Potshots: Thailand's imaginary hereos, bye bye Somkid and more on the southern terrorism

Last week three friends of mine went on the Cambodia visa run, a frequent fixture for those who are in application stage for a work permit. It also used to be a fixture for people who didn't want or couldn't get a work permit, but the Thai government is cracking down in that area.

On the trip, my colleagues happened to meet a most interesting lady. She was head of EFL for the UN and she had worked as a supervisor at Microsoft! And yet there she was on the same humble visa run as my friends. She promised them she would keep in touch and help them in future anytime she could. What a useful ally, eh? Only one problem: it was all crap. My friend ran a google search and could find no trace of the woman's name. She was just another fantasiser. I've mentioned all this before but it bears repeating. For some reason Thailand encourages westerners to fantasise or often just plain lie about their background. It seems to be something about the seductiveness of the sand, sun and beautiful woman and the idea that somehow being a teacher is belittling, it makes people want to think they are something more.
I've meet a Black Panthers member, an alcoholic lawyer and a businessman of the year during my time in Thailand. The "lawyer" in question used to arrive at work with a backpack and a bandana on his head. He would great every person with "Hi, I used to be a lawyer in the states". As the weeks went on he would turn up for class later and drunker each time (Thailand is also a magnet for heavy drinkers), he took his framed law degree to immigration for verification and got so drunk he left it at the bus stop and never saw it again. He was sacked from his school and subsequently two other schools shortly after.

Strangely enough, those who do or would have the right to think of themselves as high powered are normally the most modest. Luckily, there's just as many of these people around too.

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Somkid Jatusripitak- the Villanised capitalist displaced in a coup then hired to explain the benefits of sufficiency economy to the other villains by the new junta resigned after one week due to protests from anti-Thaksin groups. The junta government continues to struggle and seems very slow to react to any problem.

The spat with Singapore has not yet resolved itself. After Sonthi's infelicitous nationalistic waffle about Singapore (also see this link again ) , the Singapore government demanded an explanation and Thai spin doctors talked it down. One minister actually described Sonthi's "It is the duty of every Thai citizen to sacrifice for the country and help take back our assets. As a soldier I will not concede one square inch. " by saying "It must be taken in context".

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The insurgency in the south of Thailand continues. The death toll now exceeds two thousand and the Australian and British embassies have issued safety warnings for visitors to Thailand. The violence shows no sign of abating. I mentioned Prophet of Doom in a recent post on southern terrorism, the author is a former billionaire who invested over ten thousand hours into his research on Muslim scriptures. He is often accused of taking verses out of context, to which he replies that the five most popular versions of the Qu'ran are available on his website. I've been in touch with Craig (the author) to thank him for his work and discuss the troubles in southern Thailand with him to which he sent a prompt reply. His work is available completely free on his site and it's fascinating, well worth the effort for anyone interested in this topic that affects the world.

Confused? I nearly cried

A quick lesson in Thai politics

Never been to Thailand? Quickly heard some of the coup news but really don’t know any more than that? Fear not, I can give you a lively, informative education on the topic in just a few lines…..

OK, So there was this guy Thaksin. Clever, very good businessman but utterly cold, manipulative, devious and highly superstitious. Naturally, he formed a political party of people just like him. He got so bad that there was a coup (possibly with an order from someone even higher than the PM) and in came the coup leader General Sondhi who installed Surayud (ex trooper) as interim PM.

Sondhi quickly explained they staged the coup due to a) Rampant corruption b) National disunity and c) Economic dangers from capitalism. Sondhi and Surayud both explained they would switch to a "sufficiency economy".

You following so far? Good, this is what happened next…..

Surayud installed a cabinet. It was a decent line up but it was true “old ginger” the average age being about two hundred and five. The junta also installed a corruption investigation team, and a very able one at that. Sadly, they forgot to stop every single one of Thaksin’s henchmen from hiding evidence and intimidating witnesses. Also the old boys in government realized that a) Things had changed since they were last in command and b) Nobody could actually explain their new "sufficiency" theory. It was all a bit of a pickle, and something needed to be done….

Still OK so far? OK brace yourself for the last paragraph…….

So, the junta had a great plan, they employed Thaksin’s right hand man and finance minister Somkid Jatusripita to explain sufficiency economy and counter Thaksin’s propaganda. That's right, they got one of the really bad men that they removed in a coup to explain why they removed the bad men in the coup. They took one of the greedy capitalists to explain why they were rejecting greedy capitalism. They employed one of the men under investigation for patronage in a rubber saplings scandal by the AEC to explain the corruption in the previous government. What’s more they were happy about it.

You got all that? Good. How's your head?

The spat with Singapore. A follow up

Readers of my previous article on Singapore would be relieved to know that the second leg of the Thailand vs. Singapore football went calmly. Thai fans gave a fantastic account of themselves, docked in yellow and making a tremendous atmosphere to support their team. They deserved to win but didn’t take all their chances and drew 1-1 , losing 3-2 on aggregate.

Once again, it all seemed to be dying down until suddenly General Sondhi made a stupid and bizarre remark to the public.

Clearly Mr. Sondhi is on some kind of propaganda for his own means here. With comments about “patriotism” “nation building” and “sacrifice for the good of the country” it can only mean they are after something that involves manipulation of the national psyche. Watch this space.

You heard it here first

Whilst the military junta have been reasonably diligent in their goals of working to restore peace in the south of Thailand and chasing the ousted PM on corruption allegations, there can be little doubt that the army have continued a long standing tradition of taking care of their own.

My point? Well the recent tit for tat diplomatic squabble between Thailand and Singapore - initially caused by Thailand's objections to Singapore welcoming ex - PM Thaksin to a conference on their land - reached a pinnacle this week when the minister for IT began disseminating bizarre warnings that "Telephone conversations are being tapped" and "Private telephone conversations are being relayed to telecommunications companies in Singapore".

This ambiguous and innocuous set of claims seemed to heap paranoia on the already strained relations between the countries and served to increase annoyance and distrust amongst the working class, easily influenced and partisan working class group of Thais.


Less than a week later, the junta have declared their intention to fund a billion bhat satellite project to "increase national security".


What a coincidence , eh?



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This weekend I welcomed two friends over to Bangkok. Neither of them were first timers, in fact they had both been over three times each before. You see, there's something about Thailand that people struggle to let go from. No doubt the female inhabitants have a great temptation, but there is more, The beaches, the food, the shopping . Thailand fever is contagious, beware!