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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10 June 2011

The Divorce is final

It has been evident for quite some time that there is no love lost between the Democrats and PAD.  The events that brought the Democrats to power, although they were instigated by the 'Yellow Shirt' protests, it was more a marriage of convenience rather  than a blooming love affair.  Almost from the beginning the Democrats incurred the wrath of the PAD leadership and seen some a number of 'Yellow Shirt' protests against some of there policies and as a result, PAD has formed their own New Politics Party to contest the election (There has since been a schism between PAD and its own party but more about that later).  More recently there has been a war of words being batted back and forth amongst the party leaders in the press with the Democrats claiming the PAD 'No Vote' campaign is the result of collusion between PAD and the exiled Thaksin.

07 June 2011

Other minor parties

The Bhumjaithai Party was part of the coalition government as the Neutral Democratic Party with the People's Power Party and the Thai Nation Party.  With the dissolution of the Neutral Democratic Party, the newly formed BJT, defected to a Democrat Party led coalition government under Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.  The BJT is considered to have a populist platform.

The Puea Pandin Party or Motherland Party is currently in opposition and made of some former members of the banned Thai Rak Thai Party.  They have a platform of progressive economic policies.

The New Politics Party is the political party of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD or Yellow Shirts) and shares many of it same principle and ideas. 

The Pheu Thai Party

The Pheu Thai Party or For Thais Party would be described as the third incarnation of Thakin Shinawatra's Thai Rak Thai party.  That party and the seceding People's Power Party were both dissolved by the Constitutional Court.  Pracha Promnok has been in opposition to Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajaiva's coalition government until May, when Jarupong Ruangsuwan was named Secretary general of the party.  Yingluck Shinawatra, Thaksin's younger sister was nominated head of the party's national list and will contend for the role of Prime Minister. One of the main issues of her campaign is national reconciliation.