Showing 1 - 10 of 17
No-confidence and poll date in flux
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 14/11/2025
» Amid the drumbeats of military conflict with Cambodia, Thailand's political environment is evidently unruly and unsettled. The minority government of Anutin Charnvirakul, the third prime minister from the third largest-winning party since the latest national election in May 2023, is hard-pressed to stay in office beyond the four-month "Memorandum of Agreement" between his Bhumjaithai Party (BJT) and the People's Party (PP), the largest camp in the national assembly.
New govt may last longer than pledged
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 12/09/2025
» Thailand's latest round of political tumult reached a culmination when the Constitutional Court removed Paetongtarn Shinawatra of the hitherto ruling Pheu Thai (PT) Party from office on Aug 29, paving the way for Bhumjaithai Party (BJT) leader Anutin Charnvirakul to succeed her as prime minister with the Lower House's majority support a week later.
Thailand's false sense of tariff security
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 30/05/2025
» Thailand is in deeper trouble among its peer group in view of United States President Donald Trump's tariff offensive. Yet senior Thai officials appear nonchalant, complacent and smug. They seem to think Thailand will come out of the US tariff war in good shape as the Trump administration will prove unable to go through with its hefty import duties. The domestic political battle between the US executive and judicial branch -- with the Court of International Trade's injunction this week on most of the Trump tariffs -- further adds to the absurd sense of security and false perception of Thailand's importance by Thai officials.
The tyranny of anarchy and what to do
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 21/03/2025
» It is both exciting and alarming to be a student of international affairs as the world is being turned upside down. In just two months, the second administration of President Donald J Trump has sent shockwaves rippling through the international system as the United States pulls back from its role as leader, underwriter, and guardian of the nearly 80-year-old international order that it instrumentally constructed after WWII. In view of the US's portentous withdrawal, relative anarchy in the international system is back with a vengeance, leaving Asean members and smaller states elsewhere to fend for themselves in a self-help geostrategic environment.
Thailand needs middle power ambition
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 18/10/2024
» Having participated in the recent Asean-related summit meetings in Vientiane, Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and her team must now work out Thailand's foreign policy priorities and posture. Foreign policy projection peaked around 20 years ago when Thailand was recognised as an emerging regional leader with the potential of a middle power. Since then, foreign policy has been patchy and hostage to polarisation and domestic political volatility. It is time to chart a way forward for Thailand's international standing and role despite ongoing political conflict at home.
Remembering a Southeast Asianist
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 26/07/2024
» It is not often these days to find scholars of Southeast Asia with exceptional breadth and depth, prescience, and commitment who stick to their creed until the end. In the pantheon of such rare scholars, Benedict O'Gorman Anderson, who died in 2015, would have led the way. James C Scott would be right beside him in a distinctly different fashion.
The continuing crisis of Thai democracy
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 11/08/2023
» The prolonged volatility and instability in Thai politics attest to a continuing crisis of democracy since the military coup in September 2006. It is characterised by the nature, direction and duration of government after an election. Unless the poll-topping political party is backed by the conservative military-authoritarian regime, it is either not allowed to take power or gets overthrown while in office before completing its term. This crisis of Thai democracy has now persisted since the May 14 poll, as the formation of the next government remains stuck in a stalemate.
Correcting the pandemic policy tack
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 30/07/2021
» That Thailand's coronavirus pandemic has been grossly mismanaged is self-evident. Infection rates have soared to new highs this month while vaccine availability and access remain shoddy and abysmal. The overstretched healthcare system is creaking under growing demand, while several scenes so far of Covid-afflicted people being left to die on the streets have shaken the country's collective morale and elicited soul-searching questions about how Thailand has managed to reach this dire juncture.
Thailand's jab fiasco needs an inquiry
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 16/07/2021
» Thailand's vaccine rollout is evidently a complete shambles due to questionable procurement, supply shortage, and misallocation amid a deadly surge of the Covid-19 "Delta" variant. The situation has been going from bad to worse with no end in sight as a poorly conceived strategy unfolds into a national calamity. As public anger mounts with fast-spreading calls for Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha's ouster, the Covid-19 pandemic is becoming Thailand's political game-changer more than anyone could have anticipated.
PM shows he has political resilience
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 04/06/2021
» Half-way through his four-year term, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has time and again shown his staying power in the face of popular discontent. Despite a subpar economic performance and persistent controversies from his cabinet's incomplete oath of office and a cabinet minister's past drug conviction and imprisonment in Australia to his own house on army premises after retirement, the former army chief, who led the military coup in May 2014 to take over as prime minister, has proved politically resilient.