Showing 31 - 40 of 62
Time to take a stand against harassment
News, Editorial, Published on 08/04/2018
» A great time for revellers to enjoy water fights and splashing, Songkran has also become a hotbed for sex crimes. This year, authorities seem to acknowledge this problem. But they have come up with a poor solution. Instead of telling men not to grope women, they advise women not to put themselves up to becoming victims.
Do away with conscription
News, Editorial, Published on 24/03/2018
» Despite Thailand not being at war, another batch of young Thai men will be drafted early next month to serve in the military against their will. This costly and unnecessary annual military conscription, which has existed by default for decades, needs a rethink. Many countries have abolished it. Thailand has no reason to carry on with it.
Good sports, bad sports
News, Editorial, Published on 07/02/2018
» The Winter Olympic Games begin on Friday at Pyeongchang in eastern South Korea. There has been plenty of good news around this biennial, international gathering. Thailand will have four competitors in the skiing competition. That puts the emphasis on the Olympics as an event of peace and participation, as well as competition. Unexpectedly, North Korea decided at the last moment to join and to participate in the Pyeongchang Games.
The dawn of a new year
News, Editorial, Published on 01/01/2018
» With a single exception, the past year for Thailand has felt like a quiet period. The nation hopes it was not the lull before the storm. The leader of the military regime, after more than three years of ordering one delay after another, has promised in writing to take the first step towards resuming democratic principles before this new year is out. The country expects Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to meet that promise within 11 months from today.
Drug fight off the rails
News, Editorial, Published on 18/10/2017
» The government continues to press on with its failed war on drugs, when the country would be better served by a serious effort to reform this old programme. Last week, secretary-general of the Office of the Narcotics Control Board Sirinya Sitdhichai announced the agency was to assume yet another new power. He says he and ONCB enforcement agents can now hold parcel delivery firms responsible if they carry drugs.
Dress the Tak Bai wound
News, Editorial, Published on 16/10/2017
» The 13th anniversary of the Tak Bai "incident" is coming next week. Authorities in the South claim to be worried that insurgents might mark that shameful event with terrorist attacks. That is a clear and present danger, but the people who should be most worried have so far stayed silent and perhaps oblivious. The military government and the army have the power to take away the resentment and motive for violence, but once again have chosen not to act.
Deaths sully army image
News, Editorial, Published on 26/08/2017
» Another young conscript has died in mysterious circumstances. This time the incident took place at a military base in Surat Thani.
Dangerous militancy
News, Editorial, Published on 23/08/2017
» A father's tragic tale shows how far behind the military regime has fallen in the never-ending struggle in the deep South. Maruding Arwae came forward last week to apologise and explain the sudden and secret conversion of his 27-year-old son from model citizen to slain terrorist. The change was so sudden it stunned the parents he lived with. It was so covert that it almost certainly was the first public case of change via internet.
Off-putting celebration
News, Editorial, Published on 27/06/2017
» The ruling National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) has done itself no favours in the last few days. Its treatment of the June 24 anniversary of the 1932 revolution was a self-inflicted shot to the foot. The arrest of a pro-democracy activist was self-defeating. The appalling decision to block a YouTube video clip of Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator has once again put Thailand on the world's media front pages -- as a laughing stock.
Police reform in sorry state
News, Editorial, Published on 17/06/2017
» Allegations about position buying in the police force, which have drawn widespread criticism, reinforce the need for urgent reform of the "boys in brown".