• News & article

  Aviation crisis looms large

  News, Editorial, Published on 03/12/2015

  » The US Federal Aviation Authority's announcement on Tuesday to downgrade Thailand's aviation safety rating from Category I to Category II is not beyond expectation among people in the aviation industry.

• News & article

  Dolls just one of many fads

  News, Editorial, Published on 28/01/2016

  » The concern voiced just a few days ago by Justice Minister Paiboon Koomchaya that the "angel child" or luk thep dolls might be used to smuggle drugs on board a commercial plane has been proven to be true.

• News & article

  Obama must be realistic

  News, Editorial, Published on 25/05/2016

  » US President Barack Obama is in Asia once again. His 10th trip takes him to Vietnam and, later this week, to Japan. The focus of the US leader is to continue his agonisingly slow "pivot" to Asia of US security policy. There is far more on the agenda than upgrading Vietnam ties. China, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the fight against the Islamic State and Myanmar's halting progress to democracy all are being addressed.

• News & article

  Media gag needs rethink

  News, Editorial, Published on 18/07/2016

  » When Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha returns to work after the long holiday, he should put the question of censorship at the top of his "to-do" list. One of his last orders before the long weekend was to appoint the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission as national censor for everything that is broadcast. He used his wide powers under Section 44 to make the appointment, and he should now consider taking it back. Even if one accepts that media censorship is necessary, the broadcasting regulators are the wrong choice.

• News & article

  Pay rise is uncalled for

  News, Editorial, Published on 09/11/2016

  » The committee in charge of brainstorming reform has been silent for some time. Last weekend, however, it came up with its strangest idea yet. It sought backing to raise the salaries of government officials and parliamentarians. This is not just a normal pay rise of a few percentage points. The National Reform Steering Assembly (NRSA) proposed laws to double and triple the current level of remuneration.

• News & article

  THAI must unravel corruption claim

  News, Editorial, Published on 22/01/2017

  » They said corruption leaves no receipts. The damning revelation by Britain's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) regarding alleged bribery by engineering giant Rolls-Royce to "agents of the state of Thailand and employees of THAI Airways" to influence purchases of its engines is as good as one.

• News & article

  We are losing the fight against graft

  News, Editorial, Published on 29/01/2017

  » Graft-busting agencies are expected to give a vow to identify suspects in bribery allegations implicating several Thai companies and state enterprises in recent revelations by the United Kingdom's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and the United States Department of Justice.

• News & article

  The futility of the NACC

  News, Editorial, Published on 31/01/2017

  » The past two weeks have seen more details about high-level corruption emerge than any similar period in memory. There have been details of eye-watering amounts of bribery over foreign purchases of aircraft engines. Agents of the top state-run telephone and electricity suppliers received kickbacks for buying hundreds of kilometres of wire. The world's most respected graft watcher reported that 100 countries have less corruption than Thailand. Depressingly, it is clear for now that the agencies tasked with fighting corruption are dragging their feet.

• News & article

  Cover-up by obfuscation

  News, Editorial, Published on 07/02/2017

  » The semi-tortuous attempts to avoid investigation and evade accountability in the spate of recent corruption cases is as disappointing as it is ugly to watch.

• News & article

  Failing the graft battle

  News, Editorial, Published on 28/02/2017

  » From all evidence, corruption is flourishing at high levels, and for the corrupt, their crime pays, even when it is exposed. The country's top two graftbusters raised questions recently whether they deserve the description. The official anti-corruption agency operating under the constitution for 20 years admitted it is poorly organised. The unofficial but respected agency funded by Big Business displayed appalling lack of awareness.

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