The pep talk Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra gave to leading members of the business community at Government House on Wednesday was simply a rehash of old speeches.

OVERDRIVE: FTA debacle reveals PM’s declining fortunes

Like the stalled privatisation of Egat Plc, the Thai-US Free-Trade Agreement talks look like dead meat. It all boils down to the waning credibility of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

What are our ‘national interests’?

It is misleading for Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to state that the government is “well-prepared” for the ongoing US-Thai Free-Trade Agreement (FTA) talks and to dismiss criticism by simply saying it is negotiating with our “national interests” in mind.

Hard truths about bird flu

The issues surrounding the possibility of a pandemic of the H5N1 strain of avian flu are extraordinarily complex, encompassing medicine, epidemiology, virology, and even politics and ethics. Moreover, there is tremendous uncertainty about exactly when H5N1, which now primarily affects birds, might mutate into a form that is transmissible between humans, and how infectious and lethal it might be.