Word: thailander
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...just stupid, but perhaps unnecessary. A new security bill has been tabled before the junta-appointed National Legislative Assembly, which replaced the suspended parliament. If passed in its current form, the bill could grant the generals powers to deny basic civil rights. "The military see themselves as custodians of Thailand's political future," says Thitinan. "The security act is evidence of their intention to stay in politics for the long haul." This and other junta-proposed laws would "violate the people's rights," declared former senator Jon Ungphakorn, who led a hundreds-strong storming of the Assembly...
...does the specter of a resurgent Thai military. Thailand's generals seized power 15 months ago after long-running street protests in Bangkok calling for Thaksin's resignation for alleged corruption and abuse of power. Junta-appointed investigators then froze his assets and filed a raft of corruption charges against him and his family - charges that he denies. But Thaksin's popularity in rural areas such as Isaan remains undented, and with his loyalists in the PPP tipped to win more seats than any other party, his political clout is still a force to be reckoned with, even from self...
...cried when I watched it," says the old woman selling them. The two candidates whom Samak has come to support are all but forgotten. Instead, his speech is all about "Prime Minister Thaksin," as Samak still calls him. He suggests that if Thaksin returns to a military-ruled Thailand, he faces the same fate as Pakistan's ex-PM Benazir Bhutto, whose October homecoming was met by a suicide bombing that killed more than 140 people. Samak hails Thaksin's dynamism and business savvy, and accuses rivals of "exploiting the bond Isaan people have with...
...While the PPP plays the Thaksin card, the rival Democrats point to their record in ruling Thailand after two previous crises: the bloody military crackdown on democracy protesters in 1992, and the regionwide economic crash five years later. "We restored political calm and laid the ground for economic recovery," says Korn Chatikavanij, the party's deputy secretary general. "Our record in government is solid." Democrats are also banking on Abhisit Vejjajiva, 43, their fresh-faced, Oxford-educated leader. Abhisit is clearly Prime Ministerial material, but remains untested in high public office and is said to lack the common touch. Samak...
...Southern Thailand is a stronghold for the Democrats, but the northeast region of Isaan is a graveyard. There, Thaksin is a tough act to follow. In None Somboon village, his face still beams from sun-bleached posters left over from a previous election. "Most Prime Ministers never leave their air-conditioned offices," says rice farmer Boon Mithaowan, 49. "Thaksin promised to do things, then he did them." Thanks to him, says Boon, the local irrigation canal was dredged and a new road built through the village...