New Mandala

New Mandala has long sought to draw attention to the injustices of Thailand’s lese majeste law.
From Oliver Jufer and Harry Nicolaides, to Suwicha Thakor and Daranee “Da Torpedo” Charnchoengsilpakul, whenever a lese majeste case is prosecuted, and every time an outrageous sentence is proclaimed, we receive a tragic spike in readership.  Outrage is voiced by [...]

[Read more →]

Today, 31 Augst 2009, Malaysia celebrates its 52nd year of independence.
However, instead of reflecting on another year of progress, Malaysians face anxiety as the growing threat of religious and racial tensions spearheaded by UMNO and its proxies threaten to derail Malaysia.
Prime Minister Najib Razak espouses 1Malaysia as his policy – something his party has been speaking [...]

[Read more →]

A. Daeng (Farmer)               B. Ja (Farmer)               C. Surayud (Privy Councillor)
This might help.

[Read more →]

[UPDATE: This disgrace is getting some coverage in Australia.]

[Read more →]

Robert H. Taylor, The State in Myanmar. London, Hurst & Company, 2009. xxv+555.
This book is a new edition of The State in Burma, originally published in 1987 and thought by many to be the most comprehensive account of Burma in the quarter century after Ne Win seized power in 1962. Taylor is a political scientist [...]

[Read more →]

The field research for this book was conducted in 2001-2003. A few years earlier the Lao government stopped issuing export permits for wood resin, although wood resin from Cambodia was still being exported to Thailand via Laos. The argument of the Lao government at the time was that wood resin harvesting was damaging the forests, [...]

[Read more →]

[Read more →]

In the past, subordination to the state — in the form of conscription, taxation, and commodity pricing policies that favoured urban consumers—was regarded as a basic definitional criteria of the peasantry.
In Thailand, one of the forms this subordination took was the rice premium, which taxed rice exports both to generate government revenue and to reduce [...]

[Read more →]

Demands for an international blockade against weapons sales to Burma, in response to the military regime’s detention of Aung San Suu Kyi, will face difficult challenges from defiant Chinese, Russian, East European and North Korean arms dealers…Burma’s weapons purchases remain mostly shrouded, and many agreements are difficult to confirm.
- Extracted from Richard S. Ehrlich, “Foreign [...]

[Read more →]

In recent months the question of a nuclear program in Burma has risen to the top of many agendas.�
Most of the new public interest was generated by the report of Des Ball and Phil Thornton published in The Sydney Morning Herald at the start of the month.  Their report, based in part on defector testimony, concludes by noting that “Burma’s [...]

[Read more →]