Showing 1 - 10 of 10
Time is on our side
Life, Thana Boonlert, Published on 15/08/2022
» Win or lose, a protest is a process of trial and error. To put it simply, it is disruption, innovation, or something in between, just the way the now-defunct but shape-shifting Future Forward Party was in 2019 because it is born out of a spirit, not a person or a party. If the student-led demonstration goes down in history for demanding the boldest political reform, including the role of the monarchy, its resurrection last week proves that the pro-democracy movement is coming of age.
#BehindTheHashtags
Guru, Pornchai Sereemongkonpol, Published on 06/03/2020
» Many student protests that were partly set off by the dissolution of Future Forward Party over the past two weeks has also ushered in new hashtags into the lexicon of Thai social media. At the time of writing, it has been reported that there are 28 hashtags associated with campus protests. Some are humourous while others carry strong political stances and sharp gibes. Whether you agree with these students who've chosen to make their voices heard, it's better to get used to their protest hashtags as more student flashmobs are on their way (but many speculate that the designation of Covid-19 as a dangerous communicable disease may be used as a tool to suppress them). Not to mention, an online campaign calling for people to wear black on Fridays as a symbol to oppose dictatorship began last Friday.
Thailand's tale told via 'The Nation'
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 28/06/2019
» Nearly five decades ago, The Nation newspaper started out as a pro-democracy, anti-military news organisation. It was fiercely independent and invariably hard-hitting vis-à-vis the powers-that-be. An English-language newspaper owned by Thais from the outset, it prided itself for having neither fear nor favour. Its lamentable expiry as a print newspaper today -- an online version will continue -- provides multiple parallels for Thailand's contemporary political history, ongoing polarisation and the changing nature of the business of journalism worldwide.
'My country's got' these socio-political ills
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 02/11/2018
» The explosive Rap Against Dictatorship music video that has taken Thailand by storm has raised myriad socio-political questions and issues. Known in Thai as <i>Prathet Ku Mee</i>, the sensational music video has been viewed on YouTube more than 25 million times in just 10 days in a country of 69 million people, a feat in its own right and a record for its artistic kind in Thailand. How this five-minute rap song in the Thai language has done so much says a lot about where Thailand has been and where it is going.
A sad end to popular online comic strip Khai Maew
News, Pirongrong Ramasoota, Published on 22/01/2018
» Last Thursday, the Facebook page of the famous online political cartoon Khai Maew vanished from the social media site where it earlier had resided on Facebook as "cartooneggcat" for the past one year, eight months and three days. While the page's disappearance was sudden, the cause remains unclear.
An Ithaca idyll with Surin Pitsuwan
News, Philip J Cunningham, Published on 04/12/2017
» During Surin Pitsuwan's visit to Ithaca, New York, this past September, a barbecue party was arranged by long-time family friends who live on the edge of town where the still lush and green rural surroundings could at a glance be mistaken for rural Thailand. Chickens cackled in a nearby coop and birdsong was everywhere in the air.
Funeral books shed light on People's Party
News, Suthachai Yimprasert, Published on 24/06/2017
» The 1932 memorial plaque incident is a key political event that we will be commemorating in what is a markedly different atmosphere relative to years past.
Coming to terms with a brutal history
News, Kritsada Supawattanakul, Published on 06/10/2016
» Neal Ulevich's awarding-winning picture of a man who was about to beat a dead man hanged from a tamarind tree as a group of people looked on in Sanam Luang is one of the most recognised records of the brutal crackdown on pro-democracy students that took place 40 years ago today.
Semantics and Thailand's political divide
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 25/09/2015
» Language can be about power as much as communication. It can tear societies apart or bring them together, depending on its design and application.
Military regime can't turn back the clock of progress
News, Achara Ashayagachat, Published on 12/08/2014
» My memory of one of this country's democratic milestones — the student uprising of Oct 14, 1973 — was my grandmother sobbing while watching His Majesty the King's announcement on TV about a new government replacing the military dictatorship that students had tried to topple.