Showing 31 - 40 of 44
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.
Between authoritarianism and democracy
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 22/01/2016
» So far in the 21st century, political fortunes in Southeast Asian states have been mixed. As the world's only region that harbours all political regimes from absolutism in Brunei and authoritarianism in Thailand to thriving democracy in Indonesia and communist one-party rule in Vietnam, Southeast Asia's political future will likely be sandwiched between a rule by the few and government by the majority. The determinant of future regime pathways in this region may well be the performance of China on one hand and India and Japan on the other, the largest and most consequent major powers in the neighbourhood.
'Withdrawal' lessons from Prof Anderson
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 18/12/2015
» Paragraph per paragraph, no single article analyses Thai politics with as much incision, depth and rigour as that of Benedict Richard O'Gorman Anderson, the long-time, legendary Cornell University intellectual who taught several generations of students specialising in Southeast Asian studies and inspired many more.
Global disarray as institutions falter
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 17/08/2015
» The international system as we know it is unravelling. Rules and institutions that were set up seven decades ago no longer hold the same weight and authority as they used to. As we grapple with an exacerbating global disorder, established powers and players and old rules and institutions need to be revamped and reinvented to accommodate new realities. Otherwise global tensions will mount, most probably accompanied by confrontation and conflict.
Subs put too many eggs in China basket
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 13/07/2015
» That Thailand’s planned purchase of three attack submarines from China has raised eyebrows is to be expected. Over the past decade, marked by two military coups in Thai politics, relations between Bangkok and Beijing have become closer than ever. If the submarine deal goes ahead, it will substantially bond military-to-military ties between the two countries and crucially shift Thailand’s geopolitical posture from its traditional hedging among the major powers to a lopsided embrace of Beijing.
Between democracy and authoritarianism
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 10/04/2015
» It is tempting to read too much or too little into Russian Premier Dmitry Medvedev's high-profile visit to Bangkok, hosted by the coup-appointed government of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha.
The roots of global democratic malaise
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 14/01/2014
» The early 21st century is harbouring an alarming trend in emerging democracies. As political liberalisation and democratisation make headway, they have ended up polarising and splitting societies undergoing democratic transitions. This trend is likely to dominate the developing world for the next two decades and beyond.
Social media has polarising effect on political debate
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 06/01/2014
» From Thailand to Ukraine to Turkey and other places beset with contentious politics between electoral majorities and minorities, the sources of prolonged and visceral polarisation appear to stem increasingly from social media.
Time for new political social contract
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 09/12/2013
» From Thailand to Turkey to the Ukraine, the relationship between ruling majorities and electoral minorities has become combustible _ and is threatening to erode the legitimacy of democracy itself.
Recalibrating majority rule, minority rights
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 14/06/2013
» From Turkey to Thailand and elsewhere where political legitimacy derives from electoral democracy, the relationship between majority rule and minority rights has become problematic and in need of recalibration. If a more effective majoring-minority moving balance is not found, electoral democracy is likely to be discredited and undermined to the detriment of societies it was cultivated and designed to govern.