Showing 1 - 10 of 11
Give migrant workers jabs
Oped, Editorial, Published on 09/10/2021
» The Thai Red Cross Society (TRCS) deserves praise for launching a Covid-19 vaccination campaign for undocumented migrant workers and refugees. Without legal status, they have been left without medical treatments and vaccines.
Control, don't subdue protests
News, Editorial, Published on 22/08/2021
» Frontline workers despaired as they were unable to get to where they were needed the most. Teenagers, caught in the crossfire between security forces and protesters, became victims of indiscriminate shooting -- one of whom remained in a coma as of yesterday. Terrified residents, hoping to escape the worst of the clashes by sheltering in their apartment blocks, ended up as victims after tear gas -- hurled to disperse rioters, authorities say -- landed on their porch instead.
Respect the role of journalists
News, Editorial, Published on 04/04/2021
» The government has been raising eyebrows recently with its approach to journalists. Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha's supposedly comical spraying of sanitiser on reporters in an apparent attempt to avoid some tough questions last month was a memorable spectacle. This past week, he told a reporter to uncross her legs during a press conference at Government House. The reporter was barred from Government House -- allegedly not for her lack of good manners but her behaviour on social media. Feel a bit like school?
Freedom in a perilous state
News, Editorial, Published on 09/03/2021
» About a year after Thailand under the Prayut Chan-o-cha government could boast about a small improvement in its freedom ranking, as rated annually by Freedom House, the country has suffered a setback with it damningly described as no longer having any freedom at all -- a position it held during the coup years.
Tank splurge beyond pale
News, Editorial, Published on 07/09/2019
» At a time when people are feeling the pinch of the economic downturn, the army's recent and planned multi-billion-baht purchases of "refurbished" tanks from the US have provoked the ire of many. The growing criticism is understandable. Taxpayers are still largely kept in the dark over why and how their money is spent on these and other military hardware and weapons listed in the military's post-2014 coup shopping cart.
Time to come clean on secret CIA prison
News, Editorial, Published on 27/05/2018
» Now Gina Haspel has been sworn in as the CIA's first female director, it is time the government speak out on a matter in which it has kept silent for over a decade.
End Obama war legacy
News, Editorial, Published on 06/02/2017
» When outgoing United States president Barack Obama peacefully turned over power to his successor Donald Trump -- a mark of true democracy -- he also handed him some seven separate wars. Four days later, the military and intelligence community briefed Mr Trump on the controversial and costly war in Yemen. Five days after that, on Jan 29, he ordered a raid by the famous US Navy SEAL Team 6. President Trump's order was to kill a top-level al-Qaeda commander and seize documents from his Bayda province compound.
Guterres faces tough tasks
News, Editorial, Published on 07/10/2016
» The UN Security Council decision on Wednesday to choose former Portuguese prime minister Antonio Guterres as the next United Nations secretary-general lends hope for reform at the agency and resolving ongoing crises across the world. As former head of the UN High Commission for Refugees for 10 years, Mr Guterres will face diplomatic tests in leading the 71-year-old agency to work with all governments and broker consensuses on thorny issues, particularly ongoing tensions and conflicts in Asia and other continents.
Terrorism is all too real
News, Editorial, Published on 06/06/2016
» The new US report on world terrorism offers some positives for Thailand, which makes a nice change by Washington. The Country Reports on Terrorism 2015, however, does show some weaknesses in security that the government would be wise to take action to address. These apply to the detection and prosecution of would-be terrorists. The report lauded Thailand for its continuing support in the fight against international terrorism, but suggested both the government and specialist units could do more.
An atrocity in Florida
News, Editorial, Published on 14/06/2016
» The barbarous butchery carried out by one man in a Florida gay nightclub indicates failures on several fronts. Omar Mateen, son of an Afghan refugee and salesman and consumed by hatred, opened fire and killed at least 50 people on the spot. By all accounts, he was motivated by two things. First was his growing and finally overwhelming hatred of the gay community, particularly gay men. Second was the call by the Islamic State (IS) for "lone wolf" terrorist attacks during Ramadan.