New hope in a post-Trump world

Following Thai politics is making me increasingly frustrated, and I’m losing hope that things will ever get back to normal. Case in point: not only do we have a cabinet minister who served four years in an Australian prison for drug trafficking, but now one of his wives has been appointed to a position in the Prime Minister’s Office.

Not surprisingly, this latest bout of nepotism has raised an uproar and will widen the gap between the government and youth-led protesters in the search for common ground to find a way out of ongoing conflicts.

Thankfully, I have been able to console myself with the thought that the international outlook should improve as a result of the US election. Encouragingly for Asia, some of the first phone calls that President-elect Joe Biden made were to the leaders of Japan, South Korea and Australia. Clearly he intends to shore up relations…