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Thailand counts down to final, fond October
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 06/10/2017
» For the past four decades, the month of October has carried certain meanings and implications associated with a left-leaning student-led civil society uprising that overthrew a military dictatorship and a right-wing military-led suppression that crushed mostly university students and chased them into the jungle to join the local communist party.
Why the Thai people cry for His Majesty
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 21/10/2016
» While the vast majority of Thais at home and abroad are in a mourning mood, yearning for a bygone past with an emerging angst for what is to come after King Bhumibol Adulyadej's spectacular seven-decade reign, this grief is not universally shared. Not all Thais feel this way. A small minority are relatively indifferent in their reaction to the end of the reign. A smaller fraction may even challenge and oppose what looks like wide and deep grief and sorrow wherever in the world the Thai sphere reaches. This minority should be allowed to hold their beliefs and sentiments without persecution and harassment but they should also pay due respect to others who want to mourn.