…Members of the public will be encouraged to join different projects initiated by His Majesty the King, particularly ones involving the philosophy of Sufficiency Economy. The goal is to prevent people from becoming too obsessed with political conflict.
- A quote from Suthep Thaugsuban (Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister with responsibility for security), “I underestimated the red shirts: Suthep”, The Nation, 24 May 2009.
8 responses so far ↓
1 David Brown // May 26, 2009 at 10:29 am
keep the people
awe struck (of the King) and
under control (by the soldiers and blue shirted Interior Ministry)
and report on your neighbours ( aka Burma and Stalin)
Thailand Land of Snarls
2 ATM // May 26, 2009 at 10:52 am
Sufficiency Economy?
Easy to say when you have banked 35 billion USD.
3 khon ngai ngai // May 26, 2009 at 1:11 pm
If I use the discussions on sufficiency economy in New Mandala as reference for my class (at great difficulty for my Thai students) as an alternative development model of Thailand, will I be charged with lese majeste? Some of the comments are not “respectful” of the royal institution.
4 Jack Russell // May 26, 2009 at 2:50 pm
Uncritical respect has bred nothing but inertia. Thailand has being going nowhere for years. There are now countries with lower labor costs. It has long been convenient to keep the electorate stupid. But when you then need critical thinking abilities, where are you then going to find them? People like Thaksin, Sonthi and Chumlong are still doing their utmost to keep the electorate stupid.
5 Nudi Samsao // May 27, 2009 at 1:27 pm
Bravo, Jack Russell!
6 antipadshist // May 27, 2009 at 10:35 pm
currently on most (or all) Thai TV channels they play some sort of advertisement about “unity / reconciliation” and against the “colors”: people arguing and then fiighting. the narrator compares them to bacteria or virus, a desease (people start coughing etc.). then in the end narrator sasy that if things go on like this – our country will be destroyed… (this ad is produced by ko-ro-o-mo-no – army ?)
to me it looks like blunt propaganda aimed to dissuade whatever political dissent. propaganda doesn’t allow the difference in opinions or discussions – it tries to create an athmosphere with unanimous acceptance of the main ideology.
however during the PAD’s rallies last year and back in 2006 there were no such ads – I guess it was alright for “yellows” to stir up social unrest ? nobody voiced their dislike, but rather many officials were expressing support to PAD and condemned aby attempts by gov. to stop PAD’s action.
7 Nudi Samsao // May 28, 2009 at 4:20 pm
One of the really big problems for Thailand: no genuine respect for common people among groups in power. Common people are simply to be manipulated-a kind of pawn-to serve the cause of some influential group. At a gathering, they usually sit back and acquiesced to self-serving oratory pounded out by those messiahs who, upon enough repetitions of their prophecies, mistake their own fallacies for truths.
8 antipadshist // May 29, 2009 at 3:50 am
here is this ISOC ad :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pVfaQ8fZno
also :
http://mosothai.com
http://mosothai.com/main.php
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