Showing 1 - 10 of 26
Thaksin flies out, Pheu Thai in freefall
News, Chairith Yonpiam, Published on 06/09/2025
» Thaksin Shinawatra's abrupt departure to Dubai has dealt a heavy blow to the Pheu Thai Party as it made a last-ditch effort, albeit unsuccessfully, to remain at the helm. Many see the latest developments as a final curtain for the embattled party.
Thamanat aiming to push Bhumjaithai out of coalition
Oped, Chairith Yonpiam, Published on 17/05/2025
» The latest “cobra” incident — involving a politician defecting to the Klatham Party — demonstrates Capt Thamanat Prompow’s fervent attempts to make his party an alternative choice for the Paetongtarn Shinawatra government.
Till politics do us part
Published on 28/04/2025
» Re: "Thaksin plays down coalition rift", (BP, April 27).
Myanmar's civil war after four years
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 31/01/2025
» Four years after its military coup and consequent civil war, Myanmar's spotlight in global headlines continues to dim as geostrategic reorientations and realignments among the major powers take centre stage. Dramatic and drastic foreign policy changes are afoot in the United States under the second administration of President Donald J Trump, while the European Union faces an existential threat from Russia's aggression in Ukraine, and Japan is mired in political sclerosis at home. Myanmar's fate and future will thus likely be determined by the course and outcome of its civil war, China's expanding influence in the country and Asean member states' manoeuvres to a lesser extent.
Two wasted decades in Thai politics
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 20/12/2024
» Now that Thaksin Shinawatra appears actively back in Thai politics, it is demoralising to look back at Thailand's wasted time and opportunities. Once a promising country on the way from democratic transition to consolidation in the late 1990s, Thailand has become semi-autocratic, and its rocky political trajectory over the past two decades is now structural. The traditional institutions of power that grew out of the Cold War have been calling the shots in earlier decades and are just unwilling to let the country move forward in the immediate years ahead.
Uncharted territory and a case of déjà vu
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 09/08/2024
» Another dissolution of another election winner should feel old in Thai politics. But what happened to Move Forward Party is not just déjà vu but uncharted territory. Its dissolution fits a recurrent pattern of systematic subversion of democratic institutions in favour of autocratic preferences in disregard of the will of the majority. The Constitutional Court's breakup of Move Forward also breaks new ground that is increasingly taking centre stage in Thailand's political landscape.
Myanmar revolts against dictatorship
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 02/02/2024
» When Myanmar's military coup took place three years ago, few thought it would turn out this way. Never has a military in Southeast Asia staged a successful coup and then failed to consolidate power afterwards. Yet this is precisely what's happening in Myanmar. A fierce and determined coalition of resistance forces is in the process of prevailing over Myanmar's battle-hardened army.
Thai charter court deserves scrutiny
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 04/08/2023
» Amid the volatility and confusion during the interim since the May 14 election, Thailand's Constitutional Court has further thickened the plot by accepting a petition to rule on whether a parliamentary vote using the meeting rules to deny the renomination of Move Forward Party leader Pita Limjaroenrat's premiership was unconstitutional.
Is Germany Europe's new defining military power?
News, Peter Apps, Published on 01/07/2023
» As pundits and Western officials speculated wildly this week on what the apparent exile of the Wagner Group and its chief Yevgeniy Prighozin to Belarus might mean, Germany announced it would move to base 4,000 troops -- an entire combat brigade -- in neighbouring Lithuania.
My breakup with TikTok was a return to reality
Oped, Vishal Karuppasamy, Published on 12/04/2023
» It was 2.30am, and I was lying in bed with my phone in my hand and my TikTok "For You" page fired up. I knew I shouldn't be awake. A month into my junior year of high school, my workload was already piling up. If I didn't get at least a few hours of sleep before my alarm went off, I would pay for it in class the next day.