The Sept. 19 military coup in Thailand bears more similarities to the January 2001 ouster of Joseph Estrada than to previous coups in Thai history. This is a coup that displaced a democratically elected leader – a politician despised by the elite and the intelligentsia but adored by the urban and rural masses. The generals … Read more
Thirty-four years ago, the then incumbent president, Ferdinand Marcos, invoked an obscure provision in the 1935 Constitution to free his presidency from basic constitutional restraints. The imposition of Martial Law, which was meant to preserve the State, was supposed to last only for the duration of the imminent threat to public order. But Marcos shrewdly … Read more
The transformation of air travel, particularly into the United States, into a tedious, time-consuming, and often humiliating activity is only the most obvious effect of 9/11. It is perhaps the least important. The paranoia that 9/11 spawned has produced a new international security doctrine that is undermining democracy everywhere. It has given a new warrant … Read more
There is something perverse in the way the leaders of Sigaw ng Bayan are peddling the shift to a parliamentary system. They advertise it as if it were a miraculous cure for all our problems. They claim that it will treat political instability and end political adventurism among our soldiers; that it will spur economic … Read more