Twilight Zone Politics

10 September 2008



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Court Orders Thai PM to Quit over Cooking Show

For the past few weeks, the Thai opposition has demonstrated to force Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej to resign. CNN reports he’s “facing charges of corruption, appealing a three-year prison sentence for defaming a deputy governor and dealing with an election commission decision last week that his party committed electoral fraud in the December elections and should be dissolved.” Yesterday, the Constitutional Court ordered him to resign for appearing on a cooking show for pay.

There is no doubt that he did it, and that he collected a total of $2,300 for his efforts. There’s videotape of him preparing his favorites on a TV show with the interesting title “Tasting while Grumbling.” He defended his appearance by saying “Somebody says as a prime minister, I have time, but I should not do such a thing like that. I said, ‘No, I checked the constitution already. There’s no obstruction with that’.”

One hopes he cooks better than he lawyers. Professor Suchit Bunbongkarn, an expert on the constitution of Thailand, noted, “It depends on the constitutional court to decide whether receiving money to appear in the programs on the television could be considered an employee of any employer or not.” The court decided that if one takes money for work, regardless of the setting, that makes one an employee, and therefore, the Prime Minister has to quit. Judge Chat Chonlaworn said that Mr. Samak had “violated Article 267 of the constitution” and so “his position as prime minister has ended.”

The court’s decision comes into effect in 30 days. A great deal can happen in that time, and the ruling party has already said it will re-appoint him. That should turn the heat up on the simmering street protests. Overnight clashes between his supporters and the opposition result in the PM declaring a state of emergency in Bangkok.

The crux of the matter remains the belief among the opposition that Mr. Samak is a proxy for his predecessor, Thaksin Shinawatra, who was forced from office under a corruption cloud and is currently in exile in England. The People's Alliance for Democracy [PAD] is leading the protests and argues that Mr. Samak wants to amend the constitution so Mr. Thaksin does not have to face charges.

© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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