{"id":35413,"date":"2018-10-31T17:18:20","date_gmt":"2018-10-31T11:48:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=35413"},"modified":"2018-10-31T17:18:20","modified_gmt":"2018-10-31T11:48:20","slug":"search-for-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/search-for-democracy\/","title":{"rendered":"Search for democracy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/todays-paper\/tp-opinion\/search-for-democracy\/article19572519.ece\">Search for democracy<\/a><\/p>\n<p><b>Context<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The newest twist to the ongoing political turmoil in Thailand is the failure on of the former Prime Minister, Yingluck Shinawatra, deposed in 2014 by a constitutional court, to appear for the final verdict in a case relating to a rice subsidy scheme.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>The on-going speculations<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Shinawatra absence has fueled conjecture that she may have fled the country, much like her sibling and erstwhile head of government Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in 2006 in a military coup and has been living in exile since.<\/li>\n<li>The Shinawatras largely symbolize the boiling opposition to the deep-rooted influence of the military and urban elites in a nation where the contemporary record is a continuous cycle of coups and military-inspired Constitutions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>The state of constitution<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Constitution has little to praise itself in terms of either enshrining democratic principles or popular legitimacy.<\/li>\n<li>It provides for a nominated upper house, a non-elected Prime Minister, and greater powers for the Generals.<\/li>\n<li>A 2016 referendum drew a mere 61% approval even from the small 55% voter turnout.<\/li>\n<li>The plebiscite uncovered long-festering ethnic divisions between the Malay Muslim-concentrated provinces in the south who rejected the Constitution and the remaining majority Buddhist regions.<\/li>\n<li>Given the systematic suppression of dissent and the introduction of draconian legislation, human rights activists have all too often fallen foul of the Generals.<\/li>\n<li>Any hopes for a stable democratic government in Thailand will hinge on the conduct of free and fair general elections promised for 2018.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Scheme for farmers<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The government of Prime Minister General Prayuth Chan-ocha was obliged to offer farmers loans owing to record-low global prices for rice.<\/li>\n<li>The move was not much unlike the subsidy scheme that Ms. Shinawatra was sought to be proceeded against.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Position at ASEAN<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>There is perhaps weight in the assessment that the once-thriving Thai economy could be losing out to competition from ASEAN neighbours who have emerged from conflict and dictatorship of the recent past.<\/li>\n<li>The country\u2019s leaders should also be concerned that shortfalls in democratic governance may not always go unnoticed, notwithstanding the ASEAN principle of mutual non-interference in the internal affairs of member nations.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Search for democracy Context The newest twist to the ongoing political turmoil in Thailand is the failure on of the former Prime Minister, Yingluck Shinawatra, deposed in 2014 by a constitutional court, to appear for the final verdict in a case relating to a rice subsidy scheme. The on-going speculations Shinawatra absence has fueled conjecture&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/search-for-democracy\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Search for democracy<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-test-1","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704850470},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35413\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}