On a topic nobody in Thailand wants to think about much less talk about, but succession to the Throne is unavoidably coming. So as we tend to not want to think about what will happen when that announcement is finally made that the wheels of succession have started to turn, we can’t help but look at how Thailand’s chief fugitive troublemaker is positioning himself.
When you look at the news you can take a rough mental note of how often the names of influential people are seen. Whether they are of Royalty or not, each is remaining in the public’s eye to some degree. Some are spoken of more often and in a positive light, and others in a mixed or negative light.
Each person has their own view of Thaksin Shinawatra. For the people that stand to get some financial gain from supporting him, support him they do. For the people who see Thaksin for what he truly is, every effort is being made to stop him. For the people who want to stop him, they have placed their allegiance in the King. The King is the single focal point that Thais can rally around. But once that focal point is gone, Thaksin has positioned himself in a dominant position to move in and take charge.
Returning to the amount of media coverage each person gets, Thaksin is doing his best so his name appears everyday in the news, but not so overtly as to cause political unrest. But when compared to the people in the line of succession to the throne, Thaksin is seen more often in the news and postured to be seen in the most positive way as possible. Simply put, Thaksin is getting better press than people in line for the throne.
So if you consider that to be a true statement or not is essentially irrelevant. However what is relevant is who will the Thai people want to follow. In general Thai thinking is often more driven by emotion, and logic tends to take a back seat more often than not. So following a person who projects a more positive feeling is likely who Thais will fall behind. Although Thaksin is clearly money driven and corrupt, he has not displayed any negatives on the social side that is tied to the foundation of many Thais. His family bonds are clear for all to see.
Beyond that, there has been positive and negative feelings about everyone on the planet that is seen in the public eye. Even us at Connecting the Dots are weighed by our readers. We already know we are liked and more so than we expected. Considering the fact we went dormant for a while and our readership still continued to grow says a lot. The people that clearly don’t like us are the people that we announce what they will likely do before they do it, and we can understand how that can be a bit annoying to them. But nevertheless that is our niche that sets us apart.
When the 2011 Nobel Peace prize was announced, there was a bit of a meltdown in the Chinese government and quite frankly looked like a tantrum expected from a two year old. So be it positive or negative, the view people have of others is relative to how close their positions are to their own.
So as the moral fabric of Thais are essentially of family, they may tend to overlook greed as being hugely negative. So when that is considered, Thaksin is likely to be seen in a better light than some members of the Royal family. Only the Thais that place significant value on greed and corruption would still be against Thaksin.
So as people have been focused on the other things in Thai politics that involve Thaksin to some degree, it is clear the subtle but deliberate Public Relation moves Thaksin has made have placed him in a better position to dominate the Royal Thai family when the wheels of succession start to turn.
