Thai court disbands ruling party (& PM and his cabinet ousted)

BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thai Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat was banned from politics for five years and his party disbanded on Tuesday, plunging the country deeper into chaos and raising fears of a violent backlash by government supporters.

"We will all move to a new party, Puea Thai, and seek a vote for a new prime minister on December 8," Jatuporn Prompan, a PPP member of parliament, told Reuters.

The Constitutional Court also disbanded two other parties in Somchai's six-party coalition for vote fraud in the 2007 general election and barred their leaders from politics for five years.

The rulings raised the risk of clashes between red-shirted government allies, who rallied outside the court as the verdict was read out, and thousands of the yellow-shirted anti-government protesters blockading the capital's two airports.

tossing the Constitution is one of the goals of the left...

having all churches in the US collapse due to financial burden as a result of the removal of tax-free status after the SCOTUS decries they are allowed to discriminate based on sexual preference as they are private organizations.

discriminatory bodies the fedgov declared under bjclinton to never support... as in allowing them a financial gain due to their tax-free status.

>> They must have real independent judiciary. <<

Not really. They’re only as independent as the Army decides to let them be. The Army kept to the sidelines this time — very unusual for Thailand. But there’s no guarantee the scenario will always be this rosy.

(Many of us fear moreover that when the King dies, Thailand will descend into political chaos and even civil war. That day can’t be far off, since the King is now in his 80’s and is very frail.)

>> It’ll be unfortunate when he passes away. From what I’ve read about him he seems to be a good man. Even so he has plenty of children, there must be someone popular enough to assume the role. <<

He’s a very good man. He has given Thailand a stability that has kept the Kingdom from going the way of its pitiful and chaotic neighbors, Burma, Laos and Cambodia.

The King does have a son, the Crown Prince, but this chap is pretty unpopular. Discreet Thais are even known to whisper questions about his IQ.

(Open discussion of such matters is forbidden, under the Kingdom’s draconian lèse majesté laws.)

Two of the King’s daughters are also unpopular, though not so disliked as the Crown Prince. A third daughter is very popular, but she has made it known that she doesn’t want to become Sovereign.

A lot of Bangkok gossip has it that once the Crown Prince assumes the throne, the disgraced former PM Thaksin will attempt a coup in order to abolish the monarchy and make himself president — thereafter to rule for life in the style of his hero, Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew.

The odds of Thaksin’s succeeding are probably against him as of today. But whether or not the former PM can ever make such a comeback, I fear widespread violence and political instability will in any case become endemic to Thailand after the King’s inevitable passing.

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