Thais have dubbed pre-election nights “the night the dogs howl” because vote-canvassers make late-night visits to those they have paid to ensure they vote appropriately. Their nocturnal meanderings stir sleeping dogs and whole villages wake up to the howling: an apt sound for an aching democracy…
…Looking at the bleak prospect of Thai politics in the coming year it is hard not to conclude that it is more than just the dogs who will be howling.
- Extracted from Michael Connors, “Dictatorship threatens to bury Thai democracy“, The Canberra Times, 4 May 2007.
3 responses so far ↓
1 Lagrange // May 4, 2007 at 7:49 pm
Yes, the first time a Thai friend told me this I didnt believe it….funny in a way (sad in another)
2 nganadeeleg // May 4, 2007 at 8:03 pm
From the Connors article: “That’s why some people have given up on democracy all together, saying the rural masses in Thailand are not ready for it. Instead a mixed system that incorporates the people, the aristocracy, and the king should be devised until the masses are ready to act like democratic citizens.
Such criticism of the electoral process betrays aristocratic disdain for the masses; and it might suggest that one of South-East Asia’s most liberal of democracies (from the 1980s-1990s) might be headed down the road of Singaporean guided-democracy .”
Perhaps even Thaksin would have liked to have head towards the Singapore model, but unfortunately he is no LKY.
3 Jon Fernquest // May 5, 2007 at 3:25 pm
Thanks for the link to Michael Connors.
I didn’t know about his work.
Can get his books in Thai libraries.
But the papers are in unlikely journals.
Too bad. Wish scholarly publications relevant to Thailand were more widely available in Thailand.
Good point at the end.
The army hasn’t been violent yet,
but that’s the way 1992 started,
but that’s probably why they stuck
Surayud in there, so things wouldn’t be so
confrontational like they were under Anand.
Plus everyone criticises the military for worryiing
about Thaksin and not being more assertive, but
that non-assertiveness, responsiveness is highly
correlated with the non-violent nature of things
so far. Let’s hope it continues.
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