Showing 1 - 10 of 78
The hand that feeds them
News, Alan Dawson, Published on 03/03/2019
» When the columnists and panjandrums and degree-clutchers come to analyse the state of Thailand in mid- and late May, it's probably this past week that will fascinate them.
Indictment of the innocent
News, Alan Dawson, Published on 17/02/2019
» It wasn't a good week for those who claim the March 24 general election will be free and fair. The "gateway to resumption of government accountability and democracy building" seemed firmly closed.
Easy choices made difficult
News, Alan Dawson, Published on 23/12/2018
» Lucius Edward William Plantagenet Cary, aka Lord Falkland, went to his death in the English Civil war, leaving little of note except a rule that could be the official motto of libertarians.
Still watching
News, Alan Dawson, Published on 16/12/2018
» In its infinite benevolence and wisdom and all-around sacrifice, the exclusive men's club known as the National Council for Peace and Order (Junta) gave back some of the stuff they took from us four and a half years ago.
The death of vote-buying
News, Alan Dawson, Published on 25/11/2018
» The government announced a brand new and unexpected Big Welfare Aid Programme (BWAP). Cynics, sceptics, anti-regime critics and even honest people wondered if the sudden decision to help the least-advantaged Thais just possibly has something to do with that other government programme -- so tantalisingly unspecified -- of an election that for the fourth year in a row has been pencilled in for, in the highly familiar phrase used by the general prime minister, "next year".
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.
Watching the vote
News, Alan Dawson, Published on 11/11/2018
» Foreign and Thai groups want official accreditation to monitor the next general election, whenever it occurs. And the government has instantly invited all such groups to kick rocks.
The kids are all right
News, Alan Dawson, Published on 28/10/2018
» Prathet Ku Mee is no slapped-together concert song. It wasn't made, so much as crafted. The accusatory lyrics are set against the shameful, hovering background of the 1976 dictators' massacre at Thammasat University. The rap song's finale brings the background image of the hanged, beaten student to the front of the picture, before fading out to the hopeful message, "All people unite".
The three gutsy peers
News, Alan Dawson, Published on 16/09/2018
» The six-month Bangkok Shutdown campaign may have given off an aura of fun and games with a positive outcome for the green shirts and a negative one for the reds.
The good old days
News, Alan Dawson, Published on 09/09/2018
» If you've ever said in support of the coup regime that, yes, it's great that junta and government are dedicated to returning Thailand to those good old days, then you'll be forever grateful to the national police chief and the whole bunch of the unreformed Royal Thai Police.