Remember Adam Baba, and other reporters who were attacked by followers linked to the ruling party. Salute to all reporters for their professionalism in covering the event.
A fight broke out as Penang Chief Minister, Lim Guan Eng walked down from the stage to meet Anti Lynas Save Malaysia supporters after his speech to about 500 people at Speakers Corner, Esplanade, Penang, this evening.
The person injured is a reporter by the name of Adam Baba who was treated at the General Hospital for head and hand injuries.
Video by Jimmy Leow, Citizen Journalist (CJ.MY)
The peaceful anti Lynas rally in Penang to support the Kuantan people in their movement to stop the Lynas building rare earth processing plant in Kuantan. The said plant will be the world largest, and the output will place them as largest in the rare earth global market, able to challenge the leadership of China. But the said plant was not able to provide a solution for disposal of radioactive waste.
A bigger Anti Lynas Rally was held in Kuantan on the same day 26-2-2012 , but held earlier. Kuantan rally was held peacefully. For your information, Penang state was ruled by opposition party. The opposing group who support Lynas, was from NGO who support the ruling party and the youth group of ruling party. The use of violence to a peaceful people rally was a mockery to democracy of Malaysia.
Remember Adam Baba(the reporter), remember Kuantan's Lynas Processing Plant, Malaysia...remember ugly incident at Anti Lynas Rally in Penang, Malaysia.
Shame to democracy in Malaysia, this time demon really go crazy....
Let the people and the world know the true face of democracy in Malaysia
God has given us the day, we can use it as we like. We can waste it, or grow in its light and be of service to others. But what we do on the day is important, as we have exchanged a day of our life for it. When tomorrow come,today will be gone. I hope I will not regret for the price I paid for the day. Life is beautiful, together let us make each of our life, and other people's life more beautiful...
Monday, February 27, 2012
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Emmenecker Challenge
The Adam Emmenecker sandwich at Jethro's BBQ is the largest in Des Moines. Named after the Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year for 2008 this colossal sandwich is one serious player. It has become so popular at Jethro's that there is now a challenge to eat it if you dare. If you can tackle it within 15 minutes you will be properly recognized at Jethro's as a MVP and make the Wall of Fame. However, if you do try it and don't finish, you'll be relegated to the Wall of Shame.
Adam Emmenecker sandwich has been nominated as the Greatest Sports Sandwich in America for ESPN's FANWICH contest on Facebook. Show America that the Adam Emmenecker sandwich is worthy of this national recognition by logging on to Facebook and voting for your favorite BBQ restaurant and our infamous sandwich which is named after former Drake Bulldog basketball star, Adam Emmenecker.
The Missouri Valley Conference Most Valuable Player of 2008 loves this sandwich. It's big... "really big..." just like all of those "really big" shots Adam sank in the Bulldogs' magical MVC Championship Season of 2008. Start with our huge pork tenderloin, add our Angus steak burger, top it with slabs of Texas brisket, apple wood bacon & fried cheese, finished with buffalo chicken tenders. We smother this mountain with melted cheddar cheese, and white cheddar sauce, serve it with your choice of side. This could hurt you! A sandwich fit for the MVP.
http://www.jethrosdesmoines.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=45&Itemid=29
Adam Emmenecker sandwich has been nominated as the Greatest Sports Sandwich in America for ESPN's FANWICH contest on Facebook. Show America that the Adam Emmenecker sandwich is worthy of this national recognition by logging on to Facebook and voting for your favorite BBQ restaurant and our infamous sandwich which is named after former Drake Bulldog basketball star, Adam Emmenecker.
The Missouri Valley Conference Most Valuable Player of 2008 loves this sandwich. It's big... "really big..." just like all of those "really big" shots Adam sank in the Bulldogs' magical MVC Championship Season of 2008. Start with our huge pork tenderloin, add our Angus steak burger, top it with slabs of Texas brisket, apple wood bacon & fried cheese, finished with buffalo chicken tenders. We smother this mountain with melted cheddar cheese, and white cheddar sauce, serve it with your choice of side. This could hurt you! A sandwich fit for the MVP.
http://www.jethrosdesmoines.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=45&Itemid=29
Thursday, February 23, 2012
KEP - CAMBODIA'S OTHER RUINS with Dr Jean Michel Filippi
Japan denied the ugly killings of Imperial Japanese Army on the Nanking massacre, and blind to what happen in the past. The people who have suffered in WW2 will remember WW2 and cruel killings of the IJA during the war and during their occupation. The people all over the world who suffered during WW2 will speak for the victims of the Nanking massacre, the killings may not call Nanking massacre, there are many monuments all over the world still remind us of the cruelty of IJA in WW2.
Let them forget about their military extremism, we will not forget.....all peaceful people in the world will not forget the WW2 and IJA...
KEP, a small seaside town in Cambodia standstill to remind us the evil of Khmer Rouge Genocide. Another ugly face of war and communist fanatic, just like the military extremists of IJA....
http://www.rustycompass.com In the early 1960s, Cambodia's Norodom Sihanouk presided over a kingdom at peace. Its elites travelled to the seaside town of Kep for weekends of high living and gambling at the town's casino. Kep was the grooviest beach town in South East Asia and a homegrown architectural style of remarkable ambition was celebrated there.
By 1970, Cambodia's efforts to keep out of the ever encroaching conflict next door in Vietnam, had failed. The Khmer Rouge was gaining territory throughout the country. Kep's brief period in the sun was over.
While travellers to Phnom Penh's Tuol Sleng museum get a sense of the sheer brutality of the Khmer Rouge, Kep's story is more subtle but no less powerful. This small town does not show the faces of the victims of the Khmer Rouge. Instead, the ruined buildings of Kep intimate a time of confidence and rich cultural aspiration that was comprehensively demolished with Pol Pot's rise.
The owners of Kep's mansions either fled Cambodia or died at the hands of the Khmer Rouge. Cambodia still reels from the impact of the Khmer Rouge genocide. The virtual annihilation of an entire class of professionals, academics, artists and leaders will take generations to heal. Their ghosts lurk in the ruins of Kep.
In this rustycompass.com Insights video, we meet with Dr Jean Michel Filippi and discover more about Cambodia's other ruins
Let them forget about their military extremism, we will not forget.....all peaceful people in the world will not forget the WW2 and IJA...
KEP, a small seaside town in Cambodia standstill to remind us the evil of Khmer Rouge Genocide. Another ugly face of war and communist fanatic, just like the military extremists of IJA....
http://www.rustycompass.com In the early 1960s, Cambodia's Norodom Sihanouk presided over a kingdom at peace. Its elites travelled to the seaside town of Kep for weekends of high living and gambling at the town's casino. Kep was the grooviest beach town in South East Asia and a homegrown architectural style of remarkable ambition was celebrated there.
By 1970, Cambodia's efforts to keep out of the ever encroaching conflict next door in Vietnam, had failed. The Khmer Rouge was gaining territory throughout the country. Kep's brief period in the sun was over.
While travellers to Phnom Penh's Tuol Sleng museum get a sense of the sheer brutality of the Khmer Rouge, Kep's story is more subtle but no less powerful. This small town does not show the faces of the victims of the Khmer Rouge. Instead, the ruined buildings of Kep intimate a time of confidence and rich cultural aspiration that was comprehensively demolished with Pol Pot's rise.
The owners of Kep's mansions either fled Cambodia or died at the hands of the Khmer Rouge. Cambodia still reels from the impact of the Khmer Rouge genocide. The virtual annihilation of an entire class of professionals, academics, artists and leaders will take generations to heal. Their ghosts lurk in the ruins of Kep.
In this rustycompass.com Insights video, we meet with Dr Jean Michel Filippi and discover more about Cambodia's other ruins
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
中国的稀土保卫战
简 介：稀土是一种重要的战略资源，广泛应用于各个领域，尤其是电子、等涉及到军事和未来发展的重要领域。中国曾占世界稀土商品量的80%，长期以来，全球主要依赖中国出口稀土，出口国主要为日本、美国、法国等国家。由于大量出口和盲目开采，1995年起，中国的稀土储量开始大幅下降，目前储量只有全世界的30%，但出口量却占到了全球贸易量的90%以上。有专家预测，按现有的生产速度，中国的稀土储备仅能维持15到20年，未来将有可能需要进口
美歐日加速佈局稀土戰略儲備 山姆大叔重挖"稀土州"
日本媒體4月5日披露，日本正計劃向擁有豐富稀土資源的貧窮國家提供經濟援助，以換取稀土資源的穩定獲取渠道，從而為其環保汽車產業發展打下基礎。這個消息或許並不那麼吸引眼球，但卻反映出日本針對有21世紀黃金之稱的稀土資源加速實施戰略儲備佈局的現實舉措。
事實上，歐洲和美國也早已加速佈局稀土戰略儲備：歐洲在2008年已未雨綢繆，制定相關戰略原則，而美國則更是在立法及本土資源開發方面 雙管齊下，為稀有能源的儲備打下基礎。分析人士認為，在各經濟體正在迎接新一輪增長的時候，對未來全球經濟格局產生重大影響的稀土戰略儲備全球戰局正逐漸走向白熱化。
日元換稀土將全球實施
日本媒體披露，日本最早將在今年5月向南美洲的玻利維亞提供數億美元的貸款，幫助該國建立一座功率為100兆瓦的地熱發電站。日本政府提供大規模經濟援助的原因在於，這可以幫助該國在與法國、巴西等國的競爭中脫穎而出，獲得從玻利維亞進口鋰礦的合同。而根據目前探明的儲量數據，玻利維亞的烏尤尼大湖蘊藏的鋰礦規模幾乎佔據全球的50%。
鋰目前的主要用途是作為電動汽車的電池原料，這種稀有金屬也同時被用於制藥、精細化工及合金製造行業。鋻於其難以取代的重要性，有分析人士認為，日本對玻利維亞的經濟援助也不可能僅以一個項目了事。事實上，日本還將出資4.4億日元為玻利維亞首都拉巴斯的所有醫院配備太陽能儀錶盤。此外，兩國也將就建立羊駝絨紡織經濟及在玻利維亞推廣地面數字電視等項目展開闔作。
除了鋰之外，稀土概念下的其他稀有金屬，包括鑭、鈰、釹、鐠、鏑、鈧、釔等都在諸多高科技領域中有著不可替代的地位，並在諸多行業均有廣泛應用。因此，稀土被稱為未來元素，其在工業中的地位越來越重要且開採量不斷攀升。正因為如此，除南美洲的鋰礦外，日本還打算將日元換稀土的策略用到非洲和亞洲國家所富有的稀土資源。
事實上，歐洲和美國也早已加速佈局稀土戰略儲備：歐洲在2008年已未雨綢繆，制定相關戰略原則，而美國則更是在立法及本土資源開發方面 雙管齊下，為稀有能源的儲備打下基礎。分析人士認為，在各經濟體正在迎接新一輪增長的時候，對未來全球經濟格局產生重大影響的稀土戰略儲備全球戰局正逐漸走向白熱化。
日元換稀土將全球實施
日本媒體披露，日本最早將在今年5月向南美洲的玻利維亞提供數億美元的貸款，幫助該國建立一座功率為100兆瓦的地熱發電站。日本政府提供大規模經濟援助的原因在於，這可以幫助該國在與法國、巴西等國的競爭中脫穎而出，獲得從玻利維亞進口鋰礦的合同。而根據目前探明的儲量數據，玻利維亞的烏尤尼大湖蘊藏的鋰礦規模幾乎佔據全球的50%。
鋰目前的主要用途是作為電動汽車的電池原料，這種稀有金屬也同時被用於制藥、精細化工及合金製造行業。鋻於其難以取代的重要性，有分析人士認為，日本對玻利維亞的經濟援助也不可能僅以一個項目了事。事實上，日本還將出資4.4億日元為玻利維亞首都拉巴斯的所有醫院配備太陽能儀錶盤。此外，兩國也將就建立羊駝絨紡織經濟及在玻利維亞推廣地面數字電視等項目展開闔作。
除了鋰之外，稀土概念下的其他稀有金屬，包括鑭、鈰、釹、鐠、鏑、鈧、釔等都在諸多高科技領域中有著不可替代的地位，並在諸多行業均有廣泛應用。因此，稀土被稱為未來元素，其在工業中的地位越來越重要且開採量不斷攀升。正因為如此，除南美洲的鋰礦外，日本還打算將日元換稀土的策略用到非洲和亞洲國家所富有的稀土資源。
Environmentalists dirty little secret, rare earth elements
The environmentalists dirty little secret, the mining of all the rare earth elements that are required for the "green" technologies are very polluting in getting them out of the ground and into a usable state.
Recorded from Channel 4 News, 07 December 2009.
Rare Earth Elements Crisis Could End Green Energy Revolution
Rare Earth Metals aren't as widely know as oil for example. But they'll soon become pretty notorious. These minerals are essential part of almost every technological device on the market today, like cell phones, cameras, HYBRID CARS, wind turbines and even military devices.
The fact that China currently produces 97% of the world's supply, the results of exports halt will be disastrous.
Meanwhile, rare earth ore-rich USA only has several development stage companies, trying to deal with that problem:
Greenland Minerals and Energy Ltd. PINK:GDLNF
Molycorp, Inc NASDAQ:MCP
Rare Element Resources Ltd. NYSE:REE
Medallion Resources Ltd. PINK:MLLOF
Ucore Rare Metals, Inc. PINK:UURAF
While the government takes the usual stance: postpone taking precautions, until the situation becomes unbearable.
The fact that China currently produces 97% of the world's supply, the results of exports halt will be disastrous.
Meanwhile, rare earth ore-rich USA only has several development stage companies, trying to deal with that problem:
Greenland Minerals and Energy Ltd. PINK:GDLNF
Molycorp, Inc NASDAQ:MCP
Rare Element Resources Ltd. NYSE:REE
Medallion Resources Ltd. PINK:MLLOF
Ucore Rare Metals, Inc. PINK:UURAF
While the government takes the usual stance: postpone taking precautions, until the situation becomes unbearable.
《哭泣的东江》
记者第一站来到东江发源地江西省寻鸟县，在东江流经县城的河流上看见的场面可谓触目惊心：河中淤泥堆积丶杂草丛生，河水几近枯竭。当地居民对记者说，近7年当地水土开始变坏，附近山头上森林消失，取而代之的是一片片桔林，许多光山就此形成。每逢遇上天雨季节，大量的泥沙就会被冲入东江......
《哭泣的东江》第二站，记者在东江源头直击当地无序开采稀土导致山林被毁丶大兴水电站令下游水量减少的实况，采访期间遭到阻拦。环保专家表示，中国滥采稀土问题严重，造成许多天灾人祸，当局需要大力整治。（毕子默报道）
东江之行第三站记者抵达广东河源。稀土过度开发造成当地水灾连年，一些村庄整条被淹没丶村民家破人亡。当局亚运期间一度大力整治采矿业，但废置的矿场又变成了村民的致命陷阱。（毕子默报道）
广东河源市有大量矿产资源，但当地过度采矿造成的严重污染，更引发村民不时与矿主及矿工发生冲突，村民要求农作物损失赔偿及抗议，反被警方武力驱赶，有村民去年被捕仍未获释，村民指控矿主收买地方领导。（毕子默报道）
东江行第五站记者抵达广东惠州，当地工厂林立丶工业污染严重。亚运前，政府强行将一批企业搬迁，实际只是掩耳盗铃，污水却仍旧经支流流向东江。尽管水土备受污染，为了生计，怀着身孕的农民工依旧在污染的环境中打工。（毕子默报道）
廣東當局在惠州橋頭鎮興建的東江抽水工程，將東江水輸入香港。在東深引水工程現場，記者見到的是一大片浩瀚沙海﹐挖沙船正將東江河床和河岸的泥沙挖起﹐江水渾濁。有學者指﹐采沙作業不僅嚴重破壞環境生態，還會導致咸潮進而影響供水系統穩定性。（畢子默報道）
......隨著上世紀九十年代珠三角經濟起飛，石馬河沿岸的工廠和人口急速增長，石馬河水質逐漸發生了變化。當地居民回憶說，一九九五年以後，石馬河變得又黑又臭，村民們都叫它"黑龍江"。
http://www.rfa.org/cantonese/multimedia/pollution_dongjiang/special_zoon-0728...
《哭泣的东江》第二站，记者在东江源头直击当地无序开采稀土导致山林被毁丶大兴水电站令下游水量减少的实况，采访期间遭到阻拦。环保专家表示，中国滥采稀土问题严重，造成许多天灾人祸，当局需要大力整治。（毕子默报道）
东江之行第三站记者抵达广东河源。稀土过度开发造成当地水灾连年，一些村庄整条被淹没丶村民家破人亡。当局亚运期间一度大力整治采矿业，但废置的矿场又变成了村民的致命陷阱。（毕子默报道）
广东河源市有大量矿产资源，但当地过度采矿造成的严重污染，更引发村民不时与矿主及矿工发生冲突，村民要求农作物损失赔偿及抗议，反被警方武力驱赶，有村民去年被捕仍未获释，村民指控矿主收买地方领导。（毕子默报道）
东江行第五站记者抵达广东惠州，当地工厂林立丶工业污染严重。亚运前，政府强行将一批企业搬迁，实际只是掩耳盗铃，污水却仍旧经支流流向东江。尽管水土备受污染，为了生计，怀着身孕的农民工依旧在污染的环境中打工。（毕子默报道）
廣東當局在惠州橋頭鎮興建的東江抽水工程，將東江水輸入香港。在東深引水工程現場，記者見到的是一大片浩瀚沙海﹐挖沙船正將東江河床和河岸的泥沙挖起﹐江水渾濁。有學者指﹐采沙作業不僅嚴重破壞環境生態，還會導致咸潮進而影響供水系統穩定性。（畢子默報道）
......隨著上世紀九十年代珠三角經濟起飛，石馬河沿岸的工廠和人口急速增長，石馬河水質逐漸發生了變化。當地居民回憶說，一九九五年以後，石馬河變得又黑又臭，村民們都叫它"黑龍江"。
http://www.rfa.org/cantonese/multimedia/pollution_dongjiang/special_zoon-0728...
Monday, February 20, 2012
China's rising global role - American view
China's rising global role, increasing assertiveness and upcoming leadership transition may pose significant challenges for the next U.S. president, says Elizabeth C. Economy, CFR's C.V. Starr Senior Fellow and Director for Asia Studies. "China is increasingly shaping the world in which we live," Economy says. As a result, U.S.-China relations will no longer be focused exclusively on trade, Taiwan, and human rights. The next president will have to work with China on "virtually every global challenge," she says, including Iran, North Korea, global financial regulation, and climate change.
U.S. officials will have to take account of China's newly assertive posture, regionally and globally, she says. "China's leaders no longer simply want to export their goods and services; they want to export their culture, their values, and ideals," Economy says. "And the next president of the United States is going to have to think about how to deal with not an emerging power, but a global power."
This video is part of Campaign 2012, a series of video briefings on the top foreign policy issues debated in the run-up to the 2012 elections.
http://www.cfr.org/us-election-2012/campaign-2012-china/p27052
Friday, February 17, 2012
Who will replace World Bank president?
Do you know in theory Asian or Non -USA sponsored person cannot be a President of World Bank.
The World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes. The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty. According to the World Bank's Articles of Agreement (As amended effective 16 February 1989) all of its decisions must be guided by a commitment to promote foreign investment, international trade and facilitate capital investment.
The World Bank comprises only two institutions: the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA), whereas the latter incorporates these two in addition to three more: International Finance Corporation (IFC), Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), and International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).
The World Bank is one of five institutions created at the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944. The other financial institution is The International Monetary Fund(IMF), a related institution. Delegates from many countries attended the Bretton Woods Conference, and the most powerful countries in attendance were the United States and United Kingdom, which dominated negotiations. Although both are based in Washington, D.C.(USA), the World Bank is, by custom, headed by an American, while the IMF is led by a European.
The President of the Bank, currently Robert B. Zoellick, is responsible for chairing the meetings of the Boards of Directors and for overall management of the Bank. Traditionally, the Bank President has always been a US citizen nominated by the United States, the largest shareholder in the bank. The nominee is subject to confirmation by the Board of Executive Directors, to serve for a five-year, renewable term.
The Executive Directors, representing the Bank's member countries, make up the Board of Directors, usually meeting twice a week to oversee activities such as the approval of loans and guarantees, new policies, the administrative budget, country assistance strategies and borrowing and financing decisions.
The Vice Presidents of the Bank are its principal managers, in charge of regions, sectors, networks and functions. There are 24 Vice-Presidents, three Senior Vice Presidents and two Executive Vice Presidents.
One of the strongest criticisms of the World Bank has been the way in which it is governed. While the World Bank represents 186 countries, it is run by a small number of economically powerful countries. These countries choose the leadership and senior management of the World Bank, and so their interests dominate the bank.
Criteria to be President of World Bank
World Bank President Robert Zoellick said he will step down on 30th June 2012 and Washington pledged to name a replacement candidate within weeks for a job that has always gone to an American.
Under the Bank’s Articles, the President of the World Bank is chief of the operating staff of the Bank and conducts, under the direction of the Executive Directors, the ordinary business of the Bank. The President is also responsible for the organization, appointment and dismissal of the officers and staff, subject to the general control of the Executive Directors. The President, officers and staff of the Bank, in the discharge of their offices, owe their duty entirely to the Bank and to no other authority.
The President of the World Bank is ex officio chair of the Board of the Executive Directors of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA). The President is also ex officio chair of the Board of Directors of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), and the Administrative Council of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). (source: world Bank)
In 2011, the Board of Executive Directors approved the process for selection of the President. It reconfirmed the importance of a merit-based and transparent process with all Executive Directors able to nominate and then consider all candidates
The Executive Directors agreed that candidates should meet the following criteria:
• a proven track record of leadership;
• experience of managing large organizations with international exposure, and a familiarity with the public sector;
• the ability to articulate a clear vision of the World Bank Group’s development mission;
• a firm commitment to and appreciation for multilateral cooperation; and,
• effective and diplomatic communication skills, impartiality and objectivity in the performance of the responsibilities of the position.
(source: world Bank)
Emerging market and developing countries have campaigned hard in recent years to break Europe's grip on the top position at the International Monetary Fund and the United States' hold on the presidency of the World Bank.
Officials from large emerging economies like Brazil said on Wednesday the selection process for Zoellick's successor should be based on qualifications and not nationality.
"There is no reason for the president of the World Bank to have a specific nationality," Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega told reporters in Brasilia.
The Obama administration said it would open the process to competition, marking the first time it has shown willingness to loosen its grip on the world's top development lender.
Zoellick took the reins at the Bank in 2007 after a staff revolt pushed out Paul Wolfowitz, and he moved quickly to return the institution's focus to alleviating poverty.
Developing countries have for years pressed for a greater voice in leading global financial institutions and are likely to stress the importance of a competitive process, but the United States is still widely expected to retain its hold on the job.
(source: yahoo news)
For your information in global politic, there was no democratic right. The rich and powerful determine the global games, including world financial institution.
There was a informal agreement:
Although the president is formally appointed by the bank's member nations, a decades-old agreement - which also allows major European powers to choose the head of the IMF - gives the United States the role of naming the World Bank chief.
Look at the voting power of the member countries as reported by wikipedia;
n 2010, voting powers at the World Bank were revised to increase the voice of developing countries, notably China. The countries with most voting power are now the United States (15.85%), Japan (6.84%), China (4.42%), Germany (4.00%), the United Kingdom (3.75%), France (3.75%), India (2.91%), Russia (2.77%), Saudi Arabia (2.77%) and Italy (2.64%). Under the changes, known as 'Voice Reform – Phase 2', countries other than China that saw significant gains included South Korea, Turkey, Mexico, Singapore, Greece, Brazil, India, and Spain. Most developed countries' voting power was reduced, along with a few poor countries such as Nigeria. The voting powers of the United States, Russia and Saudi Arabia were unchanged.
USA has 15.85% of voting power, the largest voting power. Japan is the next country with the largest voting power, 6.84%. USA is the majority. World Bank is controlled by the largest of the donor countries – such as the United States and Japan. They own the largest share of the organization, and therefore have the most votes. Is USA the main donor country now?....
Is it democracy that the western democracy advocate nations practices all this while. How about the chances of Asian, African and South American to hold the post for the world organization? No wonder USA had been manipulated the world financial system all this while in the past.....nobody able to challenge what is their views in the global financial system....
There was discrimination in world body, where no open competition for the world financial top post, a monopoly by USA and its European allies, for IMF and World Bank top post....
Where is the human right?.....another hypocrisy of the democracy and human right advocates of western world... not the fittest person(best person) that lead the world financial institution. It must be an American or European. A mockery on the free competition, non-discrimination, anti-monopoly,human right, democracy, that they advocate....
The next President of the world bank is going to be another USA candidate, despite their dismay of the Wall Street, New York and the poor financial performance of USA....can they able to take the world financial body to the next era?....or just merely to serve their country(USA)'s financial interest, that is to solve their current financial problems... there will be conflict of interest without element of independence. How about the interest of other countries, who have suffered from their Wall Street disaster?.....
Is there fair and equal opportunity in the world body for all capable candidates from other member countries to be the President of World Bank? Is there candidates from countries with better financial performance than USA, who are better person than candidate from USA?. The best person should be the one selected by the member countries for the top job of World Bank, USA or Non-USA countries, there should not be monopoly and discrimination.
World Bank is set up to provide fund for the world's poorest countries, but due to the informal discriminatory agreement of President appointment, a non-democratic appointment, will it be that World Bank ultimately only serving the interest of rich nations? Some analysis shows that the World Bank has increased poverty and been detrimental to the environment, public health and cultural diversity. Some critics also claim that the World Bank has consistently pushed a neoliberal agenda, imposing policies on developing countries which have been damaging, destructive and anti-developmental(source: wikipedia). Because the President of World Bank will need to also serve the needs of USA's global strategy and national interest, there will be conflict of interest and lost the element of independence as a President of world financial institution. He is USA nominated President, may not be the actual person nominated by the majority, non-American member countries, especially the poor countries who their helps are urgently needed.
I was just ponder, and will USA appointed President without free competition for the best man select for the top job, lead us to another financial disaster?....
Further readings:
1. World Bank Official website, http://www.worldbank.org/
2. World Bank President Zoellick to Step Down June 30th,
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:23118403~pagePK:64257043~piPK:437376~theSitePK:4607,00.html
3. Selection of the President of the World Bank Group,
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:23120984~pagePK:64257043~piPK:437376~theSitePK:4607,00.html
The World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes. The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty. According to the World Bank's Articles of Agreement (As amended effective 16 February 1989) all of its decisions must be guided by a commitment to promote foreign investment, international trade and facilitate capital investment.
The World Bank comprises only two institutions: the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA), whereas the latter incorporates these two in addition to three more: International Finance Corporation (IFC), Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), and International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).
The World Bank is one of five institutions created at the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944. The other financial institution is The International Monetary Fund(IMF), a related institution. Delegates from many countries attended the Bretton Woods Conference, and the most powerful countries in attendance were the United States and United Kingdom, which dominated negotiations. Although both are based in Washington, D.C.(USA), the World Bank is, by custom, headed by an American, while the IMF is led by a European.
The President of the Bank, currently Robert B. Zoellick, is responsible for chairing the meetings of the Boards of Directors and for overall management of the Bank. Traditionally, the Bank President has always been a US citizen nominated by the United States, the largest shareholder in the bank. The nominee is subject to confirmation by the Board of Executive Directors, to serve for a five-year, renewable term.
The Executive Directors, representing the Bank's member countries, make up the Board of Directors, usually meeting twice a week to oversee activities such as the approval of loans and guarantees, new policies, the administrative budget, country assistance strategies and borrowing and financing decisions.
The Vice Presidents of the Bank are its principal managers, in charge of regions, sectors, networks and functions. There are 24 Vice-Presidents, three Senior Vice Presidents and two Executive Vice Presidents.
One of the strongest criticisms of the World Bank has been the way in which it is governed. While the World Bank represents 186 countries, it is run by a small number of economically powerful countries. These countries choose the leadership and senior management of the World Bank, and so their interests dominate the bank.
Criteria to be President of World Bank
World Bank President Robert Zoellick said he will step down on 30th June 2012 and Washington pledged to name a replacement candidate within weeks for a job that has always gone to an American.
Under the Bank’s Articles, the President of the World Bank is chief of the operating staff of the Bank and conducts, under the direction of the Executive Directors, the ordinary business of the Bank. The President is also responsible for the organization, appointment and dismissal of the officers and staff, subject to the general control of the Executive Directors. The President, officers and staff of the Bank, in the discharge of their offices, owe their duty entirely to the Bank and to no other authority.
The President of the World Bank is ex officio chair of the Board of the Executive Directors of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA). The President is also ex officio chair of the Board of Directors of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), and the Administrative Council of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). (source: world Bank)
In 2011, the Board of Executive Directors approved the process for selection of the President. It reconfirmed the importance of a merit-based and transparent process with all Executive Directors able to nominate and then consider all candidates
The Executive Directors agreed that candidates should meet the following criteria:
• a proven track record of leadership;
• experience of managing large organizations with international exposure, and a familiarity with the public sector;
• the ability to articulate a clear vision of the World Bank Group’s development mission;
• a firm commitment to and appreciation for multilateral cooperation; and,
• effective and diplomatic communication skills, impartiality and objectivity in the performance of the responsibilities of the position.
(source: world Bank)
Emerging market and developing countries have campaigned hard in recent years to break Europe's grip on the top position at the International Monetary Fund and the United States' hold on the presidency of the World Bank.
Officials from large emerging economies like Brazil said on Wednesday the selection process for Zoellick's successor should be based on qualifications and not nationality.
"There is no reason for the president of the World Bank to have a specific nationality," Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega told reporters in Brasilia.
The Obama administration said it would open the process to competition, marking the first time it has shown willingness to loosen its grip on the world's top development lender.
Zoellick took the reins at the Bank in 2007 after a staff revolt pushed out Paul Wolfowitz, and he moved quickly to return the institution's focus to alleviating poverty.
Developing countries have for years pressed for a greater voice in leading global financial institutions and are likely to stress the importance of a competitive process, but the United States is still widely expected to retain its hold on the job.
(source: yahoo news)
For your information in global politic, there was no democratic right. The rich and powerful determine the global games, including world financial institution.
There was a informal agreement:
Although the president is formally appointed by the bank's member nations, a decades-old agreement - which also allows major European powers to choose the head of the IMF - gives the United States the role of naming the World Bank chief.
Look at the voting power of the member countries as reported by wikipedia;
n 2010, voting powers at the World Bank were revised to increase the voice of developing countries, notably China. The countries with most voting power are now the United States (15.85%), Japan (6.84%), China (4.42%), Germany (4.00%), the United Kingdom (3.75%), France (3.75%), India (2.91%), Russia (2.77%), Saudi Arabia (2.77%) and Italy (2.64%). Under the changes, known as 'Voice Reform – Phase 2', countries other than China that saw significant gains included South Korea, Turkey, Mexico, Singapore, Greece, Brazil, India, and Spain. Most developed countries' voting power was reduced, along with a few poor countries such as Nigeria. The voting powers of the United States, Russia and Saudi Arabia were unchanged.
USA has 15.85% of voting power, the largest voting power. Japan is the next country with the largest voting power, 6.84%. USA is the majority. World Bank is controlled by the largest of the donor countries – such as the United States and Japan. They own the largest share of the organization, and therefore have the most votes. Is USA the main donor country now?....
Is it democracy that the western democracy advocate nations practices all this while. How about the chances of Asian, African and South American to hold the post for the world organization? No wonder USA had been manipulated the world financial system all this while in the past.....nobody able to challenge what is their views in the global financial system....
There was discrimination in world body, where no open competition for the world financial top post, a monopoly by USA and its European allies, for IMF and World Bank top post....
Where is the human right?.....another hypocrisy of the democracy and human right advocates of western world... not the fittest person(best person) that lead the world financial institution. It must be an American or European. A mockery on the free competition, non-discrimination, anti-monopoly,human right, democracy, that they advocate....
The next President of the world bank is going to be another USA candidate, despite their dismay of the Wall Street, New York and the poor financial performance of USA....can they able to take the world financial body to the next era?....or just merely to serve their country(USA)'s financial interest, that is to solve their current financial problems... there will be conflict of interest without element of independence. How about the interest of other countries, who have suffered from their Wall Street disaster?.....
Is there fair and equal opportunity in the world body for all capable candidates from other member countries to be the President of World Bank? Is there candidates from countries with better financial performance than USA, who are better person than candidate from USA?. The best person should be the one selected by the member countries for the top job of World Bank, USA or Non-USA countries, there should not be monopoly and discrimination.
World Bank is set up to provide fund for the world's poorest countries, but due to the informal discriminatory agreement of President appointment, a non-democratic appointment, will it be that World Bank ultimately only serving the interest of rich nations? Some analysis shows that the World Bank has increased poverty and been detrimental to the environment, public health and cultural diversity. Some critics also claim that the World Bank has consistently pushed a neoliberal agenda, imposing policies on developing countries which have been damaging, destructive and anti-developmental(source: wikipedia). Because the President of World Bank will need to also serve the needs of USA's global strategy and national interest, there will be conflict of interest and lost the element of independence as a President of world financial institution. He is USA nominated President, may not be the actual person nominated by the majority, non-American member countries, especially the poor countries who their helps are urgently needed.
I was just ponder, and will USA appointed President without free competition for the best man select for the top job, lead us to another financial disaster?....
Further readings:
1. World Bank Official website, http://www.worldbank.org/
2. World Bank President Zoellick to Step Down June 30th,
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:23118403~pagePK:64257043~piPK:437376~theSitePK:4607,00.html
3. Selection of the President of the World Bank Group,
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:23120984~pagePK:64257043~piPK:437376~theSitePK:4607,00.html
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Qufu (曲阜) - 孔子故里 -
Qufu(曲阜), the home of Confucious(孔子故里) -
Confucius(Chinese: 孔子/孔夫子), literally "Master Kong",(traditionally b 28 September 551 BC – d 479 BC)was a Chinese thinker and social philosopher of the Spring and Autumn Period.
The philosophy of Confucius emphasized personal and governmental morality, correctness of social relationships, justice and sincerity. These values gained prominence in China over other doctrines, such as Legalism (法家) or Taoism (道家) during the Han Dynasty(206 BC – AD 220). Confucius' thoughts have been developed into a system of philosophy known as Confucianism (儒家).
Confucius was born in 551 BC, in the Spring and Autumn Period, at the beginning of the Hundred Schools of Thought philosophical movement. Confucius was born in or near the city of Qufu (曲阜), in the Chinese State of Lu (魯) (now part of Shandong Province).
Confucius(Chinese: 孔子/孔夫子), literally "Master Kong",(traditionally b 28 September 551 BC – d 479 BC)was a Chinese thinker and social philosopher of the Spring and Autumn Period.
The philosophy of Confucius emphasized personal and governmental morality, correctness of social relationships, justice and sincerity. These values gained prominence in China over other doctrines, such as Legalism (法家) or Taoism (道家) during the Han Dynasty(206 BC – AD 220). Confucius' thoughts have been developed into a system of philosophy known as Confucianism (儒家).
Confucius was born in 551 BC, in the Spring and Autumn Period, at the beginning of the Hundred Schools of Thought philosophical movement. Confucius was born in or near the city of Qufu (曲阜), in the Chinese State of Lu (魯) (now part of Shandong Province).
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Ho Chi Minh in Thailand & Lai Teik in Malaya
Do you know Ho Chi Minh had been to Thailand and Malaysia?...as a representative of the Comintern in Southeast Asia.
Ho Chi Minh had many names and aliases
Ho's given name at birth was Nguyen Tat Thanh. He also had another name - Nguyen Van Ba. Ho used this name when he worked as a steward in a ship, the La Touche Treville, on his overseas trip from Saigon to Marseilles, France. He changed back to Nguyen Tat Thanh after his arrival in France. Ho has been known by many aliases. His first alias, second well-known after Ho Chi Minh, was Nguyen Ai Quoc. Ho dropped the name Nguyen Ai Quoc after betraying Phan Boi Chau's whereabouts to the French authorities for Hong Kong $10,000. Phan Boi Chau was an independent fighter against the French. He was known as Lý Thuy in China. Ho also had ten other aliases such as: Ly Thuy, Vuong, Tran, etc. However, those names were not very well-known.
Ho Chi Minh or Nguyễn Sinh Cung was born in 1890 in Hoàng Trù Village, Nam Dan district, Nghe An Province,Vietnam( it was called Annam), his mother(Hoang Thi Loan,1868–1901)’s hometown. His father is Nguyen Sinh Sac. His name was later changed to Nguyen tat Thanh on his tenth birthday. From 1895, he grew up in his paternal hometown of Kim Liên Village, Nam Đàn District, Nghệ An Province, Vietnam. He had three siblings: his sister Bạch Liên (or Nguyễn Thị Thanh), a clerk in the French Army; his brother Nguyễn Sinh Khiêm (or Nguyễn Tất Đạt), a geomancer and traditional herbalist; and another brother (Nguyễn Sinh Nhuận) who died in his infancy. As a young child, Nguyễn studied with his father before more formal classes with a scholar named Vuong Thuc Do. Nguyễn quickly mastered Chinese writing, a requisite for any serious study of Confucianism, while honing his colloquial Vietnamese writing. In addition to his studious endeavors, he was fond of adventure, loved to fly kites and go fishing. Following Confucian tradition, at the age of 10, his father gave him a new name: Nguyễn Tất Thành, “Nguyễn the Accomplished”.
Nguyễn’s father, Nguyễn Sinh Sắc, was a Confucian scholar, a teacher on a small scale, and later an imperial magistrate in the small remote district of Binh Khe (Qui Nhơn). He was demoted for abuse of power after an influential local figure died several days after receiving 100 strokes of the cane as punishment. In deference to his father, Nguyễn received a French education, attended lycée in Huế, the alma mater of his later disciples, Phạm Văn Đồng and Võ Nguyên Giáp. He later left his studies and chose to teach at Dục Thanh school in Phan Thiết.
In 1911, Nguyen went to Saigon. He applied to a school to learn to be a mechanic, in order to get in touch with modern technology. He didn't stay long, Nguyen decided to go to France to see the new world. At the age of 21, Nguyen Tat Thanh left Vietnam for 10 years, and changed his name again to Van Ba.
USA 1912-1913
In 1912, working as the cook’s helper on a French steamer, Nguyễn traveled to the United States. From 1912 to 1913, he lived in New York (Harlem) and Boston, where he worked as a baker at the Parker House Hotel(now Omni Parker House Hotel, Boston). Among a series of menial jobs, he also has claimed to have worked for a wealthy family in Brooklyn between 1917 and 1918 and for General Motors as a line manager. It is believed that, while in the United States, he made contact with Korean nationalists, an experience that developed his political outlook.
England 1913-1919
At various points between 1913 and 1919, Nguyễn lived in West Ealing, west London, and later in Crouch End, Hornsey, north London. He is reported to have worked as a cleaner and dishwasher in the kitchen at the Drayton Court Hotel in 1914, on The Avenue, West Ealing. It is claimed that Nguyễn trained as a pastry chef under the legendary French master, Escoffier, at the Carlton Hotel in the Haymarket, Westminster, but there is no evidence to support this. However, the wall of New Zealand House, home of the New Zealand High Commission, which now stands on the site of the Carlton Hotel, displays a blue plaque, stating that Nguyễn worked there in 1913 as a waiter. Nguyễn was also a regular visitor to Chelsea FC during his stay in West London.
France 1919-1923
From 1919–1923, while living in France, Nguyễn Sinh Cung began to approach the idea of communism, through his friend and Socialist Party of France comrade Marcel Cachin(1869-1958). Cung claimed to have arrived in Paris from London in 1917, but French police only have documents of his arrival in June 1919.
Ho Chi Minh,was living in Paris and working as a kitchen assistant at the Hotel Ritz, Paris.
1919
Following World War I, The Paris Peace Conference opened on 18 January 1919 and ended on 21 January 1920 with the inaugural General Assembly of the League of Nations. It took place in Paris and involved diplomats from more than 32 countries and nationalities, including U.S. President Thomas Woodrow Wilson who stayed in Paris for 6 months. Under the name of Nguyễn Ái Quốc (“Nguyễn the Patriot”),Ho Chi Minh petitioned for recognition of the civil rights of the Vietnamese people in French Indochina to the Western powers at the Versailles Peace Conference, but was ignored. Citing the language and the spirit of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, Nguyễn petitioned U.S. President Thomas Woodrow Wilson for help to remove the French from Vietnam and replace them with a new, nationalist government. While he was unable to obtain consideration at Versailles, the failed effort had the effect of further radicalizing Nguyễn, while at the same time making him a national hero of the anti-colonial movement at home in Vietnam. President Thomas Woodrow Wilson, a strong advocate for League of Nations,was awarded the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize. Nguyễn Ái Quốc become a communist, and started Indo-China War against France and later Vietnam War with USA...
1920
The Tours Congress was the 18th National Congress of the French Section of the Workers' International, or SFIO, which took place in Tours on 25—30 December 1920. During the Congress, the majority voted to join the communist Third International and create the French Section of the Communist International(SFIC), which became the Parti Communiste Français (French Communist Party)(PCF)in 1921. Nguyen Ai Quoc, was present at the congress and made a speech decrying the exploitation of the French colonies, and supporting the proposal to join the Third International. Nguyễn Ái Quốc, together with his friend Marcel Cachin(1869-1958), they become the founding member of the Parti Communiste Français (French Communist Party)(PCF).
In May 1922, Nguyễn wrote an article for a French magazine criticizing the use of English words by French sportswriters. The article implores Prime Minister Raymond Poincaré to outlaw such Franglais as le manager, le round and le knock-out. While living in Paris, he had a relationship with dressmaker Marie Brière
Moscow 1923-1924
In 1923, Nguyễn left Paris for Moscow, where he was employed by the Comintern(Communist International) or Third International(1919–1943), studied at the Communist University of the Toilers of the East. He participated in the Fifth Comintern Congress held at Moscow from June 17 - July 8, 1924, and also urged the Comintern to actively promote revolution in Asia.
China 1924-1927
Arrived in Canton (present-day Guangzhou), China, in November 1924. Not initially having any official role, he quickly made contacts, including with Mikhail Borodin, the Comintern representative to Sun Yat-sen's government. There is little evidence for his being a deputy of Borodin. He was also however representative of Peasant International. He went to work at the Soviet news agency in Guangzhou, also working on the formation of a Vietnamese revolutionary party, and education of Vietnamese elites in Marxism-Leninism. His pseudonym of the time was Ly Thuy.
In June 1925, Hoàng Văn Chí said that Nguyễn had betrayed Phan Bội Châu, the head of a rival revolutionary faction, to French police in Shanghai for 100,000 piastres. Nguyễn later claimed that he did this because he expected Chau’s trial to stir up anti-French resentment and because he needed the money to establish a communist organization. But in Ho Chi Minh: A life, Duikers denied this hypothesis. Other sources claim that Nguyen Thuong Hien was responsible for Chau's capture. Châu never denounced Nguyễn.
During 1925-26 he organized 'Youth Education Classes' and occasionally gave lectures at the Whampoa Military Academy on the revolutionary movement in Indochina. Ho had also arranged for some members of the Revolutionary Youth League to attend China's Whampoa Military Academy. After Sun Yat-Sen's death in March 1925, Chiang Kai-Shek took power, and initially cooperated with the Communists but later arrested Soviet advisors at the Whampoa Military Academy in March 1926. Borodin accepted a reduced Communist role in the KMT when its Executive Committee met in May.
According to Duiker, he lived with and married a Chinese woman, Tăng Tuyết Minh (曾雪明, Zeng Xueming), on 18 October 1926. When his comrades objected to the match, he told them, “I will get married despite your disapproval because I need a woman to teach me the language and keep house.” She was 21 and he was 36. They married in the same place where Zhou Enlai had married earlier and then lived together at the residence of Comintern agent Mikhail Borodin
In 1927 the communists were expelled from Guangzhou in April, following a coup by Chinese Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek. Ho left Canton again in April 1927 and fled to Hong Kong in May. Pursued by British authorities, he went to Soviet Far East headquarters in Vladivostok, and then moved to Moscow. The initial plan was for him to move to Siam as a base for organizing Indochinese Communism, but, instead, spent time in various European cities.
Moscow & Paris 1927
Ho spent some of the summer of 1927 recuperating from tuberculosis in the Crimea, before returning to Paris once more in November.
Thailand 1928 -1929
In 1928, he traveled to Brussels and Paris, then Siam (now Thailand), where he spent two years as a representative of the Comintern in Southeast Asia(replacing Tan Malaka). Ho Chi Minh was later appointed to head the Communist International's Southeast Asia branch and he served as Moscow's agent in this capacity from March 1930 to June 1931. His followers remained in South China.
He then returned to Asia by way of Brussels, Berlin, Switzerland, and Italy, from where he took a ship to Bangkok, Thailand, where he arrived in July 1928. Assuming the identity Father Chin, he moved to northern Siam late in the year; the French lost track of him. On 29 October 1929, the Imperial Court in Vinh (Nghe An Province, Annam) sentenced Nguyen Ai Quoc (Ho Chi Minh) sentenced him in absentia to death, for plotting revolution in Annam.
He remained in Thailand, Ho Chi Minh resided at Ban Nachok, a small village on the road between the airbase and Nakhon Phanom. This place has high concentration of Vietnamese, especially Catholic. Both his home and a new modern museum are now open to the public. Nakhon Phanom (Thai: นครพนม) is one of the north-eastern provinces (changwat) of Thailand. Neighboring provinces are (from south clockwise) Mukdahan, Sakon Nakhon and Bueng Kan. To the north-east it borders Khammouan of Laos. Ho Chi Mihn Museum tells us that Uncle Ho arrived at the house in 1923 and stayed for 7 years until 1931. However all biographies of Ho Chi Mihn say he only lived in the village between 1928 and 1929, which is more reliable fit to historical events, as Ho was actively involved in formation of CPV and MCP only in early 1930.
Ho Chi Minh departed from Canton in April or May 1927 and was incommunicado with the Vietnamese movement. The Central Committee of Thanh Nien called a National Congress of the organization, slated to begin on May Day of 1929. This gathering, held 1–9 May 1929 and attended by 17 delegates from each of the three main administrative districts of Vietnam, plus Hong Kong and Siam, would prove the occasion for a split between those who placed primary emphasis on the so-called "national question" (independence from colonialism) and those who sought a more radical movement placing emphasis on social revolution. Ho Chi Minh was not in attendance, still missing from the scene.
The end of 1929, he went to China. He changed his name to Sung Man Cho(宋文初). In December 1929, he went to Hong Kong and stayed as representative of the Communist International.
In an October 27 message, the Comintern, asked Ho, then in Siam, to bring the three groups together in a Hong Kong meeting. Ho Chi Minh, back in direct activity in the Vietnamese movement, was responsible for brokering the peace between the warring factions as well as writing the initial manifesto and statement of tactics of the group. The two warring offspring of Thanh Nien(Vietnamese Revolutionary Youth Association)established by Nguyen Sinh Cung(Ho Chi Minh)in 1925, joined with individual members of a third Marxist group founded by Phan Boi Chau at a "Unification Conference" held in Hong Kong from 3–7 February 1930. The new party was named the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV). It was formed on 3 February 1930. Ho presided over the formation of the Vietnamese Communist Party (Viet Nam Cong San Dang). At the Comintern's request, the name was changed later that year at the first Party Plenum to the Indochinese Communist Party, thus reclaiming the name of the first party of that named founded in 1929. A Comintern representative, however, told that none of the Vietnamese organizations would be recognized until the Comintern decided they were unified. Until then, the Chinese Communist Party would direct the Vietnamese groups. Finally, the Indochinese Communist Party was recognized on February 18, 1930.
In 1922 the CCP opened a clandestine office in Singapore which sowed the seed for the South Seas Communist Party (or Nanyang Communist Party). This party was mainly active in the Dutch East Indies and French Indo-China. In Singapore its work centred on the trades unions. After their 1925 uprising failed, many Indonesian Communists took refuge in Singapore, and engaged in political work there under the auspices of the Third Communist International. (Note: Communist Party of Indonesia is the oldest in Asia, formed in 1920, Tan Malaka was the first representative of Comintern in South East Asia in 1923). In 1925, the South Seas Communist Party was formed out of CPC exile units in South-East Asia. SSCP functioned as a preliminary organization before national CPs were formed. The Singapore-based South Seas Communist Party, was organized in 1928, was concerned with establishing communism among the overseas Chinese, including those living in Thailand. Through its efforts, the first Communist Party in Thailand was formed in 1929. But until the mid-1930's, Communist activities were generally confined to discussions of ideology and organization. The period in Thailad, Ho was not active in helping to organize national Communist Parties in South East Asia until 1930, not even Thai communism. He only concentrate on Vietnamese movement.
On 30th April 1930, Ho Chi Minh traveled from Singapore to Malaya as representative of Comintern, attended the formation of Communist Party of Malaya(CPM)in the rubber estate in Johore. The South Seas Communist Party was dissolved and replaced by the newly formed Communist Party of Malaya. He left for Singapore immediately after the ceremony.
Hong Kong(1929-1933)
In June 1931 Ho was arrested in Hong Kong by British police and remained in prison until his release in 1933. This resulted in one of the leading case in Hong Kong,Sung Man Cho Vs. The Superintendent of Prisons. Ho Chi Minh’s habeas corpus case was tried in Hong Kong Supreme Court and appealed to the Privy Councel, the highest court in the British Empire. Habeas corpus, an ancient and fundamental principle of British law, is a prerogative writ used to challenge the validity of a person’s detention either in official custody (e.g when held pending a deportation or extradition) or in private hands.
In June 1931, Ho Chi Minh travelled to Hong Kong to attend a meeting for leftist patriots. Tipped off by the French, on June 6, 1931, the British authorities in Hong Kong arrested Ho Chi Minh, whom they planned to deport on a French ship. That deportation would have assured Ho Chi Minh's death. A legal battle followed, with British lawyer Francis Loseby(1883-1967) representing Ho, who claimed he was a Chinese national, Sung Man Cho(宋文初). The prominent coverage in Hong Kong's English-language press of the case Sung Man Cho Vs. The Superintendent of Prisons, because it challenged the power of the British Hong Kong governor. British authorities never realized they had captured a Comintern (Communist International) revolutionary actively organizing in one of their own colonies, Malaysia. Ho Chi Minh lost his case in the Hong Kong Supreme Court. The Hong Kong governor was about to deport Ho Chi Minh to French Indochina on a French ship – essentially a death sentence. Ho Chi Minh's lawyers appealed on his behalf to the Privy Council, the British Empire's highest court. Two London lawyers – Denis Noel Pritt (1887-1972) for Ho Chi Minh and Sir Stafford Cripps (1889-1952) for the Crown – settled the case out of court in summer of 1932.
Nguyen Ai Quoc, with the help of British solicitor Francis Loseby(1883-1967), masqueraded as a wealthy Chinese merchant before boarding a boat leaving Hong Kong for Vladivostok. Francis Loseby came to Ho Chi Minh's aid. He disguised Ho Chi Minh in a wealthy Chinese merchant's brocade gown and turban. Loseby's Chinese law clerk posed as a secretary for the "distinguished merchant." On January 22, 1933, after Ho Chi Minh's ship had left Hong Kong Harbour, the assistant superintendent of the Hong Kong Police accompanied two "belated passengers" by private launch to their reserved, first-class cabin. The two "merchants" arrived in Port Xiamen (Amoy) in time to enjoy Tet (Lunar New Year) 1933, the Year of the Water Rooster. From there, Ho Chi Minh traveled on to Vladivostok and then to Moscow. Francis Loseby, the British solicitor, and Denis Noel Pritt, the British barrister, both together had saved Ho Chi Minh's life in Hong Kong...not forgetting Sir Stafford Cripps – a socialist, a member of the leftist Fabian Society, an activist for Indian independence, and the opposing lawyer who represented the British Empire, without him an out of court settlement will be difficult....through them, a new history for Vietnam was created ....
Moscow, 1933-1938
To reduce French pressure for extradition, it was announced in 1932 that Nguyễn Ái Quốc had died. The British quietly released him in January 1933.
He then made his way back to Milan, Italy, where he served in a restaurant, Trattoria della Pesa restaurant. The restaurant is now a traditional Lombard-cuisine temple and harbors a portrait of Ho Chi Minh on the wall of its main dining hall. He then moved to the Soviet Union, where he spent several more years recovering from tuberculosis. Ho spent much of the years studying and teaching at the Lenin Institute, Moscow.
He begin to use Ho Chih Minh as his name
In 1938, he returned to China,reported together with General Ye Jianying(叶剑英) and served as an adviser with Chinese Communist armed forces, which later forced China’s government to the island of Taiwan. From 1938, Nguyễn Ái Quốc began regularly using the name "Hồ Chí Minh", a Vietnamese name combining a common Vietnamese surname (Hồ, 胡) with a given name meaning "enlightened will" (from Sino-Vietnamese 志明; Chí meaning 'will' (or spirit), and Minh meaning 'light'). Some scholar suspected that the name was for remembrance of his Chinese wife, Zeng Xueming(曾雪明). Noted the similar character Ming/Minh(明), Chih Minh(志明), the will to remember Ming(Zeng Xueming). Ho Chi Minh is a Chinese name, not a typical Vietnamese name.
In January 1941, Ho entered Vietnam for the first time in 30 years and organized the Vietnam Doc Lap Dong Minh Hoi (League for the Independence of Vietnam), or Viet Minh. A liberation zone was established near the border with China, from which the Viet Minh worked to muster the discontent of urban nationalists and the rural poor into a unified movement for the liberation of Vietnam.
While in southern China (1942) to meet with Zhou Enlai and Chinese Communist Party officials, Ho was arrested on 27-8-1942 in Guangxi by the Chinese nationalist government of Chiang Kai-sheh and imprisoned for two years. He was released in Sept 1943 in Liuzhou(柳州), Guangxi. In September 1944 Ho was allowed to return to Vietnam with a guerrilla force of 18 men trained and armed by the Chinese.
(1942年胡志明去重庆会见蒋介石与周恩来途径广西时被国民党逮捕，关押监禁一年有余。从胡志明投身革命起，一生中的很多时间都在中国参与中国革命亦在中国指导国内的独立革命解放运动，反法、抗日及抗美斗争。他本名阮必成，曾用名阿三。为了革命斗争的需要，从1918年起他先后使用化名，笔名阮爱国、李瑞（Lý Thuy）、王达人、宋文初、胡光、平山等名字，直到1942年8月27日胡志明在中国广西德保县被国民党逮捕前才正式使用“胡志明”这个后半生不再改变的名字。1943 年9 月，胡志明在广西柳州恢复了自由，1944 年9 月，又经广西中越边境回到越南)
Ho Chi Minh led the Việt Minh independence movement from 1941 onward, establishing the communist-governed Democratic Republic of Vietnam in 1945 and defeating the French Union in 1954 at Điện Biên Phủ. He officially stepped down from power in 1955 due to his health, but remained to be a highly visible figurehead and inspiration for Vietnamese fighting for his cause — a united, independent Vietnam — until his death. Saigon, the capital of Republic of Vietnam, after the war, was renamed Ho Chi Minh City in his honor.
(source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ho_Chi_Minh with some changes)
Some authors were amazed at the multiple personality of Ho Chi Minh, and suspected there may be two personality for historical Ho Chih Minh. This added more mystery to the historical figure.
A Taiwan scholar said that from 1890-1932, Ho Chi Minh was Vietnamese communist Nguyen Ai Quoc(阮愛國), but he died in 1933. From 1933-1969, he was Taiwanese communist Wu Chee Chang(胡集璋).
From the personality of Ho Chi Minh, I remember Lai Teck of MCP. He was also agent of Comintern. He also used multiple names, Lai Tek, Loi Tak, Lee Soong,Wong Kim Geok, Chang Hung, and Mr. Wrigh. He was also having multiple personality. His background was also a mystery, similar to Ho Chi Minh. HO Chi Minh formed Malaya Communist Party on 30-4-1930. Lai Teck arrived in Malaya in 1934, Ho Chi Ming was released from Hong Kong in 1933 and reported went to Europe and only returned to China in 1938 with the new name Ho Chi Ming......Lai Teik was the Secretary General of Malayan Communist Party in 1938....
Did Lai Teck know Ho Chi Minh? Is there any relationship between Lai Teik and Ho Chi Minh?.....or Taiwanese Wu Chee Chang(胡集璋)...or is Lai Teik also Wu Chee Chang or ......
Lai Teck
Lai Teck was a leader of the Communist Party of Malaya and Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army. A Vietnamese of mixed Sino-Vietnamese descent, Lai Teck was known to have reached Malaya and Singapore in 1934 and joined the Malayan Communist Party and became its Secretary-General in 1938. Lai Teck was a shadowy character whose real name and background are unknown. According to his successor, Chin Peng. Lai Teck had served the French as a spy in Indo-China but been uncovered. It was subsequently alleged that he was recruited by the British security services and brought to Singapore to infiltrate the CPM. At this he was highly successful, and by using the British police to pick off his rivals within the Party he rose through the hierarchy and attained the Party leadership (Secretary General) in April 1939. Perhaps because of this, he steered the Party on a course of non-confrontation with the British and wholly embraced the Communist International's new line of cooperation with the United States and the Western European powers against Nazi Germany and Japan. Although many of the CPM's top personnel managed to flee Singapore before it fell, Lai Teck did not and was picked up in a Japanese sweep shortly after. Although most communists were executed by the Japanese, Lai Teck walked free a few days later. Based on later evidence, including documents in Japanese archives, it now appears most likely that Lai Teck saved his life by promising to act as a Japanese agent.
On 1 September 1942, more than 100 senior CPM and MPAJA members gathered at the Batu Caves just north of Kuala Lumpur for a secret conference. The Japanese, however, had been tipped off and staged a surprise raid at dawn. In the ensuing lopsided skirmish most of the CPM and MPAJA high command were destroyed. Lai Teck, who should have been at the meeting, wasn't. Subsequently he claimed that he had been unable to attend because his car broke down.
In 1946, faint rumors which had been circulating within the party about disloyalty on the part of Lai Teck began to receive more substantiation. This was exacerbated by the restlessness of the rank and file, especially the younger members, who favoured radical action. Lai Teck was removed from some sensitive posts, and an investigation was begun into his activities. A full meeting of the Central Executive Committee was scheduled for 6 March 1947 at which the complaints against Lai Teck were to be aired in his presence. Lai Teck did not attend but instead absconded with the bulk of the Party's funds, hiding first in Singapore, then going to Hong Kong and later Thailand. Lai Teck was killed in Bangkok some time in 1947 when Thai Communists tried to capture him. That happen after dissolution of Comintern in 1943.
China and Comintern 1935
During the Long March, the CPC party leadership re-examined its policy in Zunyi (January 1935). Mao Zedong blamed the CPC's failure to ignite a revolution on their decision to blindly follow the Comintern's instructions, which did not take into account the reality of Chinese conditions. During the heated debate, Zhou Enlai unexpectedly accepted the criticism and sided with Mao. Otto Braun was dismissed from his position as the CPC's military commander.
After they resettled in Yanan, the native Chinese Communists, such as Mao and Zhu De, became the real powers in the CPC rather than the foreign Communists supplied by the Comintern. Those Chinese Communists who were loyal to the Comintern, such as a group called the 28 Bolsheviks, fell from all of the most important positions within the CPC. Zhou Enlai became an assistant to Mao in political affairs, such as the pursuit of the United Front and diplomacy. By this time, the Comintern and the Soviet Union could no longer control the CPC. The Comintern continued to give advice, but much of it was simply ignored. The CPC was now a truly Chinese entity, much as the Bolshevik Party had been a truly Russian one.
Ho Chi Minh was close friend of CPC, was Comintern still having influence on Ho Chi Minh?....Ho Chi Minh was in China again in 1938, after the split of China with Comintern. That was also in 1938, Lai Teik become the Secretary General of CPM.
In 19 December 1946, Hồ Chí Minh, representing his government,declared war against the France Union, marked the beginning of the Indochina War. Lai Teik was captured and killed in 1947 in Bangkok. Ho Chi Minh become a national hero, Lai Teik become a traitor....
We at least now know some background of Ho Chi Minh, but until today nobody know the background of Lai Teik.....
No matter who was Ho Chi Minh, who was Lai Teik?.....they were communists, agents of Comintern(1919-1943)......they were the change agents for the communist international......does it matter if they are real......they are proxy of Comintern....they had lost their personal identity to their political belief - communism.......
The reality is who was their ultimate master?......
Further reading:
1. Ho Chi Mihn’s House in Thailand, http://www.thai-blogs.com/2011/01/29/ho-chi-mihns-house-in-thailand/
2. 曾雪明, http://baike.baidu.com/view/3045785.htm
3. Ho chi Minh - The Man & The Myth - 1 -9, youtube
4. Ho Chi Minh, http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Ho_Chi_Minh
5. My previous blog, Vietnamese in Thailand, dated Monday, December 28, 2009, http://teochiewkia.blogspot.com/2009/12/vietnamese-in-thailand_28.html
6. 越南國父胡志明是台灣人胡集璋？,http://www.hi-on.org.tw/bulletins.jsp?b_ID=90048
7. 胡志明, http://v.ifeng.com/special/renwupu/huzhiming/index.shtml
8. 胡志明生平考 ,http://tw.myblog.yahoo.com/hgfds198/
9. Lai Teck – the traitor of all traitors , http://web1.iseas.edu.sg/?p=1799
10.Cheating death and saving a nation, by Lady Borton, http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/Sunday/Features/212075/Cheating-death-and-saving-a-nation.html
Ho Chi Minh had many names and aliases
Ho's given name at birth was Nguyen Tat Thanh. He also had another name - Nguyen Van Ba. Ho used this name when he worked as a steward in a ship, the La Touche Treville, on his overseas trip from Saigon to Marseilles, France. He changed back to Nguyen Tat Thanh after his arrival in France. Ho has been known by many aliases. His first alias, second well-known after Ho Chi Minh, was Nguyen Ai Quoc. Ho dropped the name Nguyen Ai Quoc after betraying Phan Boi Chau's whereabouts to the French authorities for Hong Kong $10,000. Phan Boi Chau was an independent fighter against the French. He was known as Lý Thuy in China. Ho also had ten other aliases such as: Ly Thuy, Vuong, Tran, etc. However, those names were not very well-known.
Ho Chi Minh or Nguyễn Sinh Cung was born in 1890 in Hoàng Trù Village, Nam Dan district, Nghe An Province,Vietnam( it was called Annam), his mother(Hoang Thi Loan,1868–1901)’s hometown. His father is Nguyen Sinh Sac. His name was later changed to Nguyen tat Thanh on his tenth birthday. From 1895, he grew up in his paternal hometown of Kim Liên Village, Nam Đàn District, Nghệ An Province, Vietnam. He had three siblings: his sister Bạch Liên (or Nguyễn Thị Thanh), a clerk in the French Army; his brother Nguyễn Sinh Khiêm (or Nguyễn Tất Đạt), a geomancer and traditional herbalist; and another brother (Nguyễn Sinh Nhuận) who died in his infancy. As a young child, Nguyễn studied with his father before more formal classes with a scholar named Vuong Thuc Do. Nguyễn quickly mastered Chinese writing, a requisite for any serious study of Confucianism, while honing his colloquial Vietnamese writing. In addition to his studious endeavors, he was fond of adventure, loved to fly kites and go fishing. Following Confucian tradition, at the age of 10, his father gave him a new name: Nguyễn Tất Thành, “Nguyễn the Accomplished”.
Nguyễn’s father, Nguyễn Sinh Sắc, was a Confucian scholar, a teacher on a small scale, and later an imperial magistrate in the small remote district of Binh Khe (Qui Nhơn). He was demoted for abuse of power after an influential local figure died several days after receiving 100 strokes of the cane as punishment. In deference to his father, Nguyễn received a French education, attended lycée in Huế, the alma mater of his later disciples, Phạm Văn Đồng and Võ Nguyên Giáp. He later left his studies and chose to teach at Dục Thanh school in Phan Thiết.
In 1911, Nguyen went to Saigon. He applied to a school to learn to be a mechanic, in order to get in touch with modern technology. He didn't stay long, Nguyen decided to go to France to see the new world. At the age of 21, Nguyen Tat Thanh left Vietnam for 10 years, and changed his name again to Van Ba.
USA 1912-1913
In 1912, working as the cook’s helper on a French steamer, Nguyễn traveled to the United States. From 1912 to 1913, he lived in New York (Harlem) and Boston, where he worked as a baker at the Parker House Hotel(now Omni Parker House Hotel, Boston). Among a series of menial jobs, he also has claimed to have worked for a wealthy family in Brooklyn between 1917 and 1918 and for General Motors as a line manager. It is believed that, while in the United States, he made contact with Korean nationalists, an experience that developed his political outlook.
England 1913-1919
At various points between 1913 and 1919, Nguyễn lived in West Ealing, west London, and later in Crouch End, Hornsey, north London. He is reported to have worked as a cleaner and dishwasher in the kitchen at the Drayton Court Hotel in 1914, on The Avenue, West Ealing. It is claimed that Nguyễn trained as a pastry chef under the legendary French master, Escoffier, at the Carlton Hotel in the Haymarket, Westminster, but there is no evidence to support this. However, the wall of New Zealand House, home of the New Zealand High Commission, which now stands on the site of the Carlton Hotel, displays a blue plaque, stating that Nguyễn worked there in 1913 as a waiter. Nguyễn was also a regular visitor to Chelsea FC during his stay in West London.
France 1919-1923
From 1919–1923, while living in France, Nguyễn Sinh Cung began to approach the idea of communism, through his friend and Socialist Party of France comrade Marcel Cachin(1869-1958). Cung claimed to have arrived in Paris from London in 1917, but French police only have documents of his arrival in June 1919.
Ho Chi Minh,was living in Paris and working as a kitchen assistant at the Hotel Ritz, Paris.
1919
Following World War I, The Paris Peace Conference opened on 18 January 1919 and ended on 21 January 1920 with the inaugural General Assembly of the League of Nations. It took place in Paris and involved diplomats from more than 32 countries and nationalities, including U.S. President Thomas Woodrow Wilson who stayed in Paris for 6 months. Under the name of Nguyễn Ái Quốc (“Nguyễn the Patriot”),Ho Chi Minh petitioned for recognition of the civil rights of the Vietnamese people in French Indochina to the Western powers at the Versailles Peace Conference, but was ignored. Citing the language and the spirit of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, Nguyễn petitioned U.S. President Thomas Woodrow Wilson for help to remove the French from Vietnam and replace them with a new, nationalist government. While he was unable to obtain consideration at Versailles, the failed effort had the effect of further radicalizing Nguyễn, while at the same time making him a national hero of the anti-colonial movement at home in Vietnam. President Thomas Woodrow Wilson, a strong advocate for League of Nations,was awarded the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize. Nguyễn Ái Quốc become a communist, and started Indo-China War against France and later Vietnam War with USA...
1920
The Tours Congress was the 18th National Congress of the French Section of the Workers' International, or SFIO, which took place in Tours on 25—30 December 1920. During the Congress, the majority voted to join the communist Third International and create the French Section of the Communist International(SFIC), which became the Parti Communiste Français (French Communist Party)(PCF)in 1921. Nguyen Ai Quoc, was present at the congress and made a speech decrying the exploitation of the French colonies, and supporting the proposal to join the Third International. Nguyễn Ái Quốc, together with his friend Marcel Cachin(1869-1958), they become the founding member of the Parti Communiste Français (French Communist Party)(PCF).
In May 1922, Nguyễn wrote an article for a French magazine criticizing the use of English words by French sportswriters. The article implores Prime Minister Raymond Poincaré to outlaw such Franglais as le manager, le round and le knock-out. While living in Paris, he had a relationship with dressmaker Marie Brière
Moscow 1923-1924
In 1923, Nguyễn left Paris for Moscow, where he was employed by the Comintern(Communist International) or Third International(1919–1943), studied at the Communist University of the Toilers of the East. He participated in the Fifth Comintern Congress held at Moscow from June 17 - July 8, 1924, and also urged the Comintern to actively promote revolution in Asia.
China 1924-1927
Arrived in Canton (present-day Guangzhou), China, in November 1924. Not initially having any official role, he quickly made contacts, including with Mikhail Borodin, the Comintern representative to Sun Yat-sen's government. There is little evidence for his being a deputy of Borodin. He was also however representative of Peasant International. He went to work at the Soviet news agency in Guangzhou, also working on the formation of a Vietnamese revolutionary party, and education of Vietnamese elites in Marxism-Leninism. His pseudonym of the time was Ly Thuy.
In June 1925, Hoàng Văn Chí said that Nguyễn had betrayed Phan Bội Châu, the head of a rival revolutionary faction, to French police in Shanghai for 100,000 piastres. Nguyễn later claimed that he did this because he expected Chau’s trial to stir up anti-French resentment and because he needed the money to establish a communist organization. But in Ho Chi Minh: A life, Duikers denied this hypothesis. Other sources claim that Nguyen Thuong Hien was responsible for Chau's capture. Châu never denounced Nguyễn.
During 1925-26 he organized 'Youth Education Classes' and occasionally gave lectures at the Whampoa Military Academy on the revolutionary movement in Indochina. Ho had also arranged for some members of the Revolutionary Youth League to attend China's Whampoa Military Academy. After Sun Yat-Sen's death in March 1925, Chiang Kai-Shek took power, and initially cooperated with the Communists but later arrested Soviet advisors at the Whampoa Military Academy in March 1926. Borodin accepted a reduced Communist role in the KMT when its Executive Committee met in May.
According to Duiker, he lived with and married a Chinese woman, Tăng Tuyết Minh (曾雪明, Zeng Xueming), on 18 October 1926. When his comrades objected to the match, he told them, “I will get married despite your disapproval because I need a woman to teach me the language and keep house.” She was 21 and he was 36. They married in the same place where Zhou Enlai had married earlier and then lived together at the residence of Comintern agent Mikhail Borodin
In 1927 the communists were expelled from Guangzhou in April, following a coup by Chinese Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek. Ho left Canton again in April 1927 and fled to Hong Kong in May. Pursued by British authorities, he went to Soviet Far East headquarters in Vladivostok, and then moved to Moscow. The initial plan was for him to move to Siam as a base for organizing Indochinese Communism, but, instead, spent time in various European cities.
Moscow & Paris 1927
Ho spent some of the summer of 1927 recuperating from tuberculosis in the Crimea, before returning to Paris once more in November.
Thailand 1928 -1929
In 1928, he traveled to Brussels and Paris, then Siam (now Thailand), where he spent two years as a representative of the Comintern in Southeast Asia(replacing Tan Malaka). Ho Chi Minh was later appointed to head the Communist International's Southeast Asia branch and he served as Moscow's agent in this capacity from March 1930 to June 1931. His followers remained in South China.
He then returned to Asia by way of Brussels, Berlin, Switzerland, and Italy, from where he took a ship to Bangkok, Thailand, where he arrived in July 1928. Assuming the identity Father Chin, he moved to northern Siam late in the year; the French lost track of him. On 29 October 1929, the Imperial Court in Vinh (Nghe An Province, Annam) sentenced Nguyen Ai Quoc (Ho Chi Minh) sentenced him in absentia to death, for plotting revolution in Annam.
He remained in Thailand, Ho Chi Minh resided at Ban Nachok, a small village on the road between the airbase and Nakhon Phanom. This place has high concentration of Vietnamese, especially Catholic. Both his home and a new modern museum are now open to the public. Nakhon Phanom (Thai: นครพนม) is one of the north-eastern provinces (changwat) of Thailand. Neighboring provinces are (from south clockwise) Mukdahan, Sakon Nakhon and Bueng Kan. To the north-east it borders Khammouan of Laos. Ho Chi Mihn Museum tells us that Uncle Ho arrived at the house in 1923 and stayed for 7 years until 1931. However all biographies of Ho Chi Mihn say he only lived in the village between 1928 and 1929, which is more reliable fit to historical events, as Ho was actively involved in formation of CPV and MCP only in early 1930.
Ho Chi Minh departed from Canton in April or May 1927 and was incommunicado with the Vietnamese movement. The Central Committee of Thanh Nien called a National Congress of the organization, slated to begin on May Day of 1929. This gathering, held 1–9 May 1929 and attended by 17 delegates from each of the three main administrative districts of Vietnam, plus Hong Kong and Siam, would prove the occasion for a split between those who placed primary emphasis on the so-called "national question" (independence from colonialism) and those who sought a more radical movement placing emphasis on social revolution. Ho Chi Minh was not in attendance, still missing from the scene.
The end of 1929, he went to China. He changed his name to Sung Man Cho(宋文初). In December 1929, he went to Hong Kong and stayed as representative of the Communist International.
In an October 27 message, the Comintern, asked Ho, then in Siam, to bring the three groups together in a Hong Kong meeting. Ho Chi Minh, back in direct activity in the Vietnamese movement, was responsible for brokering the peace between the warring factions as well as writing the initial manifesto and statement of tactics of the group. The two warring offspring of Thanh Nien(Vietnamese Revolutionary Youth Association)established by Nguyen Sinh Cung(Ho Chi Minh)in 1925, joined with individual members of a third Marxist group founded by Phan Boi Chau at a "Unification Conference" held in Hong Kong from 3–7 February 1930. The new party was named the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV). It was formed on 3 February 1930. Ho presided over the formation of the Vietnamese Communist Party (Viet Nam Cong San Dang). At the Comintern's request, the name was changed later that year at the first Party Plenum to the Indochinese Communist Party, thus reclaiming the name of the first party of that named founded in 1929. A Comintern representative, however, told that none of the Vietnamese organizations would be recognized until the Comintern decided they were unified. Until then, the Chinese Communist Party would direct the Vietnamese groups. Finally, the Indochinese Communist Party was recognized on February 18, 1930.
In 1922 the CCP opened a clandestine office in Singapore which sowed the seed for the South Seas Communist Party (or Nanyang Communist Party). This party was mainly active in the Dutch East Indies and French Indo-China. In Singapore its work centred on the trades unions. After their 1925 uprising failed, many Indonesian Communists took refuge in Singapore, and engaged in political work there under the auspices of the Third Communist International. (Note: Communist Party of Indonesia is the oldest in Asia, formed in 1920, Tan Malaka was the first representative of Comintern in South East Asia in 1923). In 1925, the South Seas Communist Party was formed out of CPC exile units in South-East Asia. SSCP functioned as a preliminary organization before national CPs were formed. The Singapore-based South Seas Communist Party, was organized in 1928, was concerned with establishing communism among the overseas Chinese, including those living in Thailand. Through its efforts, the first Communist Party in Thailand was formed in 1929. But until the mid-1930's, Communist activities were generally confined to discussions of ideology and organization. The period in Thailad, Ho was not active in helping to organize national Communist Parties in South East Asia until 1930, not even Thai communism. He only concentrate on Vietnamese movement.
On 30th April 1930, Ho Chi Minh traveled from Singapore to Malaya as representative of Comintern, attended the formation of Communist Party of Malaya(CPM)in the rubber estate in Johore. The South Seas Communist Party was dissolved and replaced by the newly formed Communist Party of Malaya. He left for Singapore immediately after the ceremony.
Hong Kong(1929-1933)
In June 1931 Ho was arrested in Hong Kong by British police and remained in prison until his release in 1933. This resulted in one of the leading case in Hong Kong,Sung Man Cho Vs. The Superintendent of Prisons. Ho Chi Minh’s habeas corpus case was tried in Hong Kong Supreme Court and appealed to the Privy Councel, the highest court in the British Empire. Habeas corpus, an ancient and fundamental principle of British law, is a prerogative writ used to challenge the validity of a person’s detention either in official custody (e.g when held pending a deportation or extradition) or in private hands.
In June 1931, Ho Chi Minh travelled to Hong Kong to attend a meeting for leftist patriots. Tipped off by the French, on June 6, 1931, the British authorities in Hong Kong arrested Ho Chi Minh, whom they planned to deport on a French ship. That deportation would have assured Ho Chi Minh's death. A legal battle followed, with British lawyer Francis Loseby(1883-1967) representing Ho, who claimed he was a Chinese national, Sung Man Cho(宋文初). The prominent coverage in Hong Kong's English-language press of the case Sung Man Cho Vs. The Superintendent of Prisons, because it challenged the power of the British Hong Kong governor. British authorities never realized they had captured a Comintern (Communist International) revolutionary actively organizing in one of their own colonies, Malaysia. Ho Chi Minh lost his case in the Hong Kong Supreme Court. The Hong Kong governor was about to deport Ho Chi Minh to French Indochina on a French ship – essentially a death sentence. Ho Chi Minh's lawyers appealed on his behalf to the Privy Council, the British Empire's highest court. Two London lawyers – Denis Noel Pritt (1887-1972) for Ho Chi Minh and Sir Stafford Cripps (1889-1952) for the Crown – settled the case out of court in summer of 1932.
Nguyen Ai Quoc, with the help of British solicitor Francis Loseby(1883-1967), masqueraded as a wealthy Chinese merchant before boarding a boat leaving Hong Kong for Vladivostok. Francis Loseby came to Ho Chi Minh's aid. He disguised Ho Chi Minh in a wealthy Chinese merchant's brocade gown and turban. Loseby's Chinese law clerk posed as a secretary for the "distinguished merchant." On January 22, 1933, after Ho Chi Minh's ship had left Hong Kong Harbour, the assistant superintendent of the Hong Kong Police accompanied two "belated passengers" by private launch to their reserved, first-class cabin. The two "merchants" arrived in Port Xiamen (Amoy) in time to enjoy Tet (Lunar New Year) 1933, the Year of the Water Rooster. From there, Ho Chi Minh traveled on to Vladivostok and then to Moscow. Francis Loseby, the British solicitor, and Denis Noel Pritt, the British barrister, both together had saved Ho Chi Minh's life in Hong Kong...not forgetting Sir Stafford Cripps – a socialist, a member of the leftist Fabian Society, an activist for Indian independence, and the opposing lawyer who represented the British Empire, without him an out of court settlement will be difficult....through them, a new history for Vietnam was created ....
Moscow, 1933-1938
To reduce French pressure for extradition, it was announced in 1932 that Nguyễn Ái Quốc had died. The British quietly released him in January 1933.
He then made his way back to Milan, Italy, where he served in a restaurant, Trattoria della Pesa restaurant. The restaurant is now a traditional Lombard-cuisine temple and harbors a portrait of Ho Chi Minh on the wall of its main dining hall. He then moved to the Soviet Union, where he spent several more years recovering from tuberculosis. Ho spent much of the years studying and teaching at the Lenin Institute, Moscow.
He begin to use Ho Chih Minh as his name
In 1938, he returned to China,reported together with General Ye Jianying(叶剑英) and served as an adviser with Chinese Communist armed forces, which later forced China’s government to the island of Taiwan. From 1938, Nguyễn Ái Quốc began regularly using the name "Hồ Chí Minh", a Vietnamese name combining a common Vietnamese surname (Hồ, 胡) with a given name meaning "enlightened will" (from Sino-Vietnamese 志明; Chí meaning 'will' (or spirit), and Minh meaning 'light'). Some scholar suspected that the name was for remembrance of his Chinese wife, Zeng Xueming(曾雪明). Noted the similar character Ming/Minh(明), Chih Minh(志明), the will to remember Ming(Zeng Xueming). Ho Chi Minh is a Chinese name, not a typical Vietnamese name.
In January 1941, Ho entered Vietnam for the first time in 30 years and organized the Vietnam Doc Lap Dong Minh Hoi (League for the Independence of Vietnam), or Viet Minh. A liberation zone was established near the border with China, from which the Viet Minh worked to muster the discontent of urban nationalists and the rural poor into a unified movement for the liberation of Vietnam.
While in southern China (1942) to meet with Zhou Enlai and Chinese Communist Party officials, Ho was arrested on 27-8-1942 in Guangxi by the Chinese nationalist government of Chiang Kai-sheh and imprisoned for two years. He was released in Sept 1943 in Liuzhou(柳州), Guangxi. In September 1944 Ho was allowed to return to Vietnam with a guerrilla force of 18 men trained and armed by the Chinese.
(1942年胡志明去重庆会见蒋介石与周恩来途径广西时被国民党逮捕，关押监禁一年有余。从胡志明投身革命起，一生中的很多时间都在中国参与中国革命亦在中国指导国内的独立革命解放运动，反法、抗日及抗美斗争。他本名阮必成，曾用名阿三。为了革命斗争的需要，从1918年起他先后使用化名，笔名阮爱国、李瑞（Lý Thuy）、王达人、宋文初、胡光、平山等名字，直到1942年8月27日胡志明在中国广西德保县被国民党逮捕前才正式使用“胡志明”这个后半生不再改变的名字。1943 年9 月，胡志明在广西柳州恢复了自由，1944 年9 月，又经广西中越边境回到越南)
Ho Chi Minh led the Việt Minh independence movement from 1941 onward, establishing the communist-governed Democratic Republic of Vietnam in 1945 and defeating the French Union in 1954 at Điện Biên Phủ. He officially stepped down from power in 1955 due to his health, but remained to be a highly visible figurehead and inspiration for Vietnamese fighting for his cause — a united, independent Vietnam — until his death. Saigon, the capital of Republic of Vietnam, after the war, was renamed Ho Chi Minh City in his honor.
(source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ho_Chi_Minh with some changes)
Some authors were amazed at the multiple personality of Ho Chi Minh, and suspected there may be two personality for historical Ho Chih Minh. This added more mystery to the historical figure.
A Taiwan scholar said that from 1890-1932, Ho Chi Minh was Vietnamese communist Nguyen Ai Quoc(阮愛國), but he died in 1933. From 1933-1969, he was Taiwanese communist Wu Chee Chang(胡集璋).
From the personality of Ho Chi Minh, I remember Lai Teck of MCP. He was also agent of Comintern. He also used multiple names, Lai Tek, Loi Tak, Lee Soong,Wong Kim Geok, Chang Hung, and Mr. Wrigh. He was also having multiple personality. His background was also a mystery, similar to Ho Chi Minh. HO Chi Minh formed Malaya Communist Party on 30-4-1930. Lai Teck arrived in Malaya in 1934, Ho Chi Ming was released from Hong Kong in 1933 and reported went to Europe and only returned to China in 1938 with the new name Ho Chi Ming......Lai Teik was the Secretary General of Malayan Communist Party in 1938....
Did Lai Teck know Ho Chi Minh? Is there any relationship between Lai Teik and Ho Chi Minh?.....or Taiwanese Wu Chee Chang(胡集璋)...or is Lai Teik also Wu Chee Chang or ......
Lai Teck
Lai Teck was a leader of the Communist Party of Malaya and Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army. A Vietnamese of mixed Sino-Vietnamese descent, Lai Teck was known to have reached Malaya and Singapore in 1934 and joined the Malayan Communist Party and became its Secretary-General in 1938. Lai Teck was a shadowy character whose real name and background are unknown. According to his successor, Chin Peng. Lai Teck had served the French as a spy in Indo-China but been uncovered. It was subsequently alleged that he was recruited by the British security services and brought to Singapore to infiltrate the CPM. At this he was highly successful, and by using the British police to pick off his rivals within the Party he rose through the hierarchy and attained the Party leadership (Secretary General) in April 1939. Perhaps because of this, he steered the Party on a course of non-confrontation with the British and wholly embraced the Communist International's new line of cooperation with the United States and the Western European powers against Nazi Germany and Japan. Although many of the CPM's top personnel managed to flee Singapore before it fell, Lai Teck did not and was picked up in a Japanese sweep shortly after. Although most communists were executed by the Japanese, Lai Teck walked free a few days later. Based on later evidence, including documents in Japanese archives, it now appears most likely that Lai Teck saved his life by promising to act as a Japanese agent.
On 1 September 1942, more than 100 senior CPM and MPAJA members gathered at the Batu Caves just north of Kuala Lumpur for a secret conference. The Japanese, however, had been tipped off and staged a surprise raid at dawn. In the ensuing lopsided skirmish most of the CPM and MPAJA high command were destroyed. Lai Teck, who should have been at the meeting, wasn't. Subsequently he claimed that he had been unable to attend because his car broke down.
In 1946, faint rumors which had been circulating within the party about disloyalty on the part of Lai Teck began to receive more substantiation. This was exacerbated by the restlessness of the rank and file, especially the younger members, who favoured radical action. Lai Teck was removed from some sensitive posts, and an investigation was begun into his activities. A full meeting of the Central Executive Committee was scheduled for 6 March 1947 at which the complaints against Lai Teck were to be aired in his presence. Lai Teck did not attend but instead absconded with the bulk of the Party's funds, hiding first in Singapore, then going to Hong Kong and later Thailand. Lai Teck was killed in Bangkok some time in 1947 when Thai Communists tried to capture him. That happen after dissolution of Comintern in 1943.
China and Comintern 1935
During the Long March, the CPC party leadership re-examined its policy in Zunyi (January 1935). Mao Zedong blamed the CPC's failure to ignite a revolution on their decision to blindly follow the Comintern's instructions, which did not take into account the reality of Chinese conditions. During the heated debate, Zhou Enlai unexpectedly accepted the criticism and sided with Mao. Otto Braun was dismissed from his position as the CPC's military commander.
After they resettled in Yanan, the native Chinese Communists, such as Mao and Zhu De, became the real powers in the CPC rather than the foreign Communists supplied by the Comintern. Those Chinese Communists who were loyal to the Comintern, such as a group called the 28 Bolsheviks, fell from all of the most important positions within the CPC. Zhou Enlai became an assistant to Mao in political affairs, such as the pursuit of the United Front and diplomacy. By this time, the Comintern and the Soviet Union could no longer control the CPC. The Comintern continued to give advice, but much of it was simply ignored. The CPC was now a truly Chinese entity, much as the Bolshevik Party had been a truly Russian one.
Ho Chi Minh was close friend of CPC, was Comintern still having influence on Ho Chi Minh?....Ho Chi Minh was in China again in 1938, after the split of China with Comintern. That was also in 1938, Lai Teik become the Secretary General of CPM.
In 19 December 1946, Hồ Chí Minh, representing his government,declared war against the France Union, marked the beginning of the Indochina War. Lai Teik was captured and killed in 1947 in Bangkok. Ho Chi Minh become a national hero, Lai Teik become a traitor....
We at least now know some background of Ho Chi Minh, but until today nobody know the background of Lai Teik.....
No matter who was Ho Chi Minh, who was Lai Teik?.....they were communists, agents of Comintern(1919-1943)......they were the change agents for the communist international......does it matter if they are real......they are proxy of Comintern....they had lost their personal identity to their political belief - communism.......
The reality is who was their ultimate master?......
Further reading:
1. Ho Chi Mihn’s House in Thailand, http://www.thai-blogs.com/2011/01/29/ho-chi-mihns-house-in-thailand/
2. 曾雪明, http://baike.baidu.com/view/3045785.htm
3. Ho chi Minh - The Man & The Myth - 1 -9, youtube
4. Ho Chi Minh, http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Ho_Chi_Minh
5. My previous blog, Vietnamese in Thailand, dated Monday, December 28, 2009, http://teochiewkia.blogspot.com/2009/12/vietnamese-in-thailand_28.html
6. 越南國父胡志明是台灣人胡集璋？,http://www.hi-on.org.tw/bulletins.jsp?b_ID=90048
7. 胡志明, http://v.ifeng.com/special/renwupu/huzhiming/index.shtml
8. 胡志明生平考 ,http://tw.myblog.yahoo.com/hgfds198/
9. Lai Teck – the traitor of all traitors , http://web1.iseas.edu.sg/?p=1799
10.Cheating death and saving a nation, by Lady Borton, http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/Sunday/Features/212075/Cheating-death-and-saving-a-nation.html
Monday, February 6, 2012
Support Kuantan anti-Lynas rally
A huge rally is to be held in Kuantan, Pahang, from 10am on Feb 26 to press for the "termination" of the Lynas Advanced Materials Plant project in the nearby industrial area of Gebeng.
The Himpunan Hijau 2.0 will be a continuation of the first Himpunan Hijau on Oct 9 last year, where a coalition of environmental NGOs led a 2,000-strong anti-Lynas rally by a Kuantan beach.
This time, the one-and-half-hour rally will be at the Kuantan municipal field, where participants are expected to pray, sing songs, recite poems and read out a seven-point demand called "Aspirations of the People".
http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/187610
Further reading:
1. Kuantan people will win, says anti-Lynas campaigner ,http://hornbillunleashed.wordpress.com/2011/10/13/24338/
(The campaign against the radioactivity risk of the Lynas rare earth refinery in Gebeng, near Kuantan, will eventually be successful, according to Prof Tan Ka Kheng, a distinguished environmental activist. Tan has a doctorate in a chemical engineering from the University of Cambridge. He did his research in physical chemistry after being released from the Internal Security Act. He had been the first of 106 prisoners of conscience imprisoned during the ‘Operation Lalang’ crackdown on NGOs and opposition politicians in 1987.
What was his offence against former premier Mahathir, leading to his detention without trial a quarter of a century ago? As vice-president of the Environmental Protection Society of Malaysia (EPSM), Tan had led an effective resistance movement against the notorious radioactive Asian Rare Earth (ARE) refinery in Perak. Lynas now claims radioactive thorium concentrations in the rare earth ores it is planning to ship to Gebeng will be lower than they were in Bukit Merah, and will therefore be safe. Tan dismisses such claims: “There is no such thing as a safe level of radiation… they are playing around with people’s lives.”)
Prof Tak was actively involved in Asian Rare Earth (ARE) refinery issue in Perak, and he was imprisoned for the involvement under Operation Lalang. He understand Lynas issue in Kuantan much better than any of us...
2. Papan(甲板), Perak , dated Friday, July 16, 2010, http://teochiewkia.blogspot.com/2010/07/papan.html
(One of the first detainee was Tan KK , who was Vice President of the Environmental Protection Society of Malaysia. He had the unwelcome privilege of being the first ISA detainee to be arrested under ‘Operation Lalang’ in 1987.)
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Support Jalan Sultan
Jalan Sultan(in China town), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, might be given way to LRT, all the near by streets, buildings,activities,priceless heritages then will be disappeared for ever!
17-9-2011
Thousands gathered at Dataran Merdeka yesterday(17-9-2011) to stage a display of unity, in celebration of the nation's progress in its 54 years of independence and 47 years of union with Sabah and Sarawak.
However, as dusk crept on, only a few streets away, a very different group of people gathered; not to celebrate the city's towering skyscrappers, but a humble national heritage in existence long before independence.
The cultural event held in conjunction with the mid-autumn festival, was entitled 'Safeguarding Jalan Petaling' but attention also shifted to Jalan Sultan as the buildings there face the looming danger of acquisition.
The organisers, the Kuala Lumpur-Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall (KLSCAH) and art activists believe that Jalan Sultan should be preserved together with Jalan Petaling as integral parts of Chinatown.
"Many people have a sense of belonging to Jalan Petaling because it is the Malaysian Chinese experience and even later on other races also began to reside here... We believe that Jalan Petaling, Jalan Sultan and Kuala Lumpur's heritage buildings must be preserved," said KLSCAH president Tan Yew Sing.
17-10-2011
Some 60 artists and heritage conservationists responded to the call to turn a dilapidated wall at Jalan Sultan, Kuala Lumpur on Saturday into a colourful mural, to help raise awareness on heritage preservation.
Full story: http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/176080
5-2-2012
The "LAST" of Chinese New Year Celebration?
[ 5th of February, Light The Street of Century-old Jalan Sultan! ]
On January 23rd, 2012.. while Malaysian Chinese eagerly welcoming the arrival of the Year of Dragon (壬辰龙年), pleasantly learning the news of additional inclusion to the National Cultural Heritage List, namely Penang's "Giant Flags Procession" and Johor Bahru Old Temple's Chingay.
City folks in Kuala Lumpur's oldest century-living heritage street - namely Jalan Sultan, however are facing heartbreaking moments, receiving probably the "LAST" of Chinese New Year celebration. Until a week before the Chinese New Year, owners in Jalan Sultan suddenly received the final notice from the Land Office stating clearly that if the owners did not sign an agreement before 30th of January (9th day of CNY) , Land Acquisition Act will be imposed and the construction of the proposed MRT line will be bulldozed through.. hence the lost of the century-old street in the history of Greater Kuala Lumpur.
On 5th of February 2012 (Sunday 8:00pm), we sincerely invite you to come and light the street of century-old Jalan Sultan bring hope and courage to the people of this street, including those dedicated friends in culture, heritage & arts......SUPPORT the people's choice of re-alignment (to Jln Pudu / Tun Tan Cheng Lock) ... OBJECT Land Acquisition (OLA)!!! SAVE KL Heritage!
Further readings:
1. Jalan Sultan: Losing heritage over development, http://www.thesundaily.my
/news/109459
2. Some 30 buildings to make way for MRT tunnel (Update), http://www.thesundaily.my/news/108754
3. MRT Jalan Sultan land acquisition – who is telling the truth: Chua Soi Lek, Hamid Albar or Idris Jala?, http://blog.limkitsiang.com/2011/08/26/mrt-jalan-sultan-land-acquisition-%E2%80%93-who-is-telling-the-truth-chua-soi-lek-hamid-albar-or-idris-jala/
17-9-2011
Thousands gathered at Dataran Merdeka yesterday(17-9-2011) to stage a display of unity, in celebration of the nation's progress in its 54 years of independence and 47 years of union with Sabah and Sarawak.
However, as dusk crept on, only a few streets away, a very different group of people gathered; not to celebrate the city's towering skyscrappers, but a humble national heritage in existence long before independence.
The cultural event held in conjunction with the mid-autumn festival, was entitled 'Safeguarding Jalan Petaling' but attention also shifted to Jalan Sultan as the buildings there face the looming danger of acquisition.
The organisers, the Kuala Lumpur-Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall (KLSCAH) and art activists believe that Jalan Sultan should be preserved together with Jalan Petaling as integral parts of Chinatown.
"Many people have a sense of belonging to Jalan Petaling because it is the Malaysian Chinese experience and even later on other races also began to reside here... We believe that Jalan Petaling, Jalan Sultan and Kuala Lumpur's heritage buildings must be preserved," said KLSCAH president Tan Yew Sing.
17-10-2011
Some 60 artists and heritage conservationists responded to the call to turn a dilapidated wall at Jalan Sultan, Kuala Lumpur on Saturday into a colourful mural, to help raise awareness on heritage preservation.
Full story: http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/176080
5-2-2012
The "LAST" of Chinese New Year Celebration?
[ 5th of February, Light The Street of Century-old Jalan Sultan! ]
On January 23rd, 2012.. while Malaysian Chinese eagerly welcoming the arrival of the Year of Dragon (壬辰龙年), pleasantly learning the news of additional inclusion to the National Cultural Heritage List, namely Penang's "Giant Flags Procession" and Johor Bahru Old Temple's Chingay.
City folks in Kuala Lumpur's oldest century-living heritage street - namely Jalan Sultan, however are facing heartbreaking moments, receiving probably the "LAST" of Chinese New Year celebration. Until a week before the Chinese New Year, owners in Jalan Sultan suddenly received the final notice from the Land Office stating clearly that if the owners did not sign an agreement before 30th of January (9th day of CNY) , Land Acquisition Act will be imposed and the construction of the proposed MRT line will be bulldozed through.. hence the lost of the century-old street in the history of Greater Kuala Lumpur.
On 5th of February 2012 (Sunday 8:00pm), we sincerely invite you to come and light the street of century-old Jalan Sultan bring hope and courage to the people of this street, including those dedicated friends in culture, heritage & arts......SUPPORT the people's choice of re-alignment (to Jln Pudu / Tun Tan Cheng Lock) ... OBJECT Land Acquisition (OLA)!!! SAVE KL Heritage!
Further readings:
1. Jalan Sultan: Losing heritage over development, http://www.thesundaily.my
/news/109459
2. Some 30 buildings to make way for MRT tunnel (Update), http://www.thesundaily.my/news/108754
3. MRT Jalan Sultan land acquisition – who is telling the truth: Chua Soi Lek, Hamid Albar or Idris Jala?, http://blog.limkitsiang.com/2011/08/26/mrt-jalan-sultan-land-acquisition-%E2%80%93-who-is-telling-the-truth-chua-soi-lek-hamid-albar-or-idris-jala/
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Penang Chinese New Year Cultural and Heritage Celebration 2012
If you miss it, come to Penang next year...