• OPINION

  Our custodial democracy on display

  Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 21/07/2023

  » After a watershed election and a clear message from voters for change, the integrity of Thailand's democratic system has come into question. It turns out that election results are only necessary but not sufficient to form a government and run this country.

• OPINION

  Prayut running down clock to aid UTN

  Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 03/03/2023

  » There is something odd about Thailand's upcoming election. By all indications, it is slated to take place on May 7. Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has announced that he will soon dissolve the Lower House to set the poll in motion. But no such dissolution has yet been announced, while the end of parliament's four-year term falls on March 23. The ambiguous election-setting scene is portentous and telling for several reasons.

• OPINION

  Thailand's political charade exposed

  Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 27/01/2023

  » On the face of it, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha for eight years, has touted himself as "an outsider" who was above the political fray, seizing power in a military coup and taking top office to help Thailand in its hour of need amid debilitating protests and polarisation in 2013-14. Now that the general has thrown his hat in the ring under the United Thai Nation (UTN) Party locally known as "Ruam Thai Sang Chart" to contest the upcoming election, the charade is over.

• OPINION

  The truth about Thai money politics

  Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 13/01/2023

  » As the election looms in Thailand, money politics returns with a vengeance.

• OPINION

  Thailand's holding pattern till next poll

  Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 10/09/2021

  » Thailand's recent no-confidence debate in parliament started with a bang and ended with a whimper. Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha and five other cabinet members who were grilled by opposition MPs for pandemic mishandling, budget irregularities and overall mismanagement and incompetence sailed through the parliamentary vote based on the coalition government's strength in MP numbers rather than the merits of its governance.

• OPINION

  Thai charter changes without reform

  Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 25/06/2021

  » In view of the ongoing parliamentary debate about constitutional revisions, it has become the consensus that the 2017 charter is flawed and in need of change. At issue is the nature and extent of charter amendments. What is being proposed can be categorised into three positions -- those favouring amendments without fundamental reforms and others who want reforms with all necessary amendments, with some advocating measures in between. Owing to the powers of incumbency, status quo proponents aligned with the coalition government of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha are likely to carry the day, thereby stoking political tensions to manifest on the horizon.

• OPINION

  Thailand's changed coup considerations

  News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 18/09/2020

  » That coup rumours are swirling again while Thai politics heats up in view of an ominous student-led anti-establishment protest this weekend attests to the weakness of the country's democratic institutions.

• OPINION

  Top brass, technocrats, politicos all same

  Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 12/06/2020

  » When ostensible technocrats become ambitious politicians, supervised by army generals and beholden to patronage-driven elected politicians, the result is a power struggle, internal party turmoil, and a country being governed to nowhere. This is the current state of Thailand's ruling Palang Pracharath Party (PPRP), the head of a motley and fractious 19-member coalition of minor and micro parties, some represented by one single MP, propping up the government of former coup leader and current Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha. Yet in the face of the opposition bloc that is weak because it has been weakened, after the third-largest winner the Future Forward Party from the last election was dissolved earlier this year, the PPRP is on course to be in office for the foreseeable future, as a new poll is not due for another three years. These dire dynamics suggest Thailand will continue to be rudderless, stuck in a quagmire of its own making, with headwinds that may lead to a reckoning tempest.

• OPINION

  Virus risks versus economic imperatives

  Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 08/05/2020

  » The coronavirus pandemic requires responding governments to be agile and quick on their feet, learning by doing and constantly reevaluating their policy mix. What was needed a month or two ago may need to be recalibrated this week for the immediate future in a moving balance of risks and objectives. For Thailand, the balance between public health safety and economic reality has been lost. The Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) risks becoming a victim of its own success. This means the government of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha should now be listening to economists and social workers a little more than epidemiologists and medical doctors as Thailand's virus-fighting priorities shift with twists and turns.

• OPINION

  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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