Harrison George

7 Apr 2014
I trust you were as shocked as I was to read the outrageous ‘Gridlock makes losers of us all’ column by Atiya Achakulwisut in last Tuesday’s Bangkok Post.  It being April 1, I momentarily suspected it was an April Fool spoof, but it seems I was sadly mistaken.  In a single article she carelessly junked the Post’s carefully crafted paeans to the bravery, statesmanship and personal sacrifice of Suthep Thaugsuban.  These puff pieces have for months laboured to overcome his legacy as a corrupt provincial wheeler-dealer with a lightning quick eye for the main chance.
31 Mar 2014
Following the decision of the suddenly even-handed Election Commission to call for a re-run of the Bangkok governor’s election, political office holders around the country are looking over their shoulders and wondering if a similar fate will befall them.
23 Mar 2014
Friends of Thai Democracy are becoming increasingly anxious as the search for its whereabouts or any trace of its remains now enters its third month.
10 Mar 2014
The rampant confusion over the putative secessionist movement calling for an independent state of Lanna in the north of Thailand is no more than you can expect in a country besotted with acronyms.
3 Mar 2014
Well it’s a full house here at the Impact Arena for the live televised debate between Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and Suthep Thaugsuban, head of the People’s Democratic Reform Committee.  There’s a few minutes to go before that starts so I’ll turn to Khun Somchai here.  Khun Somchai, explain to the viewers, what is the background to this debate?
16 Feb 2014
Violence again has struck a PDRC protest site, though it appears that for the first time in many months of protest, no external attack was involved.
2 Feb 2014
OMG.  I have only just realized.  The insurrection on the streets, the slowly sinking economy, the political polarization that allows no dialogue … it’s all my fault. At first I thought that Suthep and his fellow demagogues were just doing the normal rabble-rousing, picking on the Cambodians as the bogeyman du jour. 
26 Jan 2014
It’s been a deadly winter for British comedians.  John Fortune died on New Year’s Eve, alas, and this week comes news of the death of Roger Lloyd-Pack.  So nostalgia has us flipping through some of the best clips and lo and behold, there’s the clue to Thailand’s political problems.
13 Jan 2014
So how are we going to shut down the whole of Bangkok? It’s easy.  Like Khun Suthep said, everyone will come out onto the streets and no one will be able to go anywhere, especially the Thaksin clique and corrupt politicians.
5 Jan 2014
Argentina, Australia, Luxembourg, Rwanda and South Korea all became members of the UN Security Council on New Year’s Day. At his public inauguration, President Obama put his left hand on bibles once owned by President Lincoln and Martin Luther King. A cleaning woman was badly injured while cleaning an empty commuter train in the middle of the night in Sweden in January when she accidentally started it.
22 Dec 2013
The judicial process in Thailand is especially tricky to figure out. Just this week the international media showed pictures of former Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva climbing the many steps of the Criminal Court to be formally charged with murder.  Commentators noted that even if prosecution of a PM for a crime of this severity is a first for Thailand, it is very much a selectively political case and few believe there is any serious chance of his future appearances being in leg irons.
14 Dec 2013
It is with great sadness that this column announces the death this week in Thailand of Khun Pracha Thipatai.  Coming so soon after that of Nelson Mandela in South Africa, it is natural and informative to draw comparisons between the two lives.

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