With the election coming up, provocative articles from all sides are being published. These include Thailand: “Red Power” or Money Power? and today’s article on the monarchy in the Independent based on Andrew Marshall’s new web book.
These secrets and revelations are being thrown into the political mix at a key time. Thailand is on the brink of several key changes. This time is a once in a lifetime opportunity for powerful business and family groupings to reposition themselves in the power structure as former restraints on their activities are diminished. Polite precedents are being broken as all sides attempt to stake their claims in a new landscape.
It should be noted that the current round of revelations are only surprising to non-Thais. Thai voters of all stripes are aware that the Peau Thai and the Red Shirts are backed by Thaksin and understand, in the Thai way, that the Red Shirt burning of Bangkok was a normal response to Thai-style dissatisfaction.
Most Thais are also acutely interested in royal gossip and are well aware of the backstage tussles that have been rumored to be going on. They also appreciate the check-and-balance role the palace plays in the Thai political world (something that is often lost in the current round of articles on the Thai monarchy and also in the official insistence that the palace plays no political role).
However, the growing open discussion of all of these issues is the challenge for the Thai world. Thais have relied on a sense of polite restrictions on their speech along with legal threats to maintain their sense of propriety. These constructs are now being challenged by the day.
On one side are those who want the wholesale removal of the Privy Council along with reorganization of the military, courts, and police. On the other side is the establishment preaching the status quo. However, the motivators on both sides are huge political blocks representing major business interests and colossal amounts of money.
The middle way has yet to appear. The results of the elections will probably indicate these two blocks will remain locked in combat.
Related posts:
talking of Money Power…
who are the richest people/families in Thailand?
Royal family
CP
Bangkok Bank
etc, etc
Thaksin is way down the list
so this story invented by Sondhi Lim was never true
How do you know what thaksin has?
^^^
Depend who are you talking about …
the way it works is this: the chinese white skin clans own the country and the thai brown skin serfs do the work. The chinese count the money, the thai count down the days to the next lottery draw. the only people who can open the thais’ eyes are the farangs. the chinese know this and take great pains to ensure the thai think of farang as foreign and only the farang. monopoly, concession. the country is carved up into pieces belonging to the various clans. everything else you see, that looks modern or real, like elections, is a distraction and is there for appearances sake. this is how it works.
^^^
Tell such a thing to please Farang masters who are useful idiots … It is much more complicated than that!
Has everybody forgotten the thousand killed during thaksin adm.?