PAD Siege Broken Surprisingly Swiftly, Bloodily - Finally? Hmm

Finally, in a long overdue, coordinated action to reinstate a basic sense of the rule of law in Bangkok, police fired tear gas Tuesday at several thousand PAD demonstrators attempting to block access by lawmakers to the Parliament building in the Thai capital. With PAD core leader Sondhi talking AGAIN of today being the deciding day and final battle.

Do we discover the first handwriting of Pallop Pinmanee, successor of arrested Chamlong who favors a more unconventional warfare? Not only the Demoocrats immediately accused the authorities of excessive violence and kind of sided with the besiegers by boycotting the house’s policy debate. Police Major General Viboon Bangthamai seemed unimpressed: “I don’t think there are many injuries.”

Looks like the powers that be won’t tolerate anymore civil disobedience disrupting public life - or that’s what they planned. Ever-knowing Bangkok Pundit put it all into perspective: “PAD don’t really want to negotiate and after the arrests (of PAD leaders), The Manager website is back to calling the government, the tyrant government. Chamlong wants to become a “marytr.”

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October 7, 2008 | Filed Under Politics, Society | 2 Comments

“Thai Pills” - Ruinous Aphrodisiac In Europe’s Drug Scene

“Ruinous aphrodisiac” - that’s how yaba is described in, yes, Switzerland, a major market of yaba. The name of the drug in Switzerland? “Thai pills.” The drug enjoys a terrible reputation in the little country - mainly due to an intoxication that can last three days and all the other side effects.

But there’s a steady supply of the dope from Thailand to Switzerland - this September a 51-year old Thai-Swiss mother was convicted for the import of over 700,000 Thai pills over six years. Earlier on kingpins operating out of Switzerland got arrested.

The clients? Not laborers, but mainly johns in the red light district - “because of their aphrodisiac power,” says a local doctor. But there’s more to it. The fight against Thai pills in Switzerland soon showed: The trade is related to the trafficking in women.

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October 3, 2008 | Filed Under Nightlife, Society | 2 Comments

PAD’s Progressive Sexism: Carry A Condom? Bad Bad Girl

Sexist logic of our “progressive” PAD movement? The protest site at Govt House is not only off limits to sex workers, we’re told. If you haven’t heard the accusation yet: Government House was “full of used condoms because many protesters were using the site as their sexual playground.”

True or not: Proper women should never carry condoms around with them. If they do and associate with the PAD, expect some swiftboating. This related glorious Bangkok Post commentary is not only about the brave new sexist world under a PAD purism.

And we still don’t know what New Politics is really all about. Can assure you that much: New Politics will remain a flexible something adjustable at will - with the highest purity, proper morals and perfect ethics in mind. In men’s oppressive minds. New Politics and women’s rights?!

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September 25, 2008 | Filed Under Politics, Society, The Thai Mind | 2 Comments

Thai Values, Status & Reform Politics

A question that hasn’t been fully answered yet: What role do Thai values play in Thailand’s current political and social turmoil. To understand a people, you have to understand the people’s values. A consequence thereof: How could you apply a Western idea such as democracy by not addressing a society’s own values. How to deal with an inclination to authoritarianism?

Values change. Some don’t. The basic values determining a society grown over generations only adapt marginally, such as religious values. Stumbled across an interesting article that may explain a thing or two - why some politicians are suddenly that “risk loving” and why the charter and rule of law remain inadequate. Or do Thai people like planning and organization? Order and discipline?

The following summary of Thai values was translated from several studies on Thai society - references see below*. The list is three decades old. Have some values outlived themselves? Interesting to note that the monarchy is not referred to back then. The list, compiled by a missionary church, served as a reference for the “Christian communicator,” that is, as a field manual for the outsider.

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September 12, 2008 | Filed Under Being Farang, Society, The Thai Mind | 1 Comment

Meet Chuwit Kamolvisit, Brothel King Turned Bangkok Governor?

Meet Chuwit Kamolvisit, self-declared guard dog of the people and adversary of Thailand’s political establishment. Khun Chuwit recently welcomed absolutely Bangkok at his beautiful Thai villa at the back of „Chuwit Garden“ down Sukhumvit Soi 10. „Each square meter of this park cost me one million baht,“ Chuwit grumbled proudly. „And it’s free, open to anyone …“

Chuwit runs for Bangkok governor at the upcoming election. He runs as an independent. The campaign office is set outside, on the covered veranda of his classy teak garden villa. It’s hot, everybody’s sweating. Chuwit keeps his cool. His eyes wandering around when talking. Only looking straight into the interviewer’s eyes when the question demands some harsher answer.

And there he went on, explaining the white, black and gray people, why former interior minister Purachai goes go to sleep at 9 o’clock, why humans who don’t need sex are not normal and why he sees himself above political parties, trying to strike a balance “between the yellows and the reds.” Chuwit explains that under the Thai Buddhist religion there is no love. All there is is serenity. No love, Chuwit concludes, in Thai society.

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September 8, 2008 | Filed Under Nightlife, Politics, Society, The Interview, The Thai Mind, Truly Bangkok | 10 Comments

PAD A Cult?!

I’m all but a Samak-skeptic, but in today’s weekly “Talk Samak Style” program on NBT the premier raised a topic I’ve blogged on several times over the past days: Samak compared the People’s Alliance for Democracy to a cult.

Samak compared the PAD to the Branch Davidian cult in Waco Texas and a cult in Japan whose members were deceived to commit suicides - using its ASTV to launch its propaganda to deceive the people, reported The Nation.

He’s not too off the mark, even though any educated PAD adherer fighting for purely secular issues will laugh off the comparison. The PAD consists of a great many commendable thinkers and independent persons. But has already crossed an important threshold.

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September 7, 2008 | Filed Under Politics, Society, The Thai Mind | 7 Comments

Serbia Mulls Mass Import Of Asian Brides Against Extinction Of Own People

Not a purely Thai topic, but nevertheless relevant for a nation that has exported thousands upon thousands of its daughters as brides. The proud nation of Serbia mulls over the official import of young women from Burma, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam - to prevent the extinction of its own people.

How dare they don’t go for Thai brides. Maybe they’ve become too costly? Because, as Zeljko Vasiljevic says, State Secretary to the Labor and Welfare Ministry: “There (in Asia) they already live on two dollars a day. Here it’s economic heaven for them.” Heaven for them. Never mind the Serb’s nationalist and racial supremacy.

“They’re Buddhists,” Vasiljevic goes on, “and that’s a peaceful faith similar to (Serbian) Orthodoxy, they’re traditionally loyal to the state they live in and are hard-working.” The proposal to bring 100,000 modest Southeast Asian brides to Serbia for bachelors, particularly those living in backward rural areas, has - surprise - caused outrage, surprise and laughter.

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September 5, 2008 | Filed Under Seriously, not ..., Society | 1 Comment

Black & White Kingdom

Black and white, at the ends of the visible light spectrum, are not really colors. Even less in Thailand. The kingdom’s like a motley bouquet of wild and unique flowers. But in these days of the “people’s revolution,” black and white are new colors of choice.

People start wearing black and white - to show they’re neutral. Black and white as a symbol of being fed up with this side and tired of that side. Even over at the fresh markets, you’ll see more black and more white.

After embattled Prime Minister Samak’s Thursday morning monologue to the nation dedicated to the theme “Don’t even think I’m going to quit,” black and white may become even more prominent. “The country needs a leader”, he said, “and the world is watching us.”

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September 4, 2008 | Filed Under Politics, Society, The Thai Mind | 3 Comments

Tyranny Of A Minority

Turn of the tide? Day 6 of the PAD siege of Government House brings some powerful condemnation of the PAD’s “Tyranny of a minority” to light, as Chula’s Thitinan Pongsudhirak writes in the Bangkok Post. A core excerpt: “Yet this is the time for those myriad Thais - the silent majority - who never liked Mr. Thaksin then and despise Mr. Samak now - to come out and condemn the PAD’s blatant hijacking of Thailand’s democratic system.”

In a related commentary “White turns black” the Post’s Deputy Editor-in-Chief Veera Prateepchaikul regrets: “PAD has failed me and, I believe, many of its supporters for its disrespect for the rule of law, manifest in the storming of the NBT building and threatening its staff, defiance of the court order and for its continuing occupation of Government House.”

Growing condemnation though of us ignoramuses doesn’t mean the PAD will listen and give in for the sake of the rights of the majority. Their “final solution” hasn’t been reached in time, expect a growing list of PAD threats. The closure of the airports was just a teaser to demonstrate how the protestors could paralyze the country: “We could do this on an even greater scale,” says PAD chief cheerleader Sondhi.

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September 1, 2008 | Filed Under Politics, Society, The Thai Mind | 3 Comments