Last Updated: June 21, 2009

Q. What is the purpose of this blog?

A. The main purpose of this blog is to post on issues related to Thai politics and primarily the situation in the Deep South. Only on very rare occasions which the author will stray from Thai politics into international politics (i.e my recent series of posts on Burma). This blog will be primarily focusing on current events and will try to use only open sources.

Q. Who is BP?

A. No comment.

Q. What credentials does Bangkok Pundit have to blog?

A. Well telling you the "credentials" of Bangkok Pundit (BP) would hardly allow BP to remain anonymous, wouldn't it? What "credentials" can one have to blog anyway? If it really matters this blog has been mentioned in The Age (Australia). BP wrote an article/op-ed for the Washington Post's online section (see this post for some of the figures mentioned in the article). The Star (Malaysia) did a recent profile and BP has been quoted in another The Star article on what attracts foreign criminals to Thailand. A blog post has also been quoted by Christian Science Monitor. ANU's Asian Studies WWW Monitor recently gave the blog a 4 star rating and said the blogs' scholarly usefulness was very useful. Freedom House calls the blog "superb". On September 3, 2008, this blog was judged to be the "Internet Site of the Week" by the Bangkok Post (screenshot).

In December 2008, this blog's work was quoted in The Guardian who stated the author(s) were prolific. Also, in December 2008, BP's work was quoted in Asia Times by Shawn Crispin who described BP as "well-read".

One blog post (available here) n the changing nature of the insurgency was cited by Dr Neil J. Melvin in a policy paper entitled "Conflict in Southern Thailand :Islamism, Violence and the State in the Patani Insurgency" (September 2007) available from here (PDF).

Q. Is Bangkok Pundit paid by Thaksin/TRT/PPP or other members of the Illuminati to blog?

A. No. BP is not paid and/or does receive no money from Thaksin or anyone else (aside from ad revenue), to blog. This blog don't promote venues, establishments, or places in Thailand or elsewhere. Each post or comment is the view of the author concerned and should not be taken to represent the views of others. BP is too lazy to argue with such delusional people who think otherwise, but would Thaksin have paid BP to call on him to resign last February.*

In case it is not clear, "paid" means salary, a wage, and/or any benefits whether monetary or non-monetary. There is no condo, there is holiday home, there is no Singapore/London/Dubai office. There are no paid minions. This means zero, zilch money for blogging (except ad revenue and all the advertisers are openly displayed). It can't be clearer.

Q. Has this blog ever criticized Thaksin?

Will add to this list over time - there is a comment somewhere where a number were listed, but can't find it now. As come across more will add them.

Thaksin was one of the more corrupt prime ministers as noted in this post:

First, as a Prime Minister Thaksin as an individual (ok, one was must include Potjaman here) was more corrupt than previous Prime Ministers. What I mean is that Thaksin personally benefited or corruption went to himself or Potjaman than under previous Prime Ministers. Under Thaksin, power was centralized and where comes power comes corruption. There was not a need for all the factions to be as corrupt as previous factions because the money came from Thaksin.

Another post on Thaksin's inability to accept criticism and his tendency to make off-the-cuff statements. He was very thin-skinned, but some of his off-the-cuff statements were ridiculous if not out right stupid (his attributing that some of those who died at Tak Bai were as a result of fasting was idiotic and callous)

May turn this into a separate post and just post a link once it gets too big.

Q. Why does Bangkok Pundit blog then?

Blogging is a hobby. BP is a political news junkie and blogging was just an extension of this. Back in 2005 when this blog started, there were very few, if any, political blogs in English. As Phil Golingai recently wrote:

Bangkok Pundit started the blog because he/she found the level of political news reporting by English-language Thai newspapers such as The Nation and Bangkok Post not up to standard.

“They do have good coverage. But there are times when their coverage is lacking compared with what the Thai-language newspapers report,” said the news junkie.

Blogging is also an outlet for Bangkok Pundit to express political views, as face-to-face discussion on the subject in polarised Thailand (that is divided into Thaksin lovers and haters) can turn ugly.

Q. Are there any subjects BP doesn't blog on?

A. It is difficult to comment on the Royal Family.

There will be no blog on information obtained under an obligation of confidence. Unfortunately, on some topics where BP has some level of expertise/inside knowledge, BP has taken a decision not to blog about these issues.

*Thaksin, of course, didn't listen to BP and dissolved parliament, which BP stated was the worse option at the time, and of course that turned out to be such a brilliant idea.

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