OPINION

What regime needs to do to strengthen Thailand

News, Desmond Walton, Published on 10/11/2015

» All leaders have at one time or another fantasised about being freed from the realities and constraints of day to day governing. Think of what could be achieved, they imagine, if we were immune to parliamentary meddling, could tune out the cacophony of special interest lobbying and could silence dissent with the stroke of a pen. Thus unshackled, leaders could focus on the technocratic art of governing: driving economic reform, strengthening critical institutions and tackling challenges made impossibly complex by tangled webs of competing interests. Rule by fiat holds the intriguing possibility of more efficient and effective governance.