New Mandala

Flicking through Paul Handley’s The King Never Smiles: A Biography of Thailand’s Bhumibol Adulyadej earlier today, this retro-extract jumped out at me.  I hope New Mandala readers find it as interesting as I did.  The extract in question comes from page 370 and describes an episode from 1995.
The [Banharn Silpa-archa] government proved as bad as anyone [...]

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With demonisation being a popular theme on New Mandala, it was interesting to see the return of Anwar Ibrahim to Malaysia’s Dewan Rakyat (House of Representatives). Anwar’s victory in a recent by-election represents, for many, a victory for liberal democratic values and a defeat of the systems that promote crony justice.
As crony justice is also a topical issue elsewhere in Southeast [...]

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[Last week the National Thai Studies Centre hosted a discussion on the current border dispute between Cambodia and Thailand. Here is the text of my presentation.]
Following the political turmoil that has gripped Thailand over the past few months, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that the government of Samak Sundoravej has a [...]

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Indeed, it is still not clear what is the root cause of Thailand’s political conflict. Some academics suggest that it is essentially about the royalist establishment’s alarm that Mr Thaksin was building a base of public support to rival that of King Bhumibol. They may fear what will happen when the 80-year-old king’s reign ends. [...]

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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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If Thaksin and his wife have indeed done a runner, as is looking increasingly likely, it may well be a blessing in disguise for Samak’s government.
Opposition forces in Thailand rely heavily on the imagery of a government that does not control its own destiny. The spectre of the all-powerful puppet-master Thaksin adds great symbolic strength to [...]

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Yesterday The Nation carried another of its typically anti-rural headlines. “Village Funds increase consumption : Academics” The subheading went on “people should be talk to save instead.” (I presume they meant “taught” rather than “talk”, but for some of these commentators talk is cheap.)
The Nation’s report was referring to this study of the village funds [...]

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In Thailand, even an immensely popular and wealthy politician like Thaksin Shinawatra cannot match the authority wielded by the king. If the courts are now showing unprecedented steadfastness in pursuing Mr Thaksin, it could well be because they believe they have royal backing.
- Extracted from Jonathan Head, “Thaksin family’s gamble fails to pay”, BBC News, [...]

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Here is the text of an opinion piece I wrote for today’s Canberra Times:
Let the electorate judge the Thai Government’s fate
ANDREW WALKER
15/07/2008 11:32:00 AM
Only six months after the last election, Thai politics has, once again, descended into chaos. The Government is under attack in the courts, in Parliament and in the media. A determined and [...]

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