New Mandala

[A New Mandala reader has provided the following translation of “State within the state” by Jakrapob Penkair, Thai Red News Weekly Magazine, Year 1, Volume 16, 21 September 2009. The source for the translation is here.  Translator notes are added in square brackets. ]
State within the state
This concept does not appear in progressive political science literature or research. It [...]

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[Dr. Paul Chambers is currently the Senior Research Fellow at the Politics Institute, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany.  His research interests are civil-military relations, democratization, and Southeast Asian politics. His articles have appeared in the Journal of East Asian Studies, Contemporary Southeast Asia, and the Asian Journal of Political Science, among others.]
The Thai armed forces have [...]

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“I am quite worried our country is going into ruin because people have done things their own way”
- Extracted from Bhumibol Adulyadej’s speech, quoted in “King calls for unity in polarized Thailand”, Reuters, 23 August 2009.  Some more details on the speech, and the campaign to “blacken” Privy Council Chairman Prem Tinsulanonda’s upcoming birthday, are [...]

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Daranee “Da Torpedo” Charnchoengsilpakul (ดารณี ชาญเชิงศิลปกุล) is currently on trial for lese majeste.  Yesterday the courtroom was closed to the public by a judge who reportedly “guarantee[s] the defendant will get a fair trial”.  I won’t be holding my breath.  In response, Daranee made the simple point that “[t]he speech I am charged with was [...]

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As poor Thais learn more about their rights, demand greater transparency and exhibit less tolerance for privilege-based behavior and extraconstitutional interference in government by the army and other quarters in the elite, the pressure to reconcile the needs of different sections of Thai society will increase.
That tipping point may yet be some years off. Yet [...]

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Over at Asia Sentinel political scientist and long-time Thailand watcher Kevin Hewison has an important summary article.  Readers new to Kevin’s work will find this 2007 interview has many details on his previous outputs and ongoing interests.

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Earlier in the week I took the liberty of pointing out a few interesting parts of Burma that are visible on WikiMapia’s satellite imagery.  There has been some subsequent interest in what we can learn about other countries in mainland Southeast Asia from these types of images.
Where to start?  The average New Mandala reader has [...]

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Commenting on Thai politics and political reform in Thailand these days is no fun, because the situation is unusually complicated, and the ideological climate has become almost suffocating. Anyway, I will make six observations that I think are pertinent to the current discussion of political reform, three each concerning structural and ideological issues.
First, if democracy [...]

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Now I’m trying to turn to Dharma, particularly the 3 characteristics of all things, Anicca (impermanence), Dukkha (suffering), and Anatta (illusion of self). I’ve been trying to seek freedom like a fish stuck in a net; the more you struggle, the tighter it gets. Looking around, I see other convicts still smile, laugh and make [...]

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Over at Inside Story Andrew and I have a follow-up to our earlier essay on what we call “Thailand’s royal sub-plot”.  We argue that the sub-plot has thickened with Sondhi Limthongkul’s close shave.  The full version of this most recent article is available here.

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