• OPINION

  Charter ruling shows political progress

  News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 22/11/2013

  » The Constitution Court's ruling this week to reject parliament's draft charter amendment to change the Senate from a roughly half-appointed to a fully elected chamber marks another crucial juncture in Thailand's grinding political transformation.

• OPINION

  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.

• 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

  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.

• OPINION

  No exit from our democratic future

  Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 05/05/2023

  » As Thailand's much-anticipated poll on May 14 heads into its homestretch, several clear trends and patterns are emerging to suggest that democratisation is making an inexorable comeback in this country, with positive implications for Southeast Asia and beyond. The immediate road ahead in Thai politics will likely still be bumpy, potentially marked by more judicial interventions and electoral manipulation, or even another military takeover, to thwart the people's choices at the poll. But eventually, pro-democracy forces backed by the Thai people's demand for change will come back time and again until there is a rebalanced, representative and reworked constitutional order in place.

• OPINION

  Keeping democratic institutions weak

  Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 22/07/2022

  » The worst thing one can do in Thai politics is to run for office and win by a landslide. When this happens, the knives will come out and the massive election winner will be overthrown before long -- one way or another -- because the real source of power in Thailand is unelected. Such was the fate of Thaksin Shinawatra when he spearheaded the Thai Rak Thai Party to win two landslide poll victories in January 2001 and February 2005, first a near majority and later a thumping 75% of the lower house of parliament.

• OPINION

  Thai politics' murky tunnel to nowhere

  Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 07/01/2022

  » Starting out a new year should engender a sense of hope and optimism that tomorrow can be better than yesterday. But the reality in Thailand suggests otherwise. A sense of prolonged malaise and discontent pervades the scene, where politics will likely prove murky with an economy persistently in the doldrums, underpinned by continuing societal divisions and broad-based unhappiness. Unless drastic changes and reforms take place very soon, this year is likely to further solidify the onset of a decade of decay and stagnation.

• 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

  The anatomy of waning youth protests

  Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 19/03/2021

  » By all accounts, Thailand's youth protest movement over the past year has lost steam. Its key leaders have been charged on anti-monarchy grounds and jailed without bail, while the rank-and-file are demoralised, still on the move but in thin numbers. On the other side, the incumbent centres of power have reasserted control and put down what at its peak was the most vociferous and vigorous anti-establishment movement Thailand had seen in decades.

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