Writer and political analyst
On April 8th, as Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha was about to enter a van, he gave some brief remarks to the press. The coronavirus had returned to Thailand with a vengeance, after a cluster of cases found in Thonglor’s entertainment centers, and cases were threatening to spike right before the Songkran break. “Whatever happens, happens,” …
Continue reading "Thailand’s Worst Coronavirus Surge Puts Government on the Line"
I didn’t think too much of it at first when I first opened Vice’s article on the victims of the Khmer Rouge genocide. The article covered a project by Matt Loughrey, an Irish artist who has been working to colorize headshots of the people that were murdered in the S-21 prison in Cambodia, now known …
Continue reading "Photoshopping Khmer Rouge Victim Photos Was Altering History"
Last May, Thai-American actor James Tang tweeted, “My mom said we should speak Thai in public so we don’t get targeted for speaking Mandarin.” Oh, such motherly innocence! “I think it’s so sweet that she’s nice enough to believe that these stupid f***king racists can differentiate between Asian languages,” Tang added. A year later, however, …
Continue reading "A Reflection on the Rise in Asian-American Hate Crimes"
Thailand held its long-delayed municipal elections this past Sunday. This was the second round of local elections, following the polls held last year for Provincial Administration Organization (PAO) seats. Thailand uses the thesaban system to govern municipalities. According to this system, there are three types of municipalities depending on the total population, population density and gross income: thesaban …
Continue reading "Analysis: Thailand’s 2021 Municipal Election Results"
Forgot to post this earlier - after this article was published, the third reading of the constitution amendment bill was indeed voted down in parliament. But the point of this piece still stands... The Constitutional Court’s recent verdict on the legality of constitutional amendment seems straightforward at initial glance. Any effort to write a new …
Continue reading "Constitutional Reform Efforts Staring at a Dead End"
I was in first grade when I woke up, one fateful day in 2006, to go to school. Alas, school was cancelled. A military coup was happening. A military coup? Meaningless words to a first grader, but at least it meant more time to sleep. Almost fifteen years have now gone by since that military …
Continue reading "Thaksin’s Complicated Legacy Under Re-interpretation"
In Thai, there is an oft-used phrase: tok ma tai, “to die after falling off a horse.” It is an idiom that describes how someone can do something well almost to completion, only to make a mess of things just before reaching the finish line. For many, this is an idiom that increasingly looks fitting for …
Continue reading "Government’s Vaccine Strategy Must Remain Under Scrutiny"
On January 28th, the Atlantic Council published “The Longer Telegram”, written by an anonymous author described as a former senior government official with extensive experience dealing with China. Its source of inspiration is, as its name suggests, no other than the Long Telegram, the article that set forth America’s national strategy of containment written by …
In 2014, the Thai military launched a coup and democracy was suspended. In 2015, Myanmar held an election that was convincingly won by Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy. It seemed like a stunning role reversal. Thailand’s democracy had always been unstable, but the country had always seemed more free and further in …
Continue reading "Myanmar Coup is a Reminder of Democracy’s Fragility"
In 2006, a Thai-produced animated movie called Kan Kluay was released. It was a heart-warming story, set during the Ayutthaya period, about an elephant that, after trials and tribulations in life, became King Naresuan’s war elephant. The king rode Kan Kluay as he battled the invading forces of the Burmese, culminating in the yutthahathee, the elephant duel between …
Continue reading "Time for Thailand to Move Beyond Typical Patriotic Films"
