STATEMENT OF THE SANG SUMNUEK WRITERS No.1

STATEMENT OF THE SANG SUMNUEK WRITERS No.1

The utterly sad thing about being human is to mistake wrong for right, seeing evil deeds as maintaining justice because one is so misguided as to see oneself as superior to others


A man was accused of offending the honour of the King, the Queen, and the Heir-apparent without any clear evidence. He was judged based on the hypothesis that he was guilty. He was sentenced according to the law decreed by the coup group in 1976 and imprisoned for three to five years for an offence that was merely verbal. The penalty was even greater than offences against life or offences relating to sexuality.

He requested eight times to be bailed, and, even though he was sick, all requests were refused by the court, claiming that the offence was acute despite the fact that it was a libel case. The court acted as if granting him temporary bail according to his right would result in Thailand being shattered once he was released.

This is the way that judicial discretion works in the interests of monarchist ideology.

Time after time, Thailand has witnessed a lack of humanity in the implementation of Article 112 of the Criminal Code. Not to mention the fact that a just state, one that observed the rule of law, would respect the right and freedom of the people under the democratic regime…

this barbaric state has ruled without the slightest mercy.

From the Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand,

Section 4 states that human dignity, rights, liberty, and equality of the people shall be protected.

Section 26 states that in exercising powers of all state authorities, regard shall be given to human dignity, rights, and liberties in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution.

Section 30, the first clause, states that all persons are equal before the law and shall enjoy equal protection under the law.

Section 39, the second clause, states that the suspect or the accused in a criminal case shall be presumed innocent.

And, the third clause states that before the passing of a final judgment convicting a person for committing an offence, such a person shall be not be treated as a convict.

Section 40, the second clause, states that basic rights in judicial process which must at least guarantee an open court hearing; right to factual information and sufficient cross-examination of documents; right to present facts, witness or evidence, and express his or her dissent or disagreement with judges or arbitrators; right to require full quorum of judges or arbitrators in the hearing of his or her case; and right to hear the clarification of court decision, judgment, or order.

And, the seventh clause states that an alleged offender and the accused in criminal case shall have the right to correct, prompt and fair investigation or trial with an adequate opportunity in defending his case, the right to examine or to be informed of evidence, right to defend himself through counsel and the right to bail.

Or perhaps these provisions exist only to deceive the people that Thailand is a civilised country?

Why did the court not act in accordance with the law? Should the judges continue to hold their jobs despite this?

At present, those who support amendment of Article 112 of the Thai Criminal Code feel ashamed as citizens of a country that lets injustice appear naked in front of its citizens.

A man has died in prison without being granted the right that belongs to him. It is the right not only of a citizen under a democratic regime, but the right of a human being.

Although, unfortunately, his death still fails to awaken the human side in many people in this country, the Sang Sumnuek Writers are determined to push for the amendment of this law, and other matters pertaining to it, for a better society.

In whatever way the parliament will turn down the proposal to amend the Article 112 of the Criminal Code, we will keep finding ways to campaign and to campaign permanently.

Until the day that the people have their true representatives,

that day courage will resurrect from mortality.

Sang Sumnuek Writers

Thailand

A man who is made disabled at the age of 61

A man who is made disabled at the age of 61

Duanwad Phimwana

He was born normal,
neither physically nor emotionally disabled.
He can love and be loved,
He can hate and be hated,
as an ordinary man.

In 2011,
he is still alive,
alive to see things rise and fall.
In a black and white photo before 1932,
though most men in that photo have gone,
but the undemocratic ghost,
still lives through time,
emerged unashamedly after 1932,
cruel enough to crush ordinary men into pieces.
In the portrait of truth, men died of war,
they died of natural disaster,
of crime,
of accident.
The world is dangerous.
Though my country is even more dangerous.
A man at the age of 61,
convicted of a crime,
convicted of being human,
convicted of not being disabled, physically and mentally,
convicted because he can love, and be loved,
convicted because he can hate, and be hated,
convicted of being born,

born as an ordinary man.

24 Nov 2011

[http://prachatai3.info/journal/2011/11/38016]

for the story : [http://www.prachatai.com/english/node/2795]

Elephant for one more time

Whew! It's good to be back to AP again after more than a year of 'doing other things'.

I'm back in Canberra, Australia and ready to roll again.

----

Lately there are two 'elephants' that I've come across:

The first was a novel. It's Jose Saramago's The Elephant's Journey (2008). I started reading it on the way to Sydney and finished it on the way back to Canberra. The story takes place in the mid-16th century and focuses on an Indian mahout and his elephant.

The story is full of wit, symbolic representation, and philosophical questions. I like the poignant sense of humour in his work. Many times he seems to be emphasizing a lot on Christianity and its critique. It's a good book and worth discussing. Type the title of the book in Google search box and you'll find many interesting reviews, such as this piece by Ursula K Le Guin.

The second elephant is about Thailand. The phrase chang u nai hong [ช้างอยู่ในห้อง - elephant in the room] is very much in use nowadays by Thai progressives . It is referred to an issue relating to the Thai monarchy, which is now increasingly becoming the centre of the discussion among observers. The topic has become one of the most controversial debates in Thai political arena. The royalists are willing to fight to their last drop of blood to protect the monarchy being defamed. At the same time, the progressives are pushing hard to create a more open debate among Thais about the monarchy.

It's amazing to see how deeply entrenched the Thai monarchy is in the minds of the conservatives. But it's equally amazing to see how a few years could make such a big change, especially after the 2006 coup.

It's now the time for Thailand to discuss about that elephant in the room. Not only because it's important, but it's also inevitable. To be blunt, it's great to see the Red Shirts becoming a big political body. But it is critical for them to be conscious and not pushing themselves to the verge of a civil war. Some opportunists will, for sure, be happy to see that.

They'll be happy to see the chaos in Thailand, and then they'll ask for the hero, who will come on the white horse to solve all the problems this country ever had.

But I guess it's not going to work no more. Thailand needs different solution.

That big animal

I've watched a Thai online TV Program about a person who established an elephant corral in Ayutthaya, Thailand. The special thing about it is that he promised to stick to the ancient manual about elephant. (คชศาสตร์)

A good effort. They have a website as well.

The interesting thing to me is an interview. The owner of the corral said that during the late 19th century Siam, a large number of elephants were moved to the north by the British Borneo Company. A large area of teak forest in the north was the major revenue for the British companies.

He insisted that traditionally elephants would be sent to Bangkok to the Kings. We can see that the power of kings was overcome by the British colonialism.

Would love to know from the AP readers who know about this.

Where was the colonial in Siam/Thailand?

One of the general notions about Siam/Thailand - compare to other Southeast Asian countries - is that it is the only country in the region that could escape colonization in the 19th century and could maintain independent.

It is the feature that Thai people always proud of. "Being independent" has always been the apex of "Thainess" for decades. No one can take it away from Thai people.

Hence, being independent (i.e. never been colonized) = being "Thai"

A group of historians in this volume The Ambiguous Allure of the West: Traces of the Colonial in Thailand (2010) are saying that that isn't the whole story.

With a forward by Dipesh Chakrabarty, this volume offers a fresh look at Thai history through the lens of Postcolonial Theory.

There are at least two dimensions that I think it suggests,

1) It has been many decades - at least since the Maoist look at Thai history from the 1950s - that the discourse of Thailand-the-non-colonized-country has begun to be deconstructed. A body of literature, theoretically and empirically, emerged to look at Siam/Thailand as having a 'semicolonial' status. On the one hand, Siam/Thailand was under indirect colony especially in the economic dimension. And on the other hand, the elite themselves acted as an agent of "internal colonization".When the Communist Party of Thailand (CPT) ceased its movement in the 1980s, the Marxist framework to Thai history began to decline. This volume aims to reinvigorate and refresh the post-Marxist analysis with the new theoretical force.

2) This volume calls for the more serious consideration of using the Postcolonial framework on looking at Thai history. Previously, Siam/Thailand was in little attention, if not left out, from the powerful dialogue of the Postcolonial debate, just because the general notion of not being a colonized country (this might due to the scholars themselves). But bringing Siam into that dialogue would further create stimulating debates, and eventually would bring about the alternative to the Euro-American centrism framework like "Postcolonial" itself. There is a lot to be done, and this book is one of the powerful attempts in that direction.


As Tony Day put it about this book

"This excellent collection of essays represents a major advance in the application of Western postcolonial theory to the study of Asian History and culture. No other book is more successful at shattering the "uniqueness" of Thailand, or of demonstrating the many ways in which Southeast Asia is comparable to the rest of the world"

Cultural realization

If you ask the people from a certain country in Southeast Asia about their movies, they might not be able to answer you if you want to know what films from their neighbours are like.

I only have an opportunities to watch quite a number from Southeast Asian films, especially form Indonesia.

Khun Phra Chuai [good lord], I've just realized that I have no idea about Indonesian films before.

I appreciated Truffaut, Rosellini, Woody Allen, Hitchcock, and the list can go on. But I don't have a clue what are the big names of Southeast Asian filmmakers (well, maybe Apichatpong but that's not an excuse).

Recently I've watched Opera Jawa (2006) by Garin Nugroho, which is a reinterpretation of Ramayana into the modern style. The film is a part of the event arranged partly by the National Film and Sound Archive in Canberra. I've also met Garin in flesh.

The movie is almost exactly what I wanted to do in my writing! What's good about a reinterpretation of classic texts is that you not only see how this age is like, but also to see how something can prevail through time...

Now I've seen all three movies commissioned by the New Crowned Hope Festival in 2006. Others are: Apichatpong's Syndrome of a Century and Tsai Ming-Liang's I don't want to sleep alone (both watched in London in 2008)

I recommend you to watch this movie. It is based on a classic text that connects Southeast Asia together, and it gives us a voice in this world.

Sita was gorgeous in this movie, I tell you.

What time is it?

Ever imagine what was it like before we live our lives on the 24 hours clock time?

Clark Blaise, Time Lord: Sir Sandford Fleming and the Creation of Standard Time (2000) could give us some answers.

In this book he traces how power relation among European countries in the 19th century resulted in the adoption of the Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

Of course, GMT was used in the colonies.

Southeast Asian countries, one by one, followed the GMT from around them late 19th century onwards.


GMT reflected that power centre of the world in the 19th century; London.

We are still adopting GMT today.

See? that's why we have to learn history.

31 planes of existence

An article by Aung Zaw in the Irrawaddy Feb. issue is quite interesting. (the online version is here)

It is about how Naypidaw is seen by Myanmar's junta leader Than Shwe as the monument of his rule.

The project of building the Hluttaw, or Parliament in Naypidaw has an interesting fact: it is planned to be consisted of 31 buildings.

According to Buddhist cosmology, 31 is the number of planes of existence into which we can reborn. Human belongs to the fifth plane, above other beings such as animal and hungry ghosts, but below the devas-the god-like beings who exists in the realms of form and formlessness.
The important thing to remember about the 31 planes of existence is that they are all subject to suffering. By following the Buddha's teachings, however, one can escape the rounds of rebirth and attain a state that is completely beyond suffering, known as Nirvana.

It began to be even more interesting when it continues (my emphasis) :

In his youth, Than Shwe devoted almost as much time to the study of Buddhist scriptures as he did to learning psychological warfare, the military field in which he has excelled throughout his career. According to one army general who worked with him years ago, the young Than Shwe was "half monk and half army officer"

It reminds me of the interconnection between religion and politics in Buddhist countries (esp.in Southeast Asia). The ruler will project himself, and, in history, he was also projected, as Buddha. It is the Brahmic believe which influenced mainland Southeast Asia for centuries.

One of the important questions is how should this concept be adapted in the midst of the modern, 21st century world?

Ajarn Ishii

I only knew of Prof.Yoneo Ishii's death (12th Feb) from ajarn Nidhi's article in Matichon Weekly this week.

Ajarn Nidhi talks about ajarn Ishii's love for Thailand and Thai studies and how his skills in Southeast Asian studies were trained in a different way, unlike the very specialized way as it is at the present. (sorry I couldn't bring the whole article here)

True, love creates illusion. But what does not? as far as we are bounded in this gigantic web?

As a student in a new generation, I could only imagine what it was like in the times of our predecessors. The best we can do is to read their works with our eyes open, and to try to comprehend them in the context that they were written.

The foundation has been laid. The next generation steps further.

Dr. Yoneo Ishii is President of The National Institutes for the Humanities. He taught Southeast Asian History at Kyoto University (1965-1990), where he also served as director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies (1985-1990). He then became professor of Southeast Asian History at Sophia University (1990-1997), and became the chair of the Japan UNESCO National Commission from 1998-1999, and President of Kanda University of International Studies. His major publications in English include Thailand: A Rice-growing Society; Sangha, State and Society: Thai Buddhism in History; and Junk Trade from Southeast Asia.

Happy New Year

Farewell to the first decade of the 21st century. The TIME magazine calls the passing decade as "hell".

Terrorism, Natural disaster, Financial Crisis and etc.

Yeah, such a decade it was, I must say.

But we have to move on.

AP is now two years old.

Siamese lakhon troupes at the end of the 19th century

I am trying to make sense about how Siamese mahorasop (dance, drama, and theater) has developed during the Bangkok period (the second half of the 19th century).

The more I try to get into the topic the more I feel how little I know about Thai art. So, if anyone know anything, please throw in your ideas and corrections.

My main purpose is I want to have a picture of the interactions between the performers and the audiences back then.

The performers were large dance troupes owned by Siamese aristocrats. Main types of performances were lakhon nok (showed outside the royal court) and lakhon nai (showed inside the royal court).

lakhon nai was originally associated with the symbol of high status in the society, that of the king. So King Mongkut issued a decree forbid the lakhon nai to be performed outside of the royal court.

Dancers of the troupes tended to be female because under the Sakdina system, male phrai and tad were liable to work in drudgery.

Here there were two types: the lakhon luang (royal) troupes and the private lakhon troupes. The latter one seemed to be closely associated to the gambling halls which scattered all over.

So, The audiences were the King and nobles and those people who went to gamble. Private troupe could be one of the source of revenue for the aristocrats apart from those who gained income from other economic activities. This needs to be explore further since I don't have any idea how much the audiences were charged for each performance.

The interesting thing came at the end of the 19th century, when there were two things that, I think, affected performers directly.

First, the abolition of slavery. What I really want to see is what those people who belonged to the lakhon troupes in the sakdina period did after they were released. Though they were no more obliged to their nai, I am not sure they just abandoned their performing skills they had.

Second, the suppression of the gambling halls. Some academics see that private lakhon troupes declined after they couldn't find a place to perform. I wonder if that was the case.

I will come back to this topic when I have a clearer picture.

(This ideas are from Mattani Mojdara Rutnin, Dance, drama, and theatre in Thailand: the process of development and modernization, 1993)

Satchmo and the Cold War

Cultural dimension has been on the interest of many Cold War historians for quite sometimes, especially since the latter half of the 1990s onwards.

They see that the US domination in the global scale during the height of the Cold War (after the 1950s) did not come by accident. It was well planned. In order to protect the US led capitalism to other places of the world, a line was drawn to prevent the spread of Russo-Sino Communism (so called the Containment policy).

Cold War in Southeast Asia began after the area of conflict moved from the Korean War down to Vietnam.

By preventing the spread of communism, solid cultural policies were needed in order to fight against the Communist propaganda.

Including jazz.

Satchmo blows up the word: Jazz ambassadors play the Cold War (2004) is one of the recent works trying to point out how American jazz musicians were one of the forces to assimilate American values (democracy, freedom, etc.) abroad. Jazz was picked by Washington seeing as fit to the image of the US, as it is a distinct form of art unlike Europe's Ballet, Classical music and all that.

However, jazz ambassadors carried more that what they were assigned to do. Read this interesting book and you'll see why.

I think it should be good to end with this quote :

From 1955 on, Armstrong was greeted enthusiastically by foreign audiences wherever he went. Whether on official State Department tours such as his 1960-61 African trip, or on unofficial journeys such as those to Ghana in 1956, Latin America in 1957, and East Berlin, Armstrong was Ambassador Satch. (p.12)

If you love jazz, and if you love history, this book is worth reading, indeed.

The inheritance of Empire

Legacies of the British Empire are still visible today. In Southeast Asia, we can see what colonialism has left for the native people.

Take territorial sovereignty for example. How can we explain the demarcation of Southeast Asian countries today without taking into account the roles of colonial powers? Singapore-Malaysia, Indonesia-Malaysia, Siam-Lao/Cambodia, Vietnamese-Khmer Krom.

Sure, Furguson is not wrong by saying "[o]f course, no one would claim that the record of the British Empire was unblemished..." (p.358), "...the fact remains that no organization in history has done more to promote the free movement of goods, capital and labour than the British Empire in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries" (p.XXIV).

But it is disturbing to read:

without the spread of British rule around the world, it is hard to believe that the structures of liberal capitalism would have been so successfully established in so many different economies around the world. Those empires that adopted alternative models - the Russian and the Chinese - imposed incalculable misery on their subject peoples. Without the influence of British imperial rule, it is hard to believe that the institutions of parliamentary democracy would have been adopted by the majority of states in the world, as they are today. India, the world's largest democracy, owes more than it is fashionable to acknowledge to British rule. Its elite schools, its universities, its civil service, its army, its press and its parliamentary system all still have discernibly British model. Finally, there is the English language itself, perhaps the most important single export of the last 300 years. Today 350 million people speak English as their first language and around 450 million have it as a second language. That is roughly one in every seven people on the planet (p.358)

Southeast Asian countries are no exception.

Instead of being the revisionist version of history, Empire: The rise and demise of the British world order and the lessons for global power became another promoter of empire.

By stressing how the world has become a better place by the British Empire, Ferguson fails to ask the most fundamental question: where are the voices of the native people?

The intention of the British Empire was the spread of British-led capitalism to other areas of the globe, for the betterment of Britain, NOT the world. In order to sustain such system, liberalism was needed to be established.

It was rather like sticking a piece of meat into someone's mouth.

It seems to Ferguson that, at any time in history, there must be someone acting as an Empire to regulate world order. It is the duty, and the US is doing that job at the moment (with a genuine goodwill).

No, Ferguson. We don't want it.

The British Empire has not yet demised. This book is the proof.

(Niall Ferguson, Empire: The rise and demise of the British world order and the lessons for global power, 2002)

p.s. There's a review of this book here.

make coffee, not war

I have stumbled across a little news piece on the Bangkok Chronicles ( an English language daily est.1939 reporting the situation of the war to the European readers in Thailand) about how the battle was also fought over coffee consuming. The report goes :

Coffee for Hitler is seized, report
London, September 24th.

The power of the British blockade has now been brought home personally to Herr Hitler.
The British contraband authorities have just seized two tons of coffee from Arabia personally consigned to him.
The coffee was order on August 12th. - BBC Radio

(The Bangkok Chronicles, 26 Sep 1939)

The champion of coffee consuming during the WWII was no one else but the Ally, especially Britain and the US. A demand for coffee from the military camps was so high that it exceeded the domestic production in the US. So coffee export was mainly from Latin America (to the Ally soldiers in Europe). In this way, Latin American countries were being guaranteed that their coffee would be bought (and that helped sustain their economies). So Latin America wasn't only a workshop, but also a cafe for the rising American Empire.

Well, the Ally wasn't the only side that wanted to have a sip of coffee. The Axis struggled to import coffee from the Arab producers (because they couldn't get Latin American coffee). Because the Arabian Peninsular was no more the main coffee export like it once was in the 16th century, Germany found it hard to find a chance to drink some coffee when Britain was still world's no.1 in Navy in the 1930s.

So this is the lesson: make coffee, not war

The reborn of old documents

All the credit to Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Antrhopology Center (ศูนย์มานุษยวิทยาสิรินธร)!

A Seminar, "the reborn of old documents" (หนังสือเก่าชาวสยาม), was arranged at the Center (9 Jun 09) and was attended by academics, historians, librarians, and the public who share their concern about the ways to preserve old documents. 

In the morning, librarians and staffs from 5 organizations gathered to discuss about ways in which the public could make use of their collections (The Thai National Archives, Chula's Rarebook collection, Siam Society, Muang Boran database, and Ton-Chabab Publishing House). It was very interesting knowing the names of documents stored in these places. To give some examples, in Chula's rarebook collection there are Somyapithan Ramakian (สมญาภิธานรามเกียรติ์), Mulbot Banpakit (มูลบทบรรพกิจ), the online full text of Mattana Patha (มัธนะพาธา), and etc. At Muang Boran Database, they store a large collection of b/w photos. These photos are architectures, temples, and lots of views of Siam when photography is still new to the Siamese. Historians should find these useful in portraying an image of Siam in the period of their interest. At the end, the panelists called for more use of these sources, which is know little in public. 

After a modest lunch, the seminar continued. The topic concerned the use of old documents and how they benefit researchers. The whole excerpt will not be put here, but an interesting thing came from Ajarn Chalong Soontravanich. He called for the storage of political pamphlet, which is the periodicals from governmental organizations, army divisions, or famous temples. Statistical Year Book, for instance, could show us the big picture of Siam's socioeconomic context in the past. These are some of the examples he gave: Tesaphibanthai (เทศาภิบาลไทย), Senasuksa (เสนาศึกษา) Yuttagoad (ยุทธโกศ), Wittayajarn (วิทยาจารย์), Ekkasarn Sataranasuk (เอกสารสาธารณสุข), Khao Pad (ข่าวแพทย์), Dula Paha (ดุลพาหะ), Bot Bundit (บทบัณฑิต), Talangkarn Khana Song (แถลงการณ์คณะสงฆ์), Nangsue Wat Koh (หนังสือวัดเ กาะ). Ajarn concluded that we coould make an enormous use of these documents if they began to be collected. 

After coffee break, the last seminar went to the hands of Anake Nawigamune, a milestone of Thailand's past. He told us the special thing about Vajirayan Vised (วชิรญาณวิเศษ) that has been put online by PMCS Anthropology Center.(This seminar was also an opening ceremony for the website siamrarebooks.com) All the deatils about this online version as well as the text itself can be found here. 

After the seminar, we all agreed that there are so many more old documents that should be put online, in order to preserve Siamese past for many generations to come. 

  

The competition of Coffee colony

Recently, I was trying to find the way in which coffee could make its mark in world history. Before coffee has become the world's second largest export after oil today, there should be a process that initiate such phenomenon.  

I found some interesting facts leading to an assumption. 

Eventhough coffee was founded in Africa, presumably in Ethiopia, it only began to spread and became an export crop from the Arab world to Europe in the 17th century. Coffee-houses had become an urban scene in Constantinople only around the beginning of the century and London was the next destination. Coffee trading during the time was mainly under the Levant Company.   

The first coffee-house in England, in fact in the Christendom, was established in London perhaps around 1652-1654 at Cornhill. This claim confutes the old one that the first coffee-house was set up in Oxford. (Markman Ellis, The Coffee-House: A Cultural History, 2004, 29-30) Throughout the 17 th century, coffee was mainly from Southern Arabia or the port at Mocha. 

An important change occured at the turn of the century, when the Dutch East India Company (VOC) set up a coffee plantation in Java, in which the first coffee tree was planted in 1696. In 1711, the first coffee export from Java under the VOC was 900 ponds. The figure breathtakingly increased into 6 million ponds per year only two decades later! Coffee value had overrun other cash crop e.g. pepper and cloves. (John Keay, The Spice Route, 2005, 252)

So the Dutch colony in Java(and some other parts of the archipelagos), was the coffee colony throughout the first half  of the 18th century. The main destination of coffee from Java was Europe. 

Nothing is certain. Towards the end of the 18th century, coffee had become a hot prospect in Brazil. After the Belgian monk introduced coffee to Rio de Janeiro in 1774, he found that coffee loves Brazil's terra roxa. The consequence was inevitable; money flowed into coffee plantation business very quickly. 

From Rio to Sao Paulo, and then to the caribbeans; coffee moved from Java to Brazil at the beginning of the 19th century, and is still there to the present. This left Java with the new crop: sugar (which was also quite successful under the cultivation system). 

Maybe the competition between European power generated this phenomenon? Or was it the work of the invisible hand? What do AP readers think? 

 

the leisure class

I've begun reading Thorstein Veblen's The Theory of the Leisure class (1973) for a couple of chapters now. 

It is interesting how his approach (in early chapters) is an anthropological and sociological observation, which is different from his comtemporary economists. 

The earliest stage of human society, the primitive savagery or the peaceable, did not enable the emergence of the leisure class. Yet the leisure class began to build up during the transition from such peaceable society into barbarism, or warlike habit of life. 

There were two natures of work in consequense: exploit and drudgery. 

'Exploit' belonged to those of a higher place in society and 'drudgery' was on the opposite. 

The important change was not the frequent of war or how the war was fought, but human's perspective had changed: fight was used to justify or judge facts and events in the society. 

Accordingly, after the emergence of 'ownership', Veblen introduces the concept of 'pecuniary emulation'. It is when human competed to possess private property. People with large ownership (wealth) belonged to the 'exploit'. 

The demand had arisen: the weathy wanted to divorce from productive work. This is not to say that they were indolence, but rather they must maintain their esteem (as a wealthy bunch) by making their wealth evidenced (in non-productive consumption of time)!  

This is the leisure class. 

I have just a question to discuss with AP readers: What about the writer(in Southeast Asia) today? If he already has a full-time job (which is a productive work) but he considers writing as his leisure, whereas he could earn some money by publishing his books. 

Is he a member of Veblen's  leisure class? 

 

      

Something from Malaysia

It seems that Datuk Seri Najib Razak, Malaysia's new PM, begins his office aiming for a big change.

Let me put into points; 

1) He will tackle the country's most controversial law, the Internal Security Act (ISA). This law allows detention without trial. He said the law needs to be reviewed. 

2) According to the law revision, 13 detainees will be released. These detainees are activists, members of political movements, or they were accused of something. Some of the detainees are leaders of the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf), which raises vioce for the Indian minority in Malaysia.

 

3) He has lifted 3-month ban on the two opposition newspaper. 

Sure, this can be seen as nothing but a propaganda building up government's credibility. But if we are to be optimistic enough, we can see that what seems to be an important issue for this new PM is freedom of expression. 

According to the news, he said "It must be a government with new approaches for new times - a government that places a priority on performance because the people must come first" 

This might relect something to Malaysia's neihbour. 

"THE PEOPLE MUST COME FIRST" - A slogan of the Democrat Party, Thailand's political party. But how has this slogan been practiced? 

Let me put into points;

1) Not only one of the most controversial law of the country, the Lese Majeste, has been untouched, there is a potential to increase penalty on such law. Recently, Suwicha Thakor is going to jail for 10 years on Lese Majeste. Also, an Australian journalist has a lot to tell when he was in prison due to the same accusation. (New Mandala host a campaign on LM's reform in which you could find a lot of details) 

2) Prachatai.com, an alternative online newspaper, was raided and the editor, Khun Chiranuch, was arrested and charged with computer crime act (the news is here and a reflection is here). 

3) The Rohingya incident was still in public scrutiny, but not much has been done, only lip service from Thailand's PM. 

In terms of freedom of expression and human rights problems, I see Malaysia is hoping to get back on track. 

Historic Asia visit: a reflection

Hillary Clinton is scheduled to visit East Asian countries including China, Japan, South Korea, and Indonesia. This will be her first overseas trip as the US Secretary of State. 

It is interesting that the US chose Indonesia as a destination to demonstrate its foreign policy in Southeast Asia. It can be seen that the superpower  is seeing Indonesia as a representative for the whole region. 

But why Indonesia? 

Of course, Barack Obama's childhood in Indonesia may be a factor. There is a personal link between the new US President and Southeast Asia. Or in other words, it made the US approach this region easier. 

But I don't think it is an important point.  

Lest not forget some facts about Indonesia. It is the world's largest Muslim-majority nation. Indonesian Muslims comprise of 15 per cent of the total Islam population in the world. This is a crucial point; the US under Obama would have to approach Muslim countries for talks and develop trade partnership. It cannot pursue a preemptive attitude like it once was under Mr.Bush. So where is the better place if not Indonesia? A tight relationship with Indonesia show the Middle-East that the US is willing to negotiate with any Muslim nations. This is for the sake of neo-liberalism, unfortunately. 

Moreover, let's consider Indonesia's performance since the economic bust in 1997. Among countries in Southeast Asia, Thailand and Indonesia were to two most severely hit by the crisis. However, ten years later, Indonesia under President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono improved considerably well.  The conflict between religions seems to decrease. Even though he is struggling to gain real power in the administration, Yudhoyono seems to do well in his office. Compare to countries in the region, Indonesia is seen as the most promising.

P.S. It's the Shan's National Day on Saturday. 

Coffee and Rice

For the past couple of days, I was reading about how coffee plantation arrived in Latin America and how it became such an important export for the region, especially for Brazil, since the mid-19th century onwards. It is said that coffee makes modern Brazil. 

It reminds me of how rice played the same role for countries in mainland Southeast Asia during the same period. 

Coffee was widely planted in Brazil from the beginning of the 19th century, when European capitalists (especially the British) poured into Rio de Janeiro, and later in Sao Paulo to invest in coffee farming. From the 1850s onwards, Brazil flooded the world with coffee. 

After the second Anglo-Burmese War in 1852, Burma's rice production increased rapidly. Foreign investments reinforced this expansion. European merchants, shippers, and financiers invloved deeply in economic activities ranging from milling to money-lending. As a result, Burma became the world's no.1 rice producer only a few decades later. 

I have some comments:

1) The situation occured in two regions around the same time demonstrats how Pax Britannica expanded its capital all over the world.     

2) But there are many differences in detail. The most obvious is in terms of labour. Brazil imported millions of slave to work in coffee plantation whereas Burmese cultivator moved from the upper Burma to the Irawaddy-Sittang Delta to seek a better opportunity.  However, the situation in Siam was a bit different; Because Siam's Sakdina system was still dominating the society, Tad were forced to work for their Nai. The emancipation of Tad by King Chula shows how the need for labour in the expansion of Siam's rice frontier (Though this is debatable). 

3) Environmental impact from coffee plantation in Brazil is devastating. This is because a large area of land was cleared and burned. Also, coffee tired the land. Although lands were cleared in Burma as well, but the delta area in mainland Southeast Asia is perfect for planting rice. 

4) Both regions were exploited. Even though an increase in agricultural export generated income for the native people, those who became prospered were the British capitalists. Except in the case of Siam, where most profit ran into the royal and elites' purses (and later on, +Chinese capitalists'). 

Just some shallow observations. 

P.S. An ANN's list of must-go temples is interesting, not only for the Buddhists.