Thai prime minister, Samak Sundaravej and seven members of his cabinet have survived a no-confidence vote brought by opposition MPs. It will be some consolation for the embattled Samak, but his future still remains uncertain.
Even by the extraordinary standards of Thai politics, some of the antics in the last week have been remarkable. Opponents of the government and anti-Thaksin demonstrators have forced road closures and occupied land in front of Government House. Whilst the demonstrators camped outside Government House, the Thai prime minister was inside displaying his origami skills during the no-confidence debate. That’s right, origami whilst his political future is on the line. As opposition members poured scorn on Samak and his leadership ability, he quietly carried on folding a paper bird (and very impressive it was too). He later defends his action by saying the paper folding is something he has always done and it helps him concentrate when listening to debates. But it wasn’t just his origami that was up for discussion; a female opposition member (a qualified doctor of medicine) accused Samak of showing signs of being mentally ill and implored him to seek medical help and have a rest from ruling the country. Samak brushed this off by saying he had regular check-ups and this was the first time he’d ever been diagnosed during a political debate. Other allegations were that he was rude to reporters, was child-like and ate too much cake and drank too much red cordial. I promise I’m not making this up. After what seems like years of being bored by the never-ending Clinton/Obama no-contest, this is real political theatre.
Thailand has a prime minister that has his own television show, is a renowned celebrity chef and is a dab hand in the art of paper folding. I don’t know whether all this qualifies him for the job of leading Thailand, but he’d make a great presenter on British TV programme, Blue Peter . . . ‘here’s one I made earlier’. Never a dull moment in Thailand.
