It seems to me that many of the political bloggers on this site are dedicated to maintaining the state of polarization that is responsible for the history of Thai politics replaying the same old story over & over. Tub thumping about the big issues, instead of worming in at ground-level and gradually effecting genuine change in the society, may be satisfying for those who want to be seen as knights in shining armour, but in terms of reality it’s counter-productive.

This is, and always has been, a cosmetically-engineered society, in which the image is more important than the reality, & the majority of people are quite happy to leave everything to those who are in charge, & go along with their PR. Try discussing the Drug War deaths with Thai people. “They were in the drug trade, they deserved to die,” they’ll say. Where is the evidence that that is true? “Oh, they were on the police blacklists.” Begging the question! (Many bloggers,even ‘academics’, here don’t understand the meaning of ‘begging the question.’ They think it means ‘ raising a further, obvious, question. It doesn’t. Their misunderstanding may come from the fact that they have never studied a critical or extensive reading course.)

It’s a very well-established fact that critical thinking skills are not taught in most of the Thai education system. Education? I don’t think so! Except in a few elite institutions, assessment in undergraduate, & even some post-graduate courses, is done on the basis of multiple-choice exams: the students can go through 4 years of ’study’ without ever having to write an essay. It doesn’t matter in many departments, anyway, because they’re not allowed to fail. All they have to do is regurgitate what their lecturers have told them are the true facts.

Sneering at “teaching reading (extensive reading)” is tacky and stupid.

“The East-West Center is an education and research organization established by the U.S. Congress in 1960 to strengthen relations and understanding among the peoples and nations of Asia, the Pacific, and the United States. The Center contributes to a peaceful, prosperous, and just Asia Pacific community by serving as a vigorous hub for cooperative research, education, and dialogue on critical issues of common concern to the Asia Pacific region and the United States. Funding for the Center comes from the U.S. government, with additional support provided by private agencies, individuals, foundations, corporations, and the governments of the region.”

I’m not sure that “some very useful and productive intellectual exchanges between University of Hawaii and Thai universities, … teaching reading (extensive reading).” is what I had in mind regarding critical scholarship.

IMHO the long-term relationship of the East-West Center with Thai royalty probably provides a much more solid long-term basis for doing work in Thailand than anything else could.

I hope you see the conflict of interest, Mr Fernquest. Understandably, it is true that in Thailand the Mahidols are the most influential family and therefore a solid foundation. I merely wish to ask if you make the distinction between “solid long-term basis” and “actual quality of the research involved,” because I certainly think being tied up to the Thai monarchy will affect the quality of the latter to a large extent.

Disagree.

There have been some very useful and productive intellectual exchanges between University of Hawaii and Thai universities, like Richard Day an expert in teaching reading (extensive reading).

He taught at ABAC and came up north to give talks at universities in the Chiang Rai area. Talked at Rajabhat but unfortunately the university I taught at didn’t seem to care about low profile teacher development, not prestige enhancing enough, I guess, like GMS meetings. Anyway, if this professor was better supported by the US state department, it would have been great, his host in town even ended up shelling out the 300 baht for the salad he had for dinner.

Kenon Breazeale who is director of research at the East West centre is a fine scholar who publishes articles in the Siam Society journal of lasting value and former professor Walter Vella wrote the history of Rama III.

IMHO the long-term relationship of the East-West Center with Thai royalty probably provides a much more solid long-term basis for doing work in Thailand than anything else could.

They are (as in continue to be) chums!