By Siriluk Sriprasit |
<p>The ASEAN charter was adopted at the 14th ASEAN Summit in November 2007 and eventually came into force in December 2008.</p>
<div />
line-height:15.0pt;"><span>One of ASEAN’s crucial visions is creating a single free trade area by 2015, but there are doubts that it will be implemented or achieved. </span></div>
By Leila Salaverria |
<p>As the target date for launching the ASEAN human rights body (AHRB)<br />
nears, civil society groups have warned depriving it of watchdog<br />
powers would erode the credibility of the regional organization.</p>
By Siriluk Sriprasit |
<p><span>Malang</span><span>, Indonesia</span><span />
color:black;"> - Siti, a middle-aged woman who makes her living as a home-based worker, was busy weaving a net around a shuttlecock, moving her two hands quickly and skilfully along with the other women workers at her house.</span></p>
<p>Surachart Bamrungsuk, political science lecturer at Chulalongkorn University, wrote about the red shirts’ movement in his column in Matichon Weekly, Apr 24, 2009.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Surachart says the crushing of the red-shirts by military force was not unexpected.<span> </span>And such use of force was not the result of the collapse of the ASEAN Summit, but was due to the fact that the red shirts politically and socially pose a threat to the middle-class and the elite.</span></p>
By Giles Ji Ungpakorn |
<p>In the present political crisis in Thailand, it is shocking that most Thai NGOs have disgraced themselves by siding with the Yellow Shirt elites or remaining silent in the face of the general attack on democracy. It is shocking because NGO activists started out by being on the side of the poor and the oppressed in society. To explain this situation, we must go beyond a simple explanation that relies on personal failings of individuals or suggestions that NGOs have “underlying bad intentions”, or that they are “agents of imperialism”.</p>
By Awzar Thi |
<p> <span class="Apple-style-span">"We want to complain about a missing husband. He left home to join the Red Shirts and went missing." "He went missing on the day the army broke up the mob?" "No. On the day the police summoned him."</span></p>
By Sinfah Tunsarawuth |
<p>Following the anti-government protests, the Thai government has begun to crack down on the opposition media. <em>Sinfah Tunsarawuth </em>asks if the heavy-handed tactics will incite further chaos.<br />
</p>
By M.L. Nattakorn Devakula |
<p>A lot of my friends and colleaques are in agreement that in order to realize the country's true democratic potential, Thailand needs a formal transition towards a truer more 'popular' form of democracy based on the needs and desires of the majority.<br />
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span><span lang="EN-GB">Thammasat University’s political science academic says in his article in Prachatai that he disagrees with a common saying often heard during the past couple of years of political unrest that, ‘Without bloodshed, this is not going to end,’ or, ‘There must be a bloodshed, so this will end.’</span></span></p>
By James Hookway, The Wall Street Journal |
<p>James Hookway, The Wall Street Journal - The battle for Bangkok showed signs of subsiding Monday as Thailand's army took a firmer stand against rioting antigovernment protesters, while exiled former leader Thaksin Shinawatra backed away from his earlier call for a full-scale revolution and instead urged peaceful protests.</p>
By David Streckfuss |
<p>David Streckfuss - Thanong Khanthong, in his “Overdrive” column in The Nation of March 6, argues that “there is nothing wrong with the lese majeste law.” The problem, he says, has more to do with enforcement: the law “has been abused by politicians, police and public prosecutors for their own political advantage.”</p>
By Asian Human Rights Commission |
<p>To mark the fifth anniversary of the police abduction and forced disappearance in Bangkok of human rights lawyer Somchai Neelaphaijit on 12 March 2004, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is distributing a series of three extracts from the newly-released English translation of a book by his wife, Angkhana, first published in Thai to mark the same date in 2008. The book, <em>Reading between the lines</em> recalls her husband's efforts for justice during his own life, and her family's struggle to uncover the truth and hold the perpetrators to account after his disappearance.</p>