An Evening with Former PM Anand Panyarachun

Former Thai Prime Minister Anand addresses the FCCT and answers questions

Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand. Bangkok, Thailand. May 18, 2011. Kh. Anand was Prime Minister of Thailand twice in the early 1990s, and is now a distinguished elder statesman. In 2005 and again in 2010, he was appointed to head two important national commissions, the most recent one being the National Reform Committee, which was formed last year following the Red Shirt protests. The Committee has completed important parts of its reform proposals on land reform and taxation, and, as happens in the US as well, the Committee’s recommendations have been ignored---DOA. No political party is adopting them.

Kh. Anand’s mostly anodyne presentation was a paean to the good sense and pragmatism of the Thai people and their nearly 800-year history as a unitary state, which qualities, he believes, will bring about peace and stability, both sorely lacking in present-day Thailand. On the other hand, Kh. Anand acknowledged that the social divisions of the past five years are unique in Thai history. The root causes of the present unrest, said Kh. Anand, are the non-access of the people to political resources, and the power structure as it now exists. As for the future of the Reform Committee’s recommendations, Kh. Anand remains hopeful, but was unable to point to any basis for his optimism. From my stand point, it is encouraging that at least some people are studying and talking about needed reform.