Showing 1 - 7 of 7
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.
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.
Measuring poverty appropriately
Oped, Nurul Izzah Anwar, Published on 18/02/2022
» The 2019 Oscar-winning film Parasite attracted a global audience for its arresting portrayal of South Korea's stark income inequality. The movie's rendering of a low-income household's acute sense of alienation resonated widely, no doubt because similar sentiments are palpable in many other countries. And the gap between the haves and have-nots is growing, thanks to the dual challenges of Covid-19 and climate change.
An unexpectedly successful protest
Oped, Philip J Cunningham, Published on 23/09/2020
» A new generation of Thai protesters has broken into the open, and while their defiant self-image as the generation that will finally fix things may be naive, they have already left their mark with the unexpectedly successful demonstration at Sanam Luang in the heart of old Bangkok on Sept 19-20.