• OPINION

  Rule by law

  News, Alan Dawson, Published on 18/11/2018

  » As RoboCop said to arch villain Clarence Boddicker in the climactic scene of the original movie: "I'm not arresting you any more." Rather than bringing them to justice, the green shirts now hope to be able merely to bring the world's only brother-sister fugitive ex-prime minister duo to heel.

• OPINION

  The big issue: Man with a history

  Alan Dawson, Published on 07/06/2015

  » Whoever writes the script for the movie of his life — which, by the way, someone definitely should do — will have to tone it down a bit or many viewers won’t believe that just one man has done what three-star Gen Manas Kongpan has done.

• OPINION

  About that reconciliation ...

  News, Alan Dawson, Published on 25/01/2015

  » The bad news could not have come faster or more unpleasantly on Friday afternoon.

• OPINION

  The big issue: Fight or flight

  Alan Dawson, Published on 22/02/2015

  » Thailand has once again strutted into the Guinness World Records. Everyone knows "world's longest kiss" (58 hours 35 minutes, 58 seconds) is cool and "most people in a seven-minute hula-hooping session" (4,483 young and young-at-heart) is awesome and "most Santa's elves in one place" (Bangkok, 700) is inspiring.

• OPINION

  The big issue: If not 30 baht, how much?

  Alan Dawson, Published on 20/07/2014

  » An old meme cropped up in a new place last week, triggering debates, disputes and differences of opinion over a decade-old question of whether the free state medical programme deserves more respect, called co-pay.

• OPINION

  The big issue: The safe house

  Alan Dawson, Published on 10/08/2014

  » In March, 2002, a joint operation in Faisalabad by the Pakistani police, CIA and FBI cornered, shot and seriously wounded the Saudi terrorist and former anti-Russian mujahideen Zain Abidin Mohammed Husain Abu Zubaydah. He received the best medical care for his wounds because he was needed for an important experiment in Thailand.

• OPINION

  The big issue: After the honeymoon

  Alan Dawson, Published on 29/06/2014

  » Much was made last week of a couple of opinion polls that showed the coup authorities in general, no pun intended, and the head of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) in particular are pretty popular guys right now. "Guys" because a glass ceiling is part of the new administration.

• THAILAND

  The Big Issue: Will she or won't she?

  Alan Dawson, Published on 05/04/2014

  » Yingluck Shinawatra will mark her third Songkran as prime minister next Sunday. Sane bookies are not betting on a fourth. In fact, you can find pretty good odds today she won't be in office to celebrate her third Visakha Bucha Day, little more than a month away.

• THAILAND

  The Big Issue: Cleansing the deep South

  Alan Dawson, Published on 13/04/2014

  » The week before Songkran was no holiday for Yala. The provincial capital was hit by coordinated bomb attacks on Sunday, and more on Monday. The large, destructive bombs killed one person and wounded 28. Clearly, the attacks had goals other than murder.

• THAILAND

  The BIG STORY: Happy New Year?

  Alan Dawson, Published on 20/04/2014

  » The end of Songkran brought the urgency right back to politics. But not for long. The ear-splitting, street-bursting, epithet-howling weekend mobs didn't happen, as the judges and investigators suddenly came over all coy, and delayed all the important stuff — maybe for a few days, maybe for longer.

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