Showing 1 - 10 of 438
Govt has a knack for self-sabotage
Oped, Veera Prateepchaikul, Published on 10/06/2024
» Behind the backdrop of a sluggish economy, Thailand is entering a new phase of political uncertainty that threatens to drive the government into turmoil and plunge the ailing economy into deeper trouble.
Move Forward case reveals autocracy
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 07/06/2024
» The Constitutional Court's announcement that it will consider the Move Forward Party's (MFP) written defence in its dissolution case on June 12 appears ominous. After several attempts to make its argument that a campaign pledge to amend the lese majeste law against royal insult is not tantamount to "overthrowing Thailand's democratic regime with the King as head of state", the party's time is up. As the biggest election winner in May 2023, the MFP's dissolution is perceived as a foregone conclusion. Such a revelation might risk Thailand being perceived as an autocratic regime based on legal manoeuvres, and power plays that do not derive from voter preferences.
Thais hedge bets on international stage
Oped, Kavi Chongkittavorn, Published on 04/06/2024
» Thailand's decision last week to apply for full Brics membership came as a shock to Western allies and friends, not least because it followed a positive assessment by the Special Session of the OECD Council (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) after Thailand filed a letter of intent to join the OECD In February.
India's exit polls may be more noise than signal
News, Andy Mukherjee, Published on 04/06/2024
» Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set for a landslide victory in India's general election. Or so claims nearly every exit poll released since the end of voting on Saturday evening. Yet, these surveys have proved spectacularly wrong in the past, and they must be read even more cautiously this time around because of the Modi government's outsize sway on the television stations that commission them.
Will justice be served?
Oped, Editorial, Published on 01/06/2024
» The arrest of inmate Chaowalit "Sia Paeng Nanod" Thongduang has helped to boost the sagging image of Thai justice and our law enforcers.
Protests of both despair and conflict in Gaza
Oped, Published on 30/05/2024
» These are crazy times. Biblical disturbances in nature, such as the repeated torrential rain in Dubai or the mass fish die-off in Vietnam's overheated reservoir, seem to mirror our overheated politics and social environment.
Thailand's judiciary faces challenges
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 24/05/2024
» Thailand appears to be a country of 70 million, ultimately ruled by an unelected few. This sobering reality was on display when two connected groups of top generals seized power from democratically elected governments in September 2006 and May 2014. Unlike these blatant military coups over the past two decades, at issue now is the power and role of the judiciary. While Thailand has another democratically elected civilian government under Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, the question that needs to be asked is whether the country is effectively under judicial rule.
Has crunch time arrived for 'Bibi' Netanyahu?
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 24/05/2024
» It has not been a good week for Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu, chief decision-maker in the war in the Gaza Strip that has already cost at least 35,000 civilian deaths. (Some thousands of those 35,000 may have been Hamas fighters.)
India Inc must only cheer growth, not question it
News, Andy Mukherjee, Published on 22/05/2024
» Large parts of corporate India aren't exactly feeling the economy's world-beating growth performance. But woe to those who dare to question it.
A small Slovak assassination bid; few hurt
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 21/05/2024
» Madeleine Albright, the former US Secretary of State, once called Slovakia "the black hole at the heart of Europe", which seems a harsh judgement on five million Slovaks. The assassination attempt on Prime Minister Robert Fico was alarming, but we can narrow the problem down to a more specific group of people.