• OPINION

  Thailand's tale told via 'The Nation'

  News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 28/06/2019

  » Nearly five decades ago, The Nation newspaper started out as a pro-democracy, anti-military news organisation. It was fiercely independent and invariably hard-hitting vis-à-vis the powers-that-be. An English-language newspaper owned by Thais from the outset, it prided itself for having neither fear nor favour. Its lamentable expiry as a print newspaper today -- an online version will continue -- provides multiple parallels for Thailand's contemporary political history, ongoing polarisation and the changing nature of the business of journalism worldwide.

• OPINION

  Referee agencies and old political tricks

  Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 31/03/2023

  » Almost three decades ago, Thai politics reached a critical threshold when public demands resulted in the establishment of a clutch of independent agencies to ensure the transparency and accountability of the political system and the stability and effectiveness of government.

• OPINION

  Apec's geopolitics and geoeconomics

  Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 11/11/2022

  » The upcoming leaders' meeting in Bangkok among the 21 member economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) should be seen in conjunction with its preceding Asean-related summits in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh and the G20 summit in Bali, the Indonesian island resort. This one-two-three combination in three Southeast Asian countries over a ten-day period is supposed to showcase Asean's central role in the promotion of peace, security and prosperity in the region and the wider world. But as Asean's summit season gets underway in Cambodia, excitement and promise have given way to anxieties and apprehensions. While these summit talks are an extraordinary opportunity to tone down geopolitical temperatures and geoeconomic competition, they are likely to yield mixed results.

• OPINION

  Election-related agencies need overhaul

  Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 03/06/2022

  » In any respectable democratic system, a winning poll candidate who secured an overall majority of electoral support would take office with the earliest effect. Not in Thailand. When Chadchart Sittipunt trounced 29 rivals by gathering 1.38 million or 51% of the votes cast in Bangkok's gubernatorial election on May 22, the capital's electorate had to hold their breath in suspense to see whether and when the Election Commission (EC) would validate his runaway victory.

• OPINION

  Implications of Blinken's aborted visit

  Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 17/12/2021

  » Having skipped Thailand due to a Covid-19 case among his travel delegation, the United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken's aborted three-country tour of Southeast Asia has hindered the full projection of President Joe Biden's Indo-Pacific geostrategy. Not wrapping up the trip with a visit to Thailand, a mainland Southeast Asia pivot and longstanding US treaty ally, also misses an opportunity to shore up what has been a relative bilateral estrangement. In short, Secretary Blinken's diplomatic foray in Southeast Asia has fallen short for the time being.

• OPINION

  Thailand can't have it both ways abroad

  Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 05/11/2021

  » Images of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha hobnobbing with world leaders like United States President Joe Biden, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at the COP26 Climate Summit in Glasgow sparked mixed feelings at home.

• OPINION

  Myanmar: From diplomacy to force

  Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 30/04/2021

  » At its recent "special" summit in Jakarta on Myanmar's crisis, Asean reached its diplomatic maximum by coming up with a "five-point consensus" that will likely prove too little and too slow. Constrained by consensus and its non-interference principle where any of its 10 members has a virtual veto, Asean's overdue response to Myanmar's fast-escalating violence on the ground is likely to prove ineffective. As Asean's diplomacy faces limitations, more of Myanmar's outcomes are likely to be decided by the use of force in an intensifying civil war.

• OPINION

  Thailand's murky jab considerations

  Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 08/01/2021

  » Thailand is off to an unpromising start in 2021. As the global coronavirus pandemic rolls into its second year, much of the country is gripped by a new wave of Covid-19 infections after nearly nine months of minimal cases. As case numbers have more than doubled in recent days, the fresh wave has revealed the gross incompetence and corruption among Thai authorities. More alarmingly, while other countries are seeing light at the end of the Covid-19 tunnel with expanding vaccination, Thai people's vaccine accessibility and affordability appear murky.

• OPINION

  Underpinnings of a Thai mass shooting

  News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 14/02/2020

  » Thailand's worst apolitical mass shooting on a Buddhist holiday last weekend left a trail of deaths and injuries with one lasting question that will be hard to answer. As the country reels from the shocking tragedy and loss, the Thai government needed to respond by pulling the country together in a healing process, coming to terms with the situation and drawing the right conclusions to prevent this sort of mindless killing from ever taking place again. Instead, the authorities from the prime minister to the army commander-in-chief focused too much on themselves and failed to show sufficient empathy with the people and provide a way forward for Thai society.

• OPINION

  Royal command sets a new balance

  News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 11/02/2019

  » Thailand's political earthquake last Friday has caught observers at home and abroad off guard. Within half a day, Thai politics went through an unprecedented political roller coaster. It all ended with a press release from the royal palace at night, effectively reversing what had taken place in the morning.

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