Thailand Update Conference 2006
University House,
Australian National University
(Cnr Balmain Cr &
Liversidge St, ANU)
Friday 29 September 2006
'The
Coup, Constitution and Continuing Crisis: What Reforms are
Needed?'
Conference Program
About the Speakers
Summary of Presentations
Thailand Political Overview 2006
Photos
The past twelve months
have been a turbulent period in Thai politics, culminating in a military
coup on 19 September.
Public opposition began
to gather momentum around September 2005, after the government closed a
TV program by erstwhile Thaksin supporter and media personality Sondhi
Limthongkul. Sondhi took his case to the public, leading mass
demonstrations against the prime minister and attracting tens of
thousands to his Weekly Reports in Lumpini Park. In January, opposition
strengthened following the controversial sale of the prime minister's
family company to the Singapore government-linked Temasek company for
$US1.9 billion.
In response Thaksin
called general elections, just 12 months into a new term. The April
elections were, however, boycotted by the opposition and eventually
annulled by the Constitutional Court. Election Commissioners were forced
to stand down after being briefly jailed. From February, Thailand had
only a caretaker government and no functioning parliament.
At this time of
political drift, and deeply divided passions for and against the
government, the military stepped in, citing national disunity and
rampant corruption.
This year’s Update will
look at the real reasons for the coup, and examine why political
institutions established under the 1997 constitution – considered at the
time a model for democratic governance – failed to resolve political
conflict. Was the coup a circuit breaker to allow a resumption of
democratic development, or will it entrench military influence? The
Update will also examine the troubled south, where a resumption of
violence since 2004 contributed to Thailand’s political malaise.
Finally, it will examine what reforms are likely to the now anulled 1997
constitution.
The NTSC is grateful
for financial assistance supporting the Update from the
Australia-Thailand Institute and the Centre for Democratic Institutions
(CDI).
08.30-09.00 Registration
09.00 : Welcome by Professor Robin Jeffery, Director of the
Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies and Convener of the College
of Asia and the Pacific. Opening by Mr Udomphol Ninnad, Minister,
Deputy Chief of Mission of the Royal Thai Embassy.
Session 1: The Year in Review
Chair: Dr Craig Reynolds, ANU
09.15 : Economic overview. Professor
Peter Warr, ANU
10.00 : Political overview. Dr Michael Montesano, National
University of Singapore
10.45 : Morning Tea
Session 2: Keynote Address
Chair: Dr John Funston, ANU
11.05 : The Tragedy of the 1997 Constitution. Professor
Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn
University
12.15 : Lunch
Special luncheon address
12.45 Future Plans of the National Counter Corruption
Commission. Professor Medhi Krongkaew, member of the NCCC.
Session 3: The Troubled South
Chair: Dr Peter Jackson, ANU
13.15 : Governance in the South: Is decentralisation an
option? Dr John Funston, Executive Director, NTSC
14.00 : The Ministry of Culture in the South: paradoxes of
cultural pluralism. Dr Michael Connors, School of Social Sciences, La
Trobe University
14.45 : Afternoon Tea
Session 4: Independent Institutions
Chair: Mr Quinton Clements, Deputy
Director, CDI, ANU
15:05 :
The National Human Rights Commission and independent institutions with
responsibilities in economic and finance areas. Dr Jakkrit Kuanpoth,
Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Wollongong
15.50 : The role of the National Economic and Social
Advisory Commission and other independent organisations under the 1997
constitution. Professor Gothom Arya, Chairman of the National Economic
and Social Advisory Council
16.35 : Concluding remarks, Dr John
Funston
16.45 : Conference ends, followed by
post-conference drinks
·
The keynote speaker, Dr Thitinan Pongsudhirak, is
Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Political Science, and Director of
the Institute of Security and International Studies, Chulalongkorn
University. He is an outstanding younger political scientist who
received his PhD from the London School of Economics for a thesis on the
political economy of Thailand's economic crisis of 1997, which was
awarded the United Kingdom's Best Dissertation Prize in Comparative and
International Politics. He has a regular Thai politics column in the
Bangkok Post, and is constantly featured by the international
media. He has also published extensively in academic publications,
among the most recent being “Thaksin’s Political Zenith and Nadir” in
Daljit Singh and Lorraine Carlos Salazar (edits), Southeast Asian
Affairs 2006 (Singapore 2006).
·
Professor Peter Warr is the John Crawford Professor
of Agricultural Economics and Director, Poverty Research Centre,
Division of Economics at ANU. He has also been a Visiting Professor of
Economics at both Thammasat and Chulalongkorn universities. He is
author/editor of three books, including Thailand Beyond the Crisis,
Routledge (London, 2005) and over 120 articles.
·
Dr Michael Montesano is Assistant Professor in
Southeast Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore, and
currrently Visiting Researcher, Regional Studies Program, Walailak
University, Nakhon Si Thammarat. He has published widely on Southeast
Asia in the region’s media and academic publications. These include
“Market Society and the New Thai Politics” in Ruth McVey, ed., Money
and Power in Provincial Thailand (Copenhagen, 2000); “Thailand in
2001: Learning to Live with Thaksin”, Asian Survey XLII, 1
(January/February 2002); “The United States in Southeast Asia: Deepening
the Rut? (with Quek Ser Hwee) in Orbis Spring 2004; and “Beyond
the Assimilation Fixation: Skinner and the Possibility of a Spatial
Approach to Twentieth-Century Thai History”, The Journal of Chinese
Overseas, November 2005. He is currently working on A Plural
Peninsula, a volume of essays on the history of ethnic interactions
in the Thai South, co-edited with Patrick Jory.
·
Professor Medhi Krongkaew teaches at the National
Institute of Development Administration, and is one of one of Thailand’s
most respected economists. A former visiting research fellow at the
ANU, he has written dozens of articles on a wide range of Thai economic
issues, with a particular focus on poverty. He has served on numerous
government advisory bodies, and has just been appointed to the National
Counter Corruption Commission.
·
Professor Gothom Arya, is one of Thailand’s leading
public figures. He is currently Director of the Mahidol University
Research Centre for Peace Building, and Chairman of the National
Economic and Social Advisory Council. He also played a key role in
drafting the 1997 constitution, was a member of the first Election
Commission, and Secretary-General of the recent National Reconciliation
Commission that reported on ways to address violence in the South.
·
Dr Jakkrit Kuanpoth, is Senior Lecturer in Law at
the University of Wollongong (previously Associate Professor, School of
Law, Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University). He is a prolific writer on
intellectual property, economic and health-related legal issues. His
recent publications include: “TRIPS-Plus Intellectual Property Rules:
Impact on Thailand’s Public Health”, Journal of World Intellectual
Property, Vol.9, No.5, 2006; “Patents and Access to Medicines in
Thailand – The ddI case and beyond”, Intellectual Property Quarterly,
Issue 2, 2006 and “Closing in on Biopiracy: Legal Dilemmas and
Opportunities”, in Meléndez-Ortiz, R. and V. Sánchez, Trading in
Genes: Development Perspectives on Biotechnology, Trade and
Sustainability, Earthscan (London, 2005). He was also involved in
the formation of Thailand’s National Human Rights Commission.
·
Dr Michael Connors is Senior Lecturer in the School
of Social Sciences, La Trobe University. He has published extensively
on Thai politics, recent works including Democracy and National
Identity in Thailand, Routledge Curzon (London, 2003) and “War on
Error and the Southern Fire: How Terrorism Experts Get it Wrong”,
Critical Asian Studies, 38 (2006).
·
Dr John Funston, Executive Director of the NTSC,
has written widely on politics in Thailand and Malaysia, and conflict in
the predominantly Muslim provinces of Southern Thailand.
