Political heavyweights square up in a winner-takes-all game

Game theory is the name of the game at the moment.

According to former commerce minister Narongchai Akrasanee, "the old power" and "the new power" are engaging in game theory to win this political battlefield through various tactics - notably via rebuttals in the media.

Nobel laureate John Nash devised game theory, which includes the concept that each player decides the next move by assuming how his opponent will react.

The Nash equilibrium works when the best responses of all players are in accordance with each other.

Over the past few weeks, "the old power" has managed to advance its move to discredit the "new power" through game theory.

Deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra was touring the world giving interviews to the foreign press by attacking the military-installed government's economic policy.

His tactics proved to be successful as the international media exposure managed to shake the government's stability.

In the opposite corner was the Council for National Security (CNS).

General Sonthi Boonyaratglin reacted defensively by trying to catch up with Thaksin by giving an interview to CNN to rebut what Thaksin had said earlier.

Thaksin correctly guessed how the CNS would react and managed to rattle it further by making calculated moves, such as appearing in Singapore and consequently straining bilateral relations.

But the CNS apparently didn't react by making any assumption on Thaksin's next move. It was simply following Thaksin's act by straining ties with Singapore and choosing to rebut Thaksin's

statement on the same news network.

Without naming names, Narongchai said that if the players lost out in the game theory - and failed to maintain the Nash equilibrium - it would turn out to be a "zero-sum game".

Ampon Kittiampon, secretary general of the National Economic and Social Development Board, said if this does turn out to be a zero-sum game, the damage will be tremendous. "And the people will suffer the most," he added.

Anoma Srisukkasem

The Nation
Thu, February 1, 2007