What We Are Reading Today: Thailand's Political History
Author: B. J. Terwiel
'Thailand's Political History' tackles some of Thailand's most topical and pressing historical debates.
It discusses the development and evolution of the Siamese state from the early Sukhothai period through the fall of Ayutthaya to the rise of the Chakri dynasty in the late 18th century and its consolidation of power in the 19th.
Moving into the twentieth century, it traces the emergence of the Thai nation state, the large-scale investments in modern infrastructure.
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Saudi Gazette
5 days ago
- Saudi Gazette
Thai hostage recovered from southern Gaza in military operation
JERUSALEM — The body of a Thai hostage, Nattapong Pinta, who was abducted alive during the October 7 attacks was recovered from southern Gaza in a military operation on Friday, according to a statement from the Israeli military and the Shin Bet security service. The announcement comes just days after Israel recovered the bodies of two Israeli-American hostages from Gaza. Pinta, 35, was taken from Kibbutz Nir Oz in southern Israel where he had been working in agriculture, according to an Israeli military official, who said it is estimated that he was killed during the first months of captivity. Pinta was a husband and father working in Israel to support his family in Thailand, the official said. 'We will not rest until all the hostages, living and deceased, are returned home,' Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement. Pinta was abducted by the Mujahideen, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said, a militant group that took part in the Hamas-led attack on Israel. The IDF said it is the same organization that kidnapped the Bibas family and killed Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir Bibas, the mother and two young sons who became the most prominent among Hamas' captives. Earlier this week, Israel announced that the bodies of Judy Winston-Haggai, 70, and Gadi Haggai, 72, were recovered from southern Gaza. The two were also taken from Kibbutz Nir Oz. The couple had four children and seven retrieval of Pinta's body comes with an intense Israeli operation underway in Gaza, with the Civil Defense reporting at least 38 people were killed in Israeli attacks on IDF said four soldiers were killed and five wounded early Friday morning when an explosive was detonated in a building in Khan Younis in which they were operating, causing part of the structure to collapse.A total of 55 hostages remain in Gaza, including one taken in 2014. Twenty are believed to be still the 251 people taken hostage by Hamas militants on October 7, many were migrant workers from poor rural parts of Asia, who had gone to work in Israel's agricultural, construction and health care sectors to send money back home. — CNN
Saudi Gazette
03-06-2025
- Saudi Gazette
Cambodia to take up long-running border dispute with Thailand at UN's top court
PHNOM PENH — Cambodia has said it plans to seek a ruling from the UN's International Court of Justice (ICJ) over border disputes with Thailand, one of which triggered a fatal military clash last week. Cambodia's National Assembly, where Prime Minister Hun Manet's ruling Cambodian People's Party holds all but a handful of seats, voted on Monday to support the government's decision. In 1962, the ICJ awarded Cambodia disputed territory on which a historic temple is located, a move that rankled Thailand and to this day remains a major irritant in bilateral relations. The ICJ reaffirmed that ruling in 2013. Speaking on Monday at a meeting of the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Thailand's Foreign Minister Maris Sangiampongsa said Cambodia has the right to file a case with the court, but that would not affect talks between the two countries under existing mechanisms. He said Thai officials will meet later this week to issue a clear stance on the matter. Thailand's Deputy Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai, who is also defense minister, said in a post on Facebook that both countries are working to resolve the crisis by avoiding further confrontations and violence. "I'd like to assure that we will avoid escalation of the conflict that would only result in losses for both sides in every aspect," he wrote. A border dispute near Morokot village in Cambodia's northwestern province of Preah Vihear on 28 May left one Cambodian soldier dead. It started when Cambodian troops were conducting a routine patrol along the border when the Thai side opened fire, according to Cambodian officials. The Thai army says that Cambodian soldiers entered a disputed patch of land and opened fire when Thai soldiers approached them to negotiate. Hun Manet in social media posts on Sunday said that his government will ask the court to rule on the demarcation of several disputed areas, including where the centuries-old Hindu-style Ta Moan Thom, Ta Moan Toch and Ta Kro Bei temples are located. In February, Cambodian troops and their family members entered the Ta Moan Thom temple in disputed territory and sang the Cambodian national anthem, leading to a brief argument with Thai forces. Following last week's incident, both sides called for calm and talks to ease their differences, while reserving the right to use military action to safeguard their sovereignty. On 29 May, the two countries' army commanders met to discuss how to avoid more clashes. On Monday, Hun Manet called for the two countries to have their Joint Border Commission continue the work of border demarcation, as well as having the ICJ take up the issue. He said his government would take the cases of the other disputed areas to the ICJ to determine ownership even if Thailand did not join in the appeal, in order "to end this problem and extinguish it once and for all so that there is no further confusion." "In particular, let's not fall for the incitement of a handful of extremist groups in Cambodia and Thailand, and let's not fall into the problem of confrontation by armed forces of the two countries," he said. Hun Manet's intention to appeal to The Hague-based court may touch a nerve in Thailand because the 1962 ruling awarding the Preah Vihear temple to Cambodia is a touchstone issue for Thai nationalists and often comes up in domestic politics. Last year, Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinatwatra's government was attacked on nationalist grounds for proposing to resume talks with Cambodia on demarcation of maritime territory believed to hold profitable hydrocarbon resources. In 2008, there were several deadly clashes between Cambodia and Thai forces at the Preah Vihear promontory, an area on which sits a 1,000-year-old temple that was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site the same year. — Euronews
Arab News
03-05-2025
- Arab News
Gunman kills three in Thailand's conflict-hit south
BANGKOK: A gunman has shot dead three people including a child in Thailand's insurgency-hit south, police said Saturday, as authorities pursued the suspect. The attacker opened fire late Friday in a residential area of Tak Bai district in Narathiwat province, one of three Muslim-majority provinces in Thailand's far south gripped by a decades-long separatist insurgency. Three people were killed, including a nine-year-old girl and a 75-year-old man, police said. 'One victim died at the scene, and two others succumbed to their injuries at the hospital,' local police officer Watthana Thurarat told AFP, adding that two more people were wounded. Police believe the suspect, who remains at large, is linked to a rebel group, Watthana said. Violence frequently rocks the kingdom's southern provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala, where separatists seeking greater autonomy for the religiously distinct region have killed more than 7,000 people since 2004. However, attacks on unarmed civilians in residential areas remain relatively rare, with most targeting security personnel. In 2004, Thai security forces shot into a crowd of protesters outside a police station in Tak Bai, killing seven. Subsequently, 78 others suffocated in the back of military trucks after they were arrested — a deadly crackdown widely seen as a trigger for the southern unrest in the Buddhist-majority country. Last year, a Thai court dismissed the long-delayed Tak Bai case, brought by victims' families against seven officials, when the statute of limitations expired. Analysts have warned the decision could further inflame tensions in the region.
