Fallout from Thailand’s dysfunctional ruling party goes international

It all started with simply not following the wisdom of Thailand’s new Constitution. With the simple stroke of a pen before letting parliament review what has been defined by the Thai courts as an International treaty, blood would not have been spilled by a Thai soldier who stepped on a land mine at the disputed site. Had the Preah Vihear document been reviewed as called for by the Constitution, the potential of bloody conflict would have been avoided.

From the word go Thailand’s ruling People Power Party (PPP) has shown it’s inability to play by the rules. There are several other posts in this blog that cover several examples. As a result of their inability to follow the laws, several members of the cabinet have been forced to leave office leaving the lineup looking like a Hockey players dental record.

Apparently rather than learning from their mistakes and deciding to follow the wisdom of the Constitution, the PPP want to gut the Constitution so they can do what they want unhindered. It is a bit like an ingenious idiot factory worker who deliberately disables the safety features of factory equipment because they are inconvenient. If you look closely at those ingenious idiot factory workers you will most likely find that they are missing parts of their body just like Thailand’s cabinet.

So now because of this inability to follow the laws of Thailand, there is a potential of war over a disputed border associated with the Preah Vihear temple. This has already involved the Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean) as well as several other countries. So essentially the dysfunctional PPP is now under international scrutiny for all the world to see.

If this conflict with Cambodia escalates into war, there could be several less than flattering nicknames for it. It could be the “Noppodon Pattama war” as it was his signature that cause all of this. It could be the “Thaksin Shinawatra crony war” as the PPP is loaded with under talented Thaksin cronies. The list of possibilities goes on and as unflattering as the nicknames are, they are essentially accurate.

All of this has the effect of painting Thailand in a bad light, however that is not the case. Thailand is a wonderful country with kind and loving people. It is simply the case of well funded cronies who support Thaksin Shinawatra that have found their way into office. So tracking back a few steps further in the line of cause and effect, Thaksin Shinawatra can be seen as the cause.

It has even been suggested that the signing of Preah Vihear temple document was done so to benefit some business dealings Thaksin had with Cambodia. The suggestion was the signing was to sweeten the deal. Noppodon Pattama was Thaksin’s personal lawyer and spokesman before his crony assignment as Thailand’s Foreign Minister. Noppodon Pattama as resigned his post in disgrace because of this.

Where this goes in the next few days depends on the influence of third parties. There is no way to predict the outcome at this time.


One Response to Fallout from Thailand’s dysfunctional ruling party goes international

  1. crocodile says:

    Well written article, but it does bug me that the author never mentioned one minor fact about the Thai Constitution that he is referring to. This is not a venerable, long-standing legal document as the U.S. constitution. It was written by the military in 2007 and approved in a take-it-or-have-military-junta-stay-indefinitely referendum.

    Let’s not even get into the impartiality of Thai court system… PPP is seriously flawed, but “not playing by the rules” is not always a scathing accusation in a country where rules are rewritten daily by those in power at the moment, and broken regularly by anyone with connections. At least PPP does have the clear popular mandate, and support for Phra Vihear being listed as World Heritage was not so clearly a wrong move.