New Mandala

[This is a comment by regular New Mandala reader, Republican, on the International Crisis Group's recent report on southern Thailand: icg-2007.pdf.]�
Over the last year one could be excused for having grown used to the disparagement of democratically elected government in Thailand by Thai academics, the foreign Thai Studies community as well as various international institutions. Prestigious [...]

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Former Australian Prime Minister, Paul Keating, once famously described Australia’s Senate as “unrepresentative swill.” He was right. The composition of Australia’s Senate is bizarre. With equal representation (12 senators) from each of the states, Tasmania’s half a million voters has the same Senate clout as New South Wales’ seven million! There may have been some [...]

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Here is an interesting paper [warr-aares-2007.pdf] about the potential role of road building in poverty alleviation in Laos. The Australian National University’s Peter Warr uses general equilibrium modelling to argue that “road improvement does reduce poverty but that the quantitative impact depends heavily on the types of road that are provided and the areas in which the road [...]

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“Every one should feel at ease [about the economy]. People have money but they aren’t spending it. This makes it look as if the economy is contracting. But it is not. Every one is exercising the sufficiency philosophy”
- General Sonthi Boonyaratglin, Head of the Council for National Security, quoted in “State of emergency still possible: [...]

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Here is my review of Claudio Delang’s edited collection on Thailand’s Karen, Living at the Edge of Thai Society. The review appears in the latest issue of Asian Ethnicity.
walker-review.pdf

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Some news today on the possible shape of Thailand’s new constitution (my emphasis added):�
Withayakorn Chiangkul (วิทยากร เชียงกูล), the chairman of the Committee for People’s Participation in the Constitution Drafting, says people all over the country has shown much interest in the charter drafting, especially in terms of qualifications of MPs and senators…
…Mr Withayakorn also affirms [...]

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Here at New Mandala we have been following the Chiang Mai pandas’ efforts to reproduce with considerable interest.  But now, in much more exciting news, The Nation reports:
Chiang Mai Zoo has welcomed a new-born koala bear, as one of the four marsupials – sent from Australia to Thailand to mark the 60th anniversary of His [...]

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Ongoing discussion about the rather shaky looking future of puppet-PM Surayud has reminded me of the earlier controversy about his forest retreat. In a post from early this year, I wrote:
Matichon is carrying a report suggesting that Surayud’s rural retreat in Nakhon Ratchasima is located in “conservation zone” forest. Previous reports have stated that the [...]

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New Mandala has received a comment from Hans van Willenswaard  and Wallapa Kuntiranont of the Suan Nguen Mee Ma Co., Ltd.  It relates to Andrew’s post on the upcoming Sufficiciency Economy conference which will be held at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok.�
Hans and Wallapa have extended an invitation to “commentators and critical thinkers, [and] activists” who may want to join the [...]

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Speaking of foreign “meddling” in Southeast Asian affairs Forbes has published an article on the funding that American multi-billionaire George Soros ploughs into Burma.  This piece - which quotes a number of big players in the Burma activism scene - has a raft of important and interesting details. �
In the context of New Mandala’s earlier discussion of foreign backing [...]

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