Surin Pitsuwan

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Surin Pitsuwan (Thai: สุรินทร์ พิศสุวรรณ, born 28 October 1949) is a longtime Thai politician. He was born in Nakhon Si Thammarat, into an assimilated Thai family of Malay descent.[1][2]

Pitsuwan studied at Thammasat University, Thailand. He graduated cum laude from Claremont McKenna College, California, in political science in 1972. From 1977 until 1980, he was a researcher for the Human Rights Studies Program, Thai Studies Institute and the Ford Foundation, Thammasat University, and from 1974 until 1978, he was a fellow of The Rockefeller Fellowship Program, The Rockefeller Foundation, Harvard University and American University, Cairo. Surin Pitsuwan earned a Master of Arts from Harvard University and did research at the American University in Cairo as a scholar of the Institute of Higher Council for Islamic Affairs of Egypt from 1975 until 1977 before returning to Harvard, where he received a Ph.D. in 1982.

Surin Pitsuwan was elected Member of Parliament from Nakhon Si Thammarat for the first time in 1986 and became Secretary to the Speaker of the House of Representatives the same year. In 1988, he was appointed Assistant Secretary to the Minister of Interior. From 1992 until 1995, he served as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs before becoming Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1997, serving in this capacity until 2001. Surin Pitsuwan was Chairman of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum from 1999 until 2000.

In addition to his political career, he taught at Thammasart University and wrote for two English daily newspapers in Bangkok between 1980 and 1992. From 1983 until 1984, Surin Pitsuwan worked in the U.S. Congress as a Congressional Fellow, Congressional Fellowship Program, the Asia Foundation and the American Political Science Association (APSA), while at the same time teaching International Relations at the American University in Washington, D.C..

He was Academic Assistant to the Dean of the Faculty of Political Science and later to the Vice Rector for Academic Affairs at Thammasart University from 1985 until 1986. Surin Pitsuwan is a member of the Commission on Human Security, a member of the Advisory Board of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, and a member of the World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalisation.

On June 18, 2007, the Thai cabinet unanimously endorsed the recommendation from the Thai Foreign Ministry for Surin Pitsuwan to be nominated as the Thai candidate to be the next Secretary-General of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). He was confirmed by the ASEAN Foreign Ministers during their 40th annual meeting in Manila in July 2007 and succeeded Ong Keng Yong from Singapore on January 1, 2008.[3] His term of office is five years. The Economist magazine, commenting that most Secretary-Generals are "usually a senior regional official rewarded with the post as the crowning boondoggle in a career of not rocking the boat", states that Pitsuwan is different in that he seeks an activist role in member states.[4]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Islamization and Dakwah in an Unlikely Place
  2. ^ Can Surin lead Asean into a new era?
  3. ^ The Nation, Asean needs retooling to face competion from outside : Surin, June 19, 2007
  4. ^ "Forcing help on Myanmar", The Economist, 22 May 2008

[edit] External links

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Secretaries-General of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
Dharsono  · Notowijono · Abdullah · Reyes · Chan · Wannamethee · Roderick Yong · Rusli Noor · Singh · Rodolfo C. Severino · Ong · Pitsuwan