Low pay, low morale, and corruption in the police and other civilian institutions are the Thai military’s life-blood. It is in the military’s interest to undermine all civil authority, most importantly the rule of law (starting with the Constitution). The worse the Thai people behave, and the more frightened they are of their fellow citizens, the more likely they are to accept military rule. That is why the military conspired with Suthep to throw the country into chaos, allowing the army to take over at gunpoint, and the hordes of generals to quietly reap the benefits.
Sorry, I just want to add three more thai:
1-thai Sip-Song-Pan-Na
2-thai Yai (in the northern part of Mienma
2-thai – in some part of India
р║Вр╗Йр║нр║Нр╗Ар║Ыр║▒р║Щ р║Др║╗р║Щр╗Др║Чр║кр║░р║лр║зр║▒р║Щр║Щр║░р╗Ар║Вр║Фр╗Ар║Фр║╡
The Thai mlitary need an incompetent police to make them look good by comparison. Unless and until the TRP is reformed, trained, equipped and paid to be professional, and to stay out of politics, there will be unending coups. In the case of this latest coup, the military held back until public sentiment acquiesced and gave in to the comnunal need to restore order and provide peace and security that should be the role of the police. It is not in the military’s interest and the junta’s to reform the police.
Fine, but the bell story is only one small part of a long and complex message. I’ve just been looking at the Thai version of the Thammasat/dharmasastra. It does not “come from India” or “come from the Mon country” but is a mash-up of bits and pieces from here and there. Can we find similar origins for other parts of Inscription One?
Perhaps likely candidates are the famous line, “There is fish in the water and rice in the fields.”
Or the story of the stone: “The king commanded his craftsmen to carve a slab of stone and place it in the middle of these sugar-palm trees. On [certain days], a monk goes up and sits on the stone slab to preach the dharma to the throng of lay-people who observe the precepts. When it is not a day for preaching the dharma, the king goes up, sits on the stone slab, and lets the officials, lords and princes discuss affairs of state with him.” (shortened from G&P)
Does anyone know of similar fish/rice lines, or similar stories of a dual-purpose stone?
But analytically and methodologically this case for the “origins” of some contents of the much-debated Thai inscription makes no move beyond James Frazer’s The Golden Bough, from a hundred years ago. In some ways this “intervention” makes me think of the Indianization analyses of decades past — the original is from India (or Sri Lanka) and therefore whatever one may find in SEAsia is simply derivative. As such, this also harks back to once-fashionable theories about the Egyptian origins of this and that, and to other diffusionist speculations that came and went. But maybe old king RamKhamHaeng is the missing link for the ’70s disco song; “ring my bell”? (everything, including the imagery of disco, comes from India).
I would also count myself a Dawei skeptic, and this piece raises several great points, but I have to stress that it’s location is unduly critiqued. Indeed, the ADB, which also has allocated loans to the project, has been working with Thailand since 2012 to improve trade connections with Myanmar. The connection through Mae Sot/Myawaddy is far superior to any extant connections between Myanmar and NE India and certainly affords good market access.
Yes Thomas A, it couldn’t be possibly be illegal for foreigners to actively get involved in Thai political demonstrations … particularly if a foreigner (a citizen from Montenegro actually leads and goads his Red followers to protest … violently and and with arms, bombs and petrol-filled plastic bottles for arson too.
I also recall many westerners and possibly other foreigners taking part in the protests for both camps who seemed to be OK and not subject to arrest, because they didn’t go on stage or actively demonstrate, but merely accompanied their friends/wives/girlfriends/children etc. perhaps it was the same with these Laotians too. Of course they apparently got paid, but didn’t do anything more than walk along the street.
I am wondering if it was legal for Lao nationals, i.e. foreigners to get involved in Thai political demonstrations. I remember seeing signs posted at the Nong Khai immigration checkpoint next to Laos earlier this year reminding foreigners not to get involved in the then protracted protests. Of course quite a few did (mainly westerners and one Indian guy) for both sides of the political divide and they got arrested and threatened with deportation.
I suppose it’s OK if you are NOT going to speak on the platform as I suspect no Lao ever did. But at least they could check their citizen ID cards right? That’s the easiest way to determine who is a Thai citizen and who isn’t.
I also agree that Laotians should not take part in Thai politics, just as Thais wouldn’t go to Laos to demonstrate against the Lao government.
Bill Heinecke IS actually Thai; do some research before making inaccurate assumptions. Therefore he IS an elite Thai. The only difference between him and 99.9% of other Thais is that he is not native born and is originally American. He may not look stereotypically Thai, but of course we don’t want to turn this into a racist or discriminatory discourse and he earned his citizenship as a naturalized Thai many years ago.
Getting back on topic, of course he is trying to protect his interests with his comments. I too can see where he is coming from with some of his viewpoints. Where I disagree is his point about how foreign governments shouldn’t warn their citizens about the dangers of travelling to Thailand prior to, during and after the coup, as if that it were completely safe, normal and nothing could go wrong. That of course is naiveity at it’s best and a desperate ploy to try to get foreigners to come, when perhaps he should be focusing more on the domestic market and domestic consumption for his food empire and hospitality related businesses, as most other countries do.
So can the ubiquitous poor wretched Burmese and Cambodian slave migrant workers in Thailand use this myth to complain to the present Thai monarch about how they are treated? History will tell!
Kyaukphru on the Arakan coast is meant to be a Chinese naval base and a fuel stop. China even suggested that a proxy PLA army (the UWSA) should be stationed there and along the gas/oil pipeline from there to Kunming to “protect” Chinese investments and settlers.
So are the Chinese also interested in this Tavoy (Dawei) SEZ in Tenessarim (Taninthari), once railway links are established from mainland China to its tributary vassal states, such as Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, …?
String-of-pearls strategy obviously.
I think the challenge of this question is that we need to come to an agreement on how to approach the question, before attempting to answer the question itself.
The recent media flurry created by CNN and Reza Aslan captures this challenge best.
No mention has been made where an individual has been accused of violating some law when that would cut across his rights under The International Law of Human Rights. If a country has signed up to and ratified this law then it becomes automatically the law of that land. When a national finds himself in a situation where he is denied the protection of or his treatment has violated the local/international laws of the land he is in then surely it is the duty of his embassy to do all that they can to redress this situation because it has become a matter of international law?
You’re right. Thailand is a country full of “cans of slimy worms” that need to opened up. Forget about this “Strassentheater” (street theater) of red shirt yellow shirt thing for a moment and dig out all the unpleasant stuff that Thais like to sweep under the carpet. Otherwise Thailand would remain a corrupt medieval oligarchy without any transparency. A modern country cannot be ruled and controlled by mafia-like gangsters exploiting slave like migrant workers and ripping off stupid Western tourists looking for cheap pleasures sometimes without a happy ending (there were other cases where young naive Western kids died mysteriously in Thailand). One can’t just smile away deeper problems or hide them under the carpet of “tradition”. One has to deal with it.
Grow up Thailand!
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Thai Police: Intent to reform?
Low pay, low morale, and corruption in the police and other civilian institutions are the Thai military’s life-blood. It is in the military’s interest to undermine all civil authority, most importantly the rule of law (starting with the Constitution). The worse the Thai people behave, and the more frightened they are of their fellow citizens, the more likely they are to accept military rule. That is why the military conspired with Suthep to throw the country into chaos, allowing the army to take over at gunpoint, and the hordes of generals to quietly reap the benefits.
“Foreign influence” in Red Shirt demonstrations
Sorry, I just want to add three more thai:
1-thai Sip-Song-Pan-Na
2-thai Yai (in the northern part of Mienma
2-thai – in some part of India
р║Вр╗Йр║нр║Нр╗Ар║Ыр║▒р║Щ р║Др║╗р║Щр╗Др║Чр║кр║░р║лр║зр║▒р║Щр║Щр║░р╗Ар║Вр║Фр╗Ар║Фр║╡
Thai Police: Intent to reform?
The Thai mlitary need an incompetent police to make them look good by comparison. Unless and until the TRP is reformed, trained, equipped and paid to be professional, and to stay out of politics, there will be unending coups. In the case of this latest coup, the military held back until public sentiment acquiesced and gave in to the comnunal need to restore order and provide peace and security that should be the role of the police. It is not in the military’s interest and the junta’s to reform the police.
Another view of the Ramkhamhaeng inscription
Fine, but the bell story is only one small part of a long and complex message. I’ve just been looking at the Thai version of the Thammasat/dharmasastra. It does not “come from India” or “come from the Mon country” but is a mash-up of bits and pieces from here and there. Can we find similar origins for other parts of Inscription One?
Perhaps likely candidates are the famous line, “There is fish in the water and rice in the fields.”
Or the story of the stone: “The king commanded his craftsmen to carve a slab of stone and place it in the middle of these sugar-palm trees. On [certain days], a monk goes up and sits on the stone slab to preach the dharma to the throng of lay-people who observe the precepts. When it is not a day for preaching the dharma, the king goes up, sits on the stone slab, and lets the officials, lords and princes discuss affairs of state with him.” (shortened from G&P)
Does anyone know of similar fish/rice lines, or similar stories of a dual-purpose stone?
Chulalongkorn abolished prostration
I might suggest adopting a Pierre Trudeau-esque pirouette?
http://iconicphotos.wordpress.com/2009/06/19/trudeaus-pirouette/
Myanmar Special Economic Zones, Part I
Since the two governments appear so keen on the project there will be plenty of locals to “donate” their labour in time honoured style.
Another view of the Ramkhamhaeng inscription
But analytically and methodologically this case for the “origins” of some contents of the much-debated Thai inscription makes no move beyond James Frazer’s The Golden Bough, from a hundred years ago. In some ways this “intervention” makes me think of the Indianization analyses of decades past — the original is from India (or Sri Lanka) and therefore whatever one may find in SEAsia is simply derivative. As such, this also harks back to once-fashionable theories about the Egyptian origins of this and that, and to other diffusionist speculations that came and went. But maybe old king RamKhamHaeng is the missing link for the ’70s disco song; “ring my bell”? (everything, including the imagery of disco, comes from India).
Myanmar Special Economic Zones, Part I
I would also count myself a Dawei skeptic, and this piece raises several great points, but I have to stress that it’s location is unduly critiqued. Indeed, the ADB, which also has allocated loans to the project, has been working with Thailand since 2012 to improve trade connections with Myanmar. The connection through Mae Sot/Myawaddy is far superior to any extant connections between Myanmar and NE India and certainly affords good market access.
Another view of the Ramkhamhaeng inscription
[…] Another view of the Ramkhamhaeng inscription New Mandala, 23 October 2014 […]
“Foreign influence” in Red Shirt demonstrations
Yes Thomas A, it couldn’t be possibly be illegal for foreigners to actively get involved in Thai political demonstrations … particularly if a foreigner (a citizen from Montenegro actually leads and goads his Red followers to protest … violently and and with arms, bombs and petrol-filled plastic bottles for arson too.
“Foreign influence” in Red Shirt demonstrations
It would have been easy to tell if everyone was asked to produce their Thai national ID card or otherwise buzz off.
“Foreign influence” in Red Shirt demonstrations
I also recall many westerners and possibly other foreigners taking part in the protests for both camps who seemed to be OK and not subject to arrest, because they didn’t go on stage or actively demonstrate, but merely accompanied their friends/wives/girlfriends/children etc. perhaps it was the same with these Laotians too. Of course they apparently got paid, but didn’t do anything more than walk along the street.
“Foreign influence” in Red Shirt demonstrations
I am wondering if it was legal for Lao nationals, i.e. foreigners to get involved in Thai political demonstrations. I remember seeing signs posted at the Nong Khai immigration checkpoint next to Laos earlier this year reminding foreigners not to get involved in the then protracted protests. Of course quite a few did (mainly westerners and one Indian guy) for both sides of the political divide and they got arrested and threatened with deportation.
I suppose it’s OK if you are NOT going to speak on the platform as I suspect no Lao ever did. But at least they could check their citizen ID cards right? That’s the easiest way to determine who is a Thai citizen and who isn’t.
I also agree that Laotians should not take part in Thai politics, just as Thais wouldn’t go to Laos to demonstrate against the Lao government.
Mr. Heinecke cannot have his coup and eat it too
Bill Heinecke IS actually Thai; do some research before making inaccurate assumptions. Therefore he IS an elite Thai. The only difference between him and 99.9% of other Thais is that he is not native born and is originally American. He may not look stereotypically Thai, but of course we don’t want to turn this into a racist or discriminatory discourse and he earned his citizenship as a naturalized Thai many years ago.
Getting back on topic, of course he is trying to protect his interests with his comments. I too can see where he is coming from with some of his viewpoints. Where I disagree is his point about how foreign governments shouldn’t warn their citizens about the dangers of travelling to Thailand prior to, during and after the coup, as if that it were completely safe, normal and nothing could go wrong. That of course is naiveity at it’s best and a desperate ploy to try to get foreigners to come, when perhaps he should be focusing more on the domestic market and domestic consumption for his food empire and hospitality related businesses, as most other countries do.
Another view of the Ramkhamhaeng inscription
So can the ubiquitous poor wretched Burmese and Cambodian slave migrant workers in Thailand use this myth to complain to the present Thai monarch about how they are treated? History will tell!
Myanmar Special Economic Zones, Part I
Kyaukphru on the Arakan coast is meant to be a Chinese naval base and a fuel stop. China even suggested that a proxy PLA army (the UWSA) should be stationed there and along the gas/oil pipeline from there to Kunming to “protect” Chinese investments and settlers.
So are the Chinese also interested in this Tavoy (Dawei) SEZ in Tenessarim (Taninthari), once railway links are established from mainland China to its tributary vassal states, such as Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, …?
String-of-pearls strategy obviously.
Islam, a religion of peace
I think the challenge of this question is that we need to come to an agreement on how to approach the question, before attempting to answer the question itself.
The recent media flurry created by CNN and Reza Aslan captures this challenge best.
http://youtu.be/E3LEGmnHCEs
http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/article/2014/oct/21/revisiting-reza-aslans-response-bill-maher-about-f/
The Embassy: A review
No mention has been made where an individual has been accused of violating some law when that would cut across his rights under The International Law of Human Rights. If a country has signed up to and ratified this law then it becomes automatically the law of that land. When a national finds himself in a situation where he is denied the protection of or his treatment has violated the local/international laws of the land he is in then surely it is the duty of his embassy to do all that they can to redress this situation because it has become a matter of international law?
Thai Police: Intent to reform?
You’re right. Thailand is a country full of “cans of slimy worms” that need to opened up. Forget about this “Strassentheater” (street theater) of red shirt yellow shirt thing for a moment and dig out all the unpleasant stuff that Thais like to sweep under the carpet. Otherwise Thailand would remain a corrupt medieval oligarchy without any transparency. A modern country cannot be ruled and controlled by mafia-like gangsters exploiting slave like migrant workers and ripping off stupid Western tourists looking for cheap pleasures sometimes without a happy ending (there were other cases where young naive Western kids died mysteriously in Thailand). One can’t just smile away deeper problems or hide them under the carpet of “tradition”. One has to deal with it.
Grow up Thailand!
The Embassy: A review
Not many embassies actually help their arrested citizens, esp in regards drugs.
I looked in vain for a torrent of this show. Readers might also enjoy the 1990-1992 Australian series, Embassy, set in a “fictional” SE Asian country.
If anyone finds a torrent, please link to it here.