Thai politics is in a mess, the army not responding to the government,Gen.A.. is meddling in politics with his commentaries,he should shut up and do the job that he is supposed to do. the PAD episode will cost dearly in the long run to Thailand., and it already started. They want to change the government, be a political party,but they know they would never win. Who in his right mind would want a 70/30. Amidst all that turmoil the king is silent. I only hope it will be better for all soon.
One is that of Kwanchai Paipanna. What is he doing out of jail? This guy unashamedly admitted on TV and radio to leading the violent attack on the PAD supporters in Udon not long back and that he would be ready to use violence to expell any PAD supporters out of the province as long as he is still alive.
This is shows a problem with Thailand, people contiunue to worship criminals like these without question. Same with the PAD supporters who are blindly worshipping Sonthi and Chamlong, both who also should be in jail by now.
The other picture which bothers me is that of Udon MP Surathin. He is basically the mafia godfather type politician. Again why are decent folk cheering these shady mafia types like heroes? Is it for lack of better choice? Are the honest, ethical politicians staying out of politics since don’t want to get hands dirty? Or are these types not having the “eccentric” character or speaking capabilities to entertain crowds and therefore don’t become popular (the TV stars/singers turned politicians never seem to have problem geting MP seats). This points to another problem of Thai society. How we can get people to understand that they need to scrutinize the politicians better.
If massage parlour king Chuwit ever gets elected as governor in Bangkok, I am moving out of the City as a matter of principle. He treats women as merchandize and sells them and is a womanizer who is not ashamed to have photos taken on dates with new faces of teenage looking young ladies time and time again. Please any fellow Bangkokers reading NM, don’t vote for him!!!
Nice post Nick. I appreciate your well-written and honest descriptions of the realities of being a poor Thai citizen trying to have some control over the things affecting their live. My conversations with my Thai friends here in Bangkok, who are mostly motorcycle taxi drivers, guards, food sellers, etc. reveal the same dynamics. Many of these people seem to be struggling with trying to reconcile their traditional thinking patterns, beliefs and habits with newer ideas and new possibilities.
In my experience they may be relatively uneducated but they are not stupid, and they certainly can understand when somebody is trying to disenfranchise them and keep them down. Many of them have a very well developed political understanding. Every person I’ve talked to knows about the 70/30 scam and understands what it means. They resent that their votes were negated by PAD and the military when they did the coup against Thaksin. And they resent that PAD is trying to do it again. They are not happy about any of this, at all. They have expressed to me that they have been patient for a long time with all the anti-democratic activities of the PAD types but that the time is coming when their patience will end.
For their own good (the elites) as well as the rest of the country, I hope and pray the elites back off and accept the inevitable – which is that once people taste freedom and empowerment they will never go back and that therefore the elites will have to learn to live with their “lessers” having a seat at the power table. The elites can choose to either calibrate the rate of change by minimizing and delaying it as long as possible in order to minimize their pain, or they can dig in to try to preserve their power, wealth, perks and status and thereby risk a massive explosion. The choice is theirs at this point.
A great PAD leader said about the poor, “They are dogs. We kick them.” For everyone’s sake I hope he realizes that there about 60,000,000 dogs and only about 5,000,000 kickers.
Nick has it right…
Come to think of it, the Reds are definitely more intelligent than the Yellows. They can at least think for themselves.
I am very proud to be a Red. This is a beginning of a long fight but I’ll be right by their side.
In summary Nick N says of the Reds, in pained phrases of course: ” . . .paid to vote. paid to fight (and terrorize). but nice folks these Reds . . . because Nick N can take pictures and intelligently discuss with them . . .”
Uh uh . . .
But I agree with Nick N only in that the PADs are definitely much worse . . . stubborn opinionated asses . . . all of them.
Rookie- that is good; accurate and well penned. Others listen to the propanganda and twisting of truths by Sondhi media corp that they can no longer see truth when it stares them in the face (jonfernquest is a classic case of these easily-duped nazis). My suggestion to those who really want to know is to get out (yes, even in the taxis), listen to the ordinary folk, hear about their struggles, frustrations and sincere love of a man and his government that was illegally dumped in a “good”? coup by elitist interests (and the law then rewritten to protect them from any future prosecution); a former government which gave them hope, moderate prosperity and power, and opportunity. They voted more than once and their voice is not going to be heard. Even vote buying, comon to all parties, leaves the buyer with a choice.
Your are welcome Theo. I still have an extra copy of that National Geographic magazine with the Burma Road article. The magazine article is definitely better than the Internet article (More photos and detail maps). If you guys need that magazine I could mail it to you.
Just seeing the photo of a collapsed bridge the NG team had to fix to cross a raging mountain stream would make you guys think more than twice about going on that road, I reckoned.
These mountain streams are so extremely dangerous, one minute they are just the rock-beds and next minute transformed into rushing torrents depending on the unseen rains at their headwaters.
I was in the army in the seventies and I once used to fight KIA along the Ledo road and witnessed so many people, both Burmese and Kachins, getting killed on that bloody road. That dirt road still means a lot to me.
By the way, I have to remind you about the mud too. Once the Ledo road’s mud hit the axle you do need a bulldozer to pull your 4×4 out of the quagmire.
Good stuff! Not much change from 2003. So I guess the best bet for a tour over the Road (especially Burmese) would be along the same lines as the one in the NG article. So Theo that goes for you – we need a good reason for you to be on that Road in Myanmar. Sorry if we are stepping ahead of something but unless you had some other shortcuts in mind, getting the concerned authorities excited about your trip would need some creativity. You know what I mean – like a NG re-visit to a WW2 relic by a couple of their explorer journos. Heres the newer link btw http://stage.ngm.nationalgeographic.com/features/world/asia/myanmar/burma-road-text
It is certainly true that Sondhi Lim has not been a proponent of an independent and vigorous press. But that is true of much of the Thai press. Who were strong in their condemnation of military control of the press following the coup. Very few voices from the media itself.
It is also likely that elements of the Thai middle class and the elite have indeed found their hero in a flawed character like Sondhi. That says much about these groups and the nature of Thai society.
jonfernquest has a selective memory. Post-coup commentators forget that the military junta and PAD have tried the same things. Look at all the agencies that the junta junked and their repression of various groups. Look at PAD’s true aims of a “new politics” which draws on exactly the logic of “Thai-style democracy” that you cite on Thaksin. And, I humbly suggest, the paper you cite was largely about a political trajectory under Thaksin and TRT that the authors were charting. It was not a call for an undemocratic politics. You might want to look beyond the journalism of these authors to their book for the fuller story. I’m sure you have read it already, but that provides the detail of an argument, which a short FEER article cannot do. And you were writing of academics and their work.
We certainly intend to obtain permission before travelling along the road. The recent land slides will hopefully no longer be blocking the road when we plan to be there, but this is of course often going to cause a problem.
Hla Oo, thanks for directing us to the National Geographic article. I’d heard about it before but couldn’t find it. I can’t open the link, but can reach it from the info you’ve given me.
“The best way to “fix” democracy isn’t to junk it, but to let it mature through peaceful transfers of power.”
Thaksin “junked” democracy way before the coup got to it (See Pasuk Phongphaichit and Chris Baker (2004) “Thaksin dismantles Thailand’s Opposition,” Far Eastern Economic Review, March 2005)
Peaceful transfer of power? You mean “peaceful transfer of power” back to the PPP and then back to Thaksin, after gerry-rigging the constitution and appointing cronies to every conceivable office so that we can start heading down the one party, one leader road again?
Thai democracy has evolved with coups, most recently with coup legislation that could never have passed under a house of business interests that bought their way into the house, with non-elected appointed auditors like Jaruvan, and public Thai TV stations. The 1997 constitution itself arose in the wake of a coup. Coups (hopefully now only the threat of a coup forcing compromise) are part of the evolution of Thai democracy.
Another coup by Anupong or whoever at this time is suicidal. To launch a coup is easy but what happens after that ? You must find good excuses for a coup, find a new prime minister, present him to the King, etc. Besides, the PPP grass roots in the North and Northeast and democratic-minded people in Bangkok are more than ready to deal with another coup because they have learned a lot from the previous coup staged by the bigamist Muslim general Sonthi. In other words, the resistance to this new coup will be massive and unimaginable.
Those of you who live overseas do not read vernacular newspapers and listen to local radio stations as I am doing everyday. One daily reported that a military officer nicknamed Sae Daeng had helped train members of the anti-PAD group called UDD, which led to the unfortunate clash last week. I am sure this military officer was upset to see an Army general with full uniform had blatantly joined PAD and climbed the stage to attack Samak. The radio station I listen to belongs to the taxi drivers association and both the announcers and the phone callers expressed disgust at the continued occupation of the Government House.
With this in mind, I would like to stress again that another coup is suicidal and people will rise to oppose it immediately, unlike last time when some stupid people offered flowers to the coup-makers’ soldiers.
‘As jonfernquest likes to refer specifically to westerners…”
I am talking specifically of post-coup commentary and of course there are western scholars who don’t fit the mistaken pattern of equating the Thaksin state with democracy.
Most of the repetitive post-coup commentary makes it seem like Thaksin was the fount of democracy which he clearly was not:
“He [Thaksin] argued that “destructive politics,”meaning the competitive model of plural democracy, was a Western import, wrong for Thailand, and due for abolition. He assured voters that he himself is “the fount of democracy.” Thus the prime minister worries those who believe in liberal democracy, because he clearly does not”
(Pasuk Phongphaichit and Chris Baker (2004) “Thaksin dismantles Thailand’s Opposition,” Far Eastern Economic Review, March 2005).
I also specifically remember how Thaksin attempted to deactivate the national human rights commission and prevent them from presenting their findings to the UN. I published a book review in that one issue of the human rights journal they managed to issue, that they had to fund privately, I believe.
Over time Thaksin’s electoral mandate seemed more and more to support a one party and one leader authoritarian state, that’s what the paper cited provides evidence of, and that’s why PAD is doing what it is doing, to prevent a rewriting of the constitution, stacking of state institutions, neutralization of the Auditor General’s office and the other institutions that have collected evidence against Thaksin (especially his manipulation of the telecommunications industry. Samak was a proxy acting to bring about Thaksin’s return and then we would have to repeat the whole thing over again. (Like some sort version of hell)
“The “revelation” that “democracy requires more than constitutions” is hardly earth-shattering – even communist states had and still have constitutions. I thought the mantra was that democracy was more than voting?”
Something that seems to have been forgotten in most post-coup commentaries on Thai politics, so as far as these commentaries and the public opinion that they create are concerned it is “earth shattering.”
Whatever democracy is, the Thai state under Thaksin didn’t have it, as the above cited paper proves so well. People need to remember that.
Thailand’s New (Old) Politics
FROM WALL STREET JOURNAL ASIA
September 2, 2008
“Democracy is the worst form of government,” Winston Churchill once remarked, “except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” Thai citizens might want to remember that when they listen to the latest ideologue who promises to fix their country’s democracy by — once again — breaking it.
For much of the last week, Sondhi Limthongkul and his People’s Alliance for Democracy followers have occupied Government House, disrupted flights and briefly taken over a state-run television station. Mr. Sondhi claims that the current government, led by Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej, is a proxy for former leader Thaksin Shinawatra; both of whom, he alleges — and they deny — are corrupt. If he succeeds in ousting the government, Mr. Sondhi promises to run “a clean and efficient political system.”
He may want to review his history. After leading street protests against Mr. Thaksin in 2006, the same Mr. Sondhi and his followers cleared the way for a military coup. The ensuing junta-led government sent the Thai economy into a tailspin by clamping down on foreign investment, restricting capital flows and seizing intellectual property. The junta then forced through a constitution to entrench the military — and Bangkok elites — in power.
Mr. Sondhi isn’t much of a democrat himself. Back in July, he outlined his vision for a “new politics,” under which only 30% of members of parliament should be elected. The rest, he argued, should be appointed by various professional classes, while the military’s role should be expanded. The bulk of Thailand’s voters — rural, and poor — would be disenfranchised.
The real problem with Thai politics, from Mr. Sondhi’s and the PAD’s perspective, is the voters’ irritating habit of electing Mr. Thaksin and his followers. After a year-and-a-half of military governance, Thai voters overwhelmingly plumped for Mr. Samak’s PPP in December, giving them over half the seats in the parliamentary lower house. That’s not a bad showing in what was seen to be a largely free and fair election.
Prime Minister Samak has refused to bow to Mr. Sondhi’s raucous demand that he step down, and rightly so — he has an electoral mandate, after all. But he is quickly getting pushed into a political corner. On Friday, when he ordered police to evict protestors from Government House, pursuant to a court order, the protestors fought back. The ensuing melee evoked memories of 1976, when Mr. Samak — who was deputy interior minister at the time — talked up anticommunist rhetoric at a time when leftist students were protesting in Bangkok. The military later brutally cracked down on the protestors, killing and wounding hundreds. Mr. Samak denied that he helped spark the riots.
The stalemate has left a big opening for the opposition Democrat Party to exploit. On Sunday, during an emergency session of parliament, opposition leader Abhisit Vejjajiva asked Mr. Samak to resign and hold elections. If the opposition were serious about protecting democracy, they would get behind the government and call on the protestors to go home. A party spokesman yesterday said that so long as they respect the rule of law, the party supports all Thais’ right to free speech and assembly.
By egging on the protestors, however, the Democrats, like the PAD, are playing a dangerous game. If the Samak government is overthrown, there’s no telling what might follow it. The best way to “fix” democracy isn’t to junk it, but to let it mature through peaceful transfers of power.
Isn’t it ironic that for nearly two weeks now Thailand has a bankrupt (Sondhi L.) literally occupying the Thai PM’s office . . .
Each day Sondhi L, the bankrupt, holds on to that Thai PM’s office, is one more day the Thai nation gets closer to its own political and economic bankruptcy.
The noise is deafening but Thailand is asleep . . . only the wolves stir.
I would not pay tax if I didn’t have to. There was no “tax cheating” as you put it.
Here’s a tip for you Jim: Try using tax havens, maids etc as nominees & concealing assets – it might even make you good PM material.
(I hear PPP are struggling to find a suitable candidate)
🙂
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Beyond the stereotypes of Thailand’s “Reds”
Thai politics is in a mess, the army not responding to the government,Gen.A.. is meddling in politics with his commentaries,he should shut up and do the job that he is supposed to do. the PAD episode will cost dearly in the long run to Thailand., and it already started. They want to change the government, be a political party,but they know they would never win. Who in his right mind would want a 70/30. Amidst all that turmoil the king is silent. I only hope it will be better for all soon.
Beyond the stereotypes of Thailand’s “Reds”
Two pictures highlight important problem.
One is that of Kwanchai Paipanna. What is he doing out of jail? This guy unashamedly admitted on TV and radio to leading the violent attack on the PAD supporters in Udon not long back and that he would be ready to use violence to expell any PAD supporters out of the province as long as he is still alive.
This is shows a problem with Thailand, people contiunue to worship criminals like these without question. Same with the PAD supporters who are blindly worshipping Sonthi and Chamlong, both who also should be in jail by now.
The other picture which bothers me is that of Udon MP Surathin. He is basically the mafia godfather type politician. Again why are decent folk cheering these shady mafia types like heroes? Is it for lack of better choice? Are the honest, ethical politicians staying out of politics since don’t want to get hands dirty? Or are these types not having the “eccentric” character or speaking capabilities to entertain crowds and therefore don’t become popular (the TV stars/singers turned politicians never seem to have problem geting MP seats). This points to another problem of Thai society. How we can get people to understand that they need to scrutinize the politicians better.
If massage parlour king Chuwit ever gets elected as governor in Bangkok, I am moving out of the City as a matter of principle. He treats women as merchandize and sells them and is a womanizer who is not ashamed to have photos taken on dates with new faces of teenage looking young ladies time and time again. Please any fellow Bangkokers reading NM, don’t vote for him!!!
Beyond the stereotypes of Thailand’s “Reds”
Fantastic commentary Nick, all of your photos are very ‘alive’ too.
Beyond the stereotypes of Thailand’s “Reds”
Nice post Nick. I appreciate your well-written and honest descriptions of the realities of being a poor Thai citizen trying to have some control over the things affecting their live. My conversations with my Thai friends here in Bangkok, who are mostly motorcycle taxi drivers, guards, food sellers, etc. reveal the same dynamics. Many of these people seem to be struggling with trying to reconcile their traditional thinking patterns, beliefs and habits with newer ideas and new possibilities.
In my experience they may be relatively uneducated but they are not stupid, and they certainly can understand when somebody is trying to disenfranchise them and keep them down. Many of them have a very well developed political understanding. Every person I’ve talked to knows about the 70/30 scam and understands what it means. They resent that their votes were negated by PAD and the military when they did the coup against Thaksin. And they resent that PAD is trying to do it again. They are not happy about any of this, at all. They have expressed to me that they have been patient for a long time with all the anti-democratic activities of the PAD types but that the time is coming when their patience will end.
For their own good (the elites) as well as the rest of the country, I hope and pray the elites back off and accept the inevitable – which is that once people taste freedom and empowerment they will never go back and that therefore the elites will have to learn to live with their “lessers” having a seat at the power table. The elites can choose to either calibrate the rate of change by minimizing and delaying it as long as possible in order to minimize their pain, or they can dig in to try to preserve their power, wealth, perks and status and thereby risk a massive explosion. The choice is theirs at this point.
A great PAD leader said about the poor, “They are dogs. We kick them.” For everyone’s sake I hope he realizes that there about 60,000,000 dogs and only about 5,000,000 kickers.
Beyond the stereotypes of Thailand’s “Reds”
Nick has it right…
Come to think of it, the Reds are definitely more intelligent than the Yellows. They can at least think for themselves.
I am very proud to be a Red. This is a beginning of a long fight but I’ll be right by their side.
Coup talk
From Jim Taylor: ” . . . Even vote buying, common to all parties, leaves the buyer with a choice.”
What was the point of this sentence and what depth of inanity have you now descended yourself into Jim Taylor?
Beyond the stereotypes of Thailand’s “Reds”
In summary Nick N says of the Reds, in pained phrases of course: ” . . .paid to vote. paid to fight (and terrorize). but nice folks these Reds . . . because Nick N can take pictures and intelligently discuss with them . . .”
Uh uh . . .
But I agree with Nick N only in that the PADs are definitely much worse . . . stubborn opinionated asses . . . all of them.
Beyond the stereotypes of Thailand’s “Reds”
Excellent post Nick! Keep them coming!
Coup talk
Rookie- that is good; accurate and well penned. Others listen to the propanganda and twisting of truths by Sondhi media corp that they can no longer see truth when it stares them in the face (jonfernquest is a classic case of these easily-duped nazis). My suggestion to those who really want to know is to get out (yes, even in the taxis), listen to the ordinary folk, hear about their struggles, frustrations and sincere love of a man and his government that was illegally dumped in a “good”? coup by elitist interests (and the law then rewritten to protect them from any future prosecution); a former government which gave them hope, moderate prosperity and power, and opportunity. They voted more than once and their voice is not going to be heard. Even vote buying, comon to all parties, leaves the buyer with a choice.
The Stilwell Road
Your are welcome Theo. I still have an extra copy of that National Geographic magazine with the Burma Road article. The magazine article is definitely better than the Internet article (More photos and detail maps). If you guys need that magazine I could mail it to you.
Just seeing the photo of a collapsed bridge the NG team had to fix to cross a raging mountain stream would make you guys think more than twice about going on that road, I reckoned.
These mountain streams are so extremely dangerous, one minute they are just the rock-beds and next minute transformed into rushing torrents depending on the unseen rains at their headwaters.
I was in the army in the seventies and I once used to fight KIA along the Ledo road and witnessed so many people, both Burmese and Kachins, getting killed on that bloody road. That dirt road still means a lot to me.
By the way, I have to remind you about the mud too. Once the Ledo road’s mud hit the axle you do need a bulldozer to pull your 4×4 out of the quagmire.
Thanks Sangos for the newer link.
The Stilwell Road
Good stuff! Not much change from 2003. So I guess the best bet for a tour over the Road (especially Burmese) would be along the same lines as the one in the NG article. So Theo that goes for you – we need a good reason for you to be on that Road in Myanmar. Sorry if we are stepping ahead of something but unless you had some other shortcuts in mind, getting the concerned authorities excited about your trip would need some creativity. You know what I mean – like a NG re-visit to a WW2 relic by a couple of their explorer journos. Heres the newer link btw
http://stage.ngm.nationalgeographic.com/features/world/asia/myanmar/burma-road-text
Sondhi Limthongkul before the PAD
It is certainly true that Sondhi Lim has not been a proponent of an independent and vigorous press. But that is true of much of the Thai press. Who were strong in their condemnation of military control of the press following the coup. Very few voices from the media itself.
It is also likely that elements of the Thai middle class and the elite have indeed found their hero in a flawed character like Sondhi. That says much about these groups and the nature of Thai society.
Authoritarian orientations in Thailand
jonfernquest has a selective memory. Post-coup commentators forget that the military junta and PAD have tried the same things. Look at all the agencies that the junta junked and their repression of various groups. Look at PAD’s true aims of a “new politics” which draws on exactly the logic of “Thai-style democracy” that you cite on Thaksin. And, I humbly suggest, the paper you cite was largely about a political trajectory under Thaksin and TRT that the authors were charting. It was not a call for an undemocratic politics. You might want to look beyond the journalism of these authors to their book for the fuller story. I’m sure you have read it already, but that provides the detail of an argument, which a short FEER article cannot do. And you were writing of academics and their work.
The Stilwell Road
We certainly intend to obtain permission before travelling along the road. The recent land slides will hopefully no longer be blocking the road when we plan to be there, but this is of course often going to cause a problem.
Hla Oo, thanks for directing us to the National Geographic article. I’d heard about it before but couldn’t find it. I can’t open the link, but can reach it from the info you’ve given me.
Coup talk
“The best way to “fix” democracy isn’t to junk it, but to let it mature through peaceful transfers of power.”
Thaksin “junked” democracy way before the coup got to it (See Pasuk Phongphaichit and Chris Baker (2004) “Thaksin dismantles Thailand’s Opposition,” Far Eastern Economic Review, March 2005)
Peaceful transfer of power? You mean “peaceful transfer of power” back to the PPP and then back to Thaksin, after gerry-rigging the constitution and appointing cronies to every conceivable office so that we can start heading down the one party, one leader road again?
Thai democracy has evolved with coups, most recently with coup legislation that could never have passed under a house of business interests that bought their way into the house, with non-elected appointed auditors like Jaruvan, and public Thai TV stations. The 1997 constitution itself arose in the wake of a coup. Coups (hopefully now only the threat of a coup forcing compromise) are part of the evolution of Thai democracy.
Coup talk
Another coup by Anupong or whoever at this time is suicidal. To launch a coup is easy but what happens after that ? You must find good excuses for a coup, find a new prime minister, present him to the King, etc. Besides, the PPP grass roots in the North and Northeast and democratic-minded people in Bangkok are more than ready to deal with another coup because they have learned a lot from the previous coup staged by the bigamist Muslim general Sonthi. In other words, the resistance to this new coup will be massive and unimaginable.
Those of you who live overseas do not read vernacular newspapers and listen to local radio stations as I am doing everyday. One daily reported that a military officer nicknamed Sae Daeng had helped train members of the anti-PAD group called UDD, which led to the unfortunate clash last week. I am sure this military officer was upset to see an Army general with full uniform had blatantly joined PAD and climbed the stage to attack Samak. The radio station I listen to belongs to the taxi drivers association and both the announcers and the phone callers expressed disgust at the continued occupation of the Government House.
With this in mind, I would like to stress again that another coup is suicidal and people will rise to oppose it immediately, unlike last time when some stupid people offered flowers to the coup-makers’ soldiers.
Authoritarian orientations in Thailand
‘As jonfernquest likes to refer specifically to westerners…”
I am talking specifically of post-coup commentary and of course there are western scholars who don’t fit the mistaken pattern of equating the Thaksin state with democracy.
Most of the repetitive post-coup commentary makes it seem like Thaksin was the fount of democracy which he clearly was not:
“He [Thaksin] argued that “destructive politics,”meaning the competitive model of plural democracy, was a Western import, wrong for Thailand, and due for abolition. He assured voters that he himself is “the fount of democracy.” Thus the prime minister worries those who believe in liberal democracy, because he clearly does not”
(Pasuk Phongphaichit and Chris Baker (2004) “Thaksin dismantles Thailand’s Opposition,” Far Eastern Economic Review, March 2005).
I also specifically remember how Thaksin attempted to deactivate the national human rights commission and prevent them from presenting their findings to the UN. I published a book review in that one issue of the human rights journal they managed to issue, that they had to fund privately, I believe.
Over time Thaksin’s electoral mandate seemed more and more to support a one party and one leader authoritarian state, that’s what the paper cited provides evidence of, and that’s why PAD is doing what it is doing, to prevent a rewriting of the constitution, stacking of state institutions, neutralization of the Auditor General’s office and the other institutions that have collected evidence against Thaksin (especially his manipulation of the telecommunications industry. Samak was a proxy acting to bring about Thaksin’s return and then we would have to repeat the whole thing over again. (Like some sort version of hell)
“The “revelation” that “democracy requires more than constitutions” is hardly earth-shattering – even communist states had and still have constitutions. I thought the mantra was that democracy was more than voting?”
Something that seems to have been forgotten in most post-coup commentaries on Thai politics, so as far as these commentaries and the public opinion that they create are concerned it is “earth shattering.”
Whatever democracy is, the Thai state under Thaksin didn’t have it, as the above cited paper proves so well. People need to remember that.
Coup talk
It seems that some folk need further evidence…
Thailand’s New (Old) Politics
FROM WALL STREET JOURNAL ASIA
September 2, 2008
“Democracy is the worst form of government,” Winston Churchill once remarked, “except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” Thai citizens might want to remember that when they listen to the latest ideologue who promises to fix their country’s democracy by — once again — breaking it.
For much of the last week, Sondhi Limthongkul and his People’s Alliance for Democracy followers have occupied Government House, disrupted flights and briefly taken over a state-run television station. Mr. Sondhi claims that the current government, led by Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej, is a proxy for former leader Thaksin Shinawatra; both of whom, he alleges — and they deny — are corrupt. If he succeeds in ousting the government, Mr. Sondhi promises to run “a clean and efficient political system.”
He may want to review his history. After leading street protests against Mr. Thaksin in 2006, the same Mr. Sondhi and his followers cleared the way for a military coup. The ensuing junta-led government sent the Thai economy into a tailspin by clamping down on foreign investment, restricting capital flows and seizing intellectual property. The junta then forced through a constitution to entrench the military — and Bangkok elites — in power.
Mr. Sondhi isn’t much of a democrat himself. Back in July, he outlined his vision for a “new politics,” under which only 30% of members of parliament should be elected. The rest, he argued, should be appointed by various professional classes, while the military’s role should be expanded. The bulk of Thailand’s voters — rural, and poor — would be disenfranchised.
The real problem with Thai politics, from Mr. Sondhi’s and the PAD’s perspective, is the voters’ irritating habit of electing Mr. Thaksin and his followers. After a year-and-a-half of military governance, Thai voters overwhelmingly plumped for Mr. Samak’s PPP in December, giving them over half the seats in the parliamentary lower house. That’s not a bad showing in what was seen to be a largely free and fair election.
Prime Minister Samak has refused to bow to Mr. Sondhi’s raucous demand that he step down, and rightly so — he has an electoral mandate, after all. But he is quickly getting pushed into a political corner. On Friday, when he ordered police to evict protestors from Government House, pursuant to a court order, the protestors fought back. The ensuing melee evoked memories of 1976, when Mr. Samak — who was deputy interior minister at the time — talked up anticommunist rhetoric at a time when leftist students were protesting in Bangkok. The military later brutally cracked down on the protestors, killing and wounding hundreds. Mr. Samak denied that he helped spark the riots.
The stalemate has left a big opening for the opposition Democrat Party to exploit. On Sunday, during an emergency session of parliament, opposition leader Abhisit Vejjajiva asked Mr. Samak to resign and hold elections. If the opposition were serious about protecting democracy, they would get behind the government and call on the protestors to go home. A party spokesman yesterday said that so long as they respect the rule of law, the party supports all Thais’ right to free speech and assembly.
By egging on the protestors, however, the Democrats, like the PAD, are playing a dangerous game. If the Samak government is overthrown, there’s no telling what might follow it. The best way to “fix” democracy isn’t to junk it, but to let it mature through peaceful transfers of power.
Coup talk
Isn’t it ironic that for nearly two weeks now Thailand has a bankrupt (Sondhi L.) literally occupying the Thai PM’s office . . .
Each day Sondhi L, the bankrupt, holds on to that Thai PM’s office, is one more day the Thai nation gets closer to its own political and economic bankruptcy.
The noise is deafening but Thailand is asleep . . . only the wolves stir.
Coup talk
I would not pay tax if I didn’t have to. There was no “tax cheating” as you put it.
Here’s a tip for you Jim: Try using tax havens, maids etc as nominees & concealing assets – it might even make you good PM material.
(I hear PPP are struggling to find a suitable candidate)
🙂