Showing 111 - 120 of 148
Standing up for Thailand
Asia focus, Umesh Pandey, Published on 25/07/2016
» It was about a decade ago that Kowit Sanandang, then the editor of the Bangkok Post, asked me to think of something that would be transformational in the years to come and how the newspaper should cover it. My first thought was of Asia and how it was becoming the engine of growth for the world.
Superficiality takes aim at Scala
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 04/06/2016
» There is a mix of rage, gloom and longing as, once again, the fate of the Scala theatre in Siam Square is questioned. To wreck is easy, to save is hard. The jackhammer screeches louder than nostalgia. Will the Scala, that quaint majesty stuck in a prime retail area, that solemn granddaddy in the flashy, messy, heavily commercialised quarter, be next to fall?
The politics and poetry of private jokes
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 28/05/2016
» Let's compare scores. In Thailand, a python had a wrestling match with a penis. In Myanmar, a dissenting poet was punished for a poem allegedly written on his penis. In the Philippines, the newly-elected president, aged 71, announced last month that he didn't want to "hang" his penis, and that "when I take Viagra, it stands up".
Thai hopes for decentralisation fade
News, Published on 23/05/2016
» Thailand's current state of local administration does not bode well for democracy. The National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), which took power two years ago, issued Order No. 22/2016 on May 4 that centralised power in the Ministry of the Interior.
Define 'referendum'
News, Postbag, Published on 13/04/2016
» Re: "State spies out on prowl for referendum mischief", (BP, April 11).
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss
News, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 25/02/2016
» I wonder if People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) protesters must, in one way or another, take responsibility for where we are now as a country, nearly two years under the military regime. This is if you care to look at the situation, out of curiosity and an attempt at straightforward reasoning, rather than vengefulness.
Draft seeks to erode checks and balances
News, Achara Ashayagachat, Published on 04/02/2016
» Less than a week after the unveiling of the revised draft charter, written by the Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC) under Meechai Ruchupan, it has drawn a chorus of criticism. There are explicit and justified reasons for several groups of people not to agree with the new version.
NLD believes Suu Kyi can be president
News, Larry Jagan, Published on 23/11/2015
» Myanmar's opposition leader is planning to be the country's next president after her party overwhelmingly won this month's polls. Although the constitution bars Aung San Suu Kyi from the position -- because she was married to a foreigner and her two children are foreign nationals -- she and her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), are preparing to nominate her when parliament convenes at the end of January.
Seeing the world through another's eyes
Life, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 13/11/2015
» As much as Facebook is a virtual space of borderless interaction, it has, for many, undeniably become our most immediate and primary news source. It's a personalised pool of information, which though we have chosen consciously, can transform who we are and the way we think without our even realising it. And I have often wondered what it would be like to live, maybe for a day, in the social media world of other people's Facebook accounts.
Democratic era dawns on the generals
News, Larry Jagan, Published on 10/11/2015
» Aung San Suu Kyi and her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), are heading for a historic landslide victory in Sunday's elections. Although the official results are days away -- the charismatic pro-democracy leader seems certain to control the lower house, and may even have an absolute majority in the parliament as a whole.