Opinion

BANGKOK — Imagine yourself an expat in a country dubbing itself as amazing but every time you travel from one province to another for longer than 24 hours you must report to police within 48 hours of arrival in the new place because you are an alien.

“All women are whores, except my mother … but then again, she is a woman too,” goes an apocryphal quote alternately attributed to Napoleon...

Last month’s recommendations by a UN body promoting gender equality to Thailand to stop prosecutions of female sex workers and violent raids of entertainment venues have got me thinking further about the issue.

What may start as an endearing and commendable effort – learning some language, meeting some social expectations – can become annoying to the very natives whose approval is sought. Behind one’s back, the whispers begin: You’ve gone native.

Less than 24 hours after Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-ocha told the country not to perceive anti-government protesters as enemies, Parit “Penguin” Chiwarak, a prominent student activist was arrested for sedition and nine other charges.

Now that police have confirmed through DNA the identities of at least two Thais murdered and mutilated horrendously, I wonder what ...

Emboldened by new police protocols mandating more humane treatment of sex workers during arrests, activists on Thursday announced their next goal – decriminalizing sex work.

Many Thais gave a free pass to Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, a former junta leader who first came to power in 2014, when he enacted the Emergency Decree in March with a stated purpose of combating the coronavirus outbreak at the time.

That the Thai government’s initiative to pressure Facebook to geo-block a Facebook group critical of the monarchy in Thailand has backfired big time is for all to see.

ith the threat of a single gateway still looming over the heads of netizens, the recent dust-up over limiting access to Facebook content deemed inappropriate by the government, a future internet chock-full of stringent government controls still seems an inevitable reality.