Word: bangkok
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Less than six months ago, Samak Sundaravej's political career was all but dead: after his election to Thailand's senate was negated by the 2006 military coup, the former Bangkok governor had gone back to hosting a popular TV cooking show. But on Tuesday, the 72-year-old firebrand, once called a "devil" by democracy activists for his support of past right-wing military regimes, was formally voted in as Thailand's 25th prime minister by the country's first elected parliament since the Generals took power. Yet the question remains: will Samak really be running Thailand...
...Hong Kong. And that's where high-level members of Samak's People Power Party - widely regarded as Thaksin's proxy political vehicle - flocked over the weekend to start lobbying for Cabinet posts. "Samak faces real credibility problems," says Panitan Wattanayagorn, a political scientist at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. "Of course, he's not the one in charge...
...fear the former Prime Minister will seek revenge for the coup; Muslims in Thailand's restive south, who suffered under the military clampdown imposed during his rule; southerners in general, who traditionally vote for the Democrats and felt ignored by Thaksin's government; and his longtime foes, the urban, Bangkok-centered middle class. Some who led the anti-Thaksin demonstrations in 2006 have threatened to do so again if he returns. Rosana Tositrakul, Secretary General of the Thai Holistic Health Foundation and a former protest leader, says she will wait and see what a PPP government does. But if Thaksin...
...have to listen to Thaksin, but he also has to listen to civil society," Panitan says. As he sets about negotiating with other parties to form a government he hopes will last, Samak would do well to bear in mind a common Thai saying: The provinces send governments to Bangkok, and Bangkok sends them back...
...Samak's clout with Bangkok voters could deny the Democrat Party, the PPP's chief challenger, victory. As it stands, the PPP is expected to dominate the north and northeast, while the Democrats will take the south. Most polls show Samak's party winning the most seats in parliament, but not a majority, forcing it to compete with the Democrats to court small and mid-sized parties to form a new coalition government. Several analysts are predicting the generals will quietly pressure smaller parties to make a deal with the Democrats. "I don't think the military will be comfortable...