THAILAND

Trashed

Antidemocracy protestors succeed in bringing down the government, but the conflict is far from over.

By Lennox Samuels | Newsweek Web Exclusive
Dec 2, 2008

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  • Posted By: Pataraphong @ 12/12/2008 8:41:45 AM

    The PAD has support from 'the Lady'. That's why the police and the army can't do anything. The government is weak because of the extraconstitutional interventions perpetrated and delivered through her command. Although 'the Gentleman', devout and benevolent, has done so much for the people throughout his life, 'the Lady' seems to destroy his name and bite away the very foundation of her family. Sadly, Thailand is saying farewell to the 21st century as it is now attained a status of 'backward state' where the old traditional elites will once again roam the land and munch the poor for lunch. The right-wing traditional elites will do whatever they want by claiming their moral superiority over the people whom they consider as 'poor and uneducated'. Indeed, power is not vested in the Thai people. In this country, people sovereignty doesn't exist and majority doesn't rule. I really want to go back to Thailand to help developing my country. Nevertheless, the current political fiasco and the abuse of power by a group of people make me lose faith in Thailand. I'm very sad. I think I should stay away from Thailand at least for a while until stability is resurrected. For now, democracy in Thailand is a big fat lie.

  • Posted By: 580hawk @ 12/05/2008 3:23:00 PM

    I never actually thought that the government would step down. The PAD's success says that the government was weak.

  • Posted By: Julius @ 12/04/2008 5:13:11 AM

    Incredible how people (PAD) will go out of their way to destroy their own livelihoods by shuttingtdown the country's economic lifeline. I am booking my next holiday to Malaysia. Bye bye Thailand!

  • Posted By: martialguy @ 12/03/2008 7:43:34 PM

    Something good is unlikely from a country with mickey-mouse government that allows serious prostitution and corruption; nasty pirates brutalizing the gulf; and monkey court system hypocritically prosecuting foreigners with death penalties for "drug offenses"

  • Posted By: jys390 @ 12/03/2008 8:26:53 AM

    There's NO "conflict" in terms of who to root for. The loud silence in the Western blogosphere is the collective *gasp* and cognitive dissonance when their heroes and friends in the PAD revealed their true selves, and the King and the Privy Council exposed as nothing but anti-democratic autocrats. The West, including govts, media, and residents of Thailand, have been duped by their elitist Bangkok friends.

  • Posted By: ploughman @ 12/02/2008 9:21:10 PM

    The Thai-tanic. Hard to know who to root for here. One of Thaksin's best policies was his 30-baht hospital visit program. Like Chavez, he was able to get SOME health care to people who were completely denied it, and it probably means Thailand will follow a European-style health care model as resources become available rather than imitate the disaster in the U.S.

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