You favorite target “The Chinese” similarly egregious in every criminal activities do not seem to have problem getting along.
Could it be the inherent Islamic intolerant culture/attitude, that do not accept any other religion in any respect, easily alienating Muslim from the rest to blame?
Precipitating any chance of conciliation anywhere in the world.
In Bangladesh, almost all the Buddhists are dead or nearly gone with the onslaught of similar rumor of Buddhist against Muslim in Myanmar, let alone not within Bangladesh. Yet almost nothing is mentioned in the West or NM except in Hla Oo blog.
May be Hla Oo is not the villain as you are trying very very hard to associate this ‘rumor” with.
That has benn tocharian’s consistent point. See, on the other hand, poor Burmese are not uniquely ” fairness” centred. (Is it white centred?) Again tocharian’s point, all Asians seem to be consumed by this fair skin vanity.
Then again, Hutu slaughtered neighbours and relatives ( Guiness book record of near one million in 3 short macabre weeks by hands and hands alone- hard manual work) using Chinese made machete specifically imported in advance for the purpose under the vague but knowing eyes of the Belgians and French and a constellation of the West planners as well as wannabe do- gooders, because of the lighter skinned Tutsi’s ” superior” status under their well cultivated Belgian masters. Oh the skin! Skin is every thing. Look at TV commercials. Vanity and skin are explosive combination.
I think your position is too radical. There are not only multinationals exploiting resources. Multinationals means also development, transfer of knowledge, creation of new jobs …
About the propaganda against Prabowo (who is labelled as anti-democratic, against human rights ..), I think an interpretation key can be found in the theory exposed by the Korean economist Ha-Joon Chang, in the book “Bad samaritans”. It’s not a narration against globalisation or multinationals but, let’s say, a warning against the myth of the free trade. The author shows how economic powers like US, Britain and Korea, in some historical periods, applied systematically protectionism and government intervention in industry to develop their economies, and only after they applied more liberal principles. The demand to apply tout court these principles to other countries sounds to him like being “bad samaritans” because actually the purpose is not to help but to create conditions of more trade dependencies. In this context, the demand of more democracy, human rights, political freedom, in some cases, is not really authentic but only a mean of pressure for the main economical purpose. Trade dependencies are the heart of the economy but, having in mind the warning of Ha-Joon Chang, they could be unbalanced. The solution is not to abandon the myth of the free trade but to moderate it, to create more healthy and balanced relationships.
Off course an analysis about the quality of democracy and human rights has to be encouraged, but it’s important not to be get fooled and to understand when it’s authentic and when it’s pure political propaganda.
Coming here often to look for ‘worthy’ pieces in regards to presidential election; I hv to say that I am rather disappointed. Quite unbalanced; almost feels like pitch black black guard vs super shiny white knight fairy tale albeit many of the heavy weight academics involved. Perhaps I am a lone wolf who feels that way. Nevertheless, thank you for the effort. Looking forward to hopefully more quality readings in the future.
On Panwaslu investigation that you are waiting for – Perhaps you yourself might also want to check w/ PPLN and KPU on rules and regulations in regards to voting mechanism for Indonesians overseas for your article to have more weights than just being a piece gossipy reading material. As much as I try to be sympathetic, it is seriously getting harder and harder for people like you who tend to write such a low quality piece full of smear campaign based on say so as Panwaslu’s clarification portrays a different picture than what you were trying to portray here. For someone who claims to be working for human rights; perhaps it is worth it for you to also remember those people from PPLN in Hong Kong. They are humans and they have rights NOT to have their good work being destroyed by a piece of slander. Or perhaps have you indeed no shame?
There have been some great lines in this campaign – but the best has to be French journalist Arnaud Richard-Ferraro’s label for Prabowo in Le Journal International:
Putin van Jawa
Quoting you – “I was simply stating the fact that there are now rumours saying that it was a deliberate ploy to sabotage Jokowi’s vote.”
Not too long ago Jokowi’s front boasted a clean slate win overseas. Laughable – as some where the victory was claimed hadn’t even started voting yet. Now there are rumours of deliberate ploy to sabotage him? Seriously?? I wonder what is next.. Perhaps big bad wolf in red riding hood datang curi kotak suara? *Can’t help being amused..* 🙂
I would like to spend some more words about this subject advancing some criticism (only as elements of discussion). As I said before, this method of analysing the 1998 events is brilliant, not focusing simply on records and chronological events but trying to find a logic, a deeper understanding. But unfortunately it’s too much constrained on the thesis that Prabowo was ideologically involved in the anti-chinese riots. For sure the riots against the Chinese community has nothing to do with the student movement: the latter was a more spontaneous protest while the anti-chinese riot was something more orchestrated. Besides the students were the ones who, in front of such violence, returned back on the street wearing their student uniform (which is normally highly respected by everybody in Indonesia) and screaming “we are all Indonesian, we don’t kill each other”.
What doesn’t convince me is the idea that this action was perpetrated to punish Chinese for dominating the economy or to portray them as a scapegoat for the financial crisis of 1997.
The link with Prabowo, according to this reconstruction, has to be found in his relationships with some frustrated Islamic leaders and with his family’s political-economical interests. Honestly it’s difficult to see a logical consequence even accepting these hypothesis. Besides Prabowo was not a key figure from the military point of view. When, during the last debate with Jokowi, he was asked about his involvement with the 1998 riots, he simply replied: “you have to ask my supervisor”. It seems a “non-answer” but actually it was a polite way to say that the key figure at that time was Wiranto.
The aim of the anti-chinese riot was to create an apocalyptical scenario not simply to perpetrate a punishment. I think the logic is different and new historical researches are necessary.
Too bad the Maramargyi have the “right” religion but the “wrong” looks. While the Rohingya make the human rights hit parade,
unfortunately, nobody has a clue about the Maramargyi, who are mistreated by the Tatmadaw and the Rohingya. For those who think being Buddhist is more than sufficient for survival in Myanmar, you have better thing again.
I was one of those people (can’t really call myself a pundit, but I am a university lecturer with 12 years experience in Thailand) who thought the military was smarter than to pull another coup. I was wrong, the generals are more arrogant and less intelligent than I thought. But I do predict that in another couple of months this junta will be in trouble.
Why? The economy will soon be in much worse shape than it already is. The tourism industry has collapsed (Bloomberg: Tourist arrivals in June in тАктАОThailandтАм plunged 37 percent, following a 22 percent drop in May). Pattaya and Hua Hin are empty of tourists, and all of the expensive five-star hotels are running promotions at unbelievably low rates. The Thai auto industry is selling only 30% of what it used to, and production of the popular Toyota Vios has been moved to Indonesia, with the loss of 2,000 factory jobs. Production of the Yaris is expected to be shifted there as well in the next 6 months. There are labor shortages in the service, manufacturing, and construction industries caused by the mass exodus of cheap, foreign migrant workers which have caused disruptions in production and forced shutdowns on some construction projects. Thai fishing and agricultural products are facing boycotts by the large Western food distributors such as Carre Foure and Tesco due to The Guardian’s widely publicized investigative journalism about the horrendous conditions in the fishing industry and its recent Tier 3 downgrade ranking on slave labor and human trafficking.
There is also an unreported clampdown going on against expat workers, with anyone with a visa overstay of just a day or two being denied re-entry into Thailand (it used to be just a 500 baht a day fine). The military and Immigration Police seem to be unconcerned about the repercussions this will have on decisions regarding the replacement of international managerial and professional workers. Moreover, I frankly don’t expect any new study abroad students from Europe or North America in the coming semester, who typically make up a sizeable minority of international students in the IC student body mix.
The official recession (two quarters of negative GDP) is all but certain, which will lead to more people being put out of work and very few jobs for new graduates. This means that it is virtually assured the lousy economy will lead the poll numbers down and down in the months ahead, and the free World Cup broadcasts and other “bread and circuses” handouts will be a long forgotten memory.
What will the generals do for their next act? They need to hurry up with the infrastructure spending to prevent a nasty downward vicious spiral, but I don’t foresee them being nimble enough in their decision making to move decisively. As evidence, they have put the brakes on the 60 bn baht Suvarnabumi International Airport expansion because they regard it as too expensive, despite acknowledging the need for it. I just don’t believe they can manage a modern economy effectively by fiat, especially in the coming turbulent economic times.
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Rumour, religion and riots in Mandalay
You favorite target “The Chinese” similarly egregious in every criminal activities do not seem to have problem getting along.
Could it be the inherent Islamic intolerant culture/attitude, that do not accept any other religion in any respect, easily alienating Muslim from the rest to blame?
Precipitating any chance of conciliation anywhere in the world.
In Bangladesh, almost all the Buddhists are dead or nearly gone with the onslaught of similar rumor of Buddhist against Muslim in Myanmar, let alone not within Bangladesh. Yet almost nothing is mentioned in the West or NM except in Hla Oo blog.
May be Hla Oo is not the villain as you are trying very very hard to associate this ‘rumor” with.
Bring on the ballot
Congrats and a big thanks to New Mandala. Your posts have made me laugh, cry, think, learn, and kick myself that I’m in New York.
Rohingya: denied the right to be human
That has benn tocharian’s consistent point. See, on the other hand, poor Burmese are not uniquely ” fairness” centred. (Is it white centred?) Again tocharian’s point, all Asians seem to be consumed by this fair skin vanity.
Then again, Hutu slaughtered neighbours and relatives ( Guiness book record of near one million in 3 short macabre weeks by hands and hands alone- hard manual work) using Chinese made machete specifically imported in advance for the purpose under the vague but knowing eyes of the Belgians and French and a constellation of the West planners as well as wannabe do- gooders, because of the lighter skinned Tutsi’s ” superior” status under their well cultivated Belgian masters. Oh the skin! Skin is every thing. Look at TV commercials. Vanity and skin are explosive combination.
Bring on the ballot
Great work throughout this exhausting campaign. This blog has been a very useful source of information and inspiration. Keep it up.
Anti-democratic? Prabowo’s response
Dear John Connor,
I think your position is too radical. There are not only multinationals exploiting resources. Multinationals means also development, transfer of knowledge, creation of new jobs …
About the propaganda against Prabowo (who is labelled as anti-democratic, against human rights ..), I think an interpretation key can be found in the theory exposed by the Korean economist Ha-Joon Chang, in the book “Bad samaritans”. It’s not a narration against globalisation or multinationals but, let’s say, a warning against the myth of the free trade. The author shows how economic powers like US, Britain and Korea, in some historical periods, applied systematically protectionism and government intervention in industry to develop their economies, and only after they applied more liberal principles. The demand to apply tout court these principles to other countries sounds to him like being “bad samaritans” because actually the purpose is not to help but to create conditions of more trade dependencies. In this context, the demand of more democracy, human rights, political freedom, in some cases, is not really authentic but only a mean of pressure for the main economical purpose. Trade dependencies are the heart of the economy but, having in mind the warning of Ha-Joon Chang, they could be unbalanced. The solution is not to abandon the myth of the free trade but to moderate it, to create more healthy and balanced relationships.
Off course an analysis about the quality of democracy and human rights has to be encouraged, but it’s important not to be get fooled and to understand when it’s authentic and when it’s pure political propaganda.
Presidential elections in Papua
Blame the Dutch and the British for that.
Bring on the ballot
Coming here often to look for ‘worthy’ pieces in regards to presidential election; I hv to say that I am rather disappointed. Quite unbalanced; almost feels like pitch black black guard vs super shiny white knight fairy tale albeit many of the heavy weight academics involved. Perhaps I am a lone wolf who feels that way. Nevertheless, thank you for the effort. Looking forward to hopefully more quality readings in the future.
Mayhem in Victoria Park
On Panwaslu investigation that you are waiting for – Perhaps you yourself might also want to check w/ PPLN and KPU on rules and regulations in regards to voting mechanism for Indonesians overseas for your article to have more weights than just being a piece gossipy reading material. As much as I try to be sympathetic, it is seriously getting harder and harder for people like you who tend to write such a low quality piece full of smear campaign based on say so as Panwaslu’s clarification portrays a different picture than what you were trying to portray here. For someone who claims to be working for human rights; perhaps it is worth it for you to also remember those people from PPLN in Hong Kong. They are humans and they have rights NOT to have their good work being destroyed by a piece of slander. Or perhaps have you indeed no shame?
Bring on the ballot
There have been some great lines in this campaign – but the best has to be French journalist Arnaud Richard-Ferraro’s label for Prabowo in Le Journal International:
Putin van Jawa
Mayhem in Victoria Park
Quoting you – “I was simply stating the fact that there are now rumours saying that it was a deliberate ploy to sabotage Jokowi’s vote.”
Not too long ago Jokowi’s front boasted a clean slate win overseas. Laughable – as some where the victory was claimed hadn’t even started voting yet. Now there are rumours of deliberate ploy to sabotage him? Seriously?? I wonder what is next.. Perhaps big bad wolf in red riding hood datang curi kotak suara? *Can’t help being amused..* 🙂
Bring on the ballot
Congtulations. You’re reporting has been fantastic. Thanks.
Siamese dreams in the time of the junta
What’s so curious about the name Raiwa?
Bring on the ballot
All splendid stuff – well done.
Bring on the ballot
Congratulations to the New Mandala team for a great effort.
Prabowo and his anti-Chinese past?
I would like to spend some more words about this subject advancing some criticism (only as elements of discussion). As I said before, this method of analysing the 1998 events is brilliant, not focusing simply on records and chronological events but trying to find a logic, a deeper understanding. But unfortunately it’s too much constrained on the thesis that Prabowo was ideologically involved in the anti-chinese riots. For sure the riots against the Chinese community has nothing to do with the student movement: the latter was a more spontaneous protest while the anti-chinese riot was something more orchestrated. Besides the students were the ones who, in front of such violence, returned back on the street wearing their student uniform (which is normally highly respected by everybody in Indonesia) and screaming “we are all Indonesian, we don’t kill each other”.
What doesn’t convince me is the idea that this action was perpetrated to punish Chinese for dominating the economy or to portray them as a scapegoat for the financial crisis of 1997.
The link with Prabowo, according to this reconstruction, has to be found in his relationships with some frustrated Islamic leaders and with his family’s political-economical interests. Honestly it’s difficult to see a logical consequence even accepting these hypothesis. Besides Prabowo was not a key figure from the military point of view. When, during the last debate with Jokowi, he was asked about his involvement with the 1998 riots, he simply replied: “you have to ask my supervisor”. It seems a “non-answer” but actually it was a polite way to say that the key figure at that time was Wiranto.
The aim of the anti-chinese riot was to create an apocalyptical scenario not simply to perpetrate a punishment. I think the logic is different and new historical researches are necessary.
Field notes on the Jokowi campaign
His response was a simple “nggak apa-apa” or “it doesn’t matter”. Answers were short and non-eventful.
He is simple
Demokrasi Indonesia Dalam Bahaya
benar sekali….. saya setuju…. @rizal
Rohingya: denied the right to be human
Too bad the Maramargyi have the “right” religion but the “wrong” looks. While the Rohingya make the human rights hit parade,
unfortunately, nobody has a clue about the Maramargyi, who are mistreated by the Tatmadaw and the Rohingya. For those who think being Buddhist is more than sufficient for survival in Myanmar, you have better thing again.
Demokrasi Indonesia Dalam Bahaya
Jangan lupa besok 9 Juli, gunakan hak pilih anda.. 1 menit silap maka akan rugi 5 tahun.
Thailand’s coup: same same but different?
I was one of those people (can’t really call myself a pundit, but I am a university lecturer with 12 years experience in Thailand) who thought the military was smarter than to pull another coup. I was wrong, the generals are more arrogant and less intelligent than I thought. But I do predict that in another couple of months this junta will be in trouble.
Why? The economy will soon be in much worse shape than it already is. The tourism industry has collapsed (Bloomberg: Tourist arrivals in June in тАктАОThailandтАм plunged 37 percent, following a 22 percent drop in May). Pattaya and Hua Hin are empty of tourists, and all of the expensive five-star hotels are running promotions at unbelievably low rates. The Thai auto industry is selling only 30% of what it used to, and production of the popular Toyota Vios has been moved to Indonesia, with the loss of 2,000 factory jobs. Production of the Yaris is expected to be shifted there as well in the next 6 months. There are labor shortages in the service, manufacturing, and construction industries caused by the mass exodus of cheap, foreign migrant workers which have caused disruptions in production and forced shutdowns on some construction projects. Thai fishing and agricultural products are facing boycotts by the large Western food distributors such as Carre Foure and Tesco due to The Guardian’s widely publicized investigative journalism about the horrendous conditions in the fishing industry and its recent Tier 3 downgrade ranking on slave labor and human trafficking.
There is also an unreported clampdown going on against expat workers, with anyone with a visa overstay of just a day or two being denied re-entry into Thailand (it used to be just a 500 baht a day fine). The military and Immigration Police seem to be unconcerned about the repercussions this will have on decisions regarding the replacement of international managerial and professional workers. Moreover, I frankly don’t expect any new study abroad students from Europe or North America in the coming semester, who typically make up a sizeable minority of international students in the IC student body mix.
The official recession (two quarters of negative GDP) is all but certain, which will lead to more people being put out of work and very few jobs for new graduates. This means that it is virtually assured the lousy economy will lead the poll numbers down and down in the months ahead, and the free World Cup broadcasts and other “bread and circuses” handouts will be a long forgotten memory.
What will the generals do for their next act? They need to hurry up with the infrastructure spending to prevent a nasty downward vicious spiral, but I don’t foresee them being nimble enough in their decision making to move decisively. As evidence, they have put the brakes on the 60 bn baht Suvarnabumi International Airport expansion because they regard it as too expensive, despite acknowledging the need for it. I just don’t believe they can manage a modern economy effectively by fiat, especially in the coming turbulent economic times.