New Mandala

Thanks to a regular New Mandala reader who emailed me (with the heading above) about this alarming story from the Bangkok Post:
The cabinet yesterday approved a draft national security bill which would give sweeping powers to the Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc) to handle ”new forms of threats” to the country, a cabinet meeting source said. [...]

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In an investigative breakthrough, Thai authorities have discovered that Thaksin was rich! The Bangkok Post reports:
The Department of Special Investigation on Tuesday charged ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra and his wife Potjaman with concealing assets and ordered them to return to Thailand within 10 days to hear the charges in person. … The DSI ordered the pair [...]

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Those who criticise “sufficiency economy” are often called to account by those who like to refer back to the royal scriptures in which the wisdom of “reasonableness, moderation and immunity” were originally put forward. Whatever detail of sufficiency economy’s current manifestation is called into question, a royalist defence is mounted in terms of the appropriateness of [...]

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These photos were taken by regular New Mandala commentator, Srithanonchai, at anti-junta protests in Bangkok in June 2007.  For those of us who are not in Thailand right now they provide a helpful illustration of the growing anti-government protests.

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Some new reading from publishers in Thailand:
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Lang man ton mai (Behind the forest curtain) by  Wirasak Chansongsaeng examines the lives of forest people, from the mountains to the sea.  ISBN: 9749295242
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For cooking hints from this side of the forest curtain you can’t go past Tamra kapkhao phra’ongchao churairatsiriman lae wang bangkhunphrom (Recipes of Princess Churairat  at the [...]

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For those interested in the relationship between national culture and “local” expressions of identity, here is an interesting image from Muang Hai in southern China. This young girl (whose family are the proud owners of an 800 year old tea tree) wore her family heirlooms as she served a delightfully rustic lunch of Puer Tea, chicken and vegetables. [...]

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It’s time, I think, to call a spade a spade – the “sufficiency economy” concept is a piece of lazy ideological madness that is being used as a fig leaf of royal legitimacy on the policy ideas (using the term generously) of those who have no idea. In the latest example of sufficiency madness the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (controlled [...]

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Martin J. Young, writing in Asia Times Online, recently had some stern words for the application of Thai government policy to the Hua Hin Jazz Festival:
“Sufficiency economy” seems to be the political buzzword of 2007 in Thailand. In essence, it is a system promoted by the royal family for the kingdom to become less dependent on foreign [...]

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A regular New Mandala reader from Chiang Mai has sent through a series of images from the local election campaign.
Number 1 : The strong man of local administration  

Number 2: …free of pollutants

Number 5: Has a sense of humour?

Thanks for these images from Chiang Mai.�
It would be terrific to see more electoral scenes – of all types – from [...]

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Today, 16 June 2007, marks the first anniversary of the launch of New Mandala.  In our second year we have many exciting plans to create an even better resource for the study and discussion of mainland Southeast Asian affairs.�
It was one year ago that Andrew made the first post to New Mandala – “Some thoughts on the political [...]

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