The dusts of Samak’s bust and new government nomination are settling down… Back to business.
The new Prime Minister seems to have only one obsession : be granted a meeting with General Prem (Privy Council). National reconciliation ? We’ll see. And one week only after his nomination, he’s already under the threat of legal pursuits.
Therefore, everything is back to normal. 
And the PPP is wakening its own burning obsession : to change the Constitution.
But it seems that they have modified their strategy to do so.
The Cabinet has decided to include the political reform as part of its policy statement and will push to amend the charter’s Article 291 in order to pave way for the formation of the Constitution Drafting Assembly (CDA) in charge of revamping the political system, PM’s Office Minister Sukhumpong Ngonkham said Tuesday (Nation).
Article 291 describes the process to amend the Constitution.
So, their plan is apparently to amend this article (and only this one)… then to create a CDA… in order to write a new constitution ! Before the plan was to amend only a few articles…
They want clearly to play again the card of “People’s Constitution”… like for the charter of 1997. A Constitution that served very well the PPP, TRT, Thaksin and his friends.
Back to square one.
The PAD is going of course to scream and protest against this idea.
Back to square one.
That’s the good point with thai politics : the more it changes, the less it changes (same same but different, you follow ?).
Well, imho, it isn’t coming back, because it never went away.
Two things (and two things only) have been motivating the people whom the Thais, in their ignorance, apathy and naivety, have chosen to put in power.
1. Disbursement of the budget so they can get their snouts in the public trough as soon and as deeply as possible. Make hay while the sun shines for tomorrow it might rain
2. Amendment of the constitution to facilitate Thaksins return to power.
Anyone who thinks different is, imho, delusional.
So it hasn’t come back at all, it never went away. Did anyone *really* think the outcome of electing Thaksin’s brother-in-law to PM would be any different? Was anyone sufficiently out of touch with reality to think that?
What may not be obvious, though it ought to be, is this: When HMK urges the judges to be honest and upright (probably for the first time in Thai history), and to enact the law without fear or favour (in the narrow matter of Thaksin), then the end-game has begun.
The conflict between the monarchist Bangkok elite and the republican Thaksinistas is reaching what will probably be a protracted denouement. And it will be a fight to the death, with China knocking on the door. And that is what all this depends on. Both camps are simply positioning themselves for a high-profile decease.
Better get an umbrella, because Bedwyr thinks that the shit is about to go into the fan – the next 6 months will be crucial.
Bedwyr
6 months ?… It can… last much longer.
I mean we all agree now that the high profile succession is the key.
But, then, hey, it’s nature if I may say… It can last a long, long time…
And the hyenas, waiting for the meat, won’t stop their fight.