Comments

  1. disgusted says:

    The coup is a fait accomply, but how the civilian interim government runs the country is not.

    The government and the junta have the authority to allow the parliament to have greater rights of oversight and allow public participation in the political/constitutional process. It’s not as if they have that much to be afraid of from the parliament, given that they appointed all of its members.

    By making ongoing decisions that limit the transparency of their rule and reduce any accountability they have to the people, the government/junta are trampling on the principles that they used as rationale for their seizure of power.

  2. nganadeeleg says:

    Chang Noi’s closing statement:
    “……this government is likely to clean up some of the mess left behind by its predecessor, mount some attacks on long-standing distortions of the market and provide a welcome interlude from the tendency to turn every aspect of government into a business opportunity.”

    Then it will be back to ‘business as usual’ under an elected government!

  3. nganadeeleg says:

    Just a suggestion… why not accept that the coup is a fait accompli.
    They have promised new elections next year – take them at their word – there will be plenty of time for criticism and protest if they fail to deliver on the elections.
    ‘Democracy’ was clearly not working under the old system and the country was in a stalemate situation going nowhere.
    Realistically, the coup government is likely to do less damage than the Thaksin government would have done over the next year.
    Just accept the situation and have a fresh go at ‘democracy’ next year when the air has cleared.
    Positive suggestions for the new constitution would also be helpful.

  4. Part II is here.

  5. disgusted says:

    vichai, by your own definition, Surayud’s-coup installed government is worse than Thaksin’s. Thailand’s democracy has indeed taken a step back.

    Elections. He didn’t come into power through elections and when the junta delayed elections from 12 months to 17 months, he was totally silent. “F” for public mandate.
    Transparency. Is Surayud explaining any of his policies to the public? No. He’s flip-flopped on alcohol advertising. He’s flip-flopped on populism. Heck, even the official policy he announced a few days ago was just vague hand-waving. “F” for transparency.
    Accountablity. If you don’t like his policies, you can’t petition your MP to introduce a vote of no confidence. You can’t make a public protest without breaking martial law. “F” for accountability.
    Integrity of the ruler. The man came to power through force and governs via martial law. He’s continued the emerency decree in the South. The only thing going for him is he hasn’t been accused in public of worshipping dead fetuses or desecrating religious shrines. “F” for integrity.

  6. Bystander says:

    If only… the Dragon was slain and they all lived happily ever after,
    and not … the Ring of Power has a mind of its own.

  7. FYI says:

    Hot News from Thailand….

    http://www.thaienews.blogspot.com/

  8. Jeru – Umm. That sounds familiar, no wonder, you posted the same comment on my blog.

  9. Please visit Australia based BurmaGateway and join us online. See you there.

  10. vichai says:

    There is no need to be confused gentlemen.

    Democracy never has been an absolute with strict 1-2-3-4 rules to be observed to qualify, or is it?

    To me Democracy is pure common sense. Democracy was invented (some credit the Greeks, others some ancient community in India long long before) to provide the people with a say on who rules and how these rulers are to be judged whether they deserve to be retained, kicked or jailed. Keep it simple gentlemen.

    Somewhere along the translation in Y2006, many western democracy advocates stuck to oversimplification that in the case of Thaksin’s democracy rejected by the people with a popular coup, they have violated democracy 1-2-3-4 rules. Says who? They must be speaking only of rule no. 1 . . the election by majority vote. What about transparency, accountablity and integrity of the ruler?

    Surely gentlemen we are much wiser and much more scholarly in this forum, are we not? We can ask Dr. Jory or Andrew Walker to contribute their academic wisdom in the debate. Is it true that only a majority vote is all that is needed to justiy Thaksin Shinawatra corruption rampage and extrajudicial abuses . . without accountability . . as d-e-m-o-c-r-a-c-y?

    I am just a small businessman gentlemen. Why don’t we toss the question to Dr. Jory and Andrew Walker? But somewhere in my intestines (usually my gut sense never fail), I sense righteousness in General Sonthi’s coup that toppled a darkly corrupt Thaksin regime that was never democratic.

  11. jeru says:

    Andrew and Nganadeeleg you both should laugh at Thaksin’s Khmer voodoo beliefs. I used to be amazed too in disbelief too that a PM, a billionaire, a Ph.d. degree holder could be so laughably superstitious. But I merely googled and Thaksin Shinawatra’s devotion to Khmer and Myanmar black magic was there to see . . . Thaksin did not even deny it. He even accused his opposition of employing voodoo against him that he had to fly to Buriram to consult a Khmer voodoo to protect himself.

    Andrew and Nganadeeleg р╕У just brought this up just so people can see how ridiculously whacky Thaksin Shinawatra was. Whacky and dangerous. Any person who would worship dead foetesus must have some gear loose in his skull . . . and Thaksin is a walking nutcase. His fascination with fortune tellers and voodoo begun long long before and he probably credits those dark magic to his billions amassed.

    Andrew and Nganadeeleg I dare you р╕┤both to google Thaksin Shinawatra and black magic and voodoo. You’d be flabbergasted by the idiocy of Thaksin Shinawatra. It was idiocy and dangerous for the Kingdom too. For someone to believe himself omnipotent by the powers of the dark magic must have encouraged him to do really outrageous acts . . . like the extrajudicial killings and the divisive rabble rousing of the villagers to besiege the Bangkok city residents.

    Thaksin Shinawatra is still a dangerous man. He must be sitting somewhere in a dark corner somewhere guided by belief in Shaman dark powers and voodoo.

  12. Bystander says:

    Thai-style ‘governance’ will be a more honest way to put it. The word ‘Democracy’ is so overused and abused that it doesn’t mean anything any more. Heck, what’s the official name of North Korea? Democratic People’s Republic of Korea!

  13. disgusted says:

    So does Pattana have any examples of elected leaders who exemplify Buddhist virtue and legitimate authority? Chavalit? Chuan? Banharn? Chatichai? The Pramoj brothers? Khuang? T. Nawasawat?

    Or is Pattana implying that elections are not the best way of selecting people of high Buddhist virtue? Then maybe the Sangkharaj or the King should select the Premier. If so, the system of politics most suited for Thailand would be that used in the pre-1932 era.

  14. […] I wonder if Thai style democracy is the sufficiency democracy I wrote about earlier? […]

  15. cheeky says:

    Thai protest rally anti-Sovereignty 1 November 2006 at Sanam-Laung

    Unusual Democracy

    As Thailand has been ruled by the military since 19 September 2006 till now, has been published by Thai media that all of us accepted their conduct. In fact, we are as they have told or not?

    The best 1997 constitution has been destroyed, not allow gathering than 5 peoples, restrict freedom of sharing the opinion in any website for politic discussion or criticizing and always provide the military guard for any meeting in the public.

    One month later

    At the present situation, it has been unclear and they still could not prove to the public for the reason of leader changeover, new constitution has been decided according to their need to rule the country.

    Recently we were called The Country of Dictatorship from the outsider world in an encyclopedia.

    Time to prove “We are a democratic country.”

    The rally will be held on 1 November 2006 at Sanam Laung where we all Thais know very well how difficult to get democracy at 4 pm onward.

    We are not concerned about the Elite, Ex-PM Taksin, Thai Rak Thai Party, Democratic Party, the ally or any other group. All we ask for is the Democracy handover from the military to the citizens.

    Please be with us to publish the fact to the world that we are fighting for a Democracy.

    Best Regards,
    Thai Democratic Citizen

  16. Marutii says:

    Self-sufficiency is really about reining in capitalism so that it does not fly much faster than feudalism can catch up with. Problem is that the genie has been out of the box for several decades now and Thaksin stepped on the accelerator just to make sure. Trying to turn the clock back by playing lots of sad and romantic numbers from the sixties on public radio is just not gonna work this time. Thailand’s finest are in for a hard landing- we just have to keep our fingers crossed they don’t crash the bloody plane. Where’s my goddam parachute?

  17. Amnuayvit says:

    Thanks for good site. For people interest in languages should visit http://www.ethnologue.com

    There are Thailand and Southeast Asia Ethnic Groups Database at http://www.sac.or.th/ethnicredb
    and Mons Studies Database http://infoma.sac.or.th/www/database/mons/index.htm both of them host by Sirindhorn Anthropology Center.

    The last one is “archives de Missions Etrangeres De Paris” at
    http://archivesmep.mepasie.org contains many ethnographic resources.

  18. patiwat says:

    That picture of the integrated self-sufficient farm sends shivers up my spine. The King’s ideas might have been groundbreaking 20 years ago, but today, raising pigs and chickens close together, and so close to humans and a fish farm is a recipe for disaster. A fundamental rethink of integrated “self-sufficient” farming is needed.

    The original idea was that human shit is eaten by pigs, and a portion of the chicken/pig shit would go directly into the fish pond. The shit would either be eaten directly by the fish or would boost plankton growth in the pond. This would dramatically increase the pond’s fish population, without having to buy store bought fish food. The farmers eat the fish, sell any excess to the market, and the shit goes back to the pigs. Or so the self-sufficiency theory goes.

    The problem is that pigs passively carry some variants of influenza (р╣Др╕Вр╣Йр╕лр╕зр╕▒р╕Ф – the flu). And chickens passively carry some variants of influenza. And humans passively carry some variants of influenza. Shit in general carries the influenza of the host species. But when shit from one species mixes up with living beings of another species, there is a much greater chance of a cross infection. What is endemic and passively carried by one species can wipe out another species. To make matters worse, when you mix up multiple species and multiple types of shit, the influenza mutates much more easily, since they can borrow chunks of DNA from their relative variants.

    This isn’t advanced science – you don’t need to be a genius in biology like Princess Chulabhorn to understand it. Even high school kids are taught this stuff these days.

    The result of all of this shit is new virulent types of bird flu and the risk that 1) migratory birds can pass it on to countries thousands of kilometers away, 2) birds can pass it on to humans, and 3) humans can catch it from other humans. 1) and 2) have already happened in Thailand. If 2) occurs, millions will die worldwide. Mortality rates of 50-80%. Last time the world had a big influenza epidemic, about 100 million people died. And that was before integrated farming and international air travel. Scares the shit out of me.

    (excuse me for the language used in this post)

  19. JB says:

    Andrew you will more than a bottle of Chivas if you include Khmer voodoo and/or Isan black magic in your village research. The Chivas is just in case you get squeamish once you encounter a Khmer talisman.

    Khmer’s potent dark magic is in the talisman that Thaksin Shinawatra sought from the Khmer shaman recommended by Buriram’s Newin. Cambodians still believe that the unborn, if properly preserved, become talismans which can speak to them through their dreams, guiding their decisions and helping them stay safe and grow in wealth. These talismans are known as Cohen Kroh, literally well-done babies’.

  20. jeru says:

    Thaksin has committed grievious sins against the Thai people. The corruption spree by TRT directed by Thaksin is one. His subvertion of the Thai constitutional checks & balances is second. His ineptitude in further inflaming the Southern unrest is third. His much publicized conflict of interest family enriching AmpleRich-Temasek-Shin $1.8 billion transaction is fourth.

    And Thaksin also committed and directed mass murder in that Y2003 anti-ya ba campaign which resulted in the extrajudicial slaughter of 2,500 DEFENSELESS villagers merely because these victims were on some poorly trained poorly paid corrupt village policemen’s blacklist. Murder is a crime, mass murder even more so, and to have been carried out in violation of the rule of law by the very Prime Minister elected to uphold the law is criminally unforgiveable. For this fifth most heinous crime of Thaksin, he should be JAILED and punished to the full extent of the law, 2500 times!