Showdown in the South China Sea

Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand. Bangkok. August 22, 2012. After the two previous events at the FCCT having been anodyne and not particularly informative, it was heartening to attend a panel that was fully versed in the topic at hand and willing to frankly share the information they possessed. The South China Sea("SCS") is a large semi-enclosed sea that is little known to Americans. The sea is bordered by such countries as China, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei, Indonesia and Japan. Almost everything about the SCS is in dispute and subject to conflicting claims. Although many of the territorial and maritime claims are over islets that are mere piles of rock, it is thought that the SCS has important gas and oil deposits that can be exploited, as well as fertile fishing grounds. China seems to claim all of the SCS, but has never been specific about the nature and extent of its claims. Lately, China has been ratcheting up its rhetoric and its military, and the fear is that the US will be drawn into the dispute because of treaty obligations with both Japan and the Philippines. Aside from checking China's expansionary desires, the US has important interests in maintaining freedom of navigation and over flight rights. The US position is that China should negotiate with a multinational agency such as ASEAN, while the Chinese want bi-lateral negotiations only. The difference is important and so far, no resolution is in sight. For the foreseeable future, the SCS will be an important issue in this part of the world, with world-wide implications.

(Above photo left to right) Henry Bensurto Jr., head of the Commission on Maritime and Ocean Affairs under the Philippines' Department of Foreign Affairs;
Kavi Chongkittavorn, a frequent commentator and senior fellow at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University; and Dr Nguyen Thi Lan Anh, Deputy Director, Center for South China Sea Studies Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam.

Flying The Flag: The global expansion of Thai multinational corporations

Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand. Bangkok. August 21, 2012. With $176 billion in foreign currency reserves, more than twice what is needed to pay its external debts, Thailand is well-positioned to support foreign direct investments by its indigenous businesses. However, this has not occurred; Thailand is a distant third among ASEAN countries in making foreign direct investments abroad, although the pace of FDI is increasing. Two exceptions are Indorama Ventures and CP Group, the executives of which described their companies' impressive expansions abroad, Indorama by purchasing foreign businesses, and CP by establishing businesses from scratch. The most interesting fact I learned is that Alabama is Indorama's lowest cost site today, an impressive achievement because Indorama has 39 operating sites in 15 countries on four continents. Who said that the US is uncompetitive?

Myanmar's economy: second wave or false dawn?

Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand. Bangkok. August 20, 2012. The reforms in Burma (Myanmar) leading towards a semblance of democracy, have resulted in economic sanctions being largely lifted, as the military regime loosens its grip on power. There is increasing confidence that the reforms are for real and will stick. Burma is now viewed as a land of virtually unlimited economic potential for foreign investors, and it is widely predicted that the capitalists of the world will beat a path to Burma. But, as of yet, foreign direct investment has not occurred, and the anticipated gold rush has been confined to the aid and NGO community. Burma is starting from virtually zero in the infrastructure and institutions that are needed to advance the economy. For instance, Burma has no banking system. According to the panel, there will be no economic miracles; everything will take time. Still, the Asian Development Bank believes that by 2030, Burma could be a middle income country, occupying roughly the same place in the economic ladder that Thailand occupies today. Unfortunately, the panel, although well-credentialed, was not very informative, the one exception being Dr Sean Turnell.

(Above photo left to right: Khin Maung Nyo is a Yangon based economist and journalist/editor. He is senior research fellow at the Centre for Economic and Social Development, part of the Myanmar Development Resource Institute. He is also Chief Editor of the Street View journal, New Day Journal and the Smart News Journal; Dr Sean Turnell is Associate Professor in Economics at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia and a prolific commentator on the Myanmar economy, with op-eds in newspapers such as the Wall St Journal and is author of numerous papers and books, including 'Fiery Dragons: Banks, Moneylenders and Microfinance in Burma' (NIAS Press); Luc de Waegh is founder and managing partner of West Indochina, which advises companies interested in doing business in Myanmar. Mr de Waegh has almost two decades of experience in Myanmar, having started up the British American Tobacco (BAT) subsidiary in the country in 1993; and Aung Zaw Oo is a Yangon-based businessman and founder of Aung Naing Thitsar Co.and is joint Secretary ofthe Myanmar Rice Industry Association (MRIA). He was previously on the board of the Myanmar Federation Chamber of Commerce Industry (UMFCCI).

 

 

The TPO Plays Light and Heavy

College of Music. Mahidol Salaya Campus. Nakhonpathom, Thailand. August 18, 2012. Thailand has a seemingly inexhaustible supply of very talented young pianists, and when you match one of them up with a teacher as good as Mahidol's Eri Nakagawa, herself a magnificent performer, you have an unbeatable combination.
20-yearold Kwanchanok Pongpairoj ripped through Mendelssohn's Piano Concerto No. 1 with the assurance of a seasoned professional. Her playing was fluid, even, expressive and entirely appropriate to the lightness and fast pace of this work. It takes nothing short of courage to perform this concerto; one slip and the entire edifice can come tumbling down. But, no one need worry about Kwanchanok: her technique and musicality captured Mendelssohn perfectly.

Let's face it---Bruckner is heavy. His symphonies are also very long, the 5^th being one hour and seven minutes in the Furtwangler recording that I own. And yes, Anton Bruckner's nine symphonies can sound alike. The old quip is that Bruckner composed one symphony nine times. What this means is that listening to Bruckner takes some effort on the part of the audience.

I had never heard Bruckner's 5^th Symphony before and in preparation for the Thailand Philharmonic's performance at Mahidol Salaya on August 18, I downloaded the score and a recording, and went through it three times before the live performance. It was well worth this pleasurable effort because the structure of the work and its variety became familiar to me, and I quickly liked the 5^th as much as I like the several other Bruckner symphonies I know, my current favorite being the 8^th. 

Over the years, the TPO's 90 musicians from 15 countries have shown time and time again, that no challenge is too daunting. Still, I wondered how the orchestra would handle the demands of a gargantuan Germanic symphony like Bruckner's symphony No. 5. Fortunately, in Swiss-born conductor Claude Villaret, the TPO had a strong leader for this first performance of the 5^th (my assumption) in Thailand. Villaret was clearly in charge and even an amateur observer like myself, could see that he expertly guided the orchestra through frequent tempo changes, signature changes, difficult rhythms (4/4 against 6/4), ever changing dynamics, fugues, and ensembles that required balancing to blend into a musical whole. The orchestra responded to Villaret with its very best playing. I wouldn't call this performance intense or exciting, but it was spacious and solid. The audience cheered.

 

An Evening with Ambassador David Scheffer, the UN Secretary General's Special Expert on the United Nations Assistance to the Khmer Rouge Trials

Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand. Bangkok. August 15, 2012. Ambassador David Scheffer is an experienced and dedicated US diplomat, who is currently representing the Secretary General of the UN in connection with the Khmer Rouge war crimes trials currently taking place in Phnom Pehn, Cambodia's capital city. It is almost 40 years since the beginning of the Cambodian "killing fields" genocide, which murdered 1.7 people, and to date, exactly one person has been convicted, and he actually pleaded guilty. The war crimes tribunal, which started in 2006, has cost about $190 to date, and is out of money, according to Ambassador Scheffer, who spends 50% of his time roaming the world soliciting governments to contribute enough to keep the court going, which requires $2.2 per month. The court itself is not part of the UN budget, but exists on voluntary contributions of governments, the biggest contributor being Japan. Although the history of this court has been a dismal one, due mainly to the efforts of the Cambodian dictatorship to undermine the court, it is still important for it to exist and do its work, even though the time for any imposition of justice has long since passed. As Ambassador Scheffer points out, the purpose of this and other similar trials is to let the tyrants and murders of this world know that there is no impunity for their acts.

Reconciliation Games A panel discussion on Thai politics with Chris Baker and Thitinan Pongsudhirak

Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand. Bangkok. August 9, 2012. Since last year's overwhelming election victory of Thaksin Shinawatra's Pheu Thai party, and with his sister installed as prime minister, and Thaksin himself running the government from his self-imposed exile in Dubai (he's a convicted felon who has fled the country to avoid his prison sentence), things have been calm in Thailand. The opposition Democratic Party is in disarray and weak, and politics is in a holding pattern. So, what will happen next?

Academics Chris Baker and Thitinan Pongsudhirak are two of Thailand's keenest political observers and both are able to go below the surface of daily news reporting to provide insight into the forces at play. What both of them made clear at the FCCT on August 9, is that Thai society and politics will never be the same, and that those who expect things to "return to normal" will be disappointed. Instead, the country is faced with a permanent realignment of society in which the age of deference is over, the power of elections has been tasted by the rural and poor classes, and where a higher level of education has been achieved and people have moved out of the villages to towns and then to large cities like Bangkok. The army has no taste for another coup.

Because of these divides in Thai society, with the middle class on the rise and believing itself to be a part of a larger Asian middle class in ascendency, no reconciliation is possible given the current alignment of Thaksin and his supporters against the middle class and royalists. But, according to Baker, eventually there will be a realignment of political forces, which will then be in a position to "make a deal" which the current opposing segments cannot do. When and what form this realignment will take is a matter of intriguing speculation, but for the present time, there is a truce without reconciliation. The biggest threat to the hegemony of the Thaiksin forces, is that the Pheu Thai party will not deliver on the promises it has made, which will cause a schism in the party, with the radical red shirt elements splitting off. Baker does not see renewed street violence as an inevitable consequence. Thitinan does not think that Thaksin will come back to live in Thailand.

Thai Pianist Dr. Orn Plays at the Siam Society Bangkok

Siam Society. Bangkok, Thailand. August 8, 2012. Very pretty Thai pianist Dr. Orn Pornphan Banternghansa is typical of the younger generation of pianists who play so very well, so musically, that an evening with them is guaranteed to be an enjoyable listening experience, one well worth the effort to get to the concert venue and pay the cost of the ticket. To their credit, these pianists know how to put together a varied and interesting program, usually consisting of not only well-known pieces from the classical repertory, but also some not so familiar works from less frequently performed composers. In Dr. Orn's August 8 recital at Bangkok's Siam Society auditorium, the program opened with Beethoven's Waldstein, a staple of world recital stages if ever there was one, and then proceeded to Spanish composer Federico Mompou's Scenes d'Enfant. The stark contrast between these two works is a testament to the endless variety of musical experiences that inhabit the world of classical music. Following the intermission, Dr. Orn returned to the 19^th century with performances of Brahms' Klavierstuck Op. 118, a set of my favorite short piano works, and then Liszt's fiery Rhapsody Espagnole, which provided Dr. Orn with an opportunity to show her very good technique.

Swan Lake Music at the TPO

(Photo above left) 15 years old and still in braces, Pitchayapa gave a warm and beautiful performance of Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1, belying her young age. (Photo above right) Italian conductor Alfonso Scarano (left) and Korean composer Thomas Hyuk Cha (right)

Swan Lake Music.  Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra.  Mahidol Salaya Campus.  Nakhonpathom, Thailand.  August 4, 2012. I wasn’t expecting much from this program mostly of familiar romantic music, but the soloist and orchestra sounded so good that they raised the concert into the memorable category.  The most surprising part was the gorgeous performance by 15-year old Pitchayapa Luengtawikit of Max Bruch’s often played Violin Concerto No. 1.  While still wearing braces, this youngster performed as a mature musician, with a big, a dark romantic tone, which never flagged as she perfectly captured the lines of this melodious work.  It is easy to predict a big future for Pitchayapa.

The orchestra was rearranged for this performance, by Italian guest conductor Alfonso Scarano, so that the second violins replaced the cellos in the front at stage right.  I thought that it gave the TPO a different sound, which I liked.  Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake Suite was given a gorgeous reading by Scarano, who, with an economy of motion, guided the orchestra through many expressive passages expertly executed by the orchestra’s first desk players. 

Korean composer Thomas Huk Cha was present for the world premier of his “Glory to God” for Orchestra.  It was the usual dissonant music written today, without the trace of a melody, but I liked the energy and big sound behind Cha’s work.  Unlike most contemporary compositions I hear, I wouldn’t mind hearing “Gory to God” again, but I hardly think that will be possible:  these works are given world premiers, and then are buried in the composer’s archives.

Shostakovich Gala at the TPO

 
MACM Hall. Mahidol University Salaya Campus. Nakhonpathom, Thailand. June 15. 2012. Korean pianist, Eun-Young Suh, who is head of the piano department at Mihidol's College of Music, gave an exciting account of Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 1, a light and fun piece not characteristic of the composer's later works. She was joined by the TPO's first chair trumpet, Surasi Chanoksakul. After the intermission, the TPO, conducted by its very fine principal conductor Gudni A. Emilsson, performed the Shostakovich Symphony No. 5 in as excellent a performance as I've heard anywhere. A thoroughly wonderful evening of music.