• OPINION

  Knives are out in death penalty row

  News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 23/06/2018

  » To execute or not to execute, the question weighed on Thai society in the past week with the force of righteous anger. It is a tough question, one that lays bare the complex intersection of morality, law, religion, belief, value, and even the position of the country on the spectrum along which the international norm is moving.

• OPINION

  Movies shine light on dark Thai truths

  News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 09/12/2017

  » Last week, I watched a South Korean film called A Taxi Driver. Based on a true story, it's the account of a cabby who secretly drove a German journalist to cover the 1980 pro-democracy demonstration in Gwangju, a dramatic uprising that toppled Maj General Chun Doo-hwan, the ruler of the country at the time.

• OPINION

  'Bob' Halliday gone, but his light lives on

  News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 03/06/2017

  » Bob told me many stories from a time when I hadn't even been born: During the Oct 14, 1973 student uprising, the authorities suspected he was a spy. When the Oct 6, 1976 massacre took place and the stench of blood was still fresh at Thammasat University, he surveyed the wreckage and bemoaned the state of the country he had adopted as his new home. Some evenings he reminisced on how he had lived through several dictators and prime ministers, hijacked or elected, overthrown or incapacitated -- he talked about Richard Nixon, Thanom Kittikachorn, Tanin Kraivixien, Thaksin Shinawatra, Prayut Chan-o-cha, etc. It didn't matter what happened, he'd say, as long as he could prowl produce markets in search of the perfect durian -- the caramelised Holy Grail of the fruit he adored above all else, the fruit that, as he'd say, made him "slobber like a mastiff".

• OPINION

  Proustian questions for our leaders

  Oped, Kong Rithdee, Published on 26/12/2015

  » What is your idea of perfect happiness? When 99.5% of respondents in a government-sponsored poll think that the government is the best thing that ever happened for this country. Or maybe in the all of the universe, because such figures are even higher than God's rating.

• OPINION

  For a ghost of a chance, use your talisman

  News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 01/10/2016

  » On Wednesday Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha talked for 135 minutes at the Bangkok Post Forum, more than Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton on Monday combined. And this isn't even an election campaign. A good soldier, he's unfazed by the presence of enemies and microphone. From the podium, arms outstretched, the PM touched on a lot of topics: Thai education, the economy, Section 44, Thailand as a "developed" country, the 20-year prophecy, etc. But what struck me like a hammer was when the general mentioned ghosts.

• OPINION

  A nation of millions can't hold them back

  News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 29/10/2018

  » Rhymes and misdemeanours. Yo, yo. Rappers are threatened to be thrown in a slammer.

• OPINION

  Thai idols fall in line with orthodoxy

  News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 01/09/2018

  » Poor coup-makers, no one wants to see them on TV. At 6pm sharp when the theme song begins, there's a rush of hands to the remote control. Not that you can escape them. The true mark of dictatorship is audiovisual dictatorship: They beam their images on every TV and radio channel, monopolising your sensory reception, like a sci-fi movie, or like a spoiled child demanding your full attention. At 6pm every day for the past four years, the hands clutching the remote have reached for the only possible button. Off.

• OPINION

  Armed to the teeth, with no battle to fight

  News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 15/07/2017

  » When everyone else is dead, the arms dealers will sip champagne and cuddle Playboy bunnies. Why? "Because everyone else will be busy killing each other," said Yuri Orlov, the arms dealer in Lord of War as portrayed by Nicolas Cage. When his client orders him a shipment of machine guns used in Rambo, Mr Orlov, an award-winning salesperson, asks, "Rambo part 1, 2 or 3?"

• OPINION

  Graft nosedive comes as no surprise at all

  News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 28/01/2017

  » 'We're disappointed," said Sansern Poljeak of the National Anti-Corruption Commission. Sir, we're more disappointed, as citizens who pay tax without fail, to the government to help the NACC battle corruption.

• OPINION

  Sucking the wind out of the elections

  News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 05/05/2018

  » The verb of the week is "to dood".

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