Showing 1 - 10 of 188
How to give expert advice in transformational times
Oped, Published on 11/11/2025
» I am a policy analyst. My job is to provide expert information to decision makers and the public to help improve public policy. This job, always hard, has become harder.
People's Party risks all with Anutin
News, Published on 06/09/2025
» Amid the political uncertainty following the Constitutional Court's ruling against Paetongtarn Shinawatra and the sudden departure of her father, Thaksin, to Dubai, the People's Party (PP) have controversially backed Anutin Charnvirakul of the Bhumjaithai Party (BJT) for prime minister, rather than support its ideological ally, the Pheu Thai Party, whose candidate is Chaikasem Nitisiri.
Shinawatras' future at a perilous stage
News, Published on 23/08/2025
» Paetongtarn Shinawatra's political future hangs in the balance as the Constitutional Court prepares to hand down a ruling on the leaked phone call case next week.
Govt slow on floods
Oped, Editorial, Published on 30/04/2025
» The report of flash flooding in the Sai River in Chiang Rai yesterday has renewed fears among local communities that floods and mudslides will return in ever greater numbers. Their fears are valid. In less than an hour, the flooding in the Sai River swelled to knee level, forcing villagers along the river to move their property and elders, as well as bedridden patients, out of harm's way.
Thaksin's return and 2025 prospects
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 03/01/2025
» Thailand's political environment last year was marked by machinations to keep the biggest election winner, the Move Forward Party, from power and to ensure the runner-up, the Pheu Thai Party, leads a coalition government the old guard can put up with. These manoeuvres after the May 2023 poll, initially forced Move Forward into the opposition and ultimately dissolved the party while bringing Thaksin Shinawatra back from self-exile in August 2023 for a perfunctory jail sentence and installing Srettha Thavisin as prime minister over the same period.
Two wasted decades in Thai politics
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 20/12/2024
» Now that Thaksin Shinawatra appears actively back in Thai politics, it is demoralising to look back at Thailand's wasted time and opportunities. Once a promising country on the way from democratic transition to consolidation in the late 1990s, Thailand has become semi-autocratic, and its rocky political trajectory over the past two decades is now structural. The traditional institutions of power that grew out of the Cold War have been calling the shots in earlier decades and are just unwilling to let the country move forward in the immediate years ahead.
Coddling farmers
Oped, Postbag, Published on 12/11/2024
» Re: "Rice price measures get approval", (BP, Nov 11).
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.
Let's not slide into mayhem
Oped, Editorial, Published on 28/09/2024
» The landslides that struck communities in the northern region this month -- and the isolated deadly landslide on Phuket Island last month -- are not entirely natural disasters. They are glaring examples of man-made tragedies that could have been avoided, or at least mitigated, if governments and officials had paid proper attention to land use in mountainous areas.
Flood woes are systemic
Oped, Editorial, Published on 21/09/2024
» The severe floods in Chiang Rai and Phayao provinces raise questions about Thailand's early warning systems. Are there sufficient early disaster warning systems in place? If so, why were hundreds of thousands of villagers in flood-hit areas left to fend for themselves?