Pichai Chuensuksawadi spent his early years at boarding school in Australia before returning to Thailand, where he would work the next five decades as a journalist, editor, and publisher, and remains a key player on Thailand’s media front lines.
At Post Publishing Public Co. Ltd., the publisher of the Bangkok Post, Pichai has played a deft hand when pushing for press freedom while protecting his staff during military coups and civil protests, and dealing with the likes of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
He says Thaksin’s failure to recognize and take into account Thailand’s ruling elite was a political blind spot that contributed to his ousting in 2006, a factor which is back in play given the former prime minister’s recent return from exile, his time in a prison hospital, and early parole.
The civil war in Myanmar is also on Pichai’s agenda, in particular, that country’s media-in-exile, which is mainly based out of the northwest Thai town of Chiang Mai. But despite impressive gains made by forces opposed to the junta he does not believe the conflict will end soon.
Pichai spoke with The Diplomat’s Luke Hunt in Bangkok about his life in journalism and what he learned as the “only Asian kid in school” where he once blew his father’s money and found himself working menial jobs that helped shape him for what was to come.