• News & article

  More effort needed on sufficiency economy

  News, Sawai Boonma, Published on 07/10/2015

  » Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha's trip to New York to attend the United Nations summit generated a great deal of attention among Thais, including those in the United States. Some organised a protest near the United Nations headquarters while many more showed up to express their support. A large number who could not go to New York gathered in Los Angeles to air their views.

• News & article

  Don't play roulette with Thai society

  News, Sawai Boonma, Published on 01/07/2015

  » Since the National Council for Peace and Order took the reins of government 13 months ago, Thailand was supposed to be on a path of reform — to make major changes for the better. The National Reform Assembly (NRA), with members chosen from various groups of presumably wise Thais, was set up to put together what needs to be changed.

• News & article

  Seeds of failure sown deep into national reform targets

  Oped, Sawai Boonma, Published on 06/05/2015

  » This month marks a year since the military took over the reins of government. According to its roadmap, the military has a few more months before it hands power back to an elected government. It will then be up to the new government to complete the reforms initiated over the past year.

• News & article

  Four horsemen of Thai democracy ride on apathy

  News, Sawai Boonma, Published on 03/06/2015

  » We are presumably more than half done with yet another constitution. Not counting the temporary ones issued after the many coup d'etats, this will be the 17th since absolute monarchy was abolished in 1932. Debates have been raging whether the new constitution will — finally — help Thailand reach its goal of being governed by democratic principles.  I think not, for these reasons.

• News & article

  We need better quality universities, not new ones

  News, Sawai Boonma, Published on 01/04/2015

  » At the cabinet meeting in Prachuap Khiri Khan province last week, the governor proposed that a new university be built at tambon Bo Nok, south of the provincial centre. His justification for the new university was that young people of the province would not have to go far from home for higher education.

• News & article

  Big ideas like Kra Canal take guts to follow through on

  News, Sawai Boonma, Published on 07/01/2015

  » With attention focused largely on holiday celebrations in the past couple of weeks, most Thais probably missed the news about a milestone event in Nicaragua just before Christmas. The event was a groundbreaking ceremony, commencing the construction of the Nicaragua Canal linking the Pacific Ocean with the Atlantic Ocean.

• News & article

  Sufficiency economy doesn't mean self-sufficiency

  News, Sawai Boonma, Published on 03/12/2014

  » Since the head of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) announced some six months ago that he would use the sufficiency economy (SE) as the guiding light for governing the country, I again have seen discussions equating SE with self-sufficiency. It's not.

• News & article

  An end to wasteful spending is the key to real reform

  News, Sawai Boonma, Published on 03/09/2014

  » The National Legislative Assembly is considering a 2.57-trillion-baht budget for the next fiscal year proposed by the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO). This budget will incur a national deficit of 250 billion baht. Members of the National Reform Assembly — the body charged with spelling out reforms to be undertaken in 11 areas stipulated by the NCPO — have not yet been selected, so how the new budget will be adjusted to accommodate the changes is not clear. If the government is serious about its reform it must start during the coming fiscal year. That should lead to a lower deficit than projected.

• News & article

  Keep a keen eye on the advisers, not just the NCPO

  News, Sawai Boonma, Published on 06/08/2014

  » Recent days saw the 100th anniversary of the beginning of World War One and the latest default by Argentina on its international debt.

• News & article

  Generals must lead way with sufficiency economy focus

  News, Sawai Boonma, Published on 02/07/2014

  » The timetable is set. If the generals keep their word, the country will hold parliamentary elections sometime late next year. Until then, they will be running an interim government as well as working with a constitution drafting committee and a national reform assembly to draw up ground rules and an agenda for governing and developing the country in the years to come.

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