Showing 401 - 410 of 413
What next after judicial deja vu?
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 13/07/2012
» The sense of deja vu that pervades Thailand's political landscape in the lead-up to the Constitution Court's decision Friday on whether the lower house has violated the charter by trying to amend it harbours short- and longer-term implications.
Many more checks but far fewer balances
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 20/07/2012
» The Constitution Court's verdict last Friday to dismiss petitions against the legislature for drafting a bill that would amend the charter has defused tensions and averted another round of street demonstrations in the near term.
China, US widen Asean rifts
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 27/07/2012
» The post-mortems of the failure by Asean to agree on a hitherto routine joint statement after their 45th Ministerial Meeting are coming in thick and heavy. Recriminations and acrimony are crisscrossing the region, the shockwaves being felt and analysed across the Pacific and to the Atlantic.
Asean turns 45 in precarious times
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 10/08/2012
» For the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, turning 45 is hard to do. Its perennial and cliched crossroads may soon become a precipice unless remedial collective action among the group is taken to repair recent setbacks ahead of its summit in November.
Euro-style integration not the way forward for East Asia
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 31/05/2012
» Not so long ago, it was popular for university students in these parts to write term papers on comparisons between the economic integration of the European Union and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' economic cooperation after the formation of the Asean Free Trade Area in 1992. Such interest in this European-Asean parallel has dried up following the global financial crisis that convulsed the United States and other Western economies in 2007-08 and the spiralling crisis of the euro, the EU's main currency.
The politics of the Nasa controversy
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 03/07/2012
» Thai quipsters have put it aptly _ it is now easier for the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) to go to the Moon than to come to Thailand, now that the government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has opted for parliamentary debate instead of a cabinet resolution.
After Europe, Suu Kyi faces tough challenge
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 15/06/2012
» Less than two weeks after her spectacular visit to Bangkok and surrounding provinces under the aegis of the World Economic Forum, Aung San Suu Kyi has embarked on a long-awaited whirlwind tour of western Europe. From Geneva to Oslo and Bergen, and from Dublin to London and Paris, she is deservedly expected to be feted like a rock star of international politics by European leaders who have been her longtime supporters through thick and thin while she spent years in the political wilderness.
Uneasy truce and elusive reconciliation
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 30/03/2012
» After the post-coup years of conflict and turmoil, Thailand at last has reached uneasy terms of a truce, which will be necessary for long-term reconciliation and the way forward. To take the remaining steps towards the hitherto elusive reconciliation will require more concessions from the main parties involved. The danger going forward is that what appear like huge concessions now may well turn out later to be too little, too late.
Deprivation to deliverance in Myanmar
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 20/04/2012
» The opposition National League for Democracy's virtual sweep of 43 out of 44 MP seats in Myanmar's recent by-elections was a long time coming.
Shifting political tides portend turmoil
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 06/01/2012
» Thailand has arrived at the outset of 2012 more bruised and battered compared to its previous bouts of political instability, characterised by several years of protests and violence and then capped recently by the floods.