And what better then, than fresh quote from everybodys favourite, be it love-to-hate or love-to-love, Thai politician:

Noji Shibata : Do you regret your decision to become politician?

Thaksin Shinawatra: Yes, certainly I do. Maybe I am being punished for something I did in my former life…You see, I lost my money and assets. Politics is a job which must be handled by “Doraemon” not by “Nobita”…

/end quote

I wonder if when he refers to himself as Japans anime ambassador, immensely popular also in Thailand, he realizes how apt the comparison actually is.

I mean, those familiar with Doraemon should know that even though Nobita is the major screwup in the series, Doraemons futuristic gadgets always end up putting him in far worse situations.
Improving Nobitas future turns out to be a task no abundant little Catsin can handle.
In one of the rumored season finales of the series, as revealed by the creator, Doraemons battery power runs out leaving Nobita ‘out of robot’.
Nobita then chooses to study hard and eventually becomes a professor in robotics. He resurrects Thaksin, sorry Doraemon, and lives happily ever after.
The lesson? Doraemons eye catching gadgets was never what Nobita needed to success in life.
He needed to learn and appreciate the true value of friendship, putting others before himself, of honest work. Something like that…

Also from the same news article (see “the nation” article linked below), we learn that Thaksin is running low on dough. He can only afford the suite at one of the lesser 5-star hotels in Dubai, AND he had to sell his premier league football team .
Some people really have it rough..

Interview with Thaksin published in Asahi Newspaper on January 17, 2009
I got it from a secondary source though:

Excerpts of the interview in The Nation, Thu jan 22nd
“With less money, Thaksin lives a costly life abroad.”
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2009/01/22/politics/politics_30093933.php

Quite simply rural people accept payments from everyone and vote for whoever they wish. This is a complex sociological issue, but my feeling is that these payments should be seen as a demonstration of the ability of candidates to direct resources to the villages within their electorate. This is what rural people quite properly expect of their parliamentary representatives and distribution of funds prior to an election is a widely accepted way of demonstrating this willingness and capability.

Classic!

If you are following the PAD stuff you’d know that they have long claimed that electoral mandates don’t matter if “the people” are enraged or unhappy in some way. So I am not nitpicking. I was simply assuming that you did not equate elections and democracy (so why accuse me of that sin?).

I must be assessing your position correctly – despite its rather confused argument – for if you did equate elections with democracy, then you would want to have TRT/PPP in place as the elected government. Instead, the gist of your argument about Mussolini is that elections and/or democracy don’t work. Scrap the lot. That’s even more radical than Suriyasai!

My knowledge of Italian politics is rather patchy. However I do know that Mussolini was elected in 1921 but that the Fascists came to power by way of the March on Rome, essentially a coup. As Wikipedia has it: “The March on Rome was a coup d’état by which Mussolini’s National Fascist Party came to power in Italy and ousted Prime Minister Luigi Facta. The ‘march’ took place in 1922 between October 27 and October 29. On October 28, King Victor Emmanuel III refused his support to Facta and handed over power to Mussolini. Mussolini was supported by the military, the business class, and the liberal right-wing.” Sound familiar.

I have read the recent Pasuk and Baker book (and all of their others) and found it fascinating. I am currently reading Ockey’s book which has an argument that political participation (not sure if you’d see that as equated with democracy) is intrinsic to Thai political structures, especially at the village level, and that this politics has been suppressed by the elite. Interesting reading.

I have no comment on the part of the debate you mention as I didn’t see it, but I have no problem agreeing that corrupt politicians /former politicians shouldn’t be protected from a transparent legal process.

What about the chimps you converse with? Any word from them on these weighty matters?

O no, now you’re nitpicking with words, does “election” mean “democracy” ?

Well, Reg, I’ll let you think about that, take the whole day, if you want…

Meanwhile, in the real world, last night, the minute Korn (a securities industry expert) brought up dismissal of the DSI person handling the Thaksin asssets concealment case, PPP starting running massive interference trying to delay the whole thing to the TV cutoff time, so no one could see it, wonder who they are working for?

Let the electorate decide, let the electorate decide,…the electorate is only part of the constitution, there are also laws, the judiciary, the SEC, all of which have been systematically thwarted and underminded…

Instead of wasting a whole day trying to decide whether “election” means “democracy” I’d go read the article on the telecommunications industry in Pasuk and Baker’s recent Thai Capital volume, try using your time more productively…

And then while you’re at, just to introduce a nice healthy note of skepticism on that oft repeated phrase, “let the electorate decide,” read a nice biography of Mussolini, a democratically elected king displacer, who concentrated all power in his own person, who even had his own gang of loyalists named the black shirts (the opposite of yellow shirts) running around Italy, not unlike the extrajudicial use of power favoured by Thaksin…

“It is certainly no surprise that they are a fan of Thai-style democracy or sufficiency democracy, but it is not often you get details of what they want. Suriyasai Katasila is quoted in Thai Rath as suggesting a new way of “electing” MPs with 30% being elected and 70% being selected/chosen (การจัดให้มีการเลือกตั้งสมาชิกสภาผู้แทนราษฎร (ส.ส.) 30% และคัดสรรจากภาคส่วนต่างๆ อีก 70%). He says this is because the parliament cannot solve political problems.”

Can’t get the Thai Rath story to open via the web to confirm BP’s story, but it certainly sounds like Suriyasai’s general approach (remember he comes from the Confederation for Democracy). Oops, there’s that word again.

Finally, I can’t help but ask: when was the last time you heard a chimp, hairy or otherwise, speaking in a zoo? Saying anything at all, let alone about democracy? Maybe you are hanging around with the wrong crowd if you are hearing chimps speak?

There you go again. Ritual oblations to the democracy god. If the democracy god gets elected and then systematically pushes around everyone until they join his religion, making him richest man on earth, people will oppose democracy god by whatever means necessary. Good on them.

When will you ever stop echoing the word “democracy” (like a hairy chimpanzee at a zoo) and take a good critical look at what’s inside it, when it is put in practice. Then I will clap and feed you a peanut.

I don’t think these PAD leaders are monomaniacs; they have more than one obssession. However, I do agree that they are performing an essential task. I certainly don’t agree that these “maniacs” can be heroes (unless you see their task as getting rid of another government that was elected only a few months ago).

BTW, “power politics” is a term that is well used by political scientists. It is very often related to international relations, but is usually used to refer to desire and action to protect one’s own interests (especially by elites) by threatening others with aggression that may be military, economic or political. Power politics implies that it is in someone’s interests to be able to harm others. It also implies the strength of self-interest over other interests.