Thai army chief urges public to ignore rumours of a coup |
- Thai army chief urges public to ignore rumours of a coup
- Study: Meditation offers slight relief from anxiety
- Thinking aloud in the case of bible seizures — Wong King Chai
- Moyes rues decisions as United lose again
- It’s matter of democratic reform — Sin Chew Daily
- Mercedes unveils latest AMG SUV
| Thai army chief urges public to ignore rumours of a coup Posted: 07 Jan 2014 05:13 PM PST
"People are scared of something that hasn't taken place yet," Army Chief Prayuth Chan-Ocha told reporters in Bangkok yesterday. "Don't be scared if you can't see it. Everything must happen for a reason," he said, before adding, "without a reason, nothing will happen." Tension has been building in Bangkok as anti-government protesters calling for Yingluck's caretaker government to be replaced with an unelected council prepare to change their tactics. They plan to move from the protest camp they set up two months ago at a traffic junction in Bangkok's historic quarter and instead indefinitely block seven intersections in the centre of the city starting January 13. The demonstrators, who are unsatisfied with new elections called for February 2, plan to create traffic gridlock in key areas of the capital to increase pressure on Yingluck to resign and convince civil servants and soldiers to join their cause. The threat of a prolonged disruption to the city and the resumption of violence that has killed eight people has rattled financial markets, causing the benchmark SET Index to fall 2.8 per cent this year and the baht to drop 1 per cent against the dollar. "I want to ask for cooperation from all parties to take care of the nation, especially on January 13," Yingluck told reporters yesterday in Bangkok. "We want it to pass peacefully. We don't want it to lead to clashes." Corruption probe Thailand's National Anti-Corruption Commission found enough evidence for 308 lawmakers to be charged for supporting a bill that would have changed the way the Senate is formed, Vicha Mahakun, a spokesman, said yesterday. The commission also found there wasn't enough evidence to warrant charges against Yingluck and 72 other lawmakers. The lawmakers may face charges for allegedly seeking to overthrow the system of government with the king as the head of state. The cases could be referred to the prosecutor-general who could bring criminal charges against the lawmakers before the Supreme Court, according to agency's website. The commission charged House speaker Somsak Kiatsuranont and Senate speaker Nikom Wairatpanij with abuse of power over the same case on December. 26. Military support The protesters have said the military should support their months-long bid to replace the government with an appointed council of "good people" tasked with erasing what they describe as the corrupting political influence of Yingluck's family. Allies of Yingluck's brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, have won the past five elections, including two since his ouster in a 2006 military coup. The protesters, who have vowed to disrupt the February 2 polls, are led by Suthep Thaugsuban, a former lawmaker and power broker with the opposition Democrat Party, which is boycotting the vote. They say the government is illegitimate and run from abroad by Thaksin, who faces a two-year jail term for corruption if he returns in a case he says is politically motivated. Prayuth has refused to publicly take a side. When asked December 27 whether the door remained open for a coup, he didn't rule it out. "I won't say open or closed," he said. "Everything depends on the situation." Thailand has experienced nine coups and more than 20 prime ministers since 1946. Coup rumours Talk of a putsch increased when generals announced they would be moving troops and hardware, including artillery, into Bangkok this week for Army Day celebrations on January 18. Prayuth stressed yesterday that the army has done this every year. The movement of military assets into Bangkok, especially from a faction of the army that spearheaded the 2006 coup, was not without meaning, said Paul Chambers, director of research at the Institute of Southeast Asian Affairs at Chiang Mai University and editor of the book "Knights of the Realm: Thailand's Military and Police, Then and Now." "Prayuth Chan-Ocha is an ardent arch-royalist and anti-Thaksin," he said. "I see this troop movement as a warning to police not to try to repress Suthep's forces." While the military, royalists and many middle-class Thais are opposed to Thaksin, the police as a whole are loyal to the former premier, who was a police lieutenant colonel before entering politics, Chambers said. Airport seizure In 2008, protesters who accused Thaksin's allies of turning Thailand into a monarchy-free republic occupied Government House for several months before seizing Bangkok's airports as the military declined to enforce an emergency decree. Suthep was a former deputy premier with the Democrat party, which hasn't won a national poll in more than 20 years. He faces murder charges for his role in helping oversee a deadly crackdown on supporters of Thaksin in 2010 when the Democrats were in power. Yingluck also addressed the coup rumours, saying that past military interventions had failed to solve the nation's divisions and all sides should find a peaceful solution. "I believe all military heads will think about solving problems in the long term rather than using measures that are unacceptable to many countries," Yingluck said. — Bloomberg   |
| Study: Meditation offers slight relief from anxiety Posted: 07 Jan 2014 05:11 PM PST
However, a review of scientific literature on mindfulness meditation published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that the effects of meditation are limited. For instance, little or no evidence could be found of meditation's impact on positive mood, attention, substance use, eating habits, sleep and weight. Mindfulness meditation is a form of Buddhist self-awareness designed to focus attention ― not judgement ― to the moment at hand, the JAMA study said. "The evidence suggests that mindfulness meditation programmes could help reduce anxiety, depression, and pain in some clinical populations," it said. "Thus, clinicians should be prepared to talk with their patients about the role that a meditation programme could have in addressing psychological stress." The systematic review and meta-analysis was led by experts at Johns Hopkins University and included 47 randomised clinical trials with 3,515 participants. Of the thousands of studies the authors found on the topic, just three percent were scientifically rigorous enough to meet the criteria for inclusion in the JAMA review. Those that were reviewed found some small to moderate benefits, but lacked evidence of leading to better health. "Contrary to popular belief, the studies overall failed to show much benefit from meditation with regard to relief of suffering or improvement in overall health," said an accompanying commentary by Allan Goroll, a doctor at Harvard University. "With the important exception that mindfulness meditation provided a small but possibly meaningful degree of relief from psychological distress." The patients who received these benefits did not typically have full-blown anxiety or depression. Mindfulness meditation is usually practiced for about 30 minutes per day, and emphasises acceptance of feelings and thoughts without judgment. It also requires body and mind relaxation. "A lot of people have this idea that meditation means sitting down and doing nothing," said the JAMA study's lead author Madhav Goyal, an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "But that's not true. Meditation is an active training of the mind to increase awareness, and different meditation programmes approach this in different ways." ― AFP-Relaxnews  |
| Thinking aloud in the case of bible seizures — Wong King Chai Posted: 07 Jan 2014 05:09 PM PST
At the urging of His Supreme Eminenceness Lord Bobo's most loyal minion and Master of the Blawg, I would like to put some thoughts into writing and think aloud on this entire issue of Bible seizures that have upset both Christians and Muslims in Malaysia. I believe that philosophy can really help us think about these issues in a more helpful way, rather than regurgitating whatever views have been fed to us and digging ourselves deeper into a hole that may end up collapsing on its own weight. Rather than trumpeting on grounds of religious belief or moral rights, I believe it is also important if we think about why these issues are important to us. Consider the history of this country, Malaysia. Many if not all of us are familiar with the history of the Malayan independence and the eventual establishment of Malaysia, in one form or the other, either through history classes in school or Wikipedia. The key point here is that Malaysia is a country built by the blood, sweat and tears of different ethnic communities, with different beliefs and world-views. It is from these different beliefs that individual groups come to understand their reason for coming into being (their raison d'être?) and the point of their existence. Thus, by building on such beliefs, they solidify into values that are repeatedly used to guide their actions and hence, position themselves in society. In a similar instance, let us look through the lens of religious beliefs. These beliefs have continuously inspired their respective groups to different pursuits in life, and these pursuits can be anything from raising a family to building a system of society with its particular order of things. It is all very complicated but not unfathomable when these groups are driven by the ideals that they hold to be true and important. Thus, as these system of beliefs and ideals come to form the very world that these groups live in, they become values that define the groups' existential identity. In other words, these values become the reason for existence and without them, the groups fall into an existential crisis, or worst, cease to exist. Therefore by building on that premise, we can then begin to place the incident of BSM's Bible seizure by JAIS in our line of thinking. And let me cut you off before you carry on thinking that this is an article trying to take sides or justify the actions of any bodies. This article merely begs your indulgence to think aloud, hopefully in a systematic manner, to understand contemporary issues. So going back to that premise of how certain values (i.e. religious beliefs) become the reason of existence for groups, we can then begin to understand why it's so important for respective groups of Christians and Muslims to each lay claim to the term 'Allah'. On one hand, the Christians believe that the term 'Allah' had been used to refer to God in Arabic and it has been used for more than a century in Bibles belonging to the indigenous people in East Malaysia. Hence, it cannot be a term exclusive to the Muslims, who on the other hand, believe that 'Allah' refers to their God in Islam and must not risk being confused with the Christian God. Setting aside theological arguments for both Christians and Muslims, we can now understand why contestations between the two groups are inevitable and will continue to take place. It is specifically because many of these groups (from religious associations to pressure groups and political parties) have attached such religious causes to their very existence and reason of being. The traditional way of understanding such conflicts or contestations between two groups is that it will ultimately lead to a winner and a loser, where the former will completely and absolutely annihilate the other, thus ultimately resigning the latter to the fringes, to be forgotten by history. It's a terrifying thought, to be made completely irrelevant and erased from existence. Therefore, groups must be in conflict and fight for their ultimate survival. This breeds antagonism between groups and it is inevitable. This is a view that a political theorist such as Carl Schmitt would favour. However, along with other political theorists such as Chantal Mouffe, I disagree with such a narrow view of conflict and contestation. I think conflict can be rather good, especially when understood from a broader perspective. For example, a 'theory of agonism' would argue that such contestations do not need to necessarily lead to annihilation of the 'other' (or the 'enemy'). Instead, it can be part of continuous process to try to solve the problems and issues of the day, at the same time recognising that there is no such thing as permanent solutions to every problems, thus allowing this process to go on and on. Presumably for the better, because total annihilation of either groups have been averted. But for such agonistic contestation to take place, the groups involved must make room to recognize the inherent differences that exist between them, and that these differences are important to each other. Therefore by accepting the differences, they are recognising the legitimacy of the respective groups in their claims. This will then allow contestations to take place at a level that does not necessarily lead to total destruction of one or the other. So in a real-world instance where tensions between religious groups are high, what can we actually do? How do we apply such an approach, especially in a multicultural and multi-religious country like Malaysia? Do we have any best-case studies and scenarios that we can draw from? To be honest, I don't know, and I would greatly appreciate if you could share your thoughts on this. I think the problem we have today is that people just don't think anymore. Philosophy is not some high abstract fluff — it is a tool that helps us to think and guide our actions. Philosophy comes about from our pursuit to understand why things are the way they are, or the way they should be. To quote the Master of the Blawg, "Questions are, most of the time, more important". — Loyarburok * This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malay Mail Online.  |
| Moyes rues decisions as United lose again Posted: 07 Jan 2014 05:06 PM PST
A second-half penalty from on-loan Liverpool forward Fabio Borini gave the home side a 2-1 victory at the Stadium of Light yesterday and condemned United to three consecutive defeats for the first time in 13 years. Moyes had previously seen his team lose by the same scoreline at home to Tottenham Hotspur and Swansea City in the past week, leaving United 11 points off the pace in the Premier League and out of the FA Cup. The Scot was angry with referee Andre Marriner for awarding a free-kick against Jonny Evans in the build-up to Sunderland's opener, which saw Ryan Giggs turn the ball into his own net in first-half stoppage time. "We defended a terrible free-kick, but how the referee has given a free-kick for that is way beyond me," Moyes said. "I just cannot see how that is a free-kick." Nemanja Vidic equalised for United early in the second half, only for Marriner to award Sunderland a penalty after Tom Cleverley was adjudged to have impeded home substitute Adam Johnson. Again, Moyes was unimpressed by the decision. "We are all just laughing at them at the minute," he said. "It looks as though we are having to play them (officials) as well as the opposition at the moment." With their league title defence on the rocks, the return leg on January 22 may represent Moyes's only chance of salvaging a domestic trophy from his maiden campaign. As if to illustrate the heights from which the club have slipped this season, Moyes's predecessor Alex Ferguson was present at the Stadium of Light, along with club greats Bobby Charlton and Bryan Robson. However, when asked if he felt under pressure to reach the final, Moyes replied: "None whatsoever. "This is a two-legged game and I'm actually really looking forward to this second leg now." Moyes drew encouragement from the performance of winger Adnan Januzaj, who tormented Sunderland throughout with his direct running and came close to snatching a late equaliser on three occasions. "We'll do everything we can to try and get it right," Moyes said. "The players put in a strong performance tonight (Tuesday), it just didn't quite come off. But it's not far away and it's coming, I can sense it. "You just need to look at the performance of Adnan Januzaj tonight. He was terrific. He put in a great job and played really well." Having eliminated Chelsea in the previous round, Sunderland remain on course to reach a first domestic cup final since 1992, when they lost to Liverpool in the FA Cup final. "It would be massive (to reach the final)," manager Gus Poyet told Sky Sports. "You don't get there too many times. It's many, many years from the last one, so we will try our best." Poyet also heralded the contribution of Johnson, who added verve to the home side's play after being sent on in the 56th minute. "I'm so pleased," said the Uruguayan. "Today, he made my day because we were desperate for him to do well. Today, he changed the game for us." However, with Sunderland still bottom of the Premier League table, Poyet expressed hope that their impressive cup form would translate into improved performances in the league. "That is something I need to find out, why we are capable somehow of beating top teams and being so clinical in the cup, and we cannot do the same in the league," he said. "I need to find the reason because if not, something is happening, it's mental. But I need to find that reason." — AFP  |
| It’s matter of democratic reform — Sin Chew Daily Posted: 07 Jan 2014 05:05 PM PST
According to Article 113(2) of the Federal Constitution, a re-delineation exercise must be carried out every eight years and the process must be completed within two years. The last re-delineation was done in 2003, meaning that the work has not been carried out for 11 years. It is not a healthy phenomenon for a nation pursuing democratic election system. Re-delineation was supposed to have been done in 2011 but since the motion must obtain two-thirds majority of support in the Parliament to be passed and the BN had no such advantage at that time, while the general election might be held at any time, the work was delayed. Therefore, the constituencies delineated in 2011 was used in the general election last year. Pakatan Rakyat failed to seize power after winning 53 per cent of votes but gained only 89 parliamentary seats, while the BN won 47 per cent votes and 133 seats. There are two factors causing the paradoxical phenomenon. Firstly, under the "one vote one seat" rule, a candidate gains a seat, regardless of whether he wins one vote or 10,000 votes. Secondly, due to "unfair constituency delineation", some constituencies have more than 100,000 voters while some have only 20,000 voters, and they can choose only one lawmaker. The first factor is related to voters' choices and the second factor is closely related to the EC. The impartiality and credibility of the EC have always been the subject of criticism. The analysis report of the 13th general election also reflected the fact that the electoral system is in urgent need of reform. And how to fairly delineate constituencies is undoubtedly a crucial point here. If we look back at history, the British colonial government had left us a relatively fair electoral system. However, the amendments to the Constitution in 1962 and 1973 to increase the gap limit of voters from 15 per cent to 50 per cent and from 50 per cent to unrestricted have resulted in serious imbalance between popular votes and seats gained in the following general elections. According the EC's definition of constituency, there are three categories of constituencies, namely urban constituencies with more than 60,000 voters, semi-urban constituencies with 40,000 to 60,000 and rural areas constituencies with 20,000 to 40,000 voters. Such a classification method allows urban constituencies to have more than 10 times the number of voters in rural areas, tantamount to weakening urban voters' right to vote. Obviously, it does not meet the democratic principle of "one man one vote". Unfair constituency delineation is a means to stay in power. Even in countries claiming the pursuit of democracy and human rights supremacy, the Gerrymander game could still be found, namely through arbitrary division of voting districts to "concentrate votes" or "distribute votes", to achieve the purpose of manipulating election. To avoid the occurrence of such unfairness, stringent restriction on the gap limit of voters should be one of the effective ways. To be fair, there is no such an absolutely fair electoral system in the world, but we can develop some fair principles to further improve our electoral system. Constituency re-delineation is the first step to improve the electoral system. It should reflect the population proportion of each constituency to make election in line with the principles of equal value for all votes, fair delineation, and properly mixed demography. More importantly, they should never delineate constituencies in a way that are disadvantageous to minority races. We hope that the EC can comply with the world's democracy tide and truly show its independence and impartially along the process of re-delineating constituencies, or the motion to re-delineate constituencies is unlikely to be supported by the alternative coalition. It is a game closely related to democratic reform and thus, there will be an intense struggle between the ruling and alternative coalitions. The development of the situation deserves our close attention. * This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malay Mail Online.  |
| Mercedes unveils latest AMG SUV Posted: 07 Jan 2014 04:58 PM PST
Just like direct rivals Audi and BMW, Mercedes is betting big on the growing demand for smaller, yet equally potent SUVs and its latest co-creation with its AMG tuning arm is the 360hp, twin-turbocharged GLA 45 AMG. Yet despite its performance, which comes courtesy of AMG's hand-assembled lightweight 2-litre, four-cylinder powerplant, the car is still capable of 37.6 mpg (7.5 litres per 100km) and meets all upcoming emissions regulations. Interestingly for a car that's meant to be able to climb every mountain and ford every stream, it has a Race Start function for optimum acceleration off the line, and a dual-clutch paddle-operated seven-speed gearbox, with a speed-shift setting. However, Mercedes makes it clear that this particular car is designed for sporty handling and dynamic on-road performance ― why else get AMG involved? ― and that is why it can be specified with a host of optional extras aimed at further increasing performance, such as a carbon fibre aerodynamics package. Inside, the theme of performance continues with sports seats and a three-spoke multi-function steering wheel. The console's colour screen display even offers a race timer. But as one would expect from a Mercedes, the whole thing is exquisitely packaged. The instrument panel is finished in brushed aluminum and the leather seats are edged with contrasting stitching. Mercedes will confirm pricing and specifications for the GLA 45 AMG when it makes its public debut in Detroit on January 13. ― AFP-Relaxnews  |
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