New Mandala

The motivation behind the 2006 coup d’etat can be explained from various perspectives. On the one hand it was simply the military under the command of the then army chief Gen Sonthi Boonyaratglin that staged the coup. On the other hand, the anti-Thaksin movement which emerged from 2005 reveals, at a deeper level, how three [...]

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Slightly more than a year ago, on 22 July 2007, Bangkok saw a violent street protest when the United Front of Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD) protested in front of the compound of General Prem Tinsulanonda, head of the Privy Council. Even today this event is cited as proof of the supposedly uncontrollable violence of Thaksin supporters. Most of the Thai [...]

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Back when the generals were still running Thailand, here at New Mandala we paid almost daily attention to what then passed for national economic policy — the ephemeral notion of “sufficiency”.  As a key discursive crutch it seems to have been largely folded away under the government of Prime Minister Samak.  Of course, it has faded from the agenda right at the [...]

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New Mandala readers who are new (or, perhaps, not so new) to the various online discussions of Thailand’s political future will find this summary page over at Thai Crisis rewards a visit.  It has been updated during 2008 to reflect the changing situation.

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Today New Mandala is not immediately in a position to add much to the analysis of the current standoff in central Bangkok between the PA(S)D and the Royal Thai Police.Â
What I can do, of course, is provide links to some of the best “live” coverage.  Bangkok Pundit leads the charge, as usual, with a characteristically well-chosen mix [...]

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I’m sure it’s just an editorial mis-step but I have, I must confess, been wondering for the past few days - why has The Nation put this article in its sports section?Â
On the front page it is filed under “Sports” (above articles like FA extends Mascherano ban and Croatian football player dies following injury sustained in match) and [...]

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Thailand’s proxy war between loyalists to deposed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and Bangkok’s royalist elite is stirring once again, with the outcome as uncertain as ever…This week King Bhumibol Adulyadej named three more people to his 19-member Privy Council: Surayud Chulanont, a former army chief who left the Privy Council after the coup to become [...]

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A few months ago the blog operated by prolific commentator Colonel Jeru (also known as Jeroo) went offline and it has not returned.  It used to be available here.  And he hasn’t been on New Mandala for months.  Do any readers know what happened to the Colonel?Â
In one of his last comments on New Mandala he [...]

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Here is an article by Viroj Na Ranong which appeared in the Bangkok Post on 14 February. It is certainly not a love letter to Thailand’s intellectuals. I have reproduced it here in full given that the Bangkok Post archive lasts about one day.Â
Nightmare on Intelligentsia Street
Will the intellectuals and urban upper class dare to wake [...]

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In the lead-up to last year’s election I clipped the following report from the Bangkok Post (21 December 2007):
Hill tribesmen to be given Thai citizenship
Deputy Prime Minister Sonthi Boonyaratkalin said the government will give citizenship to 353,000 people who have lived in Thailand for more than 10 years. These people are mostly hill tribesmen living in [...]

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