“Opposition to the Thai government, such as the 2nd Army Region commander...”

A leaked recording of a phone call between Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and former Cambodian leader Hun Sen is putting Paetongtarn under intense pressure. During the conversation, she criticised Boonsin Padklang, a regional military commander: “As for the opposition to the Thai government, such as the 2nd Army Region commander, he could say anything that doesn’t benefit the country — anything just to make himself look cool”.

There is an active border dispute between Thailand and Cambodia, and Boonsin commands troops in Thailand’s northeastern region, which includes the Thai–Cambodia border. In the phone call, Paetongtarn appears to side with Cambodia against her own military, and seems to accept Cambodia’s conditions to resolve the dispute. This doesn’t bode well for Pheu Thai, considering the military’s history of political interventions and the prominent nationalist sentiment in Thailand — a new alliance of pro-military protesters, รวมพลังแผ่นดิน (‘unite the land’), have called for a rally on 28th June at Victory Monument.

The call took place on 15th June. A nine-minute extract was leaked online yesterday, and the Cambodian government then released the complete seventeen-minute recording. Anutin Charnvirakul has used the controversy as a pretext to withdraw his Bhumjaithai party from the coalition government. (Bhumjaithai joined the coalition in 2023. There had already been credible rumours that Anutin would quit, as he was likely to be replaced as Minister of the Interior in an upcoming cabinet reshuffle.)

A previous government, also backed by Paetongtarn’s father Thaksin, faced similar accusations of disloyalty in 2008 over another territorial dispute with Cambodia. At that time, People Power Party foreign minister Noppadon Pattama endorsed Cambodia’s ownership of the Preah Vihear Temple, and was forced to resign after the Constitutional Court ruled that he had acted unanimously.

Rewind: A Brief History of Leaked Tapes

In 2013, Thaksin himself was caught out by a leaked recording of his private conversation with Yuthasak Sasiprapha, who was deputy defence minister at the time. (It became known as the ‘cordyceps tape’, as the two men discussed the health benefits of eating this fungus.) Neither Thaksin nor Yuthasak has confirmed that the recording is genuine, though it’s widely believed to be authentic. It was broadcast by ASTV, and a transcript appears in Rawee’s book Old Soldiers Never Die, Old Royalists Die (โอลด์รอยัลลิสต์ดาย).

Last year, in leaked audio of a conversation between Palang Pracharath Party leader Prawit Wongsuwon and an unidentified man, Prawit could be heard complaining that he had not yet become prime minister: “I want the people to give me a chance to be the number one.” Former PM Abhisit Vejjajiva was the victim of a fake audio clip in 2009: in the recording, he appeared to call for the suppression of red-shirt demonstrators “using all forms of violence”, though the tape was later revealed to be a hoax.

In the US and UK, there have been some notorious leaked recordings of private conversations. The most consequential of all was the ‘smoking gun’ tape that led to Richard Nixon’s resignation in 1974. British tabloids reported on the so-called ‘Camillagate’, ‘Dianagate’, ‘bastardgate’, and ‘Majorgate’ tapes in the early 1990s and, a few years later, Linda Tripp’s surreptitious tapes of her phone calls with Monica Lewinsky were used as evidence of Lewinsky’s affair with Bill Clinton.

Two of the biggest scandals of US President Donald Trump’s first term were related to leaked conversations. American presidential elections are often preceded by an ‘October surprise’ — a last-minute revelation — and one of 2016’s October surprises was the infamous recording of Trump boasting to TV anchor Billy Bush about groping women: “Grab ’em by the pussy.” Trump was impeached in 2020 after a transcript of his phone call to President Zelensky of Ukraine showed that he had tried to pressure Zelensky into digging up dirt on Joe Biden in exchange for military aid (“I would like you to do us a favour, though”).

Ghosts: Confronting the Dead in Thailand

Ulf Svane and Paul McBain’s new documentary Ghosts: Confronting the Dead in Thailand includes an interview with Thongchai Winichakul filmed at Thammasat University. Dozens of students at Thammasat were killed on 6th October 1976, and Thongchai is Thailand’s foremost authority on the history of that brutal event. (He has written about it extensively, including in his English-language book Moments of Silence.)

In the documentary, Thongchai discusses Thammasat’s notorious ‘red elevator’, which — according to legend — is haunted by victims of the 1976 attack. There are unlikely to be genuine apparitions haunting the lift, though such tales of ghosts are a reminder of the spectre of history: Thongchai stresses the need to “confront the ghost, or talk about the ghost”, in order to come to terms with traumatic historical events.

Ghosts is the latest of more than fifty films that refer to 6th October 1976. Previously, the Thammasat elevator inspired the horror film Haunted Universities (มหาลัยสยองขวัญ), which was censored to remove dramatisations of the violence that took place on that day. Also, a photograph of the elevator doors, titled Half Day Closing, was part of filmmaker Taiki Sakpisit’s exhibition Dark Was the Night (ผีพุ่งไต้).

It’s about Time:Performing between the Past and Tomorrow in Chulayarnnon Siriphol’s I a Pixel, We the People

Chulayarnnon Siriphol’s exhibition I a Pixel, We the People (ข้าพเจ้าคือพิกเซล, พวกเราคือประชาชน) will close later this month, and the artist took part in a Q&A session with Sam I-shan at BangkokCityCity Gallery yesterday. The event was titled It’s about Time: Performing between the Past and Tomorrow in Chulayarnnon Siriphol’s I a Pixel, We the People, named after an essay on Chulayarnnon’s work published by the gallery.

Chulayarnnon spoke about the two phases of his artistic career. His early short films were more personal, whereas his work became more overtly political following the Ratchaprasong crackdown in 2010: “it quite changed my life when the Thailand political crisis came, about 2010”. This aligns him with the “Post-Ratchaprasong art” movement identified by the journal Read (อ่าน; vol. 3, no. 2), and he made a similar comment in an interview for Thai Cinema Uncensored, explaining when he “turned to be interested in the political situation.”

In the Q&A, Chulayarnnon also discussed the consequences of the political climate for artists: “self-censorship is still existing: for me, sometimes I did that.” He contrasted the student protests of 2020 and 2021 — when Thai artists were more blunt in their political satire — with the current atmosphere: “for now, we need thought-provoking [art], but no need to be hardcore”. He also highlighted the threats that “hardcore” artists face: “I don’t want to be in jail, but I respect them.”

Sam I-shan’s essay booklet is twenty-four pages long, and has been published in a limited edition of twenty-four copies (each with a unique cover photos), reflecting the twenty-four-hour duration of Chulayarnnon’s video installation. The author identifies subtle political metaphors in the exhibition: she notes that the day-long running time “might parallel the cyclical nature of Thai politics,” and she argues that the piles of clothes in the gallery space “stand for all people disenfranchised by... Thailand’s political system, with some of these bodies literally absent, having been imprisoned, exiled, disappeared or killed.”

Pain(t)ing

Today is the final day of the Pain(t)ing thesis exhibition at Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, featuring work by students from the Poh-Chang Academy of Arts. The exhibition opened on 27th May.

One of the highlights is Narissara Duangkhun’s No War but the Class War no. 4, a satirical commentary on contemporary Thai politics. The painting includes a depiction of a Reuters photograph taken thirty years ago during the notorious Tak Bai incident in 2004. Narissara’s work resembles that of Navin Rawanchaikul (albeit on a smaller scale), with its dense, brightly coloured collage of wide-ranging visual references. Her painting also features a slot machine displaying ‘112’, a reference to the lèse-majesté law, which is article 112 of the Thai criminal code.

SpotlightSpy in the IRA

A jury at the High Court in Dublin has awarded Gerry Adams €100,000 in damages after a month-long libel trial. Adams had sued the BBC over its documentary Spy in the IRA, in which an anonymous source — identified only by the first name Martin — accused Adams of authorising the IRA’s killing of Denis Donaldson in 2006.

In the programme, reporter Jennifer O’Leary said: “Martin believes that the shooting of Denis Donaldson was sanctioned by the man at the top of the republican movement, Gerry Adams.” When O’Leary asked Martin, “Who are you specifically referring to?”, he answered: “Gerry Adams. He gives the final say.” The programme followed this reply with a disclaimer stating that Adams insisted he “had no knowledge of, and no involvement whatsoever, in Denis Donaldson’s killing.”

Spy in the IRA, an episode in the investigative series Spotlight, was broadcast on 20th September 2016 on BBC1 in Northern Ireland, and repeated on BBC2 in Northern Ireland the following day. During the libel trial, O’Leary testified that she had corroborated Martin’s claim with five other sources — this suggests responsible, well-informed journalism, not bias. When he gave evidence at the trial, Adams denied under oath ever having been a member of the IRA, though his status as a former senior IRA leader is common knowledge among journalists and historians.

It’s conceivable that some members of the jury were from generations who came of age after the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, and have no personal recollection of the era known as ‘the Troubles’, during which Adams was certainly not regarded as a peacemaker. Also, it’s highly likely that Adams benefited from his decision to bring the case in the Republic of Ireland rather than Northern Ireland, to ensure a more sympathetic jury.

Another alleged former IRA member has also launched a libel suit in relation to a different unsolved murder. Marian Price is suing the makers of the TV series Say Nothing, a dramatisation of the IRA’s 1972 abduction and killing of Jean McConville. Although noone has been convicted of McConville’s murder, the drama shows her being shot by Price.

The shooting takes place in Say Nothing’s final episode, titled The People in the Dirt, directed by Michael Lennox. The episode ends with a written disclaimer stating that Price “denies any involvement in the murder of Jean McConville.” The series was released on the Hulu and Disney+ streaming services on 14th November last year.

Yingluck Shinawatra: “10 billion baht is impossible for me to repay...”

Thailand’s Supreme Administrative Court has ordered former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra to pay ฿10 billion ($300 million) to the Ministry of Finance, in recompense for losses incurred by her government’s rice subsidy policy. The verdict overturns an earlier judgement from the Central Administrative Court, and also seems to contradict a prior ruling by the Supreme Court.

Yesterday’s announcement from the Supreme Administrative Court came on the eleventh anniversary of the coup that deposed Yingluck in 2014. Writing on Facebook, Yingluck challenged the judgement and said: “The debt of 10 billion baht is impossible for me to repay in a lifetime”.

Starting in 2011, Yingluck’s Pheu Thai government bought rice from farmers at up to 50% above the market rate, intending to withhold it from the world market and thus drive up the price. The result, however, was that other countries such as India and Vietnam increased their rice exports, the government was left with vast stockpiles of rice that it could not sell, and therefore it could not pay the farmers for the rice they had supplied.

Charges relating to Yingluck’s role in the rice scheme were originally filed by the National Anti-Corruption Commission in 2014. As a result, she was impeached in 2015, and the Attorney General launched a criminal investigation into charges of dereliction of duty. Ultimately, the Supreme Court sentenced her to five years in prison, though she fled the country before the verdict was announced.

In 2016, the Ministry of Finance ordered Yingluck to repay ฿37.5 billion ($1 billion), though she appealed against that decision and her appeal was granted by the Central Administrative Court on 30th March 2021. That appeal verdict was quashed yesterday by the Supreme Administrative Court, though Yingluck’s fine was reduced to ฿10 billion.

The Supreme Court case related specifically to contracts for rice sales to private Chinese companies, arranged by the Thai Ministry of Commerce, which were falsely designated as non-competitive government-to-government deals. In its 2017 judgement against Yingluck, the Supreme Court ruled that she was aware that the government-to-government deals were fraudulent, though — in contrast to yesterday’s Supreme Administrative Court verdict — it did not hold her personally accountable for the financial losses incurred.

ความรุนแรง (ต้อง) ไม่ลอยนวล (‘violence (must not be) unpunished’)

Next week, artefacts related to political violence will be displayed at Sappaya-Sapasathan, Thailand’s parliament building in Bangkok. The exhibition, ความรุนแรง (ต้อง) ไม่ลอยนวล, has been organised by the parliamentary Committee on Legal Affairs, Justice, and Human Rights. Its title translates as ‘violence (must not be) unpunished’, emphasising the lack of legal consequences for political violence, and the injustice of such impunity.

Items on display will include a ฿100 banknote retrieved from the body of a sixteen-year-old boy, Imron, a victim of the Tak Bai tragedy. Two bloodstained shirts will also be displayed: a red t-shirt worn by Payu Boonsophon (who was blinded in one eye by a rubber bullet while protesting near the APEC summit in 2022), and a white shirt worn by another protester, Sirawith Seritiwat (who was attacked by thugs in 2019). The exhibition will also feature rubber bullet casings and tear gas canisters fired by riot police at Din Daeng in 2021. Most of the artefacts are from the collection of the Museum of Popular History.

The exhibition runs from 19th to 25th May. Imron’s banknote — one of seventeen personal belongings of Tak Bai victims in the collection of the Deep South Museum and Archives — was previously included in the Heard the Unheard (สดับเสียงเงียบ) exhibition in 2023. Last year, the seventeen items were also shown at exhibitions in Bangkok and Narathiwat.

Payu and Sirawith’s shirts were previously part of the Evidences of Resistance [sic] (วัตถุพยานแห่งการต่อต้าน) exhibition at Thammasat University’s Museum of Anthropology, from 20th February to 26th May 2023. Sirawith’s shirt has also been shown at the Murdered Justice (วิสามัญยุติธรรม) and Never Again (หยุด ย่ำ ซ้ำ เดิน) exhibitions.

Evidences of Resistance was held in room 112 of the museum, in a coded reference to the lèse-majesté law, which is article 112 of the Thai criminal code. Similarly, the film Arnold Is a Model Student (อานนเป็นนักเรียนตัวอย่าง) featured a table labelled ‘112’ in a school computer lab. The play Wilderness (รักดงดิบ) included a recipe stating that food should “dry in the sun for 112 hours”. The catalogue for Wittawat Tongkeaw’s exhibition Re/Place cost ฿112, and some of his paintings measure 112cm². Two poetry books — เหมือนบอดใบ้ไพร่ฟ้ามาสุดทาง (‘we subjects, as if mute and blind, have found ourselves at the end of the line’) and ราษฎรที่รักทั้งหลาย (‘dear citizens’) — were each priced ฿112. Elevenfinger’s single Land of Compromise was released at 1:12pm. The documentary 112 News from Heaven features 112 headlines from a 112-day period, and 112 photographic portraits.

Remembering Her, Remember Us

“Do we really have to starve to death, before we get bail?”
— Netiporn Sanesangkhom

Exactly a year ago, Netiporn Sanesangkhom died of cardiac arrest after going on a prolonged hunger strike to protest against the jailing of political protesters. Netiporn — a leader of the Thalu Wang protest group — was charged with lèse-majesté, and had been released on bail only after a previous hunger strike of sixty-four days. Today, on the first anniversary of her death, Netiporn is being commemorated at Remembering Her, Remember Us (“บุ้ง เนติพร” วันที่เธอหายไป), an all-day event at Bangkok Art and Culture Centre.

Rachata Thongruay’s half-hour documentary Hungry for Freedom, about Netiporn and her fellow hunger striker Nutthanit Duangmusit, will be shown as part of the event. Rachata interviewed Netiporn and Nutthanit while they were released on bail after their initial hunger strike. Netiporn tells him: “I thought... do we really have to starve to death, before we get bail?”

This will be the film’s second screening in Thailand; it was previously shown on 10th November 2024 at the House of Wisdom community space on Thammasat University’s Rangsit campus. A large portrait of Netiporn was included in last year’s Murdered Justice (วิสามัญยุติธรรม) exhibition, held at BACC just a week after her death.

Netiporn and Nutthanit conducted public opinion polls, asking people to vote with coloured stickers whether they supported or opposed lèse-majesté prosecutions. It was this activity that resulted in lèse-majesté charges against the pair, though two of their sticker boards are on display at Remembering Her, Remember Us. (Murdered Justice featured a similarly controversial exhibit: the t-shirt worn by Tiwagorn Withiton that led to lèse-majesté charges against him.)

Hungry for Freedom is one of several documentaries that focus on individual protesters. We Need to Talk About อานนท์ (‘we need to talk about Arnon’) and The Letter from Silence (จดหมายจากความเงียบ), both released last year, are about Arnon Nampa. The Cost of Freedom — which was screened in New York in 2023, but has not yet been shown in Thailand — is about Panusaya Sithjirawattanakul.

ย้อนรอยแผลเป็น 6 ตุลา(‘retracing the scars of 6th Oct.’)

A display of items related to the 6th October 1976 massacre of students at Thammasat University opened at Thammasat’s Museum of Anthropology on 25th April, and runs until 30th August. The exhibition, ย้อนรอยแผลเป็น 6 ตุลา (‘retracing the scars of 6th Oct.’), is a scaled-down version of ก่อนจะถึงรุ่งสาง 6 ตุลา (‘before the dawn of 6th Oct.’), held at Thammasat last year. Both events were organised by the Museum of Popular History.

The current exhibition includes Hangman, a painted silhouette of a hanged student, displayed alongside a list of the names of the massacre victims. It also features the contents of the กล่องฟ้าสาง (‘box of dawn’), a ‘museum in a box’ released in 2021.

“The most controversial band in the UK...”

London’s Metropolitan Police are investigating the Irish rap group Kneecap after the band appeared to incite violence and endorse terrorist groups at two of their London concerts. Yesterday, The Guardian described Kneecap as “the most controversial band in the UK”.

On 29th November 2023, during a gig at the Electric Ballroom, band member Mo Chara told the crowd: “The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP.” (Chara has not been identified by name in other reports about the controversy.) On 21st November 2024, at the O2 Forum Kentish Town during the band’s final show on their Fine Art Tour, Chara said: “Up Hamas! Up Hezbollah!” (Chara was draped in the Hezbollah flag at the time.)

The Met issued a statement on 1st May after videos of the two concerts were shared online: “Both videos were referred to the Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit for assessment by specialist officers, who have determined there are grounds for further investigation into potential offences linked to both videos. The investigation is now being carried out by officers from the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command and inquiries remain ongoing at this time.”

“Publishers are not liable for honest mistakes...”

A jury has found that The New York Times did not defame Sarah Palin when it published an editorial on 14th June 2017. Palin had sued the newspaper for libel over a sentence in the editorial falsely implying that her campaign had encouraged the 2011 shooting of fellow politician Gabby Giffords: “Before the shooting, Sarah Palin’s political action committee circulated a map of targeted electoral districts that put Ms. Giffords and 19 other Democrats under stylized cross hairs.”

The newspaper had swiftly apologised for the editorial — “We got an important fact wrong, incorrectly linking political incitement and the 2011 shooting of Giffords” — and inserted a clarification into the online version of the article the day after its original publication: “no connection to the shooting was ever established.” The initial libel case ended on 15th February 2022, when a jury concluded that the editorial was not defamatory.

Palin appealed against that verdict, and she was granted a retrial on 28th August last year. Yesterday, the week-long retrial ended with a different jury reaching the same conclusion, that the newspaper did not intentionally defame Palin. After yesterday’s verdict, New York Times spokesperson Danielle Rhoades Ha said: “The decision reaffirms an important tenet of American law: publishers are not liable for honest mistakes.”

The Shattered Worlds: Micro Narratives from the Ho Chi Minh Trail to the Great Steppe

The group exhibition The Shattered Worlds: Micro Narratives from the Ho Chi Minh Trail to the Great Steppe (โลกร้าว เรื่องเล่าขนาดย่อมจากเส้นทางโฮจิมินห์ถึงทุ่งหญ้าสเต็ปป์) opened on 3rd April, and runs until 6th July. The exhibition is split between three venues, though the majority of the pieces are on show at Bangkok Art and Culture Centre.

Chulayarnnon Siriphol’s video triptych No More Hero in His Story, part of his Red Eagle Sangmorakot (อินทรีแดง แสงมรกตะ) installation, features the return of his saffron-robed monk wearing an incongruous motorcycle helmet. The character has previously appeared in Chulayarnnon’s short film Monk and Motorcycle Taxi Rider, and in his segment of the portmanteau film Ten Years Thailand. (Chulayarnnon discussed his depiction of monks in an interview for Thai Cinema Uncensored.)

For his installation The Tower of Bubbles, Thasnai Sethaseree created collages of published texts and photographs related to political violence, which he then painted over, almost — but not quite — obscuring them from view. He has used this technique before, covering newspaper pages with brightly coloured paint in works shown at the Dismantle (ปลด) and Cold War exhibitions. A large slogan painted onto the BACC’s wall, “WHAT YOU DON’T SEE WILL HURT YOU”, makes the point that the historical atrocities overpainted by Thasnai may be hidden from sight, but they still have the potential to reoccur.

Red’s Objects Dialogue

Almost exactly fifteen years ago, on 10th April 2010, the Thai military opened fire on pro-democracy red-shirt protesters in Bangkok. The Museum of Popular History is commemorating the anniversary of the crackdown with an exhibition of red-shirt memorabilia, which opened on 29th March at the Kinjai Contemporary gallery in Bangkok.

The exhibition, Red’s Objects Dialogue (เสื้อตัวนี้สีแดง), runs until 10th April, the date on which the army launched their assault. Red’s Objects Dialogue has been conceived as an interactive exhibition, with visitors encouraged to share any memories of the protests prompted by the items on display (including an impressive collection of hand-clappers, t-shirts, and VCDs).

Red’s Objects Dialogue includes several notorious items that were banned by previous governments: calendars issued in 2016 and 2019 by Thaksin and Yingluck Shinawatra, flip-flops featuring images of Abhisit Vejajjiva and Suthep Thaugsuban, and a Pheu Thai promotional water bowl. The bowl and calendars were previously displayed at the Never Again (หยุด) exhibition in 2019. One of the most intriguing exhibits is a transistor radio (a generic design, sold in Thailand as a Tanin TF-268) which has been rebranded a “RED RADIO”.

The tragic events of 10th April 2010 have also been commemorated in several previous exhibitions: Khonkaen Manifesto (ขอนแก่น แมนิเฟสโต้) and Amnesia in 2019, Future Tense in 2022, and 10 April and Beyond last year. They are also referenced in Pisitakun Kuantalaeng’s album Kongkraphan, Pen-ek Ratanaruang’s short film Two Little Soldiers (สาวสะเมิน), and in the poetry collection ลุกไหม้สิ! ซิการ์ (‘burning cigar!’).

A book commemorating the victims of the massacre, วีรชน 10 เมษา (‘heroes of 10th April’) by Ida Aroonwong and Warisa Kittikhunseree, was published in 2011. There are also plans to publish a book based on visitors’ responses to the artefacts on show at Red’s Objects Dialogue. Like the Museum of Popular History, the National Library of Australia also has an archive of red-shirt ephemera.

Naya Bharat (&lqsuo;new India’)

Indian comedian Kunal Kamra is the subject of a police investigation in the state of Maharashtra after he criticised a politician from the region in his stand-up show Naya Bharat (‘new India’). Kamra performed a few satirical songs during the set, and they appeared with karaoke-style subtitles when he uploaded a video of the show to his YouTube channel on 23rd March. He was charged with defamation on the following day.

The lyrics to one song, a parody of the theme to the Bollywood film Dil To Pagal Hai (‘the heart is crazy’), include the word ‘gaddar’ (‘traitor’), in an oblique reference to politician Eknath Shinde. After footage of the performance circulated online, a mob of Shinde’s supporters ransacked The Habitat, the Mumbai studio where Kamra had recorded the live show. A spokesperson for Shinde’s political party Shiv Sena has called for Kamra’s arrest.

The Habitat was also the venue for another controversial comedy last month, when an episode of the podcast India’s Got Latent was recorded there. A guest on the show, Ranveer Allahbadia, asked a contestant: “Would you rather watch your parents have sex every day for the rest of your life, or would you join in once and stop it forever?” The episode was released on YouTube on 10th February, and multiple police complaints were filed against Allahbadia. India’s Supreme Court described Allahbadia’s question as obscene on 18th February, though it stopped short of filing criminal charges against him.

In a similar case in 2021, Ashutosh Dubey, an adviser to India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, filed a legal complaint against comedian Vir Das in relation to a live performance in Washington D.C. Das recited his poem Two Indias at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on 12th November 2021, and uploaded it to YouTube four days later. As he predicted in the words of the poem itself, “I come from an India that will accuse me of airing our dirty laundry”.

Out: How Brexit Got Done and the Tories Were Undone

After All Out War, Fall Out, and No Way Out, Tim Shipman’s final Brexit book, Out: How Brexit Got Done and the Tories Were Undone, was published late last year. His quartet, a definitive account of UK politics since the country voted to leave the EU, tells “the full story of the most explosive period of domestic British politics since the Second World War.”

Out, 900 pages long, is (fortunately) the least Brexity of the four books. Spanning the entire Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, and Rishi Sunak governments, it has the same insider’s access and all-sides coverage that made Shipman’s previous accounts so unique and compelling.

Shipman argues that, for better or worse, Johnson was “the most consequential figure of the period”, having achieved far more than his predecessor: “Theresa May was defined by the things she failed to do, Boris by the things he did — both excellent and execrable.” In an example from the execrable category, Johnson asked the attorney general not to inform ministers that prorogation of parliament may be illegal: “don’t spook the cabinet by talking about the litigation risk.” Shipman calls this “one of the nadirs of Johnson’s premiership.”

Shipman has consistently reported some of the most remarkable pull quotes in recent British politics. In Out, he quotes an unprecedented confrontation between a prime minister (Johnson: “Are you threatening me?”) and a senior adviser (Dominic Cummings: “Yes, I’m fucking threatening you.”) An even more extraordinary quote comes from Elizabeth II, who joked with her staff after Johnson resigned: “at least I won’t have that idiot organising my funeral now.”

Unsurprisingly, Shipman is dismissive of Johnson’s successor: “Liz Truss need not detain us long here.” He cites several Downing Street staff who describe her as “fucking mental”, and one who calls her “psychologically unfit to be prime minister.” (This recalls Alastair Campbell’s description of Gordon Brown’s “psychological flaws”, quoted in Andrew Rawnsley’s Servants of the People.) A secretary “broke down in tears” after Truss rebuked them for bringing her the wrong type of coffee (like Mugatu in Zoolander).

Before introducing Sunak at a 2024 election campaign event, Johnson asked his aides: “Why am I doing this? This guy’s a fucking cunt.” Shipman’s assessment of Sunak is also critical though, of course, more measured: “the lack of a driving political vision gave him no political cover from failures of delivery.”

The 60th Year

Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Communication Arts will hold two days of film screenings in Bangkok later this week, to celebrate the faculty’s sixtieth anniversary. The 60th Year (สดุดีปีจอ) includes a screening of Breaking the Cycle (อำนาจ ศรัทธา อนาคต) on 27th February, followed by a Q&A with its directors Aekaphong Saransate and Thanakrit Duangmaneeporn. Come and See (เอหิปัสสิโก) will be shown on the next day, followed by a talk by director Nottapon Boonprakob.

Both films are documentaries that challenge established institutions, and both attracted controversy in the process. Charges of sedition were filed against the makers of Breaking the Cycle, as their film — accurately and objectively — described the 2014 coup as undemocratic. When Nottapon submitted Come and See to the censorship board, they explained that they had some reservations about it. Would he mind if they rejected the film, they asked. But the Thai Film Director Association publicised the case online, and — presumably to avoid negative publicity — the censors told Nottapon that they no longer had a problem with the film.

Breaking the Cycle

Breaking the Cycle is a fly-on-the-wall account of the Future Forward party, which was dissolved by the Constitutional Court in 2020. (Future Forward was founded as a progressive alternative to military dictatorship. The party came third in the 2019 election, after a wave of support for its charismatic leader, Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, though he was disqualified as an MP by the Constitutional Court.)

The film begins in 2014 with Thanathorn’s determination to end the vicious cycle of military coups that has characterised Thailand’s modern political history. This mission gives the film its title, and Future Forward co-founder Piyabutr Saengkanokkul asks: “Why is Thailand stuck in this cycle of coups?” The documentary benefits from its extensive access to every senior figure within Future Forward. The directors were even able to film Thanathorn as he reacted to the guilty verdicts being delivered by the Constitutional Court.

The documentary ends with the caption “THE CYCLE CONTINUES”, which is sadly accurate: Future Forward’s successor, Move Forward, was dissolved by the Constitutional Court last year despite winning the 2023 election. The movement’s third incarnation, the People’s Party, will need a landslide victory in the next election to challenge the current pro-military coalition led by Pheu Thai.

Breaking the Cycle went on general release last year. It was later shown at the Thai Film Archive in Salaya, as part of the Lost and Longing (แด่วันคืนที่สูญหาย) season. It was also screened at A.E.Y. Space in Songkla, and at the Bangsaen Film Festival at Burapha University. It was part of the Hits Me Movies... One More Time programme at House Samyan in Bangkok, and it was screened last week at Thammasat University.

Come and See

Come and See examines the practices of the Wat Phra Dhammakaya temple complex (in Pathum Thani province, near Bangkok) and its former abbot, Dhammajayo, who has long been suspected of money laundering. (Dhammakaya is a Buddhist sect recognised by the Sangha Supreme Council, though it closely resembles a cult. Come and See interviews both current devotees and disaffected former members of the organisation.)

The Dhammakaya complex itself is only twenty years old, and its design is inherently cinematic. The enormous Cetiya temple resembles a golden UFO, and temple ceremonies are conducted on an epic scale, with tens of thousands of monks and worshippers arranged with geometric precision. The temple cooperated with Nottapon, though his access was limited. Come and See doesn’t investigate the allegations against Dhammajayo, though it does provide extensive coverage of the 2016 DSI raid on the temple and Dhammajayo’s subsequent disappearance.

The Critics

Yesterday, a female news anchor was questioned by police on charges of defamation and violation of the Computer Crime Act, following a legal complaint by a lawyer representing former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Her home was searched by more than a dozen police officers, though she has not yet been arrested.

The online news organisation The Critics published a video on 3rd January reporting on an opinion poll in which Thaksin had been voted the world’s worst leader. (The video is still online, on the Thai Move Institute’s YouTube channel.) The anchor told police that she was not the journalist who wrote the story, and had merely been reading from a script.

The news report (which is essentially clickbait) refers to a survey on the website The Top Tens. Thaksin is indeed currently listed there as the worst leader in the history of the world, with Adolf Hitler in second place, though the voting has been manipulated by Thai netizens. (Thaksin’s entry has more than 6,000 vitriolic comments, from people who apparently believe that he was worse than genocidal dictators such as Hitler.)

There are equally hyperbolic comparisons between Thaksin and Hitler in two documentaries by Ing K. In the fourth episode of her Bangkok Joyride (บางกอกจอยไรด์) series, a protester describes Thaksin as “worse than Hitler”. This echoes a quote from Ing’s Citizen Juling (พลเมืองจูหลิง): “We talk of Hitler... But villagers, all citizens nowadays fear PM Thaksin 10 times more.” (These examples are discussed in Thai Cinema Uncensored.)

During Thaksin’s premiership, he was notorious for his use of lawsuits to intimidate his critics. Pimpaka Towira’s documentary The Truth Be Told (ความจริงพูดได้), for example, examined the charges filed by Thaksin’s Shin Corp. against media campaigner Supinya Klangnarong after she was interviewed by the Thai Post (ไทยโพสต์) newspaper on 16th July 2003. (The Thai Post was also named in the writ. This case is also covered in Thai Cinema Uncensored.)

Supinya had alleged that Shin Corp. benefitted from the policies of Thaksin’s government, and therefore that his ownership of the company represented a conflict of interest. Her book about the lawsuit, พูดความจริง (‘speak the truth’), was published in 2007, after the case was dismissed.

Can’t Stop Won’t Stop

Warat Bureephakdee’s Crazy Soft Power Love will be shown this evening at Rx Cafe in Chiang Mai. The screening is part of the Can’t Stop Won’t Stop (ไปให้สุด หยุดไม่อยู่) arts festival, which is raising awareness of the political crisis in Myanmar since the violent coup that took place there in 2021. (The festival’s Burmese title is မဆုတ်တမ်း မရပ်တမ်း.) The event began yesterday, and runs until the end of this month.

This will be Crazy Soft Power Love’s third screening this week, and its second screening today. It will also be shown in Korat this afternoon, as part of the With Love and White festival, and it was shown at เทศกาลถนนศิลปะ ครั้งที่ 22 (‘the 22nd street art festival’) in Khon Kaen on 16th February.

Crazy Soft Power Love is a satire on the government’s soft power strategy, culminating in a Songkran water fight that escalates into a brawl, intercut with footage from the 6th October 1976 massacre at Thammasat University. It was previously shown at Wildtype 2024, at the fourth Amazing Stoner Movie Fest (มหัศจรรย์หนังผี ครั้งที่ 4), and at last year’s Short Film Marathon (หนังสั้นมาราธอน).

Wattanapume Laisuwanchai’s video The Body Craves Impact as Love Bursts (ร่างกายอยากปะทะ เพราะรักมันปะทุ) will be shown at Rx Cafe tomorrow, also as part of the Can’t Stop Won’t Stop festival. In Wattanapume’s film, images of a man and woman are shown facing each other, yet separated. The project was made in solidarity with the rapper Elevenfinger, who is serving a prison sentence for possession of ping-pong bombs used in anti-government protests. The video ends dramatically with flashing images and footage of fireworks, filmed at Thalugaz protests in 2021.

The Body Craves Impact as Love Bursts was first shown as a video installation at the Procession of Dystopia exhibition last year. It was also screened at The 7th Bangkok Experimental Film Festival (เทศกาลหนังทดลองกรุงเทพฯ ครั้งที่ 7).

With Love and White

Warat Bureephakdee’s Crazy Soft Power Love will be shown tomorrow at Boonwattana School in Korat, as part of the one-day With Love and White festival of short films. This will be its second screening this week, as it was also shown at เทศกาลถนนศิลปะ ครั้งที่ 22 (‘the 22nd street art festival’) in Khon Kaen on 16th February.

Crazy Soft Power Love is a satire on the government’s soft power strategy, culminating in a Songkran water fight that escalates into a brawl, intercut with footage from the 6th October 1976 massacre at Thammasat University. It was previously shown at Wildtype 2024, at the fourth Amazing Stoner Movie Fest (มหัศจรรย์หนังผี ครั้งที่ 4), and at last year’s Short Film Marathon (หนังสั้นมาราธอน).

ภาพสุดท้ายบนผืนผ้า สงครามเย็นไม่เคยจากไปไหน(‘the final images on cloth’)

Chulayarnnon Siriphol’s Birth of Golden Snail (กำเนิดหอยทากทอง) will be shown in Chiang Mai on 1st March as part of The Golden Snail Series (วัฒนธรรม​หอยทากทอง), a programme of five short films by the artist that feature his golden snail motif, followed by a Q&A with Chulayarnnon. (The five films were also shown last month, at A.E.Y. Space in Songkla and Lorem Ipsum in Hat Yai.)

The Golden Snail Series is the final event in the three-day ภาพสุดท้ายบนผืนผ้า สงครามเย็นไม่เคยจากไปไหน (‘the final images on cloth: the Cold War never goes away’) film festival, which begins on 27th February. The festival — organised by Dude, Movie — explores the continuing legacy of the Cold War, and will be held outdoors at Suan Anya. The films shown will be the last ones to be projected onto the venue’s cloth screen, which will soon be replaced with a more substantial screen.

Birth of Golden Snail was banned from the Thailand Biennale in 2018, and had its first public screening at the following year’s 30th Singapore International Film Festival. Its Thai premiere was at the 23rd Thai Short Film and Video Festival (เทศกาลภาพยนตร์สั้น ครั้งที่ 23), and it was shown last year at Infringes. Chulayarnnon discussed the film in an interview for Thai Cinema Uncensored.

The other short films in The Golden Snail Series programme are Golden Spiral (โกลเด้น สไปรัล), The Internationale (แองเตอร์นาซิอองนาล), ANG48 (เอเอ็นจี48), and How to Explain “Monument to the Fourth International” to the Dead Golden Snail (เรารักภูมิพลังวัฒนธรรมละมุนละม่อมนุ่มนิ่ม). Golden Spiral was first shown at Ghost:2561. ANG48 was first shown at Shadow Dancing, and later at Wildtype 2023, ใช้แล้ว ใช้อยู่ ใช้ต่อ (‘I’ve used it, I’m using it, I’ll keep using it’), The 27th Thai Short Film and Video Festival (เทศกาลภาพยนตร์สั้น ครั้งที่ 27), and the Short Film Marathon 27 (หนังสั้นมาราธอน 27).