Great article mas Usman. Although i am wondering why the kidnapped victim(s) is or are now Gerindra cadres. Is this a simple example of Stockholm Syndrome??
The moneyed elite do not care whether they reck the Tai economy in their pursuit to grab power by undemocratic means, trashing democracy and the Rule of Law, since they probably have large chunks of their wealth invested abroad in Swiss and British banks. It is the less fortunate and poor that will suffer through the loss of menial jobs in the service sector when tourists have had enough of this travesty of justice and start staying away in droves.
Section 268. The Prime Minister and a Minister shall not perform any act in violation of the provisions of section 266, except the performance of powers and duties for the administration of State affairs as stated to the National Assembly or as provided by law.
Section 182. The ministership of an individual Minister terminates upon:
(7) having done an act prohibited by section 267, section 268 or section 269;
Consequently,the prime ministership of PM Yingluck terminates.
Belinda Cranston and James Giggacher, if that happens in Australia, will you call it ‘coup’? What Yingluck did was ‘unconstitutional’.
Section 266. A member of the House of Representatives and a senator shall not, through the status or position of member of the House of Representatives or senator, interfere or intervene the following matters, directly or indirectly, for the benefit of his own or other persons or of political party:(2) the recruitment, appointment, reshuffle, transfer, promotion and elevation of the salary scale of a government official holding a permanent position or receiving salary and not being a political official, an official or employee of a government agency, State agency, State enterprise or local government organisation;
Further proof that even the destruction of the Thai economy and rural society will not dampen the efforts of the old-money/military elite to hold onto power. The power grab is near completion, and hard-working Thais have little to look forward to than to continue to watch profoundly corrupt, draft-dodging, murderous elitist hogs feed at the public trough.
Also by an ANU expert who avers it is merely ‘gifts giving’ and that should be what vote-buying (in Thailand) should be appropriately termed. A ‘constitutional coup’ and ‘attempted’?
The Thai ancien regime ( military, monarchy, right wing conservatives), like their Burmese counterpart (read HM Mintaragyi Than Shwe in place of monarchy) have got it made in their own inimitable ways, haven’t they? The Thousand Year Reich pales in comparison.
I think this article is telling the truth with the proves that have been known of some people. those three of candidates at least need to give a better and fair explanation on what they have been doing related to Human rights violations that happened in the past 3-4 decades.
probably this article must be translated in Indonesian, so ordinary people will learn from this great article, and rethink of who deserves th be the next leader, leading this nation. I really appreciate your work.
There is a Myanmar dream : peace, land and food. Not aiming high, nor based on ambition and greed, though still proving unattainable.
A melting pot from the start especially in towns and cities, Burmese/Myanmar has been the unifying identity with ethnicity breakdown confined to a rare topic of conversation among families of mixed races.
No more unusual than in American or British households where your colour may be the main distinguishing factor though not in Burma with all shades of brown between dark and fair.
Naturally, isolated villages and hills communities will retain strong ethnic identities but even some of these people can be mixed race given the diversity in ethnicity of the countryside both indigenous (minorities within a minority) and immigrant Chinese or Indian.
It’s absolutely a judicial coup. Any analysis of this court’s decisions shows it for what it is; a simple extension of the Democrats and their royalist supporters. Unfortunately this appalling court along with the PDAC and its motley collection of supporters including the “rubbish collection” man will plug thailand into violence and even a civil war. Perhaps it just has to happen this way.
This is a great article but surprising in that it only touches on a brief (yet important) part of Prabowo’s human rights history. Maybe in the interests of brevity his other infamous crimes – such as impersonating the Red Cross in West Papua or his involvement in the Kraras and Santa Cruz massacres in Timor-Leste – have been left out.
Well as was pointed out in another article Thingyan is also a time for “love-making” and who cares (not only when you’re drunk and groping blindly) whether it’s inter-faith, cross-cultural, inter-tribal, cross-gender, inter-racial, same-sex, whatever. So let’s be merry and mix happily since it’s all good for “nation-building” and for fulfilling the human Dream (Myanmarese or American or Chinese, who cares!)
Some more positive ideas about the census were circulating at the time. He’s some of the modest ones that I was floating. There was also this piece by Nirmal Ghosh.
There was, as ever, plenty of doom-and-gloom circulating. And perhaps the doomsayers will, in the end, still get what they feared. But — with the rare exception of the obvious places where pretty much everything is dire — it seems to me that the census, so far, has proved relatively successful. For mine, the issue of Rohingya nomenclature/counting is distinctive and I wouldn’t judge the whole exercise on that basis alone. Counting in other ethnic areas is going to be interesting, and I like this idea you’ve suggested about deviation from the head of family’s preferences — that will be well worth serious analytical attention.
As an aside, the timing right before Thingyan meant that plenty of folks spent the subsequent week drunk or saturated or in hiding or abroad. For defusing tension about the count, that was a smart and largely unheralded move.
Apparently it really is an Inquisition now, in Malaysia, as several Malay NGOs have accused some Malays of being “Conversos” (Christians at night, and Muslims during the day), exactly what Queen Isabella said about Jews, before they were burned alive. I would like to apprise Isma, Perkasa, and like-minded NGOs, that false accusations, and engaging in Islamic Taqiyya, forbidden in Sunni Islam, is subject to prosecution in Shari’a Court. Do Malay Muslim fanatics really want to face the actual charges of
Heresy and Taqiyya, that they falsely claim of their invisible and illusory enemies ?
Who, here, is TRULY defaming Islam and who
is truly innocent ? I would hope, Malaysians
of sane mind and body, would take a hard look at nearby Brunei, and ask themselves this very question. Does Malaysia really want to be rated even lower than Iran, Sudan, Pakistan, Syria and Saudi Arabia, on the annual UN Human Rights Reports ? Keep it up,
and you will.
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Wither Human Rights?
Great article mas Usman. Although i am wondering why the kidnapped victim(s) is or are now Gerindra cadres. Is this a simple example of Stockholm Syndrome??
3R: race, religion and royalty in Malaysia
It is good to know that some research institutes outside Malaysia are interested in Malaysian economy and politics.
Myanmar’s unreliable narrators
Census, Citizenship, Ethnicity and Heritage are by used interchangeably by Matthew Gibbon in this article.
These are all related entities some narrowly as in Census to others.
Citizenship is defined by the immigration Laws and statues of each countries. Myanmar system archaic yet must be respected.
Changes to this system clearly belong to Hlutthaw. Census is just the first step to proper representation.
Wither Human Rights?
[…] http://www.newmandala.org/2014/05/08/wither-human-rights/ […]
A coup by any other name…
The moneyed elite do not care whether they reck the Tai economy in their pursuit to grab power by undemocratic means, trashing democracy and the Rule of Law, since they probably have large chunks of their wealth invested abroad in Swiss and British banks. It is the less fortunate and poor that will suffer through the loss of menial jobs in the service sector when tourists have had enough of this travesty of justice and start staying away in droves.
A coup by any other name…
Section 268. The Prime Minister and a Minister shall not perform any act in violation of the provisions of section 266, except the performance of powers and duties for the administration of State affairs as stated to the National Assembly or as provided by law.
Section 182. The ministership of an individual Minister terminates upon:
(7) having done an act prohibited by section 267, section 268 or section 269;
Consequently,the prime ministership of PM Yingluck terminates.
A coup by any other name…
Belinda Cranston and James Giggacher, if that happens in Australia, will you call it ‘coup’? What Yingluck did was ‘unconstitutional’.
Section 266. A member of the House of Representatives and a senator shall not, through the status or position of member of the House of Representatives or senator, interfere or intervene the following matters, directly or indirectly, for the benefit of his own or other persons or of political party:(2) the recruitment, appointment, reshuffle, transfer, promotion and elevation of the salary scale of a government official holding a permanent position or receiving salary and not being a political official, an official or employee of a government agency, State agency, State enterprise or local government organisation;
A coup by any other name…
Further proof that even the destruction of the Thai economy and rural society will not dampen the efforts of the old-money/military elite to hold onto power. The power grab is near completion, and hard-working Thais have little to look forward to than to continue to watch profoundly corrupt, draft-dodging, murderous elitist hogs feed at the public trough.
A coup by any other name…
Also by an ANU expert who avers it is merely ‘gifts giving’ and that should be what vote-buying (in Thailand) should be appropriately termed. A ‘constitutional coup’ and ‘attempted’?
Wither Human Rights?
A detailed examination of Prabowo’s role in East Timor was recently published in Inside Indonesia by Gerry van Klinken:
http://www.insideindonesia.org/current-edition/prabowo-and-human-rights
A coup by any other name…
The Thai ancien regime ( military, monarchy, right wing conservatives), like their Burmese counterpart (read HM Mintaragyi Than Shwe in place of monarchy) have got it made in their own inimitable ways, haven’t they? The Thousand Year Reich pales in comparison.
Wither Human Rights?
I think this article is telling the truth with the proves that have been known of some people. those three of candidates at least need to give a better and fair explanation on what they have been doing related to Human rights violations that happened in the past 3-4 decades.
probably this article must be translated in Indonesian, so ordinary people will learn from this great article, and rethink of who deserves th be the next leader, leading this nation. I really appreciate your work.
Myanmar’s unreliable narrators
There is a Myanmar dream : peace, land and food. Not aiming high, nor based on ambition and greed, though still proving unattainable.
A melting pot from the start especially in towns and cities, Burmese/Myanmar has been the unifying identity with ethnicity breakdown confined to a rare topic of conversation among families of mixed races.
No more unusual than in American or British households where your colour may be the main distinguishing factor though not in Burma with all shades of brown between dark and fair.
Naturally, isolated villages and hills communities will retain strong ethnic identities but even some of these people can be mixed race given the diversity in ethnicity of the countryside both indigenous (minorities within a minority) and immigrant Chinese or Indian.
A coup by any other name…
It’s absolutely a judicial coup. Any analysis of this court’s decisions shows it for what it is; a simple extension of the Democrats and their royalist supporters. Unfortunately this appalling court along with the PDAC and its motley collection of supporters including the “rubbish collection” man will plug thailand into violence and even a civil war. Perhaps it just has to happen this way.
Wither Human Rights?
This is a great article but surprising in that it only touches on a brief (yet important) part of Prabowo’s human rights history. Maybe in the interests of brevity his other infamous crimes – such as impersonating the Red Cross in West Papua or his involvement in the Kraras and Santa Cruz massacres in Timor-Leste – have been left out.
Myanmar’s unreliable narrators
Cool! I hadn’t seen that one by Ghosh yet.
Very much looking forward to when the data is released.
Cheers, -thomas
Wither Human Rights?
Whither human rights ? It’s all gone to Brunei, of course.
Myanmar’s unreliable narrators
Well as was pointed out in another article Thingyan is also a time for “love-making” and who cares (not only when you’re drunk and groping blindly) whether it’s inter-faith, cross-cultural, inter-tribal, cross-gender, inter-racial, same-sex, whatever. So let’s be merry and mix happily since it’s all good for “nation-building” and for fulfilling the human Dream (Myanmarese or American or Chinese, who cares!)
Myanmar’s unreliable narrators
Some more positive ideas about the census were circulating at the time. He’s some of the modest ones that I was floating. There was also this piece by Nirmal Ghosh.
There was, as ever, plenty of doom-and-gloom circulating. And perhaps the doomsayers will, in the end, still get what they feared. But — with the rare exception of the obvious places where pretty much everything is dire — it seems to me that the census, so far, has proved relatively successful. For mine, the issue of Rohingya nomenclature/counting is distinctive and I wouldn’t judge the whole exercise on that basis alone. Counting in other ethnic areas is going to be interesting, and I like this idea you’ve suggested about deviation from the head of family’s preferences — that will be well worth serious analytical attention.
As an aside, the timing right before Thingyan meant that plenty of folks spent the subsequent week drunk or saturated or in hiding or abroad. For defusing tension about the count, that was a smart and largely unheralded move.
Best wishes to all,
Nich
A Malaysian Inquisition?
Apparently it really is an Inquisition now, in Malaysia, as several Malay NGOs have accused some Malays of being “Conversos” (Christians at night, and Muslims during the day), exactly what Queen Isabella said about Jews, before they were burned alive. I would like to apprise Isma, Perkasa, and like-minded NGOs, that false accusations, and engaging in Islamic Taqiyya, forbidden in Sunni Islam, is subject to prosecution in Shari’a Court. Do Malay Muslim fanatics really want to face the actual charges of
Heresy and Taqiyya, that they falsely claim of their invisible and illusory enemies ?
Who, here, is TRULY defaming Islam and who
is truly innocent ? I would hope, Malaysians
of sane mind and body, would take a hard look at nearby Brunei, and ask themselves this very question. Does Malaysia really want to be rated even lower than Iran, Sudan, Pakistan, Syria and Saudi Arabia, on the annual UN Human Rights Reports ? Keep it up,
and you will.