Showing 1 - 10 of 12
Govt must focus on virus, not information
News, Surasak Glahan, Published on 26/03/2020
» It was supposed to be a strong pill prescribed to contain the spread of Covid-19. But the chilling reality is the invocation of the Emergency Decree, which goes into effect from Thursday and will run until the end of April, is regularly misused by the authorities to curb freedom of speech and free flow of information.
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.
Political cases may bode ill for democracy
Oped, Surasak Glahan, Published on 28/02/2019
» The uniquely Thai way of sabotaging popular political parties and their leaders with surprising ease yielded further progress yesterday, as the fate of the executives at the helm of the Future Forward Party (FFP) and Thai Raksa Chart Party (TRC) were left hanging in the balance.
Hard lyrics shame the status quo
News, Surasak Glahan, Published on 28/10/2018
» Are the powers that be threatened by a rap song? This question came to mind on Friday after finding out how the police and the government had reacted to the song, <i>Prathet Ku Mee</i> (What My Country's Got) by young all-male Thai rappers, Rap Against Dictatorship. It prompted me to check out the video on YouTube. Since then I've kept replaying it. I've also got an answer.
The faux democracy that Prayut may build
News, Surasak Glahan, Published on 19/09/2018
» When building a house, hiring a contractor whose credentials are more about demolishing structures than building new ones could turn into a nightmare. You could hardly blame such an inexperienced contractor if your house collapsed.
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.
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.
Let's hear it for the year's real heroes
News, Surasak Glahan, Published on 25/12/2017
» With the constant chilly breeze in the evening and nice temperatures during the day, the cold spell this year has been more generous to Bangkokians than the increasingly suppressive political climate (We have been through many rounds of political turmoil for years, but had rarely experienced this kind of pleasant winter.)
Govt 'victories' become our nightmares
News, Surasak Glahan, Published on 27/05/2017
» Being overly critical of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) may not help if you want to be in a state of sanity while gauging its three-year performance and trying to understand why the regime and its cheerleaders still think it has done a great job and should prolong its stay in power.
The reason the govt wants media control
News, Surasak Glahan, Published on 01/02/2017
» The relationship between the military and most media outlets is not bad, even though it is not completely friendly either. So why is the regime's reform body proposing a bill to control the media?