Malygris on 20/9/2006 at 02:35
I'd certainly like to see this one stay bloodless (and a smooth and rapid transition to effective democracy would be a pleasant bonus), but regardless of how it works out I think this may be the best apology for inconvenience since So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish.
Matthew on 20/9/2006 at 10:50
I wonder if we could get a reaction from some of our Thailand-resident TTLGers? Isn't vraptor7 from there, for example?
CyberFish on 20/9/2006 at 14:02
Quote Posted by Strangeblue
In my imagination I'm hearing this very plummy, BBC-announcer voice saying "So sorry for the inconvenience. Yes, there are elections scheduled for just a couple of months from now, but... frankly, we just couldn't get rid of the bugger soon enough."
Hmm, maybe we need a military coup over here as well.
Strangeblue on 20/9/2006 at 19:41
Will we have to start calling you "Lord Fish" then?
zacharias on 20/9/2006 at 19:44
I wouldn't normally support such methods but calling what thailand was, under thaksin, a democracy is kind of stretching the definition.
>Why start a coup instead of just waiting the 2 months?
Basically because getting rid of Thaksin was in no way assured at the next election. The guy has massive wealth and resources to influence things in legal and not so legal ways..there were rumours of paying fake opposition parties to run at the last election i think.
Plus although many in bangkok hate him he has quite a bit of support in rural areas for some reason.
The big change in the publics attitude this year i think was not any of this though but him selling his stake in his telecom company to singapore investors, pocketing US 1.9 billion or so and wrangling it so he paid zero tax on this. Just taking the piss.
Anyway i didn't go into the city today but its kind of funny to see the bbc etc report this in a very serious manner and then see the thai coverage where it was basically Kids Day, with people giving the soldiers food and posing for photos etc. As Joe Cummings said basically a happy atmosphere and a feeling of 'the wicked witch is dead', so to speak.
