Background to Thailand and its politics

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An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

I am aware there are people who are curious why Thailand has this long running saga since it is a "democracy"

Thailand despite its March to democracy has never been one. It remains firmly a Monarchy. Its Monarch and the religion are also intertwined. The laws of the land prevents any insults or derogatory remarks to be made against the Monrachy = else majesty law.

No democratic elected leader can govern unless he agrees to be subservient to the Monarch. The entire Thai elite society is aligned with the Monarch because the Monarch actually owns their sovereign fund outright. These include nearly all the blue chip companies including banks and large swathe of commercial land.

Because of the else Majeste law which prohibit any form of criticism no matter how true it is, every Thai engages in shadow boxing to stop them falling foul of the lese Majeste laws.

This shadow boxing is manifested in the colours yellow and red. Yellow is pro Monarch and red is anti-Monarch.

Thaksin first came to power with the blessing of the King. The king also gave him certain royal privileges. Thaksin actually began to do lots of good things. He also realised that the rural sector was taken advantage by the elite especially in primary produce in particular rice. Thaksin whose popularity began to increase both with the Rpyalist, the pro monarch elite as well as the ignorant rural lot began to take on the crime lords across the countries. Drug kingpins and arms traffickers were subjected vigilante justice undertaken by the Police and Army in plainclothes.

The elite who had links to the crime lords began to see their pockets hurt. Then Thaksin made the monumental mistake. The Queen who was portrayed as the guardian of the rural folks who was known for for her numerous visits to various parts of Thailand and revered by them became to be impacted by Thaksin rhetoric about they being taken advantage by the elite. Thaksin was losing ground with the Elite over the crime crackdown and decided he will rely on the rural Thai for votes. He increased the price of rice to farmers, stopped the middlemen screwing them. The rural folks realised that they had the political power to get a better life and began to recognise the value of the vote.

The Queen who was not into politics stopped going out and the things turned ugly.

The country is facing an impasse as rural votes outnumber the urban elite. So no democratically elected leader will survive for long as the votes comes from the rural sector who longer trust the king and wear red.

At end of the Asian currency crisis, when his sovereign fund was depleted, the King actually raided the treasury to reinstate his portfolio. The portfolio is called the Crown Property Bureau. It is run by 2 Australians. it contains Siam Commercial Bank, Siam Cement, etc The elite's dependency with the king is that most the commercial land in Bangkok belongs to him and he leases it below market price to them.

Forbes ranks as richer than the Brunei Sultan.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/simonmon...balance-sheet/


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