Satya Sagar has penned an article titled “Thai Coup in Hot Soup” that describes the “simmering social volcano the country is sitting on”. Sagar chronicles some of the well-publicised acts of political defiance that have occurred over the past month. This leads to a speculative discussion that new leftist political forces could emerge in post-coup Thailand. According to Sagar:
A new left party in Thailand (more than one is also welcome to add some diversity!) need not of course be a copy of anything that existed in the past but one based on a better reading of the social, economic and very importantly – cultural- setting of Thailand. Maybe it could even be something like what the Buddha, the world’s best known social revolutionary before Jesus Christ, would have set up if he were around in Thailand (he is certainly missing from the local monasteries!).
Provocative stuff. Even if you don’t agree with a word of it, the full text is worth a read to see what other ideas are beginning to circulate.
Thanks to Philip Taylor for the tip.
2 responses so far ↓
1 nganadeeleg // Oct 19, 2006 at 9:08 am
It doesn’t sound too provocative to me, and I would even submit that the lack of a real ‘democratic’ choice causes many of the problems in Thailand.
2 patiwat // Oct 19, 2006 at 6:42 pm
Why do I have the feeling that Satya Sagar reads the Bangkok Pundit blog? Two paragraphs of his article are devoted to explaining why taxi drivers like Thaksin. Which seems to to be sourced exclusively from a post I made to Bangkok Pundit (http://bangkokpundit.blogspot.com/2006/10/new-panel-to-investigate-corruption.html).
This is pretty neat – legit writers/columnists (albeit from India) are relying on new media like blogs to bypass junta control and get the word out to the world about the real situation in Thailand.
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