Showing 1-10 of 11 results
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The tide of history shifts in Thai politics
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 02/06/2023
» Notwithstanding the ongoing political shenanigans by appointed agencies to shape final outcomes after the May 14 poll, Thailand already will never be the same again. The Move Forward Party's (MFP) victory as the largest winning side, with 151 out of 500 parliamentary seats, is profound but not unprecedented. Together with the Pheu Thai Party's 141 MPs, these two opposition parties are unwittingly sending a message to each other and to the broader political establishment that the curve of Thai history is shifting tectonically. Failing to grasp and adjust to this evolving tide of history could marginalise Pheu Thai and challenge the establishment to its core foundations.
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Charter a straitjacket on democracy
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 19/05/2023
» The military-appointed constitution drafting committee that was set up after the coup in 2014 surely knew what it was doing. It crafted a charter in 2017 that now acts as a straitjacket on Thailand's democratic outcome from the general election last Sunday.
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The global leadership India needs
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 21/10/2022
» India, like China, takes enormous pride in its civilisation's scale and antiquity -- and rightly so. But such pride can also lead to a complacent and sometimes dangerous insularity. Since gaining independence from the British Empire 75 years ago, India has mostly looked inward, focusing on improving the welfare of its population by building a strong democracy and a healthy economy.
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Geoeconomics of the US-China tech war
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 16/09/2022
» Chinese President Xi Jinping's arrival in Central Asia this week in his first overseas travel in nearly three years is perhaps the most consequential irony of the coronavirus pandemic. As the place where the deadly pandemic began in early 2020, China was the first to swiftly and successfully suppress and contain Covid-19 within weeks, while its counterparts in North America and Europe languished for months under mounting death tolls and hospitalisations.
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Biden's pivot to free, open Indo-Pacific
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 03/09/2021
» If former United States President Barack Obama is known for his "pivot to Asia" geostrategy and President Donald Trump for the Free and Open Indo-Pacific, there is now a geostrategic synthesis under President Joe Biden. It can be aptly called the US "pivot to the Free and Open Indo-Pacific".
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Thai education reform is top priority
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 09/10/2020
» Of the myriad reforms that have been demanded by the ongoing student-led protests, Thailand's deficient and outdated education system is second to none. Education reform has become a self-contained and separate agenda for change. Thai students across the country, particularly in high schools, have been awakened and angry at the fact that they have been kept in the dark and cloistered in a state-imposed mind bubble for so long. Unless it is answered, this awakening and anger is likely to galvanise more protests and point to broader changes that have been pent up for decades.
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Reforms need broadening of the agenda
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 25/09/2020
» Thailand's student-led protest movement for overdue political change and reforms has reached a crucial juncture. In the aftermath of its most recent demonstration on Sept 19 at Sanam Luang public ground and open field in front of the Grand Palace in Bangkok's old town, the protest agenda can be seen as either zooming in directly on monarchical reform or emanating more from the side and down below on broader institutional changes that include the monarchy.
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Moral dilemmas of handling the virus
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 03/04/2020
» It is hard to calibrate a commensurate response to the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. Owing to the lack of accurate and reliable information, a media feeding frenzy and the mass psychology of fear, the choice has become all or nothing, not much in between. Individuals, societies and states worldwide are now incentivised to overdo it and err on the side of caution, being safe rather than sorry. This means that the likelihood of "overshooting" with Covid responses is likely to heighten in the foreseeable future in view of morally unacceptable alternatives.
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Challenges from outside parliament
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 06/03/2020
» While it managed to survive the recent censure debate more comfortably that it had anticipated, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha's government is now at a new crossroads. While the threat from inside parliament has subsided owing to the opposition's disarray, challenges from outside the legislative chamber, on the streets and in the court of public opinion are likely to intensify.
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How to stifle Thai political party system
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 25/02/2020
» No compromise is in sight for Thailand's politics where the stakes are at their highest. It is a winner-takes-all reality. The quick demise of the Future Forward Party and the 10-year ban for its key leaders, who phenomenally captured a large swath of the electorate less than a year ago on an aggressive reform agenda, bear myriad and far-reaching implications.
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