“The Charter is built upon distrust of the layperson’s intellect. The National Assembly and the National Reform Committee are to be handpicked by the National Council of Peace and Order (NCPO). A member must be an expert in public, private, civic, academic, or other sectors. This model limits membership to only a small band of closely-connected top bureaucrats, businessmen, scholars, and a few other public figures. It reflects the belief that men are not all equal”
I feel this statement firmly hits the nail on the head. Its clear that the fascists see it as their birth rite to Lord over the populace with or without public approval.
Indeed the entire social structure, education system and culture are heavily and strategically geared towards engendering near total submissiveness towards seniority and authority.
This explains why the general populace remains incredibly passive while the Amart selectively weed out the the tender shoots of democracy in order to retain absolute control for themselves going forward.
A blatant assault on democracy and peoples freedoms such as this in the vast majority of other partially democratic countries would be met with extreme resistance in the streets regardless of the personal risks and military intimidation.
However in Thailand, the centuries of subservience training under the Amart system are again paying dividends and the most current heist seems to be proceeding quite smoothly.
Obviously the amart/fascist system will ultimately go up in flames like it has in so many other parts of the world. The element that’s exceedingly hard to predict is exactly when the Thai people will make the firm decision to stand up and fight for their right to be treated as equals.
More than 100 years ago the Australian Constitution was framed after years of public meetings held over the length and breadth of the country. Inclusiveness was the key to its acceptance.
Thai constitutions have always been exclusive, little more than the codification of the interests of the powerful. The fact that there have been so many Thai constitutions implies that they are not taken seriously by the powerful themselves. Laws are an inflexible encumbrance to the Mafiosi in fancy dress whose power comes out of the barrel of a gun.
Wawan Mas’udi provides some very interesting information in his post.
Of all TNI officers-cum-businessmen whom Jokowi might have allied himself with, Panjaitan is not the worst. But holding forestry concessions in Nunukan? What kind of environmental devastation has taken place there? SBY has overseen a terrible era of deforestation in Indonesia,particularly in Kalimantan. And having mining and energy interests? That smacks of rent-seeking, a charge levelled against Prabowo Subianto, son of another, and better qualified, former Minister of Trade, on this website.
Panjaitan has had a strange career. He didn’t rise in TNI as much as he would have liked. Habibie did all he could do damage relations with Singapore after Lee Kuan Yew had tactlessly expressed alarm when Soeharto hinted Habibie would become vice-president in 1998.To clear up his own mess, Habibie plucked Panjaitan out of TNI to become Ambassador to Singapore. This is usually a very lucrative appointment. He must have learned a lot about trade there as well, because Gus Dur in turn lifted him out of Singapore to make Panjaitan Minister for Trade. One wonders what his qualifications for that appointment were. Then Panjaitan became a successful businessman, as any decent former Minister for Trade would.
Sure, he is not the worst ex-military partner Jokowi might have had. But that Panjaitan, who owed his military career entirely to Soeharto, should be Jokowi’s main business partner shows just how hard it is to break with the past in Indonesia.
The new “constitution” to be impoed upon the Thai people will clearly be based on the idea that Thailand is essentially, in the words of the learned Chula Ajarn Panitan, a “Submission Culture”, a “Submission Society”, whose 65 million citizens are most happy living, breathing and thinking in a permanent state of total submission.
The election is now over (praise someone; you pick). While much may be now expected of Jokowi, the scale of expectations should not be disproportionate to Jokowi’s capacity to meet them, or once again, Indonesians will be disappointed. Former President Alejandro Toledo of Peru, an indigenous man of Spanish and Incan heritage, rose from a poor campesino and shoe-shine boy to become President of Peru. Sadly, HIS meteoric rise was not matched by a meteoric presidency. There is a lesson in this. President-elect Jokowi is a human being, and can only do what is in his capacity to do. The best way to honour his remarkable achievement, in rising from furniture maker, to President, is to set realistic goals, and not externalise your expectations upon his.
The much vaunted “People’s Constitution” of 1997 disqualified roughly 90% of Thais from standing for office on the basis of the belief that having a BA would somehow ensure… what exactly?
All the historical evidence seems to suggest that if you want to ensure that someone in Thailand is “for sale”, make sure they are educated. You really have to wonder what planet those people were on as they wrote that flimsy piece of legalistic fantasy.
And the exclusions listed in Section 109 of the same document seem to indicate that its framers were just as obsessed with “moral absolutism” as those working for the Junta.
As much as it obviously pains people to admit it, the so-called People’s Constitution should have been called the “Good People’s Constitution”.
This blatantly hypocritical aspect of Thai political culture shifts and shimmies but it never goes away. Until it does, the chance of Thailand going democratic is virtually nil.
It should also be pointed out that the list of eligible candidates for the NCPO-controlled NA/NRC is NOT an indication that “only an intellectual should rule”, but that only a crony should rule.
“Crony” and “intellectual” are not cognates in the English language, even when the cronies involved are “liberals”.
Critiquing yet another Thai “Constitution” as if it were actually going to form the basis of the Thai constitution (the unwritten, unshakable, undeniably REAL one) is a waste of time, and little more than yet another contribution to the set of artificial discourses that continue to block any meaningful discussion of Thai political reality.
“I usually look to New Mandala for intelligent I insightful articles. The only thing more ridiculous than this article are the comments”.
I agree that Mr Fuller seems to labour under the assumption that National Socialism is rampant among Buddhists. For the one war between Buddhist Sinhalese and the terrorist
LTTE Hindus, I can think of 400 Islamic conflicts of equal, or far worse, consequence. I know of no Buddhist Scripture that calls for the search for Hindus hiding behind Banyan Trees and stones, there being a well-known Hadith in Islam, analogous to my example above, advocating the killing of Jews, “hiding behind Qarkhad Trees and Stones”.
Finally, I find much of the commentary appropriately critical of Mr Fuller’s assumptions about Buddhism, and on that basis, I am certainly less critical of NM comments on this issue, than the piece that generated such “insidious” debate.
As a matter of fact, Thailand was colonised by Japan during WW II. You can see Thai stamps with Japanese Character O.P., well known to philatelists. The British and French had pacts with Thailand that prevented colonisation. The reason Thais are not enamoured of Khmers, is not because Thais dislike Cambodian food (well maybe they do, I don’t know), but because they were occupied by the ancient Khmers, for quite a while, and not treated especially well (and not due to Buddhism).
In any case, if you have followed Plan B’s comments, that generally relate to Burma, I therefore am assuming that his comment about colonial days was a reference to Burma, which was very much colonised by the British, for many years (I assume you have heard of Eric Blair/George Orwell ?). It is to Burma, I believe that Plan B, is making reference, and it is true, just as in Malaya, the British in Burma, had their likes and dislikes, often correlating towards the latter, with increasing skin pigmentation, more pronounced in Burma than in Malaya.
Yes, i was referring mainly to that particular post by Hla Oo, but I also remember reading a similar story a few years ago. There are a lot of Burmese immigrants in Australia and I am guessing that about a fourth of them are refugees who applied for political asylum. This is also true in places like Fort Wayne, Indiana and Bergen, Norway. Do you have reliable statistics about the numbers in Australia, where they were settled and also how this process of getting political asylum works. Have you already interviewed some of them?
Of course, the majority of Burmese-Australians are “regular” immigrants and many of them are “Anglos” who left Burma in the 50’s and the 60’s already (have you ever read the book “White Butterflies” by Colin McPhedran?) but you are interested in more recent Burmese immigrants, I assume. Part of the problem about doing research on immigration is that you don’t get the true (a bit boring) story of the average immigrant, because people want to talk more about “hardships” etc. and of course refugees can tell you more colourful stories (you can always bend the truth a bit, no?) and there is no “follow-up” on these stories. I don’t know how you will be conducting your research, but I personally would like to see some statistical results, not some dramatised “personal-interest” stories like in Hla Oo’s (or Pascal Khoo Thwe’s) writings. I would fIrst get some real data from Australian sources and then make a good “survey questionnaire” (anonymous) to be sent to a representative sample of Burmese in Australia to find out about why and how they left Burma and about their experiences in Australia. (this can perhaps even be done on-line?)
Good luck!
The Torah does not “require the extermination of various people who seem to have opposed the Jews”. That is the most ridiculous thing I ever heard. I do not think you have read the Torah
in liturgical Hebrew, so please don’t make foolish statements, unless you can provide evidence. In this case, you cannot.
All very true. Just prove yourself that “religion” just a “scapegoat”, at the best just a label.
It is social and societal issue.
Doesn’t make it easier or simpler though. Religion just groups a particular set of people so that someone or some entity can pit it against the different labelled ones.
Just one of many ways one can use to toy with lives- millions of lives- while having a hearty chuck oneself. Just as well. There is no shortage of mad simpletons in this world.
Some world 93, Glad to hear you enjoyed your frosties without having your liberties infringed upon. Many are not so lucky though. For many, merely eating a sandwich, reading the book animal farm, or participating in an open discussion about Thailand’s political future including the head of state is all it takes to have their freedoms totally destroyed.
Some have simply dissapeared while those that reappear have universally been intimidated into complete and utter silence regardless of how passionate they were in their political beliefs prior to their incarceration without trial.
But enjoy your beers, because those who were deemed ‘the right kind’ by the amart in the book animal farm, life remained grand. Its only all the rest that need to be deeply worried. For now at least, it seems your safe.
President Jokowi can easily overcome points 2 and 3 by just issuing a blanket agreement for all KPK investigations of DPR members and an instruction to all ministers that all DPR spending suggestions require MENKO endorsement.
In the company of such knowledgeable Thailand scholars, I feel quite out of my depth. Apparently your arguments have more credibility when you throw more 100 baht words into them. But what I know is that last night my friends and I ate spicy Thai food and drank beer at a streetside restaurant until 2am, and not once did I feel any of my individual liberties infringed upon. Must just be me…
Many Indonesians (especially politicians) are strongly of the belief, that if you repeat over and over again, the same political games, the outcome will eventually change. Well it does, eventually, and given Indonesia’s political, social, cultural and religious trajectory over the past 30 years, the change is mostly for the worse. The intellectual and technocratic skills of the Presidents, have steadily declined, and while I applaud Jokowi’s apparent integrity, a positive development, running Indonesia is far more complex than running Jakarta. On the other hand, I find it odious that Prabowo was even permitted to run at all; his candidacy, considering his skeleton-full closets, should never have been authorised in the first instance; thus, it was in one sense, Jokowi running against himself. That there is a dearth of highly qualified candidates, who exhibit Presidential qualities, is a commentary on Indonesia’s political system and how it arranges the nation’s priorities,
an arrangement still very much influenced by corrupt and unethical practices.
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Thailand’s Constitution: An Empty Text
“The Charter is built upon distrust of the layperson’s intellect. The National Assembly and the National Reform Committee are to be handpicked by the National Council of Peace and Order (NCPO). A member must be an expert in public, private, civic, academic, or other sectors. This model limits membership to only a small band of closely-connected top bureaucrats, businessmen, scholars, and a few other public figures. It reflects the belief that men are not all equal”
I feel this statement firmly hits the nail on the head. Its clear that the fascists see it as their birth rite to Lord over the populace with or without public approval.
Indeed the entire social structure, education system and culture are heavily and strategically geared towards engendering near total submissiveness towards seniority and authority.
This explains why the general populace remains incredibly passive while the Amart selectively weed out the the tender shoots of democracy in order to retain absolute control for themselves going forward.
A blatant assault on democracy and peoples freedoms such as this in the vast majority of other partially democratic countries would be met with extreme resistance in the streets regardless of the personal risks and military intimidation.
However in Thailand, the centuries of subservience training under the Amart system are again paying dividends and the most current heist seems to be proceeding quite smoothly.
Obviously the amart/fascist system will ultimately go up in flames like it has in so many other parts of the world. The element that’s exceedingly hard to predict is exactly when the Thai people will make the firm decision to stand up and fight for their right to be treated as equals.
Thailand’s Constitution: An Empty Text
More than 100 years ago the Australian Constitution was framed after years of public meetings held over the length and breadth of the country. Inclusiveness was the key to its acceptance.
Thai constitutions have always been exclusive, little more than the codification of the interests of the powerful. The fact that there have been so many Thai constitutions implies that they are not taken seriously by the powerful themselves. Laws are an inflexible encumbrance to the Mafiosi in fancy dress whose power comes out of the barrel of a gun.
The local-merit President
Wawan Mas’udi provides some very interesting information in his post.
Of all TNI officers-cum-businessmen whom Jokowi might have allied himself with, Panjaitan is not the worst. But holding forestry concessions in Nunukan? What kind of environmental devastation has taken place there? SBY has overseen a terrible era of deforestation in Indonesia,particularly in Kalimantan. And having mining and energy interests? That smacks of rent-seeking, a charge levelled against Prabowo Subianto, son of another, and better qualified, former Minister of Trade, on this website.
Panjaitan has had a strange career. He didn’t rise in TNI as much as he would have liked. Habibie did all he could do damage relations with Singapore after Lee Kuan Yew had tactlessly expressed alarm when Soeharto hinted Habibie would become vice-president in 1998.To clear up his own mess, Habibie plucked Panjaitan out of TNI to become Ambassador to Singapore. This is usually a very lucrative appointment. He must have learned a lot about trade there as well, because Gus Dur in turn lifted him out of Singapore to make Panjaitan Minister for Trade. One wonders what his qualifications for that appointment were. Then Panjaitan became a successful businessman, as any decent former Minister for Trade would.
Sure, he is not the worst ex-military partner Jokowi might have had. But that Panjaitan, who owed his military career entirely to Soeharto, should be Jokowi’s main business partner shows just how hard it is to break with the past in Indonesia.
Thailand’s Constitution: An Empty Text
The new “constitution” to be impoed upon the Thai people will clearly be based on the idea that Thailand is essentially, in the words of the learned Chula Ajarn Panitan, a “Submission Culture”, a “Submission Society”, whose 65 million citizens are most happy living, breathing and thinking in a permanent state of total submission.
The local-merit President
The election is now over (praise someone; you pick). While much may be now expected of Jokowi, the scale of expectations should not be disproportionate to Jokowi’s capacity to meet them, or once again, Indonesians will be disappointed. Former President Alejandro Toledo of Peru, an indigenous man of Spanish and Incan heritage, rose from a poor campesino and shoe-shine boy to become President of Peru. Sadly, HIS meteoric rise was not matched by a meteoric presidency. There is a lesson in this. President-elect Jokowi is a human being, and can only do what is in his capacity to do. The best way to honour his remarkable achievement, in rising from furniture maker, to President, is to set realistic goals, and not externalise your expectations upon his.
Happy Eid !
Thailand’s Constitution: An Empty Text
The much vaunted “People’s Constitution” of 1997 disqualified roughly 90% of Thais from standing for office on the basis of the belief that having a BA would somehow ensure… what exactly?
All the historical evidence seems to suggest that if you want to ensure that someone in Thailand is “for sale”, make sure they are educated. You really have to wonder what planet those people were on as they wrote that flimsy piece of legalistic fantasy.
And the exclusions listed in Section 109 of the same document seem to indicate that its framers were just as obsessed with “moral absolutism” as those working for the Junta.
As much as it obviously pains people to admit it, the so-called People’s Constitution should have been called the “Good People’s Constitution”.
This blatantly hypocritical aspect of Thai political culture shifts and shimmies but it never goes away. Until it does, the chance of Thailand going democratic is virtually nil.
It should also be pointed out that the list of eligible candidates for the NCPO-controlled NA/NRC is NOT an indication that “only an intellectual should rule”, but that only a crony should rule.
“Crony” and “intellectual” are not cognates in the English language, even when the cronies involved are “liberals”.
Critiquing yet another Thai “Constitution” as if it were actually going to form the basis of the Thai constitution (the unwritten, unshakable, undeniably REAL one) is a waste of time, and little more than yet another contribution to the set of artificial discourses that continue to block any meaningful discussion of Thai political reality.
Causes of intolerance and prejudice in Buddhism
“I usually look to New Mandala for intelligent I insightful articles. The only thing more ridiculous than this article are the comments”.
I agree that Mr Fuller seems to labour under the assumption that National Socialism is rampant among Buddhists. For the one war between Buddhist Sinhalese and the terrorist
LTTE Hindus, I can think of 400 Islamic conflicts of equal, or far worse, consequence. I know of no Buddhist Scripture that calls for the search for Hindus hiding behind Banyan Trees and stones, there being a well-known Hadith in Islam, analogous to my example above, advocating the killing of Jews, “hiding behind Qarkhad Trees and Stones”.
Finally, I find much of the commentary appropriately critical of Mr Fuller’s assumptions about Buddhism, and on that basis, I am certainly less critical of NM comments on this issue, than the piece that generated such “insidious” debate.
Causes of intolerance and prejudice in Buddhism
“What? Thailand had colonial days” ?
As a matter of fact, Thailand was colonised by Japan during WW II. You can see Thai stamps with Japanese Character O.P., well known to philatelists. The British and French had pacts with Thailand that prevented colonisation. The reason Thais are not enamoured of Khmers, is not because Thais dislike Cambodian food (well maybe they do, I don’t know), but because they were occupied by the ancient Khmers, for quite a while, and not treated especially well (and not due to Buddhism).
In any case, if you have followed Plan B’s comments, that generally relate to Burma, I therefore am assuming that his comment about colonial days was a reference to Burma, which was very much colonised by the British, for many years (I assume you have heard of Eric Blair/George Orwell ?). It is to Burma, I believe that Plan B, is making reference, and it is true, just as in Malaya, the British in Burma, had their likes and dislikes, often correlating towards the latter, with increasing skin pigmentation, more pronounced in Burma than in Malaya.
Study of Burmese migrant experiences in Australia
Yes, i was referring mainly to that particular post by Hla Oo, but I also remember reading a similar story a few years ago. There are a lot of Burmese immigrants in Australia and I am guessing that about a fourth of them are refugees who applied for political asylum. This is also true in places like Fort Wayne, Indiana and Bergen, Norway. Do you have reliable statistics about the numbers in Australia, where they were settled and also how this process of getting political asylum works. Have you already interviewed some of them?
Of course, the majority of Burmese-Australians are “regular” immigrants and many of them are “Anglos” who left Burma in the 50’s and the 60’s already (have you ever read the book “White Butterflies” by Colin McPhedran?) but you are interested in more recent Burmese immigrants, I assume. Part of the problem about doing research on immigration is that you don’t get the true (a bit boring) story of the average immigrant, because people want to talk more about “hardships” etc. and of course refugees can tell you more colourful stories (you can always bend the truth a bit, no?) and there is no “follow-up” on these stories. I don’t know how you will be conducting your research, but I personally would like to see some statistical results, not some dramatised “personal-interest” stories like in Hla Oo’s (or Pascal Khoo Thwe’s) writings. I would fIrst get some real data from Australian sources and then make a good “survey questionnaire” (anonymous) to be sent to a representative sample of Burmese in Australia to find out about why and how they left Burma and about their experiences in Australia. (this can perhaps even be done on-line?)
Good luck!
Causes of intolerance and prejudice in Buddhism
What? Thailand had colonial days?
Study of Burmese migrant experiences in Australia
Tocharian,
Are you referring to this Hla Oo’s post “Aung Moe and Amy: Sanctions’ Collateral Damages” at this link?
http://hlaoo1980.blogspot.com.au/2011/05/aung-moe-amy-sanctions-collateral.html
He wrote so many posts and I would like to know if there are any other posts he wrote about Burmese in Australia as I’m now writing a research paper.
Idul Fitri: the view from Yogyakarta
Congratz…. Good pictures,shot from a heart of understanding. Thanks for sharing.
Causes of intolerance and prejudice in Buddhism
The Torah does not “require the extermination of various people who seem to have opposed the Jews”. That is the most ridiculous thing I ever heard. I do not think you have read the Torah
in liturgical Hebrew, so please don’t make foolish statements, unless you can provide evidence. In this case, you cannot.
Causes of intolerance and prejudice in Buddhism
All very true. Just prove yourself that “religion” just a “scapegoat”, at the best just a label.
It is social and societal issue.
Doesn’t make it easier or simpler though. Religion just groups a particular set of people so that someone or some entity can pit it against the different labelled ones.
Just one of many ways one can use to toy with lives- millions of lives- while having a hearty chuck oneself. Just as well. There is no shortage of mad simpletons in this world.
Idul Fitri: the view from Yogyakarta
great photos. thanks for posting
Thai coup: The debate continues
Some world 93, Glad to hear you enjoyed your frosties without having your liberties infringed upon. Many are not so lucky though. For many, merely eating a sandwich, reading the book animal farm, or participating in an open discussion about Thailand’s political future including the head of state is all it takes to have their freedoms totally destroyed.
Some have simply dissapeared while those that reappear have universally been intimidated into complete and utter silence regardless of how passionate they were in their political beliefs prior to their incarceration without trial.
But enjoy your beers, because those who were deemed ‘the right kind’ by the amart in the book animal farm, life remained grand. Its only all the rest that need to be deeply worried. For now at least, it seems your safe.
House of Cards Part III
President Jokowi can easily overcome points 2 and 3 by just issuing a blanket agreement for all KPK investigations of DPR members and an instruction to all ministers that all DPR spending suggestions require MENKO endorsement.
Thai coup: The debate continues
In the company of such knowledgeable Thailand scholars, I feel quite out of my depth. Apparently your arguments have more credibility when you throw more 100 baht words into them. But what I know is that last night my friends and I ate spicy Thai food and drank beer at a streetside restaurant until 2am, and not once did I feel any of my individual liberties infringed upon. Must just be me…
House of Cards Part III
Selamat Hari Raya !!
Salaam Eid al-Fitr !!
House of Cards Part III
Many Indonesians (especially politicians) are strongly of the belief, that if you repeat over and over again, the same political games, the outcome will eventually change. Well it does, eventually, and given Indonesia’s political, social, cultural and religious trajectory over the past 30 years, the change is mostly for the worse. The intellectual and technocratic skills of the Presidents, have steadily declined, and while I applaud Jokowi’s apparent integrity, a positive development, running Indonesia is far more complex than running Jakarta. On the other hand, I find it odious that Prabowo was even permitted to run at all; his candidacy, considering his skeleton-full closets, should never have been authorised in the first instance; thus, it was in one sense, Jokowi running against himself. That there is a dearth of highly qualified candidates, who exhibit Presidential qualities, is a commentary on Indonesia’s political system and how it arranges the nation’s priorities,
an arrangement still very much influenced by corrupt and unethical practices.