Meredith Weiss’ NOTES FROM THE CAMPAIGN was delightful to read because of the pics and even more because she wasn’t pontificating or doing punditry… just telling us as it is. Kudos.
I have had it with the sanitizing, lies, slander, vandalism, promises, lies, tantrums, and more lies with predictions.
[…] kali kedua (27/4) kini mengupas dua artikel yang terbit di New Mandala: Pertama adalah “Mapping The Indonesian Political Spectrum” dari Edward Aspinall, Diego Fossati, Burhanuddin Muhtadi, & Eve Warburton; dan yang kedua […]
I very much look forward to reading this book. From the above article, it looks to me more of a complement to, rather than argument with, Thongchai’s work. It’s worth noting that the analysis applies not only to the physical peripheries of the northern hills and borderlands, but much more widely in areas of Isan and extensive frontier lands even in the central region. My earlier work in Uthaithani in the mid 1980s looked at ways in which rural development sought to incorporate the rural population, employing various standardised markers of “Thainess” (ความเป็นไทย or ไทยนิยม, the latter a phrase currently much in vogue with NCPO 30+ years later!) – see for example Philip Hirsch, 1989. “The State in the Village : Interpreting rural development in Thailand”. Development and Change 20(1) 35-56.
Very interesting and most welcome. Thanks Kengkij.
On Sharp, he did hold an appointment at the State Department in 1945-46, as an assistant division chief for Southeast Asian affairs. Later he appears to have had meetings with State and CIA officials to discuss his research and to apparently support their programs (search his name at https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/collection/crest-25-year-program-archive). It is seemingly in a context of quid pro quo that American academics had access to materials considered sensitive or controlled.
By the way, when I joined a water resources project in NE Thailand in late 1986, the Department of Mineral Resources said it could not provide these maps as they were still considered classified. Yet we could purchase them in a bookshop in Khon Kaen.
Wonderful classical or traditional reporting, disciplined and colourful. Three atmospheric images. G C Khoo’s independent observations leave the readers better informed (the thrust of good articles like these) and adds to the overall New Mandala approach. Well done, once more NM
The picture of rural voters appear to be following popular stereotype of rural folks, which is not entirely true. Rural voters have not been warming up to `change’ as urban folks for obvious reasons: while PAS has been their `alternative’ so the voters divide their support between UMNO & PAS. If there are other alternative parties doing their campaigning there, and take the voters seriously, the rural voters are likely to also consider that choice. But before that happens the 3rd party needs to be willing to set foot in rural areas and make friends with rural communities. So focusing on the rural voters seems misdirected. It is the parties which need to review their commitment on the rural voters. Urban-centric parties cannot truly complain when rural voters don’t find them attractive or talking relevant things about rural people and their needs.
The term “village” as well as the Thai name “หมู่บ้าน” refers to two different things – one is the village as a human settlement, and the second is the administrative subdivision, as each subdistrict (Tambon) consists of administrative villages. This structure already existed since the administrative reforms by Prince Damrong at the beginning of the 20th century.
The public-domain GeoNames database by the US National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency contains maybe 100,000 entries marked as “populated place”, most of these are the villages scraped from the L708 maps. In many cases these can be matched to an administrative village, but these are definitely villages in the “human settlement” meaning, as I cam across several cases already where there are villages names recorded which don’t show up as an administrative village.
Fascinating.
It may be worth mentioning that, in the interludes between juntas, while local administrators, from village head through tambon, ampoe and provincial councils are elected, they are part of the national bureaucracy and paid by the national state. Thus local administrative structures are dictated from the center–including, e.g. the size of villages–and local administrators are instruments of the state, overseen by centrally appointed ampoe heads and provincial governors. Discussions with older people in my area of Isan suggest that this regime of attempted totalitarian control was only fully implemented within the last 50 years.
Certainly, the maps would have facilitated this, or even made it possible.
Question is: Is this a new phenomenon or is it found elsewhere in Sarawak or Malaysia? Is this something very local and thus very specific to this electorate and hence not generalisable across Sarawak and Malaysia and its sham electoral politics?
Exactly what is your argument, Professor James Chin?
You say: “… in reality the real meaning of the contest goes deeper than just this symbolic clash.” In Malaysia, as you well know, the clash is certainly more than symbolic; it is real.
It is as real as the contest between the DAP v MCA and Gerakan. And the contest between Chinese-based parties is more than an ideological battle, even if the clash in Stampin is between second generation Chinese contestants on the DAP and SUPP sides.
“The 2003 redelineation exercise resulted in more mixed seats, which was seen as a way to weaken Pas’ Malay support. Such racially-based gerrymandering was to strengthen UMNO’s Malay power base over its rivals such as Pas, Anwar Ibrahim’s PKR or Dr Mahathir’s PPBM.”
I am pretty sure that PPBM did not exist in 2003 until 2016, the year it was founded.
Changes over the years: In our suburb (in East Java) it has been difficult to get candidates for RT. Many people approached say they are working, have long commutes and too tired to get involved. It’s no longer a prestige position which might lead to higher office, more a dogsbody having to sort out petty problems like parking. The monthly arisan are more effective in getting issues raised. Residents also becoming more independent and feisty – no longer tolerating busybodies and petty paperwork. Gotong royong maybe once a year to get trees pruned, with workers employed to do other community jobs.
Greetings little brother: because we are both busy people, I often haven’t the time to catch up on your always interesting activities, so these posts
fill a lot of missing times of your life.
Keep them coming.
cheers, Paul.
[…] is rhetorically opposed to a kind of urban chauvinism which came to be associated with the years of Mahathir Mohamad, where development was particularly […]
Delightful story thanks Frank. I look forward to more of your stories in the same vein 🙂 PS what should we do to encourage study of Bahasa Indonesia in Australian schools? Cheers CJ
lucky the card arrived just before you left and you were able to get thru without delay.regards,Les Rudd. p.s. it was my mothers idea to send you the card.
And what about Prabowo’s health? Does he have the stomach – literally and metaphorically – for a sustained, physically taxing campaign which on current polling he’s destined to lose? Ah, the humiliation of being remembered as a two-time loser to a civilian with no supposedly grand pedigree, no history of shooting guns and strutting parades, and who even looks nervous on a horse.
On TV Prabowo appears to have a mouth droop which could indicate the after-effects of a stroke – furiously (too furiously?) denied by his backers. His shirt rip-off performance suggests he’s worried – slim Jokowi doesn’t need such exhibitionism
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Notes from the campaign: Johor, Selangor, Perak
Meredith Weiss’ NOTES FROM THE CAMPAIGN was delightful to read because of the pics and even more because she wasn’t pontificating or doing punditry… just telling us as it is. Kudos.
I have had it with the sanitizing, lies, slander, vandalism, promises, lies, tantrums, and more lies with predictions.
Mapping the Indonesian political spectrum
[…] kali kedua (27/4) kini mengupas dua artikel yang terbit di New Mandala: Pertama adalah “Mapping The Indonesian Political Spectrum” dari Edward Aspinall, Diego Fossati, Burhanuddin Muhtadi, & Eve Warburton; dan yang kedua […]
Thailand Mapped กำเนิดเมืองไทยจากแผนที่
I very much look forward to reading this book. From the above article, it looks to me more of a complement to, rather than argument with, Thongchai’s work. It’s worth noting that the analysis applies not only to the physical peripheries of the northern hills and borderlands, but much more widely in areas of Isan and extensive frontier lands even in the central region. My earlier work in Uthaithani in the mid 1980s looked at ways in which rural development sought to incorporate the rural population, employing various standardised markers of “Thainess” (ความเป็นไทย or ไทยนิยม, the latter a phrase currently much in vogue with NCPO 30+ years later!) – see for example Philip Hirsch, 1989. “The State in the Village : Interpreting rural development in Thailand”. Development and Change 20(1) 35-56.
Thailand Mapped กำเนิดเมืองไทยจากแผนที่
Very interesting and most welcome. Thanks Kengkij.
On Sharp, he did hold an appointment at the State Department in 1945-46, as an assistant division chief for Southeast Asian affairs. Later he appears to have had meetings with State and CIA officials to discuss his research and to apparently support their programs (search his name at https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/collection/crest-25-year-program-archive). It is seemingly in a context of quid pro quo that American academics had access to materials considered sensitive or controlled.
By the way, when I joined a water resources project in NE Thailand in late 1986, the Department of Mineral Resources said it could not provide these maps as they were still considered classified. Yet we could purchase them in a bookshop in Khon Kaen.
Notes from the campaign: Lembah Pantai
Wonderful classical or traditional reporting, disciplined and colourful. Three atmospheric images. G C Khoo’s independent observations leave the readers better informed (the thrust of good articles like these) and adds to the overall New Mandala approach. Well done, once more NM
A look at the rural Malay voter
The picture of rural voters appear to be following popular stereotype of rural folks, which is not entirely true. Rural voters have not been warming up to `change’ as urban folks for obvious reasons: while PAS has been their `alternative’ so the voters divide their support between UMNO & PAS. If there are other alternative parties doing their campaigning there, and take the voters seriously, the rural voters are likely to also consider that choice. But before that happens the 3rd party needs to be willing to set foot in rural areas and make friends with rural communities. So focusing on the rural voters seems misdirected. It is the parties which need to review their commitment on the rural voters. Urban-centric parties cannot truly complain when rural voters don’t find them attractive or talking relevant things about rural people and their needs.
Thailand Mapped กำเนิดเมืองไทยจากแผนที่
The term “village” as well as the Thai name “หมู่บ้าน” refers to two different things – one is the village as a human settlement, and the second is the administrative subdivision, as each subdistrict (Tambon) consists of administrative villages. This structure already existed since the administrative reforms by Prince Damrong at the beginning of the 20th century.
The public-domain GeoNames database by the US National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency contains maybe 100,000 entries marked as “populated place”, most of these are the villages scraped from the L708 maps. In many cases these can be matched to an administrative village, but these are definitely villages in the “human settlement” meaning, as I cam across several cases already where there are villages names recorded which don’t show up as an administrative village.
Thailand Mapped กำเนิดเมืองไทยจากแผนที่
Will this book be published in English? It seems very interesting.
Thailand Mapped กำเนิดเมืองไทยจากแผนที่
Fascinating.
It may be worth mentioning that, in the interludes between juntas, while local administrators, from village head through tambon, ampoe and provincial councils are elected, they are part of the national bureaucracy and paid by the national state. Thus local administrative structures are dictated from the center–including, e.g. the size of villages–and local administrators are instruments of the state, overseen by centrally appointed ampoe heads and provincial governors. Discussions with older people in my area of Isan suggest that this regime of attempted totalitarian control was only fully implemented within the last 50 years.
Certainly, the maps would have facilitated this, or even made it possible.
Losing a legacy, finding a nation in Sarawak
Question is: Is this a new phenomenon or is it found elsewhere in Sarawak or Malaysia? Is this something very local and thus very specific to this electorate and hence not generalisable across Sarawak and Malaysia and its sham electoral politics?
Exactly what is your argument, Professor James Chin?
You say: “… in reality the real meaning of the contest goes deeper than just this symbolic clash.” In Malaysia, as you well know, the clash is certainly more than symbolic; it is real.
It is as real as the contest between the DAP v MCA and Gerakan. And the contest between Chinese-based parties is more than an ideological battle, even if the clash in Stampin is between second generation Chinese contestants on the DAP and SUPP sides.
I keep asking: But so what?
Mapping out elections for victory
“The 2003 redelineation exercise resulted in more mixed seats, which was seen as a way to weaken Pas’ Malay support. Such racially-based gerrymandering was to strengthen UMNO’s Malay power base over its rivals such as Pas, Anwar Ibrahim’s PKR or Dr Mahathir’s PPBM.”
I am pretty sure that PPBM did not exist in 2003 until 2016, the year it was founded.
In the contest for power, Malaysia’s resurgent states stake a claim
[…] First published in New Mandala on 24 April 2018, here. […]
Fuel, tractors and buffalos – some local views
I pay 200 per Rai plowing and 250 for tilling in Ubon.
Civic structures and uncivil demands in Indonesia
Changes over the years: In our suburb (in East Java) it has been difficult to get candidates for RT. Many people approached say they are working, have long commutes and too tired to get involved. It’s no longer a prestige position which might lead to higher office, more a dogsbody having to sort out petty problems like parking. The monthly arisan are more effective in getting issues raised. Residents also becoming more independent and feisty – no longer tolerating busybodies and petty paperwork. Gotong royong maybe once a year to get trees pruned, with workers employed to do other community jobs.
Lost in Translation: Jawa Pos
Greetings little brother: because we are both busy people, I often haven’t the time to catch up on your always interesting activities, so these posts
fill a lot of missing times of your life.
Keep them coming.
cheers, Paul.
GE13 and the politics of urban chauvinism
[…] is rhetorically opposed to a kind of urban chauvinism which came to be associated with the years of Mahathir Mohamad, where development was particularly […]
Lost in Translation: Jawa Pos
Delightful story thanks Frank. I look forward to more of your stories in the same vein 🙂 PS what should we do to encourage study of Bahasa Indonesia in Australian schools? Cheers CJ
Lost in Translation: Jawa Pos
lucky the card arrived just before you left and you were able to get thru without delay.regards,Les Rudd. p.s. it was my mothers idea to send you the card.
Lost in Translation: Jawa Pos
Really enjoyed reading this Frank! Hope you will share more of your experiences.
Prabowo didn’t just announce a presidential run
And what about Prabowo’s health? Does he have the stomach – literally and metaphorically – for a sustained, physically taxing campaign which on current polling he’s destined to lose? Ah, the humiliation of being remembered as a two-time loser to a civilian with no supposedly grand pedigree, no history of shooting guns and strutting parades, and who even looks nervous on a horse.
On TV Prabowo appears to have a mouth droop which could indicate the after-effects of a stroke – furiously (too furiously?) denied by his backers. His shirt rip-off performance suggests he’s worried – slim Jokowi doesn’t need such exhibitionism