I think the ambassador is out of touch with his government. After all, with respect to his first point, it was reported a couple of days ago that “Using the Dhammakaya Temple case as an example, the Cabinet will soon propose that the Supreme Sangha Council and the National Office of Buddhism (NOB) speed up reforms in Buddhism, Justice Minister Suwaphan Tanyuvard-hanarevealed yesterday.” That’s from http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/national/30308387. Perhaps the ambassador is not following this closely enough.
I am unsure if Nurhisham is trying to shore up confidence in the Malaysian economy or defend the credibility of social and economic data produced in Malaysia.
I think Nurhisham is an expert at sleight of hand.
He has shifted the focus in the article from the main points that Manjit is making to those where Manjit is inaccurate.
Among the inaccuracies Nurhisham pointed out is that Malaysia does publish its labour force participation numbers, and that its budget deficit is going down.
But Nurhisham doesn’t deny that perceived inflation figures are higher than reported figures; he only says it’s also the case with the US, which is not an answer at all.
He doesn’t touch on Manjit’s point on Bank Negara Malaysia manipulating the currency. Is Manjit right? Or is he wrong?
Nurhisham says that his friends and associates at IMF and the World Bank have full confidence in Malaysia’s statistics.
Who knows if Manjit’s friends at the Fund and the Bank don’t have any confidence in Malaysia’s statistics. Hardly an argument worth a pinch of salt coming from the general manager, economics and capital markets of a government agency – the Employers Provident Fund – whose investment decisions are themselves questionable.
Again, when there are conservative estimates of 2 million undocumented migrant workers, with what confidence will you say that the minimum wage is implemented?
The labour market, going by his 3.6% indicator, may be at full employment, but he’s sweeping away the big problem of graduate unemployment (predominantly a Malay problem), the huge migrant labour problem, and the low productivity.
But if Manjit does a bit more of research and does a full article on the Malaysian economy, he may come up with a longer menu of issues that plague the economy than Nurhisham will be able to defend.
Manjit Bhatia, the byline says, is with a risk analysis company. If people like Manjit have views like this, that says a lot for the confidence that foreign analysts have in the Malaysian economy.
I think Nurhisham fails miserably in trying to shore up optimism in the economy, if that was his intention, even as he defends the credibility of data coming from Malaysia.
With rebuttals such as his, what little confidence the public has, will further slide down.
Is this whole Ahok business really anything more than a no-holds-barred, classic knock-then-down, take-no-prisoners, type of governors fight that one sees constantly in raucous, multi-ethnic, multi-religious democracies, such as the US and India ? I’ve yet to be convinced of Peter Cohen and Marc’s horror scenarios of Indonesia becoming anything remotely resembling Iran, etc.
I am really surprised to learn that East Timor is STILL NOT a member of ASEAN. Some ASEAN nations – eg. Thailand – played an exemplary peace-keeping role during ET’s 1999 final, violent, turbulent, lunge to independence. Best outcome would have been to immediately admit ET as a full ASEAN member.
A very strong rebuttal to Manjit Bhatia’s shoddy arguments. Unlike MB who simply fights against the wind and even with his own shadow, at least Nurisham Hussein provided actual facts and statistics for readers to contemplate on and question if necessary.
As a long-time Southeast Asia watcher, I have been very concerned about Malaysia which is increasingly beset with contradictory developments. Economically, it continues to grow faster than some neighbouring countries such as Thailand and Cambodia, yet it is mired in a series of financial scandals over the past three years, not to mention the worrying political scene.
The problem is many Malaysians have lost faith in the Najib administration to the extent that any article that chastises Putrajaya is welcome even if it is not backed up with facts and statistics. One can read many of them on Malaysiakini or Free Malaysia Today. But it does not help Malaysians to develop a more critical mind when it comes to holding the powers-that-be to account.
This explains why many opposition leaders, blinded by popular support and swayed by populist sentiment, simply make one unsubstantiated allegation after another, only to find their position untenable and forced to retract thereafter.
No worries, for they have the people behind them whose negative perceptions of the government are already cast in stone and it matters not if these allegations hold water. If this vicious circle persists, I would not surprise to see Malaysia vote out Umno and replace it with another set of arrogant politicians armed with half-baked policies to administer the country.
But it is a politician’s job to make sensational yet unsubstantiated claims, and an economist’s one to right them. Precisely why MB’s latest article is not only a huge letdown, but one that is unbecoming of his credentials, if any.
Jim has apparently satisfied your request by telling the ambassador that his article is based on “information received and analysis from research, past and present”, a quasi-Trumpian formulation if ever there was one. My opinion is based, of course, in information received and analysis from reading, past and present.
The reality of these sorts of articles on New Mandala is that they only have to confirm the bias of most readers in order to be praised to the skies. Actual citing of sources of information would be like asking for “news” as opposed to “fake news”.
There are many roads to the fascist future that we seem to be stumbling toward; this tendency to valorize opinion without reference to fact is just one of them.
I would really needs to know about the 3.8 billion baht that was recovered from the other groups. Why hasn’t DSI returned that money to the credit union?
Klongchan credit union cooperative limited said “Wat Phra Dhammakaya only returned to the credit union 1.06 billion bath , the credit union is having trouble because of the other groups not returning the money, including DSI.” I think DSI is making it wrong and Unfair. Because, Wat Phra Dhammakaya only one helped the credit union so , what ‘s DSI helped?
Excellent article but I did not know that Malaysia was a democracy; and its institutions were democratic.
I wonder where does the eminent Malaysian economist Nurhisham Hussien (whose works I admire) get the idea that Malaysia is a democracy when the consensus in the vast array of credible literature suggest that it is an ethnocratic, corrupt, and authoritarian one party state.
Not so much schizophrenia as cognitive dissonance.
The incidence of mental health disorders in Thailand is huge. Some informal research I did some years ago shows that the incidence of mental illness in Thailand compared with the incidence of mental illness in various countries in Europe bears roughly the same relationship as the road death toll in Thailand compared to the road death toll in European countries. And is distorted downwards in much the same way too. Mental health in Thailand is regarded as a minor taboo; it doesn’t fit very comfortably with the way the Thai authorities would like Thailand and Thais to be perceived, and so it is distorted and concealed.
It’s pretty much a given, that one of the prices to pay for telling Thais that Thailand is the best country in the world, smiled on and cared for by a demiGod and constantly leading the rest of the world in various ways (e.g. a cure for a ebola, a cure for dengue fever, a cure for AIDS, inventing medicines specifically for an imagined Thai genome, and now that the average IQ in Thailand i between 100 and 120 etc etc.) Is that sooner or later Thai people are going to notice that it doesn’t fit very well with the the observably real situation. When someone has a fictitious and carefully confected cultural belief and yet must survive in a world in which the cultural belief is plainly false, cognitive dissonance is a very common outcome.
Sadly, mental health issues in Thailand have been swept under the rug for a long time because they do not support the cultural perception that Thais are required to have about Thailand and Thais.
My thanks to the Honourable Ambassador for his comments. My article is based on information received and analysis from research, past and present; it is not infallible: Thus said, respectfully, I would like to point out:
1. These are “proposed” changes to the sangha act put forward by the NLA, Paiboon Nititawan, and Sangha Reform Committee. Whether these are actually enacted in law remains to be seen. In point “one” paragraph, at the beginning we are told that the NLA are “considering” some changes; then at the end of the paragraph we learn that the committee has “suspended” its consideration of these changes. This is rather confusing.
2. The question most people are wondering is why use such force on an elderly sick monk? This is a case of using a “sledgehammer to crack a nut”. If Dhammachayo has breached the law, then it is of course appropriate and right that he should face justice. Normally two summons are given and then if no response an arrest warrant issued. Dhammakaya had made it clear to authorities that the Abbot was too sick to leave the temple as requested to receive the summons. In fact, the summons could have been taken in to him at the temple (as the movement had requested) as legal charges can be laid anywhere.
3. Do the means justify the ends? The issue on religious matters becomes “political” when there is a matter of injustice or disproportionate action. The monk is only “suspected” of committing criminal offences, and as such has certain rights. In this case, these rights seem not to have been articulated through due process.
4. Finally, the question is why such a Kerfuffle, at such a massive cost to tax payers for such a large contingent of soldiers and police? It is the manner in which the whole siege has been conducted, now in its third week, and the disruption to ordinary lives that is called to question. All facilities inside the temple have been cut off: Is this the appropriate manner to treat the 10,000 people inside the temple complex?
I like that you clarified this alleged misunderstanding Professor Taylor had about this Sangha act but with all due respect Mr. Ambassadar you don’t address many of the points Professor Taylor brings up in his piece.
Lets say the Junta’s appointment of a new Head to the National Office of Buddhism and the stalling of the previous supreme patriarch were both coincidental. Id like to know why the DSI is only hunting down the Dhammakaya abbot when the money was traced to numerous other groups also. Also why are you using so much resources just to question one person for several quite random crimes, the most severe being money laundering (which is victimless). Even the Bangkok Post suggests he be tried in absentia to determine guilt first. This is an awful a lot of resources just for an interrogation. http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/1199953/misguided-section-44-use
On top of that, you’re pouring all of these resources into catching one person for receiving a donation that was repaid but not any of the other groups who havent repaid the credit union. I looked at the interview with the credit union Prof. Taylor mentioned in his article about the 3.8 billion baht that was recovered from the other groups. Why hasn’t DSI returned that money to the credit union? If the credit union goes under its DSI’s fault, not Wat Phra Dhammakaya, its clearly stated in that interview the temple returned all the money and the credit union is having trouble because of the other groups not returning the money, including DSI. Wat Phra Dhammakaya helped the credit union, DSI is making it fail.
It was striking how primed the students were to interface with the modern world with all its possibilities. And then to have to walk out from the seminar into a tightly constrained society. To be able to maintain a schizophrenic personality is necessary adjunct of mental wellbeing in Thailand.
Suu Kyi’s only head of the *Naypyidaw Government*. The elected-National League for Democracy party (NLD) wields no power beyond the ghost capital. Lay the blame at the jackboot of the military that commits atrocities with impunity. The Lady is not the commander-in-chief of the Tatmadaw (armed forces). Well-intentioned critics should instead take aim at the ugly generals. Stuck with the monkey on their back, the angry Burmese can only turn to social media and heap abuse on the *army dogs*. At the risk of jail. About time for the *Young Turks* (colonels) in the army to restore the dignity of the once-respected institution. Before the ludu (people) take to the streets again. First, arrest the hate-spewing puppet monks. Then, exile the corrupt former generals to Singapore to choke on their ill-gotten loot. As Burma’s first democratically-elected Prime Minister, U Nu, once said: the people will prevail.
Khoo is correct. Timor Leste should be admitted into ASEAN immediately. If it is not, it will simply be one more validation that ASEAN is archaic and essentially useless.
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Royal Thai Embassay clarifies Wat Dhammakaya case
I think the ambassador is out of touch with his government. After all, with respect to his first point, it was reported a couple of days ago that “Using the Dhammakaya Temple case as an example, the Cabinet will soon propose that the Supreme Sangha Council and the National Office of Buddhism (NOB) speed up reforms in Buddhism, Justice Minister Suwaphan Tanyuvard-hanarevealed yesterday.” That’s from http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/national/30308387. Perhaps the ambassador is not following this closely enough.
Playing Malaysia’s number game
I am unsure if Nurhisham is trying to shore up confidence in the Malaysian economy or defend the credibility of social and economic data produced in Malaysia.
I think Nurhisham is an expert at sleight of hand.
He has shifted the focus in the article from the main points that Manjit is making to those where Manjit is inaccurate.
Among the inaccuracies Nurhisham pointed out is that Malaysia does publish its labour force participation numbers, and that its budget deficit is going down.
But Nurhisham doesn’t deny that perceived inflation figures are higher than reported figures; he only says it’s also the case with the US, which is not an answer at all.
He doesn’t touch on Manjit’s point on Bank Negara Malaysia manipulating the currency. Is Manjit right? Or is he wrong?
Nurhisham says that his friends and associates at IMF and the World Bank have full confidence in Malaysia’s statistics.
Who knows if Manjit’s friends at the Fund and the Bank don’t have any confidence in Malaysia’s statistics. Hardly an argument worth a pinch of salt coming from the general manager, economics and capital markets of a government agency – the Employers Provident Fund – whose investment decisions are themselves questionable.
Again, when there are conservative estimates of 2 million undocumented migrant workers, with what confidence will you say that the minimum wage is implemented?
The labour market, going by his 3.6% indicator, may be at full employment, but he’s sweeping away the big problem of graduate unemployment (predominantly a Malay problem), the huge migrant labour problem, and the low productivity.
But if Manjit does a bit more of research and does a full article on the Malaysian economy, he may come up with a longer menu of issues that plague the economy than Nurhisham will be able to defend.
Manjit Bhatia, the byline says, is with a risk analysis company. If people like Manjit have views like this, that says a lot for the confidence that foreign analysts have in the Malaysian economy.
I think Nurhisham fails miserably in trying to shore up optimism in the economy, if that was his intention, even as he defends the credibility of data coming from Malaysia.
With rebuttals such as his, what little confidence the public has, will further slide down.
Is hardline Islam really rising in Indonesia?
Is this whole Ahok business really anything more than a no-holds-barred, classic knock-then-down, take-no-prisoners, type of governors fight that one sees constantly in raucous, multi-ethnic, multi-religious democracies, such as the US and India ? I’ve yet to be convinced of Peter Cohen and Marc’s horror scenarios of Indonesia becoming anything remotely resembling Iran, etc.
Playing Malaysia’s number game
Not many people consider Singapore to be a democracy either. But they think so. Well.
Unlocking Timor-Leste’s road to ASEAN
I am really surprised to learn that East Timor is STILL NOT a member of ASEAN. Some ASEAN nations – eg. Thailand – played an exemplary peace-keeping role during ET’s 1999 final, violent, turbulent, lunge to independence. Best outcome would have been to immediately admit ET as a full ASEAN member.
Playing Malaysia’s number game
A very strong rebuttal to Manjit Bhatia’s shoddy arguments. Unlike MB who simply fights against the wind and even with his own shadow, at least Nurisham Hussein provided actual facts and statistics for readers to contemplate on and question if necessary.
As a long-time Southeast Asia watcher, I have been very concerned about Malaysia which is increasingly beset with contradictory developments. Economically, it continues to grow faster than some neighbouring countries such as Thailand and Cambodia, yet it is mired in a series of financial scandals over the past three years, not to mention the worrying political scene.
The problem is many Malaysians have lost faith in the Najib administration to the extent that any article that chastises Putrajaya is welcome even if it is not backed up with facts and statistics. One can read many of them on Malaysiakini or Free Malaysia Today. But it does not help Malaysians to develop a more critical mind when it comes to holding the powers-that-be to account.
This explains why many opposition leaders, blinded by popular support and swayed by populist sentiment, simply make one unsubstantiated allegation after another, only to find their position untenable and forced to retract thereafter.
No worries, for they have the people behind them whose negative perceptions of the government are already cast in stone and it matters not if these allegations hold water. If this vicious circle persists, I would not surprise to see Malaysia vote out Umno and replace it with another set of arrogant politicians armed with half-baked policies to administer the country.
But it is a politician’s job to make sensational yet unsubstantiated claims, and an economist’s one to right them. Precisely why MB’s latest article is not only a huge letdown, but one that is unbecoming of his credentials, if any.
The perplexing case of Wat Dhammakaya
Jim has apparently satisfied your request by telling the ambassador that his article is based on “information received and analysis from research, past and present”, a quasi-Trumpian formulation if ever there was one. My opinion is based, of course, in information received and analysis from reading, past and present.
The reality of these sorts of articles on New Mandala is that they only have to confirm the bias of most readers in order to be praised to the skies. Actual citing of sources of information would be like asking for “news” as opposed to “fake news”.
There are many roads to the fascist future that we seem to be stumbling toward; this tendency to valorize opinion without reference to fact is just one of them.
Royal Thai Embassay clarifies Wat Dhammakaya case
I would really needs to know about the 3.8 billion baht that was recovered from the other groups. Why hasn’t DSI returned that money to the credit union?
Klongchan credit union cooperative limited said “Wat Phra Dhammakaya only returned to the credit union 1.06 billion bath , the credit union is having trouble because of the other groups not returning the money, including DSI.” I think DSI is making it wrong and Unfair. Because, Wat Phra Dhammakaya only one helped the credit union so , what ‘s DSI helped?
Royal Thai Embassay clarifies Wat Dhammakaya case
Please revoke article 44 that violates. #humanright #Buddhism #Dhammakaya #weneedfood #UN
The perplexing case of Wat Dhammakaya
Are you talking about the vatican or Thammakaya?
Playing Malaysia’s number game
Excellent article but I did not know that Malaysia was a democracy; and its institutions were democratic.
I wonder where does the eminent Malaysian economist Nurhisham Hussien (whose works I admire) get the idea that Malaysia is a democracy when the consensus in the vast array of credible literature suggest that it is an ethnocratic, corrupt, and authoritarian one party state.
Private: Grieving as Thainess in 2017
Not so much schizophrenia as cognitive dissonance.
The incidence of mental health disorders in Thailand is huge. Some informal research I did some years ago shows that the incidence of mental illness in Thailand compared with the incidence of mental illness in various countries in Europe bears roughly the same relationship as the road death toll in Thailand compared to the road death toll in European countries. And is distorted downwards in much the same way too. Mental health in Thailand is regarded as a minor taboo; it doesn’t fit very comfortably with the way the Thai authorities would like Thailand and Thais to be perceived, and so it is distorted and concealed.
It’s pretty much a given, that one of the prices to pay for telling Thais that Thailand is the best country in the world, smiled on and cared for by a demiGod and constantly leading the rest of the world in various ways (e.g. a cure for a ebola, a cure for dengue fever, a cure for AIDS, inventing medicines specifically for an imagined Thai genome, and now that the average IQ in Thailand i between 100 and 120 etc etc.) Is that sooner or later Thai people are going to notice that it doesn’t fit very well with the the observably real situation. When someone has a fictitious and carefully confected cultural belief and yet must survive in a world in which the cultural belief is plainly false, cognitive dissonance is a very common outcome.
Sadly, mental health issues in Thailand have been swept under the rug for a long time because they do not support the cultural perception that Thais are required to have about Thailand and Thais.
Royal Thai Embassay clarifies Wat Dhammakaya case
My thanks to the Honourable Ambassador for his comments. My article is based on information received and analysis from research, past and present; it is not infallible: Thus said, respectfully, I would like to point out:
1. These are “proposed” changes to the sangha act put forward by the NLA, Paiboon Nititawan, and Sangha Reform Committee. Whether these are actually enacted in law remains to be seen. In point “one” paragraph, at the beginning we are told that the NLA are “considering” some changes; then at the end of the paragraph we learn that the committee has “suspended” its consideration of these changes. This is rather confusing.
2. The question most people are wondering is why use such force on an elderly sick monk? This is a case of using a “sledgehammer to crack a nut”. If Dhammachayo has breached the law, then it is of course appropriate and right that he should face justice. Normally two summons are given and then if no response an arrest warrant issued. Dhammakaya had made it clear to authorities that the Abbot was too sick to leave the temple as requested to receive the summons. In fact, the summons could have been taken in to him at the temple (as the movement had requested) as legal charges can be laid anywhere.
3. Do the means justify the ends? The issue on religious matters becomes “political” when there is a matter of injustice or disproportionate action. The monk is only “suspected” of committing criminal offences, and as such has certain rights. In this case, these rights seem not to have been articulated through due process.
4. Finally, the question is why such a Kerfuffle, at such a massive cost to tax payers for such a large contingent of soldiers and police? It is the manner in which the whole siege has been conducted, now in its third week, and the disruption to ordinary lives that is called to question. All facilities inside the temple have been cut off: Is this the appropriate manner to treat the 10,000 people inside the temple complex?
Royal Thai Embassay clarifies Wat Dhammakaya case
I like that you clarified this alleged misunderstanding Professor Taylor had about this Sangha act but with all due respect Mr. Ambassadar you don’t address many of the points Professor Taylor brings up in his piece.
Lets say the Junta’s appointment of a new Head to the National Office of Buddhism and the stalling of the previous supreme patriarch were both coincidental. Id like to know why the DSI is only hunting down the Dhammakaya abbot when the money was traced to numerous other groups also. Also why are you using so much resources just to question one person for several quite random crimes, the most severe being money laundering (which is victimless). Even the Bangkok Post suggests he be tried in absentia to determine guilt first. This is an awful a lot of resources just for an interrogation. http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/1199953/misguided-section-44-use
On top of that, you’re pouring all of these resources into catching one person for receiving a donation that was repaid but not any of the other groups who havent repaid the credit union. I looked at the interview with the credit union Prof. Taylor mentioned in his article about the 3.8 billion baht that was recovered from the other groups. Why hasn’t DSI returned that money to the credit union? If the credit union goes under its DSI’s fault, not Wat Phra Dhammakaya, its clearly stated in that interview the temple returned all the money and the credit union is having trouble because of the other groups not returning the money, including DSI. Wat Phra Dhammakaya helped the credit union, DSI is making it fail.
The perplexing case of Wat Dhammakaya
Look at the budget deficit bro. Look at the statement on national reserves. The country is a sitting duck for currency speculators now.
Royal Thai Embassay clarifies Wat Dhammakaya case
A likely story.
Private: Grieving as Thainess in 2017
Yes, thanks for the link. I was just viewing this series the other day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0y3Nh17ctG8&t=1248s
It was striking how primed the students were to interface with the modern world with all its possibilities. And then to have to walk out from the seminar into a tightly constrained society. To be able to maintain a schizophrenic personality is necessary adjunct of mental wellbeing in Thailand.
Suu Kyi’s state of denial
Suu Kyi’s only head of the *Naypyidaw Government*. The elected-National League for Democracy party (NLD) wields no power beyond the ghost capital. Lay the blame at the jackboot of the military that commits atrocities with impunity. The Lady is not the commander-in-chief of the Tatmadaw (armed forces). Well-intentioned critics should instead take aim at the ugly generals. Stuck with the monkey on their back, the angry Burmese can only turn to social media and heap abuse on the *army dogs*. At the risk of jail. About time for the *Young Turks* (colonels) in the army to restore the dignity of the once-respected institution. Before the ludu (people) take to the streets again. First, arrest the hate-spewing puppet monks. Then, exile the corrupt former generals to Singapore to choke on their ill-gotten loot. As Burma’s first democratically-elected Prime Minister, U Nu, once said: the people will prevail.
Unlocking Timor-Leste’s road to ASEAN
Khoo is correct. Timor Leste should be admitted into ASEAN immediately. If it is not, it will simply be one more validation that ASEAN is archaic and essentially useless.
Indonesia’s restive regions still troubled
Every region in Indonesia is restive. Name one region that isn’t ?