Postcards from Thailand

13 Jan – American embassy announces ‘’foreign terrorists may be currently looking to conduct attacks against tourist areas in Bangkok in the near future.’’

13 Jan – Hezbollah terrorist arrested in Bangkok

15 Jan – Deputy Prime Minister Kowit Wattana said “ the situation is under control”

16 Jan – Kowit further adds “The government can take care of people’s security and they need not be concerned about the terrorist warning issued by several foreign countries.”

16 Jan – Police discover more than 4 tonnes of explosive material just outside Bangkok in a space rented by the Hezbollah terrorist.

It’s being reported in the Israeli press (and it was the Israelis that uncovered the plot) that the intention was to launch two attacks, one on Khao San Road – an area very popular with backpackers – and on a Jewish centre. The Thai language press reports that the terrorist had in place two large trucks to transport the explosive. However, the Thai police line is that the explosives were to be sent to other countries, simply making Bangkok a hub of international terrorism – so that’s OK, then. And we really don’t need to worry about the rest of the gang who are presumably still at large.

A couple of unanswered questions:

(1) If the US embassy hadn’t gone public, would the Thai authorities have done anything? (They’d already been informed of the threat by the Americans several weeks ago.)

(2) The US embassy is refusing to retract its warning of an imminent terrorist attack, despite the Thai PM’s request. What do the Americans know?

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Much of Bangkok is under water. Vast swathes of the countryside have been flooded. Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced. There’s a severe shortage of food, drinking water and (more importantly) beer. Virtually every industrial estates in Thailand’s economic heartland has been inundated. So what is the government’s top priority?

At yesterday’s cabinet meeting it appears an unscheduled item was raised; officials were ordered to leave the room whilst it was discussed. It was a resolution concerning amnesty for prisoners. Prime Minister Yingluck was conveniently absent*. She was probably visiting some flooded site looking as if she was about to break into tears – it’s seems it’s about all she does these days. Still, it lets her claim the decision was nothing to do with her. (And to be honest, it probably wasn’t. After all, we know who really runs the government – “Thaksin thinks; Pheu Thai acts” and all that.)

There’s a tradition of a royal amnesty on the King’s birthday, 5th December, every twelve years as well as on other special occasions. However, this time is going to be a bit of a break with tradition. In the past the amnesty has been for those convicted who have served part of their prison terms and who have expressed remorse for their crimes. This time these conditions have been dropped – you just need to be over 60 and have been sentenced to imprisonment for less than 3 years. So Thaksin will be allowed to return to Thailand without ever having spent even a minute incarcerated for his criminal abuse of power. He’s probably be Thailand’s first prisoner to be released from behind bars without ever actually having been behind them.

And the timing is oh-so-convenient, with his eldest daughter getting married on the 12th next month.

There are some things in Thailand that stink worse than the flood waters.

* The Prime Minister was in Singburi. She claimed that she couldn’t get back for the cabinet meeting because neither her helicopter nor the backup helicopter could fly in the dark. The army has flatly contradicted her on this. And anyway, she still could have returned to Bangkok by road in time for the meeting. Furthermore she claims to have no knowledge of what was discussed at the cabinet meeting. Perhaps the battery in her mobile ‘phone was flat. Who knows?

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“This world is a comedy to those that think,
a tragedy to those that feel –
a solution of why Democritus laughed and Heraclitus wept”
– Horace Walpole, 1769

It’s taken just a few days for the new government to show its true colours.

1. The government dropped the price of petrol by 8 Baht a litre. Enormous queues formed outside petrol stations, and many places ran dry. The government promptly raised the price again.
2. The police chief has been forced out of his job, to be replaced by Thaksin’s brother-in-law.
3. The promise to raise the minimum wage to 300 Baht from January (a major vote winner) has now become “raise the minimum wage to 300 Baht in only seven provinces for the time being”.
4. The government has admitted that its policy of a minimum starting salary of 15,000 Baht per month for graduates can’t legally be imposed upon the private sector, so will only apply to government workers (if it’s ever actually implemented, that is). I’m not sure where the money will come from to hike the pay of the 346,365 graduate government workers who currently earn less than that.
5. Two cases of corruption against members of Thaksin’s family have been dropped.  (An independent judiciary?)
6. The government used its influence to persuade Japan to grant a vista to Thaksin, though as a convicted criminal facing 2 years in prison he wouldn’t normally have been granted one.
7. The policy to help poor people buy cars (as if the streets of Bangkok weren’t crowded enough already) has been changed so that only tax payers will benefit (and in Thailand the poor – and the very rich – don’t pay taxes).
8. The “credit cards for taxi drivers and motorcycle taxis” is now to be extended to give credit cards to all the poor so they can pay for fuel. (Or rather, they can run up credit then default, as has happened with similar government schemes in the past.)
9. The government has appointed about 20 red shirt leaders (i.e. the people responsible for setting fire to Bangkok shopping malls and widespread looting) to government positions, even though they seem rather lacking in qualifications.

The lunatics really do seem to have taken over the asylum.

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It’s now less than a week since Thaksin’s puppet sister was elected Prime Minister. Showing government priorities we now hear that Thaksin’s children are to be exempt from paying the 11 billion Baht capital gains tax on the sale of strategic national assets including telecommuncations satellites and mobile ‘phone network the family company to Singapore. 11 billion Baht? That’s 226 million Great British Pounds or 368 million Yankee Dollars.

The Prime Minister has also made an interesting choice of Foreign Minister. Rather than go for an experienced career diplomat she chose a man who not only has no experience of foreign affairs but has also openly admitted he’s not interested in them. He may be related to the Thaksin clan through marriage, but I’m sure he’s the best man for the job. The job, apparently, is to bring Thaksin back to Thailand without his spending a moment in jail and ensuring he’s totally exonerated of all criminal charges.

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Now, I’m not a big fan of democracy. However you try and fiddle with the system – first past the post, single transferable vote, alternative vote plus, additional member – the results will be unsatisfactory because the unwashed masses simply are too poorly educated and/or stupid to make decisions based upon the common good and vote purely in their own selfish interests. It was greed that got Margaret Thatcher, more commonly known as “that evil bitch-monster from hell”, re-elected not once, but twice.

The results of American democracy are even more farcical. Look at recent Republican presidents: Nixon – a crook; Ford – a bumbling incompetent; Reagan – a B-movie actor and buffoon; the first Bush – a blood-thirsty warmonger; the second Bush – an idiot, blood-thirsty warmonger. And now you have the likes of Palin and Bachmann jostling for the White House – ignorant, bigoted morons the pair of them. How could anyone in their right mind consider voting for them? That they are even being considered as candidates makes the USA the laughing stock of the world. And it’s this system of American democracy that Uncle Sam is trying to foist upon the rest of the world!

***

Thai democracy is little more successful. Pheu Thai scored a major victory for the Red Shirts yesterday. As always, people looked to their own self interest rather than to the good of the country. Pheu Thai’s policies are little more than a series of bribes:

• a free iPad for every student
• a minimum wage of 300 Baht for all workers (currently it varies by province from 151 to 206 Baht)
• a 15,000 Baht monthly starting salary guaranteed for all first-time graduate employees (that’s approximately double the current starting salary for a teacher)
• 20 Baht flat fares on the skytrain and metro
• cheap apartments along skytrain and metro routes
• ten new train routes connecting Bangkok to nearby provinces
• a high speed train link to the north east (where most of Pheu Thai’s supporters hail from) and on to Chiang Mai (another Red Shirt stronghold)
• help for people with debts of more than 500,000 Baht, including a 3 year repayment freeze
• the creation of 100,000 new jobs
• rice mortgages at 20,000 Baht/2,000 litres for Jasmine Rice (way above current market prices) – a little less for other kinds of rice
• credit cards for all taxi drivers and motorcycle taxis

Others policies stretch credulity to breaking point:

• illegal drugs eradicated within 12 months
• building a twin city for Bangkok
• building a dam around Bangkok to prevent floods

All of this will cost a lot of money, and how all this will be funded is something that Pheu Thai has been curiously quiet about. It’s not going to be from big business, because Pheu Thai has also promised to cut the rate of corporation tax from 30% to 23%.

Of course, Pheu Thai won’t be able to follow through with all its promises, so today’s Shoe cartoon from America seemed particularly apposite:

The only policies you can be 100% sure of are that Thaksin will be given an amnesty and that his confiscated billions will be returned to him.

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A few years ago I was staying in an upmarket hotel in Bangkok, The Davis. In the morning, at breakfast, I was rather surprised by the very large number of fat, balding, ugly westerners accompanied by their by-the-hour girlfriends. I later discovered that the hotel was owned by Chuwit Kamolvisit (ชูวิทย์ กมลวิศิษฎ์), a brothel owner.

As a young man Chuwit studied for an MBA at an American university. He applied what he’d learnt there to his chosen business line: selling sex. He built luxurious “massage parlours” with added facilities such as karaoke rooms and bars and charged a higher than normal price for the services of his working girls. He also marketed his business’ services very effectively with large posters featuring attractive blondes. His MBA paid off, and soon he was Thailand’s largest brothel owner with six establishments engaging around 600 women.

Chuwit and Friends

Of course, prostitution is illegal in Thailand. However, if you pay the right bribes to the right policemen you don’t generally have a problem. However, in 2003 things started to go wrong for Chuwit. He decided he wanted to redevelop a plot of prime land he owned known as Sukhumwit Square. However, it was already rented out to a collection of bars, shops, a laundry and a travel agent. To solve this problem 600 goons were hired to raze the area. The raid took place very early on a Sunday morning; the tenants hadn’t been notified in advance. Chuwit was arrested. He denied all responsibility and was, after a month, released from jail.

Chuwit was incensed with how he’d been treated, so he released details of the bribes he’d paid to senior policemen whom he named. He claimed he’d forked 200 million Baht over the previous ten years (that’s about £4 million at current exchange rates). He also said that certain top policemen received free sex at his establishments – something confirmed by some of his women.

The police weren’t too happy about the revelations, so they launched a series of raids against his establishments and froze some of his bank accounts. The raids weren’t good for business, and Chuwit promptly sold three of his whorehouses.

In 2006 the three year trial for razing Sukhumwit Square finally concluded. Chuwit was found not guilty, but one of his corporate lawyers was convicted of having paid the goons and sentenced to 8 months in prison.

Rather than press ahead with developing the park, Chuwit had it converted at great expense into a public park which he named after himself, Chuwit Garden. Originally the park was open for 13 hours a day. However, when policemen started lazing around the park during the middle of the day he decided only to open the park for a few hours in the morning and a few hours late afternoon. Now during the middle of the day it’s the private playground of his beloved dog, Motomoto, a white bull terrier.

Chuwit and Friend

Curiously there’s a plaque at the entrance to the park which reads:

“Dedicated to the Lord Jesus Christ
29th August 2005
To God be the glory”

Perhaps Chuwit got his interest in Christianity from his ex-wife, who was American, or maybe from his father, who was Hong Kong Chinese. It’s not known.

Chuwit has long had political ambitions. He’s twice run for Governor of Bangkok, campaigning against police and government corruption, though came third on both occasions. His attempt at office in 2008 probably wasn’t helped when he rather publicly beat up a journalist who’d insulted him.

In 2005 he was elected as an MP, though was subsequently disqualified on the technicality that he hasn’t been a member of his political party for 90 days before the general election.

This year he’s running for parliament again. Unlike the normally bland political posters that clutter the street Chuwit’s are rather characterful. He usually looks angry and frustrated …

… or possibly badly constipated.

Not left, not right.  Straight ahead.

He often uses props such as a steering wheel (above), samurai sword, gun, axe, or (as below) a baby:

Vote for Chuvit. Politics is like nappies: the more often you change them, the better things get.

Anyway, ever in search of publicity Chuwit, decided to join the planking craze. Here he is a few days ago in Sri Racha on the campaign trail:

In what is a rather bland election campaign Chuwit Kamolvisit does rather stand out.

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When Prime Minister Abhisit called a general election the House was dissolved. That was on May 10th. It didn’t take long for the guns for hire to sprint into action. That same day a gunman sprayed the car of one candidate with bullets. The victim escape with minor injuries.

Police inspect the car. Photo from The Bangkok Post.

On the 13th a bomb was thrown into the car of a canvaser.

A week later a politician and his wife were shot dead whilst driving their pickup. That happened not far from where I used to live in Ayutthaya.

Even closer to home was a gun attack on the home of a canvaser in the district of Bangkok next to where I live on the 26th. Thankfully, there were no injuries. Equally fortunate was a politician who was subject to a similar attack two days later.

On the 29th a canvasser and a politician were both gunned down in a single incident.

On the 31st a bomb was thrown at a rally. Two injured – one seriously.

June 3rd brought another gun attack on a canvasser’s home. No injuries reported.

A canvasser was stabbed to death on the 12th. And on the same day there was yet another gun attack on a canvasser’s home. Again, no injuries.

In short, assassination and intimidation of politicians and canvassers is a key factor in Thai election campaigning. So, what are the police doing about this? Well, just after the House was dissolved they issued a list of 112 known hitmen and offered a substantial reward (equivalent to about £2,000) for anyone providing information leading to an arrest. “Most Wanted” posters, with photographs, were issued for 50 of the men.

But why haven’t the police been able to arrest these murderers? It seems that many of them are kept in training camps under the protection of powerful individuals – untouchable. The police actually know of 100 such camps, but any attempt to investigate is thwarted by those powerful individuals.

As F. Scott Fitzgerald allegedly said “The rich are different than you and me.” And it’s not just because they have more money. Here they’re beyond the law, too.

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Former Prime Minister Thaksin gave an interview to an Australian TV channel from his luxury mansion in Dubai where he lives as a fugitive from justice. In the interview he denied that he wanted to become Prime Minister again, and that all he wanted was

“to be a lecturer … Playing golf. Giving guidance for my children — for their business endeavours.”

Well, that was enough to have me spluttering into my cocoa. How on earth does he expect the Thai people to believe this?

There’s a general election coming up in July. His party, Pheu Thai, has as its slogan

“Thaksin thinks; Pheu Thai does.”

In other words, Pheu Thai is Thaksin’s puppet.

Thaksin has appointed his sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, as the party’s number one candidate and putative next Prime Minister.

One of Pheu Thai’s main policies is an amnesty for Thaksin so he can return to Thailand without being jailed for his crimes.

Incidentally, his sister has no experience of politics whatsoever and has been banned by the party leaders from debating with the current Prime Minister Abhisit because … well, presumably because she’s not up to the job.

He’s stepping back to play golf? I should coco!

Then it dawned on me: very few Thai people will read the English language press – particularly the working class farmers and taxi drivers (both car and motorcycle) that provide the party’s core base of supporters. Thaksin, Janus-like, is trying to show one square face to the West – a hard-done-by politician overthrown by a coup, unfairly living in exile, who’s given up all political ambition – and another to Thailand as the same man he’s always been.

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