Pipob Thongchai () is a

non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

leader who advocates a wide range of issues. He has been active since he was a college student, when he was secretary of the University Student Federation of Thailand. He is also a former member of the Council of Socio-economic Consultants of Thailand, the Committee for Democratic Advocacy of Thailand, and the Children's Foundation of

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

. Thongchai was an early supporter of

Thaksin Shinawatra Thaksin Shinawatra (, ; born 26 July 1949) is a Thai businessman and politician who was the 23rd prime minister of Thailand from 2001 to 2006. Since 2009 he has also been a citizen of Montenegro. Thaksin founded the mobile phone operator A ...

and called for general support from the

civil society Civil society can be understood as the "third sector" of society, distinct from government and business, and including the family and the private sphere.People's Alliance for Democracy The People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD; ; commonly known as "Yellow Shirts") was a Thai reactionary, monarchist political movement and pressure group. It was originally a coalition of protesters against Thaksin Shinawatra, the former Prime M ...

(PAD), the group that launched a major campaign demanding Prime Minister

resign. The PAD supported a

coup d'état A coup d'état (; ; ), or simply a coup , is typically an illegal and overt attempt by a military organization or other government elites to unseat an incumbent leadership. A self-coup is said to take place when a leader, having come to powe ...

by the royally-supported military on 19 September 2006. In September 2008, Thongchai advocated a state-sponsored scheme of early childhood

character education Character education is an umbrella term loosely used to describe the teaching of children and adults in a manner that will help them develop variously as moral, civic, good, mannered, behaved, non-bullying, healthy, critical, successful, traditiona ...

and development, which would serve to indoctrinate children younger than three years in the morals and ethics of "

Thainess Thainess, or the Thai identity (, ), is a conceptual identity regarding the quality of being Thai: characteristics seen as distinctive to the Thai people, Thai culture, and those belonging to Thailand as a whole. It forms the central identity upon ...

". As of 7 October 2009, he serves as an advisor to the

New Politics Party The New Politics Party (abbreviated NPP; , ), was a political party in Thailand founded on 2 June 2009. The NPP was the political party of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD; "Yellow Shirts"), with which it shared the same principles and ...

.''The Nation''
Sondhi elected as new leader
, October 7, 2009

References

Living people Pipob Thongchai Pipob Thongchai 1945 births {{Thailand-bio-stub