A wide range of populist, state welfare and mega-infrastructure policies will heavily influence the outcome of the December 23 general election and so will the "strategic" political decisions of educated, urban and other well-informed voters.Ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra should take note that some party bosses – such as Prachai Leophairatana of the Matchimathipataya Party, which claims ....
Dr Kantathi Suphamongkhon, a former foreign minister and Thai trade representative, will next month leave for a one-year professorship at University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), his alma mater.He will cover diplomacy in the era of globalization, international laws and negotiations for both undergraduate and graduate courses. Watch the video interview.Note: Dr Kantathi's name at the intro of t....
Jon Ungphakorn, the former Bangkok senator, who isnow chairman of Thailand's confederation of non-government organisations (NGOs),told me the other day that the political divide remains deep-seated nearly a year after theThaksin regime was ousted by the military in a coup detat. In his opinion, post-election politics will continueto be highly confrontational regardless of which camp wins the polls b....
Is Thailand ready for a nuclear power plant? Such aquestion will be asked more often in coming years as the country struggles todiversify its sources of energy and increase the national energy security. Officially, nuclear energy is now one of the options,but the government remains very cautious about promoting it due to fear of a publicbacklash. According to the 2007 Power Development Programme (PDP....
Jon Ungphakorn, the former Bangkok senator and NGO leader, urges those who remain undecided on this Sunday's referendum on the draft 2007 charter to join the "NO" vote camp. He thinks the approval for the new charter is going to be as high as 70 per cent. That will make it difficult to reform the charter once it's passed. However, if the "NO" vote is high, say, 40-45 per cent vs 5....