https://www.scmp.com/rss/514802/feed Adam Simpson is Senior Lecturer in International Studies at the University of South Australia. His research focuses on the politics of the environment, development and digital media in Southeast Asia, particularly Myanmar and Thailand. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Adam Simpson Adam Simpson More than three months after Thailand’s national elections – and many anti-democratic manoeuvres in parliament – the country finally has a new prime minister, Srettha Thavisin. But given the chaotic nature of Thai politics, this was perhaps not even the biggest news of the week. Hours before the partially military-appointed Thai parliament elected Srettha to the post, one of the country’s most prominent political figures, former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, returned from his self-imposed... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3232332/thaksins-back-thailands-anti-democratic-forces-are-strong-ever?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3232332/thaksins-back-thailands-anti-democratic-forces-are-strong-ever?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 27 Aug 2023 02:30:10 +0000 In a general amnesty announced recently on state television, Myanmar’s military junta removed six years from the jail term of Aung San Suu Kyi, the 78-year-old leader of the government removed by a coup in February 2021. This came a week after the junta had moved her into house arrest following a year in solitary confinement. But it still leaves Suu Kyi facing a 27-year jail term on bogus charges. The junta also lopped four years off former president Win Myint’s sentence, and reportedly released... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3230706/why-myanmars-brutal-military-junta-can-never-defeat-aung-san-suu-kyi?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3230706/why-myanmars-brutal-military-junta-can-never-defeat-aung-san-suu-kyi?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 11 Aug 2023 06:00:22 +0000 Two years after Myanmar’s coup on February 1, 2021, the country’s large and growing resistance forces receive almost no attention outside the country. The democratic opposition, fronted by the National Unity Government (NUG), but comprising many different groups, armies, militias and individuals, has also struggled to gain awareness, even for its substantial battlefield successes. And perhaps most notably, the opposition’s pleas for weapons from the West to fight against an increasingly brutal... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3208449/why-has-west-given-ukraine-billions-military-aid-virtually-ignored-myanmar?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3208449/why-has-west-given-ukraine-billions-military-aid-virtually-ignored-myanmar?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 30 Jan 2023 18:00:16 +0000