Many New Mandala readers will be interested in a short essay by Somsak Jeamteerasakul that discusses one of the enduring mysteries of Thailand’s 20th century history. In response, over at Fa Deow Gan they are discussing the death of King Ananda Mahidol. There are already 44 comments.
Somsak finishes his essay by stating that, in his view, it is possible to work out what happened:
…there was a limited space, only a limited number of people were involved and some have not been straight with the tuth - we can think it through and explain what happened.
…สถานที่จำกัด, ผู้อยู่ในเหตุการณ์จำกัด, ผู้อยู่ในเหตุการณ์ให้การไม่ตรงความจริง, สามารถใช้การคิดเชิงตรรกะมาอธิบายว่าเกิดอะไรขึ้น
Thanks to Sawarin for prompting me to highlight this interesting discussion.
My fascination with this entry is related to what happens when something gets censored.
The blog entry itself is not censored but clicking on the entry (yes, I did that too, because I am so curious) clicking on the entry with open new tab on IE7 produces a white screen and the URL remains New Mandala, interesting.
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When I got home I found out it wasn’t censored, but this topic isn’t really that interesting now that I have access. Reading it seems like a waste of time.
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Re: Jon Fernquest
“but this topic isn’t really that interesting now that I have access. Reading it seems like a waste of time.”
well, sorry to hear that. you’re of course, entitled to say what in your view constitutes time-wasting. But I’d have thought the issue discussed is eminently interesting and also what I write has something to contribute to it.
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Re. Somsak’s “Agatha Christie” story: I found Jon Fernquest’s reply rather strange: in what sense do you mean reading this topic is a “waste of time”?
Re. whether it’s “interesting” or not, the story has received over 3000 hits on Fa Dio Kan, about 10 times the number of hits for a normal “popular” posting (I understand that it was also posted on the more frequented Prachatai website before being pulled – for obvious reasons – does anybody have an update on that?) As Fa Dio Kan is the leading academic website for blog discussion of Thai politics and social sciences these days one would think that most of those in the field of Thai political studies (and the social sciences, history, etc. more generally) would find this topic at least, “interesting” – whatever they thought of Somsak’s argument.
Of course, everyone is entitled to their opinion, and we all have our different interests. But whatever your politics and whatever you believe about the topic under discussion, one should understand the objective interest in this topic given the political circumstances after September 19. This topic is not only about history, it is about the present.
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Interesting discussion on Prachatai: กราบเท้าคุณพ่อที่เคารพรัก
http://www.prachatai.com/webboard/topic.php?id=174218
See especially the reply by “Wasan”, # 174391
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Somsak,
In your piece you seem to criticize Handley for not reaching a definitive conclusion. But in his book he pretty well discarded everything but the two conclusions the palace will never admit to: suicide or accidental fratricide. You don’t even repeat that much. I think he said in the book that there’s no available evidence to conclude without question one way or another. You only say that there’s enough evidence out there to come to a conclusion. It’s sensitive of course, and you are bold to bring it up, but perhaps you need to show us just what evidence is there that proves what happened.
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Yes, polo.
And at least 3,000 people are waiting for what Somsak has to say about this (i.e. the other two parts he promised).
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