The Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand expresses its deepest condolences to the family, colleagues and many friends of Kobsak Chutikul, the veteran Thai diplomat who died in Bangkok in late April after a long illness. He was a longstanding member of the FCCT, and always popular for his gregariousness and willingness to share. His royally-sponsored cremation is on Saturday (May 30).
“Kobsak was endlessly inquisitive about world affairs and had an intimate knowledge of Thai society and politics that he was always happy to dip into,” said Dominic Faulder, an FCCT board member and Nikkei Asia associate editor.
Poppy McPherson, a Thomson Reuters special correspondent, found in him “a proud public servant of Thailand and a principled and passionate advocate for Myanmar and the Rohingya.”
“He stood up for human rights and dignity and took no BS,” she said. “We first met in 2018, when he quit a Myanmar commission on Rakhine state that he deemed a whitewash. Refreshingly frank, with an impish smile and infectious giggle, he was a delight to chat with.”
Kobsak was at the time extracting himself as secretary from an international advisory panel on Myanmar’s strife-torn Rakhine state. It had been convened by State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi, and he feared it would become “part of the problem” in an ethnic cleansing that had already forced over 700,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee into exile in Bangladesh.
“It lulls authorities into thinking they have done enough to respond to the concerns of the international community -- that they’ve ticked that box,” he told AFP presciently.
Kobsak enjoyed a particularly warm and fruitful working relationship with Laetitia van den Assum, a veteran Dutch diplomat who was posted to Bangkok in the late 1990s. They later teamed up to write op-eds in the Bangkok Post and beyond, illuminating the situation in Myanmar.
“I first met Kobsak in 1995 to 2000 when he was at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs responsible for Europe and the Western Hemisphere, and I was ambassador,” she said. “He was easily accessible, not only for diplomats but also for journalists. A Thai journalist, who was a young beginner in those days and covered Myanmar and Cambodia, told me that Kobsak was always available and didn’t hesitate to share. And, as we know, he held strong opinions.”
“Ambassador Kobsak was always kind, approachable and supportive, particularly toward the press,” said Panu Wongcha-um, a Reuters senior correspondent and FCCT president. “He had a remarkable ability to connect people from different backgrounds and build meaningful networks. His views have helped many better understand the complexities and dynamics of Thai foreign policy, as well as diplomacy within ASEAN, particularly in relation to Myanmar.”
After graduating from the Australian National University, Kobsak joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1972. He went on to postgraduate degrees at Johns Hopkins and Southwestern universities in the United States.
In early 1991, Kobsak was posted as the first Thai ambassador to the newly formed Czech Republic at a time of great change in Central and Eastern Europe as the Cold War receded. He was elected as a party-list member of parliament with Chart Thai in 2001, serving as its deputy leader and chair of its foreign affairs committee. In 2004, he took a swing at the Bangkok governorship as an independent.
Kobsak spent many years in Geneva and held senior advisory roles with the World Trade Organization and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. Those spells occurred when compatriot Supachai Panitchpakdee was WTO director general in 2002-05 and UNCTAD director general for two terms (2005-13).
In more recent times, Kobsak regularly briefed the senate foreign relations committee on international topics of interest. He was also chairman of WWF Foundation, Thailand, and a senior member of the Australian Alumni Association.
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