Since its inception in 2006 New Mandala has continuously welcomed guest contributions. To date we have hosted over a hundred of these. We regard them as one of the core strengths of the website.
Building on this existing foundation of guest posts, today we are launching New Mandala’s Four Letter Words. This series of invited contributions will showcase short scholarly reflections (of about 500-750 words) on a number of “key” words. Our preliminary list of words (circulated among Southeast Asianists from around the world) has already been improved by a large number of other ideas from potential contributors. We are keen to encourage alternative, and even off-beat, reflections on mainland Southeast Asia. Any Four Letter word is fair game.
The first in the series will go online tomorrow. We hope you will check in to see what all the excitement is about.
2 responses so far ↓
1 Dickie Simpkins // Sep 29, 2008 at 4:46 pm
I hope one of them will cover the Bangkok Governor Election.
It’s amazing that Chuwit can garner 20% of the vote (according to most polls)…. I believe they are the people just pissed off at the current state of politics as is.
2 Land of Snarls // Oct 4, 2008 at 2:13 am
Yes, agreed. And how about something on PAD’s latest aberration – New Politics? FCCT hosted a forum on it on Tuesday night. (Kasit Piromya, former Ambassador to Washington and Tokyo, and now a supporter of the People’s Alliance for Democracy; Korn Chatikavanij, Deputy Leader of the Democrat Party; & Chris Baker, who represented Sanity. Jonathon Head was moderator.) A packed house.
What is the New Politics? Well, I don’t think anyone really learnt anything that would be much help in answering that question, but here are 3 little gems gleaned from the evening:
1. Not every member of parliament will be elected. The 70% selected/ 30% elected thing has been scrapped, it was “just testing the waters,” but the new numbers haven’t yet been divined (I feel sure that is the right word.). Amongst those who will enjoy the patronage of selected membership will be “cripples, long-necked tribespersons & other ‘hill tribe’ people, & others who are under-privileged,” as Kh Khasit so gracefully put it;
2. Provincial Governors will be elected, rather than trained for the job & promoted up through the Ministry for the Interior, as they are now. IMHO lots of state-subsidised warlords could be the result, because…wait for it -
3… the police will be decentralized into provincial regions, and put under the control of the Provincial Governors. This devolution will, of course contribute to the slowness and complicated bumbling that is such a desirable feature of criminal investigation in Thailand, as well as providing voluminous paperwork and communications problems, as it has apparently done in U.K. (So necessary if a country is to have a flourishing Terrorist Sector, for example.)
When Chris Baker asked Kh Korn why he thought the people of Isan had not voted for the Democrats, he responded with a regretful admission that they had not had sufficient money to pay them the Necessary. (At least, that’s all I could get from it – there was a Thai lady next to me loudly ‘kah – kahing’ into her mobile, as is the persistent wont of vulgar Thai ladies who sit in packed audiences.) An interesting insight into the Democrats’ powers of perception & self-analysis, I thought.
BTW, J Head mentioned, when THAT TOPIC came up, that the most recent case of Lese Majeste has been brought by a Brit. on a fellow Pom., as the result of a land dispute, showing, I think, that there is indeed a sort of bizarre, even unbridled, democracy operating, sometimes in the strangest of places, in this land.
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Please note: New Mandala encourages vigorous debate. However, for the moment we will only be publishing high-quality comments that make original contributions to discussion. There will, of course, still be space for pithy, humorous, eccentric and cheeky input. Short and sweet will usually trump long and involved. Repetitive ranting, unimaginative point-scoring and idle abuse will not be entertained. Comments which carry a real name are also more likely to be approved. Thank you for your ongoing interest and contributions.