Showing 1 - 10 of 32
When students rise
Life, Thana Boonlert, Published on 28/10/2025
» Back in the mid-19th century, female education increased literacy and access to jobs and they began to fight for participation in public life. The public sphere promised them a new horizon. From the 1890s onwards, print media began to allow women to express their voice and authors vaunted personal talent and equality, including gender relations. Following the Siamese Revolution in 1932, women were enfranchised for the first time.
Thai women still left holding the baby
Life, Thana Boonlert, Published on 18/03/2025
» If you buy abortion pills a day after 12 weeks of pregnancy, you have committed a crime.
The power of boycotts
Thana Boonlert, Published on 24/07/2023
» Soon after Move Forward Party (MFP) leader Pita Limjaroenrat failed to gather enough support for the premiership, some voters launched retaliatory campaigns with the hashtag #senatorbusiness to boycott business networks of handpicked junta senators who rejected him or abstained. Senators then took legal action against those who they believe harass them and their families. Voters are not only cutting off social relations but also punishing senators for committing crimes against democracy.
Songs for life as it's no longer lived
Life, Thana Boonlert, Published on 17/04/2023
» Ad Carabao's new song Prachathipatung revives the myth of vote-buying and ignorance in rural society. The title is a coinage blending prachathipatai (democracy) and tung (money). On the track, parents ask children to return to their home village to vote for local politicians who give them money. It puts into song from the political discourse of an urban middle class that expresses disdain for villagers along with antipathy for one type of money politics as well as full-fledged democracy.
Pita-Piyabutr row over, for now
News, Thana Boonlert, Published on 24/02/2023
» The Move Forward Party (MFP) on Thursday insisted the war of words between its leader, Pita Limjaroenrat, and Piyabutr Saengkanokkul, secretary-general of the Progressive Movement, was over.
Equality still a dream
Life, Thana Boonlert, Published on 09/01/2023
» In the lead-up to its second reading, the civil partnership draft bill marks a decade since its inception, dating back to a gay couple who were denied legal recognition in 2012 because the law limits marriage to a man and a woman. Given the conservatism of earlier decades, civil partnership was "the first brick" at a time when marriage equality was almost inconceivable. However, history is often ignored. Despite its long journey in conjunction with the new bill, the uphill push for marriage rights will remain an unfinished business under the current government.
Rethinking citizenship
Life, Thana Boonlert, Published on 03/10/2022
» What do you think when someone says those who are not loyal to the monarchy hate the nation?
The tough road to democratisation
Life, Thana Boonlert, Published on 03/10/2022
» Taiwan has been hailed as a textbook example of a successful transition to democracy. At the end of the civil war in 1949, Chiang Kai-shek, leader of the Kuomintang (KMT), lost to Mao Zedong's communist forces and fled to the island. After almost four decades of martial law until 1987, Taiwan eventually held its first presidential election in 1996.
On the road to equality
Life, Thana Boonlert, Published on 13/09/2022
» Joyce Teng remembers the day when Taiwan's parliament passed the same-sex marriage bill in 2019, making it the first country in Asia to recognise such a union. Thousands of supporters erupted in joy outside the parliament building in the capital.
Democracy gets graphic novel treatment in 2475
Life, Thana Boonlert, Published on 06/07/2022
» After two years of researching and brainstorming ideas, creators are crowdfunding a historical fiction project to convey the spirit of change in the 1932 Siamese Revolution.