If You Want To Fry Abhisit, Fry An Omelette And Go From There; Opinion

[webfact]

STOPPAGE TIME

It's the kai jeo, stupid!

By Tulsathit Taptim

Robert Amsterdam has yet to rattle Abhisit Vejjajiva with his "Bangkok Massacre" shouting and a related international lawsuit plan.

The People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) accuses the prime minister of virtual treason but is having difficulty making the Thai public care about the country's "lost sovereignty". A proposed Charter change that analysts thought would tear the coalition apart has sailed through Parliament with one eye closed.

Do we have an invincible super-prime minister? Far from it. First of all, which prime minister over the past six years has not been called a traitor by one group or another? And which prime minister during the same period has not been implicated in politically-related deaths or charges of gross human rights abuses? Abhisit's apparent immunity owes a lot to what befell his predecessors. He's benefiting from Thai people's growing sense of "Been there, done that" when it comes to just about everything.

Well, not quite. It's not "Been there, done that" when it comes to not having cooking oil to make khai jeo (omelette). And Abhisit could underestimate the political power of khai jeo-starved constituents at his own peril. They can tolerate the clumsy handling of Thai territorial claims, or charges that he is the bloodthirstiest leader since Adolf Hitler - anything but government failure to deliver the traditional Thai dish on their dining tables at the same reasonable price.

The Pheu Thai Party gets it, vowing to highlight the scandal-tainted palm oil shortage during its planned censure debate. If I were Mingkwan Saengsuwan, I would forget about Robert Amsterdam and all the questions about Abhisit's nationality for a while. (If Mingkwan wants to give Abhisit an opportunity to repeat that he needs a UK visa to visit England every time, and allows the prime minister to take another swipe at a certain Montenegrin passport-holder, he can be my guest.) I would bring to the parliamentary floor a "picnic" gas stove, a frying pan, half a dozen eggs and other necessary utensils and ingredients, and cook my way to political glory. That would be a domestic front-page guarantee and, who knows, the Wall Street Journal may get bored of the Middle East at the right time.

The palm oil scandal is a gift handed to Abhisit's opponents on a silver platter. It has all the necessary elements of a political farce: poor vision, mismanagement of resources, clumsy state mechanisms, nepotism at the expense of consumers, and alleged corruption. Most of all, this one hits where it hurts - millions of Thai stomachs.

I haven't seen any sign of strategic change from the PAD, though. Chamlong Srimuang on Sunday kept beating his war drum over Cambodia, thus confusing those who used to admire his non-violence principles. He called Thai military leaders foolish for entering into a "no fire" agreement with their Phnom Penh counterparts, a move he said deprived the Thai side of a key bargaining weapon. This doesn't mean we want a war, he insisted, but the "no fire" deal would unnecessarily shackle us in the future. If you don't quite get what Chamlong was saying, you're in good company.

Anyway, Sondhi Limthongkul seems to me a little wiser politically, and I'm counting on him to take a picnic stove to the PAD stage sooner rather than later. Not only has Abhisit lost us our sovereignty, Sondhi could yell to the clappers' thunder, this handsome waste of a prime minister has threatened our dignity by making the cost of a dish that we can't live without unacceptably high.

I like Chuan Leekpai and most of his well-reasoned political statements, but what was he thinking the other day? To advise Thais to rely more on boiling and steaming in their cooking borders on criminal. He should save that for speaking engagements at how-to-live-a-long-life forums only. Khai toon (steamed, scrambled eggs) is a great dish, but it's a once-a-week part of the Thai menu at best.

It's the khai jeo, stupid! You don't leave your spouse when he or she loses a fraction of the family property, but only when the most basic things in the relationship go wrong. Abhisit has had trouble with eggs, and now he's screwing up (allegedly) over the price of the very ingredient that makes the eggs unique and heavenly tasty.

So, here's my advice to all political rivals of Abhisit Vejjajiva: If you want to fry him, fry an omelette before a national audience and tell them how much more costly it is to do so under this prime minister. There's no political manoeuvring that will be more effective and, no pun intended, cheaper.

-- The Nation 2011-02-23

[RKASA]

Reminds my of the old Jimmy Carter mistake of telling the American people "The problem is you live better then you should" or something to that effect at the time. I believe it was followed up on by a guy asking "Are you better off today then 4 years ago?"

I don't disagree with the cooking suggestion - it is true boiling or streaming would be better (we don't use the stuff) - but that type of public response to this issue will get ya cooked.

[phiphidon]

But look what happened to last Political figure to get involved with cooking...............

[asiawatcher]

What a stupid article...

[yesdavy]

Yawn...didn't know the PM had an airline, and never heard of omelette air, is it khao niew?