Intrigued (not) by my good friend Vichai N’s remark ” John Francis Lee responded with a threat ‘to track my IP address’ “, I looked it up … but couldn’t find it. On the off chance that anyone’s interested…
Who has a New Mandala tattoo? When will the Vice Chancellor start insisting that there be a subscription fee for using New Mandala? Will there be a discount for our poorer neighbours, or will it be more expensive? Will the National Tertiary Education Union get involved? Social and political change at New Mandala. Thai officials will exclaim, while creepily rubbing their hands together, “Oh, how the tables have turned!” and, then cackle as lightening strikes. Very exciting.
Biases are becoming the norm rather than exception on journalism as it is easy to write a politically correct piece and name it as balanced essay, just blame someone racist, named it intolerance, that is it. Your job as a journalist is secured for a month and off you go to a pub.
Why will you care about poor bastards in bad neighbourhoods, all you care is a story and it is easier and safer to write Burmese Bad Rohingya are spotless saints story. Someone raised JI or Al Queda trained Rohingyas, if someone states a fact that they are part of the problem too, then use another trick, tag a label Islamophobia. And suck up Edward Said a bit claiming you are an orientalist too without even knowing Said was an Arab intellectual who white washed the Turks and Arabs’ atrocities. But sucking up Said is easier and safer than praising anti-Said guys, neo-cons. How convenient the world has become. So journalists and academics go easy path, that is follow the templates.
But the same people will never share with their so called fake victims
whom they are protecting online. They will vote with their feet, their wallets, selling off homes and running away to good neighbourhoods.
Enter the world of hypocrisy. Enjoy the era of faking victims and fabricated photos, on Kaladan (Rohingyar web site funded by
Open Society Soros’ dollars), they reused the grotique pictures
of Vietnamese victims in Milai masscare as Rohingyas. Another invader’s tools.
But the real interesting stories are maggots among us. I have seen similar people mostly online, they stay neutral, that is fine, you need balls to go against Rohingyar terrorists. But staying neutral does not mean they have to suck them up. Some of our maggots shout Long live Rohingya. Pathetic suckers. But the question is that will they share neighbourhood with them. I doubt! From the comfort of air-condition and heater, wine or whiskey or wee (as if they do not drink wine or whiskey, I assume they enjoy wee). They will write super-liberal Pollyanna stories, how much they care for them.
I wished why do not they let their wives, sisters, nieces and daughters volunteer there among their people without the protection from us, patriots. They will not last more than 5 minutes.
a) “The Burmese public are believing one side of the story, which is that Rohingya are not Burmese, are not citizens and are just Bengali settlers trying to take their land,” said Phil Robertson, of New York-based Human Rights Watch.
b) an effort by the former junta to portray them as foreigners
Aung Zaw was right to comment Some non-Burmese have reacted to Ko Ko Gyi’s remarks with a certain amount of consternation, believing that he, as a former political prisoner, should have stood up for the rights of an undeniably oppressed group. But inside Burma, his words were welcomed and spread quickly on Facebook, while local journals that reported his views soon sold out. The consensus among Burmese, it seems, is that the Rohingya are illegal migrants from neighboring Bangladesh–a view that also treats this as an issue of sovereignty rather than religious animosity. And Mya Aye, a Burmese Muslim sitting next to Ko Ko Gyi, concurred.
I’d be surprised if the Burmese were not united in support of the Rakhine. Extreme views notwithstanding the Rohingya are seen as a scourge and a menace, not judged by the colour of the skin, race or by their religion as such, as some have alleged, but purely by their behaviour over the decades. As you sow so shall you reap.
If this whole sorry episode was instigated by the USDP by organising the attack on that bus then the Rohingya snapped at the bait all too readily to their own peril. And if the time honoured diversionary tactic fails to work as the Burmese Muslims in ‘Burma Proper’ (to use the old colonial term) have been making joint statements and appeals together with the Burmese Buddhists to stop it from becoming an anti-Muslim campaign, who knows the Chinese in Upper Burma may not be next?
Well done, NM. Sai Latt’s piece was near enough as inflammatory as any material on Facebook and blogs he gleaned from , drawing the flak he deserved. If he did it on the principle of any publicity is good publicity he got that right.
In Vietnam USA left a net work of world class High way systems that were build mainly for the war against this Communist government.
The systems were left entirely intact in after the “Fall of Saigon” that have been maintained by the government.
With the normalization Vietnam economy has taken off and has never looked back.
Despite the dreaded same oppressive military regime that now rely on Caterpillar ┬о to maintain its available High way in the South as well as building new ones in the North.
Myanmar will benefit as well if not more from such unequivocal commitment to invest in such infrastructure as world DOT class roads.
It will invariably bring changes toward more freedom not to mention permanent long term economic ties with the Democratic West that are the most capable of such improvement.
A world class high way as in Vietnam that can with stand the repeated monsoon rain/wetness and dry season heat is only to be found b/t outskirt of Yangon and Naypyidaw.
The irony is most westerner choose to travel by plane for that segment of their trip.
Sooner or later there is another coup. This time will be a bloody coup and pretty sure the democracy will win. Hope before things settle, Thailand will not become like Syria.
There is a ‘remove IP’ plugin available for WordPress which kills IP addresses in comments (I haven’t tried it, not being a WordPress user, but it may be worth a shot). Otherwise I am pretty sure the admins could ask some of ANU’s computer geeks how to modify the code to kill the IPs. Generating random (fake) IP addresses could be a useful (and possibly amusing) misdirection, as would adding a bit of random noise in post timestamps.
Re. Apache logs, ok other bits of the domain will want to keep them for generating stat reports and probably New Mandala does too. However, they could clear the logs after generating each months report without too much hassle (or have someone with an appalling memory quietly put them in an undisclosed offline location). If New Mandala was placed on a separate subdomain it should be possible to kill that without interfering with the rest.
As you say, I am fairly sure the Thai authorities are fairly useless at this stuff (I have had some feedback along those lines). However, I am also sure that IP logs would be taken fairly seriously in a Thai court, should they get their hands on them, and if the AFP turn up with a court order, realistically ANU is going to hand them over.
Re. the moderators views, I think they should have a serious think about this – is the convenience of IPs worth the risk to participants? It’s a real issue here, especially for people who don’t have conventional views. And I’m pretty sure they could spot bogus posts without them.
PPT points to Democrat heavy Suthep in the Bangkok Post …
We do not want to overthrow the government. We will not mind if Pheu Thai wins another election and Ms Yingluck Shinawatra stays as prime minister for a new term. If the government, Pheu Thai and the red shirt network stop pushing for the “reconciliation bills” and trying to change the constitution to restructure the administrative system, we will stop our movement.
He thinks the people can be dealt out and things can be ‘worked out’. Looks like he’s right. The judicial coup … “Lack of control over the judiciary is their weak point…” is a done deal. The Puea Thai Party has sold the Thai people out for the sake of Thaksin and their chance to feed at the trough. Or maybe for their chance to feed at the trough and the sake of Thaksin. Depends on if you’re PT PM or PT rank and file.
After Burma gained independence, a concentration of nearly ninety percent of the area’s population, the distinguishing characteristics of their own culture and the Islamic faith formed an ethnic and religious minority group in the western fringe of the republic. For successive generations their ethnicity and Islam have been practically not distinguishable. At the beginning they adopted the policy of irredentism in favor of joining East Pakistan with the slogan, “Pakistan Jindabad,” (Victory to Pakistan). This policy faded away when they could not gain support from the government of Pakistan. Later they began to call for the establishment of an autonomous region instead. Pakistan’s attitude toward the Muslims in Arakan was different from the Islamabad’s policy toward Kashmiris. During the Independence War in Bangladesh most of the Muslims in Arakan supported West Pakistan. After Bangladesh gained independence Dhaka followed the policy of disowning those Chittagonians. Consequently they had to insist firmly on their identity as Rohingyas. Their leaders began to complain that the term “Chittagonian Bengali” had arbitrarily been applied to them. But the majority of the ethnic group, being illiterate agriculturalists in the rural areas, still prefers their identity as Bengali Muslims.
Although they have showed the collective political interest for more than five decades since Burma gained independence, their political and cultural rights have not so far been recognized and guaranteed. On the contrary the demand for the recognition of their rights sounds a direct challenge to the right of autonomy and the myth of survival for the Arakanese majority in their homeland. A symbiotic coexistence has so far been inconceivable because of the political climate of mistrust and fear between the two races and the policy of the military junta. The Muslims from the other parts of Arakan kept themselves aloof from the Rohingya cause as well. Thus the cause of Rohingyas finds a little support outside their own community, and their claims of an earlier historical tie to Burma are insupportable.
A ‘judicial coup’ is it, John Francis Lee and Spooner? But how does Peau Thai Party/Red Shirts respond to the ‘judicial coup’ threat?
INTIMIDATE AND BULLY THE CONSTITUTIONAL JUDGES, is how. Yotwarit Chooklom (better known as “Jen Dokjik”), assistant secretary to the Interior minister publicly announced the constitutional judges’ telephone numbers and addresses on stage during a red-shirt rally.
But I guess John Francis Lee would heartily approve of such bullying tactics by the Reds/Peau Thai Party. Because I recall an incident when I posted a remark at Prachatai questioning JFL’s ‘subversive’ commentary about piles and piles of bodies at the Wat Pathum Wanaram temple (May2010 military crackdown of the Red/Black Shirts), and John Francis Lee responded with a threat ‘to track my IP address’ and whereabouts.
Are you still tracking me and the Thai Constitutional judges John Francis Lee?
Partly agree with JFL here that by not standing up to the constitutional court some form of judicial coup has already taken place. An appointed court subtracted from the most narrow point of Thai society now seems to have the whip hand over the democratically elected government.
On the surface, there will be some technical changes to plug the leakages but fundamentally I don’t think there are much PR could do to effect the fundamental change such as social, economic and racial imbalances in various institutions such as public administration and military.
Does PR have the strong support of major stake holders such as Royal families, military and > 1 millions civil servants?
How to reconcile the division which are fundamentally embedded in our constitutions and social contracts, written and unwritten since independence.
The major hurdle is how to change the mindset of people which have been formed socially, culturally and thru government related propaganda machinery…
Without the fundamental changes…PR could only do damage control. It is a big challenge to build a STRONG, GREAT, UNITED and PROGRESSIVE nation.
Coup talk in Thailand 2012
Intrigued (not) by my good friend Vichai N’s remark ” John Francis Lee responded with a threat ‘to track my IP address’ “, I looked it up … but couldn’t find it. On the off chance that anyone’s interested…
New Mandala turns six
Happy Birthday!
Who has a New Mandala tattoo? When will the Vice Chancellor start insisting that there be a subscription fee for using New Mandala? Will there be a discount for our poorer neighbours, or will it be more expensive? Will the National Tertiary Education Union get involved? Social and political change at New Mandala. Thai officials will exclaim, while creepily rubbing their hands together, “Oh, how the tables have turned!” and, then cackle as lightening strikes. Very exciting.
As always,
Sabai sabai
Voices of moderation on Burmese Facebook
Biases are becoming the norm rather than exception on journalism as it is easy to write a politically correct piece and name it as balanced essay, just blame someone racist, named it intolerance, that is it. Your job as a journalist is secured for a month and off you go to a pub.
Why will you care about poor bastards in bad neighbourhoods, all you care is a story and it is easier and safer to write Burmese Bad Rohingya are spotless saints story. Someone raised JI or Al Queda trained Rohingyas, if someone states a fact that they are part of the problem too, then use another trick, tag a label Islamophobia. And suck up Edward Said a bit claiming you are an orientalist too without even knowing Said was an Arab intellectual who white washed the Turks and Arabs’ atrocities. But sucking up Said is easier and safer than praising anti-Said guys, neo-cons. How convenient the world has become. So journalists and academics go easy path, that is follow the templates.
But the same people will never share with their so called fake victims
whom they are protecting online. They will vote with their feet, their wallets, selling off homes and running away to good neighbourhoods.
Enter the world of hypocrisy. Enjoy the era of faking victims and fabricated photos, on Kaladan (Rohingyar web site funded by
Open Society Soros’ dollars), they reused the grotique pictures
of Vietnamese victims in Milai masscare as Rohingyas. Another invader’s tools.
But the real interesting stories are maggots among us. I have seen similar people mostly online, they stay neutral, that is fine, you need balls to go against Rohingyar terrorists. But staying neutral does not mean they have to suck them up. Some of our maggots shout Long live Rohingya. Pathetic suckers. But the question is that will they share neighbourhood with them. I doubt! From the comfort of air-condition and heater, wine or whiskey or wee (as if they do not drink wine or whiskey, I assume they enjoy wee). They will write super-liberal Pollyanna stories, how much they care for them.
I wished why do not they let their wives, sisters, nieces and daughters volunteer there among their people without the protection from us, patriots. They will not last more than 5 minutes.
Intolerance, Islam and the Internet in Burma
Typical outsider’s views:
a) “The Burmese public are believing one side of the story, which is that Rohingya are not Burmese, are not citizens and are just Bengali settlers trying to take their land,” said Phil Robertson, of New York-based Human Rights Watch.
b) an effort by the former junta to portray them as foreigners
Aung Zaw was right to comment Some non-Burmese have reacted to Ko Ko Gyi’s remarks with a certain amount of consternation, believing that he, as a former political prisoner, should have stood up for the rights of an undeniably oppressed group. But inside Burma, his words were welcomed and spread quickly on Facebook, while local journals that reported his views soon sold out. The consensus among Burmese, it seems, is that the Rohingya are illegal migrants from neighboring Bangladesh–a view that also treats this as an issue of sovereignty rather than religious animosity. And Mya Aye, a Burmese Muslim sitting next to Ko Ko Gyi, concurred.
I’d be surprised if the Burmese were not united in support of the Rakhine. Extreme views notwithstanding the Rohingya are seen as a scourge and a menace, not judged by the colour of the skin, race or by their religion as such, as some have alleged, but purely by their behaviour over the decades. As you sow so shall you reap.
If this whole sorry episode was instigated by the USDP by organising the attack on that bus then the Rohingya snapped at the bait all too readily to their own peril. And if the time honoured diversionary tactic fails to work as the Burmese Muslims in ‘Burma Proper’ (to use the old colonial term) have been making joint statements and appeals together with the Burmese Buddhists to stop it from becoming an anti-Muslim campaign, who knows the Chinese in Upper Burma may not be next?
How the Khmer Rouge dehumanised their “enemies”
“Political chaos is connected with the decay of language… one can probably bring about some improvement by starting at the verbal end.”
George Orwell
Voices of moderation on Burmese Facebook
Well done, NM. Sai Latt’s piece was near enough as inflammatory as any material on Facebook and blogs he gleaned from , drawing the flak he deserved. If he did it on the principle of any publicity is good publicity he got that right.
Here is a similarly biased example in The Economist ‘s Banyan Asia blog.
Racing for answers in divided Myanmar
In Vietnam USA left a net work of world class High way systems that were build mainly for the war against this Communist government.
The systems were left entirely intact in after the “Fall of Saigon” that have been maintained by the government.
With the normalization Vietnam economy has taken off and has never looked back.
Despite the dreaded same oppressive military regime that now rely on Caterpillar ┬о to maintain its available High way in the South as well as building new ones in the North.
Myanmar will benefit as well if not more from such unequivocal commitment to invest in such infrastructure as world DOT class roads.
It will invariably bring changes toward more freedom not to mention permanent long term economic ties with the Democratic West that are the most capable of such improvement.
A world class high way as in Vietnam that can with stand the repeated monsoon rain/wetness and dry season heat is only to be found b/t outskirt of Yangon and Naypyidaw.
The irony is most westerner choose to travel by plane for that segment of their trip.
Coup talk in Thailand 2012
Sooner or later there is another coup. This time will be a bloody coup and pretty sure the democracy will win. Hope before things settle, Thailand will not become like Syria.
Malaysia after regime change – Ong Kian Ming
Agree with your analysis CH!
Malaysians, especially Malay Muslims, determine the future of Malaysia.
The Malay Dilemma and the Malay institutions, remain the millstone on Malaysia’s neck.
Intolerance, Islam and the Internet in Burma
IPS Wire Service piece by senior correspondent Marwaan Macan-Markar on the Rohingya situation in western Burma.
http://www.ipsnews.net/2012/06/ethnic-cleansing-of-muslim-minority-in-myanmar/
Comments, comments, comments
There is a ‘remove IP’ plugin available for WordPress which kills IP addresses in comments (I haven’t tried it, not being a WordPress user, but it may be worth a shot). Otherwise I am pretty sure the admins could ask some of ANU’s computer geeks how to modify the code to kill the IPs. Generating random (fake) IP addresses could be a useful (and possibly amusing) misdirection, as would adding a bit of random noise in post timestamps.
https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/remove-ip/
Re. Apache logs, ok other bits of the domain will want to keep them for generating stat reports and probably New Mandala does too. However, they could clear the logs after generating each months report without too much hassle (or have someone with an appalling memory quietly put them in an undisclosed offline location). If New Mandala was placed on a separate subdomain it should be possible to kill that without interfering with the rest.
As you say, I am fairly sure the Thai authorities are fairly useless at this stuff (I have had some feedback along those lines). However, I am also sure that IP logs would be taken fairly seriously in a Thai court, should they get their hands on them, and if the AFP turn up with a court order, realistically ANU is going to hand them over.
Re. the moderators views, I think they should have a serious think about this – is the convenience of IPs worth the risk to participants? It’s a real issue here, especially for people who don’t have conventional views. And I’m pretty sure they could spot bogus posts without them.
Coup talk in Thailand 2012
PPT points to Democrat heavy Suthep in the Bangkok Post …
He thinks the people can be dealt out and things can be ‘worked out’. Looks like he’s right. The judicial coup … “Lack of control over the judiciary is their weak point…” is a done deal. The Puea Thai Party has sold the Thai people out for the sake of Thaksin and their chance to feed at the trough. Or maybe for their chance to feed at the trough and the sake of Thaksin. Depends on if you’re PT PM or PT rank and file.
Racing for answers in divided Myanmar
Allow me to give you our historian Dr Aye Chan’s conclusion in his original paper published by the SOAS in its Bulletin of Burma Research, Autumn 2005, titled The Development of a Muslim Enclave in Arakan (Rakhine) State of Burma (Myanmar) p414
See also pp 397,401,406-7,411-2
Coup talk in Thailand 2012
Of course nobody can rule out the possibility of a new military coup. (Is it gonna be the 20th in 80 years?).
The question is: Thai democratic forces are ready to oppose a new military coup or not?
Coup talk in Thailand 2012
A ‘judicial coup’ is it, John Francis Lee and Spooner? But how does Peau Thai Party/Red Shirts respond to the ‘judicial coup’ threat?
INTIMIDATE AND BULLY THE CONSTITUTIONAL JUDGES, is how. Yotwarit Chooklom (better known as “Jen Dokjik”), assistant secretary to the Interior minister publicly announced the constitutional judges’ telephone numbers and addresses on stage during a red-shirt rally.
But I guess John Francis Lee would heartily approve of such bullying tactics by the Reds/Peau Thai Party. Because I recall an incident when I posted a remark at Prachatai questioning JFL’s ‘subversive’ commentary about piles and piles of bodies at the Wat Pathum Wanaram temple (May2010 military crackdown of the Red/Black Shirts), and John Francis Lee responded with a threat ‘to track my IP address’ and whereabouts.
Are you still tracking me and the Thai Constitutional judges John Francis Lee?
Noir nights in Phnom Penh
Link Phnom Penh Post interview/article with Chris Coles on Noir Nights in Phnom Penh.
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012061556832/7-Days/night-vision.html
Coup talk in Thailand 2012
Prawase calls on Thaksin to help forge genuine reconciliation
… the above from The Nation at this moment. Has anyone seen a complete report of Prawase’s statement?
Coup talk in Thailand 2012
Partly agree with JFL here that by not standing up to the constitutional court some form of judicial coup has already taken place. An appointed court subtracted from the most narrow point of Thai society now seems to have the whip hand over the democratically elected government.
Malaysia after regime change – Ong Kian Ming
What if PR win the election… will things change?
On the surface, there will be some technical changes to plug the leakages but fundamentally I don’t think there are much PR could do to effect the fundamental change such as social, economic and racial imbalances in various institutions such as public administration and military.
Does PR have the strong support of major stake holders such as Royal families, military and > 1 millions civil servants?
How to reconcile the division which are fundamentally embedded in our constitutions and social contracts, written and unwritten since independence.
The major hurdle is how to change the mindset of people which have been formed socially, culturally and thru government related propaganda machinery…
Without the fundamental changes…PR could only do damage control. It is a big challenge to build a STRONG, GREAT, UNITED and PROGRESSIVE nation.
Voices of moderation on Burmese Facebook
Sai Barbu is doing PhD and you are not, so please do not even
think about but swallow whatever crap Sai Barbu’d feed to us.
I was being sarcastic!
A good piece indeed. Thanks for this article New Mandala!