Few people can forget the day in September 1990 when a gas truck exploded on Petchaburi Road in Bangkok. The accident killed 88 people and injured 36. Dozens of homes, cars and motorcycles were charred.
Despite the absence of a crucial new bridge at the Thai-Lao border, the recent launch of the North-South Corridor of the Asian Development Bank-funded Great Asian Highway is already creating a lot of optimism among Thai businessmen wishing to bolster trade with China and neighbouring countries. But questions are emerging as well with regard to future social, economic and geopolitical costs of the new roadway.
As the Olympic Games in Beijing draw near, the spotlight is on the plight of the Tibetans. In Southeast Asia, there is concern for what is happening in Burma. We in the West congratulate ourselves on our human rights concerns, but we would do well to remember our perfidious track record. Nowhere is this more unjust than in Palestine.
Dismissed from his job driving trucks for Thai Industrial Gases on March 1 of this year, Chai (not his real name) was desperate.
COMMENTARY
Despite the establishment of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) under the 1997 Constitution, human rights abuse is rampant in our country. Less privileged people all over the country are still being taken advantage of by wealthy businessmen, state agencies and officials, and even the government itself, primarily due to their lack of knowledge about laws and civil rights, and because of limited resources and means to protect themselves.
EDITORIAL
As the world watched the progress of the Beijing Olympic Games torch relay earlier last month, the first India-Africa Summit was held with great fanfare in New Delhi on April 8-9.
GUEST COLUMN / BURMA
The notion of political transition initiated by a country's elite has been a dominant discourse in Burmese politics since the late 1990s. The model advocates that a peaceful transition could be facilitated by negotiations between the regime's "doves" and opposition moderates. It would involve the opposition initiating a concrete proposal to the military in order to persuade the latter to sit at the negotiating table. This political strategy gained currency in the early 2000s since it coincided with the political ascendancy of former Intelligence Chief Gen Khin Nyunt. At the time, talks between opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the junta seemed to offer a glimmer of hope. Simultaneously, the opposition movement was losing its strength in "people power" campaigns such as unsuccessful Four Nine (September 9, 1999) Mass Movement campaign, and in ethnic armed resistances.
IN SIGHT
Not everyone would be willing to spend 28 years of their occupational life at an institute for infectious diseases, but Nurse Phornsiri Ruansawang has not only done so, she's brought such dedication and compassion to the job that she recently received Thailand's first-ever "Humanised Healthcare Award" for her near three decades-worth of service.
POSTBAG
Your editorial entitled "The long battle against terror" (Sunday Perspective, 27 April 2008) made some sane observations concerning the ongoing terrorism in southern Thailand.
