As mentioned earlier, I have taken an interest in Thai politics (I currently have two Au Pairs from Thailand living in the house). The fact that the King has endorsed the new PM will hopefully settle things a bit
This PM, Abhisit Vejjajiva, seems like a true departure from the previous office holders — he’s young, British born, and not from the same party. He also seems to be free of all the corruption that is rampant in Thai politics. Vejjajiva will have a difficult road ahead:
His first and most difficult challenge is calming the intense
political atmosphere that has seen the country bitterly divided between
supporters and opponents of the exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin
Shinawatra.It is all the harder for Mr Abhisit, as his party has allowed
itself to become closely associated with the hard-core People’s
Alliance for Democracy (PAD), whose campaign of economic sabotage,
culminating in last month’s week-long occupation of Bangkok
International Airport, helped bring down the previous government
[snip]
Mr Abhisit’s second challenge will be to rebuild confidence in an economy that is headed for trouble.
The full cost of the airport occupation has yet to be fully
counted, but it will certainly run into several billions of dollars.
The long-term damage to investor and tourist confidence could be much
worse – and that comes on top of a rapidly deteriorating global
climate.Thailand’s National Economic and Social Development Board now
concedes that its prediction of 3-4% economic growth next year is far
too high.Some economists here are predicting that the economy will
shrink, a dire prognosis for this high-performance region. More than a
million Thai jobs are expected to be lost next year
