Who in their right mind would hold all the adherents of a highly diverse faith of over a billion and a half people, spread across the globe, responsible for the actions of a few intolerant zealots on the fringe?
Even though Muslims don’t appreciate their religion being insulted, only a handful out of a billion+ are enraged enough by the insults to go burn, destroy and kill something.
Not all Christians bomb abortion clinics and not all Christians murder abortion doctors, you know.
And *forced conversion* is a misunderstood concept.
Malaysia now has a long well-earned tradition of discrimination and persecution of non-Malays (non-Muslims) and opposition parties. In the beginning (about 50 years ago), it was the objections of Malay nationalists, represented by UMNO, to the rising commercial influence of Malaysian-Chinese who were far more affluent than their Malay counterparts. Thus, the NEP (New Economic Policy) was instituted to raise the educational and material level of Malays, the result being a small Malay elite aligned with the Government, a small more liberal Malay urban middle-class, divided between pro and anti-Government Malays, and the bulk of Malays, mostly rural, who did not advance much at all. Malay royalty, as always, remained affluent and terribly spoiled. Now we come full circle: Malays dominate the political scene, a portion of the industrial and service economy, largely dominate cultural and religious debates, and dominate Malaysia’s judiciary, where edicts and findings, rarely favour non-Malays or opposition parties. Since the 1970s, Dr Mahathir has been a voice for Malay rights, Malay uniqueness, Malaysia as a “model” Islamic nation, and unfortunately, he has also remained a “model” anti-Semite and defender of Nazism. It seems that the “special rights” portion of he Malaysian Constitution is not enough for some Malays,
and thus we have two new Malaysian paradigms: The rise of the xenophobic, racist and anti-Semitic Malay NGO (as represented by Perkasa and Isma) and the increasing influence of PAS, the Ulama and Malays who advocate for stricter Islam, and even for Hudud. In the former case, Malay racists and bigots like Abdullah Zaik, Ibrahim Ali and Abdullah Tee advocate for a totally Malay-dominated society, and would just as soon, have no non-Malays in Malaysia at all. Tee, in particular, is virulently anti-Chinese, despite being Chinese (though a convert to Islam), pro-Fascist and vehemently anti-Semitic. Paranoia about Jews and Israel have been in Malaysia for about 30 years, they have now imply become systematised within UMNO and the NGOs, who blame Jews, Chinese, British, Americans, and practically everyone, but themselves, for Malay’s seemingly endless complaints; strangely, they do not complain about wealthy Malays, like Daim Zainuddin, Halim Saad and Mukhriz Mahathir. The Malay NGOs rely on paranoia, revisionist history, and stereotyping to ensure that Malays do not accept their fellow non-Malay citizens as equals, but as “Pendatang” (outsiders). The flavour of Malay NGO rhetoric is hyperbolic, racist and, occasionally, violent (threats to “crack some heads”).
The Islamic demagogues, often mixing Malay nationalism with Islamic fanaticism, aim to establish a Malay Caliphate, first encompassing Malaysia, and ideally, stretching from the southern Philippines, through Malaysia (and southern Thailand) and into Indonesia. The Shaf’i School of Sunni Islam, the traditional form of Islam, in Malaysia, has become more strident, more vociferous, and less tolerant. We are witnessing the transformation of a semi-moderate form of Islam, which had comprised
tolerant Malay society for 500 years, into a more “Arabised” form of Hanbali, if not Wahhabi, School of Islam, with strict hukum Shari’ah (Islamic Law), more devotion to internal and external Jihad (freelance Malay Jihadists fighting in Syria and Iraq), less tolerance for other minority Islamic sects (Sufi, Shi’a and Ahmadiyah Islam), and demands for Hudud and a Malay Caliphate. In such an environment, non-Muslims are, at best, tolerated, and more often, persecuted and subject to the same violence that Malay NGOs use to frighten, subjugate and silence
non-Muslims and non-Malays. It is clear that, analogous to Jews and Christians in historical Islamic societies for 1400 years, non-Muslims in Malaysia are increasing being perceived, and treated, as Dhimmi (second-class non-Muslim citizens) that must exhibit fealty to the dominant Islamic State or Caliphate, through taxes and restricted religious practices, such as not using the word “Allah”, already banned for non-Muslims in Malaysia. The trajectory of Malay dominance, already guaranteed in the Malaysian Constitution has morphed into Malay subjugation of minorities, as Malay Shaf’i Islam has also morphed into Islamic supremacy, and demands for even greater Islamic Law and Quranic injunctions being applied to Malaysian society. In this environment, Malasysian-Chinese, Malaysian-Indians, Eurasians, non-Malay Bumiputera, as well as liberal Malays opposed to Islamisation of Malaysia, are increasingly being treated like Dhimmi, persecuted, abused by weak Malaysian legal and government institutions, and facing a prospect of a future Malaysia, where the Constitution itself may well be modified to reflect an Islamic State, and not a secular nation, that the Constitution now mandates. This bodes very poorly for Malaysia’s progress, and calls into question, the very ideals set out
for Malaysia, by its founding father, Tunku Abdul Rahman, and the Reid Commission, who very much intended Malaysia to be a multicultural and multireligious secular nation, with a predominant, but not EXCLUSIVE, Islamic character. At present, these goals and dreams, are being sorely challenged, and if Ketuanan Melayu (Malay Supremacy) and Islamic revisionism continue in their present path, Malaysia will not resemble the nation it was, at independence, and in fact may not resemble anything at all, related to a tolerant, well-managed, corrupt-free and progressive nation. The Malay NGOs and Islamic supremacists, are doing everything in their power, to ensure that Malaysia does not.
Including yours?
Consider the sentence:
“This statement is false”
If it’s true it’s false and if it’s false it’s true. That’s known as Russel’s paradox in logic. It’s a Zen thing!
Tempo has already posted an online article today listing possible ministerial candidates. With probably unintended irony, there’s a phrase ‘nama calo menteri’ rather than ‘nama calon menteri’, although perhaps the real calo (tout, hustler)is the author of the article.
The list includes such somewhat un-fresh faces as Hendropriyono and Wiranto. Jokowi would make a great contribution to the renovation of Indonesian politics if he chose all his appointees on merit, however difficult it may be to judge a candidate’s merit in advance. He might thereby disappoint, however, all the leaders of the parties supporting him, as well as those now trying to clamber aboard his bandwagon, including SBY’s pitiful Democrat Party.
If he nonetheless pulled that off, we could even overlook his silly commitment to launch a ‘mental revolution’. In any case,unsuccessful ministerial candidates would get their own, individualised mental revolutions.
Two main defects in Mr Fuller analysis : “Western Buddhists” stand on violence from Buddhists to non-Buddhists in Burma and Sri Lanka is largely similar to that of Tibetan, Taiwanese or Korean Buddhist organization, all mahayanists. Is that similarity due to “mahayanism” or to the fact that those Asian organizations are active in the West ? I incline to the second answer. Besides that Buddhism in Theravada countries “created the state” and is more intimately linked to national identity than in China, Japan or Korea. See my work on Theravada Buddhism, Violence and the State. J.H.
A good interview. I may have missed something obvious, but who exactly was the interviewer?
Thank you, New Mandala, for your coverage of the election. The Australian press coverage of the election was, frankly, overall pretty poor.
Is there yet a map showing the results of the election province by province? I would have thought this was basic information, but I couldn’t find such a thing in the Indonesian press.
Ed and Marcus provided an excellent overview, but clearly had to skate over some of the challenges facing Jokowi.
I think what was already mentioned was:
-Internal tensions in the Jokowi camp, especially with Puan. Many within PDIP will be seeking positions and influence in a Jokowi government, and some will not get what they want.
-The challenge and expectations from the Jokowi volunteer camp. Whatever he does, Jokowi cannot possibly satisfy all of them.
-The economy, various challenges there. I would have mentioned the fuel subsidies, which remain a terrible perennial burden on the government.
The parliament will be as always hard to handle. He will not command a majority there, though it will not be all that difficult to attract Golkar – among others – by the lure of power. Abu Rizal Bakri’s leadership is already under threat, as he picked the wrong horse.
What wasn’t mentioned much was
-Foreign policy. This is one of the areas where Jokowi remains a mystery, a tabula rasa. He may be more reasonable towards Australia than Prabowo might have been, with all his military and East Timor baggage, but it’s by no means certain. If Megawati has any influence in this area, nationalistic attitudes can’t be ruled out. And arrogant Morrison-style refugee policies will continue to annoy any Indonesian leader.
-Who will Jokowi’s advisers be? This will be crucial in foreign policy and economic policy especially.
-He seems more liberal towards minorities than Prabowo, and what a relief it will be to have anyone but Suryadarma Ali as Religious Affairs Minister. But the disappointed expectations among the Muslim extremists who flocked to Prabowo’s banner may be a cause of trouble.
I would anticipate expression of disappointment with Jokowi within six months, both from Indonesians and foreigners, as the realities of exercising power start to bite.
He comes to power with a much goodwill, especially from outside, but to get anything meaningful done he will need (judicially) to sacrifice political capital. The amount of horse-trading and compromise in Indonesian politics will inevitably sully Jokowi’s clean image if he is to make progress.
What a welcome change, though, to have a new face in Indonesian politics – and this can be seen as a rebuke to the corrupt shopsoiled Indonesian political elite, and a rare defeat for them.
The doubt I have is whether Jokowi will prove to be a kind of Barack Obama, looking like a liberal, but ultimately pandering to the worst form of complacent rightwing politics, a disappointing clone of SBY, as Obama has been (in many respects) to G W Bush.
Two further thoughts:
Did Tommy Winata contribute to Jokowi’s campaign?
And by the way, congratulations to Marcus Mietzner on his bold and successful prediction, made (what was it?) about two years ago, of Jokowi’s win. I used to think it was lunacy to try to predict Indonesian politics!
After all the cyber-tosh pushed by alleged scholars, what happened?
Just like I told you, Prabowo learned from the ALP and did a Whitlam ‘we wuz robbed’ and ‘foreign powers conspired,’ nurturing a sense of grievance among supporters and maintaining the rage for the next election.
[…] Indonesia belum lepas dari bahaya. Dalam beberapa posting sebelumnya (disini, disini dan disini), kami sudah berkesimpulan bahwa demokrasi Indonesia paska Suharto berada dalam […]
All his abusive vulgarities aside, your Razzaman Khaliff totally misunderstands what I am saying.
Worse than that, he shows that he does not understand what understanding might mean.
For the record (though it should be obvious), I am not “putting people down” for not having enough “discourse”.
It ought to be blindingly clear that I am being both ironical and sceptical about all the “discourse-chatter” that goes on, esp. in Malaysia.
I am using the (all too fashionable) concept of discourse in this series both strategically and ironically to make a point, to advance an argument, even though I find it a much inflated and over-rated idea.
But I am insisting that it should be used, as I use it and as most people don’t, accurately:
to mean not just communicative exchange but a form of language in which things are made known (in a certain way), and through whose use certain kinds of power are created and projected.
As for Razzaman Khaliff, there is one positive thing that I can honestly say of him.
He is consistent.
He writes like an ignoramus.
And, on his own evidence provided by him, he is an ignoramus.
Yes the pro-Prabowo parties could block any bill they wanted to, but this will only happen if their “permanent coalition” stays together, which is very unlikely. Prabowo’s so-called permanent coalition will fall apart as soon as the temporary objectives of the parties no longer coincide.
And that won’t be long coming. Now that Golkar, PPP and Democrat are facing the prospects of the wilderness of opposition, they will suddenly find a great affinity with the parties supporting Jokowi (PDIP, Nasdem, PKB and Hanura). There were rumblings within Golkar against Bakrie and his support for Prabowo even before the election and after the failure of his strategy to win a place in the new government he’s in imminent danger of being rolled.
When naked opportunism rules everything, the adage about “no permanent friends, only permanent interests” is doubly true.
1)”trying so hard to look like Chinese or Koreans”.
2)”blaming everything on the Muslims”.
Your slip is really showing by those two very faulty assumptions.
Is there any attractive Chador clad Muslim that women in Myanmar can emulate or look up to, if so name one.
Oh I am sorry, forgot the fact that CHARDOR CLAD NEGATE/HIDE EVERY female Muslim features Myanmar women might potentially aspire to be.
Presently the sectarian strife are b/t Muslim and Buddhist. I have not seen any contributor faulting the Muslim even a miniscule bit of responsibility, YET.
I am surprise this post of your can not include any Chinese bashing.
Facebook 
Twitter 
Soundcloud 
Youtube 
Rss
Prabowo’s game plan
In my area, for no.2. Also government officers forced to get win no.2. Otherwise, will got mutation.
Causes of intolerance and prejudice in Buddhism
#11
“The only thing more ridiculous than this article are the comments.”
Will be more valid or even helpful with specifics.
Causes of intolerance and prejudice in Buddhism
Who in their right mind would hold all the adherents of a highly diverse faith of over a billion and a half people, spread across the globe, responsible for the actions of a few intolerant zealots on the fringe?
Even though Muslims don’t appreciate their religion being insulted, only a handful out of a billion+ are enraged enough by the insults to go burn, destroy and kill something.
Not all Christians bomb abortion clinics and not all Christians murder abortion doctors, you know.
And *forced conversion* is a misunderstood concept.
The more you read, the more you learn.
Salaam,Shalom, Peace.
Jokowi vs Prabowo: tight-run race a turning point
“within a hair’s breadth of winning power” You must have very “thick hair”. The difference is nearly 6% or 7.000.0000 votes !
The dhimmi and an old new “rationale”
Malaysia now has a long well-earned tradition of discrimination and persecution of non-Malays (non-Muslims) and opposition parties. In the beginning (about 50 years ago), it was the objections of Malay nationalists, represented by UMNO, to the rising commercial influence of Malaysian-Chinese who were far more affluent than their Malay counterparts. Thus, the NEP (New Economic Policy) was instituted to raise the educational and material level of Malays, the result being a small Malay elite aligned with the Government, a small more liberal Malay urban middle-class, divided between pro and anti-Government Malays, and the bulk of Malays, mostly rural, who did not advance much at all. Malay royalty, as always, remained affluent and terribly spoiled. Now we come full circle: Malays dominate the political scene, a portion of the industrial and service economy, largely dominate cultural and religious debates, and dominate Malaysia’s judiciary, where edicts and findings, rarely favour non-Malays or opposition parties. Since the 1970s, Dr Mahathir has been a voice for Malay rights, Malay uniqueness, Malaysia as a “model” Islamic nation, and unfortunately, he has also remained a “model” anti-Semite and defender of Nazism. It seems that the “special rights” portion of he Malaysian Constitution is not enough for some Malays,
and thus we have two new Malaysian paradigms: The rise of the xenophobic, racist and anti-Semitic Malay NGO (as represented by Perkasa and Isma) and the increasing influence of PAS, the Ulama and Malays who advocate for stricter Islam, and even for Hudud. In the former case, Malay racists and bigots like Abdullah Zaik, Ibrahim Ali and Abdullah Tee advocate for a totally Malay-dominated society, and would just as soon, have no non-Malays in Malaysia at all. Tee, in particular, is virulently anti-Chinese, despite being Chinese (though a convert to Islam), pro-Fascist and vehemently anti-Semitic. Paranoia about Jews and Israel have been in Malaysia for about 30 years, they have now imply become systematised within UMNO and the NGOs, who blame Jews, Chinese, British, Americans, and practically everyone, but themselves, for Malay’s seemingly endless complaints; strangely, they do not complain about wealthy Malays, like Daim Zainuddin, Halim Saad and Mukhriz Mahathir. The Malay NGOs rely on paranoia, revisionist history, and stereotyping to ensure that Malays do not accept their fellow non-Malay citizens as equals, but as “Pendatang” (outsiders). The flavour of Malay NGO rhetoric is hyperbolic, racist and, occasionally, violent (threats to “crack some heads”).
The Islamic demagogues, often mixing Malay nationalism with Islamic fanaticism, aim to establish a Malay Caliphate, first encompassing Malaysia, and ideally, stretching from the southern Philippines, through Malaysia (and southern Thailand) and into Indonesia. The Shaf’i School of Sunni Islam, the traditional form of Islam, in Malaysia, has become more strident, more vociferous, and less tolerant. We are witnessing the transformation of a semi-moderate form of Islam, which had comprised
tolerant Malay society for 500 years, into a more “Arabised” form of Hanbali, if not Wahhabi, School of Islam, with strict hukum Shari’ah (Islamic Law), more devotion to internal and external Jihad (freelance Malay Jihadists fighting in Syria and Iraq), less tolerance for other minority Islamic sects (Sufi, Shi’a and Ahmadiyah Islam), and demands for Hudud and a Malay Caliphate. In such an environment, non-Muslims are, at best, tolerated, and more often, persecuted and subject to the same violence that Malay NGOs use to frighten, subjugate and silence
non-Muslims and non-Malays. It is clear that, analogous to Jews and Christians in historical Islamic societies for 1400 years, non-Muslims in Malaysia are increasing being perceived, and treated, as Dhimmi (second-class non-Muslim citizens) that must exhibit fealty to the dominant Islamic State or Caliphate, through taxes and restricted religious practices, such as not using the word “Allah”, already banned for non-Muslims in Malaysia. The trajectory of Malay dominance, already guaranteed in the Malaysian Constitution has morphed into Malay subjugation of minorities, as Malay Shaf’i Islam has also morphed into Islamic supremacy, and demands for even greater Islamic Law and Quranic injunctions being applied to Malaysian society. In this environment, Malasysian-Chinese, Malaysian-Indians, Eurasians, non-Malay Bumiputera, as well as liberal Malays opposed to Islamisation of Malaysia, are increasingly being treated like Dhimmi, persecuted, abused by weak Malaysian legal and government institutions, and facing a prospect of a future Malaysia, where the Constitution itself may well be modified to reflect an Islamic State, and not a secular nation, that the Constitution now mandates. This bodes very poorly for Malaysia’s progress, and calls into question, the very ideals set out
for Malaysia, by its founding father, Tunku Abdul Rahman, and the Reid Commission, who very much intended Malaysia to be a multicultural and multireligious secular nation, with a predominant, but not EXCLUSIVE, Islamic character. At present, these goals and dreams, are being sorely challenged, and if Ketuanan Melayu (Malay Supremacy) and Islamic revisionism continue in their present path, Malaysia will not resemble the nation it was, at independence, and in fact may not resemble anything at all, related to a tolerant, well-managed, corrupt-free and progressive nation. The Malay NGOs and Islamic supremacists, are doing everything in their power, to ensure that Malaysia does not.
Causes of intolerance and prejudice in Buddhism
Including yours?
Consider the sentence:
“This statement is false”
If it’s true it’s false and if it’s false it’s true. That’s known as Russel’s paradox in logic. It’s a Zen thing!
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
Jokowi vs Prabowo: tight-run race a turning point
Tempo has already posted an online article today listing possible ministerial candidates. With probably unintended irony, there’s a phrase ‘nama calo menteri’ rather than ‘nama calon menteri’, although perhaps the real calo (tout, hustler)is the author of the article.
The list includes such somewhat un-fresh faces as Hendropriyono and Wiranto. Jokowi would make a great contribution to the renovation of Indonesian politics if he chose all his appointees on merit, however difficult it may be to judge a candidate’s merit in advance. He might thereby disappoint, however, all the leaders of the parties supporting him, as well as those now trying to clamber aboard his bandwagon, including SBY’s pitiful Democrat Party.
If he nonetheless pulled that off, we could even overlook his silly commitment to launch a ‘mental revolution’. In any case,unsuccessful ministerial candidates would get their own, individualised mental revolutions.
Causes of intolerance and prejudice in Buddhism
Having Buddhism as a state religion is obviously no protection against intolerance, nor yet authoritarian and even totalitarian forms of government.
Causes of intolerance and prejudice in Buddhism
Two main defects in Mr Fuller analysis : “Western Buddhists” stand on violence from Buddhists to non-Buddhists in Burma and Sri Lanka is largely similar to that of Tibetan, Taiwanese or Korean Buddhist organization, all mahayanists. Is that similarity due to “mahayanism” or to the fact that those Asian organizations are active in the West ? I incline to the second answer. Besides that Buddhism in Theravada countries “created the state” and is more intimately linked to national identity than in China, Japan or Korea. See my work on Theravada Buddhism, Violence and the State. J.H.
Jokowi vs Prabowo: tight-run race a turning point
A good interview. I may have missed something obvious, but who exactly was the interviewer?
Thank you, New Mandala, for your coverage of the election. The Australian press coverage of the election was, frankly, overall pretty poor.
Is there yet a map showing the results of the election province by province? I would have thought this was basic information, but I couldn’t find such a thing in the Indonesian press.
Ed and Marcus provided an excellent overview, but clearly had to skate over some of the challenges facing Jokowi.
I think what was already mentioned was:
-Internal tensions in the Jokowi camp, especially with Puan. Many within PDIP will be seeking positions and influence in a Jokowi government, and some will not get what they want.
-The challenge and expectations from the Jokowi volunteer camp. Whatever he does, Jokowi cannot possibly satisfy all of them.
-The economy, various challenges there. I would have mentioned the fuel subsidies, which remain a terrible perennial burden on the government.
The parliament will be as always hard to handle. He will not command a majority there, though it will not be all that difficult to attract Golkar – among others – by the lure of power. Abu Rizal Bakri’s leadership is already under threat, as he picked the wrong horse.
What wasn’t mentioned much was
-Foreign policy. This is one of the areas where Jokowi remains a mystery, a tabula rasa. He may be more reasonable towards Australia than Prabowo might have been, with all his military and East Timor baggage, but it’s by no means certain. If Megawati has any influence in this area, nationalistic attitudes can’t be ruled out. And arrogant Morrison-style refugee policies will continue to annoy any Indonesian leader.
-Who will Jokowi’s advisers be? This will be crucial in foreign policy and economic policy especially.
-He seems more liberal towards minorities than Prabowo, and what a relief it will be to have anyone but Suryadarma Ali as Religious Affairs Minister. But the disappointed expectations among the Muslim extremists who flocked to Prabowo’s banner may be a cause of trouble.
I would anticipate expression of disappointment with Jokowi within six months, both from Indonesians and foreigners, as the realities of exercising power start to bite.
He comes to power with a much goodwill, especially from outside, but to get anything meaningful done he will need (judicially) to sacrifice political capital. The amount of horse-trading and compromise in Indonesian politics will inevitably sully Jokowi’s clean image if he is to make progress.
What a welcome change, though, to have a new face in Indonesian politics – and this can be seen as a rebuke to the corrupt shopsoiled Indonesian political elite, and a rare defeat for them.
The doubt I have is whether Jokowi will prove to be a kind of Barack Obama, looking like a liberal, but ultimately pandering to the worst form of complacent rightwing politics, a disappointing clone of SBY, as Obama has been (in many respects) to G W Bush.
Two further thoughts:
Did Tommy Winata contribute to Jokowi’s campaign?
And by the way, congratulations to Marcus Mietzner on his bold and successful prediction, made (what was it?) about two years ago, of Jokowi’s win. I used to think it was lunacy to try to predict Indonesian politics!
Political economy of Thai political pathologies
Not exactly the Hitler Youth – indeed, a bit of a stretch – but, nevertheless, should be read in combination with this also from today’s Post http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/421856/king-backs-interim-charter
If you get the chance you can add a thumbs ‘up’ or ‘down’ to Spiceman’s (ironical, perhaps) comment. A rare opportunity indeed.
The Grand Finale
Where’s my prize then?
After all the cyber-tosh pushed by alleged scholars, what happened?
Just like I told you, Prabowo learned from the ALP and did a Whitlam ‘we wuz robbed’ and ‘foreign powers conspired,’ nurturing a sense of grievance among supporters and maintaining the rage for the next election.
Prize please, I can be generous in victory.
Political economy of Thai political pathologies
9 kings makes more sense because 9 is a lucky number (according to their belief system) for more than one reason. Ten is not.
Don’t be fooled – Prabowo (still) wants to get rid of direct presidential elections
[…] Indonesia belum lepas dari bahaya. Dalam beberapa posting sebelumnya (disini, disini dan disini), kami sudah berkesimpulan bahwa demokrasi Indonesia paska Suharto berada dalam […]
Malaysia: A discourse-impoverished society
All his abusive vulgarities aside, your Razzaman Khaliff totally misunderstands what I am saying.
Worse than that, he shows that he does not understand what understanding might mean.
For the record (though it should be obvious), I am not “putting people down” for not having enough “discourse”.
It ought to be blindingly clear that I am being both ironical and sceptical about all the “discourse-chatter” that goes on, esp. in Malaysia.
I am using the (all too fashionable) concept of discourse in this series both strategically and ironically to make a point, to advance an argument, even though I find it a much inflated and over-rated idea.
But I am insisting that it should be used, as I use it and as most people don’t, accurately:
to mean not just communicative exchange but a form of language in which things are made known (in a certain way), and through whose use certain kinds of power are created and projected.
As for Razzaman Khaliff, there is one positive thing that I can honestly say of him.
He is consistent.
He writes like an ignoramus.
And, on his own evidence provided by him, he is an ignoramus.
House of Cards Part 2
Yes the pro-Prabowo parties could block any bill they wanted to, but this will only happen if their “permanent coalition” stays together, which is very unlikely. Prabowo’s so-called permanent coalition will fall apart as soon as the temporary objectives of the parties no longer coincide.
And that won’t be long coming. Now that Golkar, PPP and Democrat are facing the prospects of the wilderness of opposition, they will suddenly find a great affinity with the parties supporting Jokowi (PDIP, Nasdem, PKB and Hanura). There were rumblings within Golkar against Bakrie and his support for Prabowo even before the election and after the failure of his strategy to win a place in the new government he’s in imminent danger of being rolled.
When naked opportunism rules everything, the adage about “no permanent friends, only permanent interests” is doubly true.
Political economy of Thai political pathologies
Hitler Youth is alive and well in the Thailand:
http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/421872/teaching-our-children-how-to-kowtow
Causes of intolerance and prejudice in Buddhism
1)”trying so hard to look like Chinese or Koreans”.
2)”blaming everything on the Muslims”.
Your slip is really showing by those two very faulty assumptions.
Is there any attractive Chador clad Muslim that women in Myanmar can emulate or look up to, if so name one.
Oh I am sorry, forgot the fact that CHARDOR CLAD NEGATE/HIDE EVERY female Muslim features Myanmar women might potentially aspire to be.
Presently the sectarian strife are b/t Muslim and Buddhist. I have not seen any contributor faulting the Muslim even a miniscule bit of responsibility, YET.
I am surprise this post of your can not include any Chinese bashing.
Snapshots of results day
Awesome photos. What a day!