Just finished reading a VERY interesting summary of the Thai political situation. Taiwan doesn’t seem half as messed up by comparison.
Wow. It’s like a book. Got through a good part of it, will keep going later.
all that just because the crowned prince is unpopular and Thai elites have a stake in the royalty establishment…
You might also enjoy this from the superb spoof, Not the Nation:
Andrew Marshall is very good, and his stuff on both Facebook and twitter have been very informative through all of this. Of course, he can no longer reside in Thailand now after publishing that online rant. He is planning on turning that into a book at some point. The problem with it now is that it is essentially out of date, as it covered events up to about 2010. The situation has changed rather considerably. First of all, the Queen has since had a stroke and is less influential. I also wonder about the tendency of foreigners to overcomplicate the unique character of maters Thai.
Also worth checking is his Twitter account: https://twitter.com/zenjournalist where he battles the sad shadow of what was a very interesting commentator on Iraq and Afghanistan, now turned hack for the Sutthep protest gang, Michael Yon. Again, Yon’s Twitter is hilarious and has prompted this likewise superb spoof - https://twitter.com/YawnMichael
But for really useful discussion, check the ANU Asia Studies website of New Mandala. http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/newmandala/
I should add a caveat that my wife is qite active in the protests in Bangkok as I tap, and while I originally agreed with many of the foreign journalist remarks about the protestors being an anti-democratic fascist mob, I am willing to concede that in reality, nothing much can happen in Thailand until the cancer that is Thaksin is removed from the political arena. Why the so called red shirts haven’t tossed him under a bus is a continual source of mystery to me, as his blundering has harmed their interests as much as the oppositions. In particular the stupid amnesty bill that was pushed through parliament.
But yeah, Thailand politics almost do make Taiwan look sane, but I would also add that there are unnecessary layers of convolution, which do make it appear far more complicated than it actually is.
I think one very important point has been the way the Thais have protested. While I am convinced Sutthep would have liked to provoke a violent police response, and thus a military coup, the people have done things in their own unique and oddly sophisticated way, which really has not been addressed by foreign commentators that I’ve read.
HG
That was an incredibly fascinating read… it reminded me more than anything of the later books in Frank Herbert’s Dune. Strange, I know…
A similar (but much shorter!) look at the protests in the Ukraine- again, there’s more to the story than a simple “pro-democracy” narrative.
washingtonpost.com/blogs/mon … n-ukraine/
Excellent series of photos from a friend of mine who lives in Bangkok and has been covering the ongoing protests.
It’s not a question of “democracy”; they already have that. It’s a question of kleptocracy, combined with suppression of the out-of-power segment of the population (ethnic Ukrainians, as opposed to the resettled Russians who control the government).
You might, if you were so inclined, look at Taiwan similarly, with the benshengren/waishengren divide.
Since most of the “resettled Russians” have been living there for over 200 years, wouldn’t it be more like the Han/Taiwanese aborigine divide? Or European/American Indian? or European/Australian aborigine? or European/ Maori? or European and Bantu/Khoikhoi?
Even more so, as a lot of the eastern areas where the Russian-speakers mostly live weren’t inhabited by Ukrainians when the Russians moved in.
chinapost.com.tw/asia/thaila … killed.htm
Bombs and bullets killing women and children now. This is getting serious.
Here we go again.
Thailand court ousts PM Yingluck Shinawatra.
bbc.com/news/world-asia-27292633
Since any honest election will re-elect a pro-Thaksin government, what’s next? A self-appointed military/judicial junta?
This looks like a good read–though we may have read it already in the OP link now that I look!
Oh man, it was so good
Here’s a surprise development. Even when Yingluck was in power he didn’t come back
Seems unlikely that he’d risk arrest and 10 years in prison, some kind of deal must have been made. I seem to recall he had a business relationship with the current king before exile, when the beloved King was still on the throne.
Is it internal royal family politics? Squabbling amoung the military/royalist/business elite? A distraction from the results of the last senate vote, or the next one?
Can only speculate for now, but the return of TS to Thailand is an interesting development