New Mandala

In an excellent and provocative piece for today’s The Nation, Chang Noi makes the case that “[t]he bleating about vote-buying and patronage politics is simply an attempt to undermine electoral democracy because it seems to be working”.
Taking on those who support the disenfranchisement of Thailand’s rural masses this is a tough-minded intervention from a well-regarded [...]

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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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At this stage of their ongoing rebellion the world’s English-language media is not being soft on the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD).
Attacks on the credibility and agenda of the PAD have started to come thick and fast.  And to help clarify the direction of coverage after a weekend when Thai politics was featured in major newspapers across the [...]

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What other country could boast a monarch with the heart and generosity of King Bumibol, and indeed, the rest of the royal family? Indeed, they represent an overflowing cornucopia of generosity toward the Thai citizens and the Thai nation.
- Extracted from a letter to the editor by Jack Gilead, “His Majesty is richest in generousity”, [...]

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