This broken record has changed its tune. ASSK’s transformation has turned its hatred of the Lady for being such a spoil sport to lurrve. Economic aid sans political reforms is the be all and end all as far as this messianic message is concerned.
Prosperity to democracy. Well, Free Trade predates Free World by centuries. Today they must promote FW at least some semblance for FT which remains the bottom line. Not long now. Up FT.
Described the problems, among which POVERTY has been the primary cause that fuel the ongoing situation in Western Myanmar.
HRW Matt Smith either think Myanmar citizenry has a short memory or worst not smart enough to realize the root of present problem “POVERTY” that HRW help to bring about by supporting and prolonging the useless careless policy of the West, in order to curry favor with sources of funding.
Thanks to HRW, and related org. Rohingyas, the poorest of poor even among the Bengali hierarchy, receiving the shortest end of the economic pie is not going to end anytime soon.
Call for remedy such as ‘citizenship’,to problems without recognizing the fundamentals, is at best grand standing and at the worst ludicrous.
Only concerted effort to create activities that alleviate poverty will eventual diminish these continual spastic cycles of ethnic violence overtime that center on religion, race or any irrelevant factors that have been clearly due to poverty.
Matt Smith will best serve the Rohingyas by stop blaming U Thein Sein/ Daw AUng San Suu Kyi government, admitting HRW contributions to present problems and concentrate doubly on immediately needed aide for looming disasters for now.
I fail to see in what way I spoke “for” all Muslims. I don’t need to speak “for” any identifiable group in order to condemn an opinion, policy, practice or ‘joke’ as discriminatory against them. Neither do I deny that issues surrounding Islamic education are of legitimate concern to many people in southern Thailand. My criticisms of this post are twofold:
1. The suggestion that most Muslims in Southern Thailand are economically and socially marginalized ignores considerable variation across the region.
2. The assertion that disorganized and underfunded Islamic schools are a potential breeding ground for violent extremism suggests a inherent link between Islam and violence that, on the weight of the ebidence from the region in question, I consider unjustified. That is why I used the admittedly strong term “Islamaphobic”.
I am not in a position to say whether any Muslims in southern Thailand feel insulted by such a suggestion, but that doesn’t detract from my ability to observe that, objectively speaking, it is insulting.
The level of poverty of the southern provinces is rather low, given the current prices for rubber. Neglect of the schools is another tale. Firstly, the state schools are in trouble because the teachers are easy prey. The islamic schools receive quite a lot of money (around 10.000 B) from the Thai state for each student, what explains to some degree the large number of students. In several cases the budget is increased by generous donations like f.e. for the islamic university. One probably quite significant factor why the level of education is in many cases very low and the teachers not professional is the business orientations of those running the schools.
Im surprised that Mr. Olthof takes it upon himself to talk for all Muslims. There are many people very concerned about these issues in the Southern Thai communities involved and its sad that Mr Olthof is so dismissive of them. The issues that Mr Hunter brought up by his own statements is that the plight of Islamic education in Southern Thailand is something separate from the insurency. Mr Hunter may have been very prudent to not mention his sources on these issues, as this is an extremely sensitive subject in the communities concerned. Far from being “Islamapobic”, the article seems more to be a request for help for these communities. One of the other problems are is that there are so many self appointed experts on the problems of the “Deep South” running about, the situation has been over analysed to the point of creating distorted realities that actually may not exist. Lets hope the warning in this article may be one of them.
Interesting research Jay. I would commend you to bring this up in any fora you can. I think its noteworthy especially if its grounded in proper academic tradition.
A reference to Tanah Melayu…recently did some research and the word Melayu refers to the Sanskrit/Tamil word of Malai/oor[Mountains/Village]..like Himalaya which means Big mountain…
Therefore Melayu does not denote a race,rather the name of this land..which then makes us all orang Melayu….makes sense to me but try and explain this to others…?Dangerous ground i guess because then people will question their origins except for the chinese,indians,arabs,eurasians and so forth who actually know where they came from. just saying…
I have been using my aka ‘Vichai N’ from my very first post . . . just don’t want to terrify my wife everytime I write really negative things about Thaksin, or Chalerm (and his trigger-quick thuggish sons) or those very violent terror-prone Reds; among others. I don’t think Yingluck, or Thaksin or Chalerm or any Red (except maybe that guy John Francis Lee) are after me … but what the heck, ‘Vichai N’ (or Col. Jeru) suit me just fine.
The Chinese migrant workers basically faced the same problems as the Indians. The difference is that Chinese parents forced education onto their children as a way out of poverty. This allowed the development of later generations of Chinese decendants. Those Indians who followed the same path (schooling) have later generations with the same success as the Chinese.
It is always easy to blame the system, ut the Indians have to look at themselves first. It is never easy to breakout of the poverty cycle, but not impossible, particularly for your children. Take the Chinese philosophy – “Your Children must be better educated than you are” – does not apply to the “already rich”
This post is a very good example of the danger inherent in speaking “generally” about Muslims in southern Thailand. While glossing over the substantial economic, cultural and educational differences that separate Muslims in, say, Narathiwat and Krabi, the author gives the distinct impression that any type of education that is Islamic in orientation is a potential site for infiltration by violent extremism. This is an insult to the millions of peaceful Muslims who live in southern Thailand, not to mention Muslims the world over. Furthermore, while no one expects New Mandala contributors to hold to the standards of academic publication when it comes to citing their sources, the claim that the Pakistani Taliban is funding Pondoks and/or Islamic Private Schools in southern Thailand should not be made without substantiation. On the whole, this post amounts to a handful of vague generalizations tinged with Islamaphobic fear mongering. Southern Thailand is not a place where economically disadvantaged Muslims are drifting further from the Thai mainstream. To suggest that it is obscures the specific problems at the root of the crisis in the deep south and unfairly denigrates the successes of many Muslim communities in other pas of the region.
A very good overview of the Sihanouk legacy. One should remember though that Sihanouk did not dominate all the lines of patronage even when in absolute power. This led to court tensions as closer members of the Sihanouk entourage abused their powers at the detriment of the state apparatus. I’m sure contemporary comparisons with the Thai monarchy would find parallels with how the royal bureaucracy functions to protect and perpetuate itself. Sihanouk’s obsession with territorial integrity is something that continues as a living legacy. I wonder how many Khmer know about recent developments involving the Lao-Cambodian frontier?
Excellent commentary from Murray Hunter, as an outsider looking in. Assuming that he is an outsider. During Tun Mahahir’s time it is quite obvious that the policies were made by him or at least he made the executive decision after consulting the few people he trusted. Most of it were good but some were bad calls. He admitted that. But after him, it would seem that Badawi and Najib depended on those around him to come up with the policies for the nation, rather than their own vision. They are merely seen as the “spokesperson”rather than a leader.
In terms of Coles paintings and German Expressionism, I came across the Emil Nolde paintings in the link below, some of which depict Berlin nightlife in the early 1900’s. There definitely seems to be similarities in choice of subject, the use of unrealistic colour and distortion.
It is interesting how offended and even outraged some people get with Coles paintings of the noir side of modern SE Asia. Yet without incorporating and understanding the immense amount of noir in today’s SE Asia, how can any one possibly comprehend what’s actually there.
The TAT version of Thailand and SE Asia – serenity, tranquility, beautiful temples, orange-robed monks, lovely beaches, sunsets, happy “Sufficiency Economy” peasants, benevolent Buddhist rulers, a Land of Smiles, while perhaps a more pleasant and agreeable version of SE Asia, is actually extremely misleading, and in fact an almost complete deception. Sort of like Normal Rockwell or Thomas Kincade paintings.
Personally, whether I’m a fan of Coles painting style, the distortion and wild use of unrealistic, or not, it does seem to me that his vision and version of today’s SE Asia, while perhaps provocative, is far more interesting and connected to what is actually there than most others.
Ron, thank you for your willful misreading of my blog. Predictably, your comment betrays an utter impoverishment of research skills, casting doubt on your claim that you are indeed an “academic.” You may want to revisit the “little research” you have done in order to clarify, if only in your own enfeebled mind, what you are attempting to communicate here.
First, mine is but a humble blog. I earn no revenue from it, and am supported by no advertisers, patrons, wealthy benefactors, or foreign governments. My “catchy” titles are evidence of effective writing that attempts to attract readers as well as the web crawling logarithms of the search engine’s indexing function. Should you feel that my writing is deserving of “revenue” I invite you to look into your mostly empty billfold and kindly exercise your likely diminished capacity for charity by making a donation.
Secondly, the “poor soul” you mention is one of your fellow “academics”, Kenneth Ng, Associate Professor of Economics at the California State University at Northridge whose Thai sex blog attracted national media attention in the United States in 2010. In support of your palsied research skills, I direct your attention to the Huffington Post article that discusses this “poor soul’s” work here:
Finally, I invite you to continue conducting your “academic” research on my blog, and I’m always here to assist you in your struggles with search engines in furtherance of your dubious agenda.
(At the hazard of major digression to the thread, it must be said that as far as Aung San Suu Kyi is concerned, it is not just the most popular underdogs, the Rohingyas who are ignored, but also so many, many others who are blithely ignored -like the raped and killed Kachins, looted and driven off their ancestral lands, the starving, striking less-than-one-dollar-a-day workers, land looted farmers, etc, etc while she is busy with “Literary Festivals and “World Tours”, more so than Bono himself, all in the name of getting the power of the government which by definition is powerless according to the constitution she approves of provided there is an election in 2015 as many speculates although Burma getting to 2014 in one piece is highly doubtful.)
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Gazing into Sittwe prison
This broken record has changed its tune. ASSK’s transformation has turned its hatred of the Lady for being such a spoil sport to lurrve. Economic aid sans political reforms is the be all and end all as far as this messianic message is concerned.
Prosperity to democracy. Well, Free Trade predates Free World by centuries. Today they must promote FW at least some semblance for FT which remains the bottom line. Not long now. Up FT.
Gazing into Sittwe prison
Nich
This piece by Ms Violet Cho
http://www.newmandala.org/2012/06/13/racing-for-answers-in-divided-myanmar/
Described the problems, among which POVERTY has been the primary cause that fuel the ongoing situation in Western Myanmar.
HRW Matt Smith either think Myanmar citizenry has a short memory or worst not smart enough to realize the root of present problem “POVERTY” that HRW help to bring about by supporting and prolonging the useless careless policy of the West, in order to curry favor with sources of funding.
Thanks to HRW, and related org. Rohingyas, the poorest of poor even among the Bengali hierarchy, receiving the shortest end of the economic pie is not going to end anytime soon.
Call for remedy such as ‘citizenship’,to problems without recognizing the fundamentals, is at best grand standing and at the worst ludicrous.
Only concerted effort to create activities that alleviate poverty will eventual diminish these continual spastic cycles of ethnic violence overtime that center on religion, race or any irrelevant factors that have been clearly due to poverty.
Matt Smith will best serve the Rohingyas by stop blaming U Thein Sein/ Daw AUng San Suu Kyi government, admitting HRW contributions to present problems and concentrate doubly on immediately needed aide for looming disasters for now.
Islamic education’s desperate plight
Another similarity is the unenlightened behaviour of both central governments: religious/ethnic invasion and bone-headed militarism.
Islamic education’s desperate plight
A.Islam
I fail to see in what way I spoke “for” all Muslims. I don’t need to speak “for” any identifiable group in order to condemn an opinion, policy, practice or ‘joke’ as discriminatory against them. Neither do I deny that issues surrounding Islamic education are of legitimate concern to many people in southern Thailand. My criticisms of this post are twofold:
1. The suggestion that most Muslims in Southern Thailand are economically and socially marginalized ignores considerable variation across the region.
2. The assertion that disorganized and underfunded Islamic schools are a potential breeding ground for violent extremism suggests a inherent link between Islam and violence that, on the weight of the ebidence from the region in question, I consider unjustified. That is why I used the admittedly strong term “Islamaphobic”.
I am not in a position to say whether any Muslims in southern Thailand feel insulted by such a suggestion, but that doesn’t detract from my ability to observe that, objectively speaking, it is insulting.
Islamic education’s desperate plight
The level of poverty of the southern provinces is rather low, given the current prices for rubber. Neglect of the schools is another tale. Firstly, the state schools are in trouble because the teachers are easy prey. The islamic schools receive quite a lot of money (around 10.000 B) from the Thai state for each student, what explains to some degree the large number of students. In several cases the budget is increased by generous donations like f.e. for the islamic university. One probably quite significant factor why the level of education is in many cases very low and the teachers not professional is the business orientations of those running the schools.
Islamic education’s desperate plight
Thailand’s deep South Islamic insurgency (terror) reminds of the the Philippines deep South Muslim insurgency (and banditry and terror).
Islamic fundamentalism and radicalism and violent extremism … that’s where Thailand’s deep South is headed …
Islamic education’s desperate plight
Im surprised that Mr. Olthof takes it upon himself to talk for all Muslims. There are many people very concerned about these issues in the Southern Thai communities involved and its sad that Mr Olthof is so dismissive of them. The issues that Mr Hunter brought up by his own statements is that the plight of Islamic education in Southern Thailand is something separate from the insurency. Mr Hunter may have been very prudent to not mention his sources on these issues, as this is an extremely sensitive subject in the communities concerned. Far from being “Islamapobic”, the article seems more to be a request for help for these communities. One of the other problems are is that there are so many self appointed experts on the problems of the “Deep South” running about, the situation has been over analysed to the point of creating distorted realities that actually may not exist. Lets hope the warning in this article may be one of them.
Malaysia after regime change – Kikue Hamayotsu
Interesting research Jay. I would commend you to bring this up in any fora you can. I think its noteworthy especially if its grounded in proper academic tradition.
Malaysia after regime change – Kikue Hamayotsu
A reference to Tanah Melayu…recently did some research and the word Melayu refers to the Sanskrit/Tamil word of Malai/oor[Mountains/Village]..like Himalaya which means Big mountain…
Therefore Melayu does not denote a race,rather the name of this land..which then makes us all orang Melayu….makes sense to me but try and explain this to others…?Dangerous ground i guess because then people will question their origins except for the chinese,indians,arabs,eurasians and so forth who actually know where they came from. just saying…
Indian migrant workers in Malaysia – part 2
Much food for thought there Neptunian, especially for the Malaysian Indian community.
HINDRAF has recently launched a blueprint for the Indian poor that encompasses a broader strategy.
http://www.hindraf.org/videos/797-blueprint1.html
Tolerating intolerance
I have been using my aka ‘Vichai N’ from my very first post . . . just don’t want to terrify my wife everytime I write really negative things about Thaksin, or Chalerm (and his trigger-quick thuggish sons) or those very violent terror-prone Reds; among others. I don’t think Yingluck, or Thaksin or Chalerm or any Red (except maybe that guy John Francis Lee) are after me … but what the heck, ‘Vichai N’ (or Col. Jeru) suit me just fine.
Indian migrant workers in Malaysia – part 2
The Chinese migrant workers basically faced the same problems as the Indians. The difference is that Chinese parents forced education onto their children as a way out of poverty. This allowed the development of later generations of Chinese decendants. Those Indians who followed the same path (schooling) have later generations with the same success as the Chinese.
It is always easy to blame the system, ut the Indians have to look at themselves first. It is never easy to breakout of the poverty cycle, but not impossible, particularly for your children. Take the Chinese philosophy – “Your Children must be better educated than you are” – does not apply to the “already rich”
Islamic education’s desperate plight
This post is a very good example of the danger inherent in speaking “generally” about Muslims in southern Thailand. While glossing over the substantial economic, cultural and educational differences that separate Muslims in, say, Narathiwat and Krabi, the author gives the distinct impression that any type of education that is Islamic in orientation is a potential site for infiltration by violent extremism. This is an insult to the millions of peaceful Muslims who live in southern Thailand, not to mention Muslims the world over. Furthermore, while no one expects New Mandala contributors to hold to the standards of academic publication when it comes to citing their sources, the claim that the Pakistani Taliban is funding Pondoks and/or Islamic Private Schools in southern Thailand should not be made without substantiation. On the whole, this post amounts to a handful of vague generalizations tinged with Islamaphobic fear mongering. Southern Thailand is not a place where economically disadvantaged Muslims are drifting further from the Thai mainstream. To suggest that it is obscures the specific problems at the root of the crisis in the deep south and unfairly denigrates the successes of many Muslim communities in other pas of the region.
Sihanouk’s legacy
A very good overview of the Sihanouk legacy. One should remember though that Sihanouk did not dominate all the lines of patronage even when in absolute power. This led to court tensions as closer members of the Sihanouk entourage abused their powers at the detriment of the state apparatus. I’m sure contemporary comparisons with the Thai monarchy would find parallels with how the royal bureaucracy functions to protect and perpetuate itself. Sihanouk’s obsession with territorial integrity is something that continues as a living legacy. I wonder how many Khmer know about recent developments involving the Lao-Cambodian frontier?
Who makes public policy in Malaysia?
Excellent commentary from Murray Hunter, as an outsider looking in. Assuming that he is an outsider. During Tun Mahahir’s time it is quite obvious that the policies were made by him or at least he made the executive decision after consulting the few people he trusted. Most of it were good but some were bad calls. He admitted that. But after him, it would seem that Badawi and Najib depended on those around him to come up with the policies for the nation, rather than their own vision. They are merely seen as the “spokesperson”rather than a leader.
Southeast Asia noir
In terms of Coles paintings and German Expressionism, I came across the Emil Nolde paintings in the link below, some of which depict Berlin nightlife in the early 1900’s. There definitely seems to be similarities in choice of subject, the use of unrealistic colour and distortion.
http://s77.n15.n84.n66.static.myhostcenter.com/art_20th_century/nolde2.html
Southeast Asia noir
LOL!!! MOVE…ON. ONE MAN’S TRASH IS ANOTHER MAN’S TREASURE.
Southeast Asia noir
It is interesting how offended and even outraged some people get with Coles paintings of the noir side of modern SE Asia. Yet without incorporating and understanding the immense amount of noir in today’s SE Asia, how can any one possibly comprehend what’s actually there.
The TAT version of Thailand and SE Asia – serenity, tranquility, beautiful temples, orange-robed monks, lovely beaches, sunsets, happy “Sufficiency Economy” peasants, benevolent Buddhist rulers, a Land of Smiles, while perhaps a more pleasant and agreeable version of SE Asia, is actually extremely misleading, and in fact an almost complete deception. Sort of like Normal Rockwell or Thomas Kincade paintings.
Personally, whether I’m a fan of Coles painting style, the distortion and wild use of unrealistic, or not, it does seem to me that his vision and version of today’s SE Asia, while perhaps provocative, is far more interesting and connected to what is actually there than most others.
Southeast Asia noir
Ron, thank you for your willful misreading of my blog. Predictably, your comment betrays an utter impoverishment of research skills, casting doubt on your claim that you are indeed an “academic.” You may want to revisit the “little research” you have done in order to clarify, if only in your own enfeebled mind, what you are attempting to communicate here.
First, mine is but a humble blog. I earn no revenue from it, and am supported by no advertisers, patrons, wealthy benefactors, or foreign governments. My “catchy” titles are evidence of effective writing that attempts to attract readers as well as the web crawling logarithms of the search engine’s indexing function. Should you feel that my writing is deserving of “revenue” I invite you to look into your mostly empty billfold and kindly exercise your likely diminished capacity for charity by making a donation.
Secondly, the “poor soul” you mention is one of your fellow “academics”, Kenneth Ng, Associate Professor of Economics at the California State University at Northridge whose Thai sex blog attracted national media attention in the United States in 2010. In support of your palsied research skills, I direct your attention to the Huffington Post article that discusses this “poor soul’s” work here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/22/kenneth-ng-cal-state-prof_n_547516.html
Finally, I invite you to continue conducting your “academic” research on my blog, and I’m always here to assist you in your struggles with search engines in furtherance of your dubious agenda.
Campaigning on lèse-majesté
(At the hazard of major digression to the thread, it must be said that as far as Aung San Suu Kyi is concerned, it is not just the most popular underdogs, the Rohingyas who are ignored, but also so many, many others who are blithely ignored -like the raped and killed Kachins, looted and driven off their ancestral lands, the starving, striking less-than-one-dollar-a-day workers, land looted farmers, etc, etc while she is busy with “Literary Festivals and “World Tours”, more so than Bono himself, all in the name of getting the power of the government which by definition is powerless according to the constitution she approves of provided there is an election in 2015 as many speculates although Burma getting to 2014 in one piece is highly doubtful.)