Tag: politics
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The Ironic Lady
This was not how it was meant to be. A month and a half ago, Theresa May, the British prime minister, stood confident in front of 10 Downing Street. She had come out to declare the need for a snap election to ensure that Brexit can properly be delivered. “Our opponents believe that because the…
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The Myopia of the Trump Administration
Donald Trump’s administration is incredibly myopic. This is the main takeaway from the president’s decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate change agreement. Let us first make clear that Trump’s announcement today was largely theatrical and will have no real impact on the Paris agreement itself. The reason for this is that…
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The Republicans Cross the Rubicon
Friends, Americans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury the GOP, not to praise them; The voters they need have abandoned them; The policies they want interred with their bones. The day has finally come when Trump accepted the Republican Party’s nomination for President of the United States. As he spoke- this time,…
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What Theresa May Must Decide
The image of a female leader once again taking residence at 10 Downing Street was always bound to evoke memories. After all, for eleven years, Margaret Thatcher had been prime minister of the United Kingdom. Regardless of their political leanings, people widely hailed her for her steely determination and tendency to get her way. “The…
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Reviving the Economy or Revising the Constitution?
2 September 1945. Its cities flattened, its islands surrounded by hostile forces, and a bloody invasion by its Western nemesis imminent, the Empire of Japan duly surrendered to the United States of America. It was not long before the occupation forces moved in. Eventually, General Douglas MacArthur, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, moved…
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The Paradox of Democracy
“Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time”, Winston Churchill said to the British parliament in November 1947, a few years after the Second World War. Back then, it would have been hard to argue with Churchill. To witness the horrors of totalitarian…
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The Question of Reconciliation
There are a few “buzzwords” in Thailand that have been very popular for a few years now. “Reform” and “reconciliation”; these are two of the main ones; politicians, generals and the media certainly enjoy sprinkling them into their speeches and slogans. In this post, I’d like to talk a little about the latter word- the…
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Ever-closer Union?
This is a big year in Southeast Asia, not least because of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) that has just come into force this year. It bounds up the nations of ASEAN closer together economically than ever before. Any talk of economic or political unions, of course, are bound to conjure up thoughts about the…
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Into the Era of Multipolarity: The Rise of China
It has been a long time since the world has seen any nation other than the United States hold a true ‘world power’ status. No country has been able to challenge it, and especially since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, the world has grown accustomed to an age of unipolarity, with…
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Hong Kong’s Impossible Battle
Hong Kong’s protesters are demanding full democracy, but they are fighting what is probably an impossible battle.
Ken Mathis Lohatepanont 