BANGKOK - Five years after the military deposed Thaksin Shinawatra, the influential billionaire-in-exile is the dominant force in pivotal elections today that many fear could trigger a new era of upheaval. The vote itself has boiled down to a race between Thaksin’s sister, Yingluck, and Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, who is backed by the army. Thailand’s rural poor hail his populist policies against an elite establishment that sees him as a corrupt, autocratic threat to the monarchy and the status quo (AP)."
Related: Globe Still Seeing Red In Thailand
I'm tired of the obfuscations and distortions, how 'bout you?
Also see: CFR Hails Thai WikiLeaks Dump
"Thereby confirming once again that WikiLeaks is a covert intelligence operation." -- Wake the Flock Up
Followed by a rigged election?
"Party of Thailand’s ousted premier regains power; Wins majority of Parliament seats 5 years after coup" by Seth Mydans and Thomas Fuller, New York Times / July 4, 2011
BANGKOK - The party of the fugitive former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra won an overwhelming victory in a parliamentary election yesterday that could turn Thai politics on its head and roll back the results of a coup that ousted Thaksin five years ago.
In a contest that was seen as a referendum on Thailand’s recent turmoil, the Pheu Thai party, headed by Thaksin’s youngest sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, 44, appeared headed for an absolute majority of the 500-seat Parliament. With 98 percent of the votes counted late last night, her party won a projected 264 seats.
The governing Democrat party won just 160 seats, and Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva conceded defeat. Abhisit resigned as leader of his party today, the Associated Press reported.
Yingluck, a businesswoman with no political experience, was selected to head the party by her brother, who called her his “clone.’’ She proved to be a brilliant campaigner.
The vote is a vindication for Thaksin, a populist champion of Thailand’s long marginalized rural poor who was elected prime minister twice, in 2001 and 2005, and removed in a coup in September 2006.
The vote is a vindication for Thaksin, a populist champion of Thailand’s long marginalized rural poor who was elected prime minister twice, in 2001 and 2005, and removed in a coup in September 2006.
“I believe all sides have to respect the decision of the people,’’ he said yesterday, speaking to a Thai television station from Dubai, where he lives while evading a conviction for abuse of power. “If any country doesn’t respect the decisions of its people, there’s no way it is going to find peace.’’
Sounds like AmeriKa.
“People are tired of a standstill,’’ Thaksin, 61, said in the interview. “They want to see change in a peaceful manner.’’
Sounds like AmeriKa -- and the rest of the world as well.
The vote had broader resonance as well, part of a rebalancing of Thailand’s hierarchical society that so far has played out in the streets, challenging the elite establishment and giving more voice to the poor.
“This is a slap in the face to the establishment for what they’ve done since the military coup in 2006,’’ said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, director of the Institute of Security and International Studies at Chulalongkorn University. “This is a new Thailand that they must learn to live with.’’
He added: “This whole election is all about the awakened voices. These people discovered that they can actually have access and be connected to the system.’’
The Pheu Thai party is supported by many of the “red shirt’’ protesters, representing the rural and urban poor, who are committed to Thaksin and staged a two-month rally that paralyzed parts of Bangkok a year ago.
The Democrat party is the party of the establishment, including royalists, old-money elite, and high-ranking members of the military, and is at the top of a traditional hierarchical social and political system in Thailand. A military assault crushed the red-shirt protests in confrontations that killed about 90 people in April and May of last year.
Related:
"Former Left-Right Alliance against Globalization and America
by Thongchai Winichakul
28 July 2008
Article
Almost all Thai rightists I interviewed for my recent research perceived that the threats to Thailand today are capitalism and America. Even lifelong anti-communist ‘Phor’, an alias used for this research, who has tenaciously held the idea of national security being under threat from two strands of communism, sees that Thailand has to be cautious of the CIA interfering and agitating groups of Thai people to the point of being a threat to security. Of course, they were well aware that the threats from capitalism and America are not one and the same as the communist threat.
The rightists’ discourse of capitalist threat obviously differs from the leftists’ Maoist anti-capitalist discourse of 30 years ago. These rightists speak pretty much the same anti-neo-liberalism and anti-globalization language which Thai intellectuals and activists have adopted since after Oct 6, 1976.
Although all the interviews were done years after the 1997 economic crisis, the pain caused by the capitalist crisis was still alive in their memories. Their discourse on the cause of the crisis turned out to be nationalist and against ‘farang’ or western capitalism, pointing to western capitalist giants led by the US bullying emergent smaller capitalist nations. For the ease of digestion and propagation, it was made a story of conspiracy among a handful of global political and financial figures, often including George Soros in particular. The ‘Washington Consensus’ was understood simply as a plot by western capitalist neo-conservatives to destroy smaller states. With the calamity besetting Thai nationalist capital which had eagerly embraced globalization over a decade earlier, globalization has become undesirable. Their discourse against western capitalism was therefore not of a socialist bent, but was outright nationalist, against those ugly farangs abusing decent Thais.
Most of the interviews were done during the years of Thaksin administration which was seen as representing the evil western capitalism, subsequently labelled as ‘vicious or immoral capital’. The exasperation against Thaksin and globalization and the global anti-American sentiment fed into one another. Among the rightists I interviewed then, only one person liked the Thaksin government, and the rest were suspicious of Thaksin because he was pushing the agenda of globalization.
--MORE--"
Also see: Globalists Got Their Man in Thailand
Either way!
A major challenge for Pheu Thai is to reach an accommodation with the politically powerful military, which ousted Thaksin, supported the Democrats, and battled with the red shirts. In the near term, its reaction to the election could shape the outcome and rumors of a possible coup circulated during the campaign....
Last week, the army chief, General Prayuth Chan-ocha, vowed to stay neutral in the vote, dismissing speculation the military might stage another coup....
Thaksin won the loyalty of the poor as the first prime minister to address their needs, wooing them with populist programs including almost-free health care, debt moratoriums, and cash handouts to villages.
Why can't our president do that, huh?
Members of the Pheu Thai party initially said they would back a political amnesty, which would open the door for Thaksin’s eventual return and create a potential flashpoint with the military and others who oppose him. But the party later issued a statement saying that it did not support amnesty, a politically sensitive notion....
It's all in the family anyway.
--more--"
Also see: Globalists Got Their Man in Thailand
Either way!
A major challenge for Pheu Thai is to reach an accommodation with the politically powerful military, which ousted Thaksin, supported the Democrats, and battled with the red shirts. In the near term, its reaction to the election could shape the outcome and rumors of a possible coup circulated during the campaign....
Last week, the army chief, General Prayuth Chan-ocha, vowed to stay neutral in the vote, dismissing speculation the military might stage another coup....
Thaksin won the loyalty of the poor as the first prime minister to address their needs, wooing them with populist programs including almost-free health care, debt moratoriums, and cash handouts to villages.
Why can't our president do that, huh?
Members of the Pheu Thai party initially said they would back a political amnesty, which would open the door for Thaksin’s eventual return and create a potential flashpoint with the military and others who oppose him. But the party later issued a statement saying that it did not support amnesty, a politically sensitive notion....
It's all in the family anyway.
--more--"
I guess the Globe can't see yellow, huh?
Update: Thailand: Globalist Stooge Returns to Power
