Suthep Thaugsuban, the leader of the opposition movement to oust Thailand’s current Prime Minister, Yingluck Shinawatra. has issued a deadline of Thursday for her resignation and the dissolution of Parliament. Thaugsuban has called on the police to arrest Shinawatra for treason and to replace the current Parliament, now controlled by Shinawatra’s Puea Thai Party, to be replaced by an unelected “People’s Council.” The cleavages with the Thai polity are serious, but it seems as if the primary divide is between the rural population who support the Shinawatras and the Thai establishment. The ultimatum issued by Thaugsuban may push an already violent protest movement into a serious civil conflict.
Thaksin Shinawatrin
The Indian Supreme Court has overturned an earlier court ruling that ruled against laws against homosexual sex. The Supreme Court held that only the Parliament could rescind laws. The battle for equality thus returns to the political process, as it is no longer possible to think about sexual preference as a right. The reinstated law was a colonial-era law that held that homosexual sex is “against the law of nature.” The political battle to overturn the law will be a difficult one in India at this point in time.
There is nothing that could ever reduce the significance of Nelson Mandela to South Africa and to the world. But he does raise important questions about how best to confront tyranny and injustice, and the role of violence in a liberation movement has always been a divisive one within the ranks of those who wish to eliminate both of those scourges from human existence. Ta Nehisi Coates has written a very thoughtful essay about this very difficult question.
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