Showing 41 - 50 of 72
Malaysia's poll ramifications for Thailand
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 11/05/2018
» It was a vicarious happenstance. When the annual flagship event of Asean's consortium of think-tanks known as the Asia-Pacific Roundtable was scheduled in Kuala Lumpur for May 7-9, not a weekend but the first half of a working week, no one thought it would run into Malaysia's 14th General Election (GE14). But it did, as Prime Minister Najib Razak chose a Wednesday instead of a typical weekend, to stage Malaysia's momentous polls. But the tricky timing failed to help his cause. He lost in a big way that bears far-reaching ramifications for the fate of democracy and authoritarianism in the region and beyond, not least here in Thailand.
Thailand amid Asean economic integration
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 11/08/2017
» The first year and a half of the Asean Community has transpired not with a bang but a whimper. Thailand's role in it has been correspondingly uneventful. The first 18 months of the Asean Economic Community (AEC), one of three pillars together with the Asean Political-Security Community and Asean Socio-Cultural Community, witnessed no fundamental or qualitative differences from trade and investment patterns prior to its introduction. If the AEC is to work out as intended, it has to be reshaped and reoriented from traditional lenses to new realities based on intra-regional investments in tandem with global value chains.
Thailand's challenges, lessons from '97 crisis
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 30/06/2017
» It is hard to believe today but Thailand appeared on the verge of economic doom 20 years ago. The culmination of financial sector convulsions, compounded by a currency crisis and reinforced by corruption and cronyism, induced a forced devaluation of the baht on July 2, 1997. Back then, the Thai economy was in dire straits but politics looked promising. It is the opposite today, as macroeconomic conditions have become sound but the political system has reverted to a military dictatorship with doubtful prospects for popular rule.
Dire airport, culture hub belie 'Thailand 4.0'
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 17/02/2017
» Thailand is prone to policy faddism. Several years ago, the AEC (Asean Economic Community) was all the rage until it officially came into being with a whimper at the end of 2015. Back then, hardly a day went by without some kind of a workshop or conference in Thailand about the AEC. But it all did not add up to much, as Asean today is hardly more economically integrated than it was more than a decade ago when the AEC was conceived. In fact, Asean is more internally divided and beset with more geopolitical tensions and troubles than we have seen in many years. Yet Thailand went head over heels for it until a new fad arrived.
Post-Obama America's 'rebalance' to Asia
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 24/06/2016
» As the United States' presidential election kicks into higher gear with the upcoming nominations of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump as the Democratic and Republican party candidates vying for top office, Asian countries, and Asean in particular, are concerned about what will happen to outgoing President Barack Obama's "rebalance" (also known as the "pivot") strategy to Asia. The "rebalance" is likely to be a lasting legacy of President Obama's foreign policy accomplishments. It has provided Asian countries from Myanmar and Vietnam to the Philippines with a counterbalance to China's increasing regional footprints. But the future of the rebalance hangs in the balance.
Thailand being left behind by neighbours
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 08/04/2016
» If Thailand were to revert and regress from a burgeoning democracy to an entrenching military-authoritarian rule of three or four decades ago, it would not look so out of place in Southeast Asia's mixed neighbourhood of absolutism, communism, and competitive authoritarianism.
China's 'water grab' and its consequences
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 25/03/2016
» China's pattern of regional conduct has come increasingly into focus. It is much less about maintaining the way things have been -- otherwise known as the "status quo" -- and much more about revising the established dynamics and contours in the region to its preferences.
Puey's passage stirs up old questions, issues
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 11/03/2016
» As Thai society has been caught up in a cultish and contentious search for the khon dee, or "good people", few can be more justifiably glorified than Puey Ungphakorn, a heroic Thai patriot from the Second World War and a quintessential technocrat who worked under military-authoritarian rule without selling his soul to it. This week marks the centennial of his life, with an outpouring of tributes and adulations around campuses and offices and in the minds of many. The questions and issues that preoccupied him in his prime throughout the 1950s-70s are still at the heart of what ails Thai society today.
China conundrum and global implications
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 29/01/2016
» It was not long ago when we were grappling with China's rise and what it meant for the world. Many were concerned about the disruptive challenges China's global ascendancy would bring, and some went so far as to foresee a China-dominated century. The narrative has now shifted. China has reached a growth plateau at home, surrounded by allies and partners of the United States in its geopolitical neighbourhood. China at a standstill or on a downward climb now looks even more worrisome than when it was rising.
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.