Showing 1 - 10 of 15
How will post-poll Thailand look?
News, Surasak Glahan, Published on 20/08/2018
» Now the Election Commission and the National Council for Peace and Order have promised to hold the general election on Feb 24 next year, should we remain hopeful that the move will eventually lead Thailand to transition into a more democratic state? The answer largely depends on our expectations of the outcome, as well as the form of democracy that we want -- and we can look southeasterly to Cambodia, or westerly to Myanmar to get a rough idea of what Thailand's new beginning may be like.
Anti-populism law not for greater good
News, Surasak Glahan, Published on 09/05/2018
» Raising one finger during her campaigning to symbolise her party's ballot number ahead of the 2011 election, Yingluck Shinawatra rode a wave of popularity all the way to victory. And now the man who threw her caretaker government out of office in 2014 by force has demonstrated he is not shy of using a similar gimmick.
Demonisation of FFP looks so familiar
News, Surasak Glahan, Published on 20/01/2020
» As Vietnam has emerged as a Southeast Asian winner of the US-Sino trade war, Thailand's economic downturn is expected to worsen this year.
Tackling Asean's corporate cronyism
News, Surasak Glahan, Published on 03/10/2019
» Many Southeast Asian countries, particularly Thailand and Malaysia, have been breeding grounds for unchecked and unregulated relations between government and big conglomerates, which have kept a handful of crazy rich Asians increasingly wealthy and widened the income gap between them and the rest of the population.
History repeats as graftbusters fall flat
News, Surasak Glahan, Published on 04/01/2019
» If it was the subject of a piece of detective fiction, the long-running probe by the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) into allegations that Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon deliberately concealed assets in the form of over 20 luxury watches would probably be a colossal flop: forgotten overnight or ridiculed for years to come.
World Cup is fun, mystery killings are not
News, Surasak Glahan, Published on 18/06/2018
» Similar to the World Cup in Russia, the justice system in Thailand has never run short of spectators holding their breath hoping for a just and fair play. Like a football match, they pick their team.
An academic shift right will hurt society
News, Surasak Glahan, Published on 31/01/2018
» Part of me wishes the military government had been behind the recent ban on the publication of the results of a poll by the National Institute of Development Administration (Nida). Such state intimidation is not a good thing. But at least it's better than the reality -- self-censorship imposed by Nida's president or, put it another way, his preferred choice to not let public opinion influence an ongoing probe against one of the regime's top men.
Shall we bend the law to keep politicians honest?
News, Surasak Glahan, Published on 25/10/2017
» In the Land of Smiles where the judiciary has increasingly been a channel widely sought to settle political conflicts and end political cases, one minority judge's ruling on the case against ousted premier Yingluck Shinawatra reminds us how far we can go when it comes to criminal prosecution, or to put it in laymen's terms, putting someone in prison.
Prosecuting a country's 'CEO' a risky move
News, Surasak Glahan, Published on 27/07/2017
» Should chief executive officers (CEOs) who inflict losses on companies be jailed for mismanagement and then be forced to compensate the firms? If so, national leaders -- like ousted premier Yingluck Shinawatra who is undergoing a criminal trial for implementing the supposedly loss-ridden rice-pledging scheme -- could face the same prospect of punishment for a flawed project.
Regime's extreme laws won't cure problems
News, Surasak Glahan, Published on 03/08/2017
» Living in Thailand nowadays requires that we keep ourselves updated on new laws and new (and double?) standards of law enforcement, otherwise we may find ourselves in trouble.