The underlying problem

From Wikipedia:
Meritocracy is a system of a government or another organization wherein appointments are made and responsibilities are given based on demonstrated talent and ability (merit), rather than by wealth (plutocracy), family connections (nepotism), class privilege (oligarchy), cronyism, tenurocracy (based in seniority), popularity (as in democracy) or other historical determinants of social position and political power. In a meritocracy, society rewards (by wealth, position, and social status) those who demonstrated talent and competence, demonstrated through past actions or by competition.

IMO, Thailand needs Meritocracy more than Democracy.

Rambling

Bangkok Pundit has made a feature of The Economist articles, but overall I think Crispin's piece is more on the money (despite some nitpicking regarding the voting number discrepancies being used as a way to try to undermine the general thrust of his piece).

I also think Fonzi is wrong when he agrees with The Economist that this mess is all about the monarchy - they are certainly a factor, but Thaksin is still the main cause of the disruption - if only he had moderated his actions (or been moderated by those around him), he would still be in power.

Whilst most mainstream reports portay the dispute as between 2 sides 'reds' and yellows', pro and anti- Thaksin, I think it is more than that and there are 4 main groups, as follows:

YELLOW 'side' is split into 2 major factions:

(a) OLD ORDER: Established business and military elites who want to keep their disproportionate share of the pie (Thaksin was eating into it for himself, his cronies and to a lesser extent, the poor)

(b) IDEALISTIC: Lower/Middle class, educated and moralistic people who cannot stand Thaksin's greedy, tax dodging, authoritarian personality flaws which in most western countries would make him unelectable, but are repeatedly overlooked by the electoral masses

RED 'side' is also split into 2 main factions:

(c) ANTI MONARCHISTS - they have been on the losing side since the 1970's and see Thaksin as a way to start winning some battles in the long running war

(d) DEMOCRACY: Activists, rural poor, taxi drivers etc - includes people who choose to overlook Thaksins flaws and those who love Thaksin simply because he was the first one to give something back


That's still a simplification, because each group has its own 'warlords' using the other members as cannon fodder.


Personally I have sympathy for groups (b), (c) and (d).

I think the IDEALISTIC and DEMOCRACY groups are ideologically not that far apart - they just need to recognize and accept the other side's point of view.
If the DEMOCRACY group dropped Thaksin, then the IDEALISTIC group would probably disband.

That would leave the battle to ANTI MONARCHISTS and the OLD ELITE - the simple solution for this battle is for the palace to change it's ways, dismantle the patronage system and rein in the old elite, in which case all but the hard core anti-monarchists would disappear.

As an added bonus, succession would no longer be such a big issue if the palace changed it's ways.

That's my 2 cents worth from my poor, idealistic perspective - but I'm a farang so I don't understand Thailand anyway!

Why this blog is inactive

I was previously a very regular commentator at New Mandala and Bangkok Pundit (as Hobby) from 2007 to about Sept 2008, but lately have been trying to hold back on commentating on Thai politics because I am not Thai, and I think the current problems need to be solved by Thai's, not foreigners.

(also I do not live in Thailand and think it better to leave the commentating to those who are more directly affected).

I mainly set up this blog to keep track of some of the better posts I saw on those other blogs, then I started to try to offer solutions to the crisis, but now I try not to comment on Thai politics (as outlined above) - so this blog is unlikely to be very active.

I would recommend all people interested in Thai politics to read Paul Handley's 'The King Never Smiles' for background, together with the works of Pasuk & Baker, and Duncan McCargo, on Thaksin.

Hobby

Goodbye & Good Luck

UPDATE: Sorry, but I just cannot resist occasionally giving my 2 cents worth of opinions.

I've decided to stop commentating on Thai politics.

To the regulars, particularly those over at New Mandala & Bangkok Pundit: - thanks for the entertainment over the last 2 years.

In closing, I will refrain from repeating why I think Thaksin is no longer the right person to play a leading role in Thai politics, and instead would like to thank him and TRT for making it hard for future politicians to ignore the plight of the poor masses.

Best wishes to all.

Samak gone, now it's Somchai's turn

Let's continue to play this game, and assume that PPP is a political party with the main aim of governing for the benefit of the country and it's people.

Samak is gone - even though the cooking show trigger for his demise was nonsensical, I wont be shedding a tear for him - had his chances to be reasonable, he wasn't, so I say good riddance!

Now Somchai steps up to the plate - let's hope the real Somchai has some substance, and he will not just be the 'brother in law' or the 'husband'.

PPP still have the opportunity to govern, a coup is very unlikely, and they still have the electoral majority card up their sleeve - The ball is in their court - the choice they have is whether to govern for the people, or govern for Thaksin.

The PAD can agitate as much as they like, but it wont come to anything unless the government provides a trigger.

For Thaksin it was the tax free Shin corp sale - Somchai (or his successor) merely continuing pro-poor policies would not provide such a trigger, nor would consultative constitutional amendments.

If they steer clear of interfering in the Thaksin cases, and are seen to be moderately competent in dealing with issues as they arise, it will be very difficult for 'elites' or 'third forces' to engineer their downfall.

It's too early to tell whether Somchai will be a success - his conciliatory tone is a welcome change to Samak's bluster, but the message is mixed if reports of a delegation sent to London to get Thaksin's tick of approval are true.

Will Thaksin be advising his brother in law that revocation of the diplomatic passports would be a good move?

Just like with Samak, I'm hopeful that Somchai is the right man for Thailand at this point in time, and am prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt, until his actions prove otherwise.

Censorship at New Mandala ???

Udpate:
Some of my comments make it through, and others don't - it's certainly an incentive to keep comments short so that not too much time is invested, just in case they don't get through.
Anyway, by now I think it's clear which sides Andrew, Nich and the regular contributors are on - I remain in the 'song mai ow' camp and would like to see whoever is in power governing for the good of the country and it's people, not just for it's cronies.
I know I'm too idealistic, and should just accept that a select few will always pull the strings, and whichever side throws out a few more scraps must be the 'democratic' one.
I used to think democracy could do better than that.

Original Post:
It looks like the owners of the New Mandala blog have come up with a way to 'justify' the blocking of those commentators who have opposing views to theirs.

My interpretation of the new commentating criteria is that comments that disagree with the following basic theme will not be accepted:

'Thaksin/TRT/PPP elected => therefore is good'

My posts no longer seem to get through - It was fun while it lasted, and I don't blame them for trying to stop us 'non academics' from taking pot shots at them.