Showing 1 - 4 of 4
An imagined transcendence from our troubled history
News, Boonrak Boonyaketmala, Published on 17/12/2015
» Despite the hard sell, the heartwarming promise delivered in a song <i>To Return Happiness To Thailand (In Not So Long)</i> played almost hourly on our radio and television networks, whose lyrics are credited to Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, a lot of us who have been forced to be in a spectator role are actually subjected to a disturbingly delayed pleasure.
The poverty of our political discourse
News, Boonrak Boonyaketmala, Published on 07/11/2015
» Given the often war-like weekly announcements of tough, sometimes intimidating positions by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha on a variety of controversial issues since the May 22 coup last year, highlighted by occasional attitude adjustment sessions enforced on some politicians, intellectuals, academics, journalists, and non-governmental activists, the battle of verbal confrontations between competing groups — yellow-, red-, blue-shirt, and what not — has been decidedly quiet, by the pre-coup standard.
Freedom of thought distorted by party-run media
News, Boonrak Boonyaketmala, Published on 21/11/2015
» One of the keys to sustaining any political order is talk, or, more precisely, constant talk in a definite direction through half-truths, so noise will be absorbed into the thick air of propaganda.
US envoy talks his way into trouble
News, Boonrak Boonyaketmala, Published on 08/12/2015
» The fact that Thailand's heavily polarised politics has deeply split the country into several colours, affecting even the daily interactions of couples at the household level, has become all too familiar for Thais over the past decade or so. The ongoing conflicts can also put some foreigners in an awkward, if not difficult, position.