Improving the education system should include modernisation as well as decentralisation. The umbrella organisation of teachers opposed to the government’s decentralisation-centred reform programme to place state schools under the administrative purview of local governments is embarrassing itself by its daily threats to stage mass protests.

PM’s power short-circuited by collapse of Egat deal

You don’t have to be a pessimist to believe that there is very little chance of success for Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s plan to privatise Egat Plc, the power agency. The political tide is turning against him quickly. And his political mandate is wobbling.

Pakistani president surrounded by foes

The devastating Kashmir earthquake is once again testing the skills of one of the world’s great political survivors. General Pervez Musharraf, president of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, has few friends and many enemies. Pakistan’s major political parties oppose him. For the religious right and the mullahs, he is an agent of America, the great Satan, and has thus betrayed the cause of Islam.

A democratic vision for Asia

Excerpts from a speech delivered by US President George W Bush on Wednesday in Kyoto, Japan.