Pornpimol Pimping for Abhisit

The Nation:


Our prime minister - whose credentials, track record and integrity would make decent citizens of any country proud to have him as their leader - has been in constant battles politically and economically. He has taken an unrelenting beating from the get go, from all directions. But he has shown his mettle and grace under pressure. Friend or foe, one thing is clear to all - he is not one to be taken for a ride.

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To a jaded person like me who has been around politicians of all stripes for almost all my adult life, this prime minister offers a breath of fresh air. He does not posture, does not brag, does not complain, does not do hyperbole, does not lie. If anybody cares to look, he has been trying his mightiest to restore the TRUST of the people in their government and their leader and the rule of law. Trustworthiness has nothing to do with repeating the mantra "trust me" for the nth time, but by showing an example of it - and people must have an open eye to see it.

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The public never knew that during the Songkran riots, a group of red shirts stood in front of his house in Bangkok hurling lewd and vulgar obscenities at his wife and children, who they thought were in the house while the prime minister was in Pattaya. He did not complain about the incident to the public and did not try to make an issue of it to gain sympathy for his personal pain. We never heard him recount his deeds during his visit to his alma mater of Oxford and was confronted by Jai Ungpakorn. He never told the public what a superb job he did of explaining the logic behind the much-criticised lese majeste law in a matter-of-fact and honest manner that cut down his interrogator to size, and earned a hearty round of applause from an amazed and stunned audience. The best of minds - always critical to a fault - they would have jumped on him had they found a hole or a lapse in his logic. Time and again he has defended the blue colour of our flag without dragging the institution down to the level of dirty politics. He is not doing it for lip service or personal gain; he does it because he believes it to be the right and fair thing to do. He does not get angry when people erroneously claim that he "rode to office unelected". Let truth be told, this prime minister was elected under the same constitution to the same House that elected Samak Sundaravej and Somchai Wongsawat as prime ministers.

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It is evident that the prime minister has been fighting with one hand tied behind his back, but it is not clear if he has the upper hand. One can be sarcastic by saying that it is only in Hollywood movies that the good wins over the bad. But that sarcasm leads us nowhere. The prime minister has given us his all and his best; he deserves our helping hand.


The Nation really is in full propaganda mode.

What exactly has Abhisit accomplished? Nothing he promised has materialized, except giving free bribes to the masses at the taxpayers expense, and that sure didn't win him any loyalty.

Wall Street Journal on the Sondhi Lim Drama

Wall Street Journal:

If Mr. Sondhi's claim that the army was behind the assassination attempt is true, political analysts say, it could show that reform-minded Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva isn't fully in control of Thailand. It might also show that some influential members of the armed forces could be jockeying for a greater say in how the nation is governed.

Mr. Sondhi commands a large audience through his television and newspaper network and has largely been supportive of Thailand's armed forces and the coup they staged in 2006. He said at the time it was necessary to uproot Mr. Thaksin's lingering influence in Thai society. Mr. Thaksin now is moving from country to country in the Middle East and Africa to evade extradition and imprisonment on a corruption conviction.

"What we may be seeing now is a realignment of alliances," says Thitinan Pongsudhirak, director of the Institute of Security and International Studies at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University. "Some very powerful people supported Mr. Sondhi in the past, but now with Mr. Thaksin out of the picture he may have outlived his usefulness."

On Sunday, Mr. Sondhi said that Mr. Thaksin's supporters, or the "red-shirts," as they are known, and his own yellow-clad allies in the People's Alliance for Democracy are both pushing for political change in Thailand.

Mr. Sondhi and the PAD are demanding greater accountability and the end of corruption and money-based politics, while the red shirts seek fresh parliamentary elections and want the army and Thailand's courts to stop interfering in the country's democracy. Last month, some of Mr. Thaksin's followers rioted in Bangkok and forced the cancellation of a major international summit at a nearby seaside resort, badly embarrassing the government.

"The yellows and the reds are seeking something very similar, which is change. The only difference is that once we have achieved that change is how to go about creating a new politics," or a more effective way to run the country, Mr. Sondhi said Sunday. He also said not everybody is on board with his program for a corruption-free "new politics," though he declined to specify names.

Thinitan gets the quote of the week award. Sondhi Lim's 180 on his attitude towards the Reds is intriguing as well. They have been transformed from paid lackeys of Thaksin to a legitimate social movement.

Thai Voodoo

New Mandala:


I wish to pass on the link provided by New Mandala about an article on Thai voodoo written by Pasuk and Baker.

It is a fascinating read. Over the years, I have learned bits and pieces about particular aspects of astrology, amulets, and black magic(honestly, don't care much about it), but this article really puts it all together in a way that ties it into politics and power.


Here is the pdf.


In the modern age, you might think this stuff is kooky, but not really all the much different than the US politicians running around "God blessing everything," or medieval European monarchies and their rituals, or what the Romans and the ancient Aztec and Mayan kingdoms did.

All the Queen's Women

Bangkok Post

Thanpuying Viriya Chavakul, the lady-in-waiting to Her Majesty the Queen, has denied being the mastermind behind the attempted assassination of People's Alliance for Democracy leader Sondhi Limthongkul.

Speaking to INN news yesterday, Thanpuying Viriya insisted she had no knowledge of the plot to kill Mr Sondhi. Following the assassination attempt, Mr Sondhi said a certain lady close to the palace was one party among many who had "chipped in" to have him killed. "I'm not worried. Whoever wants to implicate me, let them. The truth is the truth. I'm just a woman without a husband who is incapable of doing anything like that to Mr Sondhi," she said. "The thought [of having Mr Sondhi killed] never crossed my mind."


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Thanpuying Viriya said she was being discredited because she had "endorsed" former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra's loyalty to the monarchy.

"But this is what I believe to be true [Thaksin being loyal to the monarchy]. Everyone is entitled to their opinion," she said. Thanpuying Viriya also denied Mr Sondhi's suggestion that she skimmed money from the sale of blue shirts, a fund-raising project to honour Her Majesty's birthday.

I guess anybody who has the audacity to vouch for Thaksin must be a murderer in Sondhi's Lim's book.

Worst Countries to be a Blogger

CPJ:

New York, April 30, 2009—With a military government that severely restricts Internet access and imprisons people for years for posting critical material, Burma is the worst place in the world to be a blogger, the Committee to Protect Journalists says in a new report. CPJ’s “10 Worst Countries to be a Blogger” also identifies a number of countries in the Middle East and Asia where Internet penetration has blossomed and government repression has grown in response.

“Bloggers are at the vanguard of the information revolution and their numbers are expanding rapidly,” said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. “But governments are quickly learning how to turn technology against bloggers by censoring and filtering the Internet, restricting online access and mining personal data. When all else fails, the authorities simply jail a few bloggers to intimidate the rest of the online community into silence or self-censorship.”

Relying on a mix of detentions, regulations, and intimidation, authorities in Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and Egypt have emerged as the leading online oppressors in the Middle East and North Africa. China and Vietnam, where burgeoning blogging cultures have encountered extensive monitoring and restriction, are among Asia’s worst blogging nations. Cuba and Turkmenistan, nations where Internet access is heavily restricted, round out the dishonor roll.


METHODOLOGY

In consultation with Internet experts, CPJ developed eight questions to assess blogging conditions worldwide. The questions:

• Does a country jail bloggers?
• Do bloggers face harassment, cyber-attacks, threats, assaults, or other reprisals?
• Do bloggers self-censor to protect themselves?
• Does the government limit connectivity or restrict access to the Internet?
• Are bloggers required to register with the government or an ISP and give a verifiable name and address before blogging?
• Does a country have regulations or laws that can be used to censor bloggers?
• Does the government monitor citizens who use the Internet?
• Does the government use filtering technology to block or censor the Internet?

Based on these criteria, CPJ regional experts nominated countries for this list. The final ranking was determined by a poll of CPJ staff and outside experts.

Funny, Thailand meets all the criteria and actually has a worst record than some of the countries listed.