New Mandala

Most of the populist policies being pushed by parties competing in the December 23 general election belong to the bad variety, which means they pander to the unprincipled wants and needs of the people. What’s more, the implementation of bad populist policies could expose the country to unacceptable levels of financial liability.The problem is that [...]

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The most recent edition of The Myanmar Times  has an article about the resumption of Internet service inside Burma.  It reports:
A spokesperson from MPT [Myanma Posts and Telecommunication]  had claimed last month that the blockage of internet service starting September 28 was caused by damage to an underwater communication cable.
They don’t expect anyone to believe that?  Do [...]

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This week is “thyroid awareness week” in Australia. A short interview on ABC radio yesterday discussed the increase in thyroid disease in Australia due, in part, to declining consumption of idodised salt (in preference for more trendy alternatives such as sea salt). The interview reminded me of the prevalence of thyroid disease that I had observed in northern Laos [...]

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Readers may be excited to hear that Colonel Jeru, who has become a regular discussant here on New Mandala, has launched his own blog.  It is called “Thai Folitics, Food and Fiction“.  This alliterative title is, according to the Colonel, derived from his understanding of “(Thai) Folitics” where “F” stands “for fuzzy, fudged, fucked-up, far-out and funny [...]

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The Little Bang is carrying an interesting two-part interview with Bhikkhuni Dhammananda.  According to the introduction to the interview:
Venerable Dhammananda taught as a lay person in Thammasart University, Dept of Philosophy and Religion for 27 years, and published 40+ books and translations mostly under her lay name Dr Chatsumarn Kabilsingh. She now oversees the quarterly publication of [...]

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The Election Commission of Thailand (ECT) is championing a series of extraordinary laws that seek to extend bureaucratic control over the electoral process (see Asia Sentinel for a good overview of the rules). One of the strangest of the new regulations is the ban on candidates organising public rallies. According to two recent Thai Rat editorials ECT [...]

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Over the past few days New Mandala has been hit by a deluge of spam. We had to temporarily block all comments. We have now lifted the block so please start commenting again! The problem has now been resolved but  some legitimate comments may have been lost in the clean-up process. If your comment has not [...]

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Those who actually take the time to study rural political behaviour in depth usually come up with very different conclusions to those who rely on popular stereotypes or occasional discussions with taxi drivers and maids. An excellent example is the nuanced and fine-grained research of Yoshinori Nishizaki (who is now based at National University of Singapore [...]

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…In this age of globalization, countries have become more interconnected and thus collective efforts for security and development under the leadership of the United Nations is of vital importance…
…To surpass these global challenges ahead of us, all Member States should divert from regional or bilateral squabbles and unitedly contribute and work together under the United [...]

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The Association for Asian Studies is currently holding its annual election. There is an election for the vice-president and also for a series of area-based councils. New Mandala readers who are members of AAS may be particularly interested in the Southeast Asia Council election where a number of familiar names are featured: Penny Edwards, Pattana Kitiarsa, Celia [...]

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