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  • News & article

    Misguided myopia of asking the rich

    Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 24/04/2020

    » Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha's initiative to seek more cooperation and assistance from Thailand's 20 wealthiest billionaires is understandable. Thailand needs all the help it can get to handle and manage the social and economic ravages of the coronavirus (Covid-19) crisis. But making an appeal in writing from the top to the country's richest is short-sighted and misguided on many levels. It displays a government at the end of its tether and a leader who is being forced to own up to mismanaging the country for the past six years.

  • News & article

    Semantics and Thailand's political divide

    News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 25/09/2015

    » Language can be about power as much as communication. It can tear societies apart or bring them together, depending on its design and application.

  • News & article

    The Thaksin factor in Thai politics

    Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 15/03/2024

    » Thai politics in the near term will likely be dominated by the fate of the two largest vote winners from the general election in May 2023, the Move Forward (MFP) and Pheu Thai parties. While the MFP is at risk of another dissolution, the same as its predecessor Future Forward Party suffered in 2020, Pheu Thai's political future appears to hinge on Thaksin Shinawatra and his return from exile in what is believed to be a deal that follows the assumption of the premiership under Srettha Thavisin, and for Thaksin, a royal pardon and early release on parole.

  • News & article

    Thailand's central bank dependence

    Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 23/02/2024

    » To proponents of central bank independence, the ongoing friction between Prime Minister and Finance Minister Srettha Thavisin and Bank of Thailand Governor Sethaput Suthiwartnarueput appears straightforward. The prime minister is putting unwarranted and unfair pressure on the central bank governor to spur the economy by loosening monetary policy and cutting interest rates. Yet, on closer scrutiny, the entrenched politicisation of central banking in Thailand may suggest otherwise. There is more than meets the eye in the politics of interest rate cuts.

  • News & article

    Digital wallet should be implemented

    Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 16/02/2024

    » The big debate in Thailand's current economic policy planning is whether the economy is facing a crisis or not. The government of Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, who doubles as finance minister, has contended that there is an economic crisis in dire need of both monetary policy loosening and fiscal stimulus, particularly the 500-billion-baht digital wallet scheme. The Bank of Thailand, supported by a clique of economists apparently critical of the government's "populist" policy measures, asserts otherwise that an economic recovery is in progress without the need to lower the benchmark repurchase rate.

  • News & article

    Deja vu as charter court weighs MFP ban

    Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 12/01/2024

    » It is déjà vu in Thai politics this month as Thailand's biggest elected political party and its leader face Constitutional Court verdicts that could lead to a familiar dissolution and ban. At issue is the political future of Pita Limjaroenrat and the fate of the Move Forward Party (MFP), which he led to a stunning victory at the election last May. However the verdicts come out, they might be perceived by pundits as decided by the political winds of the day.

  • News & article

    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.

  • News & article

    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.

  • News & article

    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.

  • News & article

    Tolerating populism for democracy

    Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 13/10/2023

    » The so-called “super deal” in August that resulted in the return of Thaksin Shinawatra and the formation of the Pheu Thai Party-led coalition government under Srettha Thavisin evidently has its limitations. It appears to be rejected by sections of the conservative old guard who still wants to resort to extra-parliamentary ways and means to undermine Thailand’s delicate parliamentary democracy. Reminiscent of past protests against Mr Thaksin’s brand of populism, a new round of extra-parliamentary political movement has begun in earnest with the petition launched by 99 prominent economists, including former central bank governors, against the Srettha government’s 10,000-baht digital wallet policy.

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