Showing 1 - 6 of 6
Re-energising higher education in Asean
News, Vitit Muntarbhorn, Published on 22/12/2025
» Higher education, implying the tertiary level associated with universities and parallel institutions, is at an inflexion point in Southeast Asia, where the trajectory of socio-political, economic and cultural development is changing rapidly.
Unpacking China's global influence
Oped, Vitit Muntarbhorn, Published on 29/08/2024
» Is China an enigma? If it is difficult to decipher the country on some fronts, there are other elements which are more accessible. While it might be easy to look at its impressive growth in recent decades as diverging from other global players in key areas, there are other areas which are mutually convergent. From the multidimensional panorama of a complex world -- the "multiplex" world, a preferred approach is not to generalise too much but to analyse the specifics of our times for possible confluence.
Lessons from the Khmer Rouge tribunal
Oped, Vitit Muntarbhorn, Published on 18/02/2023
» One of the saddest episodes of Southeast Asian history was the period during the 1970s that witnessed the rule of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. The group was driven by a warped ideology, and it perpetrated myriad crimes against the general population. Millions were killed and displaced through a range of atrocities. Decades later, an internationally supported tribunal, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), or the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, was set up to prosecute the leaders of the group, and it is now ending its work. What are some of the key lessons the global community can learn from this?
Green energy, economy, equity are key
Oped, Vitit Muntarbhorn, Published on 30/11/2022
» The challenge of climate change and environmental degradation is an existential threat which is increasingly recognised in all corners of the globe. Its urgency is all the more pressing because it harbours ill for our children and the next generations in terms of their survival and modus vivendi, unless comprehensive action is taken, anchored on the "whole of humanity and whole of society" approach and premised on effective global-local partnerships to prevent, reduce and rectify harm.
Rights under threat from emerging tech
News, Vitit Muntarbhorn, Published on 16/11/2022
» A key challenge facing human rights globally today is the advent of emerging technologies that mutate rapidly and potentially beyond human control. The UN Human Rights Council in Geneva has thus singled out for special study during the next couple of years four areas of concern: autonomous weaponry, neurotechnology, cyberbullying, and green technology (inevitably linked with climate change). What are the prospects for enjoying the fruits of such technologies and pre-empting their negative implications?
We cannot lose control of technology
Oped, Vitit Muntarbhorn, Published on 19/01/2022
» The advent of Covid-19 has accentuated digitalisation and its close linkage with automation, algorithms, and artificial intelligence ("the three A's"). The Asian region interfaces closely with this phenomenon, especially because it is the most populous continent. It is also a region with a large number of non-democracies and semi-democracies. This panorama invites care to prevent misuse of those three As.