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FILE PHOTO: Thai LGBT community participates in Gay Freedom Day Parade in Bangkok, Thailand November 29, 2018.
Thailand Moves One Step Closer to Marriage Equality
Thailand’s House of Representatives approved a bill aiming to secure legal recognition of same-sex marriages, a historic first in Southeast Asia. It passed with overwhelming support: 400 votes in favor and 10 against. The bill will ensure all couples equal rights under the law in key areas like marital tax savings, property inheritance, medical rights, and child adoption.
Thailand is known for being one of the few safe havens for the LGBTQ+ community on a continent with historically restrictive laws. Thai law lagged public opinion, with polls showing as many as 96.6% of respondents supporting same-sex marriage legalization. The country is known internationally for its thriving, public social scene, as well as by many media watchers for their hugely popular queer “Boy Love (BL)” dramas and RuPaul’s Drag Race spinoff.
Thailand’s ruling Pheu Thai party capitalized on this gap between policy and public opinion. The opposition Move Forward Party – fueled by a progressive wave of young voters – campaigned on the issue during their most recent election cycle. Move Forward won the most seats in parliament but was shut out after Pheu Thai struck a deal with conservative and military-aligned parties.
Many assumed a continuation of the status quo was imminent. Voting on same-sex marriage legislation was a low-risk, high-reward move for Pheu Thai that would appease progressives angered by the sidelining of Move Forward and draw positive international attention without any pushback from their base.
The bill still requires approval from the Senate and an endorsement from the king. Thailand will then follow only Taiwan and Nepal (kind of) as countries that allow same-sex unions in Asia.Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
Thailand’s former PM to be paroled
Thailand’s former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is set to be granted parole after serving just six months of an eight-year jail sentence.
A brief history: Having dominated Thai politics for a generation, Thaksin – a populist billionaire – lived in self-imposed exile for 15 years after he was ousted by the military in 2006. Convicted in absentia of graft and abuse of power in 2008, he returned to Thailand just before last autumn’s election after striking a deal with the military establishment party that originally ousted him.
The progressive Move Forward Party won the election by rallying the youth and promising change. But Thaksin’s Pheu Thai Party was closely behind and allied with the military establishment to appoint Pheu Thai’s candidate as prime minister.
Pheu Thai is effectively controlled by the Shinawatra family – Thaksin’s daughter was made the party chair last year – and although Thaksin has not signaled he will seek office, he will likely serve as a powerful figure behind the scenes.
What this means for Thailand: When Move Forward won last year, it looked like Thailand was on track for change. But now, with Pheu Thai in power, Thaksin poised to play kingmaker, and even the planned re-criminalization of weed – which Move Forward fought to legalize – it looks like the status quo has returned to the Land of the Smiles. Unless, that is Move Forward uses its rallying power to get its followers out on the street.
Thailand, Bangkok, 2024/01/17. A tuktuk drives past a cannabis dispensary in the Nana district.
Pot politics: Thai government aims to overturn cannabis legalization
Passing the ganja in Thailand may soon be illegal – again. On Tuesday, Health Minister Cholnan Srikaew said the government plans to seek Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin’s approval next week for a draft bill to ban the use of recreational cannabis.
Historical high hopes. Thailand had some of the harshest anti-drug laws in the world. Deputy Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirankul (the former health minister), of the Bhumjaithai Party, campaigned on decriminalizing marijuana to reduce prison overcrowding and ease poverty. The result? Cannabis was legalized in June 2022, making Thailand the first Asian country to do so.
Conservative potshots. Srettha made limiting marijuana use for medicinal purposes a focal point during last year’s elections, and last month, Cholnan said using recreational cannabis “for fun is wrong.”
Youthful dreams up in smoke. Anutin’s pitch of decriminalizing the plant made the BJT Party stand out from its counterparts, especially among young voters. But the fast-aging population (18% are senior citizens) is on edge – and the country’s conservative coalition government came to power promising to reverse the liberalization. Offenders will face fines or prison terms of up to a year.Israelis protest in front of the Ministry of defense to free hostages taken by Hamas terrorist on October 7th 2023.
Hard Numbers: Gaza hostage talks continue, Brazilians bake, Thais toke, Record-scratch in Madagascar election
50: Negotiations to release some of the Hamas-held hostages in Gaza continued Wednesday, as Qatari mediators reportedly sought the release of 50 civilians in exchange for Israel agreeing to a three-day cease-fire. Hamas kidnapped more than 230 people during its Oct. 7 rampage. For more on the challenges facing hostage negotiations, here are comments from somebody who knows a thing or two about the subject.
100: More than 100 million people in Brazil are sweating it out amid one of the country’s worst heat waves in recent memory. Nearly 3,000 towns and cities are currently under heat alerts as temps climb above 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Experts say the El Niño climate phenomenon is partly to blame. We say it’s a great excuse to watch the sweltering 1955 Brazilian neo-realist classic “Rio, 40 Degrees.” (Celsius, celsius!)
6,000: Thailand’s Parliament is looking to roll up the country’s nascent cannabis industry, as weed shops bloom across the country. Last year, Thailand became the first Asian country to decriminalize cannabis, but in the absence of clear rules for a legal marijuana industry, more than 6,000 weed dispensaries have opened. Fearing widespread addiction, lawmakers have rewritten draft laws to restrict recreational use, and focus on medicinal applications.
10: At least 10 of 12 opposition candidates are boycotting Madagascar’s presidential election, which is set to take place Thursday. They’re all rivals, but their main beef now is with President Andry Rajoelina, who they say should have been stripped of his Malagasy passport when he took French citizenship in 2014. They also say Rajoelina, a 49-year-old former DJ running for reelection, has packed the courts with allies and weakened the electoral authorities. Weeks of protests have met with violent crackdowns. With a boycott of this size, will the election even be seen as legitimate?An Afghan man stands on the debris of damaged houses after the recent earthquake, in the district of Zinda Jan, in Herat, Afghanistan October 9, 2023.
Hard Numbers: Thousands killed in Afghan quake, Thais caught in the fighting, RFK’s new approach, China claims to hit economic targets, US wealth gap grows
2,400: At least 2,400 people have died in Afghanistan following Saturday’s 6.3-magnitude quake near the western city of Herat, the country’s third largest. While the search for survivors continues, the devastating tremor brings new hardship to an area already hard hit by the economic crisis. The World Bank estimates that two-thirds of Afghan families are at risk of losing their livelihood.
11: At least 11 Thai nationals who were working as guest laborers on farms in southern Israel have been kidnapped by Hamas, and another dozen were killed in the weekend attacks. Over 30,000 Thais work in Israel, and at this stage they are thought to be the largest group of foreign nationals — not dual citizens of Israel — to have been taken hostage, though at least two Mexicans, three Brazilians, a Nepali, and a British citizen are also believed to be in Hamas’s hands.
14: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced on Monday that he will run for president as an independent, not as a Democrat, and polls show he is on track to be the most popular third-party candidate since Ross Perot in 1992. Two polls found 14% of voters would choose him over either former President Donald Trump or President Joe Biden.
5.1: The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a state-run think tank, says China’s economy will grow by 5.1% in the fourth quarter, putting the country on the path to meet its annual growth targets. International investment banks, however, remain more skeptical given Beijing’s reluctance to provide short-term stimulus funding.
26.5: The top 1% of American households, in terms of annual income, held about 26.5% of the nation’s wealth in 2022, up about 1.5 percentage points from 2019. The share owned by the bottom 40% of households, meanwhile, fell from 7% to 6.7%, so despite the perception that workers gained leverage during the pandemic, it didn’t result in them getting a bigger slice of the pie.
Former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump attends a 2024 presidential election campaign event at Sportsman Boats in Summerville, South Carolina, U.S. September 25, 2023.
Hard Numbers: Trump liable for fraud, Kenya signs a big defense pact, Thailand jails king’s critic, Mexican exports get stranded, Nigeria rescues students
2.2 billion: Donald Trump was found liable for fraud Tuesday by a New York judge for lying about his wealth on financial statements to banks and insurers, inflating his net worth by approximately $2.2 billion dollars. Justice Arthur Engoron stripped the former president of control over some of his properties and sanctioned his lawyers for their behavior. Despite extensive legal troubles, Trump remains the frontrunner – and by a wide margin – for the GOP 2024 presidential nomination.
5: The US and Kenya have signed a 5-year defense agreement under which Washington will support the East African country’s security operations. Kenya has been battling al-Shabab jihadists in neighboring Somalia for years and is now poised — with $100 million in new US support — to lead an anti-gang mission to Haiti. Read more about why Kenya wants the Haiti assignment here.
4: A prominent Thai lawyer and activist who has called for reform of the country’s monarchy was sentenced to 4 years in prison under Thailand’s strict lese-majeste laws. Arnon Nampa was one of the leaders of the mass youth-led protests against the junta-dominated government in 2020. Thai politics were recently upended by the return of exiled former PM Thaksin Shinawatra. Read more here.
125: At least 125 people were killed in an unexplained explosion at a crowded fuel depot in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan on Tuesday. The victims were among thousands of ethnic Armenians fleeing Karabakh after Azerbaijan retook control over the Armenian-majority region last week for the first time in more than 30 years. Read more background here.
4: Nigerian security forces rescued 14 university students who had been abducted by gunmen in northwestern Nigeria. Half a dozen students remain unaccounted for. Kidnappings for ransom have grown common in the region in recent years, as part of a broader clash between nomadic and pastoral ethnic groups. It is the first major kidnapping of its kind since President Bola Tinubu took office earlier this year with promises to improve security.Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
Thaksin to Thai king: Pardon me?
Thailand’s billionaire former PM Thaksin Shinawatra has appealed to the country’s king for a pardon just days after being jailed upon his highly anticipated return to the country.
The background: In the early 2000s, Thaksin struck a populist chord to win a slew of elections, and was PM until he was ousted in a 2006 military coup that drove him into exile. Last week, he returned home for the first time since then, only to be jailed on charges of corruption and abuse of power.
The timing: It’s fishy for sure. Thaksin’s return came just as the Pheu Thai Party he founded did a once-unthinkable thing: after recent elections, the party agreed to lead a coalition that includes pro-military parties that were once Thaksin’s bitter enemies. The decision effectively shut out the progressive Move Forward Party, which actually won the elections on a groundswell of youth support.
The speculation: Did Pheu Thai do a deal with the military junta in which it buried the hatchet in exchange for Thaksin’s return and pardon? Keep a close eye on what happens in the next few days. The king has a decision to make, and millions of Move Forward supporters may yet show their anger on the streets. If he’s denied the pardon, he will need to wait two years, presumably in jail, before asking again.
Supporters attend the Pheu Thai Party campaign
Thailand elects new prime minister as exiled leader comes home
Tuesday is a tumultuous day for Thai politics. Thailand’s parliament has elected a new prime minister, thanks to the Pheu Thai Party and pro-military parties – former foes – joining forces to block the Move Forward Party. This made room for billionaire ex-politician Thaksin Shinawatra to return home after 15 years in exile. Shinawatra ruled the Pheu Thai before he was ousted in a military-backed coup in 2006 and fled to Dubai. With the Pheu Thai and the military-backed parties having set aside their differences, a “super deal” between them has allowed for his return.
After landing at home on Tuesday, Shinawatra was taken directly to the Supreme Court, where he was sentenced for three former convictions – which he says were politically motivated – to eight years in prison. He was jailed but is expected to soon receive a royal pardon as part of the deal.
So who’s taking the helm? Parliament elected Pheu Thai leader Srettha Thavisin as prime minister. He will lead the new 11-party coalition that excludes the progressive Move Forward Party, which unexpectedly won the majority in May’s parliamentary elections but has been unable to form a coalition to govern.
The new coalition holds 314 of the 500 seats in Thailand’s House of Representatives. It promises to boost the economy, increase the minimum wage, end mandatory conscription, continue legalizing marijuana, and even rewrite the military-implemented constitution (but it will not touch the royal defamation law, a key tenet of the Move Forward Party’s platform).
Pheu Thai joining forces with military-backed parties is controversial because they were political adversaries in the past. Pheu Thai is being criticized by supporters for backtracking on its pre-election pledge not to join hands with pro-military parties. Moreover, many members of Pheu Thai’s base, known as the “Red Shirts,” died in political violence as they defended Pheu Thai from the pro-military parties trying to eviscerate Shinawatra’s power in 2006. The leader of the Red Shirts resigned on Monday in protest.
Who else will be upset? The millions of young Thai voters who delivered a win to the progressive Move Forward Party back in May – and a rebuke to the military-linked parties in charge – will be angered by today’s events. With their electoral choice upended by political wrangling, street protests by the progressive movement are likely.