Why can't the Thais appreciate what they have?
The question was raised by Joel Brinkley, a former Pulitzer Prize-winning foreign correspondent of the New York Times and now a professor of journalism at Stanford University,who said Thailand should look at its neighbours, realize how fortune they are -- and then wait for the next election.
In an article distributed today by McClatchy-Tribune News Service, Brinkley reviews the political situations in Burma, Laos, Cambodia and Malaysia to conclude that Thailand, in terms of democracy, is still in better shape than its neighbours.
"Thailand's protestors should look around, see how their neighbours live, realize how fortunate they are -- and then wait for the next election," he said.
Read his full article: http://www.mercedsunstar.com/2010/04/29/1403877/for-lessons-in-democracy-thailand.html
4 comments:
"Thailand's protestors should..... wait for the next election"
Yes - and then just wait a little longer after that election to see its result overturned.
Steve, are you to say that having an early election as called for by the red-shirt protesters will guarantee that the result would NOT be overturned? Despite occasional coups in the past, Thailand has done quite well compared to her neighboring countries and even other developing nations. And I'm sure another coup is very unlikely in the near future. Things in the country have changed quite dramatically in the past 20 yrs or so.
HumblyYours, I make no comment at all that an early election will guarantee that the result would not be overturned. The timing is immaterial to the fact that Thailand looks to have got itself in the habit of ejecting (and creating) governments by means other than the popular vote.
As I commented on the article itself, an average of a military coup every 3.6 years since WW2 ranks as more than "occasional". I do agree that another military coup looks unlikely - after the screw-up following the last one. Anyway, why bother with cumbersome old-style military coups when judicial ones work so easily to re-jig the parliamentary arithmetic?
Rural Thais do realize how much more fortunate their Bangkok neighbors are . . . and that income divide had them angry to the bone because their Red leaders told them those Bangkok elite are whooping it up at their expense.
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