• OPINION

  Young voices silenced

  News, Editorial, Published on 28/09/2019

  » The odds that a young Thai activist would be allowed to make a daring speech in front of the powers-that-be in Thailand, in the same vein as 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg at the UN climate summit, are not slim but nil. Since the 2014 coup, the ruling regimes and conservative forces have expected young political activists to keep their mouths shut or face trouble. Lately, one such person who has experienced firsthand the bitter consequences of daring to speak out is 23-year-old student activist Netiwit Chotiphatphaisal.

• OPINION

  Breaking a toxic deadlock

  News, Editorial, Published on 25/09/2019

  » Despite controlling the Department of Agriculture, Mananya Thaiset has struggled to make headway in her mission to ban the three toxic farm chemicals -- paraquat, glyphosate and chlorpyrifos. Frustrating the deputy agriculture and cooperatives minister's efforts are influential mandarins in the department who are refusing to cooperate.

• OPINION

  Freaking out over art

  News, Editorial, Published on 12/09/2019

  » The Ultraman/Buddha controversy seems to be spreading as a group of people calling themselves Chao Buddha Palang Phaen Din, or the Force of Buddhism, filed charges against the student who painted Lord Buddha as the 1970s-era superhero.

• OPINION

  A law inviting contempt

  News, Editorial, Published on 31/08/2019

  » Two recent cases involving criticism of the judiciary by two academics have sparked questions over what constitutes contempt of court. The debate centres on provisions in two laws governing court procedures.

• OPINION

  Chemical ban needs support

  News, Editorial, Published on 16/07/2019

  » Support from a group of opposition politicians to consider banning three highly toxic chemicals, namely paraquat, glyphosate and chlorpyrifos, has lent some hope for members of the public who want to see food made safer in a country that boasts it is "the kitchen of the world".

• OPINION

  Witch-hunts must end

  News, Editorial, Published on 12/06/2019

  » More than forty years ago, anti-monarchy accusations were among the propaganda tools used by far-right elements against student activists in the lead-up to the crackdown and massacre of at least 41 of them in October 1976.

• OPINION

  Men in green take step too far

  News, Editorial, Published on 10/03/2019

  » Friction between army chief Apirat Kongsompong and leader of the Seri Ruam Thai Party Sereepisuth Temeeyaves has raised the political mercury just two weeks from the election.

• OPINION

  A divisive one-note tune

  News, Editorial, Published on 20/02/2019

  » The troubling response of the army commander to a rather benign political campaign promise has quickly escalated. Gen Apirat Kongsompong didn't just try to refute the call to cut both the military budget and the number of general officers. He retaliated by reviving the most hateful song in Thai political history, and promised to flood military bases and the airwaves with it. It is a move with an ironclad guarantee of major political and national division.

• OPINION

  Something fishy about stadium ban

  News, Editorial, Published on 13/01/2019

  » The last minute U-turn by the Phayao Provincial Administration Organisation (PAO) in not allowing the Pheu Thai Party to use a district sports stadium for a campaign rally raises suspicions of possible foul play by state authorities.

• OPINION

  Defence is no joking matter

  News, Editorial, Published on 23/01/2019

  » Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon has been rightly pilloried in both local and foreign media lately. He has shown himself to be lacking in a too-long series of events. These have run from his luxury watches to last weekend's tasteless feast of mangoes and sticky rice. Still, there was something especially disconcerting and disappointing in his offensive and supremely unfunny "joke" about last week's terrorist attack on the Thai-managed DusitD2 hotel complex in Nairobi.

First Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Next Last