An excellent article. There is hope that there are honorable legal minds and persons in civil society who will give attention to this. Two eminent Malay lawyers are Dato Zaleha Yusof and Rosli Dahlan.
The last time I saw Mr. Sombath was at ASEM conference where I and my team mates gave a seminar presentation on education and critical thinking in Laos. I still remember how he supported us. I hope that he’s alive. To be honest, we were scared that this might happen to us too because we were speaking about the truth of our government. I have no faith in my government and no loyalty or any good thoughts left for the government of Lao PDR. I am sure that Mr. Sombath was kidnapped by the Lao government and I really hope that he will be found alive. I also hope that Lao government will stop all the actions violating human rights. I don’t understand how they are so blinded by money that they try to do everything to secure their high position.
When the power is in the hands of the evil, the evil deeds are declared as good, and the constitutional actions are deemed as evil. There is nothing surprising about it.
Daniel, thanks for writing your comments.As I stated elsewhere on this blog my thoughts are limited as my plan is just a start of a much wider debate on corruption. I personally I do not just moan and pontificate as that is useless. There is a simple solution to your quiery. A massive govt campaign of advertising should kick off any moves to limit corruption and should be on TV, radio and all mediums of the press.It should have large warnings on anything published stating that jail awaits all who do not come forward. If you want me to expand on my ideas I will gladly detail them here.
Roy – I guess my only criticism is this: what would be the motivation for anyone to step forward? Corruption is often a two-way street. It’s not just the officials who act corrupted when they take money they shouldn’t receive. The person who pays the money for whatever reason (say, speeding up a bureaucratic process or because they sense it’s necessary to pay) is also committing a corrupt act. So who would be the person who initially comes forward to admit to breaking the law?
Without proper political parties there will always be corrupt politicians getting elected.
Interesting to note that no one has replied/queried/lambasted/ accused of being to naive to my original way forward in dealing with corruption. Perhaps it’s to perfect to criticise or argue against.Or is this blog all about intellectual masturbation?
I agreed with all of you. Based on my analysis, one of the factors leading to the increase of CNRP supporters is the presence of Sam Rainsy in the country in a few days before election in which it leads to increase an emotion of people. If his presence in the country longer that this, emotion of people can be decreased.
What’s the point of arguing against tht if PAD’s ‘solution’ has been utterly rejected by Thais already.
What is damaging democracy in thailand is the quality of the people who get elected. If thailand was any sort of democracy most would be in jail.
Why don’t you come up with a solution that helps thailand improve the quality if its politicians? The worse they are to room they give unelected elites a pretext to interfere, and he less likely Thais will be to rally against it.
The ability to reject crappy candidates is a solution I came up with, why don’t you come up with one yourself?
Otherwise all that will happens people read you here and at most make a vacuous dig at your monarchy, but nothing will change.
As far as democracy is concerned you guys are heading in the wrong direction.
Greg, The underlying problem is THE mother load of all problems. I appreciate Najib’s spending political capital and recognizing the brain drain. However, he doesn’t have any to spare even to begin tackling THE problem. So, TalentCorp is basically a public relation exercise. I welcome its funding of Ms Chen’s website.
A fair, free and open employment and business landscape is the ultimate solution. Allowing IPTS and providing student loans can prevent brain drain.
Instead of being a tax money drain, TalentCorp could “work outside the box”, by facilitating local talents to develop and further their career OVERSEA. For example, hooking up local tech upstarts with Silicon Valley venture capitals, and companies like Apple, Google, etc.
Another example, hiring 2,000 English teachers from the U.S., Australia, etc. in exchange for 10,000 three-year working permits for 2,000 graduates and 8,000 low/semi-skilled workers.
A young Malay chap doing back-breaking work in a crew of five, managing 5,000 lambs in rural Australia for two years would have serious impact on Malaysia, for the better.
The right type of “brain drain” could be THE solution to many of our problems. Maybe even THE problem.
An experienced doctor and returnee form the U.K. was denied the chief surgeon promotion because he lacked SPM Malay credit. Can TalentCorp help in cases like these??
New Mandala regular contributor Murray Hunter analyses the front line of the next battle in Malaysia for rural votes in this article for Asia Sentinel:
There is yet another level within the system government that has been ignored and almost forgotten about within the public domain, although it has been a battle front in the fight for influence within Pakatan-held states since 2008. These are the Village Security and Development Committees, which exist in all Malaysian states except Perlis. Originally designed to assist in poverty eradication, they have been turned into political machines devised to perpetuate local governments in power…
Let me make just one point regarding my stance. I am not arguing against criticising politicians. I am sure they can and should be criticised. But at the same time I also think they are a “necessary” element of any “real” democracy.
What I am arguing against is the use of criticisms of politicians’ corruption as the basis for justifying a departure from having a genuine electoral system (which actually happens in Thailand, such as in the case of the PAD). This I am sure only leads to the taking of power away from, rather than to give more power to, the electorate.
No Nick it didn’t take me two weeks to come up with a reply as I rarely read this website.
What I would say is that your personal dislike for someone who dares to disagree with you seems a bit hysterical, overwrought and over-sensitive.
I still question your anti-India invective and question your judgement on this and other issues. And I still find your claim that you have suffered “racism” to be absolutely absurd and a denigration of those who actually have suffered from genuine racism.
Good analysis but NHRC still has UN accreditation and so their account will go “on the record” in the international community.
Also the Thai human rights community has allowed some pretty dodgy stuff to happen previously – HRW supporting the 2006 coup, Amnesty complete failures on lese majeste – and done little to create accountability.
The NHRC’s report is the end and inevitable result of the “liberal” community failing to deliver accountability on its own doorstep.
The reaction to the NHRC is also very predictable – complain about the results but do nothing effective to change the structure that produced those results.
For too many “human rights” is a career move rather than a set of non-negotiable principles. Hence so many knowing that HRW included tertiary unchecked evidence as fact in their report on 2010.
Finally, the media collude with likes of HRW in case they fail to get an invite on the next trip to the south and HRW withdraw their “support” and stop talking to any critical journalists.
The NHRC may counter your argument that the deaths of UDD protesters constitute serious human rights violations glossed over in the report by reminding you that Red Shirts are not actually “human.”
I thought I was pretty clear in my last post. I am not talking about banning anyone. I am saying that voters should have a clear well regulated process by which they can reject all candidates in a particular election, and if they do, another set of candidates (excluding the ones that have been rejected) can put themselves forward for election. The rejected candidates are not ‘banned’ they are free to contest in other elections or return again at the next election at the end of the normal term for that position.
As things stands even if all the viable candidates are of a poor quality or offer nothing much to the electorate or what they offer are marginal variations of the same theme or some mad untenable offshoot; one of them will be elected and this means the democratic system there has been subverted beyond redemption and there is no meaningful power in the hands of the voter.
I am amazed by your Renfield-like arguments that people who complain about politicians being corrupt put democracy into disrepute and weaken it.
Clearly it is politicians who abuse their power that damage democracy. If you want to protect democracy you find ways for limiting the ability of politicians to abuse their power, not by some kind of circular logic where politicians are the ones who need to be protected; obviously (is it not????) it is the electorate that needs to be protected from politicians in a democracy.
Once you cut through the BS it is pretty obvious that all the controversy in Thailand now is about modifying the oligarchy, it’s nothing to do with democracy. This is just the word used to legitimize one side’s struggle for power. All that is happening now is that one set of politicians in particular are trying to concentrate all the reins of power (police, courts, military, bureaucracy) into their hands, using all means; legal and illegal, and no matter how you try to spin it this is will not enhance the power of the electorate, but weaken it.
A ‘real democracy’ is one where politicians have meaningful legal restraints and are held accountable for their actions to the electorate; it’s the electorate who hold the whip hand, and the idea of allowing voters to reject a set of candidates they feel are not fit to represent them is a great way of strengthening the power of the electorate, especially in a country like Thailand where institutions like the police are biased, corrupt and weak.
If you want to weaken the power and influence of ‘unelected elites’ of all sides and want to reduce corruption and abuse of power to ‘acceptable levels’ then you look forr ways to enhance the power of the electorate; not politicians.
Malaysians working abroad is a solution to a problem. What might that ‘a problem’ be. Could ‘a problem’ be ‘THE problem’ or do you think there are many ‘a problem’ in Malaysia?
Get over it. The Chinese Question and next you’ll be advocating, ├╝ber alles in der welt, the final solution.
They may not have been invited to Panglong, but the Rohingya and the Chinese in Burma might be sharing the same unenviable fate, and I can assure you it’s no laughing matter.
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Public interest litigation in Malaysia
An excellent article. There is hope that there are honorable legal minds and persons in civil society who will give attention to this. Two eminent Malay lawyers are Dato Zaleha Yusof and Rosli Dahlan.
Sombath Somphone’s disappearance
The last time I saw Mr. Sombath was at ASEM conference where I and my team mates gave a seminar presentation on education and critical thinking in Laos. I still remember how he supported us. I hope that he’s alive. To be honest, we were scared that this might happen to us too because we were speaking about the truth of our government. I have no faith in my government and no loyalty or any good thoughts left for the government of Lao PDR. I am sure that Mr. Sombath was kidnapped by the Lao government and I really hope that he will be found alive. I also hope that Lao government will stop all the actions violating human rights. I don’t understand how they are so blinded by money that they try to do everything to secure their high position.
Human rights, the law and violence in 2010
When the power is in the hands of the evil, the evil deeds are declared as good, and the constitutional actions are deemed as evil. There is nothing surprising about it.
Behind Malaysia’s brain drain, surprise! Real people
Stewoolf, do you know the returnee doctor? Got contact details? Would like to hear his story. Plse e-mail me at [email protected]
The cost of clean politics
Daniel, thanks for writing your comments.As I stated elsewhere on this blog my thoughts are limited as my plan is just a start of a much wider debate on corruption. I personally I do not just moan and pontificate as that is useless. There is a simple solution to your quiery. A massive govt campaign of advertising should kick off any moves to limit corruption and should be on TV, radio and all mediums of the press.It should have large warnings on anything published stating that jail awaits all who do not come forward. If you want me to expand on my ideas I will gladly detail them here.
The cost of clean politics
Roy – I guess my only criticism is this: what would be the motivation for anyone to step forward? Corruption is often a two-way street. It’s not just the officials who act corrupted when they take money they shouldn’t receive. The person who pays the money for whatever reason (say, speeding up a bureaucratic process or because they sense it’s necessary to pay) is also committing a corrupt act. So who would be the person who initially comes forward to admit to breaking the law?
Defending the monarchy
defending the monarchy – the costs of the monarchy…..
prachathai english: http://prachatai.com/english/node/3671?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+prachataienglish+%28Prachatai+in+English%29
The cost of clean politics
Without proper political parties there will always be corrupt politicians getting elected.
Interesting to note that no one has replied/queried/lambasted/ accused of being to naive to my original way forward in dealing with corruption. Perhaps it’s to perfect to criticise or argue against.Or is this blog all about intellectual masturbation?
Rethinking Cambodia’s political transformation
I agreed with all of you. Based on my analysis, one of the factors leading to the increase of CNRP supporters is the presence of Sam Rainsy in the country in a few days before election in which it leads to increase an emotion of people. If his presence in the country longer that this, emotion of people can be decreased.
The cost of clean politics
What’s the point of arguing against tht if PAD’s ‘solution’ has been utterly rejected by Thais already.
What is damaging democracy in thailand is the quality of the people who get elected. If thailand was any sort of democracy most would be in jail.
Why don’t you come up with a solution that helps thailand improve the quality if its politicians? The worse they are to room they give unelected elites a pretext to interfere, and he less likely Thais will be to rally against it.
The ability to reject crappy candidates is a solution I came up with, why don’t you come up with one yourself?
Otherwise all that will happens people read you here and at most make a vacuous dig at your monarchy, but nothing will change.
As far as democracy is concerned you guys are heading in the wrong direction.
Behind Malaysia’s brain drain, surprise! Real people
Greg, The underlying problem is THE mother load of all problems. I appreciate Najib’s spending political capital and recognizing the brain drain. However, he doesn’t have any to spare even to begin tackling THE problem. So, TalentCorp is basically a public relation exercise. I welcome its funding of Ms Chen’s website.
A fair, free and open employment and business landscape is the ultimate solution. Allowing IPTS and providing student loans can prevent brain drain.
Instead of being a tax money drain, TalentCorp could “work outside the box”, by facilitating local talents to develop and further their career OVERSEA. For example, hooking up local tech upstarts with Silicon Valley venture capitals, and companies like Apple, Google, etc.
Another example, hiring 2,000 English teachers from the U.S., Australia, etc. in exchange for 10,000 three-year working permits for 2,000 graduates and 8,000 low/semi-skilled workers.
A young Malay chap doing back-breaking work in a crew of five, managing 5,000 lambs in rural Australia for two years would have serious impact on Malaysia, for the better.
The right type of “brain drain” could be THE solution to many of our problems. Maybe even THE problem.
An experienced doctor and returnee form the U.K. was denied the chief surgeon promotion because he lacked SPM Malay credit. Can TalentCorp help in cases like these??
Rural votes in Malaysia
New Mandala regular contributor Murray Hunter analyses the front line of the next battle in Malaysia for rural votes in this article for Asia Sentinel:
The cost of clean politics
Thanks for the response.
Let me make just one point regarding my stance. I am not arguing against criticising politicians. I am sure they can and should be criticised. But at the same time I also think they are a “necessary” element of any “real” democracy.
What I am arguing against is the use of criticisms of politicians’ corruption as the basis for justifying a departure from having a genuine electoral system (which actually happens in Thailand, such as in the case of the PAD). This I am sure only leads to the taking of power away from, rather than to give more power to, the electorate.
Hitler again
No Nick it didn’t take me two weeks to come up with a reply as I rarely read this website.
What I would say is that your personal dislike for someone who dares to disagree with you seems a bit hysterical, overwrought and over-sensitive.
I still question your anti-India invective and question your judgement on this and other issues. And I still find your claim that you have suffered “racism” to be absolutely absurd and a denigration of those who actually have suffered from genuine racism.
Human rights, the law and violence in 2010
Good analysis but NHRC still has UN accreditation and so their account will go “on the record” in the international community.
Also the Thai human rights community has allowed some pretty dodgy stuff to happen previously – HRW supporting the 2006 coup, Amnesty complete failures on lese majeste – and done little to create accountability.
The NHRC’s report is the end and inevitable result of the “liberal” community failing to deliver accountability on its own doorstep.
The reaction to the NHRC is also very predictable – complain about the results but do nothing effective to change the structure that produced those results.
For too many “human rights” is a career move rather than a set of non-negotiable principles. Hence so many knowing that HRW included tertiary unchecked evidence as fact in their report on 2010.
Finally, the media collude with likes of HRW in case they fail to get an invite on the next trip to the south and HRW withdraw their “support” and stop talking to any critical journalists.
The bullshit piles on…
Human rights, the law and violence in 2010
Prach, thank you for this informative piece.
The NHRC may counter your argument that the deaths of UDD protesters constitute serious human rights violations glossed over in the report by reminding you that Red Shirts are not actually “human.”
Human rights, the law and violence in 2010
Talk about arbitrary guesses…that is what killed Ah Kong. That, and neglecting critical facts.
The cost of clean politics
I thought I was pretty clear in my last post. I am not talking about banning anyone. I am saying that voters should have a clear well regulated process by which they can reject all candidates in a particular election, and if they do, another set of candidates (excluding the ones that have been rejected) can put themselves forward for election. The rejected candidates are not ‘banned’ they are free to contest in other elections or return again at the next election at the end of the normal term for that position.
As things stands even if all the viable candidates are of a poor quality or offer nothing much to the electorate or what they offer are marginal variations of the same theme or some mad untenable offshoot; one of them will be elected and this means the democratic system there has been subverted beyond redemption and there is no meaningful power in the hands of the voter.
I am amazed by your Renfield-like arguments that people who complain about politicians being corrupt put democracy into disrepute and weaken it.
Clearly it is politicians who abuse their power that damage democracy. If you want to protect democracy you find ways for limiting the ability of politicians to abuse their power, not by some kind of circular logic where politicians are the ones who need to be protected; obviously (is it not????) it is the electorate that needs to be protected from politicians in a democracy.
Once you cut through the BS it is pretty obvious that all the controversy in Thailand now is about modifying the oligarchy, it’s nothing to do with democracy. This is just the word used to legitimize one side’s struggle for power. All that is happening now is that one set of politicians in particular are trying to concentrate all the reins of power (police, courts, military, bureaucracy) into their hands, using all means; legal and illegal, and no matter how you try to spin it this is will not enhance the power of the electorate, but weaken it.
A ‘real democracy’ is one where politicians have meaningful legal restraints and are held accountable for their actions to the electorate; it’s the electorate who hold the whip hand, and the idea of allowing voters to reject a set of candidates they feel are not fit to represent them is a great way of strengthening the power of the electorate, especially in a country like Thailand where institutions like the police are biased, corrupt and weak.
If you want to weaken the power and influence of ‘unelected elites’ of all sides and want to reduce corruption and abuse of power to ‘acceptable levels’ then you look forr ways to enhance the power of the electorate; not politicians.
Behind Malaysia’s brain drain, surprise! Real people
Stewolf — interesting point.
Malaysians working abroad is a solution to a problem. What might that ‘a problem’ be. Could ‘a problem’ be ‘THE problem’ or do you think there are many ‘a problem’ in Malaysia?
Constitutional amendment for Myanmar
Get over it. The Chinese Question and next you’ll be advocating, ├╝ber alles in der welt, the final solution.
They may not have been invited to Panglong, but the Rohingya and the Chinese in Burma might be sharing the same unenviable fate, and I can assure you it’s no laughing matter.