Thailand's Political Meltdown

[dr dave soul monsta]

In the name of saving democracy, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his opponents first destroy it!

IN HIS FIVE years as prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra did much to weaken Thailand's democracy. Now, abetted by his opposition, he has delivered a crowning blow. Having called and decisively won a snap election, Mr. Shinawatra announced his resignation even before the count was complete. To the majority of 16 million voters who supported him, he sent the message that their ballots didn't count. Instead, he ratified the logic of his opposition, which was that crowds of protesters in the streets of Bangkok can overrule a free and fair election. The result is a wrecked political system and a perversion of the "people power" that once spread democracy in Asia.

The mess is compounded by the fact that Mr. Shinawatra's departure will not change the distribution of power. Because opposition parties irresponsibly boycotted last weekend's election, the prime minister's party will control at least 90 percent of the seats in the new parliament. Mr. Shinawatra will remain a legislator and could choose the new prime minister and cabinet. Before the election he offered to form a nonpartisan commission to draw up constitutional reforms, and to hold new elections after they were enacted. If he follows through on this promise and the opposition participates in good faith, the political system could be patched back together. But it will take months or years during which the Thai government will be dangerously weak.

To save democracy, Mr. Shinawatra and his opponents will have much to overcome. The prime minister has a record of bullying the press and using brutal extralegal methods against criminals and Muslim rebels; he will be asked to sign off on reforms that place more checks on the power of future prime ministers. For its part, the opposition's refusal to respect Mr. Shinawatra's repeated electoral victories reflects a divide in Thailand between the rising middle classes of Bangkok and the poor, rural majority in the countryside -- which benefited from the government's populist social programs. Opposition leaders claim that Mr. Shinawatra's autocratic tendencies justified their resort to mass demonstrations; but they also knew, as Sunday's election confirmed, that they could not win a national vote. Mr. Shinawatra has now paid the price for his own abuses by stepping down. Having won that concession, the opposition should commit itself to standing down the next time it loses an election.


[Washinton Post Sunday, April 9, 2006]