Showing 1-10 of 20 results
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Prospects at home and abroad in 2024
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 05/01/2024
» Overlooked but deeply consequential, 2024 will be the first time in a decade that Thailand is ruled by a civilian-led government. Whatever frustration and disenchantment that arise this year, memories must not run short. Thailand suffered deeply under the coup-backed regime of Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha. Seeing his back is politically good riddance, and having Srettha Thavisin as a thoroughly civilian and pro-business prime minister bodes well for the country. Yet Mr Srettha has his work cut out to boost the economy, address constitutional reform, restore Thailand's international standing, and stay in office into next year amid the global economic slowdown.
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Thailand's semi-democracy faces risks
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 15/12/2023
» The government of Prime Minister and Finance Minister Srettha Thavisin has settled into an uneasy balance between the civilian-led majority forces that represent the Thai electorate and the royalist-conservative minority guardians of the established centres anchored around the monarchy, military, judiciary, and bureaucracy.
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Thailand's semi-democracy returns
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 01/12/2023
» The appointment of Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha as privy councillor has neatly bookended Thai politics over the past decade. It coincides with the 10-year anniversary of the street demonstrations that were led by the People's Democratic Reform Committee, paving the way for Gen Prayut to stage a military coup in May 2014. While the interim was a period of hard and soft military-authoritarian rule in 2014-19 and 2019-23, the new moving balance in Thai politics is a semi-democracy of sorts under the Pheu Thai Party-led coalition government.
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Japan's post-Covid regional dilemma
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 21/01/2022
» Among the major powers that are moving forward with an eye on the post-pandemic era, when Covid-19 will eventually become an endemic with flu-like manageability, Japan is second to none. The visit last week by its minister of economy, trade, and industry (METI), Koichi Hagiuda, made front-page news in Bangkok, following similarly notable media coverage in Jakarta and Singapore. But while it has played a critical role in Asean's economic development and regional security, Japan's Indo-Pacific geostrategic environment has become adverse with more downside risks.
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What the 'Pimrypie' sensation foretells
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 22/01/2021
» While it became a storm in a teacup, the recent phenomenon involving YouTuber and online retailer Pimradaporn "Pimrypie" Benjawattanapat yields longer-term implications and meanings. Pimrypie's charity drive for Children's Day that provided solar panels and electricity to underprivileged kids in a far-flung village of Omkoi district 300 kilometres from Chiang Mai spoke volumes about the structure and shortcomings of Thailand's paternalist state and what needs to be done to tackle it.
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Context is decisive in Thai high politics
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 28/02/2020
» In Thailand's high politics where governments survive or succumb, context is everything. After two decades of a political merry-go-round, marked by a series of elections, street protests, military coups, and judicial interventions only to end up with a problematic post-election rule under military domination, no deep expertise is needed to understand what has been happening in this land.
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Trump gamesmanship risks Asean ties
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 15/11/2019
» Apart from India's withdrawal from the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, the other memorable outcome of the recent Asean Summit and 14th East Asia Summit was the second consecutive absence of US President Donald Trump.
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The cabinet's composition and direction
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 19/07/2019
» With Thailand's new post-election cabinet members poised to to start work after being sworn in, it is instructive to look at how they have been assembled based on patron-client ties and vested interests. Because it contains unsavoury individuals with shady pasts, this cabinet is unlikely to last long but the political longevity of its leader, former junta chairman and still Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, may endure longer than many would expect from such a fragile, fractious coalition government.
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Thailand's lessons from the Prem years
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 31/05/2019
» In a galloping world of communications instantaneity, Gen Prem Tinsulanonda's passing earlier this week is likely to be framed by popular expectations and grievances so far in the 21st century rather than the conditions and circumstances of the 20th century where most of the late elder statesman's life was rooted.
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Thailand's murky, muddled road ahead
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 31/03/2017
» In a new era of transformative technologies and tectonic geopolitical shifts, standing still is tantamount to falling behind. This is what Thailand is doing. Its recent news flow indicates the country is mired in a regressive holding pattern.
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