Return To Sanity: Thai Politics

It is good news that Prime Minister Aphisit Vejjajiva, has managed to get Thailand out of the chaos and turmoils of last week. He was lucky to have survived two attempts to harm him by the Red shirt gangsters at Pattaya and in the compound of the Ministry of Interior. He has my sympathy. I want to congratulate him for his demonstration of calm and cool leadership and his ability in the resolution of crisis without lost of life. Thaksin’s strategy of paying the Red Shirt gangsters to organize a “Peoples’ Revolution” for his selfish private motives did not seem to work. His regular phoning-in to encourage more people to join in the movement against the Privy Council members and the overthrowing of the Aphisit Vejjajiva Government failed badly. As far as I am concerned, Thaksin is finished in Thailand. The Thai court will put him in jail whenever he returns to the country for his past corruption charge and the new charge of treason. There are many lessons learned from this tragic situation: 1) With wide and frequent local and world media coverage, a corrupted leader cannot fool naive/ ignorant supporters for long; 2) Revolution cannot be organized with mercenaries by a remote control; 3) No one can hold his/her country hostage in order to avoid going to jail or getting the confiscated money back; 4) No one can get away with destroying a country and then return to power again. Prime Minister Apisit now has the majority of the people supporting him in bringing normalcy to the country. Law and order must be maintained. Most crucial is that he should turn this crisis into an opportunity to reorganize the security apparatus, which broke down miserably at the ASEAN Summit Meeting and at the Ministry of Interior. He has to do it quickly if he wants to have stability of his government.