New Mandala readers looking to take the current pulse of the Thai political scene will find two recent blogs from The Nation’s stable of online content reward a visit.
The first is Suthichai Yoon’s argument about the “invisible hand” that Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej believes has a controlling influence in Thai politics. Suthichai invites the PM to show his cards. Will Samak listen? Or is that a silly question?
The second is a discussion of “slash and burn” agriculture in northern Thailand that highlights the role of the king in working to stop air pollution. It is even suggested that “if the problem is not alleviated, His Majesty will induce artificial rains to reduce the haze”.
For the curious, an old New Mandala post has some more details on royal rain-making and its technical aspects. There is, however, a report that the widely advertised Thai effort to make rain in Tanzania will now be aborted.
And, for the even more curious, a profile of Thailand’s chief royal rain-maker, a chap named Warawut Khantiyanan, is also online. What do readers think - are the Tanzanians right to have second thoughts about following Thailand’s royal rain-making efforts?
1 response so far ↓
1 Observer // Mar 26, 2008 at 6:26 pm
Samak is certainly not stupid enough to listen to, let alone act on, the ravings of Sutthichai Yoon or The Nation. There does not seem to be a single person on the editorial staff who aren’t constantly looking to twist every fact into a hysterical rant about how Thaksin, the TRT, and the PPP are on the verge of destroying Thailand.
However, it would be interesting to open this issue up a bit. How about if Samak and his allies can provide evidence of unconstitutional manipulation of the government? Would The Nation commit to publishing it and aggressive investigating the issue with an intention to expose and punish the manipulators?
I am not of a paranoid nature and so I really do think Sopon Ongara believes the crap he spews regularly, but I wouldn’t blame Samak one bit if the thinks they are all paid by the invisible hand itself for spreading what does seem to me to be an orchestrated arnesal of falsehood.
Is there anyone on this planet who does not believe that there is a fierce battle being waged between two factions of society, one depending on the strength of numbers through rural support ansd the other the strength of influence from urban support? You can argue that the invisible hands are good, bad or indifferent, but is it really possible to think that there is no manipulation going on?
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