From where I sit, I sense an increasing willingness on the part of many journalists to report potentially risky stories about Thailand’s future. The Independent has joined the chorus with today’s “Thai taboo: what happens when the king has gone?“
Little in this particular story will be news to regular New Mandala readers, but it is notable for its length and its tone. And while it won’t be making an appearance in any Thai newspaper there is a chance that it will be translated and end up here.
As I have said in the past the Great Firewall of Chitralada can only be built so high….
4 responses so far ↓
1 Marcos // Oct 8, 2009 at 6:15 am
I don’t know what your “here” like is there but I got taken to a soothing picture of a leafy green fern called “http//58.97.5.29/ict.html”. Presumably that’s its Latin name.
Anything to do with that ministry, I wonder?
2 Chis Beale // Oct 31, 2009 at 6:35 am
Realistically the Thai monarchy only has – at best three models to choose from :
1) is the Islamic model – eg. Sultan of Brunei.
But Brunei is a special case – tiny population, huge oil wealth, isolated location.
Variations on this are Saudi Arabia, Gulf states, etc.
But of course, Thailand is mostly not Islamic.
2) European-style strictly constitutional monarchy, like Britain, Scandinavia, Holland, Japan, and Cambodia.
I.e. like Thaksin was moving towards.
This seems ruled out by Da Torpedo’s extremely harsh sentence, since this is what she was calling for.
3) Thailand’s own version – somewhere between both above, but now SO unpopular, half of “Thailand” consistently votes against
it.
I.e. the crux is that the Palace will not accept the people’s will, nor will half the people accept the will of the Palace.
The ONLY way out of this dilemma is to split “Thailand” in two.
3 Ralph Kramden // Nov 2, 2009 at 1:13 am
Chris: in previous posts you appeared to be very concerned that Thailand might split. Now, in this comment, you appear to propose it as a solution for saving the monarchy. Please clarify.
4 Chris Beale // Nov 4, 2009 at 6:08 pm
Ralph – I’m not “PROPOSING” anything.
Thai – or rather Siamese – sovereignty rules here.
Us farang can simply suggest.
But it does seem to me increasing polarisation is pushing events in the direction of a break-up, which would be unlikely to be as peaceful as the break-up of Czechs from Slovaks.
More like the break-up of former Yugoslavia – which is the great fear for us in Australia.
Mind you similiar dooms-day scenarios were on the horrizon for Indonesia in the dying days of Suharto supremacy – but Indonesia managed to avoid that through far greater de-facto de-centralisation. Something Siam may be better off finding their own version of.
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