer to this question in my estimation is this; Thai ultra royalists are no different from Muslim extremists or fundamental Christians. And they are not happy or satisfied until EVERYONE bows down to their god head. Any form of criticism based on logic,transparency,or truth is automatically rejected as blasphemy in which the perpetrators must be singled out and punished publicly in order to quash any more forms of dissent. Welcome to р╕Бр╕░р╕ер╕▓р╣Бр╕ер╕Щр╕Фр╣М р╕вр╕┤р╕Щр╕Фр╕╡р╕Хр╣Йр╕нр╕Щр╕гр╕▒р╕Ъ
The changing face of Xanana Gusmao
A very nicely done analysis of Timor-Leste and its all too sad travails, mirroring in fact almost every other nation, where hero worship alternates with profound scorn, something Indonesia is well-familiar with. As Shakespeare (or Christopher Marlowe as Shakespeare) said, “Without the villain, where doth the play ? Without the hero, whence then the villain” ?
Remembering the work of Professor Andrew Huxley
Thanks so much for this Melissa. I never met Andrew Huxley either, but have enormous respect for his contributions over the years. You do him proud, and also in your article in the Pacific Rim Law and Policy Journal (which deserves wider circulation, including to the people of the Australia Myanmar Institute).
Thai Coup: A normal way of life
Who pays for Royal Projects? the royal family or the tax payers?
Thai Coup: A normal way of life
May I also humbly recommend my “Allegory of the Cave” to Boon et al?
Thai Coup: A normal way of life
Boon, could you please point us to some videos or tapes displaying the current dictator’s English language skills? Just one would be sufficient. Thanks in advance.
Thai Coup: A normal way of life
Three points:
1. Since you are the one challenging the authorship of this article it is incumbent upon you to prove that she was not the author, not the other way around.
2. Rather than claim that what Rose wrote contains half truths and disseminations [sic]*, why don’t you take a moment and let us know exactly what ‘prevarications’ she engaged in? Educate us, please.
3. Regarding the issue of fluency, I have no doubt that this was edited, but that is hardly surprising or unusual. In grad school I had a number of Thai friends and classmates at the Master’s and Ph.D. level, none of whom could write as well as a native speaker, even those whose scholarly skills were first rate. It is very unusual for someone to be able to write fluently in a language unless they spent years submersed in the language, usually from a fairly young age. Having said that, I know nothing of Rose’s English write skills and she may well not have required any proofing or editing.
*You clearly don’t understand the meaning of disseminate, so perhaps you could swallow your pride and take advantage of the help of an editor or ghost writer.