Download or read book Truth on Trial in Thailand written by David Streckfuss and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2010-09-13 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since 2005, Thailand has been in crisis, with unprecedented political instability and the worst political violence seen in the country in decades. In the aftermath of a military coup in 2006, Thailand’s press freedom ranking plunged, while arrests for lèse-majesté have skyrocketed to levels unknown in the modern world. Truth on Trial in Thailand traces the 110-year trajectory of defamation-based laws in Thailand. The most prominent of these is lèse-majesté, but defamation aspects also appear in laws on sedition and treason, the press and cinema, anti-communism, contempt of court, insulting of religion, as well as libel. This book makes the case that despite the appearance of growing democratization, authoritarian structures and urges still drive politics in Thailand; the long-term effects of defamation law adjudication has skewed the way that Thai society approaches and perceives "truth." Employing the work of Habermas, Foucault, Agamben, and Schmitt to construct an alternative framework to understand Thai history, Streckfuss contends that Thai history has become "suspended" since 1958, and repeatedly declining to face the truth of history has set the stage for an endless state of crisis. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of South East Asian politics, Asian history, and media and communication. David Streckfuss is an independent scholar who has lived in Thailand for more than 20 years. His work primarily concerns human rights, and political and cultural history.
Download or read book Truth on Trial in Thailand written by David Streckfuss and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2010-09-13 with total page 507 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since 2005, Thailand has been in crisis, with unprecedented political instability and the worst political violence seen in the country in decades. In the aftermath of a military coup in 2006, Thailand’s press freedom ranking plunged, while arrests for lèse-majesté have skyrocketed to levels unknown in the modern world. Truth on Trial in Thailand traces the 110-year trajectory of defamation-based laws in Thailand. The most prominent of these is lèse-majesté, but defamation aspects also appear in laws on sedition and treason, the press and cinema, anti-communism, contempt of court, insulting of religion, as well as libel. This book makes the case that despite the appearance of growing democratization, authoritarian structures and urges still drive politics in Thailand; the long-term effects of defamation law adjudication has skewed the way that Thai society approaches and perceives "truth." Employing the work of Habermas, Foucault, Agamben, and Schmitt to construct an alternative framework to understand Thai history, Streckfuss contends that Thai history has become "suspended" since 1958, and repeatedly declining to face the truth of history has set the stage for an endless state of crisis. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of South East Asian politics, Asian history, and media and communication. David Streckfuss is an independent scholar who has lived in Thailand for more than 20 years. His work primarily concerns human rights, and political and cultural history.
Download or read book Global Forensic Cultures written by Ian Burney and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2019-05-21 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Essays explore forensic science in global and historical context, opening a critical window onto contemporary debates about the universal validity of present-day genomic forensic practices. Contemporary forensic science has achieved unprecedented visibility as a compelling example of applied expertise. But the common public view—that we are living in an era of forensic deliverance, one exemplified by DNA typing—has masked the reality: that forensic science has always been unique, problematic, and contested. Global Forensic Cultures aims to rectify this problem by recognizing the universality of forensic questions and the variety of practices and institutions constructed to answer them. Groundbreaking essays written by leaders in the field address the complex and contentious histories of forensic techniques. Contributors also examine the co-evolution of these techniques with the professions creating and using them, with the systems of governance and jurisprudence in which they are used, and with the socioeconomic, political, racial, and gendered settings of that use. Exploring the profound effect of "location" (temporal and spatial) on the production and enactment of forms of forensic knowledge during the century before CSI became a household acronym, the book explores numerous related topics, including the notion of burden of proof, changing roles of experts and witnesses, the development and dissemination of forensic techniques and skills, the financial and practical constraints facing investigators, and cultures of forensics and of criminality within and against which forensic practitioners operate. Covering sites of modern and historic forensic innovation in the United States, Europe, and farther-flung imperial and global settings, these essays tell stories of blood, poison, corpses; tracking persons and attesting documents; truth-making, egregious racism, and sinister surveillance. Each chapter is a finely grained case study. Collectively, Global Forensic Cultures supplies a historical foundation for the critical appraisal of contemporary forensic institutions which has begun in the wake of DNA-based exonerations. Contributors: Bruno Bertherat, José Ramón Bertomeu Sánchez, Binyamin Blum, Ian Burney, Marcus B. Carrier, Simon A. Cole, Christopher Hamlin, Jeffrey Jentzen, Projit Bihari Mukharji, Quentin (Trais) Pearson, Mitra Sharafi, Gagan Preet Singh, Heather Wolffram
Download or read book Truth on Trial written by Andrew T. Lincoln and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2019-09-25 with total page 544 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Religious truth has always been in dispute, but there are certain times and places in which the debate has been more intense. One such period was the first century CE, when the rapid spread of Christianity with its claims about Jesus produced considerable ferment. The Gospel of John, written late in that century, presents that dispute with greater clarity than any other document of the time. John presents a Jesus who claims not only to tell the truth but also to be the truth. And yet, as the Roman magistrate asks Jesus in John’s gospel, what is truth? Two millennia later in the Western world, pluralism and postmodernism radically challenge traditional notions of truth. Is there any truth beyond the formal logic of merely analytical propositions? And if there is, do humans have any way of knowing it? Many who have a postmodern perspective deny that either rationality or imagination can give us access to the truth. Instead they adopt a throughgoing incredulity toward metanarratives. Truth is again on trial.
Download or read book Good Coup Gone Bad written by Pavin Chachavalpongpun and published by Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. This book was released on 2014-06-18 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What did the 2006 military coup show us? It demonstrated that the crux of the Thai crisis is far more serious and much wider in scope than had previously been thought. The monarchy is surely not a victim in the protracted conflict, but the root cause and continuing factor that has eroded Thai politics. The coup set in motion more prejudicial uses of the lèse-majesté law, and in the process, has led to more political prisoners. It has also shredded the military into several segments, turning generals into desperate royalists who continue to live off the monarchy in order to survive. Issues of violence in the Thai south and the Thai-Cambodian dispute became greatly intensified in the age of militarized politics. The coup also produced unique colour-coded politics and created crises of legitimacy. This book is a collection of essays that reflect developments in Thai politics in the post-coup period.
Download or read book Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Thailand written by Pavin Chachavalpongpun and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-10-17 with total page 566 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Thailand is a timely survey and assessment of the state of contemporary Thailand. While Thailand has changed much in the past decades, this handbook proposes that many of its problems have remained intact or even persistent, particularly problems related to domestic politics. It underlines emerging issues at this critical juncture in the kingdom and focuses on the history, politics, economy, society, culture, religion and international relations of the country. A multidisciplinary approach, with chapters written by experts on Thailand, this handbook is divided into the following sections. History Political and economic landscape Social development International relations Designed for academics, students, libraries, policymakers and general readers in the field of Asian studies, political science, economics and sociology, this invaluable reference work provides an up-to-date account of Thailand and initiates new discussion for future research activities.
Download or read book The Core Human Rights Treaties and Thailand written by Vitit Muntarbhorn and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2016-10-07 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this study titled The Core Human Rights Treaties and Thailand, Vitit Muntarbhorn examines the relationship between Thailand and the nine key human rights Conventions, known as the Core Human Rights Treaties, in addition to their Protocols. These agreements cover a range of civil, political, economic, social and cultural issues, in addition to the rights of specific groups. The study offers a mirror for reflection, testing the linkage between international standards and national implementation in a dynamic and challenging context.
Download or read book Political Illusion and Reality written by David W. Gill and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2018-09-27 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Are all governments--east and west, Muslim and secular, authoritarian and constitutional, Republican and Democratic--fundamentally the same, all of them under the extraordinary, growing power of "technique" and bureaucracy? Is all politics, then, just an illusory affair of lies, deception, propaganda, partisan passions, and chaos on the surface of government and party? In his vast and penetrating writings, Bordeaux sociologist Jacques Ellul (1912-1994) points in those directions. Political Illusion and Reality is a collection of twenty-three essays on Ellul's political thought. Veteran as well as younger Ellul scholars, political leaders, activists, and pastors, discuss aspects of Ellul's thought as they relate to their own fields of study and political experience. Beginning with his 1936 essay "Fascism, Son of Liberalism," translated and published here in English for the first time, Ellul and these authors will provoke readers to think some new thoughts about politics and government, and think more deeply about the main issues we face in our politically divided and troubled times.
Download or read book King Bhumibol Adulyadej written by Nicholas Grossman and published by Editions Didier Millet. This book was released on 2011 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Thailand Unhinged written by Federico Ferrara and published by Equinox Publishing. This book was released on 2011 with total page 183 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thailand Unhinged: The Death of Thai-Style Democracy delivers an excoriating critique of Thai politics and society over the tumultuous years that followed the ouster of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Thailand's ongoing political crisis is explained through the prism of the country's painful post-absolutist history - a history marred by the systematic sabotage of any meaningful democratic development, the routine hijacking of democratic institutions, and the continued suffocation of the Thai people's democratic aspirations orchestrated by an unelected ruling class in an increasingly desperate attempt to hold on to its power. This new edition, uncensored, expanded, and revised, argues that the tragic events of 2010 mark the end of "Thai-Style Democracy" - a five-decades-old system of government that, notwithstanding the appropriation of some of the trappings of democracy, has largely preserved the right of "good" men of high birth, status, and wealth to run the country. The essays are written in a pointed, combative style, making Thailand Unhinged a highly unconventional mix of academic scholarship, literary journalism, and radical pamphleteering. IN PRAISE OF THE FIRST EDITION Written by an extremely talented Harvard PhD journalist/professor, this well-crafted collection of essays illuminate s] magnificently the tragedy of Thailand today. Trenchant and continually blistering. -Tom Plate, author of the bestselling Conversations with Lee Kuan Yew FEDERICO FERRARA (PhD, Harvard University) works as Assistant Professor at the City University of Hong Kong, Department of Asian and International Studies.
Download or read book The Political Development of Modern Thailand written by Federico Ferrara and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015-03-26 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book traces the roots of Thailand's political development from 1932 to the present, accounting for the intervening period's political turmoil.
Download or read book CultureShock Bangkok written by Dan Waites and published by Marshall Cavendish International Asia Pte Ltd. This book was released on 2014-02-15 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: CultureShock! Bangkok is your all-in-one guide to navigating and living in Thailand’s vibrant capital. Learn how to get around the city quickly and safely by motorcycle taxi, how to order the tastiest street food, and how to behave with respect to Thai manners and beliefs. Join in the local celebrations such as Songkran and Loy Krathong and get a first-hand taste of the Thais’ zest for life and love of sanuk (‘fun’). Packed with practical information and frank advice, CultureShock! Bangkok shows you how to find your feet and enjoy your stay to its fullest in this ever-fascinating ‘City of Angels’. About the author Born in Durham, England, Dan Waites moved to Bangkok for the first time in 2004. In 2008, he moved to Phuket to join the Phuket Gazette, then left to work with Burmese refugees in Mae Sot. After covering 2010’s historic general elections in Burma for the Democratic Voice of Burma, Dan got drawn back to Bangkok to work as a sub-editor for The Nation, at the same time reporting on business and politics in Burma and Thailand for publications including Forbes Asia and Asian Correspondent. He now works in Bangkok as a Thai-English interpreter for an international humanitarian organisation.
Download or read book Historical Dictionary of Thailand written by Gerald W. Fry and published by Scarecrow Press. This book was released on 2013-08-08 with total page 712 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Throughout its history, Thailand has shown remarkable resiliency, adaptability, and creativity in responding to serious threats and crises, and this since much earlier times when it was known as Siam. This book, while focusing on the modern period, does reach back to ancient kingdoms but also shows the impressive rise to a modern democracy, although still endowed with a king, and even more impressively, an economic “tiger.” Moreover, it has become a prime tourist destination and is thus known to vast numbers of foreigners as a sort of “instant Asia.” The Historical Dictionary of Thailand, now in its third edition, covers this amazing story in various ways. First, the chronology traces the most significant events from year to year. The introduction then provides a good overview of the land and people, the history and traditions, and where it now seems to be heading. The dictionary, which by now has hundreds of detailed and cross-referenced entries, looks more closely at important persons, places, institutions and events as well as more generally its politics, economy, society, culture and religion. So this is an excellent reference work not only for scholars but many others who have visited the country and were fascinated by it.
Download or read book Moments of Silence written by Thongchai Winichakul and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2020-03-31 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The massacre on October 6, 1976, in Bangkok was brutal and violent, its savagery unprecedented in modern Thai history. Four decades later there has been no investigation into the atrocity; information remains limited, the truth unknown. There has been no collective coming to terms with what happened or who is responsible. Thai society still refuses to confront this dark page in its history. Moments of Silence focuses on the silence that surrounds the October 6 massacre. Silence, the book argues, is not forgetting. Rather it signals an inability to forget or remember—or to articulate a socially meaningful memory. It is the “unforgetting,” the liminal domain between remembering and forgetting. Historian Thongchai Winichakul, a participant in the events of that day, gives the silence both a voice and a history by highlighting the factors that contributed to the unforgetting amidst changing memories of the massacre over the decades that followed. They include shifting political conditions and context, the influence of Buddhism, the royal-nationalist narrative of history, the role played by the monarchy as moral authority and arbiter of justice, and a widespread perception that the truth might have devastating ramifications for Thai society. The unforgetting impacted both victims and perpetrators in different ways. It produced a collective false memory of an incident that never took place, but it also produced silence that is filled with hope and counter-history. Moments of Silence tells the story of a tragedy in Thailand—its victims and survivors—and how Thai people coped when closure was unavailable in the wake of atrocity. But it also illuminates the unforgetting as a phenomenon common to other times and places where authoritarian governments flourish, where atrocities go unexamined, and where censorship (imposed or self-directed) limits public discourse. The tensions inherent in the author’s dual role offer a riveting story, as well as a rare and intriguing perspective. Most of all, this provocative book makes clear the need to provide a place for past wrongs in the public memory.
Download or read book Reporting Thailand s Southern Conflict written by Phansasiri Kularb and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-02-12 with total page 197 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since 2004, Thailand’s southern border provinces have been plagued by violence. There are a wide array of explanations for this violence, from the revival of Malay nationalist movements and the influence from the global trend of radical Islam, to the power play among the regional underground crime syndicates, politicians, and state authorities. The disparate interpretations signal the dynamic and complex discursive contention of this damaging and enduring conflict, and this book looks at how this is played out in the Thai media, and with what possible consequences. In analysing the southern conflict coverage, the book presents the deficiencies in news coverage, as produced by four news organisations of different natures across a seven-year review period, and discusses the professional practices that hinder journalism from serving as a fair arena for healthy and rational democratic debates. Based on in-depth interviews with news workers, it argues that Thai journalism is not always monolithic and static, as shown in the discursive shifts in news content, the variations of journalistic practices and news workers’ disparate stances on the conflict. The book goes on to highlight the less immediately apparent difficulties of political conflict reporting, such as the subtle patterns of intimidation and media manipulation, as well as the challenges of countering socially-prevailing hegemonic beliefs in Thai society. Exploring the political contingencies and socio-cultural influences at play, this book provides an in-depth study of journalism’s role in politics in Thailand, and is of interest to students and scholars of Southeast Asian Politics, Media Studies and Peace and Conflict Studies.
Download or read book Thailand s Buddhist Kingship in the 20th and 21st Centuries written by Marie-Sybille de Vienne and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2022-03-31 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on two decades of fieldwork, including over a hundred interviews with various political and economic actors at different social levels, as well as documentary and media analysis, this volume presents an account of the Buddhist monarchy in Thailand, offering a sociology of elites, an analysis of the economic influence of the Crown and an examination of the magic and ritual dimension of kingship. An exploration of the role and status of the Palace over the last century, whether as a guarantor of democracy, a symbol of stability, a source of power or an object of popular discontent, Thailand’s Buddhist Kingship in the 20th and 21st Centuries will appeal to scholars of sociology and anthropology with interests in material religion, politics and Southeast Asian studies.
Download or read book Southeast Asia in the New International Era written by Robert Dayley and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-04-03 with total page 541 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This newly revised and updated ninth edition of Southeast Asia in the New International Era provides readers with contemporary coverage of a vibrant region home to more than 675 million people. Sensitive to historical legacies and paying special attention to developments since the end of the Cold War, this book highlights the events, players, and institutions that shape the region politically and economically. The scope of analysis provides context-specific treatment of the region’s 11 countries: Thailand, Myanmar (Burma), Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Philippines, Indonesia, Timor-Leste, Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei. Three thematic chapters consider broader regional issues: Southeast Asia Political Economy, ASEAN, and South China Sea. Fully updated, the book’s revised content includes new discussion of the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, Myanmar’s 2021 military coup, the return of the Marcos clan in the Philippines, political dynasty in Cambodia, youth demonstrations calling for monarchy reform in Thailand, Malaysia’s 2022 elections, and the relocation of Indonesia’s capital from sinking Jakarta to Borneo. New to this edition is a dedicated chapter explaining the territorial disputes in the South China Sea. An excellent resource for students and professionals seeking to understand Southeast Asia, this book helps make sense of the region’s political complexity while building a solid foundation for further study.
