mfd101

I live in Prasat 30 minutes south of Muaeng Surin. As a non-Thai and an occasional (not regular) traveller, I find that rural Thailand and Thai towns are like the cosmos: they look the same in all directions.

If you actually read the relevant sections of the current Thai Constitution (or indeed any other sections) its complexity of expression is such as to be practically incomprehensible. So it's not surprising that the few Thai citizens who voted in the relevant plebiscite a few years ago ended up approving it (just). Nor is its complexity anything other than typical of Thai laws. Allows appointed judges maximum leeway to interpret things as may be convenient to them and their buddies at any particular moment.

And what would be the point of that? You don't need an upper house just for the sake of having an upper house.

Race consciousness is alive & well in Thailand. And I guess racism too (though I've never personally encountered it).

Going to be a fascinating week. Hard not to be emotionally involved despite our status as unwelcome-but-paying outsiders.

Yes. In every democracy in the world it is only those who actually vote whose vote is counted. Even in Australia - where voting is theoretically 'compulsory' - only the c91% who actually vote are counted. To count the non-votes of those who for whatever reason don't vote is just grotesque. A disgusting perversion of due process.

Clearly suitable for high office in Thailand.

Yes but let's not get too overwrought.

I think that sensible people might hold their judgments on all and sundry till the end of this week. I don't see Pita as a scoundrel like the dinosaurs and I don't think he's wrong in offering to step aside if it proves necessary in the PM race to keep the dinosaurs at bay. What he does show is some inexperience and a tendency to say too much in public. But then he does have a watching audience (including us) who are waiting on his every word ... It's going to be a long-term labour to reform Thai politics, government & culture. Delaying things till the next election (next year?) is not a bad thing. It will give MFP time to settle in to their unexpected success and be ready to win a REAL majority on their own next time. As leader Pita has to balance the nasty realities of power politics against keeping faith with those who voted for him and those many others who will probably vote for him next time.

Hard to believe he would fly to Phuket just to open a piddling little consulate. More likely someone much more important to sit down with ... Prince Andrew perhaps? And being greeted by the DepGov of Phuket is scarcely laying out the red carpet! The Thais could scarcely be less forthcoming while maintaining diplomatic relations.

Not everyone is able to 'use the system' - the poor, the uneducated, all those many many poor people amongst whom I live who have been taught nothing but passivity and submission ... And who is it who hurts them and prevents them from ever rising up and improving their lives and those of their children? Who is it who exploits 'the system' for their own endless and corrupt profit at the expense of everyone else? It is precisely those you say we should emulate!

A counsel of despair. Real human beings live in hope and try, to the best of their ability, to help to make things better.

Fiction books usually have a happy ending: The hero kills the dragon and returns to universal acclaim and marries the King's daughter.

UK 1910-11 vs Thailand 2023: an interesting comparison. In 1910-11 the Liberal Government forced through reform of the Lords (Conservatives almost all & refusing to approve a money bill) by threatening - with the support of the King - to create more and more new lords (all hereditary in those days) till their legislation was passed.

Prawit will be proud of the young people of today.

So modern? More like 1930.

Nasty + stupid

Is there any provision in the Constitution that forbids Sleeping Beauty to be nominated for PM?

TIT

Wow! Clever move. Will it change anything? Well, it at least puts some new cards on the table. Watch this space!

Entirely unpredictable at this stage. Could be confined to BKK: action elsewhere won't affect the senators & the authoritarians much. Any protest activity could turn violent but it will be ineffective if not well-planned. Needs action with military precision and including bringing the lower ranks of the army onside, in & around BKK ... Needs to choose targets carefully - airports, individuals & their homes & other known assets ... Probably beyond Thai capabilities to organize, but who knows?

Petty bureaucrats require complexity to justify their existence. The harder it is the more important they feel.

Hope this is a sign of a VERY widespread effort to follow, particularly in Bangkok.

The abstentions yesterday were all counted as 'Nos'. Add up the figures! You have to get 376 votes to win, come what may. So if only 300 people turn up and they all vote for you, you still lose.

Interesting concept of 'counting votes': If I 'abstain' - for whatever reason, good or bad - my vote counts as a No. Perhaps unique in the world. Thai dinosaurs could conduct sociology research institute lessons in The New Mathematics of Democracy.