Showing 1-8 of 8 results
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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.
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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.
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Capital poll portends Thailand's rule
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 20/05/2022
» Never has Bangkok's gubernatorial contest been so much about Thailand. The poll this Sunday is not just about how Bangkok will be run but how Thailand will be ruled. Beyond the usual grievances and issues that traditionally hang over Bangkokians' lives and livelihoods are larger forces at work. Whoever comes out on top will have much to say about the bigger national election that has to be held by this time next year.
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Asean's declining common denominator
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 05/03/2021
» Asean is stuck deeper than ever between a rock and a hard place in view of its political impotence in dealing with the Myanmar armed forces' power grab on Feb 1. In an informal meeting online among its foreign ministers earlier this week, Asean not only failed to come up with common ground to broker a way forward away from the mounting bloodshed in Myanmar but displayed fundamental differences that have lowered the organisation's common denominator to new depths. The implications from Asean's sagging stance is that the pushback against Myanmar's military takeover must be carried out mainly by domestic political forces in the absence of regional effectiveness and with the limitations of global sanctions.
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Asean test ground for democracy, dictators
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 04/08/2017
» Much is being discussed in Southeast Asia this month as Asean, the region's premier organisation, reaches its golden jubilee. One salient issue is the domestic politics and governance within individual Asean states and across them. Asean comprises a mix of regimes that span the spectrum from absolute monarchy in Brunei to newly emergent democracy in Myanmar and socialist-community rule in Laos and Vietnam, with many shades in between. How Asean's regime types evolve and behave will be consequential and potentially decisive for the organisation's coherence and effectiveness in broader Asian regionalism.
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Post-Obama America's 'rebalance' to Asia
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 24/06/2016
» As the United States' presidential election kicks into higher gear with the upcoming nominations of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump as the Democratic and Republican party candidates vying for top office, Asian countries, and Asean in particular, are concerned about what will happen to outgoing President Barack Obama's "rebalance" (also known as the "pivot") strategy to Asia. The "rebalance" is likely to be a lasting legacy of President Obama's foreign policy accomplishments. It has provided Asian countries from Myanmar and Vietnam to the Philippines with a counterbalance to China's increasing regional footprints. But the future of the rebalance hangs in the balance.
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A saga and sideshow with much at stake
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 09/01/2015
» The impeachment case against former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra this month for dereliction of duty while in office over the rice-pledging budgetary losses is both a saga and a sideshow.
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Policy momentum flounders after amnesty debacle
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 15/11/2013
» Even before its peddlers in parliament made a panicky retreat, the expansive amnesty bill to absolve all those involved in Thailand's political conflict going back to 2004 already yielded longer-term ramifications.
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