Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Thai politics welcomes the next PM


Well, next up for Thai politics is a new PM. I suppose this is not surprising considering we have had a new PM about once every six months here. I would like to be optimistic and say that Abhisit does appear different than the others. First of all, he was born in England and is well educated, finishing at Oxford of all places. He is younger and seems to appeal to the public.

Now the PAD will leave the streets of Bangkok and declare a victory of sorts. They wanted Taksin's puppets out and it would appear they have done that. This guy is no Taksin puppet and has opposed him for most of Taksin's political life. So the PAD gets to go home and relax from all of their protesting and demonstrating. 

So it's over right? Wrong! Now it is the RED mobs turn to protest and take to the streets in order to disrupt and destroy the current government. This will begin as soon as the King gives the approval to the new PM. Interesting, confusing, and oh so Thai.

But again, I'll take all of this protesting and vote wrangling over the way most South East Asian nations have solved their political struggles. Cambodia killed a few million in solving theirs, and Burma is still killing all opposition as if it was a Rambo movie, oh yeah it was. Vietnam had their war, one of the ugliest in the region. Thai's seem to always avoid the final outcome most nations fly to when power is confronted with resistance: FORCE.

Good luck Abhisit, if you can last a full term you will be the first in recent memory to do so. Well, technically Taksin finished a term, was re-elected and then Couped from office shortly after. 

The vitals of PM elect ABHISIT VEJJAJIVA: 

Born in Britain, educated at Eton and Oxford
Entered parliament in 1992 as one of its youngest members
Party leader since 2005
Opposed military coup that overthrew Thaksin Shinawatra
Profile: Abhisit Vejjajiva