It's been a classic Thaksin Shinawatra week, complete with drama, plot twists, tears and the Thai prime minister's ongoing love affair with his people, all broadcast live on television.
In the aftermath of Thailand's snap election on Sunday -- a bit of a farcical affair since essentially only one party contested it -- the careworn caretaker prime minister appeared on national TV on Monday night to explain to the public why he felt entitled to remain in his job.
Admittedly, only about 28 million out of 45 million eligible voters had exercised their right to vote, the worst turnout since the 1997 Constitution was adopted, penalizing citizens for not voting.
And admittedly about 10 million people had ticked their ballots "no vote," essentially a protest vote against the premier and his Thai Rak Thai Party, in addition to about 3 million more invalidated votes, setting another electoral record. Many of the latter group were invalidated by outraged citizens who scribbled "Thaksin Get Out" on their ballots.
Nonetheless Thaksin stressed that his party had received 16 million votes, and he owed it to these voters to stay on as prime minister.
Then, on Tuesday, the belligerent caretaker prime minister was granted an audience with Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej at his palace in the seaside province of Hua Hin.
After that audience, Thaksin rushed back to Bangkok for another public message on public television on Tuesday night, to announce his decision not to accept a third term as prime minister, but to stay on as a caretaker while a new parliament and government is set up.
And, oh yes, he will stay on as head of the Thai Rak Thai Party, which -- when and if it ever manages to form a new parliament -- would likely hold at least 499 of the 500 seats, a percentage any communist state would be proud of.
Then on Wednesday, Thaksin made a dramatic show of leaving his office at Government House, removing the pictures of his beloved family and other personal items, shaking hands with his loyal aides and hugging and being hugged by his adoring supporters as he rode off home.
"He is a world-class spin doctor," said Sunai Pasuk, Thailand representative for Human Rights Watch, commenting on this week's performance. "It's just a tactical retreat from public pressure."
While Thaksin's "departure" from his executive powers, or at least his promise not to resume them in the future, has been generally welcomed by the people opposed to his rule, the substance of his grand exit has left more questions than answers.
Obviously, the three former opposition parties that boycotted Sunday's snap election to draw attention to the dictatorial powers Thaksin had amassed over his past five years as premier, were not impressed.
"We should not be alarmed or happy with his decision to step aside, because we have to see whether his regime is still around or not," said Chuan Leekpai, a former Thai premier himself and senior member of the main opposition Democrat Party.
The Democrats have always maintained that what is needed is a new round of political reforms, not another election. They are calling for constitutional amendments, designed to strengthen checks and balances on a populist regime like Thaksin's.
Thaksin, a former telecommunications tycoon who romped to power on a host of populist policies designed to win votes from the rural and urban poor, was Thailand's first billionaire premier.
While Thaksin has promised to set up an independent committee to mull such constitutional changes, it is doubtful that anything that might rein in his party's near-absolute rule will be approved by a parliament dominated by the party, with Thaksin at its head.
"He may be able to move Government House to the House of Representatives, where he will be sitting," joked Suchit Bunbongkarn, a well-respected political scientist at Chulalongkorn University who helped to draft the 1997 constitution.
Suchit said that amendments to the Constitution are needed to strengthen Thailand's independent bodies, such as the Constitutional Court and National Counter Corruption Committee, by removing politicians from the committees that nominate members to such bodies.
But such amendments are not likely to be approved by a parliament dominated by the Thai Rak Thai party.
The People's Alliance for Democracy, which led the mass demonstrations over the past two months demanding Thaksin's resignation, has also vowed to continue its struggle despite Thaksin's "departure."
Alliance leader Suriyasai Katasila told reporters that the group was to resume its anti-Thaksin protests yesterday.
"The anti-Thaksin movement has set two strategies: one is pressuring Mr Thaksin to step down, and the other is removing the Thaksin Rule. Mr Thaksin's stepping aside from office won't defuse a time-bomb, but merely delay the explosion," Suriyasai said.
Could Asia be on the verge of a new wave of nuclear proliferation? A look back at the early history of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which recently celebrated its 75th anniversary, illuminates some reasons for concern in the Indo-Pacific today. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin recently described NATO as “the most powerful and successful alliance in history,” but the organization’s early years were not without challenges. At its inception, the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty marked a sea change in American strategic thinking. The United States had been intent on withdrawing from Europe in the years following
My wife and I spent the week in the interior of Taiwan where Shuyuan spent her childhood. In that town there is a street that functions as an open farmer’s market. Walk along that street, as Shuyuan did yesterday, and it is next to impossible to come home empty-handed. Some mangoes that looked vaguely like others we had seen around here ended up on our table. Shuyuan told how she had bought them from a little old farmer woman from the countryside who said the mangoes were from a very old tree she had on her property. The big surprise
The issue of China’s overcapacity has drawn greater global attention recently, with US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen urging Beijing to address its excess production in key industries during her visit to China last week. Meanwhile in Brussels, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last week said that Europe must have a tough talk with China on its perceived overcapacity and unfair trade practices. The remarks by Yellen and Von der Leyen come as China’s economy is undergoing a painful transition. Beijing is trying to steer the world’s second-largest economy out of a COVID-19 slump, the property crisis and
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) trip to China provides a pertinent reminder of why Taiwanese protested so vociferously against attempts to force through the cross-strait service trade agreement in 2014 and why, since Ma’s presidential election win in 2012, they have not voted in another Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate. While the nation narrowly avoided tragedy — the treaty would have put Taiwan on the path toward the demobilization of its democracy, which Courtney Donovan Smith wrote about in the Taipei Times in “With the Sunflower movement Taiwan dodged a bullet” — Ma’s political swansong in China, which included fawning dithyrambs