By Christopher Plante

Chris Plante is The Asia Foundation’s Director for Environment Programs. He can be reached at cplante@asiafound.org.

I think it was in Bangkok in 1995 where I first met Dr. Chirapol Sintunawa.  He gave me a tour of his sustainable development experiments, which included passive solar building design, eco-friendly landscaping, and the first environmental audits for Thai hotels.  Today, Green Leaf-certified hotels are established throughout Thailand; and Dr. Chirapol and his graduate students – and business and government partners – are busily expanding the reach and impact of Green Leaf certification across Southeast Asia.

However, the Green Leaf program gives us just a glimpse into what Chirapol and his associates are up to. Chirapol is constantly on the move. He trains students in sustainability at his eco-camp in Kanchanaburi; discusses bike lanes with transportation authorities in Bangkok; lectures about water-saving toilets at public events such as rock concert intermissions; and travels around the world to learn new ideas and to inspire others to think more deliberately about the sustainability of our one-planet life. 
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By Thomas Parks

Thomas Parks is The Asia Foundation’s Regional Director for Conflict and Governance. He is based in Bangkok and can be reached at tparks@asiafound.org.

Thailand has seen some turbulent times over the past three years, but this past week was probably the low point. Protests by the anti-government United Democratic Front against Dictatorship (UDD), also known as the “red shirts,” threw the country into crisis at a moment when it should have been basking in the international spotlight.

The ASEAN Plus Six Summit was cancelled on Saturday, April 11, when UDD protestors managed to outmaneuver the security forces at the heavily guarded Royal Cliff Resort in Pattaya. How the protestors managed to push their way up to the building despite the presence of nearly 5,000 police and military - and a relatively narrow corridor to the hotel that should have been easily defended - is still a mystery. Several foreign leaders were forced to evacuate by helicopter, or divert their travel at the last minute. A shadowy new “protest movement,” its followers clad in dark blue and brandishing weapons, met the red shirts on their way to the conference center, leading to intense street violence.
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By James Klein

James Klein is The Asia Foundation’s Country Representative in Thailand. He can be reached at jklein@asiafound.org.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva is under the microscope this week for his handling of the volatile protests waging in the streets of Bangkok since March 26, and more recently in the seaside town of Pattaya, where Asian leaders were evacuated from a summit meeting. Fueled by nightly video broadcasts by fugitive former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, the red-shirted protesters are proving to be Abhisit’s first real test in his 4-month-old administration.

While his actions on Friday were swift, in the past 48 hours, Abhisit has taken soft yet steady measures in responding to the red-shirted protesters.
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By John J. Brandon

John Brandon is The Asia Foundation’s Director for International Relations programs. Earlier this week, Mr. Brandon gave radio and TV interviews to Canadian TV, and Channel News Asia. He can be reached at jbrandon@asiafound-dc.org.

This is normally a time of celebration in Thailand. This week is Thailand’s New Year, known as “Songkran.” The holiday falls during the hottest time of the year, where people celebrate the spiritual aspects of water and renewal, but it is also a time to visit family and friends. Some people make New Year resolutions, such as doing good deeds or refraining from bad behavior. Unfortunately for Thailand, the supporters of Thaksin Shinawatra and the Democratic Alliance against Dictatorship (DAAD), also known as the “red shirts,” elected to do neither.

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By Tim Meisburger

Tim Meisburger is The Asia Foundation’s Regional Director for Elections and Political Processes. Based in Bangkok, Mr. Meisburger has supported democracy programming across Asia, including in Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Thailand, Philippines, Japan, Cambodia, East Timor, and Indonesia. He can be reached at tmeisburger@asiafound.org.

Thailand was once Asia’s rising star, and its 1997 constitution was the standard for democratic development that other Asian nations sought to emulate. However, over the past eight years the country has become increasingly polarized, and its institutions politicized, beginning when Thaksin Shinawatra and his Thai Rak Thai party ran for office in 2001 on a populist platform that appealed directly to the urban poor and rural mass, completely bypassing traditional power-brokers in the military, bureaucracy, and business. Unfortunately, the current Democrat-led coalition government, which assumed office through normal parliamentary procedures last year, also lacks democratic legitimacy; as it came to power not through popular elections, but because of the court-ordered dissolution of other political parties, and the banning of those party’s most popular politicians.

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By Tim Meisburger

Tim Meisburger is The Asia Foundation’s Regional Director for Elections and Political Processes and is based in Thailand. He can be reached at tmeisburger@asiafound.org.

RUNGROJ YONGRIT/EPA

As red-shirted protesters continue to block access to the Government House, just as their yellow-shirted foes did a few months ago, one wonders where democracy is headed in Thailand. A dozen years ago, Thailand drafted a constitution through a participatory process seen as a model for other emerging democracies. Thailand was a rising star, the standard for democratic development that other Asian nations sought to emulate. Now, 12 years later, Thailand’s democracy looks tarnished and tattered.
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The Asia Foundation’s International Relations Director John Brandon, “Asia’s Emerging Regional Architecture and Implications for US-Southeast Asia Relations,” which will be included in the forthcoming book, Refreshing U.S.-Thai Relations. His chapter provides an appraisal of current relations and a look to the future as new administrations take office in both countries. It is now available online. Published by ISIS-Thailand, the book features contributions from the field on U.S.-Thai relations, as well as reflections from discussions at January’s conference on U.S.-Thai relations held in Cha-am. The hardcopy version of the publication is set for release on Friday.

By Chris Plante

Chris Plante is The Asia Foundation’s Director of the Environment Program. He can be reached at cplante@asiafound.org. Recently, he participated in a panel discussion titled “Water Worries: Balancing the Water We Need with the Water We Have” aired on City Visions Radio.

Thinking about World Water Day this Sunday, March 22nd, and the 2009 World Water Day theme of Transboundary Water, “sharing water, sharing opportunities,” I am reminded of “Mending Wall,” Robert Frost’s 1914 poem in which he asks why two neighbors must rebuild the stone wall dividing their farms each spring. Today, the unwritten rule – that good fences make good neighbors – makes plenty of sense to most of us. Our cities and suburbs, farms and factories, power plants and parks, and roads and rivers share common geography, boundaries, and neighbors.
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By John Brandon

John Brandon is Director of The Asia Foundation’s International Relations Programs in Washington, D.C. He attended the “ASEAN Business and Investment Summit” when visiting Thailand last week and can be reached at jbrandon@asiafound-dc.org.

Last weekend, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) held its 14th Summit in Cha-am, Thailand. This was the first summit since the ratification of the ASEAN Charter in December 2008, making the group a rules-based organization and committing it to principles of good governance, rule of law, and the protection of human rights for the first time in its 41-year-old history. Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva opened the summit by saying, “ASEAN will put people first – in its vision, its policies, and action plans.”

However, from what took place at the summit, ASEAN might be wearing bifocals when looking into the future. If you are a business person, ASEAN’s vision could seem far-sighted, looking well into the future as it works to fulfill its ambitious goal of creating a single market (an ASEAN economic community) by 2015. On the other hand, if you are a civil society leader, you are likely to believe ASEAN is short-sighted – particularly one member: Burma.
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The economy was at the top of the agenda at the 14th ASEAN summit this past week in Cha-am, Thailand. Just beforehand, on February 26, 2009, Dr. Surin Pitsuwan, Secretary-General of ASEAN and a Trustee of The Asia Foundation, laid out some of the issues at the 2009 ASEAN Business and Investment Summit (ABIS) in Bangkok.

In his remarks, he stated: “Others outside are convinced that ASEAN, in cooperation with the Plus Three countries (China, Japan and Korea), will be another pool of growth and a centre of dynamism post-crisis. A new landscape is being developed with multi-centres; no longer dependent on the United States or Western Europe.”
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