BEHIND THE HEADLINES WITH BUNN NAGARA
Sunday February 20, 2011
The Star Online (Malaysia)
Several countries in Asean have also signalled a willingness to help in negotiations, while Abhisit and Hun Sen seem intent on outdoing one another in stubbornness. It takes two to tango as well.
Mounting problems confront an embattled Thai government, as Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva continues to slide into meltdown mode.
IF there ever was a sitting government steadily painting itself into a corner, Thailand’s Democrat-led coalition is it.
Time was when it was broadly welcomed into office in late 2008, at least by Thais other than former premier Thaksin Shinawatra’s followers after colourful years of sleaze and controversy. Free from the taint of corruption and unlawful violence, the new government had an opportunity to avoid several wrongs, if not also set things right.
The government itself emerged from neither an election nor a vote in the National Assembly, which Abhisit Vejjajiva had lost to Thaksin’s relative. The winning coalition led by Thaksin’s associates was then banned for election fraud, paving the way for an election by parliamentarians, a reworked coalition led by the Democrat party, and Abhisit’s premiership.
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