Jotman has a lot of stories on the Thai coup. Start at the first link and work backwards through his posts. Jotman quotes Jonathan Head of the BBC who writes:
Thailand is now hopelessly divided.
There are no leaders who enjoy sufficient respect to drive a grand bargain between its polarised parties.
The age and frailty of King Bhumibol Adulyadej make intervention by him a forlorn hope.
Its tourist industry has been holed below the waterline, investor confidence badly shaken – and with two airports out of action, the capital is now cut off from the rest of the country.
Thailand is an example of what happens when a society becomes divided to the point of paralysis and neither faction is willing to abide by the term of the other faction. W. Scott Thompson at the IHT argues that Thailand has always been vulnerable to a logjam but always had a monarch to clear it. Now the monarch can’t clear it and everyone is waiting to see what happens next.
There exists in many countries mechanism for clearing a stoppage. Sometimes it takes the form of a “governor general” representing a notional monarch. At other times it is the intervention of a respected organization like a church or The Emperor. In still other countries is reverence for a constitution. But when politicians decide to traditions, they sometimes succeed in destroying the only thing that will save their bacon in a crisis.
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9 Comments
1. Charles:Funny thing about destroying traditions. When our elite comes to want decency and self-restraint (on the part of others) and respect for authority (on the part of others) they will find that they have destroyed the foundation upon which these rest.
Hard times.
Dec 1, 2008 - 3:41 pm 2. Lifeofthemind:The rebels are inconsolable because they rage against reality.
Dec 1, 2008 - 3:53 pm 3. RWE:Neither the King nor any politician can give them what they want.
Like a child they scream that life is not fair and the evil others should both go away and give them more.
“Hopelessly divided”
Just think about this. Thailand has an Islamic militant insurgency.
And Thailand has also become something of Asian center for sex changes.
Talk about divided!
Dec 1, 2008 - 4:46 pm 4. Ron Hardin:Derrida points out that traditions have to be simultaneously imposed and chosen.
Dec 1, 2008 - 4:49 pm 5. The World Begins To Fall Apart » The Ethereal Voice:[...] From the Belmont Club…. Thailand is an example of what happens when a society becomes divided to the point of paralysis and neither faction is willing to abide by the term of the other faction. W. Scott Thompson at the IHT argues that Thailand has always been vulnerable to a logjam but always had a monarch to clear it. Now the monarch can’t clear it and everyone is waiting to see what happens next. [...]
Dec 1, 2008 - 7:25 pm 6. Mike Sylwester:Wretchard, your last sentence is missing a verb before the word traditions.
Dec 1, 2008 - 9:56 pm 7. Jason B.:The situation is getting really bad and I am rather pessimistic that things will get any better especially that the standoffs are getting more and more violent. This is an interesting article I found on the web and Thai english speaking newspapers showing that the local people are hurting already.. no need to wait for Q1 or Q2 in 2009! I have asked the permission of the author to copy and paste.
Alarming decline in recruitment amongst political unrest.
JOBSEARCH, Thailand’s only vertical search engine indexing major Thai job offers on the internet has registered an alarming decline in job postings in the last week. According to Mr. Farouk Mogheth, Managing Director, this is attributed to the global economical slowdown however the last numbers are connected mainly to the serious political unrest and panic amongst the business sector. “Jobsearch is a very good barometer for the general attitudes towards hiring” said Mr. Mogheth as its is an automatic listing indexing around 175 000 – 200 000 jobs on a daily basis and is updated every 15 minutes. The system monitors other job websites and HR pages of individual companies and lists all their job openings on a single page for a concise overview.
He mentioned, that the during the last system check there has been a remarkable 58% drop in companies advertising job vacancies (job posting insertions) compared to the same period last month. The numbers as well show a steady rise of at least 42% in the activity of jobseekers subscribing for added job alerts.
“Our system contains hundreds of thousands of registered jobseekers and we can agree that the activity has been a clear indication of a wave of layoffs and downsizing in almost all sectors raising nervousness amongst workers and forcing them to seek alternatives and sort of looking for a plan B” he added. The most hit are the travel and hospitality sectors as well as logistics and heavy industry. Most companies have a definite freeze on their recruitment for this year and the outcome on the 1Q in 1009 is not at all optimistic as businesses are very cautious. The only thing that companies now are concerned about is lowering costs and see where to save. “This is the input of many HR specialists in Thailand” said Mr. Mogheth whose company recruits mid and top managers for the biggest names in the industry through Start Recruitment.
In case the current political standoff continues, then the economical outlook in 2009 will be more grim on the Thai economy as a whole. Unemployment rates will rise faster than the labour market’s ability to absorb the numbers of jobseekers as well as fresh graduates thus creating a major strain on the government and its resources. At the moment there is no creation of new job vacancies, on the contrary many investors has put Thailand on the hold until there is a clear indication that the situation has calmed down and that there will be a viable government to continue with reforms and steps to attract foreign direct investment.
http://www.Jobsearch.in.th
Dec 1, 2008 - 10:13 pm 8. Kirk Parker:JOBSEARCH
Lifeofthemind,
Maybe I’m biased (ok, scratch the “maybe”) but it seems to me that PAD protesters are the reasonable ones here.
Dec 2, 2008 - 8:40 am 9. The Importance Of Tradition « 36 Chambers - The Legendary Journeys: Execution to the max!:[...] Filed under: Curmudgeonliness — Kevin Feasel @ 8:45 pm In Thailand, there is an electoral logjam and the one institution which could normally keep things flowing—the monarchy—is [...]
Dec 6, 2008 - 5:53 pmSorry, comments for this entry are closed at this time.