Who is Keyser Soze? He is supposed to be Turkish. Some say his father was German. Nobody believed he was real. Nobody ever saw him or knew anybody that ever worked directly for him, but to hear Kobayashi tell it, anybody could have worked for Soze. You never knew. That was his power. The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist. And like that, poof. He's gone.

Thailand's "decade of torment" has nothing to do with Thaksin and everything to do with the anti-democrats denying the people a role in the governance of their own country.

If Thaksin didn't exist, as they have done many times in the past, the anti-democrats would just make up another bogeyman to justify their oppression and denial of democracy.

The torment won't end until such time as there is freedom, equality and democracy in Thailand - Thaksin is not the one blocking these things.

Many good points in the article, but sure lost me in the rewrite of history in the last paragraph.

" we have to let go of the ghost of one particular man, in the same vein that post-war Japan let go of the carnage wreaked by nuclear bombs and found a new and prosperous path. The Japanese rolled up their sleeves and got down to the business of rebuilding their nation and shaping their future, and never once looked back."

History describes Japan's success a little differently and includes a democratically elected government that was overthrown by a military junta, that led the nation down the road to ruin, culminating in the destruction of two cities by atomic weapons. The Japanese road to recovery begin after WW2 and a democracy was reinstated.

It took an American Military Dictatorship to bring true democracy to Japan and break the power of the fascists that gave their allegiance to the Emperor.

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Thailand will not get past/over Thaksin as long as he is alive and pulling the strings of dissension. He has agents spread throughout the Civil Service, RTP, RTA, and many elite cronies who want to go back to feeding at the trough of the public treasury. Until Thaksin and his minions are neutralized, any reforms will paper reforms only and will never be put into effect. There will never be a reformed Thailand as long as Thaksin can prevent it. Why does the writer suggest everyone look past Thaksin when Thaksin, himself, seeks to be in the news and on people's minds? He is not old, he is extremely wealthy, he knows how to buy loyalty, and, though his actions may be underground right now, you can believe he is very active trying to subvert the current government and their reforms; his supporters wouldn't want it any other way. If the Prayut government succeeds, Thaksin fails; so he is frantically working against this government. I don't want Thaksin to be the 'elephant in the room that no one talks about' because there IS an elephant in the room and it need to be removed to make room for new, uncorrupted politicians to become the new leaders Thailand needs. If Thaksin were out of the picture, Thailand would be much better off and much further along the path to having a government that is responsive to the people and not to some want-to-be 'President for Life' like his good friend, the thug, Hun Sen. President of Thailand: that is Thaksin's ultimate goal and he will stop at nothing to achieve it. I'm certainly not going to stop writing about him.

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Thailand will not get past/over Thaksin as long as he is alive and pulling the strings of dissension. He has agents spread throughout the Civil Service, RTP, RTA, and many elite cronies who want to go back to feeding at the trough of the public treasury. Until Thaksin and his minions are neutralized, any reforms will paper reforms only and will never be put into effect. There will never be a reformed Thailand as long as Thaksin can prevent it. Why does the writer suggest everyone look past Thaksin when Thaksin, himself, seeks to be in the news and on people's minds? He is not old, he is extremely wealthy, he knows how to buy loyalty, and, though his actions may be underground right now, you can believe he is very active trying to subvert the current government and their reforms; his supporters wouldn't want it any other way. If the Prayut government succeeds, Thaksin fails; so he is frantically working against this government. I don't want Thaksin to be the 'elephant in the room that no one talks about' because there IS an elephant in the room and it need to be removed to make room for new, uncorrupted politicians to become the new leaders Thailand needs. If Thaksin were out of the picture, Thailand would be much better off and much further along the path to having a government that is responsive to the people and not to some want-to-be 'President for Life' like his good friend, the thug, Hun Sen. President of Thailand: that is Thaksin's ultimate goal and he will stop at nothing to achieve it. I'm certainly not going to stop writing about him.

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great post and is exactly how I think also

I would think Thaksin and his supporters are an important way of justifying the military government's undemocratic rule!