Thai elections

[opebo]

*likes*

Thanks for the responses - nice to know someone is reading this thread. 

Well it is 2008 (2551), and still no government here.  Abhisit is on TV constantly, even more than Samak.  There's talk that January 3 will be the deadline to form a government.  Oh and the election commision knocked out about 5-6 People Power Party (Taksin/Samak/TRT) seats for election irregularities while confirming every Democrat and Chart Thai seat, so it could still go either way.

I was visiting with a colonel in the military in Korat last night, and he surprised me by supporting Samak and moderately disliking Abhisit - just goes to show that the military is not a monolithic block, even in the officer corp, though as a whole the coup regime much prefers to be replaced by Abhisit.  At the same social engagement, I chatted with a very rich doctor from bangkok, and he of course was very pro-Abhisit.

[opebo]

Update:

I was watching Thai language TV last night and while I'm not absolutely sure, it seemed that the awful PPP was forming a government with the smaller parties, and the swing Samak will be the next PM.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I noticed an ad at that English language site for something which is clearly Pizza Hut, except in Thailand it's apparently called "Pizza Shack". Amusing.

[minionofmidas]

I noticed an ad at that English language site for something which is clearly Pizza Hut, except in Thailand it's apparently called "Pizza Shack". Amusing.

I guess "hut" has a negatively connoted meaning in Thai.

[opebo]

I have no idea what the sound 'hut' means in Thai, but anyway, the main Pizza story in Thailand was that Pizza Hut apparently left decades ago for some reason, and some rich 'local' white guy bought them out or started his own chain called Pizza Company and they're everywhere.  They're just as inedible as Pizza Hut/Shack though.

But no one commented on the absurd length of time it took to form this half-assed government.  The reason given was the death of the King's older sister, so 15 days of national mourning delayed the inevitable.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Samak sounds pretty awful. Looks like Thai poors seem to vote similar to chicken voting for Colonel Sanders.

[opebo]

Samak sounds pretty awful. Looks like Thai poors seem to vote similar to chicken voting for Colonel Sanders.

Haha, yes, they're much like poors in the USA, my friend.  Thailand and the US seem so very similar to me most of the time, and getting more so as 1) the US standard of living declines, 2) Thai standard of living increases, and 3) Thailand because less free.

[The Mikado]

Samak sounds pretty awful. Looks like Thai poors seem to vote similar to chicken voting for Colonel Sanders.

Or, maybe, you know, they want to give a big, hearty, FU to the generals who overthrew a (horrible, but) democratically elected government by returning that (horrible) party to power.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Samak sounds pretty awful. Looks like Thai poors seem to vote similar to chicken voting for Colonel Sanders.

Or, maybe, you know, they want to give a big, hearty, FU to the generals who overthrew a (horrible, but) democratically elected government by returning that (horrible) party to power.

Uh, does this sound any better than the military government?

"In 1968 Samak joined the Democrat Party. Well connected to the military, Samak became head of its renegade right-wing faction. In the 1976 General Elections he defeated Kukrit Pramoj and was made Deputy Interior Minister in the cabinet of Seni Pramoj. He quickly became prominent for arresting several left-wing activists.

In late August Seni sent Samak to Singapore for the purpose of persuading Field Marshal Thanom Kittikachorn not to return to Thailand. Paul M. Handley contends, however, that Samak was a close confidant of Queen Sirikit and had been sent by King Bhumibol to guarantee royal support for the exiled Field Marshal. This charge is apparently supported by Samak's claim during a cabinet meeting that the King had endorsed Thanom's return.

On October 5 Samak was removed from his ministerial position, and in reaction organised an anti-government demonstration calling for the removal of three young liberal Democrat ministers who he branded as being "communists". On the evening of following massacre on October 6 he headed a lynch mob which confronted Prime Minister Seni in front of Government House.

Following the coup of October 6, 1976, Samak became Minister of the Interior in the reactionary administration of Tanin Kraivixien, a palace-favoured anti-Communist with a reputation for honesty. Samak immediately launched a fanatical with-hunt which saw hundreds of supposed leftists, many of whom were writers and other intellectuals, arrested.

In 1979 Samak founded the right-wing Prachakorn Thai Party. In the 1979 General Elections it rocked the incumbent Democrat Party by winning 29 of the 39 seats in Bangkok. In 1983 it extended its base to 36 seats, and did not suffer too greatly from the Democrat surge in 1986.

In 1992, as Deputy Prime Minister in the Suchinda administration Samak justified the military's brutal suppression of pro-democracy demonstrators by declaring that the government had the right to do so as long as the United States could send troops to kill people in other countries. He remains unrepentant and continues to stand by his justification, stating that the military was merely trying to restore law and order after the pro-democracy demonstrators, which he branded as "troublemakers", had resorted to "mob rule"."

[opebo]

Great informative post BRTD.  Yes, of course the military government put in by the coup was far superior to the 'democratically elected' ones before or after.

The final dreadful shoe has yet to drop, but the local news reports that the horrible Thaksin will return by May.