The Sydney Morning Herald’s Peter Hartcher has an interesting piece today. He asks how, in political terms, Thailand has turned into Indonesia – and vice versa. Here is an extract of his analysis of the Thai situation.
Thailand’s trajectory changed with the decision to mount an unconstitutional coup against the prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, first elected in 2001 and resoundingly re-elected in 2005. The billionaire businessman was a polarising leader. He was wildly popular with the rural poor and the working class, but bitterly opposed by the urban elites and the army.
The decision to send the army to remove him came from the royal palace. The last time the king had intervened decisively in politics was to end a violent constitutional crisis. This time he provoked one.
The army and the palace imposed an unelected regime on the country, promising future elections. But Thaksin’s supporters wage an unending war of civil disobedience. Thaksin himself, running from a corruption charge, continues to foment protest from abroad. Thai analysts say it is hard to see any resolution. The two sets of opposing forces are roughly equal, and an election would be unlikely to solve the stand-off, they say.
For the benefit of the Thai Embassy in Canberra here is the Sydney Morning Herald’s advice on getting a letter to the editor published:
The Sydney Morning Herald receives over 400 emails each day as well as faxes and snail mail for Letters to the Editor. This makes it impossible to reply to all correspondence. The Letters Editor can only publish 35 – 40 letters on the page. All letters and email (no attachments) to the Herald must carry the sender’s home address and day and evening telephone numbers for verification. Ideally, letters will be a maximum of 200 words. By submitting your letter for publication, you agree that we may edit the letter for legal or space reasons and may, after publication in the newspaper, republish it on the internet or other media.
14 responses so far ↓
1 Dang // May 12, 2009 at 6:54 pm
look! this is a “Maze”.When we are getting close to an exit,there is always a demon who chase us back to the very start.But i guess this time ,the Thais will fight the demon to death.What they need is the strategy and well organized plan and of course the brave heart.
2 David Brown // May 12, 2009 at 11:38 pm
a very interesting issue is the use of the terms King and Palace (and in other articles: Monarchy and Privy Council) each of which carries its own history and emotional content in the minds of Thais and those that are attuned to Thailand and its political history.
I suspect Peter Hartcher could be well is aware of the history of the the King but most Thai people, even if they might agree with Peter, would prefer to blame the monarchy in general or the influence of the Privy Council and other members of the Royal Family and let the King himself fade peacefully.
we could believe that the King probably agrees with the current actions by the military and the elites but imho it is likely that the driving forces are the Privy Council headed by Prem, the Queen and her “loyal military servants” and the Prince wishing to be King, in that order.
democratically elect a government that replaces the Privy Council of retired military officers with civilians and all will be well in Thailand.
3 Marco // May 13, 2009 at 2:02 am
Suharto was overthrown in a people’s uprising that caught many by surprise. It was the kind of movement that the Thai red shirts — please don’t blindly label them ”pro-Thaksin” — were leading. They reds were trying to overturn the rule of elites, but they failed. The Indonesians succeeded.
4 Wren Toekill // May 13, 2009 at 2:52 am
^ It sounds like you don’t know very much about Thailand. Indeed, you haven’t even yet figured out that both the currently self-nominated ‘only’ options are demons. The only possible exit at this moment looks like yet another dead end. I have yet to see any real strategy, well-thought out plan or bravery in local politics. And Jo Public doesn’t know how to acheive a victory for itself, unless led by the nose.
5 anon // May 13, 2009 at 8:04 am
The only question is whether the Ambassador will deny the article’s claims immediately, or whether he will get confirmation from the palace first.
6 Henry Huang // May 13, 2009 at 7:15 pm
I would like to thank Mr. Hartcher for his wonderful article. I wish The Sydney Morning Herald publish more of this article to inform the world of the truth that is huanting Thailand for the last four years. Thailand is becoming a fear state. We have no more freedom of expressions. More and more people were arrested for their comments. In order to protect the royal family who is behind all these messes, the present government and the army deploy a stiff lese majeste law of up to 15 years in prison for those who criticize the royal famil. People who were jailed with this sentence were beaten up by guards. They were forced to wear chains on their legs at all time.
7 doctorJ // May 14, 2009 at 3:02 pm
Henry Huang
Don’t overdramatize Thai prison, they aren’t chained 24/7.
The 15 years term is already bad enough for anyone convicted by the draconian law.
BTW, is anyone interested in ‘Thai-ian’ instead of ‘draconian’ ?
8 jonfernquest // May 14, 2009 at 7:58 pm
In both the Indonesian and the Thai cases it was about reallocating the rents to a new set of elites, that is what Thaksin was doing (See Thanee Chaiwat and Pasuk Phongpaichit, Rents and rent-seeking in the Thaksin era, in Thai Capital after the 1997 Crisis, 2008).
Decisive or not-decisive, with or without resolution, that is one way to characterize recent political conflict in Asia.
Tianamen was decisive, anti-Suharto was decisive, Iraq post-2003 was not decisive, 1992 in Thailand was decisive, Burma post 1991 was not decisive, Thailand post -2006 is not decisive.
Some conflicts just drag on and on and thus bring the whole society down with them .
Decisiveness and resolution can be a good in and of itself, no matter which way it goes.
9 antipadshist // May 14, 2009 at 11:37 pm
Snoh hits back “Democrat is coup leader”
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2009/05/14/politics/politics_30102683.php
10 henry Huang // May 15, 2009 at 2:39 pm
Hey Dr. Jay, haven’t you seen Harry , the Australian teacher who was jailed for the same reason, chained while he appeared in court with both his hands and legs chained? That picture appeared on nawspaper all over the world. If you haven’t seen it, please check into any old columns concerning this news. You can open your eyes and see for yourself. For God sake! 15 years in jail for criticizing someone, can you accept that?
11 doctorJ // May 15, 2009 at 8:15 pm
henry Huang
Yeah, I do remember the famous Harry Nicolaides. And do remember his picture, being chained up arms and legs. Didn’t it look medieval in your eyes? The fact is, anyone being prosecuted for serious crime ( of course, lesse majeste is a SERIOUS crime in Thailand ) will be chained up ONLY when being transfered out of the prison, but not chained up all the time ( a tiny bit of humanitarianism remains ).
Don’t get me wrong, the idea of jailing one 15 years for insulting someone. never endears me. Just want to share an exact picture of what Thai prison looks like. ( but not from my own experience for sure )
12 Taro Mongkoltip // May 17, 2009 at 10:55 pm
Aren’t you all getting bored with this topic yet? so boring now… Same Board admin posted the same story, from different columnists because they believe in the same conspiracy. And then same observers and some new blog readers split into two groups, argued the same old topic over again and again..
so boringgggggggggg…………..!
Can you ask the board admin for once? Why have you NEVER posted the other side of this Thai monarchy stories? Story about The King and his family have done something good for his people. Or something about Thaksin’s conspiracy where he wanted to be the first Thailand’s president? or something else, more diversify, more academic, more to be like university style, NOT for your own personal agenda. “Oh yeah yeah right, wow, I found another columnist agreed with me that The King is behind this whole problems. yeahh wow.. I have to post it in my board. woo hoo.. more people agreed with me. SEE!! I told you all there is one more person agreed with me. The king is behind the whole thing ha ha ha. I don’t care about the other columnists that have different opinions. I’m gonna post only the one that agreed with me.”
Well… i went back and checked what you have posted in this board. And it’s true.. No other side of the story. Why?
13 amberwaves // May 19, 2009 at 12:16 am
Taro Mongkoltip said “No other side of the story. Why?”
Umm, you just spent about 200 words to complain, when you could have contributed something about “the other side of the story.”
I think maybe you have your answer to “Why?” right there.
14 kim jung eel // May 19, 2009 at 10:34 pm
Taro,
The other side of the story is ubiquitous in Thailand; not satisfactorily enough ?
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