I like the “winner takes all” comment. It surely refers to the thaksin and his many surrogate/puppet government who thouhght that after buying votes through populist policies and handouts they were entitled to partake of the trough of the Kingdom’s tresury as they wished. Their strnglehold of the parliament created a parliamentary dictatorship. Thier control and intimidation stemming from their ‘majority’ government turned the country into a facist police state. where the law didn’t matter as much as the whims of thaksin.
What men-in-black; no such thing under yingluck regime. But the truth has a way for finding the light and now we find that in fact the men-ion-black are for real and they did cause murder and injury.
But of course facts are not to be discussed on this illustrious site. Only denigratinon and prevarication are allowed. Half-truths and outright lies are the norm, to be led by that most bigoted and biased Andrew M Marshall.
Get a life guys. Your comments really do not make a difference whatsoever and will not for the next year or so when Prayuth attempts to clean up the feces left by thaksin and his hijacking of democratic values and ideals for his own personal gain.
Fully endorse those commonplace words, though I am bound to add there is no other word but Kala for an Indian person, Hindu, Muslim, Sikh whatever, just as there is no other word but Tayoke for a Chinese person. Rude or “derogatory” use requires a certain tone of voice or an appropriate prefix/suffix.
A timely (though the horse may have already bolted) article in The Irrawaddy today warns us the perils of”progress”, caveat emptor writ large.
In all likelihood, given the precedents of Letpadaung and Shwe gas and oil pipelines, orthodox free trade and globalisation ideology will continue to prevail under the Lady’s watch provided she won the coveted prize she has been gunning for no matter how wobbly she may have looked from time to time so far.
In the end does it even matter who makes it happen, a freer and fairer Burma, although you can bet your bottom dollar it ain’t gonna be no generals?
It’s been about a year since Chin Peng’s ashes were denied entry into Malaysia. The Muslim Malays continue to resent the patriotism of ethnic Chinese folks (as opposed to the quisling-like behavior of ethnic Malays) in the resistance against Japanese and British colonialism. Australians and other non-Muslim nations should keep this behavior in mind.
Hard to know what exactly is the “game”. Make Aung San Suu Kyi a President game? People’s Jokowi is not enough? Let’s see.
By constitution, the Myanmar Presidency is a Disney Land post as there is that nebulous council above it with no accountability and no one knows how it operates. Even the current Disney Hlut-taw does not seem to be able to make any real decision except showing around the so many never ending visiting dignitaries from around the globe coming in like flies to the rotten piece of meat.
But if she does become the president, of course she will swiftly facilitate IMF to get absolute control of the country’s monetary system (via independent central bank, no less) and promulgate various laws so that newly armed and trained police force can enforce the interest of any foreign investors wishing to multiply their money using Burma’s rich resources and cheap labor from her “Little time-bombs”. She has made her mark with Latpadaung as the glaring example. Something people of Burma do not seem to take in. If any foreign multinational corporation wants to screw the poor peasants or indeed any one including currently bullet-proof “middle class” people, she will support whole-heartedly including bombing with White Phosphorous during sleep.
There will be another round of chorus of head lines crowing how wonderful and highly progressive Burma in such short time because of the clever and so sharp and smart public, etc.
But do people really think that the old fox Than Shwe can be crossed? Ever? Thus far he has got everything he wanted and every one is singing the praise. The very same cowardly,meaningless “constitution” (a bit different from “so-called” democratic constitution- so-called?) is now fully endorsed by Aung San Suu Kyi and her backers, the “West”. He got the whole country busy with this and that law change while they continue their business as usual, felling centuries-old forests wholesale and digging all the gems to the earth core and selling out all the public assets to –ummm—themselves!. Even aerial attack on own citizens or killing and putting in concentration camps of the whole community is not enough to dampen his shine.
Yes. Gene Sharp/ Helvey crowd- mainly young vicious foolish blood-thirsty (progressive) thugs many in monks’ robes- can be relied upon to do well organised/ funded and carefully stage managed “anarchy” complete with rent a crowd demonstrations and some even shooting indiscriminately in the crowd as per their Ukraine/ Venezuelan versions. But as seen now in Ukraine, all it came about is more chaos. Victoria Nuland could hardly claim any good thing coming out of losing gas supply for the poor western Ukraine with now Crimea- only naval port in the Black Sea- definitely in the hands of Putin. All that with China reaping the reward with no effort.
Even though understandably it may be so irresistibly tempting to keep agitating, sadly the result is not likely to change now.
One solace is that the people of Burma are genuinely different from any other. Even if IMF and Monsanto and all sorts of international corporations succeed in putting laws and regulations and suppress the people as per the Bolivian Water theft, people of Burma may be a bit different.
The immense popularity of the their charge? Don’t be fooled by it. You know popularity is fickle. Adolf Hitler was very popular with his public as well. And at least some Blacks in South Africa are beginning to realize they got a lemon in Mandela. Burmese could be quicker.
Yingluk was not particularly stupid but not all her policies were sound and well thought on. The rice supporting scheme she promoted was doomed from start and everybody knew it. Trying to pass the amnesty bill despite widespread opposition was not smart either.
For someone who will be 70 years old next year she looks well enough to carry on another five years in the top job. Nothing less will do for her though.
The snag is, and it’s a big one, unless these guys are dragged off kicking and screaming leaving claw marks on the throne there is no way she’s going to pull it off. So she’s got her work cut out but does she realise that? Will she ever for someone who claims she knows the country’s history and politics only too well?
The best case scenario may be a successful velvet revolution provided Lady Luck smiles on the Lady, but the worst case scenario more than likely she remains in denial despite overwhelming historical evidence served up time and again with extreme prejudice by this same wily and ruthless military elite.
There is an expression “Mi Aye had it for the second time”. This Mi Aye is far too important to the future of her country to fail again a quarter century later so we end up with another quarter century under the military yoke. Let’s hope because of or despite her “leadership” the “People Win Through” to borrow a phrase from U Nu.
As a Constitutional Lawyer he should know that there is no hard evidence of suspected corruption. Right now all we know is they bought some very expensive microphones at seemingly inflated prices. But we don’t know about the quality of the microphones, whether it included cost of installation, the warranty policy etc. A markup of 50% is not a big markup, and I would be wary of accusing the government of corruption yet. Wasteful spending yes, corruption, not at this moment.
Contributors can make absolute statements like ” But this should be enough to wake coup supporters up to the cruel reality that only democracy can fight corruption.” Democracy is another tool that can fight corruption, but its not the only tool.
The failure with democracy in Thailand is statements like the one above. People should like democracy, because it puts responsibility of choosing their leaders in their own hands, not necessarily at the “supposed” benefits that it might bring. Its really up to the voters to choose leaders that will setup systems and build institution that will curb and fight corruption.
In Indonesia, during the rump session of the Indonesian Parliament, the opposition coalition have proposed to do away with Direct elections of regional executives, because its expensive and fosters corruption and voting buying. Its true that its expensive and tainted by corruption, but80% of Indonesians polled, support direct elections, despite its flaws, because they are starting to see the benefits. The question is how to improve on it.
In engineering field it is mandatory that every task with safety impact must follow the proven procedures. Developed countries throughout the world understand that democracy however imperfect is proven to be far better than dictatorship. In fact, dictatorship has no place in polite societes.
this word frequently used in Indonesian forum such as kaskus to call someone else and to refer to someone. It come from word juragan which means big boss or tycoon.
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Wisdom of General Prayuth
Yingluck and Thaksin have just been written out of the Thailand’s history books. I am not making this up.
That means they never existed.
They always have never existed.
Wisdom of General Prayuth
Think you need to read that post again. Awkward.
Thailand’s National Legislative Assembly
I like the “winner takes all” comment. It surely refers to the thaksin and his many surrogate/puppet government who thouhght that after buying votes through populist policies and handouts they were entitled to partake of the trough of the Kingdom’s tresury as they wished. Their strnglehold of the parliament created a parliamentary dictatorship. Thier control and intimidation stemming from their ‘majority’ government turned the country into a facist police state. where the law didn’t matter as much as the whims of thaksin.
What men-in-black; no such thing under yingluck regime. But the truth has a way for finding the light and now we find that in fact the men-ion-black are for real and they did cause murder and injury.
But of course facts are not to be discussed on this illustrious site. Only denigratinon and prevarication are allowed. Half-truths and outright lies are the norm, to be led by that most bigoted and biased Andrew M Marshall.
Get a life guys. Your comments really do not make a difference whatsoever and will not for the next year or so when Prayuth attempts to clean up the feces left by thaksin and his hijacking of democratic values and ideals for his own personal gain.
Game over for Aung San Suu Kyi?
“….freer and fairer Burma”
Really! Such faith!
Fire better than the frying pan!
Competition: Speaking of Southeast Asia
Fully endorse those commonplace words, though I am bound to add there is no other word but Kala for an Indian person, Hindu, Muslim, Sikh whatever, just as there is no other word but Tayoke for a Chinese person. Rude or “derogatory” use requires a certain tone of voice or an appropriate prefix/suffix.
Game over for Aung San Suu Kyi?
A timely (though the horse may have already bolted) article in The Irrawaddy today warns us the perils of”progress”, caveat emptor writ large.
In all likelihood, given the precedents of Letpadaung and Shwe gas and oil pipelines, orthodox free trade and globalisation ideology will continue to prevail under the Lady’s watch provided she won the coveted prize she has been gunning for no matter how wobbly she may have looked from time to time so far.
In the end does it even matter who makes it happen, a freer and fairer Burma, although you can bet your bottom dollar it ain’t gonna be no generals?
Malaysia Day
It’s been about a year since Chin Peng’s ashes were denied entry into Malaysia. The Muslim Malays continue to resent the patriotism of ethnic Chinese folks (as opposed to the quisling-like behavior of ethnic Malays) in the resistance against Japanese and British colonialism. Australians and other non-Muslim nations should keep this behavior in mind.
Game over for Aung San Suu Kyi?
Hard to know what exactly is the “game”. Make Aung San Suu Kyi a President game? People’s Jokowi is not enough? Let’s see.
By constitution, the Myanmar Presidency is a Disney Land post as there is that nebulous council above it with no accountability and no one knows how it operates. Even the current Disney Hlut-taw does not seem to be able to make any real decision except showing around the so many never ending visiting dignitaries from around the globe coming in like flies to the rotten piece of meat.
But if she does become the president, of course she will swiftly facilitate IMF to get absolute control of the country’s monetary system (via independent central bank, no less) and promulgate various laws so that newly armed and trained police force can enforce the interest of any foreign investors wishing to multiply their money using Burma’s rich resources and cheap labor from her “Little time-bombs”. She has made her mark with Latpadaung as the glaring example. Something people of Burma do not seem to take in. If any foreign multinational corporation wants to screw the poor peasants or indeed any one including currently bullet-proof “middle class” people, she will support whole-heartedly including bombing with White Phosphorous during sleep.
There will be another round of chorus of head lines crowing how wonderful and highly progressive Burma in such short time because of the clever and so sharp and smart public, etc.
But do people really think that the old fox Than Shwe can be crossed? Ever? Thus far he has got everything he wanted and every one is singing the praise. The very same cowardly,meaningless “constitution” (a bit different from “so-called” democratic constitution- so-called?) is now fully endorsed by Aung San Suu Kyi and her backers, the “West”. He got the whole country busy with this and that law change while they continue their business as usual, felling centuries-old forests wholesale and digging all the gems to the earth core and selling out all the public assets to –ummm—themselves!. Even aerial attack on own citizens or killing and putting in concentration camps of the whole community is not enough to dampen his shine.
Yes. Gene Sharp/ Helvey crowd- mainly young vicious foolish blood-thirsty (progressive) thugs many in monks’ robes- can be relied upon to do well organised/ funded and carefully stage managed “anarchy” complete with rent a crowd demonstrations and some even shooting indiscriminately in the crowd as per their Ukraine/ Venezuelan versions. But as seen now in Ukraine, all it came about is more chaos. Victoria Nuland could hardly claim any good thing coming out of losing gas supply for the poor western Ukraine with now Crimea- only naval port in the Black Sea- definitely in the hands of Putin. All that with China reaping the reward with no effort.
Even though understandably it may be so irresistibly tempting to keep agitating, sadly the result is not likely to change now.
One solace is that the people of Burma are genuinely different from any other. Even if IMF and Monsanto and all sorts of international corporations succeed in putting laws and regulations and suppress the people as per the Bolivian Water theft, people of Burma may be a bit different.
The immense popularity of the their charge? Don’t be fooled by it. You know popularity is fickle. Adolf Hitler was very popular with his public as well. And at least some Blacks in South Africa are beginning to realize they got a lemon in Mandela. Burmese could be quicker.
Wisdom of General Prayuth
Yingluk was not particularly stupid but not all her policies were sound and well thought on. The rice supporting scheme she promoted was doomed from start and everybody knew it. Trying to pass the amnesty bill despite widespread opposition was not smart either.
Corruption scandal: Junta failing its first test
Corruption leads to rumbles in the ranks ? : http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/432424/pm-elevates-graft-fight-to-top-priority
Confused Thai Educators
nodoubt #10 says:
“what can we as foreigners (or foreign based Thais) do further to help the appalling situation?”
Here’s a start:
http://tinyurl.com/lweedj9
Game over for Aung San Suu Kyi?
For someone who will be 70 years old next year she looks well enough to carry on another five years in the top job. Nothing less will do for her though.
The snag is, and it’s a big one, unless these guys are dragged off kicking and screaming leaving claw marks on the throne there is no way she’s going to pull it off. So she’s got her work cut out but does she realise that? Will she ever for someone who claims she knows the country’s history and politics only too well?
The best case scenario may be a successful velvet revolution provided Lady Luck smiles on the Lady, but the worst case scenario more than likely she remains in denial despite overwhelming historical evidence served up time and again with extreme prejudice by this same wily and ruthless military elite.
There is an expression “Mi Aye had it for the second time”. This Mi Aye is far too important to the future of her country to fail again a quarter century later so we end up with another quarter century under the military yoke. Let’s hope because of or despite her “leadership” the “People Win Through” to borrow a phrase from U Nu.
Corruption scandal: Junta failing its first test
As a Constitutional Lawyer he should know that there is no hard evidence of suspected corruption. Right now all we know is they bought some very expensive microphones at seemingly inflated prices. But we don’t know about the quality of the microphones, whether it included cost of installation, the warranty policy etc. A markup of 50% is not a big markup, and I would be wary of accusing the government of corruption yet. Wasteful spending yes, corruption, not at this moment.
Contributors can make absolute statements like ” But this should be enough to wake coup supporters up to the cruel reality that only democracy can fight corruption.” Democracy is another tool that can fight corruption, but its not the only tool.
The failure with democracy in Thailand is statements like the one above. People should like democracy, because it puts responsibility of choosing their leaders in their own hands, not necessarily at the “supposed” benefits that it might bring. Its really up to the voters to choose leaders that will setup systems and build institution that will curb and fight corruption.
In Indonesia, during the rump session of the Indonesian Parliament, the opposition coalition have proposed to do away with Direct elections of regional executives, because its expensive and fosters corruption and voting buying. Its true that its expensive and tainted by corruption, but80% of Indonesians polled, support direct elections, despite its flaws, because they are starting to see the benefits. The question is how to improve on it.
Competition: Speaking of Southeast Asia
And the winner, this fine Tuesday morning, is Gregore Lopez! More to follow…
Corruption scandal: Junta failing its first test
In engineering field it is mandatory that every task with safety impact must follow the proven procedures. Developed countries throughout the world understand that democracy however imperfect is proven to be far better than dictatorship. In fact, dictatorship has no place in polite societes.
Competition: Speaking of Southeast Asia
For Vietnamese, all I remember is: “doi moi”, as in Doi Moi Policy, meaning renovation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doi_Moi
Competition: Speaking of Southeast Asia
Some Burmese ones that I might use in an English sentence, depending on the subject. These are simple, but anyway…
1. longyi (also spelled as longi or lungi; the garb for Burmese gents)
2. thanaka (face cream to keep cool)
3. crab Rangoon (haha, cuz why not? ^__^ … a delightful treat well known stateside yet unheard of anywhere in Yangon)
4. kala (kind of a rude word for Indian/Muslim person)
5. ngapi (shrimp paste which is sometimes fermented also)
6. line-car (maybe also spelled laing-kah, what the Thais call р╕кр╕нр╕Зр╣Бр╕Цр╕з, a pickup truck with the bed fitted to carry passengers)
…all I can think of at the moment.
Corruption scandal: Junta failing its first test
I guess, one of the big failure of Thaksin was the war against drugs…
Sattahibo seems able to get whatever it is that he / she is smoking quite easily!
Corruption scandal: Junta failing its first test
The good and the bad are everywhere, but it is important that Gen. Prayuth be the good, and he is.
Competition: Speaking of Southeast Asia
Gan
this word frequently used in Indonesian forum such as kaskus to call someone else and to refer to someone. It come from word juragan which means big boss or tycoon.