Category Archives: Uncategorized

Bangkok’s smog makes outside physical activity a little less than an inviting prospect, but tens of thousands braved the pollution today for a curious Sunday morning activity: exercise with a heavy political tone. ‘Run Against Dictatorship’ (#วิ่งไล่ลุง, literally ‘Run to Oust Uncle’) and ‘Walk for Prayut’ (#เดินเชียร์ลุง, or ‘Walk to Cheer Uncle’) were the most […]

Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai is not regarded to have a tendency to create headlines. Yet this week, the longtime diplomat found himself in the spotlight after an epic gaffe. The United States, Don said, had informed Thailand of its intentions regarding Iran one day before the strike on Soleimani. Surprising remarks, to be sure, given […]

Finals are coming, time is a limited resource but somehow interesting things in politics always happen when I’m busy. (Either that, or things are just always interesting in Thailand.) I do want to put in my two cents about the first large protest in Bangkok since 2014, however, so I decided to crank out a […]

Every year, unless they have been exempted through reserve training, Thai men at the age of 21 receive a letter in the mail instructing them to attend the military draft. It is a summons for a dreaded rite of passage: jub bai dum bai daeng, the red and black cards that they will pick through […]

Over the years, many friends have told me that they enjoy reading my writing, but wished they had a better grasp of Thai politics so that they could understand better what was going on. I thought about this for a while and decided that they have a point. One of my key goals in writing […]

“Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe, the more often and steadily we reflect upon them”, Immanuel Kant once said, “the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.” If the heavens above and morality within filled Kant with wonder, so has it been for Thais. The […]

It’s been a busy start to the semester here at Cal and time has not been something with which I have been well-endowed. But I do want to comment on the latest uproar in Thai politics over Prayut’s remarks at Asia Society in New York. The prime minister began with a riff about social media: […]

Thailand may have supposedly changed its system of governance in 1932, but it is well known that skepticism about democracy remains deeply entrenched amongst many Thais. It is not uncommon to observe some using democracy as a bit of a dirty word, representing in their view the wrongful empowerment of the ignorant masses who often […]

Why revise the constitution, some ask, when the government’s attention and toil would be better spent on improving people’s livelihoods? This is a question that has come up with ever-increasing frequency as the Future Forward party has organized town halls across the country to promote the idea of constitutional revision. Despite the bipartisan look that […]

Attention in Thai politics has been focused this week on the cabinet’s oath-taking error. The episode is worrying for several reasons. This was succinctly summarized by Parit Wacharasindhu: if it was an unintentional gaffe, it casts doubt Prayut’s ability to handle complex issues; if it was intentional, it puts into question his respect for a […]