The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
The Forum - On Line Opinion's article discussion area



Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

Main Articles General

Sign In      Register

The Forum > Article Comments > The future of the kingdom of Thailand > Comments

The future of the kingdom of Thailand : Comments

By Nattavud Pimpa, published 30/6/2011

Thailand holds elections this year, and Shinawatra may make a comeback.

  1. Pages:
  2. Page 1
  3. All
Interesting article. If Pheu Thai won, it will be the dark age of Thailand. How on earth can Yingluck control the red-shirt people? Obviously, she will listen to her brother and the Thaksination will return to Thailand.
Posted by moburne, Thursday, 30 June 2011 12:44:07 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
It’s a very complicated and indeed sad situation. The Pheu Thai party is still effectively led by a convicted criminal who as well as introducing populist policies which did help some of Thailand’s poor, also used his position for unfair commercial advantage. He threatened the interests of the (very wealthy) monarchy, (traditionally supported by the Democrats) and so elections have become a struggle between new and old money with Thailand's electorate as pawns. Severe lese majeste laws combined with a massive propaganda campaign promoting the royal family, a weak education system that rewards subservience, systemic corruption and recent violence against civilians will effectively rule out a reasonable public political debate or an equitable social settlement in the near future.
See also
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/09/professor-thailand-charged-king
http://www.isj.org.uk/docs/CFRbook.pdf
And of course, Paul M. Handley's excellent 'The King Never Smiles' if you have the time.
Posted by JimmyJones, Friday, 1 July 2011 2:59:40 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
It is also interesting to note that the Thai author of this article goes as close as he can to lese majeste with the words: "In fact, the Democrat party has long been perceived as the party for the rich and the influential (Amartya)." For legal, religious and cultural reasons Thai people avoid mentioning the monarchy in political debates, which limits the ability of foreigners to understand the situation.
Posted by JimmyJones, Friday, 1 July 2011 3:07:30 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
  1. Pages:
  2. Page 1
  3. All

About Us :: Search :: Discuss :: Feedback :: Legals :: Privacy