Category: Uncategorized
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Can Thailand’s Political Parties Take Us Out of the Middle-Income Trap?
In 2016, writing in the Thammasat Economic Journal, Emory University professor Richard Doner described in just a few sentences the problems that plague Thailand’s economy. Thailand had been “quick on its feet,” Doner wrote, successfully reducing poverty and achieving middle-income status. But too reliant on cheap labor and exports, Thailand’s growth soon stagnated. Quoting Somkiat…
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Thailand’s Political Parties Must Not Neglect Education
Once, I visited one of Bangkok’s skills training academies. These schools, run by either district administrations or the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, offer vocational education for Bangkok residents, allowing them to learn new career-relevant skills. I peeked inside a classroom, and saw a whiteboard filled with numbers. Was it some sort of mathematics class? You could…
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Thailand’s Upcoming General Election: A Preview
This year, Thailand will hold its second general election since the 2014 military coup. Like in 2019, this election will also be held under the auspices of the 2017 Constitution, which allows the unelected Senate and the elected House of Representatives to jointly appoint a prime minister. Unlike in 2019, however, Thailand’s switch to a…
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What Real Royalists Shouldn’t Do
Walter Bagehot, in The English Constitution, described two elements of constitutional monarchy. First, he wrote, is the ‘dignified’ branch of government, “those which excite and preserve the reverence of the population.” The second branch is the ‘efficient’ branch of government, “those by which, in fact, works and rules.” The British monarchy is the core element of…
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Is the Democrat Party Facing Extinction?
In December, the Democrat Party revealed that it had set up banners of Jurin Laksanawisit, the leader of the party and the deputy prime minister, alongside Chuan Leekpai, the house speaker and a party stalwart, wishing the people a happy new year in every province. Banners for new year’s greetings are a staple of every…
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Reflections on 2022
There was a time many years ago when blogging was the fashionable thing to do and the “blogosphere” was still a term that people used. Perhaps simply by mentioning such a time I run a considerable risk of confusing any younger readers — or indeed any of my non-writer friends — for whom the period…
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Prayut’s Cabinet of Rivals Imperils Prospects of a Third Term
The past week, the outspoken conservative academic Seri Wongmontha, wrote a Facebook post on how he had once predicted that several MPs will resign from parliament in order to join a new party near the end of the term. He had been proven right, he noted, given that 31 MPs have just quit their posts.…
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APEC Was a Missed Opportunity for the United States
When Chinese President Xi Jinping stepped down from the plane that carried him from Bali to Bangkok for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit, he was greeted by 2014 coup leader and current Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, and while Xi was mounting his aircraft back home, he was also sent off by Prayut. In…
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NIDA Polls Paint a Complicated Picture for Prayut’s Future
After the 2014 coup, the then leader of the coup, General Prayut Chan-o-cha, came to power insisting that he had never wanted the post of premier for himself. “I didn’t want to be prime minister. It’s not cool. It’s tiring,” he said in a press conference shortly after the start of his tenure. That was…
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Why Twitter’s Demise Would Be Very Sad
There’s something that’s simultaneously fascinating and sickening about watching the world’s richest man light up forty billion dollars on fire and fumbling all efforts he’s made to make it a worthy investment. Since crowning himself Twitter’s “Chief Twit,” Elon Musk has seemed to be doing his level best at driving Twitter off a cliff. Perhaps…
Ken Mathis Lohatepanont 