Never Strange Enough
I haven’t commented on Thai politics lately since its so bizarre no one would believe me, and sometimes there is a lull and you think it’s reached its maximum craziness and then something happens and a whole new level of bizarro politics is reached.
To recap, the PM sold his company for $2 billion dollars, and paid no taxes. Rather than explain himself he called for snap elections, which everyone else boycotted. The elections were eventually annulled and new one called for ( sometime this fall ). The Electoral Commission that ran the annulled election was asked to resign, they refused, eventually they were thrown in jail and only granted bail after they formally resigned.
Let’s start a week ago, when the Prime Minister made some public appearances in Bangkok, at two events he was boo’d by some of the crowd, then a bunch of people started beating up the hecklers while the cops just watched. Eventually the cops intervened and arrested the hecklers…those responsible for the violence were not apprehended. The second event was caught on video by a TV crew, it was shown that the two people responsible for most of the violence were seen talking to the police earlier and that during the mayhem they would pummel someone and then hand them to the cops. After a little investigation work the two guys were identified, and they turned out to be low level crooks, who worked as police informants and could be tied directly to Senior Police officials ( who had close ties to the Prime Minister )
Now for the fun part, yesterday it was announced that the Prime Minister had narrowly escaped an assassination attempt from a car loaded with his explosives. But as the story progressed it got fishier and fishier, the car was seen circling the Prime Minister’s residence 4 or 5 times, the police stopped it after an anonymous tip, and when they pulled it over they found the ingredients for a bomb---but it was not assembled.
The driver turned out to be the underlying of a powerful General, who had been a loyal supporter of the Prime Minister but is thought to have begun straying.
From the moment the story broke, everyone thought it was a stunt, and that was my first impression as well. The major English language paper even ran this headline “"Bomb plot or stunt?"
The thinking is that this allows the Prime Minister to get rid of a General who was no longer supporting him, increase his support up north by looking like a victim, and if he gets real lucky he can use it as excuse to declare Martial Law one day.
Now you may be thinking this is making me nervous, since who wants to live in a country about to fall into anarchy. But it doesn’t, if anything the desperation of this act and the incompetence of it shows me the Prime Minister is getting desperate, very desperate and there is a good chance he may be out by the end of the year.
My reasoning for this is a number of lawsuits against him, most of which should be resolved in the next two to four months. If all of these find against him, at the same time, it should be too much for even him to survive.
1) The sale of his company is being questioned. Supposedly it is 51% Thai owned (which is required), but the 49% owned by Singapore has 90% of the voting rights. If the company is found to be an ‘illegal proxy’ than the whole sale could be invalidated
2) 10 Years ago, The Prime Minister was involved in a cable TV operation with an American. He accused his partner of embezzlement, and then he went to steal all the equipment and start his own cable TV company. The American was found innocent, and the counter-suit against the Prime Minister is being held right now.
3) The Prime Minister owned a TV station under government contract. The contract was modified at some point, by someone and the fees involved were dramatically reduced. The courts have already ruled against this change, and if upheld the station will owe over One Billion Dollars in back taxes
4) The Prime Minister Political Party is accused of bribery and record tampering in the previous election, and if found guilty the entire party could be disbanded.
Welcome to Thailand, where it is never boring.
Next week….’To Airport or Not To Airport ?’
To recap, the PM sold his company for $2 billion dollars, and paid no taxes. Rather than explain himself he called for snap elections, which everyone else boycotted. The elections were eventually annulled and new one called for ( sometime this fall ). The Electoral Commission that ran the annulled election was asked to resign, they refused, eventually they were thrown in jail and only granted bail after they formally resigned.
Let’s start a week ago, when the Prime Minister made some public appearances in Bangkok, at two events he was boo’d by some of the crowd, then a bunch of people started beating up the hecklers while the cops just watched. Eventually the cops intervened and arrested the hecklers…those responsible for the violence were not apprehended. The second event was caught on video by a TV crew, it was shown that the two people responsible for most of the violence were seen talking to the police earlier and that during the mayhem they would pummel someone and then hand them to the cops. After a little investigation work the two guys were identified, and they turned out to be low level crooks, who worked as police informants and could be tied directly to Senior Police officials ( who had close ties to the Prime Minister )
Now for the fun part, yesterday it was announced that the Prime Minister had narrowly escaped an assassination attempt from a car loaded with his explosives. But as the story progressed it got fishier and fishier, the car was seen circling the Prime Minister’s residence 4 or 5 times, the police stopped it after an anonymous tip, and when they pulled it over they found the ingredients for a bomb---but it was not assembled.
The driver turned out to be the underlying of a powerful General, who had been a loyal supporter of the Prime Minister but is thought to have begun straying.
From the moment the story broke, everyone thought it was a stunt, and that was my first impression as well. The major English language paper even ran this headline “"Bomb plot or stunt?"
The thinking is that this allows the Prime Minister to get rid of a General who was no longer supporting him, increase his support up north by looking like a victim, and if he gets real lucky he can use it as excuse to declare Martial Law one day.
Now you may be thinking this is making me nervous, since who wants to live in a country about to fall into anarchy. But it doesn’t, if anything the desperation of this act and the incompetence of it shows me the Prime Minister is getting desperate, very desperate and there is a good chance he may be out by the end of the year.
My reasoning for this is a number of lawsuits against him, most of which should be resolved in the next two to four months. If all of these find against him, at the same time, it should be too much for even him to survive.
1) The sale of his company is being questioned. Supposedly it is 51% Thai owned (which is required), but the 49% owned by Singapore has 90% of the voting rights. If the company is found to be an ‘illegal proxy’ than the whole sale could be invalidated
2) 10 Years ago, The Prime Minister was involved in a cable TV operation with an American. He accused his partner of embezzlement, and then he went to steal all the equipment and start his own cable TV company. The American was found innocent, and the counter-suit against the Prime Minister is being held right now.
3) The Prime Minister owned a TV station under government contract. The contract was modified at some point, by someone and the fees involved were dramatically reduced. The courts have already ruled against this change, and if upheld the station will owe over One Billion Dollars in back taxes
4) The Prime Minister Political Party is accused of bribery and record tampering in the previous election, and if found guilty the entire party could be disbanded.
Welcome to Thailand, where it is never boring.
Next week….’To Airport or Not To Airport ?’