The Parlaiment is meeting today to form a new coalition government and elect a new Prime Minister.
I have quoted extensively from below that discusses that vote.
I find myself nearly speechless by the open discussion of support being purchased or sold for cash.
Does every democracy work this way? Am I just totally naive? Are the Thais simply more honest about how their governments are formed?
I think I’ll let the article speak for itself.
The Democrat party-led alliance kept MPs in safe places through Sunday to make sure they were not lured away to the rival camp led by the Puea Thai party ahead of Monday’s vote in parliament for prime minister.
Reports of huge sums of money being spent to stop Democrat leader Abhisit Vejjajiva becoming the next government leader prompted the party’s allies to gather their members in well-guarded places on Sunday.
…
A source from the Friends of Newin camp said rooms in the Pullman Hotel at Soi Rang Nam were arranged for its members to stay the night ahead of Monday’s extraordinary House session to choose a new prime minister.
Its members were not permitted to carry mobile phones or use telephones, and were to travel together in the same vehicle to attend the House meeting to further limit their chances of coming into contact with “money politics”, the source said.
A Puea Pandin source, at the same time, said 17 Puea Pandin party members were put in a safe place at a hotel under the care of party spokesman Chaiyos Jiramethakarn on Sunday.
The source added influential Puea Pandin chief adviser Vatana Asavahame, a fugitive convicted of corruption in the Klong Dan scandal, had also given assurances to Democrat secretary-general Suthep Thaugsuban that he supported Mr Abhisit as prime minister.
10 responses so far ↓
bigkahuna // Monday, 15 December 2008 at 10:36 am |
what a great country, can’t wait to be back. the song ‘beautiful disaster’ comes to mind. friends, etc have asked me what the draw is for me to travel/live in thailand, and i’m tired of telling them ‘you just have to do it to know’ – but this is one of those things. new site is nice, keep it up…
// Monday, 15 December 2008 at 1:18 pm |
Unsurprisingly K. Abhisit, the leader of the Democratic party, was elected Prime Minister today by a vote of 235 to 198.
The response from the red-shirted protesters called the UDD — who supported the former government now in opposition — was perhaps predictable.
Here is the early report from the Bangkok Post:
So, we have a new government, and the ink on the newspaper isn’t dry yet and we have traded yellow-shirted thugs and idiots for red-shirted thugs and idiots.
When compared to how graciously election defeat is accepted in other countries, it’s Thailand truly is amazing.
I was no fan of the PAD. I think no better of the UDD.
The UDD seems less well-funded and less well organized than the PAD, but it may simply be that it’s easier to oppose the government than to support it.
Let’s hope the police deal with the UDD effectively, after letting the PAD (literally) run riot over Thailand for many months.
Abhisit seems to be an honorable and clean politician — that’s his general reputation anyway. He’s young at 44, but he’s worked hard as a politician to get this chance.
It’s a difficult — nearly impossible — time for anyone to take over the role of PM.
I doubt that Abhisit has the strength and charisma to pull it off, but being an American and and Australian I subscribe to the idea that now that we have a new leader everyone should pull together in support of the country’s best interest.
Let’s get the UDD thugs off the streets, the government to work immediately, and restore unity and order to Thailand.
Fingers crossed.
// Monday, 15 December 2008 at 1:20 pm |
BTW, I wasn’t clear on the significance of throwing water bottles in the compound… can anyone shed some light on that??
MSB // Monday, 15 December 2008 at 3:06 pm |
the police had removed all the rocks ?
// Monday, 15 December 2008 at 8:10 pm |
Now THAT’S funny!
crocodilexp // Monday, 15 December 2008 at 10:33 pm |
> I was no fan of the PAD. I think no better of the UDD.
While I don’t support thugs of any kind, it’s not good to equate the two groups.
I think that for now, the reds have a legitimate reason to protest (see your own post above). New government is blatantly corrupt from minute zero (and before) — the MP-buying that they did openly is much worse than individual vote buying that got PPP dissolved.
tosh // Tuesday, 16 December 2008 at 11:26 am |
Unlike our squeaky clean US politics where the governor of Illinois would never try to sell the president-elect’s Senate seat for cash. Oh . . .
phuket&C // Tuesday, 16 December 2008 at 1:53 pm |
Apparently MP buying is not illegal. Go figure…
werewolf // Tuesday, 16 December 2008 at 8:54 pm |
tosh: I guess my view is that people in the US are outraged by the idea. The MP buying here is reported in the mainstream press as a fact of life… just politics as usual.
I’m still trying to get my head around how things work here. But my life expectancy is only another 40 years or so… probably not enough time.
werewolf // Tuesday, 16 December 2008 at 9:13 pm |
I think it was Onnutter who offered the link to this very interesting article:
I had a business meeting today and found myself in a situation where I was involved in smalltalk with a group of about a dozen Thais.
They all agreed that the number one issue for Abhisit to address is the economy.
After that, the discussion started to get heated with some people in favor of the new government (but not strongly; more subdued accceptance) and some people strongly opposed.
We changed the subject before the fisticuffs began, but it was clear that passions were running high among the normally unflappable Thais.