Rule of law vs. law & order in Southeast Asian law

The ideas of "rule of law" and "law and order" form a conceptual pair with two different meanings, a popular meaning and a more formal well-defined and precise academic meaning.

INFORMAL MEANING

The popular meaning of "rule of law" stands as a call for reform in the face of excessive law enforcement, in a police state for instance. Since Myanmar has opened up the phrase has been widely used in diverse contexts as a call for social justice (Cheesman, 2015).

In contrast, the popular meaning of 'law and order' stands as a call for reform in the face of not enough law enforcement in a state experiencing excessive high levels of crime, especially violent crime (murder, assault, rape), crimes against property (robbery, burglary) or drug crimes (war on drugs) (see here, here, Flamm, 2005).

'Law and order' can stand for the longstanding non-democratic values in a country such as Myanmar whereas 'rule of law' opposes it as a popular call for reform (Cheesman, 2015).

"Law and order" can also stand as a popular call for reform in a democratic state experiencing a crime problem that the existing justice system is not able to handle.

Thaksin's war on drugs of 2003 and Philippine presidential candidate (and longstanding mayor of Davao, Mindanao) Duterte's death squad solution to drug dealers and corrupt police are examples of this.

These calls for "law and order" are naturally countered by those worried by the corruption and abuse of power that bypassing legal procedures or "due process" can naturally lead to.

FORMAL MEANING 

The formal academic meaning of "rule of law" captures an ideal of how law should be applied precisely and non-arbitrarily, if time, resources and economics were unlimited.

A formal meaning of "law and order" captures how swift justice is meted out to suspected law breakers with limited resources without absolute precision, bypassing time-consuming legal procedures in the interests of efficiency. Police power is typically increased, judicial discretion and the power of the courts curtailed and circumscribed and in extreme cases vigilante death squads are empowered and extrajudicial killings valorized (Mazzei, 2009)

Seen from the perspective of economics of law, the "law and order" concept seeks to minimize the number of guilty found innocent, "false negatives" in the language of statistical testing. whereas "rule of law" seeks to minimize the number of innocent found guilty (false positives) (see Polinsky & Shavell, 2007).

In summary, the twin concepts of "rule of law" and "law and order" are capable of capturing realities of everyday political rhetoric used in elections by politicians to gain votes that are not precise but do capture reality in the minds of voters.

At the same time, the twin concepts are capable of making the realities of law enforcement and criminal justice system operation precise and analyzable in an academic context.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Cheesman, Nick (2015) "That Signifier of Desire, the Rule of Law". Social Research: An International Quarterly. Volume 82, Number 2, Summer 2015. (get here)

Flamm, Michael W. (2005). Law and Order: Street Crime, Civil Unrest, and the Crisis of Liberalism in the 1960s. New York: Columbia University Press. (see review here).

Mazzei, Julei (2009) Death Squads or Self-Defense Forces? How Paramilitary Groups Emerge and Challenge Democracy in Latin America, The University of North Carolina Press

Polinsky, A. Mitchell & Steven Shavell (2007) "The Theory of Public Enforcement of Law" in Handbook of Law and Economics, 1st Edition. Polinsky & Shavell (eds.). North Holland.

(Photo credit: Wikipedia, F. W. Pomeroy's 1906 statue of Justice on the dome of the Old Bailey (Central Criminal Court) in London, England, UK)

Difficulty of police reform: Accused rapist cop shoots investigative committee

After a police officer at a local police station located at Rayong, Thailand south of Bangkok was reported as having raped a Lao woman being held under detention, the chief of the station had formed a committee to investigate the officer.

On 14 December 2015, as the accused officer was brought to see the station chief in his office, the officer suddenly drew his gun and fired at the chief of police. The bullet hit the chief's neck and killed him instantly. He then shot another officer at work in the office and killed him.

As he ran to his pickup truck to escape, the officer managed to fire another 10 more shots but was finally shot dead. The officer had reportedly been severely stressed after being told he faced a disciplinary investigation (See "Accused rapist cop kills 2 fellow officers in Rayong," Jumphol Nikomruk, Bangkok Post, 14 Dec 2015 here).

Sexual misconduct is one of five major forms of police misconduct that have been identified from sociological studies, independent commission reports and court cases in the US (Ivkovic, 2015, 1), (the other four forms of police misconduct being use of excessive force, racial profiling, perjury and generalized police corruption).

POLICE MISCONDUCT: DIFFICULTY OF ROOTING OUT 

Getting rid of police misconduct can be a difficult process, as the above incident attests to.

First, a universal so-called police "code of silence" works to conceal misconduct "with police officers fearing ostracism from their colleagues if they reveal anything about the misconduct of their fellow officers or fearing disciplinary and/or criminal consequences if their own misconduct is uncovered." (Ivkovic, 2015, 2).

In what amounts to a cautionary tale for whistleblowers, the highway patrol officer said to be responsible for the first video clips of police bribery broadcast on TV in Thailand (Pol. Sen Sgt. Maj. Chit Thongchit) in 2003, was allegedly forced to resign from the police force and then allegedly assassinated by fellow police officers in 2009 (Ivkovic, 2015, 276) citing sources here, here and here.

The police officer had singlehandedly fought against police corruption and had exposed many police officers for police misconduct, he also had "filed a complaint about police in Prachuap Khiri Khan who had charged an innocent man with selling methamphetamine pills. This resulted in several senior and junior policemen being moved from the province. ... The death of the policeman ... gained a lot of media coverage due to his unrelenting fight against corruption. A native of Bangkok, Chit gained a reputation for being an honest cop when his team on a special assignment arrested policemen involved in cigarette smuggling in Khao Yoi district, Phetchaburi..." (from "Caught in the crossfire of love and hate," Bangkok Post, 2 Feb 2009 here).

POLICE MISCONDUCT: AN ORGANIZATIONAL PROBLEM 

This transient success and ultimate failure of a single "good cop" in weeding out "bad cops" highlights a key finding of researchers working in the area of police reform, that police misconduct is an organizational problem and not a problem of single isolated "bad cops" (bad apples, rotten apples), nor is it the actions of single "good cops" that can ultimately reduce and eliminate police misconduct.

Blaming the problem on a few "bad apples" is really a refusal to admit and accept that the problem exists in the first place.

Police misconduct is an organizational problem that needs an organizational solution.

POLICE INTEGRITY: A MORE POSITIVE CONCEPT 

The goal of police reform is the reduction and elimination of police corruption and misconduct.

However, the direct study of police misconduct is very difficult, if not impossible, because police refuse to talk about misconduct among their own ranks with outsiders.

The complement or inverse of police misconduct, police integrity is a more positive concept that police are willing to talk about and can provide a more solid basis for police reform.

Police integrity is defined as "the normative inclination among police to resist temptations to abuse the rights and privileges of their occupation" (Ivkovic, 2015, 3).

Surveys featuring scenarios in which police officers are subject to these temptations have been presented to the police forces of different countries and to different units working in the same police force and significant differences in "police integrity" have been found across forces and units (see overview here as well as Johnson (2003); Seksan Khruakham & Joongyeup Lee, (2013); Narin Phetthong & Anja Kutnjak Ivkovic (2015))

ROAD TO POLICE REFORM & POLICE INTEGRITY 

The road to police integrity according an organizational theory of police misconduct involves working on four dimensions:

1. Organizational rules and enforcement of those rules.

2. Techniques for controlling police misconduct including reactive investigations of misconduct based on complaints and discipline of police officers who violated rules as well as proactive investigations, education and integrity testing.

3. Curtailing the police code of silence.

4. Acknowledging that the social, economic and political environment surrounding police work influences the level of police integrity.

Hong Kong's police force perhaps stands as the best example of a police force that has implemented such an organizationally-based program of police reform.

Citizen oversight has been key to Hong Kong's success and an ever diminishing record of police misconduct incidents (see Hui, 2015).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Hui, D. L. H. (2015). "Hong Kong: Police corruption and reforms." In K. R. Hope (Ed.), Police corruption and police reforms in developing societies (pp. 143-156). Boca Raton: CRC Press.

Ivkovic, Sanja Kutnjak (2015) "Studying police integrity" in Measuring police integrity across the world: studies from established democracies and countries in transition. Ivkovic, Sanja Kutnjak (ed) and Haberfeld, M R (ed). New York: Springer Publishing.

Johnson, David T. (2003) "Above the Law? Police Integrity in Japan". Social Science Japan Journal (SSJJ) 6(1): 19-37.

Narin Phetthong & Anja Kutnjak Ivkovic (2015) "Police integrity in Thailand". in Measuring police integrity across the world: studies from established democracies and countries in transition. Ivkovic, Sanja Kutnjak (ed) and Haberfeld, M R (ed). New York: Springer Publishing.

Seksan Khruakham & Joongyeup Lee (2013). "Cross-Nation Comparison of the Intolerance to Police Misconduct: Findings from a Thai Police Cadet Survey". International Journal of Police Science & Management. September vol. 15 no. 3 237-245.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/archive/caught-in-the-crossfire-of-love-and-hate/10879

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/crime/794324/accused-rapist-cop-kills-2-fellow-officers-in-rayong

Police reform in Thailand: Asset declarations, civilian oversight, the full gamut of police reforms needed

Discussions of police reform in Thailand never seem to go beyond structural issues such as who has promotion authority or whether the police force reports to the interior ministry or directly to the prime minister.

Arisa Ratanapinsiri's 2013 review article "A History of Police Reform in Thailand" provides an overview of this sort of reform effort up to present day.

One thing the review shows is that police resistance to reform typically leads to reform failure when the term of typically short-lived Thai governments expires. This common happens to most police reform efforts including the most recent reform after the 2006 coup (Arisa, 2013). 

Apparently repeating this historical pattern, in breaking news today (12/26/2015) Thailand's new draft constitution is said to "single out the police for reform" and the police have already launched efforts to defeat the move (see "Cops rip reform bid as discriminatory Charter drafters aim to downsize force," Bangkok Post, 26 Dec 2015, Mongkol Bangprapa here). 

FULL GAMUT OF POLICE REFORMS 

Unlike Thailand, police reform in many countries actually goes beyond merely restructuring lines of authority in the police bureaucracy. 

A recent review article on police reform in developing societies, Hope (2015), includes some reforms that seem so commonsensical one wonders why they have not been implemented already in Thailand.

1. Declarations of assets, property and liabilities together with lifestyle audits for even police officers low in the hierarchy could track unusual accumulations of wealth over the course of a career (see plans in the Philippines to adopt lifestyle audits here & here).

Recent declarations of wealth by Thailand's national police chief (necessarily combined with his wife's personal wealth as well) has ranged from 300 million to almost 1 billion baht. Questions naturally arise as to the source of this wealth. 

At the local level people, sometimes wonder how local police chiefs can sometimes afford multiple houses and expensive cars on rather paltry salaries.  

2. Use of civilian oversight institutions, particularly at the local level would also seem an essential police reform, perhaps going hand-in-hand with decentralization of authority. 

3. Good conduct recognition and rewards would seem to be at the heart of the issues surrounding the recent flight of lead investigator Pol Maj Gen Paween to Australia after being essentially punished for his success in arresting several well-connected military and government officials for involvement in human trafficking. 

4. Counteracting and managing conflicts of interest would also seem to be another essential police reform. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Arisa Ratanapinsiri. 2013."A History of Police Reform in Thailand." in Knights of the Realm: Thailand's Military and Police, Then and Now, Chambers, Paul (ed.). White Lotus Press, Bangkok. 499-540 (see book review here).

Hope, K. R. (2015). "An Analytical Perspective on Police Corruption and Police Reforms in Developing Societies," In K. R. Hope (Ed.), Police corruption and police reforms in developing societies (pp. 143-156). Boca Raton: CRC Press. (see here)

(Photo credits: Police Colours of the Royal Police Cadet Academy, Wikipedia) 

Judicial role of Thai police in accident & criminal cases

The road accident of celebrity Anna Reese in Bangkok was quite a big news story earlier this year garnering quite a lot of interest on social media.

The case is interesting because it features a sort of unofficial judicial role that the Thai police sometimes serve in cases.

The facts of the case run as follows,

Thai-English model and actress Anna Reese, 28, was driving a Mercedes-Benz at about 100 kph at 3am in the morning when a motorcycle allegedly cut in front of her causing her to lose control of her car which then ran off the road into a parked police car killing a policeman who happened to be sleeping in the car (see here).

The way this high-profile case played out was that the police oversaw a negotiated settlement over compensation between Anna Reese and the family of the deceased.

After two rounds of negotiation the two sides settled for an undisclosed amount of compensation but Anna Reese still faced criminal charges for reckless driving leading to the death of others.

The family initially asked for 7.2 million baht, later reduced to 6.2 million baht, 1.2 million to be paid by Anna’s insurance company. Anna Reese initially offered 2 million baht which would make 3.2 million with the insurance money. The final agreed amount was not made public (source here).

IN OTHER COUNTRIES? 

In other countries such as the US, one might expect a court room with a thorough fact-finding overseen by a judge or prosecutor.

The role performed by the police here seems more of a role that would be performed by a judge or a prosecutor.

The negotiated settlement is in some ways similar to what goes on in a civil tort case behind the scenes in the US.

But in the Anna Reese case, the uncertain future outcome of a criminal court case that the police will collect the evidence for, hangs over her head also, and one might surmise that this sensitive issue probably factors into what amount is obtained in the negotiated settlement.

CHEAP SOLUTION BUT IS JUSTICE SERVED? 

Certainly, a negotiated settlement with the police would be cheaper than a lengthy court case, so that would be one benefit of police involvement in this legal role.

Furthermore, the public at large seemed to have no problem with police adjudication of the case with social media actively supporting the family of the deceased policeman and demanding a greater settlement.

But then someone might object, what law gives the police the authority to perform this role?

How could one possibly get all the evidence presented and make a thorough fact-finding with such an informal process at the police station?

The system may be cheap but is justice really served?

Furthermore, can anyone even evaluate whether justice is served or not, since none of the details of the negotiated settlement are revealed including whether the police received a commission for their services (i.e. a bribe and corruption).

In other words, this informal system has no transparency and no accountability to the public.

Transparency and accountability could be considered the core issue as far as police reform are concerned (see here).

300,000 BAHT TO  VICTIM FOR STABBING 

On a personal note, the author became privy to an alleged police settlement in a criminal case relevant to his personal safety (though no doubt none of the sources providing this information would publicly confirm it, a problem with lack of police transparency).

On New Years day several years ago the father of the child of the person who was once my Thai partner, but actually no longer her partner and actually married to someone else, stabbed a man he had caught flirting with the said woman.

The alleged settlement to get out of jail was 300,000 baht paid to the victim.

Once again, from one standpoint this could be considered a cheap and effective form of justice.

The perpetrator was punished and the victim compensated with civil and criminal remedies combined into a sort of "blood money."

However, in the best interests of the public, society and more specifically myself who might be next victim of his stabbing, were perhaps not well served by this quick and cheap informal legal decision-making by the police.

News of many similar cases with cash settlements spread by word-of-mouth through the news grapevine one typically finds in provincial Thailand, some of the cases being quite high-profile such as the murder of Christy Sarah Jones on 10 August, 2000 in Chiang Mai. The case received widespread national and overseas press coverage, but remains unsolved with periodic inquiries on progress made by the British police to the Thai police spurring renewed interest by the police.

UNOFFICIAL LEGAL FUNCTIONS 

So to summarize, we might say that Thai police have an unofficial judicial function not directly mandated by the law in many kinds of legal cases, especially road accident cases.

Thai police evaluate the evidence and either dictate or negotiate a settlement in which the party that bears responsibility for the accident pays the victim.

If one walks casually into a police station, one is very likely to encounter such informal settlements going on 24-7.

This is what happened in plain view of the media and the public in the high-profile Anna Reese road accident case earlier this year.

This widespread informal legal practice begs for further documentation and analysis from the broad perspective of sociology of law.

 

Police corruption still exists in Thailand?

Events in the news this year provide strong evidence that police corruption is still a big problem in Thailand.

Bribes to low ranking police officers for traffic violations may be the only form of corruption that most people encounter in their daily life, but the lengthy trial of Crime Suppression Division (CSD) head Pongpat has at least revealed that some high-ranking police are still using the power of their position for personal gain. The arrest of another police officer investigating lese majeste cases on lese majeste charges for abusing his power has added further evidence and support to the thesis that police corruption has not yet disappeared.

In 2015, mass human trafficking arrests in the South revealed a prior deficit of police enforcement in the human trafficking area, perhaps indicating a network of corruption involving security officials and the police.

The flight to asylum of Paween the lead investigator in the case after claiming that he had essentially been punished for his success is the latest development.

Paween claimed that his life was in danger because he was reassigned to the one area of the country most affected by the mass arrests.  With the investigations incomplete, many arrests of powerful people in the South yet to be carried out, potential bail for offenders and uncertain trial outcomes ahead, his claims of danger seem legitimate (see here). One is reminded of the police officers on death row, released on bail pending appeal, found guilty in the rice field hanging of a young drug suspect around the time of the drug wars in 2003. The families of the deceased feared for their lives and sought witness protection.

TRANSPARENCY & ACCOUNTABILITY, THE REAL ISSUE

Corruption, defined as the use of one's power and position for personal gain, admittedly does not really get at the heart of the problem which is more far-reaching.

Transparency and accountability are the twin concepts that better capture the essential nature of the problem.

The media spotlight put on the Koh Tao muder case, due to two young British tourists being vistims, has revealed that lack of transparency or accountability in police investigative operations may cover up shoddy police work that doesn't produce evidence credible enough to identify and convict perpetrators of crimes.

The popular phrase "scapegoat" oft-used in the media, captures the widespread belief that innocent people are regularly tried and convicted based on misplaced police priorities of getting a conviction in high-profile cases, and thus maintaining honour and face, rather that pursuing justice and the people really guilty  of the crimes.

Transparency and accountability in police operations as public servants pursuing a goal of justice for all under rule of law, perhaps would be a better characterization of the goal that is not yet achieved and the basic problem to be solved.

CHULALONGKORN RESEARCH, 20 YEARS AGO

The work twenty years ago of Sungsidh Piriyarangsan together with co-researcher Pasuk Pongpaichit at Chulalongkorn University pretty much defined police corruption as an area of research.

The chapter on police corruption in the English language volume Corruption and Democracy in Thailand (1994) is comprehensive, covering the historical origins, the sociology of corruption in police patron client networks, parliamentary drives in the 1980s for police reform, etc.

Whether accusations of corruption or true or false, the typical pattern of reaction on the part of the police force is to immediately deny any wrongdoing and to order a quick internal investigation with little credibility.

This is exactly what happened in the recent Paween case. After the human trafficking lead investigator fled to Australia, accusations of his being unpatriotic and threats of a defamation case against him to uphold the honour of the police accompanied the initial denials. After that a quick investigation claimed there were no death threats against him, implying that his flight to Australia had been unwarranted. And this is the way it rests as of the end of last week.  

This typical pattern of police reaction to accusations of corruption was set in stone some time ago.

The police reaction and measures taken in 1996 when the research findings of the Chulalongkorn team researching corrption were released, and the ensuing media and public counter-reaction to the initial police reaction were well-documented in the Nation's Chang Noi column reprinted in anthology form in 2009 (Chang Noi, 2009).

This so-called "Golden Pig" incident, named after the major gambling den revealed by a high-ranking officer himself, almost stands as an archetype for all subsequent police reactions to accusations of corruption.

Death threats, criminal complaint filings against the accusers and other various forms of harassment were employed. The prime minister eventually stepped in the affect a truce.

RECENT DRIVE FOR POLICE REFORM 

It might be argued that real improvements in police corruption have been made during the twenty years since the Chulalongkorn team's research work on police corruption, but once again the issues of transparency and accountability raise their heads. How can one be sure that there has been improvement when there is no transparency?

Ironically, some proposals for police reform focus on making the police department less transparent and accountable, specifically to parliament, in order to reduce the influence of powerful politicians on police investigations.

After the coup of 2014 a drive for police reform once again arose but in a weaker form than in the 1980s. Once again the issue disappeared with declarations that the police could reform itself.

If lack of transparency or accountability in police investigative operations is the key issue, does this really provide any hope for police reform in the future?

A recent revival in Thailand's police as a subject of academic research at least provides some hope (Arisa, 2013; Haanstad, 2008, 2013).

Bibliography 

Arisa Ratanapinsiri. 2013."A History of Police Reform in Thailand." in Knights of the Realm: Thailand's Military and Police, Then and Now, Chambers, Paul (ed.). White Lotus Press, Bangkok. 499-540 (see book review here).

Chang Noi. 2009. "The Police and the Golden Pig" in Jungle Book: Thailand's politics, moral panic, and plunder, 1996-2008, 55-58.

Haanstad, Eric. 2008. "Constructing Order Through Chaos: A State Ethnography of the Thai Police." PhD dissertation, University of Wisconsin-Madison,

Haanstad, Eric. 2013."A Brief History of the Thai Police." in Knights of the Realm: Thailand's Military and Police, Then and Now, Chambers, Paul (ed.). White Lotus Press, Bangkok. 447-498.

Pasuk, P. Sangsit P. 1994. Corruption and Democracy in Thailand. Bangkok: Political Economy Centre, Faculty of Economics, Chulalongkorn University.


http://www.iop.harvard.edu/fighting-corruption-india

Labour law violations: Migrant workers in Thailand's tourism sector

It is perhaps no surprise that recent research by Reuters (see here & here) shows that migrant workers from neighboring countries working as waiters, gardeners and cleaners in Thailand's tourism industry are subject to a plethora of labor law abuses. 

The research focused on migrant workers from Myanmar working in Khao Lak and Phuket with many working as cleaners, gardeners and waiters and others were employed by companies supplying the hotels with services and goods including a bakery and laundry company.

IMPLICATIONS

In short, the research shows that migrant workers are cheaper to hire than citizens of the country and easier to control.

So why hire a Thai national to do the work? Or pay them a reasonable wage?

Doesn't this labor market double-standard hurt Thai nationals too, by driving their wages down?

No, someone might counter, the foreign migrant workers are doing the so-called "dirty, dangerous and demeaning" work that Thai nationals don't want to do (see here).

But the national image of Thailand is suffering under increased scrutiny over human trafficking and abuse in the fishing industry and processing of chicken for export. The US State Department downgraded Thailand to its Tier 3 list of worst offenders in human trafficking, all of this this could hurt Thailand's national image, counters another.

Morality is more important than national image, counters yet another, we should just do the right thing and enforce the labour laws across the board for migrant workers too.

Yet another counters, that without police reform, it will be impossible to enforce the laws and correct these labour law abuses.

LABOUR LAW ABUSES

The labour law abuses documented include the following:

1. Pay below minimum wage
2. Discrimination
3. No paid leave
4. Longer work days.

5. "Employers frequently confiscate identification documents to keep unregistered workers from running off and to maintain pay rates below the national minimum wage."

6.  Migrant workers working at suppliers to which services had been outsourced to had longer working days, less vacation and more discrimination. Since the hotel did not directly employ these workers, they were one more step removed from labour law enforcement.

According to the report:

"Almost two-thirds of the migrants in Fair Action's report said they were paid less than the country's daily minimum wage of 300 baht, with a far higher proportion among migrants employed by hotel suppliers. Three laundry staff said they worked up to 19 hours a day during the peak tourism season with only two days off a month. Another reported working 16-hour shifts with no time off. Several workers described not being paid for taking time off to treat burns and other injuries sustained in the work place. Thai workers, by contrast, received higher salaries and better benefits, including better accommodation, longer holidays and maternity and sick leave."

The research was done by Swedish groups Schyst Resande and Fair Action. The hotels were used by top Swedish tour operators (such as REWE Group's Apollo, TUI Group's Fritidsresor and Thomas Cook Group's Ving).

ACTION TO BE TAKEN?

In a joint statement, the tour operators said violations of national and international laws could mean the termination of a contract with a hotel, however this is not the first time the issue has been raised and it remains to be seen whether anything will be done about the labour abuses.

The tour operators also said that Travelife, a certification scheme for hotels that monitors fair working conditions is one possible way of dealing with the problem that they are looking into.

Lokaniti & Rajaniti: Indian aphorisms borrowed by Burma & Thailand

At the intersection of law, popular conceptions of morality and traditional education in both Burma and Thailand are ancient Sanskrit aphorisms.

Two varieties of these Sanskrit aphorisms known as Lokaniti and Rajaniti are commonly found in Burmese and Thai literature.

The following history of the Burmese Konbaung dynasty has a wonderful explanation of the role of Lokaniti and Rajaniti in premodern Burmese culture that I recorded to MP3 for my personal listening quite some time ago  (listen to MP3 recording of Koenig on Lokaniti and Rajaniti here):

Koenig, William J. (1990). "The Burmese Polity, 1752–1819: Politics, Administration, and Social Organization in the early Kon-baung Period". Michigan Papers on South and Southeast Asia (1990) (34).

INDIAN APHORISMS FOUND IN BURMESE & THAI LAW CODES 

Rajaniti are also found in indigenous Burmese and Thai law codes known as Dhammathats in Burmese (Thai: ธรรมศาสตร์, Thammasāt):

"Dhammasattha "treatise on the law" is the Pali name of a genre of literature found in the Indianized kingdoms of Western mainland Southeast Asia (modern Laos, Burma, Cambodia, Thailand, and Yunnan) principally written in Pali, Burmese, Mon or the Tai languages or in a bilingual nissaya or literal Pali translation. Dhammasattha texts are historically related to Hindu dharmaśāstra literature, although they are very significantly influenced by the Theravada Buddhist traditions and literature of Southeast Asia." (source here).

Burmalibrary.org has links to actual Dhammathat texts and commentaries here.

SCHOLARLY RESOURCES 

A compilation of Lokaniti and Rajaniti aphorisms from Burmese literature was made in the 19th century and is available for free download online:

Gray, James (1886) Ancient proverbs and maxims from Burmese sources : or, the niti literature of Burma, London : Trubner. (download here).

The definitive scholarly investigation of these Sanskrit aphorisms is:

Sternbach, Ludwik (1974). Subhāṣita, Gnomic and Didactic Literature. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. (see here & here).

ANCIENT SANSKRIT APHORISMS

Ancient Indian aphorisms have been a staple of traditional education in Burma and Thailand for a long time.

Subhashita (Sanskrit: सुभाषित; Thai: สุภาษิต) is the literary genre of aphorisms in ancient Sanskrit literature.

More precisely Subhasita is defined as "a literary genre of Sanskrit epigrammatic poems and their message is an aphorism, maxim, advice, fact, truth, lesson or riddle." (see here).

"Subhashitas are known for their inherent moral and ethical advice, instructions in worldly wisdom and guidance in making righteous deeds... A subhashita is always eloquent in form, structured in a poetical form, complete in itself and concisely depicts a single emotion, idea, dharma, truth or situation."

In the words of Ludwik Sternbach, Sanskrit scholar and Subhasita expert, "subhashitas are drawn from real life and give fruit of philosophy grafted on the stem of experience."

There is an insightful Thai study available through libraries but only described online here.

Philippines Law & social justice: Abandoned children not citizens?

The law sometimes seems like a pristine wilderness disconnected from the world we live in.

Case in point: Philippines senator Grace Poe is running for president of the Philippines but there just seems to be one problem.

As a child she was abandoned at birth and is thus a so-called "foundling."

That a person so disadvantaged in life could become president would be a welcome sign for many, indicating perhaps that upward social mobility is possible and that the rights of the poor and disenfranchised are in fact respected. (Grace Poe herself has discussed the issues here.)

Enter the Law.

It turns out that because Grace Poe is a foundling, "there is a possibility that she is not a natural-born citizen. Only natural-born citizens can be elected as president, vice president, senator, and congressman, according to the Constitution." (see Rappler here).

Luckily, Grace Poe has won the first round of the legal assault against her on the basis of her being an abandoned child.

However, three Supreme Court justices, the representatives of the law on the panel deciding on her disqualification from presidential candidacy, did vote to disqualify her.

 One thread of legal reasoning runs like this.

1. No law automatically grants citizenship to foundlings born in the Philippines.

2. Even if there was a law that granted foundlings citizenship, they would still be only "a naturalized Filipino citizen, not a natural-born Filipino citizen."

3. Furthermore, "foundlings like Poe still have to prove his or her status as a foundling before they can acquire Philippine citizenship – as naturalized, not natural-born."

Luckily, the majority of the panel decided that "social justice" and other reasons were more compelling, such as, "it was not the intention of the framers of the 1935 Constitution to 'exclude' and 'discriminate against' foundlings when it comes to a natural-born citizenship." (also read about the call to remove those three Supreme Court justices from the decision-making process here).

DOES THE LAW HELP THE POOR?

Systematic disregard of the basic welfare of the poor and disenfranchised does seem to be a common theme, if one actually talks to the poor and attempts to find out what issues they face.

For example, mistakes on birth certificates are common in the Philippines with wrong names for parents being a common and correctable error.

Children of the poor are often delivered in the village by a midwife and not at a hospital which is one possible way to explain the origin of birth certificate mistakes.

Gender is perhaps less common but a more difficult type of error to correct, requiring the hiring of a lawyer and a court decision.

This was the expensive legal procedure required of the family of a jeepney driver in Cebu City that I once met who discovered that their son was recorded on his birth certificate as a woman and that this barred him from obtaining a passport until it was corrected.

Women who are officially men on their birth certificate cannot get officially married until it is corrected and since many are too poor to do this, one can find many mothers who are still officially men (Note: this problem has apparently been dealt with as of 2012, see here & here).

An estimated 10% of the Philippines workforce works overseas as so-called Overseas Foreign Workers (OFWs).

Strict human trafficking laws sometimes result in poor in-laws not being allowed to board airplanes to visit their family working abroad if they cannot present adequate documents at boarding time with no way to pass the document screening to a certainty with immigration officials prior to purchasing a plane ticket, thus losing the expensive plane ticket (for what is apparently an example of a similar incident that happened today, December 10, see here).

One can only hope that the Law, as an institution, does eventually develop an awareness of and concern about these issues, correcting them and showing greater respect for the poor and disenfranchised, choosing instead to work for them and solve the problems they encounter in daily life and not getting caught up in abstruse and perhaps ultimately meaningless legal niceties.

(Photo at top: Senator Grace Poe delivering a speech on the floor of the Philippines Senate. If elected president next year she will likely become the first person abandoned at birth (foundling) to ever become the head of state of a country. Photo source: Wikipedia)

http://www.rappler.com/nation/politics/elections/2016/113668-main-arguments-set-decision-grace-poe

Marcos victims: Salvaged (tortured, mutilated & dumped by road for public display)

The son of former Philippines president Ferdinand  Marcos, Senator Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr, will be running for vice president in the upcoming Philippines elections in 2016

(Photo above of the younger Marcos with the elder Marcos and his mother Imelda viewing a statue of General MacArthur during a Marcos family visit to The Pentagon in he US in 1982. Source: Wikipedia).

HORRIFYING HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS

The candidacy of the younger Marcos has led to renewed discussion of the horrifying violations of human rights during the 20 years of Marcos rule (1966-86).

It is of course impossible to deny that these human rights violations ever happened but there are ongoing attempts to: 1. minimize them, and 2. draw attention away from them during the election campaign.

One recent article refers to "allegations of human rights abuse" as if the extent of what happened during his presidency is not a known and proven fact.

The lack of historical research and history books in the Philipppines to describe what actually happened must be reckoned one major impediment to knowledge that allows public understanding of history to be manipulated.

There is also the real possibility that once in a position of power, the younger Marcos may decide to rewrite the history books on the elder Marcos, a possible scenario that South Korea currently faces with its current president President Park Geun-hye being the daughter of President Park Chung-hee who ruled South Korea with a steel fist and many human rights violations during the 1960s and 70s (see here , here and here).

HISTORY IRRELEVANT TO PRESENT DAY ISSUES? 

Even if they do know the history of what actually happened, Filipinos are being told that history is actually irrelevant to what is happening now. Senator Marcos declares:

"Many cases have been brought to court here [Philippines] and in the US. But if you talk to people, they are not concerned about that. Filipinos are concerned about their lives today. They want answers: 'Why are there drugs in our streets? Why is the crime rate going up at an alarming rate? Why is the educational sector miserable? Why is distribution of wealth not happening? Why is the government not doing anything?'" (Source: "Marcos: Filipinos want solutions, not history talk" from Rappler here)

Can any of these issues, whether it be crime, education and economics, really be understood without at the same time understanding history?

For example, the famine on Negros during the Marcos presidency has apparently not yet been adequately explained from historical evidence. (see here). The question of whether the poor are still vulnerable to a famine or widespread malnutrition even today has to be reckoned an important question.

With a free press in the Philippines, the Marcos candidacy has brought forward people who still clearly remember the Marcos years and have written to remind younger people of what actually happened (see here).

Historical awareness, defined as:  1. knowing what happened in the past, 2. how it could relate to what is happening now and 3. how past failures and disasters might be avoided in the future, is certainly an essential part of advanced "education sectors" found in Europe, the US, Australia and Japan, at universities such as the University of Wisconsin where historian of the Philippines Alfred W. McCoy has taught for decades,

Professor McCoy has in fact documented in detail the horrific human rights violations of Marcos the elder in lectures he has given (see below).

DARK LEGACY: HUMAN RIGHTS UNDER THE MARCOS REGIME Alfred W. McCoy, University of Wisconsin-Madison Conference: Legacies of the Marcos Dictatorship Ateneo de Manila University 20 September 1999

"Marcos Regime: Looking back on the military dictatorships of the 1970s and 1980s, the Marcos government appears, by any standard, exceptional for both the quantity and quality of its violence. The Marcos regime's tally of 3,257 extra-judicial killings is far lower than Argentina's 8,000 missing. But it still exceeds the 2,115 extra-judicial deaths under General Pinochet in Chile, and the 266 dead during the Brazilian junta. Under Marcos, moreover, military murder was the apex of a pyramid of terror—3,257 killed, 35,000 tortured, and 70,000 incarcerated."

"Some 2,520, or 77 percent of all victims, were salvaged—that is, tortured, mutilated, and dumped on a roadside for public display. Seeing these mutilated remains, passers-by could read in a glance a complete transcript of what had transpired in Marcos's safe houses, spreading a sense of fear. Instead of an invisible machine like the Argentine military that crushed all resistance, Marcos's regime intimidated by random displays of its torture victims —becoming thereby a theater state of terror. This terror had a profound impact upon the Philippine military and its wider society."

"Martial Law: Under martial law from 1972 to 1986, the Philippine military was the fist of Ferdinand Marcos's authoritarian rule. Its elite torture units became his instruments of terror. Backed by his generals, Marcos wiped out warlord armies, closed Congress, and confiscated the corporations of political enemies."

"Even at its peak, however, the Marcos state, reflecting the underlying poverty of Philippine society, lacked the skilled manpower and information systems to effect a blanket repression. As a lawyer, moreover, Marcos, at first maintained a facade of legality and spoke with pride of his constitutional authoritarianism. But as the gap between legal fiction and coercive reality widened, the regime mediated this contradiction by releasing its political prisoners and shifting to extra-judicial execution or salvaging." (my italics; source here)

http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/54a/062.html

Marcos televised executions

Shocking little-known historical fact: Marcos televised the execution of three people by electric chair on national television which must have been a traumatic experience to witness:

(Source: The Next Frontier: National Development, Political Change, and the Death Penalty in Asia (Studies in Crime and Public Policy), 2010, David T Johnson, Franklin E Zimring, p. 11)