Showing 1 - 10 of 15
China military purge exposes Xi's unease
News, John J Metzler, Published on 14/02/2026
» Strange and mysterious events are transpiring inside the walls of Beijing's Forbidden City. In the massive nearby government compound Zhongnanhai there's a clear unease as Communist Party Chief and military supremo Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, has shuffled the political cards in the powerful Central Military Commission (CMC), by purging his two top generals.
A year of shocks, but Thailand endures
News, Kavi Chongkittavorn, Published on 30/12/2025
» The year 2025 is not just your typical annus horribilis. Some may say that an appropriate term to describe the year is "hell on earth," or narok bon din in Thai, when many bad things happen all at once.
Thailand's costly political shenanigans
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 22/08/2025
» In a country of 70 million where a handful of men can remove an elected government time and again, there can be no stability and progress, only tension and regression. This is how Thailand can be characterised over the past two decades. It is now going through yet another cycle of heightened political instability with the potential collapse of the government under suspended Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra in the footsteps of previous leaders who were similarly ousted by the Constitutional Court.
Corrupt monks have lost their way
Oped, Sanitsuda Ekachai, Published on 14/07/2025
» Just as Thailand was about to celebrate Asalha Bucha Day and the start of Buddhist Lent, the nation was gripped by the biggest sex scandal ever to rock its clergy. How irony.
PM's crisis and Thai political directions
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 27/06/2025
» What began just a month ago as a minor border dispute with Cambodia has spiralled into an existential political crisis in Thailand. In what she understood to be a private phone conversation with Cambodia's former prime minister and Senate President, Hun Sen, Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra compromised her premiership and undermined Thai national interests. While she tries to ride out the storm, her tenure appears wobbly and unworkable. What comes next will likely proceed in one of three directions revolving around the Thai parliamentary processes, each with its own scenarios and considerations.
Hope dies in Thailand's broken system
Oped, Sanitsuda Ekachai, Published on 28/02/2025
» A woman, stunned, her husband holding her hand as she walks down the courthouse stairs. Prof Pirongrong Ramasoota, a respected scholar and commissioner of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC), has been sentenced to two years in jail. Her crime? Having a dispute with a corporate giant during her work as a state media regulator.
Capital idea, Indonesia. Now for some reality
News, Daniel Moss, Published on 21/08/2024
» Capital cities don't just happen. They develop slowly over decades, perhaps centuries, before resembling their creator's dream -- if they ever do. Indonesia is discovering such massive endeavours are hard work and prone to delays. Economics has an annoying habit of intruding.
Stimuli aren't enough
Postbag, Published on 02/06/2024
» Re: "Economic stimuli in the works," (BP, May 27).
When legal battles shake democracies
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 10/08/2023
» Three of the world's biggest democracies, all with past, present and/or prospective leaders facing prison at the same time. In the end, it's the courts that decide.
Halloween tragedy tests Seoul's unpopular leader
News, Gearoid Reidy, Published on 03/11/2022
» A nightmarish disaster whose victims were predominantly the young. A right-of-centre leader whose popularity is sliding. A political flashpoint potentially in the making once the nation absorbs the tragedy.