[starbase]

No one in their right mind will want to try and get elected, knowing that some demogogue can start to slime them, incite the mob and undertake a bloodless coup d'etat.

I would agree if it were any other culture, but Thai culture is unique in a number of ways. Specifically, the only culture as capable of consensus action as the Thais are the Japanese. Thais culture just does not have the scientific capacity that the Japanese show, maybe that will change in the future.

Otherwise there is a single-entity-body-politic psychology at play. That makes it more like a family arguing about which chicken to cook for dinner, than a philosophical indicator which would mean something very different elsewhere.

If you're not intimately familiar with the Thais, then everything I typed here must be difficult to understand.

[Killborn]

Asians have a communal identity. Western individualsim is a novel concept and not as widely recognized in Asian culture. The well being of society comes before the individual.

[GOP_1900AD]

I am well familiar with Thai culture. There is more than that in play here.