Opinion

By Pravit Rojanaphruk
Senior Staff Writer

Watching how two young protesters were taken away by police in Rayong province earlier this week after protesting against the prime minister I am reminded of the need for greater decentralization.

The sudden execution of a death row convict on Monday after a nine-year hiatus has ignited a storm of debate over capital punishment.

Thailand and other countries in the Mekong Region have been suffering more and more severe droughts for the past five decades. Not only do they need a long-term plan to cope with the ongoing crisis, but also require regional cooperation as well. 

Among Thais who have accused Hong Kong protesters of harboring hatred toward their own nation is senior Democrat Party member Warong Dechvigrom.

Is Thailand merely an innocent caught in the middle of a diplomatic power play between Australia and Bahrain over the fate of refugee footballer Hakeem AlAraibi?

In Berlin, one can accidentally walk past the Holocaust memorial near the Brandenburg Gate or parts of the remaining Berlin Wall. At leafy Tier Garten, one notices a memorial for killed Roma people. Just in front of Humboldt University’s Law Faculty, one can stare through a glass square into a white room full of empty bookshelves, as a reminder of the banned books burnt during the Third Reich.

Sometimes, I wish that understanding and describing a society like Thailand could be simpler, without complexity, tension and contradictions. Like a coin with just one side.

The crackdown on alleged Thai Federation supporters during the past week can claim one immediate success: raising the fringe group to public attention.

Barely a week has passed since the Constitutional Court’s January-31 ruling that the Move Forward Party’s pledge to amend the controversial royal defamation law was unconstitutional when the issue of monarchy reform is back on the media front pages.