Thai authorities have much to fear these days. Wayward grenades, throngs of red-shirts, multi-million Baht acquisitions of bogus military equipment - and that’s just from this weekend’s paper. But have no fear, Thailand’s stewards are hard at work defending us from the most serious of strategic threats: the 69 year old sister of His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama.

Amid the cheers over the seizure of Thaksin’s assets, Somchai Preechasilpakul of Midnight University points to the need to make all political elites accountable, not merely a particular group of politicians.

To the Thai people, via Cross-border News Agency,

Since 24/01/10 that the Cross-border News Agency started to circulate information relating to the coerced repatriation of Karen refugees in Nong Bua and Usu Tha temporary shelter on the Thai-Burma border to the Thai public, our stories have been discussed more in Thai media.  From news and reports being monitored, we found that in fact, the Thai PM and authorities including Thai military have the very same stand with us; that is 'refugees will be allowed in Thailand when there are still threats in their homeland.  When the situation is better, they must go back.'

‘They say we go, we have to go.  They say we stay, we have to stay, whether here, in Loepohoe or in Mae La (refugee camp).’  This is what Nomaele told me last September.

Nomaele is a plump woman, aged beyond her years by hard work.  Every time we met I mistakenly called her ‘auntie’ although she is only 35.  Her family and 2 others, 12 people in all, were sent across the Moei River to her home in Loepohoe at 8 in the morning of 5 February.

Nearly one-third of the world’s population marks the end of the Lunar Year of the Ox this weekend. As the Bull exits and the Tiger enters, we can look back and see the mess that is left behind.

The issue of autonomy has been steadily gaining interest and is now a serious consideration as a means of mitigating the long-running conflict in the southern border provinces. This is a positive step towards finding a political solution to the conflict because, short of a Carthaginian Peace, there is no military option for a solving an armed insurgency which rejects the legitimacy of the state. Yet autonomy is not a magical political solution to the complex problems fuelling unrest.

(February 5th, 2010) KWO is again very concerned about the forced repatriation done by the Thai authority in Nong Bua refugee camp. 3 families with a total of 13 people, 9 of them are women and the rest are children, including 9 month old breastfeeding baby were forced to go back to Burma today.

A blog is a New Media tool that started many years ago.  It may be a diary expressing a person’s thoughts or a communications space for a social movement, depending on what the user wants it to be.  In some countries they have been very effective.

‘Thai E-News: News about Thailand that you may not have read in the news’ is the slogan of one of Thailand’s leading political websites.  It has only content and no web board.  It is unabashedly ‘red’, but red with a strange smell.  It posts critical points of view from all circles.

Phuttipong Pong-anakekul, a second-year law student at Ramkhamhaeng University, wrote an article in Prachatai in response to what Surapon Nitikraipot, Rector of Thammasat University, said at a public forum on 25 Jan. 

This was a  busy week on the frontlines of personal freedom, particularly in regards to free speech. Tying together several key events were government’s increasingly sophisticated restrictions on our human rights, and the efforts to push them back. For obvious reasons, freedom of speech is dear to this writer, and this week’s post addresses the past week’s developments.

Google’s recent opposition to Internet censorship in China went wildly underreported in Thailand. Yet this move to seize the moral high ground has vast implications to Thailand and every other censorship nation. The world’s censors have been put on notice by a company worth five billion dollars, more than many governments.

Thailand’s exotic nature goes well beyond its breath taking landscapes. It permeates deep within Thai society. Foreigners living here or passing through who are blocked by the language barrier glimpse only the tip of the iceberg of Thai society and its politics. The two main English language Thai newspapers fail to report the full story on many issues. Sometimes they don’t bother to report at all. Personally, I am not part of any side of Thai politics.

I do not agree at all with the human rights organizations which have listed the 10 steps forward and 10 steps back for 2009 and have raised the case of the Supreme Administrative Court’s temporary injunction against 65 projects at Map Ta Phut to first place in human rights progress.

20th Jan 2010 marks the renewal deadline for the first batch of 70, 000 Burmese, Cambodian and Laotian migrants working in Thailand whose work permits will expire on that day. The next date for the expiry of all the other work permits of migrants from Burma, Cambodia and Laos (approximately 930, 000 officially registered persons) is 28th Feb 2010.

A guidebook launched today gives tourists an alternative view of Shan State by providing a pictorial exposé of the deliberate neglect, destruction and reinvention of local cultural and historical sites.

This is a story about a recent incident of police violence in Thailand. For reasons that will become obvious, the persons and places involved cannot be identified. 

The article was originally written under the request of Fah Diew Kan Magazine in which the Thai-translated version will appear on its latest edition. Pravit Rojanaphruk is currently a Katherine Fanning Fellow for Journalism and Democracy at Kettering Foundation in Dayton, Ohio.

Amidst the current political climate where the ideological dividing lines within political parties take form, there is an obvious phenomenon that is occurring.  This comes in the form of politically motivated media organization. What has gone down over the past several years is quite interesting from the perspective of those who study how influential media outlets can become.

The translation of a Bloomberg news report was posted on the Prachatai webboard jus after 6 pm, after the Thai stock market had already slumped and closed on 14 Oct.  The news report in question is Richard Frost’s Thai Stocks, Baht Slump on King’s Health Speculation, whose title indicates that the ‘slump’ had already taken place.

Theeranan Wiphuchanin, using the alias BBB, posted her translation at 18:09.