When I got into the BBC website and tried to find an article for my response writing assignment this week. The title on the home page of BBC news "Thailand's parliament elects Yingluck Shinawatra as PM" (5 August, 2011) just poped into my eyes. As a foreingner in Thailand, I really want to know who will be Prime Minister of Thailand.
Ms. Yingluck and her party won in the national election for Prime Minister (2011 pp1) last monthly. and "Her party and its coalition partners now command a huge majority in the lower house" (PP2) . Her exiled brother Taksin Shinawatra played an important role in the national election even though "The party says his role is purely advisory"(PP8). The 44-year-old Ms. Yingluch is a new face in the political circle and she is facing immidiate challenge to bring the long suffered country back to peace. She is trying to do it by planning to form a coalition with four other parties "to work together to run the country and solve people's problems" (PP13).
I am much released when I read the news. Ms. Yingluck won the national election last month and then just right after that victory, there is doubt about her qualification for running for the compaign. I was nervous at that because I was afraid that if she is judged disqualified for the compaign, there will be fierce fight between the red shirt army and yellow shirt army again. To me, that is a kind of civil war. I still remembered the chaos caused by the battle between red shirt army and the Abhist govenment. That was actually a disaster to this beautiful and kind country. The main industry of Thailand-tourism was going down at that time. Even though Airline companies and hotels offered big discount to attract tourists, there were still many people refused to come and visit the Land of Smile mainly because they didn't feel safe and convinient enough. The marvelous Central World was burned during the battle and we lost a wonderful place for shopping and relaxation. Schools had to be closed for a few days. The harmony social order was actually disrupted by the war. War is the least I expect to happen. I think this beatiful contry and its people has suffered too and they deserves some peace and development. I do expect Ms. Yinluck and her coalition party to do a good job for the welfare of Thai people.
References
Thailand's parliament elects Yingluck Shinawatra as PM. BBC News. Retrieved August 5, 2011 fromhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-14415077
Friday 5 August 2011
5 comments:
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Sorry, your typing wrong "Abhisit government"***
ReplyDeleteand almost last line in the last paragraph "Yingluck"***
In my opinion, I don't think she really bring peace. If her brother come back, it will be more conflict here.
I think politics is not a good topic to talk about because it can bring an argument. Sorry to say that. >^</
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I also hope that our new Prime Minister can find the way out for any following conflict (I quite sure there will be) and bring peace back to our society.
I am sure that everyone is hoping that every side will respect the rights of others to disagree with them. And that everyone will agree to abide by democratic principles, even if they truly hate what is being done.
ReplyDeleteMore positively, I'm hoping that the election of a woman PM might raise awareness of women's, and therefore human rights, issues that still leave room for improvement.
I think that Tang is right, that politics does often engage people's emotions as well as their reason, and that reason is often teh loser. I often raise political or other controversial topics in class, but usually not specific issues that are happening now.
However, in a later writing assignment, I do mention both the Reds and teh Yellows - but in a way that focusses the question on an academic issue, and hopefully forces both sides to look more carefully at the other.
Although AUA was seriously affected last year, effectively losing a full term, I would not have gone to far as to describe the conflict as civil war - it's normal for gruops of people to disagree strongly, and as long as their conflicts are worked out peacefully with regard for the equal human rights of all, disagreement is probably a good thing - it has not done the US any harm, or other Western democracies.
In fact, apart from the blocked area in April - May last year, life in Bangkok carried on pretty much as normal, and I suspect it was completely normal in most of Thailand. I live on Silom Road, and used to walk around a couple of times a day to see how things were, and apart from the soldiers and wire, it was surprisingly normal: people were going to work, shopping at Silom Complex, getting the BTS, and so on. But it is clear that there is a lot of division and disagreement amongst different groups, and if its to be resolved peacefully, the necessary healing discussion needs free speech to occur.
I am hoping that everyone, especially the new government, will respect the Thai people's right (the basic human right of everyone) to freely state honestly held opinions so that disagreements especially can be discussed openly and a way forward worked out.
I didn't realize that the topic I had chosen was so sensitive. I was just writing my comments as an outsider.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Peter that live in Bangkok was pretty normal even thought the conflict was going on last April to May. That is what I saw and heard after my family come to Thailand last July. I was misled by the television in my country since the only news we had about Thailand was the conflict going on in Bangkok.
The reason that I want to respond to this article is because I saw so much difference between my country and your country and I really want to know the ideas of young people as dynamic as your guys. But now I know this is just too sensitive to talk about and I wouldn't stick to it.
That a topic is sensitive seems to me an excellent reason to be academically objective and careful, but a very bad reason to avoid talking about it.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing that is guaranteed by not being able to freely discuss a topic is certain ignorance on that topic, and I don't think that ignorance is a good thing, especially not of something which has the power to greatly affect the lives of everyone in a country, as politics does.
Discussion might not guarantee knowledge, but at least it makes knowledge possible. Censorship, whether enforced by an oppressive state or self-imposed, makes knowledge impossible.
June's last comment (August 7, 2011 11:39 PM) also seemed to me to illustrate what TV is not good for: learning about the world. I don't watch TV, but if I did, I would watch the entertainment programs, like cartoons (I loved cartoons as a kid - all that violence is very exciting for impressionable youngsters), films and series. Entertainment is what TV is good for. News is the last thing I would watch on TV. It just isn't a medium that is capable of providing much information about what is happening in the world, so I think it's a bit silly to watch TV news programs, although things like live broadcasts of political debates could be very good and well worth watching.
My mother has the bad habit of watching TV news shows and jumping to unfounded conclusions based on those limited minutes of information and commentary that is very little and of dubious value, and when the protests were going on around Rajaprasong - Rajadamri last year, she kept telling my brothers and sisters to call to check that I was OK. I never felt that I was in any great danger, life going on very normally expect for the very small area actually affected, which did unfortunately include AUA, forcing me to have a much longer holiday than I would have liked, which was a bit annoying, but not dangerous.