THE NATION Opposes Samak

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Thailand's next Prime Minister will be selected by the Thai parliament, not by a general election. That selection could come as soon as today. At the moment it is about 6:40AM, Friday, September 12 in Thailand. Today's developments have potential to be quite dramatic. We'll see.

 

The following editorial appears in THE NATION:

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From an Honest Mistake to a Potentially Disastrous One

 

By The Nation

Published on September 12, 2008

 

Was the television cooking show a serious constitutional offence? No. Was the Constitution Court right to disqualify Samak Sundaravej from the chief executive post? Yes. Does the People Power Party have the mandate to reinstall him? Yes, technically. Ethically, no.

 

The question of the day, however, is: Why should Samak be willing to go from committing an honest mistake to making a very serious and potentially disastrous one?

 

If the pro-Thaksin camp insists that democracy is the most acceptable kind of political game, Samak's fate should be accepted, no matter how begrudgingly. You made a wrong move, your opponents caught it, and you are finished.

 

It was the way things were. It was the way the Chuan, Banharn and Chavalit administrations crumbled. Some government politicians acquired land suspiciously and the Democrats were blown out of power.

 

If Samak accepts a nomination, he will walk down the same catastrophic path taken by his alleged master. Thaksin Shinawatra was caught cheating, but he tried to muddle his way through by exploiting what was claimed to be electoral legitimacy. The rest is history.

 

What would be the consequences of Samak's reinstatement?

 

First of all, it would underline his "proxy" or "nominee" status. He would replace Thaksin as the centre of a head-on clash between the legislative and judicial forces, the result of which would however affect not only Samak but also the man in London.

 

Some people surely want to discredit the Thai judiciary for obvious reasons. If a rebellious Thai legislature is up in arms against the justice system, somewhere in London someone could point to the developments and tell foreign observers, "See, you know what I mean?"

 

Samak's return to power, however, would damage more than the Thai courts' credibility.

 

A comeback would be detrimental to both parties in the war. It would simply prove that true checks-and-balances democracy can never work in Thailand. It would also re-endorse the dangerous but increasingly accepted belief that if you want to enforce the rule of law, ballot-box democracy is not the way to do it.

 

What about the Appeals Court, which could still send Samak straight to jail?

 

Although we can never predict how the court will rule, it's safe to discuss whether Samak should face a "second" judgement day as prime minister or ordinary citizen. There are two schools of thought here. The first one says a provocative Samak, one who defies the Constitution Court's ruling by reassuming the prime minister's post, would have put the last nail in his own coffin. The other says if Samak was destined for prison anyway, it would be more dignified to go down as a political victim, albeit in prime minister's clothes.