Showing 1 - 8 of 8
What's next for post-Thaksin Thailand?
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 08/09/2023
» The formation of a new coalition government under Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin has closed a two-decade chapter in Thai politics.
Where have the media reformers gone?
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 18/02/2022
» After two decades marked by two military coups in 2006 and 2014, Thailand is supposed to be a "reformed" country by now. While all kinds of reforms were promised with each military takeover -- from political parties, parliament and constitution to the bureaucracy, military and police -- none has taken place. In fact, pledged reforms have gone in the opposite direction in the past. Nowhere is this reaction and restoration of old power and interests more evident than in Thailand's media industry.
Election augurs end of the Thaksin era
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 05/04/2019
» It could have happened in August 2001, but Thailand has taken nearly two wasted decades to see the back of Thaksin Shinawatra.
Myanmar's Rohingya issue handled poorly
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 08/09/2017
» Less than a year after its last major upsurge in communal violence underpinned by religious tensions between Buddhism and Islam, the northern section of Myanmar's western Rakhine state bordering Bangladesh is again beset with another bout of similar turmoil and bloodshed. The pattern of conflict and violence this time is similar to late last year but the scale and scope are much wider and more lethal. At its root, the ongoing violence in Rakhine is more mixed than the Manichean images of good versus evil being portrayed in the international media.
Asean regionalism amid authoritarianism
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 05/08/2017
» If three Asean members -- Indonesia, Myanmar and the Philippines -- have led the way in shedding their authoritarian past, three others -- Thailand, Cambodia and Malaysia --have gone the other way. After 50 years of ups and downs in domestic politics and governance, Asean has seen a resurgence of authoritarian practices. How this trend is manifested, and whether it intensifies or reverts to more democratic characteristics, will determine how Asean's regionalism takes shape over the next few decades.
Thai-US treaty alliance needs realigning
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 15/01/2016
» That the United States' role in Asia's fluid and dynamic geopolitical canvas is considered indispensable is not a matter of dispute. Governments and states in South Asia, Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia have all been in favour of a continued American engagement that dates back more than a century, and which intensified after World War II and throughout the Cold War. Even China, the pre-eminent giant with superpower status, has not opposed US engagement in Asia, thanks in part to unprecedented mutual economic interdependence between Washington and Beijing.
TIP shows a Thai-US alliance under strain
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 31/07/2015
» That Thailand has remained on the United States' Tier 3 in Trafficking in Persons list is unsurprising. Even the government of Gen Prayut Chan-ocha has accepted the Tier 3 designation with resignation in the hope of an upgrade in future. What is more interesting is the trend in Thai-US relations over the past decade.
Thai authoritarianism: past and present
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 22/08/2014
» Thailand’s political pendulum has swung wildly. It has now completed a dramatic reversal, pitting the electoral authoritarianism of Thaksin Shinawatra from the early 2000s against the thinly veiled dictatorship of General Prayuth Chan-ocha in the mid-2010s.