Showing 91-100 of 277 results
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Thailand's prospects for 2017 and beyond
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 06/01/2017
» Thailand and the world at large are concurrently going through a rut that comes with the transitional end of any long era. For the world, this period is known as the postwar liberal order that was constructed and led by the United States in the aftermath of World War II. As constituent states in the international system have benefited immensely and risen to challenge and rival traditional US power and prestige, Washington appears intent on shirking its global leadership role. The unfolding result is a fluid and precarious global canvass, underpinned by tectonic power shifts and manoeuvres and geopolitical tensions and volatility -- a subject which warrants a separate analysis.
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Trump, Southeast Asia and Thailand
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 20/01/2017
» No newly inaugurated president of the United States in the contemporary era is more controversial nor as derided as Donald Trump. Already, there have been pre-inauguration insinuations and plots among his critics and detractors to see him eventually impeached or at least occupy the White House for only one term. Without much experience in public service, the real-estate tycoon catapulted himself into American political life, and his country's electoral system produced him as the winner in the election last November, even though he lost the popular vote to his opponent by more than 2.8 million votes out of 128.8 million.
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Combatting corruption starts at the top
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 03/02/2017
» There is something fundamentally similar and entwined about the need to tackle Thailand's endemic corruption and the imperative to reform its education. Education reforms and corruption eradication appear to be the two highest policy and social priorities over the decades but they have made little headway. In view of recent international assessments, Thai education has fallen even farther behind compared to recent years. Similarly, according to Thailand's declining ranking in international indexes such as that of Transparency International, the scourge of corruption in this country has deepened.
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Dire airport, culture hub belie 'Thailand 4.0'
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 17/02/2017
» Thailand is prone to policy faddism. Several years ago, the AEC (Asean Economic Community) was all the rage until it officially came into being with a whimper at the end of 2015. Back then, hardly a day went by without some kind of a workshop or conference in Thailand about the AEC. But it all did not add up to much, as Asean today is hardly more economically integrated than it was more than a decade ago when the AEC was conceived. In fact, Asean is more internally divided and beset with more geopolitical tensions and troubles than we have seen in many years. Yet Thailand went head over heels for it until a new fad arrived.
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Political fallout from the Dhammakaya case
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 17/03/2017
» To the average bystander, the recent brouhaha over the Dhammakaya temple raises many questions with few answers and just about no clarity.
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Thailand's murky, muddled road ahead
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 31/03/2017
» In a new era of transformative technologies and tectonic geopolitical shifts, standing still is tantamount to falling behind. This is what Thailand is doing. Its recent news flow indicates the country is mired in a regressive holding pattern.
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Challenges, prospects of 2017 constitution
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 07/04/2017
» Nearly three years after its last military coup, there is good and bad news as Thailand gears up to leave behind the current period of military government, whose record has been mixed at best.
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Reality sets in three years after the coup
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 26/05/2017
» Three years after it seized power in Thailand's 13th successful coup in 85 years, the government of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha appears embattled. Growing popular grievances have focused on Thailand's economic doldrums, persistent corruption, intractable polarisation, and a problematic roadmap to return to democratic rule. In addition, a string of mysterious bomb blasts in Bangkok with murky implications has recently undermined the political stability and social calm that the National Council for Peace and Order was supposed to be good at achieving.
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Thailand's challenges, lessons from '97 crisis
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 30/06/2017
» It is hard to believe today but Thailand appeared on the verge of economic doom 20 years ago. The culmination of financial sector convulsions, compounded by a currency crisis and reinforced by corruption and cronyism, induced a forced devaluation of the baht on July 2, 1997. Back then, the Thai economy was in dire straits but politics looked promising. It is the opposite today, as macroeconomic conditions have become sound but the political system has reverted to a military dictatorship with doubtful prospects for popular rule.
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Migrant workers policy yet another flop
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 07/07/2017
» Assessed from just about any angle, it is difficult not to see Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha's recent policy announcements on migrant workers as a series of self-inflicted flops. While damage control is the government's immediate concern, Thailand's longer-term priorities require an overhaul of its manpower strategies and a broader change in the Thai mindset on migrant workers from neighbouring countries.
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