Showing 1 - 7 of 7
Thailand's spreading rot of irregularity
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 19/07/2024
» The rot in Thailand's institutional makeup has become so deep, dense and widespread that it can be found nearly everywhere there is controversy. Newly elected Senator Keskamol Pleansamai is the latest case in point. Just about everything that comes with her meteoric rise to the Senate spurs accusations of irregularity and impropriety.
Thailand's judiciary faces challenges
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 24/05/2024
» Thailand appears to be a country of 70 million, ultimately ruled by an unelected few. This sobering reality was on display when two connected groups of top generals seized power from democratically elected governments in September 2006 and May 2014. Unlike these blatant military coups over the past two decades, at issue now is the power and role of the judiciary. While Thailand has another democratically elected civilian government under Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, the question that needs to be asked is whether the country is effectively under judicial rule.
Our freedoms depend on press freedom too
News, Jodie Ginsberg, Published on 06/05/2024
» In just the first week of this year, at least 18 journalists were assaulted while covering alleged election irregularities and violence in Bangladesh. Then, in early February, journalists in Pakistan were hindered from covering elections by a wave of violence, widespread internet blackouts, and mobile-network suspensions. In March, journalists in Turkey were shot at and banned from observing local elections.
Why the oil market refuses to catastrophise
News, John Kemp, Published on 20/01/2024
» Psychologists sometimes warn anxious and depressed clients about the danger of catastrophising -- fixating on the worst possible outcome, exaggerating serious but unlikely risks rather than evaluating all outcomes rationally.
Ardern's exit and the persistence of other politicians
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 25/01/2023
» 'All political lives, unless they are cut off in midstream at a happy juncture, end in failure because that is the nature of politics and of human affairs," wrote British politician Enoch Powell half a century ago -- and then proceeded to demonstrate the truth of this proposition in his own lengthy but undistinguished political career.
Rohingya still a 'throwaway people'
News, Johanna Son, Published on 17/09/2019
» The second anniversary of the Rohingyas' exodus from Myanmar has come and gone, exposing how Southeast Asia's biggest humanitarian disaster in recent times has become a festering wound that all see but cannot or will not salve, much less heal.
Don't start celebrating Greece's bailout exit just yet
News, Paul Wallace, Published on 22/08/2018
» For once Europe has an exit to celebrate rather than dread. On Monday, more than eight years after its first euro zone bailout, Greece left its third financial rescue programme. This is a welcome Grexit, but before popping open the champagne it's important to remember that Athens remains in thrall to its European creditors, who have failed to put the Greek economy on a sustainable footing.