Surin Pitsuwan
Surin Pitsuwan (Thai: สุรินทร์ พิศ สุวรรณ, born October 28, 1949 in Nakhon Si Thammarat ) is a Thai political scientist and politician ( Democratic Party). From 1997 to 2001 he was Minister of Foreign Affairs of Thailand. From 2008 to 2012, he was Secretary General of ASEAN.
Academic career
Surin is a member of the Muslim minority in Thailand. His father was a teacher in an Islamic school. As part of an AFS exchange program Surin was a year in the U.S. state of Minnesota to school. Surin studied political science, first at Thammasat University in Bangkok, but moved to the Claremont McKenna College in Claremont (California), where in 1972 he earned his bachelor 's degree. He continued his studies in Political Science and Oriental Studies at Harvard University, where he received his Masters degree in 1974. From 1978 he taught at Thammasat University political science. In 1982 he received from Harvard University with a doctorate. In 1983/84 he interrupted his teaching activities to be within the framework of the American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow program at Geraldine Ferraro. At the same time he taught at the American University in Washington Southeast Asian politics.
Political career
Surin Pitsuwan is a member of the Democratic Party. In 1986 he was elected to the province of Nakhon Si Thammarat in the Thai Parliament. Since then he has been re-elected eight times. He was first secretary of the President of Parliament Chuan Leekpai. From 1992 to 1995 he was deputy foreign minister from 1997 to 2001 and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Thailand in the governments of Chuan Leekpai. As foreign minister, he was from 1999 to 2000 at the same time Chairman of the ASEAN Ministers and the ASEAN Regional Forum. In this capacity, he sat down for a peaceful solution to the crisis in East Timor in 1999.
2005/ 06 he was a member of the National Reconciliation Commission, which drafted proposals for resolving the conflict in southern Thailand. After the military coup in September 2006, he was appointed to the National Legislative Assembly.
Secretary-General of ASEAN
On 1 January 2008 Surin Pitsuwan Ong followed in the Office of the Secretary-General of ASEAN. His term was five years. His successor is the Vietnamese Lê Minh Lương.
Memberships
Surin Pitsuwan was 1999-2001 Advisory Board for the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty. Since 2001 he is member of the Commission on Human Security in the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs ( OCHA ) of the United Nations. Until 2004 it belonged also to the World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization of the International Labour Organisation ( ILO). He is also Advisory Board of the International Crisis Group, the Council on Foreign Relations and the Centre for Islamic Studies at Oxford University. From 2002 to 2004 he was a member of the set up by the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue " Wise Men Group", which hosted the peace talks between the Free Aceh Movement and the Indonesian government.