Cambodian PM orders troops at border be "alert but calm"

July 09, 2011
Xinhua

Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen ordered soldiers based at Cambodia-Thai border to be on "alert but patient and calm" and to avoid any "provocative act."

In a statement released Friday after the weekly cabinet meeting, Hun Sen said that while Cambodia is seeing a positive move concerning the foreign policy of Thai Prime Minister-elect on restoring Cambodia-Thai relations, the military must stay alert, patient and calm and avoid any provocative act.

Phay Siphan, spokesman of the Office of the Council of Ministers said the premier delivered the order directly via video conference during the meeting to all military commanders at the border.

Charm that helped Yingluck win may not be enough as PM

Pheu Thai’s top party-list candidate Yingluck Shinawatra before voting at a polling station in the compound of Khlong Lamjiad School in Bung Kum district, Bangkok on July 3.

9/07/2011
Kamol Hengkietisak
Bangkok Post

Let the infighting begin

Even though Pheu Thai won a landslide victory on July 3, garnering 265 MPs out of the total 500 MPs in the House of Representatives, the honeymoon period may be short as there are impending problems within and outside the party waiting for Yingluck Shinawatra's coalition government, notes Post Today.

Though Pheu Thai can form a single-party government, Ms Yingluck is opting to form a coalition government with five other small parties to reach a total of 300 MPs for political stability.

However, the political situation is still very divisive as Pheu Thai has won the hearts of the poor people in the North and Northeast but has failed to convince the middle classes that the party is good for them.

Countrywide the Pheu Thai Party won 265 seats but lost 10-23 to the Democrats in Bangkok.

This is a bad omen that if Ms Yingluck administers the country and fails to solve economic problems as promised, the frugal acceptance of Bangkok's middle classes of the election result could turn hostile quickly.

Democrats seek Pheu Thai's dissolution

Democrat Party's legal team member Wirat Kallayasiri (Photo by Tawatchai Kemgumnerd)

8/07/2011
Bangkok Post

The Democrat Party of Friday initiated legal action seeking the dissolution of the Pheu Thai Party, filing a complaint with the Election Commission about the involvement of banned politicians.

The outgoing ruling party asked the Election Commission to recommend that the rival Puea Thai Party, which won the July 3 general election, be disbanded on the grounds that banned politicians were involved in its election campaign.

Democrat legal team member Wirat Kallayasiri said some of the 111 executive members of the dissolved Thai Rak Thai Party who were banned from politics for five years in 2008 - including ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra and Thai Rak Thai deputy leader Chaturon Chaisang - have been more involved in Pheu Thai's activities than the actual Pheu Thai executive members.

Sacrava's Political Cartoon: A Female Surgeon

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

Yingluck needs to invent a new kind of Thai diplomacy

July 7, 2011
Pavin Chachavalpongpun
The Nation (Thailand)/ANN

Yingluck Shinawatra will soon emerge as Thailand’s first female prime minister. Her election victory clearly indicates that the majority of Thais disapproved of politics à la Abhisit Vejjajiva. The past 30 months under Abhisit’s rule were marked by bloody protests and brutal crackdowns on demonstrators. Yingluck surely wants to get her priorities right so as to avoid the mistakes made by the previous regime as well as her own brother, former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

Yingluck’s top priority will be to heal the rift in Thai society. She is expected to concentrate on the ongoing reconciliation process. But this focus must not overshadow other equally significant priorities, including the necessity to promote Thailand’s role on the international stage. Yingluck will need to exercise her leadership both within and outside the country. It is now time for Thailand to reinvent itself and to regain a deserved global stature. In other words, she urgently needs a new kind of diplomacy.

When Thaksin served as prime minister from 2001-2006, Thai diplomacy underwent a series of overhauls. Some of these changes were cosmetic, while others were substantial. Thaksin launched a number of unambiguous foreign policy initiatives. He obviously wanted to conquer the world with his ambitious programmes, ranging from the Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD), the Ayeyawady-Mekong-Chao Phraya Economic Cooperation Strategy (ACMECS), and the conclusion of several free trade agreements.

Thailand’s First Female PM Prepares to Take Office

A supporters of Thailand's prime minister-elect Yingluck Shinawatra holds a magazine with her photo on the front cover as they celebrate her victory following the announcement of exit polls at the party headquarter in Bangkok, July 3, 2011 (Photo: AP)

July 07, 2011
Daniel Schearf | Bangkok
Voice of America

She says Thailand, after years of political turmoil and sporadic street violence, can benefit from having a woman in charge. "I think I can use as the female to talk with everyone to make the country… move forward by the peaceful strategy," she said.

Thailand is set to have its first female prime minister in Yingluck Shinawatra, younger sister of ousted former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Her victory as leader of the opposition Pheu Thai party has raised hopes that women can play a larger role in the country’s male-dominated politics. But many question if she can emerge from her brother’s shadow, let alone challenge Thai society’s cultural and social barriers for women.

Yingluck Shinawatra emerged victorious in one of the most high-stakes elections in Thailand’s recent history.

Her Pheu Thai party won a comfortable majority in a rebuke to Thailand’s traditional elite, who backed the ruling Democrat party of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.

The 44-year-old businesswoman is now preparing to hold her first political office as Thailand’s first female prime minister.

Analysis: Thai elite can no longer dismiss rural majority, or Thaksin's continuing influence

In this photo taken on July 3, 2011, one of supporters of Thailand's prime minister-elect Yingluck Shinawatra, the leader of Pheu Thai Party and the youngest sister of the fugitive, populist ex-leader Thaksin Shinawatra   (Associated Press)

Analysis: Thai rural majority can't be ignored

Thursday, July 07, 2011
By GRANT PECK | Associated Press

Thailand's landslide election result underlines the enduring influence of fugitive, populist ex-leader Thaksin Shinawatra, but also confirms that the rural majority he awakened can never again be dismissed.

As his allies prepare to take power, with a strong mandate from Thailand's countryside and his sister Yingluck Shinawatra as prime minister-elect, they must tread lightly to restore equilibrium to a polarized nation and avoid any turbulent backlash from the military-backed elite in Bangkok that they have challenged.

"Winning an election in Thailand ... is very different from actually governing a divided society in which powerful interests are loath to give up their privileges," said anthropologist Charles Keyes of the University of Washington.

Post-election Thailand: Reform or Revolution?

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

Thursday, July 07, 2011
Op-Ed by MP

Observers of Cambodia's UN supervised election of 1993 were stating the same truth about the defeated party being more powerful than the victorious one. And we learned what the outcome of that was in 1997, didn't we?

I'm sure the conservative elements in Thailand, backed by their military will wait for the euphoria of this election to die down before muscling their way into power once more, just as they had always done in the past. Once again, the election is a slap in the face for those elements, including the Royal House. To keep their peace with them, the Pheu Thai-Thaksin camp will be expected to cede some ground. Whether that will be enough, remains to be seen.

Thaksin will be anxious to deliver on his/her promises to carry on improving rural services in tangible terms, which inevitably means transferring much economic/financial resources from the middle classes (Yellow) to rural areas. If the reforms are successful, these areas (Red) will then strengthen the Thaksin camp, leading to a sense of fear and unease among traditional power segments that a new economic and electoral base is opening up outside of their sphere of influence and reach; a shift in the balance in power relations that they will likely be ill-prepared to accept.

NESDB: [Thailand's] Ties with Cambodia to improve

7/07/2011
Bangkok Post

The relationship between Thailand and Cambodia is likely to improve once the incoming Pheu Thai-led government takes power, a member of the National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB) said Thursday.

Narongchai Akraseranee was speaking at a seminar on “Moving Forward to Investment in the Asean Economic Community (AEC)” held by the NESDB office this morning.

Member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations now have less concern about political problem in Thailand as the July 3 general election passed through without any situation., said Mr Narongchai.

They also believed the PheuThai-led administration would be able to improve ties with the neighbour that has turned sour for two years, he added.

The danger of a Thai civil war

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

Photo, of the King of Thailand superimposed on a building in Bangkok, by Flickr user neilalderney123.

5 July 2011
By Graeme Dobell
The Interpreter
(Lowry Institute for International Policy)

The depressing reality is that a clear-cut election victory in Thailand may not settle anything. The people have voted decisively but the popular voice is far from decisive.

Politicians still tear at each other, the King totters slowly towards his grave, the military and the elite agonise, and Thailand still confronts the danger of a civil war. After five years of commotion and sometimes bloody contest, Thailand's nightmare is that the election result merely hits the reset button to restart the same cycle of conflict.

The previous two parties expressing Thaksin Shinawatra's political mastery have been outlawed. Will this third manifestation, led by his sister, be able to avoid the same fate?

This is the great curse of Thailand's distorted democratic deadlock: 'The election winners can't rule and the rulers can't win elections.'

Can Yingluck End Thailand's Chaos?

5 Jul 11
Written by A. Lin Neumann
Asia Sentinel, Hong Kong

Had the elites been paying attention, a lot of this mess could have been avoided

If the reactions to Sunday’s stunning electoral win by Yingluck Shinawatra in Thailand’s general elections hold, perhaps the nation has finally found a way out of the mess created by the 2006 military coup that ousted her older brother, Thaksin Shinawatra. All sides, it seems so far, are willing to accept the Puea Thai party’s majority win. “I can assure that the military has no desire to stray out of its assigned roles,” General Prawit Wongsuwan, a former army chief close to the leaders involved in the 2006 coup, told Reuters. “The army accepts the election results.”

This is a very good thing.

Regardless of what one thinks of Thaksin, the one-time populist strongman pulling the Puea Thai strings from his exile perch in Dubai, even the Thai army and the royalist insiders who orchestrated the coup must see the futility of trying to battle the popular tide by now. A tycoon with a dismal human rights record and little regard for the niceties of independent media, courts or regulatory bodies, Thaksin redrew the map of Thai politics with his direct populist appeal to a rural population that had long been taken for granted by the establishment in Bangkok.

Having learned his craft building a virtual mobile phone monopoly that saw nearly every Thai chipping a few baht a day into his corporate coffers, Thaksin knew something about marketing. With his background as a police officer and a strong regional business family from the northern city of Chiang Mai, he also knew something about raw power, which he wielded with a heavy hand in shooting drug dealers and sending the army into the restive southern Muslim provinces to enforce a get-tough policy that backfired.

Sacrava's Political Cartoon: Thailand Curse

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

Cambodia's Hun Sen says Thai vote to improve ties

Wednesday, July 06, 2011

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Cambodian leader Hun Sen says the opposition election win in Thailand will improve ties between the neighbors that have fought repeated border clashes in recent months.

The party linked to toppled Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra swept weekend elections and a new government led by Thaksin's sister is poised to take power in Bangkok within weeks.

The two countries have battled over disputed land surrounding an ancient Hindu temple that straddles their common border.

Political mutiny in the [Thai army] barracks

This is what the Thai generals want:

This is what the Thai generals got:

6/07/2011
Wassana Nanuam
Bangkok Post

Army leaders may be questioning the power of their political influence after the sweeping defeat of the Democrat Party extended even to the military vote.

The Royal Thai Army is known as a staunch Democrat ally, but the results of Sunday's election reflected that while its top brass can mould their subordinates on the battlefield, it failed to shape their political ideologies.

Army chief Prayuth Chan-ocha is a vocal Democrat supporter and while he stopped short of outright ordering his soldiers to vote for his party of choice, he made his preference clearly known.

Despite this, army votes for Pheu Thai point to the high number of "watermelons" in the military. This nickname refers to their uniform marking them as green on the outside, but their personal beliefs making them "red" within.

Cambodia reportedly toasts change of Thai government

July 6, 2011
ABC Radio Australia

The change of Thai government has triggered celebrations in neighbouring Cambodia, with officials reportedly marking the occasion with a glass of champagne.

Cambodia's foreign minister has also told reporters that he "cannot hide" his happiness with the election of Yingluck Shinawatra as Thailand's Prime Minister.

Cambodia is hoping the new Thai government will work towards a peaceful resolution to the border conflict between the two countries.

Presenter: Sonja Heydeman

Speaker: Phay Siphan, Cambodian Secretary of State in charge of Information

Click here to listen to the audio program (Windows Media)

Thai politics

RI ‘should push’ for Thai-Cambodian talks

Wed, 07/06/2011
Mustaqim Adamrah
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Analysts say the Indonesian government should use the momentum of the recent Thai elections to resolve the Cambodian-Thai border dispute as Thailand was likely to negotiate with its neighbor under a new government.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Michael Tene on Tuesday said the Indonesian government congratulated Thailand for holding a successful election on Sunday — which Yingluck Shinawatra’s Puea Thai Party won by a landslide.

“The government of Indonesia is confident that Thailand will continue to make valuable contributions to the stability and prosperity of the region, including in the common endeavors on ASEAN community building,” he said, adding that bilateral relations would also be stronger than before.

Puea Thai won 265 of the 500 seats in parliament, the latest Election Commission tally showed on Tuesday, and could govern alone, but Yingluck, who will be Thailand’s first female prime minister, said she would form a five-party coalition controlling 299 seats.

Next [Pheu Thai] foreign minister in for a testing time

ANALYSIS: If Pheu Thai supports Phnom Penh over the Preah Vihear temple, the yellow shirts may cry foul.

6/07/2011

Saritdet Marukatat

Bangkok Post

The highly sensitive Preah Vihear temple issue will make the Foreign Ministry's top post one of the toughest jobs for the Pheu Thai Party-led coalition.

Buoyed by the landslide victory over the Democrat Party, Pheu Thai, with 265 seats in the bag, does not intend to share key ministries, one of them the Foreign Ministry, with its coalition partners. Its choice for foreign minister will be either a party insider or an ex-career diplomat who can direct foreign policy, especially on attempts to mend fences with neighbouring Cambodia.

Seeing the unofficial poll results on Sunday, Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong had reason to be jubilant with Pheu Thai's victory, as Phnom Penh also expects the end of a bitter wrangle at the border and, more importantly, the issue surrounding the Hindu temple to be resolved "positively and peacefully".

The first task of the new government is to reconsider the decision by outgoing Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and the Democrat-led government which declared its intention to quit the World Heritage Convention just days before the election.

Cambodia cracks open the bubbly over poll result

6/07/2011
REUTERS

Cambodia's Foreign Minister Hor Namhong cracked open the champagne to celebrate when news filtered through of a landslide election win by Thailand's opposition party, hoping a border dispute that brought the two neighbours to the brink of war this year can now be put to rest.

Relations were severely strained under Thailand's defeated Democrat Party-led government, but Cambodia seems confident the historic foes can start anew with Yingluck Shinawatra's Puea Thai Party at the helm in Bangkok.

"We cannot hide that we are happy with the victory of the Puea Thai Party. We hope this new government will solve the problems with Cambodia more positively and more peacefully," Cambodia's Foreign Minister Hor Namhong said after making a toast with a glass of champagne with diplomats. That's what we want, a peaceful solution."

P.Penh congratulates Pheu Thai

5/07/2011
Bangkok Post

The Cambodian government had sent a message congratulating Pheu Thai on winning the election and being in a position to form the new government, Yingluck Shinawatra said on Tuesday.

Ms Yingluck said in the message Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen did not mention anything about the Preah Vihear temple.

Pheu Thai's policy is to promote international relations, protect national interests and win acceptance from the international community, she said.