Pressure to amend military-drafted constitution is growing
Activists and civil society groups in the Northeast have launched a campaign to draft a new constitution as youth protesters across the country are calling for democratic change.
Activists and civil society groups in the Northeast have launched a campaign to draft a new constitution as youth protesters across the country are calling for democratic change.
Political scientist Chaiyan Rajchagool reflects on how the ruling class have constructed a politico-military complex, and co-opted state institutions in a bid to keep democracy at bay.
Duanwad Pimwana, one of the most prominent voices in contemporary Thai literature, talks about the challenges Thai literature faces in dealing with the trauma of the April-May 2010 violence.
“It’s no small thing. If you know that people died at the hands of the state, if you know they were shot with bullets paid for with our taxes, it’s quite a different matter than being shot by a common robber,” says Dueanwad Phimwana, author and S.E.A. Write Award winner of 2003. [VIDEO]
The political violence of 2010 claimed the lives of at least 94 people. Out of that number, 36 were confirmed to be from Isaan. Adithep Chanthet takes a look at the lives of five of those killed, what took them to the capital, their economic backgrounds, and their political ideas.
The clashes of April-May 2010 in Bangkok left at least 94 people dead. Of those killed, 36 people had home addresses in the Northeast. The Isaan Record has put together an infographic map showing who these people were and how they died.
On the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the crackdown on the Red Shirt protests in May 2010, and as part of the special series “Remembrances of Red Trauma,” The Isaan Record held an online panel discussion last week.
Ten years after the violent clashes in April-May 2010, the role of the so-called “men in black” remains shrouded in doubt. Five suspects have been fighting cases in the courts since 2014. This is the story of two of the defendants who continue to maintain their innocence.
Linguist Saowanee T. Alexander talks about the evolution of the term “red buffaloes” that had been used pejoratively to describe Red Shirts and supporters of the Pheu Thai Party. But in recent years, pro-democracy activists have reclaimed the slur, partly shifting its derogatory usage.