BootsnAll Travel Network



What Now For Thailand?

Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej, who took over after Thaksin Shinawatra, the former PM, was ousted by a military coup after charges of corruption, claimed yesterday that he is being threatened by yet another coup…the result no doubt of political infighting. The military has promised there will not be another coup.

I was in Chiang Mai during the massive rallies in Bangkok. The bloodless coup finally took place while Thaksin was at a UN meeting in New York on September 19 2006 when I was already watching marches by striking teachers in Oaxaca. Thaksin was then exiled to London. But he returned to Thailand a few weeks ago and Thai political watchers are wondering what deals were struck even though Thaksin says he is finished with politics. No one believes it.

In the meantime the opposition to Thaksin has been mysteriously quiet. We have been waiting to see what will happen. Yesterday, the opposition party, PAD (People’s Alliance for Democracy), held a political forum at Thammasat University with several thousand attendees, while outside, Thaksin’s supporters held a demonstration.

But Thaksin still has friends in the government. The PAD has vowed it will stage massive rallies if the government moves to amend the constitution which they believe would protect Thaksin’s buddies…and Thaksin himself who is still facing corruption charges.

From a university student demonstration in Istanbul in the 90’s to win the right for women to wear jibabs, to the tsunami in Thailand when I was in Bangkok in December 2004 and from which my son and his wife barely escaped with their lives in Krabi, to unrest in Thailand before the coup, to a subway strike in New York City when we were living in Brooklyn, to a 7-month bloody rebellion in Oaxaca while I was living there, to immigration rallies in my my home state of Oregon, I wonder what I will next be witness to.



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