<p>The US’s disinclination to shift its pro-establishment perception raises the crucial question of whether Washington simply aimed at pursuing its interests or indeed failed to fully comprehend Thailand’s political development that has taken place in the past decade.</p> <p></p>

<p>The coup was staged on 22 May—it is the 19^th coup since Thailand abolished its absolute monarchy in 1932. While domestic pressure has been built up against the coup, international community has also kept a watchful eye on what has happened in Thailand.</p>

<p>Leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meet every year. They often share an upbeat outlook on ongoing regionalization, which will witness the grouping celebrate a milestone in its community building in 2015. In looking closely into the region however, underneath such optimism lies an inconvenient truth. In Southeast Asia, existing political flashpoints have the potential to hamper the path toward an ASEAN community. The seeming inability of ASEAN to manage regional disputes has so far symbolized a failure in the strengthening of its regional architecture.</p>

<p>The Thai political crisis has shown no sign of subsiding. Indeed, the rise of political violence becomes more evident. And since Thailand is an important part of the regional economy, its protracted crisis has produced far-reaching effects on the country’s partners. Japan, a major economic partner of Thailand, has felt the political heat too.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><img alt="" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3737/12810034623_a950149da4.jpg" /></p>

<p>Fuadi Pitsuwan, son of Surin Pitsuwan, former foreign minister, former ASEAN Secretary-General and a member of the Democrat Party, wrote an article, appeared in an online journal, PacNet, dated 8 January in response to what he saw as the <a href="http://csis.org/files/publication/Pac1403.pdf">“tyranny of global commentary.”</a> Fuadi is currently a fellow at the Asia Centre at the prestigious Harvard University.</p> <p></p>

<p>This article looks into the US perception toward Thailand’s political divide. For the United States, traditionally, the benefits of preserving the pro-establishment forces position have been manifest. It permitted the bilateral relationship to become more predictable and less disruptive because of the elites’ continued domination of political power and foreign policy making process. Governments may come and go, but the traditional elites denoted a permanent feature of Thai politics.</p> <p></p>

<p>Thailand’s Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra will pay a two-day visit to Singapore from 26-27 November, the first overseas trip following the Constitutional Court’s ruling which could have led to the dissolution of her party, the Pheu Thai. The Court accused her government of acting against the constitution when it tried to make the upper house of the Parliament directly elected rather than partly appointed. But Yingluck’s government somehow survives.</p> <p></p>

<p>Human security has been a relatively alien concept due to the overwhelming concentration on the security of nation-state. The making of the “security” discourse in Myanmar is arbitrary. It is arbitrary because it has been shaped and reshaped according to the changing power interests of the Myanmar elite. The state becomes equivalent to the nation. Hence, the security of the nation is equal the regime security.&nbsp;</p> <p></p>

<p>Cambodian politics has never been more interesting. The general election taken place in late July 2013 delivered a rather devastating result for the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), led by the forever Prime Minister Hun Sen. Having been in power for almost three decades, Hun Sen has become the longest-running elected leader of Southeast Asia. Yet, the latest poll may seem to suggest that the end of the Hun Sen era is nigh.</p> <p></p>

<div>The university uniform drama has unfolded a new ugly reality in Thai society. Recently, a vocal Thammasat student, under her chic nickname Aum Neko, has daringly defied a traditional practice of student uniform wearing within the walls of a prestigious university. As it is understood, there is no fixed rule on the necessity of wearing university uniform. </div>

<p>The choking haze has revisited Southeast Asia in the past weeks. Impressive skyscrapers in Singapore and Malaysia have been cloaked by haze, a type of pollution which has emerged as a health issue for the two countries, as well as affecting their economy and potentially that of the region. For Singapore, this is not a new problem. Yet this year’s haze has managed to break its own record; it reached the hazardous PSI (pollutant standards index) level of 401 at 12 pm on June 21, the highest ever seen in the city-state. Similarly, the air pollutant index (API) hit 750 in the town of Muar—a 16-year high for Malaysia—in the morning of June 23. The Malaysian prime minister soon signed a declaration of emergency for the affected town.</p> <p></p>

<div>Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra paid an official visit to Japan from 22-25 May. As Thailand’s first female premier, Yingluck did not just exploit her charm to win over Japan, but was daring to talk openly about the most sensitive issue facing her country—the protracted political crisis that erupted in the wake of the 2006 military coup. That coup overthrew her brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, the most successful prime minister in Thailand’s history.</div> <p></p>