Samudra manthan

Samudra churning or Samudra manthan is the Hindu myth about the churning of the sea of milk. Using the great naga wrapped around mount Mandhara on top of Lord Vishnu in the form of a tortoise, the devas and demons cooperated in churning the sea to achieve the ultimate prize, the nectar of immortality, Amrita. Even though the Amrita was supposed to be shared by both the devas and demons, Lord Vishnu used trickery to deny the demons the nectar. Embolden by the effects of the amrit, the gods would go on to defeat the demons. You can see a sculptural representation of this myth in the foyer of Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok.

Although this is meant to symbolize a spiritual exercise, it could also be used as an analogy for the political process and this especially true in Thai politics. For all their good intentions, politicians must ultimately resort of deceit, trickery and misrepresentation, to achieve their goals and win the hearts and minds of their constituents. We hope to use this space as a forum to make some sense of what it is all about and in the spirit of reconciliation find out what it is the Thai people really want after the election.

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02 June 2011

The Democrat Party

As Thailand's oldest party, the Democrat Party is known for it more conservative position and a champion of the constitutional monarchy.  Their support is mainly centred in the more affluent constituencies in Bangkok and Southern Thailand.  They are currently the main coalition government party and their current leader is Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.  A few of their key members were also at one time members of the People's Alliance for Democracy.  Since the 2007 parliamentary election, the Democrat Party adopted a more populist platform to win more support in the North and North-east regions but could not gain any significant advantage over the People's Power Party.  After the PPP was banned by the Constitutional Court, the Democrat Party was able to form a coalition when a number of PPP coalition MPs crossed the floor and back a Democrat-led coalition government.
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