Problem with Thailand: Just say Thaksin | 22.09.06
One of the international media’s handful quote generators, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, told The Independent:
But Thitinan Pongsudhirak, of Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University, says that even in a completely fair election, Mr Thaksin would still sweep the board. “If there’s an election supervised by the UN, Thaksin and Thai Rak Thai would win, and that’s a problem for Thailand,” he said.
No, Mr. Thitinan, that’s a problem for you and your fellow anti-democratic swines.
Here’s one of Thitinan’s problems with Thaksin when he first came to power (the article itself is no longer online, but I quoted it in a post on Sondhi):
More alarmingly, Thaksin has surrounded himself with individuals who were integral in paving the road towards economic collapse in 1997. A media mogul, the owner and manager of the Poojadkarn (Manager) Group, is a close Thaksin associate. This mogul was involved in the collusion for bogus loans from BBC in the mid-1990s. With a new lease of life from Thaksin, however, his media group’s soured loans have been revived, and the group has received fresh credit from state-owned Krung Thai Bank. He also has received lucrative contracts to operate programs on state-run television.
What has become of this corrupt arrangement? I quote The Nation, whose positive spin for Thaksin should carry as much weight as Michael Moore’s for the Bush administration:
Even stranger, the Manager Media Group has only shifted its editorial policy from supporting to lambasting the Thaksin leadership since last year. Sondhi Limthongkul, chieftain of the Manager Media Group, was furious that Viroj Nualkhair, former president of Krung Thai Bank and a key ally, was sacked from office by the Bank of Thailand without due support from the government.
When Viroj’s faith was hanging in the balance, anti-Thaksin pundits were readying their attacks for the prime minister’s intervention in favor of a crony and against the central bank’s authority. That didn’t happen. And Sondhi, through his control of Thailand’s most popular news website, became the single most potent catalyst and spearhead of the anti-Thaksin movement, which has been escalating political turmoil for about a year now and ultimately leaves the military “no choice” but to stage a coup d’etat.
Sondhi need not worry about loans now. Every sane businessman and bureaucrat wants be on friendly terms with the baddest badass in town. His followers are also quick to offer flowers to the putsch pushers.
Thus is the familiar pattern with Thaksin. His opponents would hate him for some alleged fault, say populism and nationalism, and then hate him even more when the accusation proves unfounded. And the bad guys that they once cited as evidence of guilt by association become heroes as soon as they fall out with him.
11:29 ▪ politics
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