If it weren’t for Jew and Zionist, Sir
Alexander Oppenheim, UM and NUS probably
wouldn’t exist. I will also remind you that
Singaporean Jew and Zionist Sir David Marshall, first Chief Minister of Singapore,
was the ONLY barrister in Malaya and Singapore willing to defend indigent Malays
at court. No other barrister would do so.
Probably because Marshall was a labour supporter and had somewhat Socialist leanings, he felt sympathy for the underclass. He later fell out with LKY but
later reconciled with him.
Malaysians are woefully uneducated about
such matters, as reflected by the
anti-Semitism among some Malaysian politicians (I need not mention their names;
they are well-known) and some citizens.
“Oppenheim played a key role in the merging of Raffles College with King Edward VII College of Medicine to form the University of Malaya. When Sydney Caine, the vice-chancellor of University of Malaya left to become the Director of the London School of Economics, he nominated Oppenheim to take his spot as vice-chancellor. In 1957, Oppenheim became vice-chancellor of UM-Singapore and in 1962 he became the vice-chancellor of UM-Kuala Lumpur. As vice-chancellor of both universities, Oppenheim worked closely with Tunku Abdul Rahman in planning and executing all organizational aspects including obtaining private funding and approval from the Islamic Monarchy to complete the second merger in 1962 of both universities; the latter result being the formation of the National University of Singapore.”
At one time, the Sassoon and Kadoorie
families (Iraqi-British Jews) were the
wealthiest families in Singapore and Hong Kong and very philanthropic with their money.
They helped build Chinese schools in Singapore and Hong Kong and fund Malay schools in Singapore and Malaya.
Comparisons between Israel and Malaysia are
unsupported.
The peasants are scared to speak up since they know what will happen to them. The affluent are members of the ‘government” or friends with them so they do not want to change the status quo. Laos’ future is very bleak in my opinion.
The king of Thailand’s Sufficiency Economy certainly is a good and necessary counterbalancing measure to what the Lady’s father Aung San in one of his more memorable speeches referred to as prostituting your country, a prescient remark particularly pertinent to what his own country is about to embark on today.
Equitable distribution, fairness and justice perhaps.
A good mass transit system as well as universities definitely. Towers and shopping malls there already. Bleached hair, jeans and skimpy skirts plenty, thanks to Korean soaps and MTV. Always the shallow superficial aspects of progress and modernity fast tracking.
Surely Mark Farmaner realises the overarching geopolitical and market share interests of the West always win hands down so he’s got his work cut out.
Every time it comes back to the elephant in the room that has now been rewarded with legitimacy and respectability (thanks to the lady’s collaboration, perhaps leaned on to that end by the same powerful players), in short someone they can do business with, literally.
Thanks for this post Greg. I have collected data on extrajudicial executions by the Indonesian police for over five years now. I notice that the search engines I use repeatedly pull up ‘tembak mati’ articles from Malaysia wherein the police have shot dead a young male, usually Indian in the course of arrest. Obviously police are permitted to use deadly force in defence of their lives however I wonder to what extent the Malaysian case parallels with that of the Indonesian police where such apparently ‘spontaneous’ shootings are in fact planned executions.
Such practices are rife throughout Southeast Asia and what’s more surprising, such practices do not elicit much protest or calls for further investigation from higher socio-economic classes, including civil society. In Indonesia, with rare exception, the issue is strictly socio-economic, but in Malaysia where there is such deep segregation of the ethnic groups including in the informal and criminal sector, police violence is more complex and has much deeper ramifications for ongoing inter-ethnic relations.
If the quality of life (QOL) in a country can only be measured by its GDP, no wonder something very important is missing here… GDH or GNH (Gross National Happiness) as the king of Bhutan once famously said, forty years ago.
I guess some of us are more materialistic than others in this world and perhaps equate happiness with material acquisitions, not to mention the prevailing world order driven by endless, often needless consumption, egged on by the infotainment industry and the all too human urge to keep up with the Joneses.
What does she want to achieve “beyond”, for example, Singapore’s excellent mass transit system or the National University? Or, maybe, she follows the Thai king’s “sufficiency economy”? The statement is a mix of legitimate ideas with shallow thinking.
I agree with the author about the series being rather conservative, but it is still very progressive when compared to other Thai TV-programs. Hormones is the only Thai series that I have actually enjoyed watching. The plot often lack logic and some characters are not realistic, but this is a gigantic step for Thai television. I would argue that Hormones, despite its obvious flaws is better than many international TV-series dealing with teenagers and their problems.
Interesting comparison then for UMNO, the world’s most successful political party to be compared to to the Nazis, the Taliban, the Klu Klax Klan, or the Zionists.
Aung San Suu Kyi is not impressed with Singapore. Utopia or dystopia?
I want to learn a lot from the standards that Singapore has been able to achieve, but I wonder whether we don’t–I don’t–want something more for our country,” she said. “What is the purpose of the workforce? What is the purpose of work? What is the purpose of material wealth? Is that the ultimate aim of human beings? Is that what we all want?” She continued, “I want to probe more into the successes of Singapore and to find out what we can achieve beyond that.
There is in fact interesting work done by people who do work on ethnocracy or “ethnic democracy” comparing Israel, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and other cases to draw out the features of “ethnocracy” or “ethnic democracy.”
Sammy Smooha and Oren Yiftachtel are two examples. The debates largely revolve around Israel but the analytical prism also applies to Malaysia.
Of course any such prism has limits but the light it sheds is enough to take the prism seriously.
Talking to Israeli colleagues, it seems that it would be an interesting exercise to compare institutional racism in Israel and in Malaysia. There are some similarities, including: identification of a ‘race’ with a religion, different official rules/laws in many areas based on one’s race/religion etc. The main differences seem to be that Malaysia is much less ‘bipolar’ than Israel and that the ‘history’ behind the present state of things does not go back as far.
Some of our politicians seem to have quite a fixation with Israel. One wonders if they imported any political ‘moves’ from their lifelong observations.
Burma worsened since the abdication by U Nu.
The status and condition of women in Burma
was much better under U Nu, after independence. U Nu was a true democrat, sincere Buddhist and cared about his people. Ne Win, SLORC and then the current leadership under General Than Shwe (Head of the Army) holds the real reigns of power. PM Thein Sein of the USDP lost control and the military essentially runs Burma.
There was hope that “U” Khin Nyunt (PM in 2003-2004) ‘might’ be a reformer, but he was removed from power and placed under house arrest until 2012. He is no longer involved
in direct politics and the Burmese military continues to ravage the country and its people. While Aung San Suu Kyi was released
from house arrest a while back, her movements
and actions are monitored. She has had secret
talks with the military to discuss shared power between her NLD and the ruling military council, but to no avail.
Prof Aung Thwin came across as a nationalistic regime apologist quite a while back, a common pitfall in someone writing the history of their native land. The Burmese preferred order to anarchy and chaos… like everyone else. Like the older generation that has mostly gone referring to the good old days under British rule in an exploitative and extractive but efficient economy (ever more relevant today in comparison). One of the main reasons surely is “the associations of lawlessness and violent crime” with military rule particularly in the ethnic homelands. Law and order under the dictators to the present ‘democratic civilian’ govt leaves much to be desired.
Perhaps Burmese history is simpler than it’s made out to be. Tyrants either malevolent or benevolent, mostly the former.
Well, it appears that the Laos government is following in the foot-steps of the Thai government:systemic governmental corruption, intimidation, and greed.
Given the geographic distribution of ethnic groups in Myanmar–most concentrated in their own regions–most (not all) constituencies will be contests between members of the same ethnic group. Thus, the outcome of a completely free and fair election under the current FPTP rules will likely be goal number one of this thoughtful piece by the poster, i.e. “ethnic representation and proportionality.” Given the way that ethnic parties performed in the 2010 elections, and their mobilization since, I think we can expect much of the same in the subsequent elections. Of course, a census has not been taken in Myanmar for a long time, and any new electoral system should be sensitive to the findings of the 2014 census, but I suspect that in most constituencies we will find a clear majority by a single ethnic group. A la Horowitz and Reilly, I have recommended in the past, therefore, a system that encourages ethnic groups to vote for each other. I think the Indonesian system is a good example, with inter- and intra-regional requirements. Indonesia has only done this for its presidential system, but has strict party registration requirements for its legislative elections. There have been some attempts in Africa to implement legislative geographic distribution requirements, and a deadlock breaking rule seems to be necessarily so as not to induce extralegal methods of resolution. There is no reason, however, that such a system could not be combined with a mixed electoral system as the poster suggests, if the mixed system will bring other benefits.
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UMNO and Nazi Germany
Greg,
If it weren’t for Jew and Zionist, Sir
Alexander Oppenheim, UM and NUS probably
wouldn’t exist. I will also remind you that
Singaporean Jew and Zionist Sir David Marshall, first Chief Minister of Singapore,
was the ONLY barrister in Malaya and Singapore willing to defend indigent Malays
at court. No other barrister would do so.
Probably because Marshall was a labour supporter and had somewhat Socialist leanings, he felt sympathy for the underclass. He later fell out with LKY but
later reconciled with him.
Malaysians are woefully uneducated about
such matters, as reflected by the
anti-Semitism among some Malaysian politicians (I need not mention their names;
they are well-known) and some citizens.
Please read:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Oppenheim
“Oppenheim played a key role in the merging of Raffles College with King Edward VII College of Medicine to form the University of Malaya. When Sydney Caine, the vice-chancellor of University of Malaya left to become the Director of the London School of Economics, he nominated Oppenheim to take his spot as vice-chancellor. In 1957, Oppenheim became vice-chancellor of UM-Singapore and in 1962 he became the vice-chancellor of UM-Kuala Lumpur. As vice-chancellor of both universities, Oppenheim worked closely with Tunku Abdul Rahman in planning and executing all organizational aspects including obtaining private funding and approval from the Islamic Monarchy to complete the second merger in 1962 of both universities; the latter result being the formation of the National University of Singapore.”
At one time, the Sassoon and Kadoorie
families (Iraqi-British Jews) were the
wealthiest families in Singapore and Hong Kong and very philanthropic with their money.
They helped build Chinese schools in Singapore and Hong Kong and fund Malay schools in Singapore and Malaya.
Comparisons between Israel and Malaysia are
unsupported.
Peter
The Case of Sombath Somphone
The peasants are scared to speak up since they know what will happen to them. The affluent are members of the ‘government” or friends with them so they do not want to change the status quo. Laos’ future is very bleak in my opinion.
Corruption in Malaysia and Singapore
The king of Thailand’s Sufficiency Economy certainly is a good and necessary counterbalancing measure to what the Lady’s father Aung San in one of his more memorable speeches referred to as prostituting your country, a prescient remark particularly pertinent to what his own country is about to embark on today.
Corruption in Malaysia and Singapore
Equitable distribution, fairness and justice perhaps.
A good mass transit system as well as universities definitely. Towers and shopping malls there already. Bleached hair, jeans and skimpy skirts plenty, thanks to Korean soaps and MTV. Always the shallow superficial aspects of progress and modernity fast tracking.
Sexual violence in Burma
Surely Mark Farmaner realises the overarching geopolitical and market share interests of the West always win hands down so he’s got his work cut out.
Every time it comes back to the elephant in the room that has now been rewarded with legitimacy and respectability (thanks to the lady’s collaboration, perhaps leaned on to that end by the same powerful players), in short someone they can do business with, literally.
UMNO and Nazi Germany
Thanks for this post Greg. I have collected data on extrajudicial executions by the Indonesian police for over five years now. I notice that the search engines I use repeatedly pull up ‘tembak mati’ articles from Malaysia wherein the police have shot dead a young male, usually Indian in the course of arrest. Obviously police are permitted to use deadly force in defence of their lives however I wonder to what extent the Malaysian case parallels with that of the Indonesian police where such apparently ‘spontaneous’ shootings are in fact planned executions.
Such practices are rife throughout Southeast Asia and what’s more surprising, such practices do not elicit much protest or calls for further investigation from higher socio-economic classes, including civil society. In Indonesia, with rare exception, the issue is strictly socio-economic, but in Malaysia where there is such deep segregation of the ethnic groups including in the informal and criminal sector, police violence is more complex and has much deeper ramifications for ongoing inter-ethnic relations.
Corruption in Malaysia and Singapore
If the quality of life (QOL) in a country can only be measured by its GDP, no wonder something very important is missing here… GDH or GNH (Gross National Happiness) as the king of Bhutan once famously said, forty years ago.
I guess some of us are more materialistic than others in this world and perhaps equate happiness with material acquisitions, not to mention the prevailing world order driven by endless, often needless consumption, egged on by the infotainment industry and the all too human urge to keep up with the Joneses.
Corruption in Malaysia and Singapore
What does she want to achieve “beyond”, for example, Singapore’s excellent mass transit system or the National University? Or, maybe, she follows the Thai king’s “sufficiency economy”? The statement is a mix of legitimate ideas with shallow thinking.
Hormones: Temporary chemistry of rebellion
I agree with the author about the series being rather conservative, but it is still very progressive when compared to other Thai TV-programs. Hormones is the only Thai series that I have actually enjoyed watching. The plot often lack logic and some characters are not realistic, but this is a gigantic step for Thai television. I would argue that Hormones, despite its obvious flaws is better than many international TV-series dealing with teenagers and their problems.
UMNO and Nazi Germany
Prominent Malay liberal, Zaid Ibrahim has suggested that UMNO is Talibanising Malaysia.
Interesting comparison then for UMNO, the world’s most successful political party to be compared to to the Nazis, the Taliban, the Klu Klax Klan, or the Zionists.
Corruption in Malaysia and Singapore
Aung San Suu Kyi is not impressed with Singapore. Utopia or dystopia?
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/currency/2013/10/singapore-myanmar-and-aung-san-suu-kyi.html
UMNO and Nazi Germany
There is in fact interesting work done by people who do work on ethnocracy or “ethnic democracy” comparing Israel, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and other cases to draw out the features of “ethnocracy” or “ethnic democracy.”
Sammy Smooha and Oren Yiftachtel are two examples. The debates largely revolve around Israel but the analytical prism also applies to Malaysia.
Of course any such prism has limits but the light it sheds is enough to take the prism seriously.
Rueban
UMNO and Nazi Germany
There is no correlation between Israel
and Malaysia. Your comments are absurd
and Mahathirian.
UMNO and Nazi Germany
Talking to Israeli colleagues, it seems that it would be an interesting exercise to compare institutional racism in Israel and in Malaysia. There are some similarities, including: identification of a ‘race’ with a religion, different official rules/laws in many areas based on one’s race/religion etc. The main differences seem to be that Malaysia is much less ‘bipolar’ than Israel and that the ‘history’ behind the present state of things does not go back as far.
A couple of links:
http://digitaljournal.com/article/349233
http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/04/shattering-the-myth-of-democracy-and-equality-in-israel/
Some of our politicians seem to have quite a fixation with Israel. One wonders if they imported any political ‘moves’ from their lifelong observations.
Sexual violence in Burma
Burma worsened since the abdication by U Nu.
The status and condition of women in Burma
was much better under U Nu, after independence. U Nu was a true democrat, sincere Buddhist and cared about his people. Ne Win, SLORC and then the current leadership under General Than Shwe (Head of the Army) holds the real reigns of power. PM Thein Sein of the USDP lost control and the military essentially runs Burma.
There was hope that “U” Khin Nyunt (PM in 2003-2004) ‘might’ be a reformer, but he was removed from power and placed under house arrest until 2012. He is no longer involved
in direct politics and the Burmese military continues to ravage the country and its people. While Aung San Suu Kyi was released
from house arrest a while back, her movements
and actions are monitored. She has had secret
talks with the military to discuss shared power between her NLD and the ruling military council, but to no avail.
Chin Peng, an obituary
Many thanks for your instructions, Dr Cohen. I will judge their usefulness in the context of all of your other recent postings on New Mandala.
Chin Peng, an obituary
Thanks and not a moment too soon. Should I shut up too since I did not grow up in Malaysia? What’s the weather like up on that ivory tower?
Review of History of Myanmar Since Ancient Times
Prof Aung Thwin came across as a nationalistic regime apologist quite a while back, a common pitfall in someone writing the history of their native land. The Burmese preferred order to anarchy and chaos… like everyone else. Like the older generation that has mostly gone referring to the good old days under British rule in an exploitative and extractive but efficient economy (ever more relevant today in comparison). One of the main reasons surely is “the associations of lawlessness and violent crime” with military rule particularly in the ethnic homelands. Law and order under the dictators to the present ‘democratic civilian’ govt leaves much to be desired.
Perhaps Burmese history is simpler than it’s made out to be. Tyrants either malevolent or benevolent, mostly the former.
The Case of Sombath Somphone
Well, it appears that the Laos government is following in the foot-steps of the Thai government:systemic governmental corruption, intimidation, and greed.
Myanmar could learn from Germany
Given the geographic distribution of ethnic groups in Myanmar–most concentrated in their own regions–most (not all) constituencies will be contests between members of the same ethnic group. Thus, the outcome of a completely free and fair election under the current FPTP rules will likely be goal number one of this thoughtful piece by the poster, i.e. “ethnic representation and proportionality.” Given the way that ethnic parties performed in the 2010 elections, and their mobilization since, I think we can expect much of the same in the subsequent elections. Of course, a census has not been taken in Myanmar for a long time, and any new electoral system should be sensitive to the findings of the 2014 census, but I suspect that in most constituencies we will find a clear majority by a single ethnic group. A la Horowitz and Reilly, I have recommended in the past, therefore, a system that encourages ethnic groups to vote for each other. I think the Indonesian system is a good example, with inter- and intra-regional requirements. Indonesia has only done this for its presidential system, but has strict party registration requirements for its legislative elections. There have been some attempts in Africa to implement legislative geographic distribution requirements, and a deadlock breaking rule seems to be necessarily so as not to induce extralegal methods of resolution. There is no reason, however, that such a system could not be combined with a mixed electoral system as the poster suggests, if the mixed system will bring other benefits.