Thailand says it agrees in principle to ceasefire proposal as tens of thousands flee
(DW News) Thailand has said it agrees in principle with a Malaysian proposal for a ceasefire between Thai and Cambodian forces -- and will consider the offer. Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes on the Thai-Cambodian border after intense fighting between the neighboring countries. Sixteen people have so far been killed in the clashes that erupted on Thursday over a long-running border dispute. #clashes #cambodia #thailand
Pheu Thai Party's leader and Prime Minister candidate Paetongtarn Shinawatra reacts during a press conference on the announcement of prime ministerial candidate ahead of a pivotal parliamentary vote on a new prime minister, in Bangkok, Thailand, Aug. 15, 2024 (Reuters/Chalinee Thirasupa)
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Maybe ladies are not bad? - They are for us.
(Reuters) BANGKOK, Thailand - Political neophyte Paetongtarn Shinawatra won the backing of parliament to become Thailand's youngest prime minister on Friday, only a day after she was thrust into the spotlight amid an unrelenting power struggle between the warring elites.
The 37-year-old daughter of divisive political heavyweight Thaksin Shinawatra passed the required threshold of 51% of votes and now faces a baptism of fire, just two days after ally Srettha Thavisin was dismissed as premier by a judiciary central to Thailand's two decades of intermittent turmoil.
Pheu Thai Party's leader and Prime Minister candidate Paetongtarn Shinawatra reacts during a press conference on the announcement of prime ministerial candidate ahead of a pivotal parliamentary vote on a new prime minister, in Bangkok, Thailand, Aug. 15, 2024 (REUTERS/Chalinee Thirasupa).
At stake for Paetongtarn could be the legacy and political future of the billionaire Shinawatra family, whose once unstoppable populist juggernaut suffered its first election defeat in over two decades last year and had to do a deal with its bitter enemies in the military to form a government.
Pheu Thai Party's leader and Prime Minister candidate Paetongtarn Shinawatra, Thailand's caretaker Deputy Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul and coalition party representatives react after a press conference on the announcement of prime ministerial candidate ahead of a pivotal parliamentary vote on a new prime minister, in Bangkok, Thailand, Aug. 15, 2024 (REUTERS/Chalinee Thirasupa)
Paetongtarn will immediately face challenges on multiple fronts, with the economy floundering and the popularity of her Pheu Thai Party dwindling, having yet to deliver on its flagship cash handout programme worth 500 billion baht ($14.25 billion).
Paetongtarn has never served in government and will become Thailand's second female prime minister and the third Shinawatra to take the top job after aunt Yingluck Shinawatra, and 75-year-old father Thaksin, the country's most influential and polarizing politician.
Related video: Thailand: Thai PM Srettha Thavisin's removal from office raises fears of political uncertainty (StringersHub)
The fall of Srettha after less than a year in office will be a stark reminder of the kind of hostility Paetongtarn could face, with Thailand trapped in a tumultuous cycle of coups and court rulings that have disbanded political parties and toppled multiple governments and prime ministers. More: Thailand's Paetongtarn Shinawatra wins parliamentary backing to become new PM
Panu Wongcha-um and Chayut Setboonsarng, Reuters via MSN, 8/15/24; Eds., Wisdom Quarterly
May 31, 2016, ODN/VF (AP/ABC News) Tiger
Temple: Thai wildlife officials start removing tigers from Kanchanaburi after allegations and find 40 cubs dead in freezer (preserved for autopsies to show they died of natural causes, the monks explain). Thai authorities have started extracting the 137 tigers held at this unique Theravada Buddhist temple after
allegations some of the monks were involved in unlawful reproduction and
trafficking of tigers.
Thai land mean "free-land," a Buddhist kingdom never colonized by outsiders -- until now thanks to the subverting of the monarchy's powers and the corruption from the inside weakening it until its seizure by the military.
Dispatch 1: In 2014 Thailand PM Yingluck Shinawatra and nine of her ministers were forced to step down over allegations of abuse of power -- which has ignited heated protests by members of the country's [radical UDD] "red shirt" movement.
(AJ) Who are the red shirt protesters? Not pro-government
Supporters
of the ousted leader -- whose brother, corrupt former PM Thaksin
Shinawatra, was also ejected -- called the move a coup and poured onto
the streets of Bangkok.
The [pro-military PAD] "yellow shirts,"
which for months had been calling for a new government, celebrated their
victory. VICE News takes a look at these opposing rallies and the political vacuum ahead for Thailand. More
Dispatch 4: facing civil war, Thailand experiences 13th coup
Coup: Thailand’s thoughtcrime arrests
Hundreds of
activists defied a ban on protests and marched in Thailand's capital in a
rare rally against the hard-line ruling military (Chaiwat Subprasom/Reuters).
Demonstrators
from the New Democracy Movement (NDM) group flash the three-finger
salute inspired by the movie "The Hunger Games" during a rally at the
Democracy Monument in Bangkok, Thailand, Sept. 19, 2015.
In the eyes of Thailand’s military rulers, it seems no subversive thought is too petty to punish.
Thailand is now entering its third year under military dictatorship, a
reign established when generals seized power from an elected government
on May 22, 2014.
The army has vowed to use its sweeping powers to heal a nation torn
by class resentment. But its favored tactics for keeping the peace --
locking up critics and silencing dissent -- have turned Thailand into a
nation where even meek expressions of defiance can end in detention.
In the past nine months, Thais have been charged for clicking “like” on subversive Facebook memes. For handing flowers to an anti-junta activist. For allegedly insulting the king’s pet dog.
Others have been detained simply for reading George Orwell’s “1984” in public, or for raising three fingers, an anti-tyranny salute from the “Hunger Games” films.
Officers have even snatched up a man for eating a sandwich:
It was no ordinary sandwich, mind you. It was publicly declared a
“sandwich for democracy,” scarfed down by an anti-junta activist at a
mall -- all while reading 1984. He was quickly surrounded by plainclothes
officers....
When the army seized power two years ago, it justified its takeover
by promising a wave of grand reforms. Thailand, the generals said, would
become a nation purged of corruption and of the recurring, sometimes
bloody street protests that have convulsed the political order for
nearly a decade.
Army Chief Prayuth Chan-ocha, who appointed himself prime minister, even released a syrupy ballad vowing to “return happiness to the people.” At the outset, his subordinates seemed similarly upbeat. More
"101 East" looks back at the events leading up to the battle in Thailand's capital. Let's look at this under-reported story about tourist-magnet Thailand, listening
to all sides of the story, and giving a "voice to the voiceless." AJ's impartial, fact-based reporting wins
worldwide praise for its unique brand of journalism.
Thai Theravada monastics continue to practice during country's crisis (Butch Osborne/flickr)
Thailand is divided radicals and royalists who want to change the gov't (LillianPierson)
Thailand's martial law crisis: Local media shut down by military
I don't know what he's talking about! I'm PM!
(BBC) An
emergency meeting of political leaders, called by the Thai army a day
after it [unilaterally] declared martial law, has ended inconclusively.
She did it! Her and her brother, ousted!
Representatives from the government [which was not advised by the army that martial law would be declared], the main opposition party and protest groups all attended the meeting.
Local radio stations run by activists have been shut down by the military. Jonathan Head reports from Bangkok. More + VIDEO
Thailand court ousts PM Yingluck: Thailand's Constitutional Court orders Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and several of her ministers to step down on abuse of power charges.
War on the streets of the Thai capital as Red Shirts agitate against political corruption in Buddhist Thailand alongside monks. Yellow Shirts are pro-corrupt gov't (Sakchai Lalit/AP).
Waving the red, white, and blue Thai flag during rally -- protests roar on as radical Red Shirts oppose conservative Yellow Shirts to change the system and clean up government (AP)
There has been a war on the streets of Bangkok for years as radical revolutionary Red Shirts agitate against political corruption in Theravada Buddhist Thailand.
Even the monks frequently join in to oppose the Yingluck Shinawatra administration and the previous corrupt administration of her billionaire business mogul brother Thaksin Shinawatra.
He was deposed by protesters fighting police and paramilitary forces in the street and went into self-imposed exile to avoid legal reprisals.
He then installed his sister, buying her election to the prime ministership but, allegedly, still pulling the strings and wielding political and business influence from afar.
The battle to oust Thailand's PM: Why has the prime minister been ordered to step down today? Find out the background to the crisis in this 60-second video (BBC.co.uk, May 7, 2014).
"Patriotic," conservative Yellow Shirts have been pro-corrupt government. The beloved king has allowed the matter to be resolved by the courts that today handed a victory to the Red Shirts by throwing her out of office.
It would be like the Occupy Movement waking up one day and realizing the third Bush/Cheney Administration (called the Obama Administration with a much more attractive leader carrying out all the worst policies of the previous ugly rulers) had been thrown out of office by the Supreme Court and hope for actual change had been restored.
The finance minister has been installed as the interim prime minister by the court. Deposed PM Yingluck Shinawatra is shocked and sad.
Bangkok is a booming Asian economy wracked by corruption in a city (Gift-of-Light/flickr)
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Live from the scene
Wisdom Quarterly reader Dr. Will writes in to say, "Whoever wrote this error-ridden story should be taken out and shot." Thank you, professor. We await your corrections and field report live from the scene. The story contains links to the BBC version of events. So even though "[we and readers] can find out the facts about the current crisis in Thailand in a couple of minutes of googling," we hope you can do the Buddhist world one better than that and enlighten us all on what has truly happened in Bangkok. Send in your report because we don't want to waltz over to Thammasat U. to pick it up from you. "Jeez, guys!" He who admonishes, ack. But he who enlightens, ahh! Sawadee ka.
Ukrainian
protesters resist brutal attacks and killing by pro-government police
and military turning the tables on aggressors and oppressors
(facebook/theunleashedmind.com).
Thai PM Yingluck Shinawatra, sister of ousted billionaire ex-PM Thaksin Shinawatra (now in self-imposed exile to avoid prosecution). Revolutionary Red Shirts, in spite of conservative Yellow Shirts, demand her ouster and want people's rule after years of political turmoil.
Thai police go on the offensive against protracted anti-gov't protests in Bangkok (BBC)
Thai protesters resist police (news.yahoo)
A [grenade] explosion has killed two people and wounded more than 20 others near an
anti-government protest rally in the Thai capital of Bangkok. A boy aged 12 and a 40-year-old woman died in the attack near the Central World shopping mall, officials said. The BBC's Jonathan Head reports from Bangkok.
Police attack protesters, Feb. 17, 2014
[One remarkable thing is that, just as in neighboring Burma's "Saffron Revolution" and other uprisings, Theravada Buddhist monks and novices participate in protests and demonstrations against the corrupt governments and military rule. Sadly, young soldiers indoctrinated into the military-industrial complex of their nations do not shrink back from attacking and even killing monastics when ordered to do so by military and police commanders. But so important is the struggle for freedom and justice that monastics continue to participate.] More + VIDEO
Ukraine's new interim President Oleksandr Turchynov has said the country will focus on closer integration with the EU [rather than Putin's Russia]. Mr. Turchynov was appointed following the dismissal of [traitorous] President Viktor Yanukovych by MPs yesterday. [Pressured by Putin] Mr. Yanukovych's rejection of an EU-Ukraine trade pact triggered the protests that toppled him.
Mourning protesters killed by police
Russia, which had backed Mr. Yanukovych, has recalled its ambassador to Ukraine for consultations. Earlier Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the
opposition "had in effect seized power in [the capital of] Kiev, refused to disarm, and
continued to place its bets on violence." The US [and a meddling Senator McCain] has said parliament's actions were legitimate and has warned Russia against military intervention. More
Ukrainians in camouflage and jeans beat brutal policeman who was trying to kill protesters.
Thai anti-government protesters gather in Bangkok (Wason Wanichakorn/AP)
Bangkok (Sakchai Lalit/AP/news.yahoo.com)
Thailand is demanding the ouster of its corrupt first female prime minister (Yingluck Shinawatra, 45), sister of corrupt billionaire and former P.M. Thaksin Shinawatra (who is in self-imposed exile, trying to make a comeback without having to face political corruption charges in majority Buddhist Thailand). As part of the campaign pitting radical Red Shirts and reactionary Yellow Shirts in the Thai capital, Los Angelenos are joining the fray just outside UCLA at the Westwood Federal Building at 2:00 today, Jan. 13, 2014, in solidarity with Thai protesters.
(AP) Thailand
braced for a new wave of mass unrest Monday as anti-government
demonstrators blocked major roads to "shut down" Bangkok in a bid to
thwart February elections and overthrow the nation's democratically
elected prime minister. The intensified protests, which could last weeks or more, raise the stakes in a long-running crisis... More
Yingluck Shinawatra, sister of ousted Thaksin Shinawatra, has promised to revive her brother's populist policies (BBC). Buddhist monks on the streets of Bangkok (seattlepi).
First Thai female PM faces many challenges Rachel Harvey (BBC News, Bangkok)
Yingluck Shinawatra is poised to become the first female prime minister of Thailand, and the fifth person to hold that office since her older brother, Thaksin, was deposed in a military coup in 2006.
Five premiers in as many years is a statistic that might give Ms. Yingluck pause for thought. Thailand has been beset by political division ever since Mr. Thaksin was ousted.
Yingluck, sister of fugitive Thai ex-prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, greets her supporters during election campaign in Chiang Mai on May 21, 2011 (Pornchai Kittiwongsakul/AFP/Getty Images).
His loyal supporters and bitter enemies have vied for power in parliament and on the streets. Last year, red-shirted demonstrators, the majority of whom were Thaksin allies, laid siege to parts of the capital, Bangkok.
The army was eventually sent in to put down the increasingly confrontational protest, which ultimately left more than 90 people dead. Both sides in this election campaigned on the need for unity after a period marked by bloodshed and bitter recrimination.
"She must now show that she is able to lead in her own right and step out of her brother's shadow"
The outgoing Prime Minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, focused the latter stages of his campaign on a warning -- that a vote for Yingluck was effectively a vote for Thaksin, and that would pave the way for the exiled leader's pardon and eventual homecoming. More
BANGKOK (Reuters, June 30, 2011) - Graft-busting "Massage Parlor King" Chuwit Kamolvisit must be the only candidate in Thailand's election who wants to be in opposition -- and he prefers being labelled a pimp rather than a politician. More
BANGKOK – Thailand's prime minister met his political opponents on live television Sunday to try to defuse a crisis that has produced huge demonstrations and sent him fleeing to live at an army base, but the protest leaders said new elections are the only answer. More>>
Supporters of former PM Thaksin Shinawatra gather on a road during a Bangkok rally, Mar. 27, 2010. "Red Shirt" protesters raised tensions on Sat. with threats to expel thousands of troops guarding PM Abhisit Vejjajiva (Reuters/Kerek Wongsa).
BANGKOK (AP) – Protesters in Thailand claimed a symbolic victory Saturday after forcing soldiers to retreat from parts of Bangkok's historic district, raising tensions in what so far has been a nonviolent bid to bring down the government.
Riding motorcycles and piled into pickup trucks, more than 60,000 red-shirted protesters clogged traffic and traveled in a noisy parade to the Bangkok Zoo, Buddhist temples, and a half dozen other locations being used by soldiers as temporary camps.
"We will storm the places where soldiers camp out. We'll shake the fence. We'll cut the barbed wire. We'll march through the barricades. We'll march for democracy!" a leader of the "Red Shirt" protesters, Nattawut Saikua, shouted to the crowd. "This is where we'll end military suppression. This is where we'll create democracy." More>>
THAILAND (Mar. 14, 2010) - Large parts of downtown Bangkok have turned red, where tens of thousands of opposition supporters -- part of a "Red Shirt" movement -- are demanding the government's ouster and fresh elections. The Red Shirts are supporters of Thaksin Shinawatra, the country's deposed prime minister. They want political change now.
The demonstrators have warned that they will press ahead with their agitation until their demands are met -- even if it means "paralyzing" Bangkok. Aljazeera's Wayne Hay reports from the Thai capital, where about 50,000 troops have been deployed. Flashback to Burma's Saffron Revolution in 2007:
A Hindu priest performs a ritual after supporters of deposed Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra spilled blood at [coup leader] Abhisit Vejjajiva's offices in Bangkok on March 16, 2010 (AFP/Getty/Christophe Archambault).
BANGKOK - The images were shocking — and strange. On Tuesday, thousands of Thai protesters splattered buckets of their own blood outside the Prime Minister's office in Bangkok as a Brahmin priest in flowing white robes lit incense, chanted spells and cast a curse upon the government.
As theater, it was both effective and mysterious: clips of the blood curse led international news broadcasts, with viewers and analysts bewildered as to what the protesters were trying to achieve. But in Thailand, it was anything but an aberration.
Curses, dark rituals, and black magic have long been part of the political culture of the country and some of its neighbors. And to some Thai analysts, the strange rite was a rare public revelation of a more covert aspect of the ongoing conflict between the country's political movements — a war of the supernatural. More>>
(Bangkok Post) BANGKOK, Thailand - Over a thousand Buddhist monks are planning to show their solidarity with the Red Shirt demonstrators today (March 20, 2010). They will also offer temples in Bangkok as a resting place for Red Shirt protesters so they can prolong their rally against the Abhisit Vejjajiva government, which was the result of a military coup.
Ven. Phra Panya Panyataro, a Buddhist monk from Surat Thani, Thailand said various groups of people, such as student and trade union leaders, had supported the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) demonstrators, so now it was time for the monks to do so.
Ven. Panya, coordinator of the Buddhist monk network for unity, said all monks who are at Sanam Luang have brought along an identity card and have registered so there were no fake monks [impersonators who are often planted provocateurs] among them. The monks' routine so far had been offering morning and evening prayers for peace and non-violence and walking round Sanam Luang once every day. Sathien Wipromha, a coordinator for the network, said some 1,200 monks had gradually arrived at Sanam Luang since last night to witness the Red Shirt vehicle caravan rally today. More>>
More Jains embracing ancient "suicide" ritual MUMBAI, India - The death of 60-year-old Jain nun Sadhvi Charan Pragyaji on September 11 last year was different from any the tiny town of Bhilwada in Rajasthan had witnessed. Over 20,000 Jains from across the country thronged the hamlet. They did not come in white to mourn the loss but in their finest celebration clothes to mark her death. For she was the only Jain to have survived a Santhara ritual of 87 days. Santhara is the Jain practice of voluntary and systematic fasting to death. Jain texts say it is the ultimate route to attaining spiritual liberation (moksha) and breaking free from the whirlpool of life and death (Samsara).
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This Thai fish WALKS like a mammal, which may reveal secrets about our evolution (April 8, 2016) The fish has a pelvic bone. It's only an inch long, but in the study of human evolution, this could be huge.
Yingluck, sister of fugitive Thai ex-prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, greets her supporters during election campaign in Chiang Mai on May 21, 2011 (Pornchai Kittiwongsakul/AFP/Getty Images).
BANGKOK (Reuters, June 30, 2011) - Graft-busting "Massage Parlor King" Chuwit Kamolvisit must be the only candidate in Thailand's election who wants to be in opposition -- and he prefers being labelled a pimp rather than a politician. More
BANGKOK – Thailand's prime minister met his political opponents on live television Sunday to try to defuse a crisis that has produced huge demonstrations and sent him fleeing to live at an army base, but the protest leaders said new elections are the only answer. More>> 
(Bangkok Post) BANGKOK, Thailand - Over a thousand Buddhist monks are planning to show their solidarity with the Red Shirt demonstrators today (March 20, 2010). They will also offer temples in Bangkok as a resting place for Red Shirt protesters so they can prolong their rally against the Abhisit Vejjajiva government, which was the result of a military coup.
On the one hand, Hinduism is a league of religions that has a built-in tolerance. [This is particularly true in India, where Karnataka state plans to probe Swami Nithyananda's sex scandal.] This is typical of revealed religions. But Buddhism and Jainism began as protest/reform movements...
MUMBAI, India - The death of 60-year-old Jain nun Sadhvi Charan Pragyaji on September 11 last year was different from any the tiny town of Bhilwada in Rajasthan had witnessed. Over 20,000 Jains from across the country thronged the hamlet. They did not come in white to mourn the loss but in their finest celebration clothes to mark her death. For she was the only Jain to have survived a Santhara ritual of 87 days. Santhara is the Jain practice of voluntary and systematic fasting to death. Jain texts say it is the ultimate route to attaining spiritual liberation (moksha) and breaking free from the whirlpool of life and death (Samsara).
