It was clear from the moment that Noi Don Kha Pracha Samakkee School in the Khong Chai District of Kalasin Province announced in their advertisement that something was again wrong in Thai education. The rural school was looking to hire teachers in the fields of English and computers for the slim sum of 5,000 baht per month. Netizens balked at the rather low monthly salary (which might have been lower than Thailand’s minimum wage) and lamented the high workloads of Thailand’s school teachers.
Narin Kulpongsathron, a 33-year old activist, was recently convicted under Article 112 of the Thai Criminal Code on March 4 for defacing a portrait of Thailand’s King Vajiralongkorn. Otherwise known as lèse majesté, which prohibits the defamation of the Thai royal family, convictions can come with sentences of up to 15 years. His was related to a pro-reform protest in September 2020, on the anniversary of the military coup d’état that overthrew former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida must see an opportunity. In his visits, first to India and later to Cambodia, Kishida has played the role of relationship builder and norm enforcer, asking both Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen to heel on both demanding an end to Russian aggression in Ukraine, and asking Cambodia to support Ukrainian sovereignty as well. Tokyo’s diplomacy over the past week has put Cambodia, which holds the rotating chairmanship of ASEAN this year, center stage. And it worked.
As the war in Ukraine heads into its second week, the bodies are piling higher. Last week, the Russian Defense Ministry for the first time acknowledged Russian casualties from their February 24 invasion. The top Ukrainian newspaper in Kyiv recently reported that 9,000 Russian troops have been killed, although the Ukrainian government reports more than 11,000. Regardless of the exact numbers, the human toll cannot be understated. After 20 years in Afghanistan, just short of 2,500 American troops were killed. The Russians lost almost 15,000 over ten years. At this rate, Russia’s military operation in Ukraine looks set to well exceed those figures.
In the Muang Sam Sip District of Ubon Ratchathani, an 11-year old boy was recently the victim of physical harm at the hands of his teacher. In demanding that the child cut his hair, which in the teacher’s estimation violated school policy, the Grade 5 teacher struck the boy with a stick six times along his calves. Reminiscing about the past, the boy’s father said that the worst thing used to happen was that the teacher would cut a small slice of hair from a student and inform them that it had to be cut to the required length. Strikes such as those given to his son, clearly crossed a red line.
Russo-Indian relations have been historically stable. A carryover from the Cold War era, a warm bilateral relationship has led to the development of a Strategic Partnership that has included defense deals, such as India buying Sukhoi Su-30 fighter jets, Mil Mi-17 helicopters, and more recently the S-400 missile defense system from Moscow. The nature of the security relationship has lifted Russia in the eyes of Indian observers, but in light of recent developments—including India’s closer ties with the United States and Russia’s February 24 invasion of neighboring Ukraine—India’s ability to deftly balance Moscow with the West may be tested like never before.
At a brief meeting in Tokyo on 14 February, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi told Hun Manet, the son of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen that Japan’s government will offer assistance to Cambodia in preparation for the local elections in June and the summer 2023 elections in hopes that both will be held “democratically and in a way that reflects a variety of voices of the people.”
As tensions mount with China and polarization widens the gap between Beijing and the four members of the Quad, the Foreign Ministers of Australia, India and Japan and the Secretary of State of the United States met in Melbourne on Friday, 11 February 2022, for their Fourth Ministerial meeting, which precedes a larger summit to be held in Japan later this year.
Just days after the first anniversary of the February 1 coup d’état that forced Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy (NLD) from power, a sharp debate has emerged among commentators and academics—whether or not Myanmar’s generals, who once held a formidable grip on power in Myanmar by constitutional design and through brute force, are now losing.
China’s dominance in Southeast Asia is obvious anywhere you look. Long-standing ties and investment in Cambodia earned Beijing the opportunity to act as Prime Minister Hun Sen’s proxy vote in ASEAN during a pivotal year. China’s upstream dams and subsequent hydroelectric power demand compromised livelihoods for Mekong River countries and created leverage over downstream economies.