BangkokPundit

In recent years, we have seen the Abhisit government strongly attack and issue veiled threats directed at the foreign media (see here and here - the later link has a general summary and plenty of links to government and Thai media criticism of the foreign media). Of couse, the recent criticism of ...
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The other night at the FCCT, Florian Witulski, showed some of his video footage at the FCCT. He has now made it available on his website and it can be seen here. BP: Florian's footage begins very early before 6 a.m. with the burning of the Office of Narcotics Control Board (where the arsonists...
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Washington Post: San Silawat has three dogs, two cows and a parrot. He grows rice and spring onions on a small plot of land. But he's hardly a pauper: He's added a second floor to his house and built a blue-tiled patio.
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The Bangkok Post: Anti-Money Laundering Office (AMLO) acting secretary-general Seehanat Prayoonrat said his agency had found that more than 150 b...
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Thai government Special Envoy (Trade) Kiat Sittheeamorn is in Washington and has been given a few interviews. First, with POLITICO. Some excerpts:? POLITICO: What is the purpose of your visit here?? Sittheeamorn: Things are more or less back to normal.
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The Nation in an editorial: Prime Minister Abhisit was right when he pointed out that the yellow shirts were not hell-bent on demolishing a rival political party. The campaigns against the Samak government, he noted, began after the ruling People Power Party vowed to launch constitutional changes to absolve T...
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The Bangkok Post: Sodsri Satayathum, another election commissioner, said the EC planned to have candidates from different parties promise to keep their campaigns within the boundaries of the law and let their competitors campaign for votes freely in their constituency strongholds.If there are credible signs the candidates will not be safe canvass...
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The Nation: The source said the demonstrators might be exempted from punishment if they were not facing terrorism charges."The Department of Special Investigation (DSI) has already been instructed to look into the legal context," the source said.According to the source, the CRES wants...
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AFP on Thai teachers: The failure rates for teachers who took exams in their own subjects were about 88 per cent for computer studies, 84 per cent for mathematics, 86 per cent in biology and 71 per cent in physics, the education ministry said.And almost 95 per cent of about 37,500 secondary school direct......
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In an update to the post the other day entitled "Just a battle of elites in Thailand?", a reader passes along the following: Thailand is no stranger to political violence. Since the end of absolute monarchy in 1932, there have been 11 successful coups, 18 constitutions and 27 prime ministers, but the current conflict...
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This is an update on a previous set of blog posts about the GT200 device and other similar devices purchased by the Thai army and other government agencies. The GT200 device is a black plastic box with an antenna sticking out which was hawked to the Thai military along with a few plastic cards...
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Last year, Bertil Lintner had an op-ed in the WSJ and pushed back against the idea that current political criris was a battle between "the traditional urban elite," represented by the urban middle class, the military and the bureaucracy, and the "rural poor". He called this a "very simplistic way of looking at Thailand's...
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Ok, it is a few weeks old, but well am still trying to catch up on all the recent stories. Former Bangkok correspondent Connie Levett in the Sydney Morning Herald: Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political analyst with Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University, says Thai society has outgrown the three pillars philosophy ''through economic development, through...
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One of the audio podcasts that BP subscribes to is BBC's Assignment program. Was surprised to hear that the latest edition is about one red shirt protester: On 19th May, Thai soldiers stormed an anti-government protest in Bangkok. It was the climax of a 6-week stand-off between the Thai government, and the protestors known...
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Karuna Buakamsri. a news anchor and reporter at Channel 3, had an op-ed in IHT a few weeks back: More than a date connects these two events. Many of the leading figures are also the same. In 1992, I joined hands with Jatuporn Promphan, Veera Musikapong and Dr
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Vimon Kidchob, Director-general of the Department of Information, Ministry of Foreign Affairs has a letter in the latest edition of The Economist: Moreover, Thailand’s monarchy has evolved and will undoubtedly remain one of the kingdom’s pillars of stability. Doubts could be raised about your neutrality. The Economist’s analytical framework...
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WSJ: The final straw for the government—as well as moderate factions in the Red Shirts—came earlier this month when the protesters and government negotiators failed to agree on a deal on what would have enabled the Red Shirts to go home in exchange for elections in November.People involved in both government and ...
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Joshua Kurlantzick, a fellow for Southeast Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations, has a piece in Newsweek provocatively entitled "The End of Brand Thailand" which looks at how?mismanagement and mistakes turned a high-growth democratic paradise into a violent mess.?...
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Was fairly busy this week so didn't get a chance to catch any of the no-confidence debate live, but?gigcode, as usual, has a number of videos of the no-confidence debate from the opposition side. There are also plenty of videos of the government reply on YouTube, but was struck that in the clips that...
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The Nation: Puea Pandin Party leader and Industry Minister Charnchai Chairungrueng appeared hesitant in voting for the Cabinet members saying he wanted to listen to information provided by the Opposition Pheu Thai Party before deciding. His remark breaks the tradition of coalitions, under which all par...
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Last night, Bangkok Governor and Democrat Party Leader MR Sukhumbhand Paribatra spoke at the FCCT. A summarized version of his presentation is below. Have cut out some of his fluff about his proposed projects - well you can only write so much at one time without a break so that is what missed out....
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John Hail of DPA (i.e. a member of the "evil", "despicable"* foreign media): The Bangkok Pundit Twitter page and website offer up-to-the-minute coverage of Thai politic...
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Here is the blurb from the FCCT website: An Evening with MR Sukhumbhand Paribatra, Governor of Bangkok? 8pm Tues, June 1, 2010(Please see pricing and reservation procedure below)?MR Sukhumbhand Paribatra has been a regular visitor to the FCCT over the years, including during his term as deputy foreign minister to Surin Pitsuwan in the...
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Have been meaning to blog on this for the last week, but there are so many elements to this story so this blog post will be rather short. During the crackdown on May 19, six people were killed at Wat Pathum Wanaram. Questions have been raised over who shot them and in what circumstances....
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Chaiwat Pumpuang, a photographer at The Nation, was shot on May 15. The Nation has an article with some quotes by Chaiwat from what he saw at Rajprarob Road: "The situation was rather tense but I didn't expect the military to take very harsh action against the protesters. The worst came around 3.30pm when...
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Back in March, Matt Wheeler, Visiting Researcher at the Institute of Security and International Studies, Chulalongkorn University had a short article (PDF) entitled "Understanding Thailand’s political crisis" in Asian Conflicts Reports. Key excerpts: Several aspects of the current crisis bode ill for political stability: the politicization of key institutions; ...
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Dr Joseph Chinyong Liow and Don Pathan recently published "Confronting ghosts: Thailand’s shapeless southern insurgency". The good news is you can download the whole thing for free here (follow the instructions at the link). The blurb: In this Lowy Institute Paper, Joseph Chinyong Liow and Don Pathan examine the ongoing violence in the majority...
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William Barnes has two articles in Asia Times quoting Therdpoum Chaidee. The first article a couple of weeks ago is entirely based on an interview with Therdpoum. The second article only brief quotes him, but the description is similiar, albeit briefer, than the first article. This is how Therdpoum is described..
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Was overwhelmed with so many non-blogging things in the past week and at the same time as there is actually some very good (and also some not so good) commentary and news reporting on Thai politics at the moment so am slowly trying to catch up. Academic?Michael Connors has an op-ed in The Age...
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Former Bangkok resident Matt has posted some of the responses from his friends on Facebook directed at Dan Rivers of CNN. Anyone on Facebook with large numbers of Thai friends can probably attest to this. The Thai fenqing in action.
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