Word: sondhi
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...fourth grenade attack on the compound this past week by unknown assailants. One PAD security guard was killed and several others were wounded in the previous attacks. Two grenades and several rounds of gunfire were also fired at the offices of ASTV, a satellite television station owned by Sondhi Limthongkul, one of the protest leaders, early Sunday, and a bomb exploded at a barricade erected by the PAD outside Don Muang Airport. No one was wounded in either incident...
...politics. Some PAD leaders have advocated replacing an elected parliament with one in which some members are appointed, arguing that widespread buying of rural votes delegitimizes the polls anyway. "It's taken for granted in the West that democracy is the best system," says PAD leader and media tycoon Sondhi Limthongkul, sitting on a blue tarp that serves as the alliance's makeshift headquarters at Government House. "But all we are getting in Thailand is the same vicious circle of corrupt, power-hungry leaders. This system is not working...
...Back at PAD central, behind barricades made from coils of razor wire and stacks of tires, Sondhi muses on what he envisions for Thailand's political future. Maybe, he says, parliament could be rejiggered so that leaders from professional blocs sit alongside elected district representatives. Or perhaps, he continues, an unlikely national leader will emerge from the ranks of, say, teachers or human-rights activists. Then, Sondhi excuses himself. He goes and prays to the weather deities to ask them to forestall rain, lest the thousands of protesters at Government House get drenched by the monsoon. That night, Sondhi...
...Sondhi and his followers decided, instead, to take over Samak's offices, hoping that extreme trespassing would supplant the power of the ballot box. At first, the mood at the besieged compound was celebratory, with the Alliance supplying plenty of free food and drinks - and even veteran rock stars coming to entertain the crowds. But early on Sept. 2, the atmosphere took a sudden turn when a deadly street battle erupted between the PAD and a counter-protest group that supports the embattled Prime Minister. Dozens were injured as mobs attacked each other with whatever weapons were on hand - bamboo...
...clear who members of PAD, which is not a political party itself, want to lead the country after Samak. Although many of those barricaded at Government House support the opposition Democrat Party, their numbers lagged behind the PPP's in last year's polls. Even Sondhi isn't willing to name a single person whom he believes could successfully lead the country. "We know we have to change," he says, "but we don't know how exactly to do it yet." In the meantime, Sondhi is of the act-first-and-negotiate-later school of politics. It's a stance...