To the ignorant yahoos who are quick to throw stones!
10th Standard = 11th Grade
Therefore 3rd Standard is 4th Grade.
Thank you all for your contributions, a whole citizenry plight (wanting to be educated at any cost) is instead highlighted by the government that is the product of useless careless west and shameless pandering of New Mandala contributors like yourselves.
As for the others, you will need to ‘walk a mile with the shoes’ of the most vulnerable now having a better chance then when the useless careless west sanction was in progress.
The west will do better to atone for the iniquities with needed assistance instead of lamenting how much better it was.
The U NU years were neither golden nor anywhere comparable.
Seems to be a misleading summary in the final sentence – surely it would be more straightforward to say as follows:
Third, Thai electorates have shown that, with a voter turnout of only 47%,more than half of the country signaled that it didn’t like what was on offer (n.b. the elections were boycotted by the main opposition Democrat Party) enough to bother voting (especially as the figures used do not include the southern provinces which are strongly anti-government).
Yes, textbook print/binding quality leaves much to be desired, but the price is right. Rosalie ought to look homeward angel at your own country: lots of kids in Texas and NM don’t even have textbooks because the districts cannot afford them. Not so in Myanmar where I bought those western-maligned texts for a song to give away to those who needed them. As for content: Patriotic Myanmars don’t look at SSA/KNU terrorist-narco-human-weapons-traffickers as heroes. They study the history of Myanmar learning about Maha Bandoola, Col. Batoo,Gen. Aung San and the Martyrs just as we do our founding fathers. The pride in their country is very evident.
Peter Cohen may be making up his own facts: education in Myanmar is almost universal, at least through elementary grades, making them the equal of US HS grads.It is true, though, that the SSA/KNU/KNPP terrorists do target schools in “enemy” territory for bombings, assassinations. Such freedom fighters all Myanmar can do without.
It is true, though, that literacy in Myanmar will drop: texting, cellphoning, and other electronic narcotizing behavior will see to that. Pretty soon they’ll be as stupid as we are.
A real cosmologist would regard all the cosmological stuff here as superstition. An evidence-based analysis would concentrate on patronage. The lies and nonsense that patrons depend on for their power over uneducated people need to be analysed and exposed, not embraced.
Malaysia’s involvement as broker for the GPH-Bangsamoro peace deal only complicated things for the PH government regarding its Sabah claim. Malaysia will do everything to protect its interests. Issues like these should be resolve peacefully and thru diplomatic channels but you also need to have the military strength to back it up.
Not Semantic or scholastic pedantry, and not devoid of any historical context, just simply lacking very much relevancy in the present,
when religious devotion would seem to supersede presupposed ‘royal’ ancestral lineage. As the Constitution may well soon include several clauses mandating various Hukum Shari’a (Islamic Laws) requirements to
meet the conditions of Ketuanan Melayu, daulat, in and of itself, may be insufficient to meet the criteria necessary to be a member of the New Malay Order, defined more on how large the prayer bump on your forehead is, than the number of jewels and keris bestowed with kedaulatan by putative royal ancestors.
It’s becoming beyond tiresome to see Panitan appear on such programmes with absolutely no mention of his not exactly fleeting role as the Democrat government’s main mouthpiece. AJ’s “Inside Story” normally (and largely successfully) sets out to achieve a balance of input; pairing Panitan & Kasit here is a jaw-dropping fail by the producers.
Everything is mutually and bilaterally beneficial,except the Undeserved Disparities of Income * and Conduct , Competency in the Delivery Systems between them and their Leaders.
These are of Grave Concerns to the Rakyat and the Children of Malaysia
….and are Not truly appreciated by Malaysians.
* Singapore’s Income Per Capita= US$ 60,000. 00
Over 6 Times Greater Compared to Malaysia = US$ 9,000.00.
…and the Professor should be specially aware of our prospect and perspective without referring it.
Sadly, our Malaysian political leaders are ashame to talk about it for they are incapable of doing much to improve it , anytime soon.
In Malaysia, when Umno Baru tried, and failed to reform, given ample time and chances, the Rakyat will continue to struggle for change massively (as proven in Bersih 3), in a less disruptive and orderly manner, that have little effect on the investment climate or loss of income. Violence and Provocations in Protests are the last things the people want or will initiate unless planted by the extremists or by the power-that-be that encourages or condones.
In Southern Thailand,the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN)should never be named in such way that it resembles a link to the Barisan Nasional in Malaysia.
PM Najib already asserted to the Thai that ”… the message is clear that the people of Thailand must be loyal to the country.”
Why create the unnecessary suspicion of mistrust for name sake ?
Priority is providing and in meeting the Needs and Want of the people, improving their income with economic growth and productive investments, that comes with jobs creations and better living standard, rather fiddling with religions and race that often resulted with backlashes
These are some perspectives from both Thailand and Malaysia in looking for sustained peace and security,and better living conditions for the people on both side.
In accordance with very recent change in toning down of sucking up the military in different clothes, this article, ever so mildly critical of the current “civiliannnn government led by REFORMIST Thamada Gyi Thein Sein”, is welcome addition to show the displeasure to their charges by the most honorable “International Communities”.
Surely though as a connoisseur of teaching factories- big and small, the author knows the quality of education is not much to do with the make of paper or brilliance of drawings therein.
“As a scholar of curriculum studies and an anthropologist of education, it seems to me that there is a tension between objectives such as teaching students the “right idea based on Myanmar national characteristics” and asking them to “think for themselves.” ”
Not just in Burma though, everywhere teaching is indeed used shamelessly and almost solely as a tool for indoctrination of the tender minds. This means whatever is used to replace the current system is bound to persuade the unsuspecting punters to believe in some system or other under the guise of “Free thoughts and expression”.
Taking as the highly biased education almost everywhere with the uniform rise of material culture and lip service self restraint and “love of environment”, likely outlook for current system of education in Burma is dire as ever regardless of the quality of print material.
More than half a century of nationalistic (parochial) fascist indoctrination and forced feeding of such ideas among various nationalities has indeed done enormous almost un-repairable damage to the national psyche which will not be repaired at all unless there is collective self examination intense effort by all.
I would submit that Prof. Chachavalpongpun knows how to both pronounce and spell his own name; and like many Thais with personal names that are derived from Sanskrit, chooses to transliterate it into English with its original Hindic phonetics intact. Or do you insist that we pronounce your first name as per the original Greek (Gay-or-gay), Mr. Thomas (pronounced, again, as per the original Greek (Tho-mas)?
Peter Cohen exaggerates Thai virtues and underplays the weaknesses which become more and more apparent every day. Surin was a Democrat Party servant and yes-man for the military for his entire career. His role as FM was to fool foreigners into thinking that Thailand bought into multiculturalism and influence international Muslim opinion. It worked, but few in Thailand were fooled, least of all southern Muslims.
Genuine multiple parties??? Only the Democrats, deeply beloved by foreigners, have survived by being handmaidens to the military for all these years. The rest? Usually they disappear with the passing of their founding general or fade into irrelevance as the voters realize these parties represent nothing at all. Peter is quite right about the Thai military, though.
Freedom House and other observers no longer think the Thai press is free. Freer than the Malaysians’? Could be, but that is damning with faint praise.
Why didn’t you continue on with this “Burma in Limbo”? I’ve bought you book “Song for Irrawaddy” from Amazon and I’m now really looking forward to reading more on your “Burma in Limbo”.
This set of oars for this bend, that set of oars for that bend goes the saying (de gwey de tet nè hlor, ho gwey ho tet nè hlor).
Left wing ideology for the sixties, free markets and globalisation for the noughties gaining momentum now that the “democratic reforms”, endorsed by none other than the Lady herself, achieve a “Warmly Welcome” from the “international community” driven by predators East and West. Enough to marginalise and bypass the said/?sad Lady in pursuit of mutual enrichment for the elites.
This bullet train is unstoppable, at least the Chinese one might not be.
Make hay while the sun shines I’d say. People must and do take advantage of the opening up and whatever help they can get, not least aid and assistance (even if it’s in pursuit of soft power) in health and education on offer, like our friend plan B had long battled for on these pages, so they are stronger and can raise popular struggle to new heights in order to be more effective in overthrowing the military yoke.
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Daulat, kedaulatan, sovereignty and constitutionalism
But, Dr Cohen, might this post not have great “relevancy” to our understanding of Heterodermia obscurata??
Looks good on paper: Education reform in Burma
To the ignorant yahoos who are quick to throw stones!
10th Standard = 11th Grade
Therefore 3rd Standard is 4th Grade.
Thank you all for your contributions, a whole citizenry plight (wanting to be educated at any cost) is instead highlighted by the government that is the product of useless careless west and shameless pandering of New Mandala contributors like yourselves.
As for the others, you will need to ‘walk a mile with the shoes’ of the most vulnerable now having a better chance then when the useless careless west sanction was in progress.
The west will do better to atone for the iniquities with needed assistance instead of lamenting how much better it was.
The U NU years were neither golden nor anywhere comparable.
Politics of electoral protest in Thailand
Seems to be a misleading summary in the final sentence – surely it would be more straightforward to say as follows:
Third, Thai electorates have shown that, with a voter turnout of only 47%,more than half of the country signaled that it didn’t like what was on offer (n.b. the elections were boycotted by the main opposition Democrat Party) enough to bother voting (especially as the figures used do not include the southern provinces which are strongly anti-government).
Looks good on paper: Education reform in Burma
Yes, textbook print/binding quality leaves much to be desired, but the price is right. Rosalie ought to look homeward angel at your own country: lots of kids in Texas and NM don’t even have textbooks because the districts cannot afford them. Not so in Myanmar where I bought those western-maligned texts for a song to give away to those who needed them. As for content: Patriotic Myanmars don’t look at SSA/KNU terrorist-narco-human-weapons-traffickers as heroes. They study the history of Myanmar learning about Maha Bandoola, Col. Batoo,Gen. Aung San and the Martyrs just as we do our founding fathers. The pride in their country is very evident.
Peter Cohen may be making up his own facts: education in Myanmar is almost universal, at least through elementary grades, making them the equal of US HS grads.It is true, though, that the SSA/KNU/KNPP terrorists do target schools in “enemy” territory for bombings, assassinations. Such freedom fighters all Myanmar can do without.
It is true, though, that literacy in Myanmar will drop: texting, cellphoning, and other electronic narcotizing behavior will see to that. Pretty soon they’ll be as stupid as we are.
Daulat, kedaulatan, sovereignty and constitutionalism
A real cosmologist would regard all the cosmological stuff here as superstition. An evidence-based analysis would concentrate on patronage. The lies and nonsense that patrons depend on for their power over uneducated people need to be analysed and exposed, not embraced.
Sabah – the question that won’t go away
Malaysia’s involvement as broker for the GPH-Bangsamoro peace deal only complicated things for the PH government regarding its Sabah claim. Malaysia will do everything to protect its interests. Issues like these should be resolve peacefully and thru diplomatic channels but you also need to have the military strength to back it up.
Daulat, kedaulatan, sovereignty and constitutionalism
Not Semantic or scholastic pedantry, and not devoid of any historical context, just simply lacking very much relevancy in the present,
when religious devotion would seem to supersede presupposed ‘royal’ ancestral lineage. As the Constitution may well soon include several clauses mandating various Hukum Shari’a (Islamic Laws) requirements to
meet the conditions of Ketuanan Melayu, daulat, in and of itself, may be insufficient to meet the criteria necessary to be a member of the New Malay Order, defined more on how large the prayer bump on your forehead is, than the number of jewels and keris bestowed with kedaulatan by putative royal ancestors.
Asia Pacific Week 2014
> “and go toe-to-toe with many of Australia’s brightest strategic minds”
Appropriate notes to the caterers have been provided, I hope?
The weakness of the Thai royalists
It’s becoming beyond tiresome to see Panitan appear on such programmes with absolutely no mention of his not exactly fleeting role as the Democrat government’s main mouthpiece. AJ’s “Inside Story” normally (and largely successfully) sets out to achieve a balance of input; pairing Panitan & Kasit here is a jaw-dropping fail by the producers.
The weakness of the Thai royalists
Here’s a link to reports in English and Thai:
Thailand – Public financial management report 2012 : improving service delivery
Malaysia in 2014 – a perspective from Singapore
Everything is mutually and bilaterally beneficial,except the Undeserved Disparities of Income * and Conduct , Competency in the Delivery Systems between them and their Leaders.
These are of Grave Concerns to the Rakyat and the Children of Malaysia
….and are Not truly appreciated by Malaysians.
* Singapore’s Income Per Capita= US$ 60,000. 00
Over 6 Times Greater Compared to Malaysia = US$ 9,000.00.
…and the Professor should be specially aware of our prospect and perspective without referring it.
Sadly, our Malaysian political leaders are ashame to talk about it for they are incapable of doing much to improve it , anytime soon.
Malaysia in 2014 – A perspective from Thailand
In Malaysia, when Umno Baru tried, and failed to reform, given ample time and chances, the Rakyat will continue to struggle for change massively (as proven in Bersih 3), in a less disruptive and orderly manner, that have little effect on the investment climate or loss of income. Violence and Provocations in Protests are the last things the people want or will initiate unless planted by the extremists or by the power-that-be that encourages or condones.
In Southern Thailand,the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN)should never be named in such way that it resembles a link to the Barisan Nasional in Malaysia.
PM Najib already asserted to the Thai that ”… the message is clear that the people of Thailand must be loyal to the country.”
Why create the unnecessary suspicion of mistrust for name sake ?
Priority is providing and in meeting the Needs and Want of the people, improving their income with economic growth and productive investments, that comes with jobs creations and better living standard, rather fiddling with religions and race that often resulted with backlashes
These are some perspectives from both Thailand and Malaysia in looking for sustained peace and security,and better living conditions for the people on both side.
The weakness of the Thai royalists
References for 43.2.2.2.2. Links fail.
1. A look at government’s expenditure in each region of Thailand as of 2010.
htt://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer. Search title: The world Bank in Thailand: Improving Service Delivery.
2. A comparative analysis of Thaksin’s wealth and the top 20 wealthiest Thai’s families. Credited to Khun Piangdin Rukthai.
http://youtu.be/c4RhJqZewxY
3. “Sapai’s Voice” in vernacular Thai language: How the Rural Thais get to Taste Freedom of Expression and Democracy from the Outside World.
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbqC52Ai0cEixB6Y58ZGYQ
Looks good on paper: Education reform in Burma
In accordance with very recent change in toning down of sucking up the military in different clothes, this article, ever so mildly critical of the current “civiliannnn government led by REFORMIST Thamada Gyi Thein Sein”, is welcome addition to show the displeasure to their charges by the most honorable “International Communities”.
Surely though as a connoisseur of teaching factories- big and small, the author knows the quality of education is not much to do with the make of paper or brilliance of drawings therein.
“As a scholar of curriculum studies and an anthropologist of education, it seems to me that there is a tension between objectives such as teaching students the “right idea based on Myanmar national characteristics” and asking them to “think for themselves.” ”
Not just in Burma though, everywhere teaching is indeed used shamelessly and almost solely as a tool for indoctrination of the tender minds. This means whatever is used to replace the current system is bound to persuade the unsuspecting punters to believe in some system or other under the guise of “Free thoughts and expression”.
Taking as the highly biased education almost everywhere with the uniform rise of material culture and lip service self restraint and “love of environment”, likely outlook for current system of education in Burma is dire as ever regardless of the quality of print material.
More than half a century of nationalistic (parochial) fascist indoctrination and forced feeding of such ideas among various nationalities has indeed done enormous almost un-repairable damage to the national psyche which will not be repaired at all unless there is collective self examination intense effort by all.
Malaysia in 2014 – A perspective from Thailand
[…] http://www.newmandala.org/2014/02/28/malaysia-in-2014-a-perspective-from-thailand/ […]
Malaysia in 2014 – A perspective from Thailand
Pawin [there’s no “v” in Thai]
I would submit that Prof. Chachavalpongpun knows how to both pronounce and spell his own name; and like many Thais with personal names that are derived from Sanskrit, chooses to transliterate it into English with its original Hindic phonetics intact. Or do you insist that we pronounce your first name as per the original Greek (Gay-or-gay), Mr. Thomas (pronounced, again, as per the original Greek (Tho-mas)?
Malaysia in 2014 – A perspective from Thailand
Peter Cohen exaggerates Thai virtues and underplays the weaknesses which become more and more apparent every day. Surin was a Democrat Party servant and yes-man for the military for his entire career. His role as FM was to fool foreigners into thinking that Thailand bought into multiculturalism and influence international Muslim opinion. It worked, but few in Thailand were fooled, least of all southern Muslims.
Genuine multiple parties??? Only the Democrats, deeply beloved by foreigners, have survived by being handmaidens to the military for all these years. The rest? Usually they disappear with the passing of their founding general or fade into irrelevance as the voters realize these parties represent nothing at all. Peter is quite right about the Thai military, though.
Freedom House and other observers no longer think the Thai press is free. Freer than the Malaysians’? Could be, but that is damning with faint praise.
Burma in Limbo, Part 2
This is for the Guest Contributor Hla Oo.
Why didn’t you continue on with this “Burma in Limbo”? I’ve bought you book “Song for Irrawaddy” from Amazon and I’m now really looking forward to reading more on your “Burma in Limbo”.
Thanks
Looks good on paper: Education reform in Burma
This set of oars for this bend, that set of oars for that bend goes the saying (de gwey de tet nè hlor, ho gwey ho tet nè hlor).
Left wing ideology for the sixties, free markets and globalisation for the noughties gaining momentum now that the “democratic reforms”, endorsed by none other than the Lady herself, achieve a “Warmly Welcome” from the “international community” driven by predators East and West. Enough to marginalise and bypass the said/?sad Lady in pursuit of mutual enrichment for the elites.
This bullet train is unstoppable, at least the Chinese one might not be.
Make hay while the sun shines I’d say. People must and do take advantage of the opening up and whatever help they can get, not least aid and assistance (even if it’s in pursuit of soft power) in health and education on offer, like our friend plan B had long battled for on these pages, so they are stronger and can raise popular struggle to new heights in order to be more effective in overthrowing the military yoke.
The weakness of the Thai royalists
I do not find it an oversimplification to point out that the bullets are always/mostly flying from one direction.