AWESOME JOB, THAILAND. AWESOME JOB.

[intertribal]

Amid Protests, Asian Summit is Canceled:

A summit meeting of Asian nations was abruptly canceled here Saturday after hundreds of protesters forced their way past security forces into a convention center where leaders were preparing to discuss the global economic crisis.

About half of the leaders at the meeting were evacuated by helicopter, including those of Vietnam, Myanmar and the Philippines, Thai officials said. Some officials fled by boat.

The ability of protesters to breach security at a location relatively easy to protect — the venue is on a bluff overlooking the Gulf of Thailand and accessed only by two roads — raised questions about the functioning of the Thai government and its ability to manage its security forces. 

Diplomats and other officials fled at the sound of shattering glass.

A small group of demonstrators reached the section of the complex where leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations were eating lunch. Video footage showed protesters there being stopped at gunpoint by commandos and dropping to their knees.

In a measure of the animosity between the government and its opponents, Mr. Arisaman said he had instructed his followers to “catch” the prime minister. “When you see him, catch him and do whatever you like to him,” he said.

What is this, Africa?  Will Thailand just deal with its fucking problems already?  Three years of street protests = bad.

Comments

[madali.livejournal.com]

Africa says "ouch!"

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

Africa knows it's true.

[royinpink.livejournal.com]

:(

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

>:(

[royinpink.livejournal.com]

?

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

I'm hard on Southeast Asian countries... I know they can do better.

[royinpink.livejournal.com]

better = no protesting?

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

well, better certainly doesn't mean warring factions of royalists vs. "the-corrupt-people". better = legal democratization, at least in my book. Thailand is STILL in danger of military coups, eleven years after "democracy" arrived. it's pathetic, because you can't get anything done on any other aspect of the country's well-being when you have protesters attacking world leaders, attacking each other, blocking off access to the country. I think it's because Thailand hasn't declawed its military and still has a king, though. Monarchy fucks countries up.

[royinpink.livejournal.com]

why because it has a king?

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

it's hard to get into a system where you elect leaders for a certain period of time (and you can kick them out if you don't like them) if a faction of the country thinks ultimate authority is in this one person, and is in that one person until he dies, at which point it gets passed down to his eldest son. I mean, it's possible - Japan and Britain both have figureheads that the country obsesses over - but I think it's harder for a country these days to make the transition to a democracy if they still have a monarch. It's harder to do "reformasi total," so to speak, because the king is still there and he's above political change. different types of power dynamics.

[royinpink.livejournal.com]

ugh. that sounds like a bloody mess. sigh. people are dumb.

[madali.livejournal.com]

Monarchy has helped mankind for the past thousands of years, and democracy has basically made a tiny dent only the last couple of decades in a few countries here and there.

Until democracy really proves itself in the long run, I'm not about to jump on the democracy bandwagon like the rest of the world.

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

Fair enough - but it's hard to have both, and that's what Thailand's trying to do. They have to pick one.