Hun Sen's golf buddy: Astrology will ease Thailand tension ... will it also ease Hun Sen's election anxiety?

Ex-Thai PM Thaksin Shinawatra, pictured here, has been the subject of protests in Thailand.

Ex-PM: Astrology will ease Thailand tension

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- Ousted Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, a firm believer in astrology, said Monday the realignment of stars in early July will help defuse political tension that has been building as anti-government protests enter a fourth week.

Thailand's discord heightened Monday after two small bombs exploded in Bangkok, though no one was injured, and the anti-government People's Alliance for Democracy tied up traffic for hours in the latest protest against the current government.

"Be patient with the headache-inducing situation until July 2," Thaksin told reporters. "Mars moving close to Saturn causes the headache. When Mars leaves, the situation will ease."

Thailand is a modern, Buddhist nation, but fortunetellers and superstition play a major role in society, even among the Western-educated elite. Political decisions in the past have been known to be influenced by fortunetellers' advice.

Before Thaksin was toppled in a 2006 military coup, respected astrologer and Senator Boonlert Pairintra predicted Thaksin's downfall, saying that the planet Mercury used to favor the prime minister but was later eclipsed by the God of Darkness.

Thailand's latest political tension revolves around Thaksin, who returned from exile earlier this year to face corruption charges against him now that a new elected government has taken office.

Demonstrators have been holding sometimes-violent protests since May 25 to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej and his coalition government. The protesters say Samak is a puppet of Thaksin.

Samak's People Power Party won the most parliamentary seats in a general election last December meant to restore democracy after the coup. Samak's new Cabinet is packed with allies and relatives of Thaksin, and critics say rehabilitating the former leader --is among the new government's top priorities.

A court disbanded Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai party last year and banned him and more than 100 other party executives from public office until 2012.

Animosity between pro- and anti-Thaksin forces has been simmering. Overnight Monday, two men riding a motorcycle threw small explosives at a house used as an office by Sondhi Limthongkul, a media mogul who is a leader of the anti-government alliance, police Lt. Banyong Daengmankong.

The bomb did not make it past the house's compound wall and exploded on the sidewalk nearby, Banyong said. No one was hurt and only slight damage to the sidewalk was reported.

On Monday, about 4,000 People's Alliance for Democracy protesters marched to the headquarters of the Election Commission to call for the resignation of some commissioners whom they accused of dismissing fraud allegations against Samak's party candidates and political allies.

Police barricaded the commission building and the protesters dispersed after a few hours.

The People's Alliance for Democracy also held large street demonstrations in the months prior to the 2006 coup, helping undermine the stability of Thaksin's government. Thaksin had been accused of abuse of power and corruption.

Separately, opposition Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva said his party planned to lodge a no-confidence motion in parliament on Tuesday against Samak and several Cabinet members "who have caused a lot of damage and will cause more damage to the country" if they remain in power.

Thailand's PM faces no-confidence motion

Anti government demonstrators gather Saturday, June 21, 2008, outside Government House in Bangkok.

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- Thailand's Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej faced a fight for his political future Monday as opposition parties prepared a no-confidence debate in Parliament and thousands of protesters refused to lift their siege of his office.

Anti government demonstrators gather Saturday, June 21, 2008, outside Government House in Bangkok.

The no-confidence motion has been brought by the opposition Democrat Party in the wake of four weeks of street protests calling for the government's resignation.

Demonstrators, led by activists of the People's Alliance for Democracy, occupied the area around Government House, the seat of Thailand's government, on Friday after breaking through a police cordon.

The Senate was scheduled to begin a debate on the crisis Monday. The more powerful lower house of Parliament was to take up the no-confidence motion targeting Samak and his cabinet on Tuesday and vote on the measure Thursday.

"The senators will expose the wrongdoing of this government, to make the public aware that this government has lost legitimacy in running the country," Somchai Sawaengkan, one of 36 senators to grill the government, told The Associated Press.

In a nationwide address on government television, the embattled prime minister said he would resign if the vote went against him.

Samak's People's Power Party, whose members include many allies of military coup-ousted former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, heads a six-party government coalition that controls about two-thirds of the 480 seats in the lower house of Parliament. The Senate does not take part in the vote.

Samak's partners would have to desert him for any non-confidence motion in the lower house to succeed, but it was not certain which way the balloting would go. Even if Samak wins the vote, the debate plus tensions in the streets could pressure his backers to find a replacement as prime minister.

Thai newspapers, including The Nation, cited possible replacements in Deputy Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat and onetime Prime Minister Banharn Silipa-archa.

A defiant Samak vowed to return to his office and the demonstrators said they would not stop him.

"Prime Minister Samak, you are more than welcome to enter your office at Government House. Whether you dare to enter or not is your decision but we are not stopping you. We will pave the way for you if you want to come in," said Chamlong Srimuang, one of the alliance leaders.

The demonstrators, who began street protests four weeks ago, claim that Samak and his party are mere proxies of Thaksin, who was dismissed in a 2006 military takeover.

The parliamentary opposition, led by Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva, is expected to bring up such claims as well as alleged wrongdoing and mistakes by the Samak administration. They allege that Samak has mismanaged the weakening Thai economy, interfered in the country's generally free press and mishandled negotiations with neighboring Cambodia over disputed territory.

"I will not bow to your pressure. I will pull out only if I am defeated by a vote in Parliament," Samak told the protesters.

A spokesman for the protesters' alliance, Suriyasai Katasila, said Samak's resignation alone would not satisfy their demands.

"The People's Alliance for Democracy believes that the government's decision to allow a no-confidence motion in Parliament is a political game to lessen tension," Suriyasai said.

The alliance led mass demonstrations before the 2006 coup demanding Thaksin step down for alleged corruption and abuse of power. They now accuse Samak's government of interfering with corruption charges against Thaksin and trying to change the constitution for its own self-interest.

Rumors have swept Bangkok since the protests began that the country's powerful military would stage another coup, something the top brass has repeatedly denied.

Samak's People's Power Party won general elections last December.

Cambodia is wrongly claiming part of its territory : FM [-Thailand claims that Ta Mean Prom(?) Temple is theirs]

Fri, March 7, 2008
The Nation (Thailand)

The to complain Foreign Ministry summoned on Friday French and Cambodian ambassadorsmaps of Cambodia publish in France and Cambodia wrongly claimed Thai territory.

The envoys were told that maps of Utdor Mean Chay and Preah Vihear provinces published in France and Cambodia claim that parts of the Ta Mean Prom temple in Surin province are in Cambodia.

Director of Treaty and Legal Affairs, Virachai Plasai, told the ambassadors the area in question is "overlapping" and requires demarcation under a treaty signed by Thailand and Cambodia in 2000.

"We raised objections in line with international practices because we believe the map is incorrect," he says.

Thailand says the issue will not affect bilateral relations. The two countries have clashed previously over ownership of the Preah Vihear Hindu temple. Bangkok opposes Phnom Penh's plans to list it as a United Nation's World Heritage site before ownership is settled.

Manipulating the Mekong [-The ancient Chinese water engineers did their jobs in a way that was friendly to nature]

Mon, January 21, 2008
Pennapa Hongthong
The Nation (Thailand)

Yunnan, China

China's talent for building dams is undeniable, but would her ancient engineers have been so at odds with Mother Nature?Published on January 20, 2008

Almost four hours after leaving downtown Lin Cang, a small city in China's Yunnan province, our bus stops. Here, halfway up the mountain, we can clearly see the Manwan Dam in the centre of the valley. To the right, almost dwarfed by the huge volume of water in the reservoir, is the Lancang River, the name by which the Chinese know the mighty Mekong. Gazing down at this narrow, slow-moving channel, I find it hard to believe that the Mekong has been dammed. Somehow the history books had convinced me that this was the one river that simply couldn't be conquered by man.

Originating in Tibet's Tanggula Mountains, the Mekong runs through Laos, Burma, Thailand and Cambodia before joining the South China Sea in Vietnam and has several physical characteristics that have traditionally hindered development.

For example, in Yunnan and Tibet, the waterway snakes through valleys between mountains so high that access has always been difficult, if not downright impossible. Further downstream, in Burma and Thailand, shoals, rapids and reefs make it hard to navigate.

In 1866, a team of French explorers sailed from Saigon in an attempt to reach the river's origins by way of Cambodia and Laos. Their dreams were dashed when they reached the Khon Pa Pheng, also known as the Khone Falls, just outside Champassak in Laos. These unnavigable 21 metres of segmented rapids brought the expedition to an abrupt end, just six months after it had left.

In the 1950s, the US Bureau of Reclamation (BuRec) drew up a comprehensive development scheme for the Mekong once it flowed out of China's Yunnan province. In its plan, which at that time was aimed at preventing the Mekong Basin region from falling under communist influence or domination, BuRec suggested a range of sites suitable for hydroelectric schemes. However, the plan failed to interest any of the Mekong's riparian countries.

Then the Chinese started building dams. Man Wan was the first but it isn't the only dam blocking the Lancang. In 2003, eight years after the completion of Manwan, the government finished work on the Dachaoshan Dam. Another three large dams are under construction and several more are in the pipeline.

China's success in damming the Mekong has revived the schemes initiated by BuRec half a century ago. Just last year, the Mekong River Commission allowed Chinese companies to conduct feasibility studies for six dams in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.

Vorasakdi Mahatdhanobol, a Chulalongkorn University political scientist and an expert on China, isn't surprised that the Asian giant has been able to overcome the Mekong.

"The Chinese are great at civil engineering - we only have to look at the Great Wall. Hydraulic engineering is part of their history," he says.

Vorasakdi reminds me of the Chengdu's Dujiangyan Irrigation Project, which I visited several years ago. This 2,200-year-old system, made of wood and stones, was so well designed that it's still being used today, preventing drought and flooding as well as providing water for five million farmers in the Chengdu plain.

According to Vorasakdi, China has always viewed dams as basic infrastructure, necessary for the country's development and economy. The reason why few were built had to do with internal problems such as civil wars among ethnic groups and the Cultural Revolution, which left little time for development and dam construction.

In 1978, with the country enjoying political stability, Deng Xiaoping embarked on a dam construction project. The Three Gorges Dam that blocks the Yangtze River and all the projects on Lancang river are a result of Deng's policy to modernise the southwestern part of the country.

Back at the Manwan, I board the bus again along with my fellow travellers - scientists from China's Institute of Hydrobiology, Japanese academics from their nation's leading universities and journalists from the Greater Mekong Region and Japan. Due to the narrow road and many sharp curves, we crawl down the valley, eventually stopping at a small restaurant where we board a boat for a trip on the reservoir.

As the two-storey vessel cruises along the vast body of water, I look up at the mountains and am surprised to see that some slopes have been converted into paddy terraces. The water is still and clear and a slight breeze caresses my face in the winter sunshine.

"The reservoir demonstrates the western style of water resources management. For them water is for recreation, for us water means life. That why the reservoir is a good place to take a vacation, but it's not good for the life of the people and the environment in the long term," says a Chinese scientist who asks not to be named.

If it were not blocked by the Manwan and other dams, the water in the Lancang River would flow freely downstream to countries where thousands of people depend on it for fish and riverbank farming. The dam, which is 132-metres high, can store 920 million cubic metres of water at maximum capacity, although an official at the Manwan hydropower station told me that the water level on the day of our visit was 89 cubic metres.

Vorasakdi is certain that the ancestors of those who built the Manwan would not have dammed the Mekong this way.

"The ancient Chinese water engineers did their jobs in a way that was friendly to nature. They didn't try to conquer nature like this present generation. The old generation always wanted to control nature in a holistic way; they believed human life co-existed with the environment. Today, we only think of using nature for our own benefit and don't care about the environmental impacts," he says.

As the bus drops us off in Lin Cang that night, I notice how the town is lit up with colourful lights powered by the Manwan dam. For urban people whose lives depend on modern facilities, the dam is a source of happiness. For those downstream whose survival depends on the Mekong River, the dam is a disaster as it deprives them of water and fish.

If the ancient Chinese engineers had been given the chance to "manage" the Lancang River, I wonder if we would perhaps have ended up with a hydropower system that would enrich lives in both the upper and lower parts of the river rather than just those at the Manwan Dam?