Read the full essay here.
About the Author
Chai-Anan Samudavanija, director of the Institute of Public Policy Studies in Bangkok, is also professor of political science and a Royal Scholar at Chulalongkorn University. He has written numerous books and articles in both Thai and English on the politics and history of Thailand, and has been a visiting fellow at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. In 1986, he was recognized as the nation’s leading researcher in political science by the Thai National Research Council. He has also held a wide variety of government posts, serving as a member of the Constitutional Drafting Committee in 1974 and as an advisor to the prime minister in 1980-81. He was appointed to the Thai Senate in 1989.