Thailand's Political History: From the 13th Century to Recent TimesThailand's Political History: From the 13th Century to Recent Times
(Englisch) Taschenbuch – 16. März 2011
von B. J. Terwiel (Autor)
Produktbeschreibungen :
Barend Jan ("Baas" among friends) Terwiel was born in the Netherlands, but he left that country as a young adult to take up a PhD scholarship at the Australian National University in Canberra. He lived in Australia for more than 25 years, where he married and helped raise a family of four very nice daughters. In the middle of his mid-life crisis he took up a professorship in Munich. Soon after he became professor of Thai and Lao literature in Hamburg, remarried and took up residence in Göttingen, where his wife taught Assyriology. He retired in 2007 but remains active in his fields of interest: traditional mapping, Thai Buddhism and history, the Thai Ahom of India, and the ethnic origins of the Thai.
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I owe more than 20 books concerning Thailand, and I ordered this one, and read it, just after discovering its existence, and especially because it’s concerning the political history in Thailand and continuing up through the year 2010, and thereby including 4 years more than in any of my other books. And by this book we then are reading and learning what it looks like the following generations will be learning that has happened in Thailand since the year 2000, the years during which we have had, and still are having, the biggest political changing in the Thailand history.
Since I was a child I have always been interested in reading historical books, and I find this book to be an extremely good political historic book, as it to me looks like being written by a historian who is trying being totally neutral in the describing of what historical have passed by. What we often find not to be the case in many of the historical books which we are reading.
And when it comes to the retelling of the history especially during the years that have passed by since 2003, we her in Thailand, are watching the still increasing forces between the two biggest opposite political parties, and with their leaders telling quite opposite stories.
In the last chapter in the book, the chapter 14, “Concluding Remarks”, we are getting explanations to some of the changes concerning the Thailand retelling history since the year 1300, which we learned about while reading the earlier chapters. For example, on the side 317, we are reading that the huge Sukhothai empire (Siam) actual didn’t start quite as early to be an empire, as we usually have been told in the historical books, actual it first started exist as an empire from around the year 1150. And just after reading this we then are reading that the king Thaksin, who was executed in the year 1782, probably not was quite a dangerous and sick a man, as it then was written down just after he had been executed, on the order from those that had him killed (his 2 companions during more than 20 years). And B.J. Terwiel then is explaining from where he has received these new historical details.
Now the book is stated to be a political history book and therefore we of course are getting many names of the persons who during the years, under the kings, are controlling the country. And for example we interestingly also learn that back there 250 years ago, the employee having the highest position under the king actually earned 150,000 Baht/year, and opposite to this that the persons lowest in the state pyramid only received 5 Baht/year. And besides we in the book also see that the payment for building a 5 km long channel around Bangkok actual was 30,000 Baht.
And by the names in connection to the highest positions in the state we learn that since around 1850, we are starting getting extremely many princes in these positions. And concerning the king Chulalongkorn (1853 – 1910) we at one side are reading that he had 32 boys. This explain how we back then were having so many princes in all of the top positions in the state, as also all of the other princes in family with Chulalongkorn had as many children. But the book don’t tell how many wives, and women besides, the king and the princes then were having, but if we go to Google we find the number to be around 50 wives, and some Thailand persons have told me (as late as today) that Chulalongkorn, at least had to do with 300 women!
To me we in the book are getting many other interesting historical details, for example we on the side 32 are reading that in the year 1624 a Spanish ship captured a Dutch ship laying and doing free trading. The Spanish ship after this ignored the following Siamese protest to what they had done, and started leaving for Spain, by which the Siamese attacked, and killing around 150 and imprisoning around 200 from the Spanish ship, and thereafter returned the Dutch ship to the Dutch firm, including all that had been stolen.
And in the first couple of hundred years during the Siam history, we are reading some interesting cases in which we learn about the special power that the Thai people was thinking (and without doubt still are thinking about) that a white elephant is giving to its owner. And we also here many times are reading about the power from Buddha, and learn that none of the Buddha monks are positioned lower that the king, and how this was used in the judgment for the executing of king Thaksin, as he wanted the monks to be under the kings. He had by himself been a monk during 4 years. And then on the side 107 we read that in 1817 the munch Nai Nok then believing that he had done so many good deeds during his life so that he now could proceed to nirvana, and therefore set fire to himself under a sacred tree, and afterwards people came to pay respect to the corpse.
And by reading this book I among other for the first time learned that the king Vajiravudh (1910 – 1925) among other interests, as for example many sports, other was an accomplished actor and play writer, writing around 40 plays. And he, opposite to the previous kings and princes, first extremely late got married, and then just before he died, only being father to a single girl.
I knew about the revolt in the year 1932, but first by reading this book I learned that there during this year actually were 2 revolts, and even a 3 one to failure. And that the king by himself found it fine with some changing in the Thailand monarchy. And that a price being between the leaders to the coup d’état, were having rather communistically ideas in how to change the country.
As the chapter 13 we are having the Thaksin year 1998 – 2010, and the fighting between the two political groups, respectively The Yellow (People’s Alliance of Democracy = PAD) and The Read (Thai Rak Thai = TRT), mostly known by the colors the two groups respectively are using. And where The Yellow group has taken this color because it’s the kings color; even though The Red, of course also are for the king.
And beside the political history we also are reminded that the 26 December in 2004 we had a massive earthquake causing the ocean valves rising close to Thailand vest coast, and which all together around the earth caused around 230,000 people to be killed, and around 6,000 in Thailand.
And in the year 2006, as a result of PAD fighting against Thaksin, he then fast had a new election made the 2. April, which he won, but as in some parts of the country The PAD had people not going to vote, and the total voting in some of these places didn’t reach the 20 % in their total, and therefore there had to be a new election, which then was put to the 15 October. But then instead, the 19 September, the military send tanks into Bangkok, and took the power. And following this, then in May 2007 The Read party, the TRT, by the Constitution Court, was disbanded, and Thaksin and more than 100 of the TRT politicians in the parliament were disallowed to run for office for a period of 5 years. Then The Read started a new party, the People’s Power Party (PPP), and as a chock The Read again, the 23 December 2007, was winning by the following election. But then in the following year, 2008, The Yellow then started with all kinds of blockades, among other the occupying of the parliament building during more than half of the year. And in the month of September the Constitution Court then declared that the Prime Minister Samak no longer was allowed being Prime Minister as he in TV had been showing making his own food to soldiers!
And the 25 November hundreds of PAD persons, also armed with guns and bombs, which we are not told in the book, occupied the new Bangkok airport and threatening to kill the traveler in the airport if the military or the police was coming. And the Constitution Court again, first in December, disallowed 111 of The Read members including their new Prime Minister to run for office during the following 5 years. And actual the PAD bought some of The Read political persons, so that the PAD thereby got the power in the parliament. And later the Constitution Court didn’t find anything wrong in the PAD having occupied the parliament or the airports. And when the airports and airplane firms later, after this book was printed, went to the court with the bills on hundreds of million Baths which the PADs occupations actually had been costing them, the court did not find that the PAD had been doings something illegally.
And among other we read that in the year 2009 the PADs Minister for Information and Communication announced that 17,000 websites had been effectively blocked, and 4,800 of these being considered insulting to the monarchy. And place in the be we have that for writing something which can be thought to insult the king can give the writer up to 20 years in prison. In reality the low “only” say up to 6 year, but then you the same day can get 6 year many times, some persons by this way have got 18 year.
Then last in the book we during many sides, with pictures follow The Roads demonstration starting in Marts 2010, for getting an election. As the PAD had come to power without an election, and this time the military are put in, and 92 persons are killed and more 1,000 wounded, and all of their leaders are put in prison for at least 9 month.
On the side 311 we are reading about the General Khattiya Sawadiphol, known as the Red Commander, who in January 2010 had been suspended by the Army Commander (in reality by a retired 93 year old retired military chief who everybody are fearing) for having supported the UDD, the new name for The Red, after it for the second time had been forbidden by the Constitution Court. And in the book we read how he, the 19 May 2010 was shot in the head while being interviewed by a New York Times reporter. But actually I had the day before been seeing him in TV and telling that he and his group then had built a barricade behind which they were in safety, and he did not allowed any one to having guns or rifles. So as general he knew what he was talking about, but the military had installed a long distance shooter, with a long distance rifle and using a jackstand, and whom we many times later, have had seen reshown in TV.
But now we again, here in the year 2013, during the past 5 week have seen the PAD trying to remove The Red government, by during demonstrations and trying stopping all work, the electricity, the water, and so on, and again, like in 2008, without the soldier coming with weapons for protecting the government. Even though many persons have been declaring that the PAD, are violating the laws, this being opposite to the Constitution Court, that don’t find that the PAD is doing anything wrong. So it will be interesting to see what we will be reading in historical book following the year 2010 in this book, which we in the following years will be reading, that is, which story they are telling.
But all together to me it’s a highly interesting historical book in which we are reading some new rewriting concerning what was going on in the older Thailand history. And again, to me it also looks like being very neutral in the retelling of what has been going on throughout the historical time which we are watching.
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Produktinformation
Taschenbuch: 328 Seiten
Verlag: River Books (16. März 2011)
Sprache: Englisch
ISBN-10: 9749863968
ISBN-13: 978-9749863961
Größe und/oder Gewicht: 17,5 x 3 x 23,7 cm
https://www.amazon.de/dp/9749863968
Autor
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