Bangkok, Thailand — Communism has been an arch-enemy of Thailand for decades, at least publicly. But its close cousin, communalism, has not. In fact, the very idea that national resources, national labor pools and federal government administration could all function ideally as long as everyone was participating in sharing and using single unity-controlled natural resources - that is, for the common good and under the wise leadership of a national icon - is somewhat relevant to the evolution of pseudo-communism in Thailand.

The collective and social value enforced agreement that certain senior leaders are noble, a few even near-divine, that the good government knows best, and normal people love the king versus the accepted truism that if you don’t then you are not normal are ideas found in very repressive governments, up to and including Burma but now apparently also Thailand. Those who agitate or attempt to buck the system in such countries are eliminated - sometimes literally and the rest get the picture sooner or later.

As a result, this ship of the Thai state is thus not far afield from its close cousins running similar ships of state in Burma and Cambodia. There are differences, of course, but the similarities are what will steer the course of these “Association of Southeast Asian Nations” neighbors through time and impact ASEAN policies internally and externally.

Continued at http://www.upiasia.com/Politics/2009/07/10...mmunalism/3342/

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