Governing, it is said, is the art of compromise, of not letting the perfect be the enemy of the good, of settling for the next best. In few years, it would seem, has compromise as an art of governing looked so unpalatable than in 2021.  Turn the clock back a little. At the end of 2020,…

Some offers are made to be rejected. That seems to have been the case for the constitution reform proposal presented by the Re-Solution group, which recently fell on its first reading in parliament. There was, despite Re-Solution’s protests to the contrary, never much doubt about the chances of its passing. The wide-ranging constitutional draft would…

The past year has seen a steady stream of local elections: the Provincial Administrative Organization elections last December, municipal elections in March, and the Tambon Administrative Organization elections due soon.  There remains, however, a glaring absence: there is still no date scheduled for the election that will decide Bangkok’s next governor.  The delay has become…

Back in late June, three Singaporean ministers sitting on the city-state’s COVID-19 task force wrote an article in The Strait Times entitled “Living normally, with Covid-19.” In the piece, the ministers outlined a roadmap for Singapore to “transit to a new normal.” The coronavirus, the ministers explained, must be accepted as an endemic disease, one which “may…

After an unpopular one-year tenure, Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide of Japan announced that he would not contest the upcoming race to be president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. Why did Suga step down? What happens next?  Here’s a quick primer on the state of Japanese politics. Click here for the full piece at Thai…

Governor Weerasak Wijitsaengsri of Samut Sakhon recently announced the expediting of the process in which COVID-19 patients in the province could be transferred to community facilities to await hospital treatment. In the past, the governor explained, a number of official regulations had made such a transfer a lengthy process. Now, however, these regulations were to…

บทความของผมในคอลัมน์ ‘วาระทีดีอาร์ไอ’ ของหนังสือพิมพ์กรุงเทพธุรกิจ: การทำให้สินค้าหัตถกรรมไทย เป็นที่ต้องการของตลาดทั้งในและต่างประเทศ มีความสำคัญและจะเป็นทางรอดของอุตสาหกรรมสินค้าหัตถกรรมไทยในระยะยาว

In mid-June, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha made a speech on national television broadcasting the government’s goal to reopen Thailand within 120 days.  Reopening, needless to say, is a highly desirable goal. Take the Phuket Sandbox, which launched to great fanfare and is being heralded as a small but significant first step in Thailand’s reopening to…

Since the start of the third wave, the government has been stuck in a difficult, damned if you do, damned if you don’t position. Impose too many restrictions and long-suffering small businesses may finally topple. Impose too few, however, and infections would continue with no end in sight.  Instead of the eradication strategy that the…

Thailand held its long-delayed municipal elections this past Sunday. This was the second round of local elections, following the polls held last year for Provincial Administration Organization (PAO) seats.  Thailand uses the thesaban system to govern municipalities. According to this system, there are three types of municipalities depending on the total population, population density and gross income: thesaban…