Anand Panyarachun, a former prime minister of Thailand, has always preferred a quiet life, which contrasts sharply with his enormously successful career as a high profile diplomat and politician who helped shaped Thailand’s politics as well as its outlook on the world.
He first emerged as a particularly important diplomatic figure towards the end of the Vietnam War, when the United States was closing military bases in Thailand, the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) was being revitalized, and ties with China were being normalized. As a politician, while he had several achievements, his economic reforms and the drafting of the “People’s Constitution” in particular contributed much to Thailand’s future success and its ability to manage political storms.
He is now the subject of a biography – Anand Panyarachun and The Making of Modern Thailand – written by veteran correspondent Dominic Faulder. Luke Hunt spoke with Faulder at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand.
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