RAWBangkok

6 responses so far ↓

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  Werewolf // Sunday, 21 December 2008 at 10:46 pm | Reply

  I think this brief excerpt from a Bangkok Post story today tells us that the new coalition is not likely to improve things:

  Abhisit has vowed to restore unity in Thailand after six months of protests against the previous government, which peaked with an eight-day blockade of Bangkok’s airports.

  But his cabinet list has also been criticised by other ministers as inexperienced and inappropriate.

  The new foreign minister Kasit Piromya was a vocal supporter of a protest group that seized Suvarnabhumi international airport in late November, causing some of the massive economic damage that Abhisit has vowed to mend.

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  Ron // Monday, 22 December 2008 at 1:15 am | Reply

  Did you see the short piece “Fodder for Fleet Street” @ the Bangkok Pundit (via the link you posted) about the new Commerce Ministers resume, She managed Poseidon?! Why Not??? Atleast she knows something!

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  Werewolf // Monday, 22 December 2008 at 1:29 am | Reply

  Yeah, it looks like another horror-show Cabinet forced upon the Thai people by the cobbled-together coalition governments that have been stripped of their most experienced politicians.

  By the way, I’m too lazy to go back and find the link, but TFS2M pointed everyone to an article about the Deputy Finance Minister earlier this year. At the time the article identified that Ranongrak Suwanchawee, a relatively inexperienced politician, was appointed to the post of Deputy Finance Minister by Samak. Her training was as a nurse, and in her first interview following the appointment she was quoted as saying that upon learning of her appointment she had immediately gone onto the internet to find out exactly what the Finance Ministry did.

  Amazing!

  With that in mind, you may be interested in this tidbit from one of the referenced articles in the Bangkok Pundit piece that you mentioned:

  Ranongrak Suwanchawee, also of Puea Pandin, is tipped as information and communications technology minister.

  Right now Thailand needs strong political leadership, and instead it has another weak Prime Minister supported by an inexperienced Cabinet, and a palace that is completely silent.

  More stormy times ahead, it seems.

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  Werewolf // Monday, 22 December 2008 at 1:43 am | Reply

  Sorry, I took a look at Thai Crisis after writing the comment above and — lo and behold — they had the original quotes from K Ronangrak’s appointment as Deputy Finance Minister:

  -Information and Communications Technology Minister : Miss Ranongruk Suwanchawee. Another very good joke from Abhisit. She was Deputy Finance Minister under… Samak. She’s a fan of the VAT and Google (but she was… a nurse in a previous life).

  I even had an article about her (march 2008, read here). Here is a quote.

  To a question regarding VAT and its impact on the poors, she said :

  “I think the VAT is quite fair. It’s just the tourists who pay, don’t they ? Other people don’t have any problem”…

  “I am trying to learn everything that is under my responsibility. As soon as I learned about my appointment, I did a search on the Internet to see what the Finance Ministry actually does”. (Bangkok Post)

  Do you see the level ? I mean do you see the FREAKING LEVEL ?

  (But it could have been much worse : first, her party wanted to give her the… Industry Ministry !)

  So there is no doubt : Abhisit is a clown. He has to be a pathetic clown to give a Ministry to this woman.

  For the full blog from Thai Crisis click the link below:

  http://thaicrisis.wordpress.com/2008/12/20/abhisit-government-list-of-ministers-and-first-critics/

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  Ron // Monday, 22 December 2008 at 8:34 am | Reply

  Why is the THB still so stable? Maybe the current cabinet posts truly are just for show and the whole thing has been run by that elitist, team yellow, illuminati New world order underbelly? Sounds like an X-files episode? Is sad though for Thailand, quite literally Same Same.

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  Thailand’s coup(s) 2006-2008 - in a nutshell « The Diary of Phoenix // Tuesday, 23 December 2008 at 3:53 pm | Reply

  [...] coup(s) 2006-2008 – in a nutshell 23 12 2008 At the website Raw Bangkok I found a link to a post that I found worth printing here for my own education: How Thai coup [...]