Thailand's stalemate and uneasy accommodation

POLITICS

Thailand's stalemate and uneasy accommodation

Published: 15 Feb 2013 at 00.00
Newspaper section: News

Thailand has regained relative calm and stability over the past year. After the worst floods in half a century subsided in early 2012, on the back of political crisis and turmoil that date back to 2005, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's government has some breathing space to roll out its consumption-driven "populist" policy agenda.

However, the street protests against the Yingluck government have not gone away. In October-November last year, a royalist-conservative movement called Pitak Siam, which opposed Ms Yingluck's brother Thaksin Shinawatra, mobilised and turned up more than 10,000 demonstrators at its peak. But the anti-Thaksin movement could not produce broad-based support as in 2005-06 and 2008, when it was instrumental in overturning Thaksin-backed governments.

After all that has been said and seen in recent years, Thai politics has reached a plateau, characterised by an uneasy accommodation on one hand and a protracted stalemate on the other.

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jwatch
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Discussion 7 : 17 Feb 2013 at 18.357
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Should have let Thaksin run the country and finish his terms, he would have run it into the ground and people would have voted him out.
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Contrarian
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Discussion 6 : 16 Feb 2013 at 11.276
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Disc. #4 - "This is an excellent and insightful article."

Yes it is, if you are a PAD-Dem, Pro-coup sympathiser, in the camp of those who cannot win an election, and have been pursuaded by the "Thaksin demonization campaign to justify a coup"

The fact they cannot win elections, compels them to try to rationalize it, hence you get opinion articles such as this.
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hangover
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Discussion 5 : 16 Feb 2013 at 09.005
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"Anti-Thaksin fatigue seems to have set in......"

This is the only sentence that upsets the Thaksin-haters because they believe they are still strong and continue hold the upper hand, at least in Bangkok. But wait for the governor's election in March.
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watchdog
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Discussion 4 : 15 Feb 2013 at 17.074
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This is an excellent and insightful article.
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commonman
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Discussion 3 : 15 Feb 2013 at 07.283
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Excellent description of the accomodation between the warring parties that places us where we are today. Sure there are important questions left hanging that will have to be dealt with at some point, but meanwhile there is relative peace and prosperity which everyone desires.
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bkkmatt
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Discussion 2 : 15 Feb 2013 at 06.222
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Only time will tell before Thaksin or the current govt overstep the mark in the oppostions eyes and we will have yet another round of protests and street battles.
Just a matter of time!!
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bangmodken
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Discussion 1 : 15 Feb 2013 at 05.451
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"Thaksin had to leave again a few months later,and has not returned since".

Well,that's one way of putting it. Some might argue that he fled,with his tail between his legs,from a Court ruling.
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Thailand's stalemate and uneasy accommodation | Bangkok Post: opinion