Sanitsuda Ekachai
Former editorial pages editor
Sanitsuda Ekachai is a former editorial pages editor, Bangkok Post. She writes on social issues, gender, and Thai Buddhism.
Sex, money and monkhood don't mix
The latest sex scandal of a popular preacher "Luang Pi Kato" once again reveals how rotten the cleric system is.
Temple graft shows need for reform
The country's latest temple corruption scandal occurred at a first-class royal monastery; the centre of a sect founded by reformist monarch King Mongkut to clean up the clergy. What an irony!
Autocracy, not giggling, is the problem
When two influencer monks -- Phra Maha Praiwan Worawano and Phra Maha Sompong Talaputto -- were summoned to Government House last week for giggling too much in their dhamma talk shows, I expected intellectual duels between the conservatives and the liberals on the monastic codes of conduct and the clergy's need to catch up with times.
Violence hampers Unesco park quest
Thailand's effort to turn the Kaeng Krachan Forest Complex into a Unesco World Heritage Site has been made in vain for the past six years. Will it have succeeded by the time the annual World Heritage Convention convenes in July?
Forest dictatorship at Kaeng Krachan
Enough is enough. When the meek indigenous forest dwellers fearlessly walked out of the meeting with the forest authorities in Kaeng Krachan National Park last week, their message was clear: Enough of your lies, cheating and violence. Enough of our hunger and loss of dignity from forced resettlement. Enough of threats and intimidation. We are going home for good.
Last-ditch fight against forest tyranny
After two decades of hunger and hardship -- and a life without dignity in a prison-like resettlement village -- a group of indigenous forest dwellers decided to return to their ancestral home deep in the Kaeng Krachan jungle in Phetchaburi province.
Fanaticism, hate speech and Buddhism
If your ultra-royalist friends say we need to uphold the Nation-Religion-Monarchy state ideology to protect the country's peace, order and national identity, ask them whose nation and what religion they are talking about.
Locals resist environmental dictatorship
Drenched with a heavy downpour on Tuesday night while picketing in front of Government House, Anong Kuson looked up at the ferocious sky, her face wet with tears mixed with merciless rain.
Hair saga reflects authoritarian culture
If you want to understand why dictatorship persists in Thailand, or the reason why the culture of bullying and impunity is so deep-rooted here, what happened at a public school in Si Sa Ket earlier this month offers an answer.
Demolition, lies, nepotism and impunity
Seriously? The national park authorities in Phrae province outraged the whole nation by razing a historical heritage house to the ground, and are we still going to let them get away scot-free?
