Peter Boyle reports that聽at the conclusion of a 30,000-strong rally in Bangkok, the young organisers of a new democracy movement called for a general strike on the anniversary of the 1973 student uprising that brought down the Thanom Kittikachorn military dictatorship.
Thailand
Thousands of students rallied on August 10聽at聽Thammasat University in Bangkok, an iconic place in Thailand's聽long history of pro-democracy struggles,聽in the largest of a string of student-led protests聽since July 18, reports聽Peter Boyle.
Thai King Maha Vajiralongkorn has been implicated in the recent abduction and disappearance of Thai dissident Wanchalearm Satsaksit, who had been living in exile in Cambodia, writes Peter Boyle.
Left and progressive groups are concerned for the safety of Wanchalearm Satsaksit, a Thai political dissident who has been living in exile in Cambodia, and are calling on the Cambodian government to act immediately to launch an investigation into his abduction, locate him and ensure his safety.
This Australian-made film dramatises the experience of a 14-year-old Cambodian聽boy who is tricked into boarding a fishing vessel, where he is enslaved.
Dr Pavin Chachavalpongpun, an associate professor at the Centre for Southeast Asian Studies at Kyoto University, has since 2014 been branded an 'enemy of the state' by Thai authorities. He spoke to 麻豆传媒 Weekly's Peter Boyle.
The campaign to stop the refoulment of refugee Hakeem al-Araibi from Thailand to Bahrain is growing, with many football authorities taking a stand.
As Thailand's military dictator, Prime Minister and former聽General Prayut Chan-o-cha visited Europe last week in a desperate attempt to woo more foreign investment, Thai democracy rights protesters rallied in Paris, London and Bonn, calling for his arrest for crimes against his own people. They also called upon European governments to put human rights before profits.
The pictures of thousands of Thais crying and wearing black after the death of King Pumipon might lead a sane person to conclude that most Thais were political half-wits with a slave-like mentality. That would be a wrong conclusion.
We have to factor in the royalist military repression. Anyone criticising the king can be jailed under the draconian lese-majeste (insulting the monarch) law. Added to this is the green light given by the junta for mobs of fanatical royalists to 鈥渄eal鈥 with dissidents.
Thailand鈥檚 King Pumipon Adulyadej died on October 13 aged 88, after more than 70 years on the throne. Thai socialist Giles Ji Ungpakorn has been in exile since he was charged with lese majeste (insulting the monarch) over a 2006 book criticising the king鈥檚 support for a military coup. Below he assesses the monarch鈥檚 role as a block to democracy and social justice.
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King Pumipon was a weak and characterless monarch who spent his useless and privileged life in a bubble, surrounded by fawning, grovelling toadies who claimed that he was a 鈥済od鈥.
It can be said that any 鈥渋nternational bad press鈥 about Thailand鈥檚 military junta generated by the comments from Western governments is welcome 鈥 especially when they demand the release of political prisoners.
When an all-female army of journalists, dressed as schoolgirls, burst into laughter at a 鈥渓unch party鈥 with the Thailand's military junta chief Prayut Chan-o-cha at Government House on January 8, it became the talk of the town.
Commentators took to social media to lament the wretched state of Thai media. A senior Thai journalist, Pravit Rojanapuruk, labelled the journalists as 鈥渓apdogs鈥 in a column in the progressive daily Khaosod English.
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