New Mandala

Phaendin chintanakan (Imagined land: solving southern violence and the state in Thailand) (2008) edited by Chaiwat Sathaanan (ISBN: 9789740200789). This voluminous (596 pages), well researched and  well referenced text is a comprehensive contemporary study of the three southern provinces of Songkla, Narathiwat and Hat Yai. The text includes discussions of national security policy concerning the [...]

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Pattani prawattisat lae kanmuang nai lok malayu (Patani: history and politics in the Malay world) (2008) by Arifin Binji, Abdulla La Omen, Suhaimi Ismail (อารีฟิน บินจิ, อ.ลออแมน, ซูฮัยมีย์ อิสมาแอล) (ISBN: 9789740973850). This voluminous study charts the history and politics of Pattani from ancient times to the present, including substantial chapters on the Thaksin era. Importantly, [...]

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Performing Political Identity is an anthropological fieldwork-based study that explores the Democrat Party’s electoral dominance in southern Thailand, or more precisely, in its Buddhist-majority and Thai-speaking provinces. This “Democrat Ascendancy,” as I call it, dates from 1992 but is based on strong foundations established since the mid 1970s.  It is founded on electoral performance and histrionics that [...]

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A new collection edited by Michael Montesano and Patrick Jory will be of considerable interest to the many New Mandala readers who maintain interests in Thailand’s southern provinces.  It is published by National University of Singapore Press.
According to the blurb:
Thai South and Malay North examines the history of ethnic, religious, social, economic, and political pluralism in [...]

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The conflict in the south is now the deadliest in Thailand’s history…The insurgents justify illegal attacks on civilians by saying they’re retaliating against abuses by Thai security forces, and the Thai army responds in kind. It is a deadly and pointless vicious circle.
- Brad Adams, Asia director of Human Rights Watch, in a statement just released by [...]

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Here is a new publication on the war in Southern Thailand by Ji Ungpakorn and the Peoples Coalition Party.
Since the most recent eruption of violence in Southern Thailand, various governments, whether it be Taksin’s Thai Rak Thai government or the military junta, have all failed to solve the crisis. It is becoming clear that the war [...]

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New Mandala readers in Australia may be interested in these two upcoming events in Melbourne.�
Event 1
La Trobe University and the Australian Centre for the Moving Image present a free screening of the new Thai documentary “Citizen Juling”. Friday 28th March, 7.15 ACMI (Federation Square).  [citizen-juling-eflyer.pdf]
“Citizen Juling” follows the life of Juling, a Buddhist who went [...]

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Here is an article by Ji Ungpakorn that I just received by email:�
The Senate, 6th October , the South and Thai Democracy
Giles Ji Ungpakorn
The tragedy of Thai democracy today is that we have a Prime Minister and Interior Minister who tell bare-faced lies and an opposition, in the shape of the Democrat Party, that supported the [...]

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The Irrawaddy recently published a review I wrote (a long-time ago, I might add) of Ball and Mathieson’s Militia Redux: Or Sor and the Revival of Paramilitarism in Thailand.
Comments and questions from New Mandala readers are, as always, very welcome.

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Siang chak khon tani (Voices from Pattani People) - a series edited by Walailak Songsiri. The first two are Siang sathon chak muban pramong ao pattani (Voices from a fishing village in Pattani) and Rao khu pono (We are Pono). They are published in 2007 by the Lek-Prapai Viriyapant Foundation. The articles are compiled from local research first published [...]

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