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• Tuesday, September 19, 2006 08:47 PM

  Leonard was there -- so what

  This is one of the most soppy oatmeal posts I've ever read. For one thing, the fact that Andrew Leonard went to Thailand several times some 20 or more years ago (a favorite Leonard mantra), seems pretty irrevelant. There are no insights derived from that experience that could not have been gleaned from reading news posts from far away.

  The other point seems to be that no matter how much the government may suck, a democratically elected despot is always better than removing him by coup.

  The bottom line is that no one can really say whether this is good or bad until we see how it plays out. It the military in fact allows democratic elections in the near future then this might be a positive move.

  The post cites massive demonstrations in 1991-92 that brought down the last military government as a good thing. Yet it fails to note that there were massive anti-Thaksin demonstrations earlier this year. It wasn't just something that the military didn't like. Thaksin has been accused of numerous shady capitalist government moves that resulted in personal enrichment. That included changing the law so that he wouldn't have to pay taxes on the sale of his business empire. He called for new elections last winter and manipulated the process to favor himself. He resigned from his position as prime minister then reclaimed the position a couple of months later when the elections didn't create a clear cut winner. In negotiations to have a new election he was playing every card he could to tilt the playing field in his own direction. Not surprising moves but certainly undemocratic.

  I'm not sure that democracy was working in Thailand. There were suits going through the Thai legal system asserting that Thaksin had circumvented the constitution in approving free trade agreements with Australia and Japan without getting them cleared through the senate -- unconstitutional. The anti-free trade agreement fervor was a large part of the anti-Thaksin movement.

  So what do you do when the chief executive is stomping all over the constitution?

  I say that in the United States you impeach the sucker. But there are other processes in other countries that may be more expedient for their situation.

  At the very least don't pontificate until you see which direction this is heading.

  —Gumbo Gabe
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