คุณมะ ณ สาเนฯ

Taken from http://thaiintelligentnews.wordpress.com/2008/11/28/us-congressmen-wife-looks-at-thaksin-and-sondhi/ 

Barbarians at the Gate of Suvanabhumi, by special contributor Beth a US Congressman wife

In Thailand, it is the upper-class, the Royalist, and the civil servants who are the Barbarians

The upper-class Thais, the Royalist, and the civil servants have often pointed to the less fortunate Thais as buffalos, stupid and such-or to say it simply “barbarians.” And so one day, the Barbarians elected a prime minister, Thaksin. While Thaksin emerges an icon of Asia, winning Thailand the admiration of the likes of China-to the point China sent teams to study Thaksinomics as a model for rural China development, these upper-class Thais choose their champion, in a bankrupt media icon, Sondhi, to bring down that icon of Asia.

There is no such a thing as a perfect person, and Thaksin indeed had many faults-such as an appetite for business even as he entered politics. As the champion of the unfortunate Thais went solving the problems of the poor, to the point that Thailand became one of the very few countries in the world where the gap of the rich and poor narrowed, under capitalism, indeed Thaksin kept his business empire going, by way of his children or whatever.

Yet even with Thaksin’s achievements and faults, the championed of the upper-class, simply narrowed into Thaksin’s fault-and amplified it to the hundreds of times its real negativity, coining the phrase called the “Thaksin System.” The upper-class combines this business interest of Thaksin and the fact that Thaksin is so popular, his party won enough majority to form a one party rule, as the root of all evil in Thailand, calling Thaksin “Hitler” for having too much power, and “traitor” for his liberal trade and investment policies.

Un-stoppable and un-checkable and too much power were used to attack Thaksin, and also at democracy itself in general. Yet there were the opposition, a group of independent senators, a free press, a free will academic circle, and an increasingly independent courts-all of which opposed and checked Thaksin to the greatest extent-to which Thaksin say there has never been a PM under more scrutiny than him in Thailand’s history.

While it is argueable, if Thaksin had too much power or is just that the Thais never had a one party majority rule before and so don’t quite know how to react, it really is corruption that Thaksin’s critics went after.

But as Moody, the credit rating agency has questioned the Thai courts neutrality, so can ordinary people.

One example is Thaksin 5-4 split guilty decision by the Thai courts that Thaksin breached the wall prohibiting government officials from doing business with the agencies they supervised. The logical question is, even so it is true-what damaged did Thaksin do? And second, why did other courts in Thailand ruled before, as Thaksin said in his defense, that the agency in question, is not under the PM supervision?

Yet the upper-crust simply grabbed of the guilty ruling, as proof of the evil of the Thaksin system. Meanwhile, the upper-class champion, Sondhi, in representing the upper-class interest in bringing Thaksin-and all government that take roots in Thaksin down, what have this champion of the upper-class done?

Well we have seen a coup of the rich, we have seen the occupation of government offices and now we have seen the occupation of the Thai airport.

It is simple to conclude really, that under Thaksin, Thailand prospered, with perhaps a few bending of minor rules governing ethics, and under Sondhi, the closure of the airport alone is estimated at US$3 billion a day. And what is supposed to be gained from that US$3 billion a day, its new politics where most MPs are appointed-meaning not very democratic after all.

In Thailand’s case, it is clear as night and day, that as it had turned out, the barbarians at the gates are actually the upper-class, the Royalist and the civil servants after all.