Showing 1 - 6 of 6
Thai charter court deserves scrutiny
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 04/08/2023
» Amid the volatility and confusion during the interim since the May 14 election, Thailand's Constitutional Court has further thickened the plot by accepting a petition to rule on whether a parliamentary vote using the meeting rules to deny the renomination of Move Forward Party leader Pita Limjaroenrat's premiership was unconstitutional.
Election-related agencies need overhaul
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 03/06/2022
» In any respectable democratic system, a winning poll candidate who secured an overall majority of electoral support would take office with the earliest effect. Not in Thailand. When Chadchart Sittipunt trounced 29 rivals by gathering 1.38 million or 51% of the votes cast in Bangkok's gubernatorial election on May 22, the capital's electorate had to hold their breath in suspense to see whether and when the Election Commission (EC) would validate his runaway victory.
The trade-off: Freedom and authority
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 17/09/2021
» Freedom is a funny thing. In excess, it leads to complacency and devaluation. In scarcity, it brings about urgency and desperation. Put this way, nowhere is freedom more taxed and toyed with than in the United States of America, a country that has so much going for it and yet is so conflicted within.
Prayut government seems bullet-proof
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 21/05/2021
» The passage of time shows the government's growing lack of accountability. In fact, the government of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha appears the most unaccountable on record because it has been the most incompetent. Myriad charges from policy mismanagement and blatant irregularities to outright constitutional violations have been levied against the government but none have stuck. Although some attribute this phenomenon to Gen Prayut's "Teflon" qualities, a more accurate understanding may well be that his cabinet is somehow bullet-proof. Charges can stick but they cannot penetrate.
Ruling adds to popular grievances
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 04/12/2020
» Anyone who has wondered or insinuated that the student-led protest movement for Thailand's fundamental reforms must somehow be sponsored by some foreign government or politically motivated agents at home need look no further than the Constitutional Court's unanimous decision to clear Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha of violating the 2017 charter by staying in army housing after retirement. In a 9-to-0 verdict, the nine-member bench sided with an army regulation over charter stipulations. The controversial verdict will exacerbate Thailand's political polarisation and add to popular grievances that are backing the student-led reform drive.
Developing by managing demographics
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 27/09/2019
» Once upon a time, it was feared that the earth would become overcrowded and its inhabitants unable to find enough to eat. This fear has not only proved unfounded but it has gone in the opposite direction. What almost every nation fears now is a decline in inhabitants as the birth rate cannot keep up with the longevity of the aged and elderly, imposing unsustainable burdens on working-age segments of the population. Every region is afflicted with this demographic predicament, especially in affluent societies where the birth rate decline is acute, such as Japan.