Word: grips
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Whatever Arafat's shortcomings, his grip on the P.L.O., a coalition of disparate groups, is what keeps it from breaking asunder over such differences. With no potential successor having anywhere near his influence, Arafat's death would almost certainly bring disunity. Among those mentioned as possible heirs is Farouk Kaddoumi, the P.L.O.'s de facto foreign minister. Kaddoumi, one of the founders of the mainstream Fatah faction, considered a hard-liner, has international stature, but he is unpopular among many of his P.L.O. colleagues, in part because of his arrogant demeanor...
...charm. "He will convince you that he is a most reasonable and sympathetic individual," says a U.S. analyst, and his political instincts are remarkably shrewd. His arrival as head of the Belgrade party in 1984 ended a rudderless period of creeping liberalization, when the communists needed to solidify their grip on power after the death of Tito."What I liked most about him was that his desk was always empty -- he knew how to work," says Jurij Bajec, an economist now fiercely critical of Milosevic who once worked under him at Belgrade's largest bank and later followed him into...
Still, the goal of breaking the military's grip on political life is not yet within reach. The leading candidate to succeed Suchinda as Prime Minister is Somboon Rahong, a member of parliament but also a former air force officer. Opposition politicians said he was simply fronting for the supreme commander, Air Chief Marshal Kaset Rojananil, and therefore was unacceptable. They warned that his appointment would set off more street demonstrations. Another potential flash point is the last-minute amnesty Suchinda handed himself and his military cronies, a step many Thais believe is illegal...
...silent majority that kept its grip on mainstream values, the kids in San Francisco were nihilists and dropouts, refusing to work a day job, pay taxes or serve in the military...
...economic boom that has helped loosen the military's grip may also indirectly restrain more attempts by the generals to hang on through violence -- they have as much to lose as anyone else. Not the least reason King Bhumibol was able to broker last week's compromise was a growing fear on both sides that continued bloodshed would severely damage the economy by frightening away tourists and foreign investors. It simply is not as easy for the military to maintain control of the affluent and educated Thailand of today as it was in the simpler peasant society that the nation...