Comments

Surawat – The clip doesnt prove anything since its pretty normal for a organized rally to have a pool of money for spending on food, petrol and what not, Furthermore, it would be extremely stupid to handing out money (for purpose of hiring people to come) in a broad day light with camera everywhere (can see a dude with SLR standing behind taking picture) anyhow your guess is as good as mine, but one thing that we know, the guy didnt take this video in secret.

The picture paints a thousand words. If I am not mistaken, in their”royal language” Thai people are called specks of dirt under the royal family’s feet.

Macondo @20 – No : these demonstrations are NOT LIKE any other: for the first time ever, a civilian Thai PM is fighting back against being overthrown through military coup.
I wish Seni Pramoj had been able to do this in 1976.

“nak leng, a term for local strong men who solved disputes sometimes by negotiation, and sometimes by force. Nak leng carried themselves with dignity (saksi). ”

Didn’t PAD Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya call Hun Sen a ‘nak leng’ not long ago? Caused quite a ruckus. Kasit’s damage control consisted of trying to define ‘nak leng’ as ‘lion hearted gentleman’ or something like that.

The economist is fair enough. From my armchair, I don’t see the UDD organizers sufficiently prepared to do the politically necessary step of dismantling the elite, arresting the government leaders and commanding the army and police back to their barracks and hovels. This then leading to a fiat decentralization of the country with a new constitution (without a privy council and rethinking of the balance of powers in Thai government). Does anyone imagine such an outcome this time?

Instead, we are more likely to see another typical day of the national sport: crackdown, one-sided bloodshed, arrests of UDD leaders, name-calling and elections. We may not see a change in the basic dynamics of Thailand and the red movement will in all likelihood fizzle for another 5 years. Then, people like Chalerm will slip back into the country and continue their infamous political role. We might as well get garland flowers out to congratulate Mr. Suthep on a superior, highly-sophisticated, well-thought out crowd control strategy that hinders change of any sort.

One more thing: there is no need to record this now, because Thai historians will have no place for this in university textbooks. Nothing will be learned and the people will have learned nothing.

Robin: It’s a fair comment, but consider that there was 360┬░ of choice in where to tell the dog to sit. In front and in the middle of the two chairs was not the only spot. Also consider the scenario if ordinary people were involved. If an important guest were arriving, wouldn’t the dog be located out of the way, while still next to her master? MongerSEA is close with the comment ‘there are no accidents at the Palace’. At least, there are no protocol accidents. They live by protocol. Even assuming all the staff — including the most senior staff — would rather fall on their swords than suggest the dog should move — there was one person in the room who knows protocol and could tell his dog where to lie. He could also have told Tong Daeng to move out of the way.

On ‘Judgement Day’ the Supreme Court (the same one that castigated some Constitution Court judges for appearing to “not know the law” when Thaksin escaped conviction by majority decision 8-7 on earlier asset concealment charges which would have prevented him becoming PM in the first place) nailed Thaksin well and truly.
So where’s the double-standard? Apart from the “Nothing wrong!” and “democratically elected” dumbed-down sound bites for the media (let’s pass over his less fortunate “500 baht” comment to stop paying hired Red Shirt protesters who failed to keep turning up for ‘work’ last Songkran and his dumb and dumber “No! No! No!” rebuttals about almost everything e.g. the hijacked gas tanker, the shooting of two Muslims defending their community downtown, Thai Rak Thai Sec. Gen. Suriya Jungroongreangkit’s interminably delayed court date over the huge CTX corruption scandal etc. etc.) this is one that Thaksin seems to believe will work for him every time, but does it stand up to scrutiny or does it fall apart like most of his self-serving ‘truths’?

As with the earlier Supreme Court verdict above, the great majority of ‘fair-minded’ observers consider it to have been both just and well-reasoned – unlike Thaksin’s pitifully weak rebuttal. Except for, arguably, the charge of a ‘double standard’ being applied. Of course this charge allows Thaksin to cry “Me too!” about the pervasive ‘double standards’ that, sad to say, over the past 75 years or so at least, have helped make Thailand almost a by-word for corruption and immoral conduct by the powers-that-be.

However, politics being “the art of compromise” (unlike, say the role of a CEO in business) “CEO-PM” Thaksin became an ever-bigger target during his prime minister-ship precisely because of his refusal to compromise and take any responsibility for the problems caused by his own belligerent, authoritarian brand of “ugly crony capitalism”. As his former Deputy PM, Chaturon Chaisaeng has said, Thaksin’s biggest mistake was in not taking a step back and letting someone else take over as PM for a while to diffuse mounting political tensions.

Thus, Thaksin’s sway with the military (and other bureaucrats, but without tanks) continued it’s long, steady decline until the point where trust that the “mutual benefits” of governing would be shared equitably according to the reality of power diminished to the point that his own “manifest destiny” was realized by the coup of 2006 as Thaksin the quasi-monopolist businessman had, as many had warned, turned out to be a quasi-monopolist politician – one that became a bigger and bigger target due to his ever-increasing anti-democratic, anti-intellectual ways and pervasive conflicts of interest between the concurrent roles of PM Thaksin and CEO Thaksin.

My point here is that, while Thaksin wasn’t the only one (the list is long and rather ugly, but any list of the ‘usual suspects’ would find Barnharn Silpa-archa and former Democrat Sec. Gen. near the top) by his uncompromising hubris and it’s consequences, Thaksin the Invincible made himself a far bigger and ultimately far more vulnerable target that anyone since PM Chatchai Choonavahn and his infamous “buffet cabinet” – an era that ended with the previous coup and the fall of the first “democratically elected” government since the ‘70s.

“ He who fails to learn the lessons of history
is condemned to repeat the lessons of history.”

Thaksin Shinawatra’s reputation: “never listens” and “never learns”.

Will wonders never cease? For the first time in a long time it seems, The Economist has, in my opinion, published a well-balanced and insightful article on Thai politics. Me thinks the magazine’s local stringer has been changed in body or mind of late?

Here, here Robin.
There’s too many cynics amongst the New Mandala posters to see that.
They also like to de-ride Abhisit, because he is not their hero, Thaksin.

ive heard the king is a good king, like one of the good leaders around. such a pity