XENDRA POST

Subject: Parlaman reveals his methods of disinformation
From: evident@earthling.net
Date: 1998/04/25
Message-ID: 6hu5od$av2$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com
Newsgroups: soc.culture.thai

I said in an earlier post that Sean Parlaman makes a habit of constructing fake studies and other disinformation about Thailand as a hobby. It comes from his need to promote himself as a "warrior" and an expert about Thai culture.

People in many countries--including Thailand--are pressuring Thailand's government to crack down on the sale of children into forced sexual slavery. Parlaman makes no such contribution, therefore he can maintain his self-image as a warrior only by claiming that the situation does not exist. Further, he attacks the efforts of anyone actually working to ameliorate the social problems there. He decries them as hooligans, liars, or criminals slandering the Thai people.

His response to my post displays his methods for deceiving the unwary. He uses the Web to create credentials for himself, and he relies on readers' disinterest in checking sources to get away with his ludicrous claims. All five of the "articles" he "cites" as proof of his points were written by himself, and are fronted by "news organizations" that he invented and maintains.

He mentions a physical assault that never took place, and offers a fake story to buttress his lie. Go read it. Where is the byline? Who were the culprits? Who were the victims? Who was the police officer reporting the crime? This "Reuter's (sic) story" he directs you to does not exist in the Reuters archive; for that matter, it does not exist in any other reputable news archive, such as LEXIS-NEXIS. It is a fictitious essay which is nothing more than a stored email posted from the server at the university Parlaman says he attends.

And, on the topic of his background, while he lists the universities in whose Asian Studies "MA and post-MA" programs he has worked, I note that he never reveals that he has not received a master's degree from any of them.

As I've said, there are many people working to better the social situation in Thailand; some of them have been attacked by Parlaman before, and have dealt with him. For details, click here.

To learn more about the grassroots boycott of Thai exports (Don't! Buy! Thai!), check any actual news organization, like the New York Times, The Washington Post, or CNN. It gets plenty of real press.

Xendra