My new article for the Thai Enquirer:

King Rama VI, a distinguished poet, once wrote the Sepha Samakee Sevok, exhorting the Thai people to unite as one under common leadership. A metaphor that he deployed was that of Siam as a ship. “The people are sailors in the sea, who must display a common unity”, the king wrote. “Without a sense of discipline, any great wave could surely topple us.” 

If the Thai state were a boat, then it is currently sailing through some troubled seas with no safe shore in sight. The coronavirus crisis continues to worsen, and unless its trajectory is disrupted, the country could come to resemble an infected cruise ship. 

Read the full article here.

(Cover image credits).