Blog
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Royalists Must Engage in the Argument
A little late to post this article, but a piece I wrote for Thai Enquirer last week: Often we do not know that we are living through historical turning points but it is unmistakable for someone living in Thailand in 2020. Amidst all that is not well with the Thai body politic — besieged by…
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Abolish the Primary Vote
My piece for Thai Enquirer: As the spirited debate over constitutional amendments continues across the country, a hopeful consensus is gradually emerging. The opposition has finally been able to unite around a single motion on what they want to see amended. The government and even some senators are beginning to hear the music. This discussion…
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A Pragmatic Look at Constitutional Reform
My article for Thai Enquirer: “We’ve seized Government House. We’ve seized airports. That couldn’t accomplish anything. What will the current protests do?” This was a tweet from a conservative account. This netizen doesn’t give the protestors enough credit. Already, political parties, parliament and government are moving to respond to the new and fast-changing situation. But…
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Reconciling Thailand’s Political Generation Gap
My piece for Thai Enquirer: On July 19, in one corner of Thai Twitter, a question was posed. “Do your family members have differing political perspectives? And if so, how do you live together?” Never mention politics at the Thanksgiving dinner; so goes the timeless American wisdom. It appears that many young Thais follow the…
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How Thai Schools Can Reform History Teaching
My article for the Thai Enquirer: To control the past is to control the future: a cliché, to be sure, but one too relevant not to state. How Thailand has chosen to craft the history taught to generation after generation of students is an intentional act aimed at instilling national pride. But the propagation of…
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Delayed Local Elections Expose Failure in Decentralization
My piece for Thai Enquirer: Last week, the voters of Kaohsiung, Taiwan voted to throw out their mayor. The disgraced politician, Han Kuo-yu, had just earlier this year been on the presidential ballot. Now he has the dubious honour of being the first local official to be recalled in Taiwan history. Given the depth of…
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Gripped by Infighting
“Politicians” as a group tend to be relatively uncontroversial to bash. We may perhaps like individual politicians, and we support certain political parties. Venal, self-interested, and in Thailand’s case, bad people: a positive label is seldom attached when discussing the political class as a whole Of course, the use of such labels, entirely lacking in…
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What’s Behind Thailand’s Coronavirus Success?
Just a brief Axios-style discussion today. I wanted to opine, but certainly not at any considerable length given that I am not an epidemiologist and have no expertise in public health, about what is behind Thailand’s coronavirus success.
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Five Things to Watch for in Post-Lockdown Politics
My analysis for Thai Enquirer: In late February and early March, Thailand looked like it had arrived at a political turning point. A no-confidence debate aimed at multiple cabinet ministers had just failed. A wave of student demonstrations had erupted across the country, sparked by anger at the dissolution of the Future Forward Party on…
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Thailand Locked Down Successfully. Now Comes the Hard Part.
Glyn Morgan, a professor at Syracuse University, recently categorized the different strategies that states have been pursuing to respond to the coronavirus. One is what he terms the “Darwinian state”: the state favors limited social distancing and instead largely protects the economy, albeit at immense human cost to those most vulnerable to the virus. The…
Ken | Mathis Lohatepanont 