Here is an extended version of the paper I presented on September 19, 2011 at the conference on “Five Years after the Military Coup: Thailand’s Political Developments since Thaksin’s Downfall,” at Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) in Singapore. The paper is entitled “L’état, ce n’est plus moi: Popular Sovereignty and Citizenship over a Century of Thai Political Development.”
 

“เทวาสายัณห์: มรณกรรมของประชาธิปไตยแบบไทย” (ซึ่งแปลจาก Thailand Unhinged: The Death of Thai-Style Democracy) เป็นหนังสือที่วิพากษ์การเมืองและความเป็นไปในสังคมไทยอย่างถึงแก่น โดยเฉพาะในช่วงที่เมืองไทยตกอยู่ในภาวะวุ่นวายหลังจากการรัฐประหารขับไล่ อดีตนายกรัฐมนตรี ทักษิณ ชินวัตร ผู้เขียนมองว่าวิกฤตการณ์การเมืองไทยที่เป็นมาอย่างต่อเนื่อง สามารถอธิบายได้จากการศึกษาประวัติศาสตร์การเมืองไทยในช่วงเวลาหลังจากระบอบ สมบูรณาญาสิทธิราชย์ถูกโค่นล้มไป ซึ่งจะพบว่าเต็มไปด้วยความพยายามอย่างเป็นระบบของพวกชนชั้นปกครองที่ไม่ได้ มาจากการเลือกตั้ง ที่จะขัดขวางไม่ให้ประชาธิปไตยในเมืองไทยพัฒนาไปได้ เนื่องจากหวังจะกุมอำนาจไว้ในมือตน สถาบันการเมืองถูกบ่อนทำลาย ทำให้ไร้พลังอย่างต่อเนื่อง ความหวังหรือความพยายามใดๆของประชาชนที่จะได้มาซึ่งประชาธิปไตยที่แท้จริงก็ ถูกปราบปรามตลอดเวลา

Image credit: John LeFevre/RedPhanFa2Day
 
I am happy to announce the publication of a new edition of the book Thailand Unhinged, which was first released around this time last year. Below is a preview of the new Foreword, detailing the changes that were made for the purposes of this new edition. In a nutshell, the changes can be summarized in three words: un(self)censored, expanded, and revised.
Because I imagine that those most interested in this new edition are the same people who bought (or otherwise read) the first, I made a serious attempt …

What follows — a 12,000-word piece entitled “The Legend of King Prajadhipok: Tall Tales and Hard Facts on the Seventh Reign in Siam” — marks somewhat of a departure from the content that generally appears on this site. The paper, that is, is markedly more “academic,” in both style and format, than anything posted here before. That’s just as well, I guess, as the subject probably calls for a more measured tone. Anyway, this paper developed out of a larger project on Siamese electoral/legislative politics in the 1930s, which I …

The word had gotten out early that morning. Having spent nearly a month hunkered down at the 11th Regiment, protected by layers of razor wire and thousands of soldiers, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva had taken enough humiliation. Assembled at two symbolically charged locations in downtown Bangkok — at Saphan Phan Fa and at the Rajprasong intersection, surrounded by some of the world’s most dazzling shopping malls — the Red Shirts had spent weeks force-feeding the hapless Prime Minister repeated samplings of his own medicine. They had defied the Internal Security Act …

Last month I had the honor of being invited by the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand to participate in a panel discussion with former cabinet minister Suranand Vejjajiva and acting government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn. The subject was “Tanks, Thaksin and $2 Billion.” On the day of the event, I was informed by the organizers that Dr. Panitan had requested (and had, of course, obtained) to appear solo for the first 45 minutes, at the end of which he would leave and allow the event to continue in his absence. It has …

It’s my great pleasure to announce that the book “Thailand Unhinged” — a draft of which had been posted here in early January — was released today by Equinox Publishing (click here for the press release). It comes with a new subtitle: “Unraveling the Myth of a Thai-Style Democracy.” The blurb on the back reads as follows:

Thailand Unhinged offers a trenchant analysis of Thai politics and society over the tumultuous years that followed the ouster of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Thailand’s ongoing political crisis is explained through the prism of the …

Here is another essay that combines some of the old blog posts about Thai culture and democracy with some rather provocative new material (pdf format). As usual, comments are welcome.

In the end, they just packed their bags and left. Clutching water bottles, walking slowly towards the buses aboard which they would begin the journey home, the red shirts streaming out of the besieged Government House looked more like a football team’s vanquished supporters than revolutionaries forced to surrender by a violent government crackdown. Dejected and emotionally spent, to be sure, but still walking away from it with their lives, their limbs, and their freedom. Earlier threats to the contrary notwithstanding, when their backs were against the wall their leaders …

It has been too long since the people of Thailand last faced any good option. Today as they have for much of the past eight decades, if perhaps in terms that have never been more stark, the Thai people confront a choice that offers no real alternative. Before them stand two factions, divided more by competing private agendas than they are by alternative visions for the future of the country. On one side, in yellow, safely ensconced behind their tanks, their guns, and a frenzied, yah bah- powered army of …