I have taken the liberty of putting together a small selection of great content from around the Southeast Asia blogs. I hope New Mandala readers find it a useful resource for today and the week ahead.
- Bangkok Pundit: As expected, the Pundit’s comprehensive coverage of referendum day is superb. New Mandala readers hoping to digest his distinctive analysis will find this post a good place to start.
- Burma Underground: Draws attention to an informative report on Burmese refugees in Malaysia.
- Chut: Provides some critical commentary on Thailand’s referendum from the perspective of a Bangkok-based intellectual.
- Gnarly Kitty: Offers her reflections on the constitution referendum. She writes that:
The “No” arguments to me sound more reasonable, with the major reason being the constitution was drafted by the unconstitutional people. The coup was considered unconstitutional yet they abused it and claimed it was necessary so what was the point of having the constitution at all?
- Siam Sentinel: Ponders “The Devil They Know” and all things constitutional.
- Fifty Viss: The webmaster, Aung Kyaw, has a short post on a “silent protest” held in Rangoon. It is worth a read.
1 response so far ↓
1 jonfernquest // Aug 22, 2007 at 6:37 pm
The silent protest was over gas price hikes in Burma.
This is hardly the first time that gas prices suddenly shot up sending the exchange into sudden depreciation and causing a sharp spike in market prices.
During the Burmese-Thai war up around Maesai, I was living in Yangon, and the same thing happened. The army supposedly hoarded oil for the war. The public market in Tamwei in Yangon was policed and vendors prevented from raising their prices. Power outages every other day in Yangon for about 7 hours. A friend who ran a fertiliser import business was completely caught exposed adn lost a lot of money. Later things got better again.
I don’t see anyone referring to this previous episode. For example, is the current episode worse? IMHO without history and context, news is just noise.
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