Interim Prime Minister has been named, and his name is General Surayud Chulanont. The former military leader is taking the spotlight among criticism that the “junta” is still controling the government for the year until the promised election. Sure, he has a military background, but he is also trusted by the King. If the King’s game, I’m game. Not to mention, picking Surayud for this post over the WTO guy (I’m sorry I forgot his name) is a good choice. Why? So when times come for the election, we’ll have someone qualified and available to run the country. The last...
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Touch down…into chaos Thailand’s brand spanking new airport opened to “75% satisfaction”. Folks lost their luggages and the main computer system crashed. (Hey, Sam – isn’t that what you get paid to get ready at SWB? Are you sleeping on the job?? Hehee.) Snaffus are to be expected. But man, 3 hours of lost luggage? That’s just sad. With all the snaffus and boasting of being the mother of all airports with the largest single building and tallest control tower in the world , you must admire the 44 years of graft generations of government got off of this piece...
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Just a wee little bit of Thai politics. Wee little bit! New York Times – A Banned Book Challenges Saintly Image of Thai King I am personally half way through this big ol’ book myself. (And no, I haven’t gone back to it much. Kind of burned out on it right now. Perhaps I should return it to my Demi-boss…) Here’s the content of that article: A Banned Book Challenges Saintly Image of Thai King By JANE PERLEZ JAKARTA, Indonesia, Sept. 24 — When soldiers and tanks rolled onto the streets of Bangkok last week and the king appeared on...
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Yep. Still going on about the Coup. Probably for a while, but I promise I’ll post something more traditionally OakMonster very soon. After all, USC takes on Arizona this Saturday. Do you think I can withstand not talking about USC football? And here’s the story from the trench of why we had a coup and, as silly as it sounds, why I support it. THE NATION OVERDRIVE – 9.22.06 Sonthi outsmarted Thaksin at the eleventh hour Had Council for Democratic Reform under Constitutional Monarchy (CDRM) leader General Sonthi Boonyaratglin not moved as fast as he did to stage a coup...
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Dr. Suthichai Yoon, one of Thailand’s most respected journalists–and my personal favorite–says it best. THE NATION – 09.21.06 THAI TALK ‘Yellow ribbon coup’ was a very high price to pay Call it a “reluctant coup” or a “yellow ribbon revolt”, Tuesday’s assumption of power by military leaders was still a prohibitively high price for the country to pay to remove an entrenched political tyrant. You can of course try to stretch the point and argue that Thaksin Shinawatra did ask for it. In fact, his arrogance and autocratic proclivity might have served as the last straw, prompting the top brass...
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I’m lightening up the mood here. Thailand has coups. It’s almost a fact of life. Prime Minister abuses power. Government is corrupted. People protest to no avail. The military steps in, essentially to wipe the slate clean. A new constitution is drafted, essentially a forced reform. Temporary PM and government is installed. About a year later everything goes back to normal. About 10 years after that, a Prime Minister would come along and abuse his power. Rinse and Repeat. Once in a while you run into a Suchinda where the power went to his head and wouldn’t return democracy to...
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