Thai Tales

Parliament voted yesterday to make Somchai Wongsawat Thailand’s new PM, pending royal endorsement and he has an uphill task ahead of him– the first of which is how to get into his office at Government House which has turned swampy from the three week long PAD occupation. The protesters there have already said no to any PPP candidate and the fact that Mr Somchai is Mr Thaksin’s brother-in-law is certainly not winning any hearts and minds…but what has captured my attention is the characterisation of Mr Somchai by fellow politicians from both sides of the political spectrum.

The world “gentle” has been used over and over and it’s just not an adjective too often applied to politicians. However, in the Thai context, this notion of “gentleness” connotes an ability to reconcile differences– a great contrast to the well worn idea that a politician must be tough talking or acting to get things done. Perhaps because Mr Somchai’s personality is the polar opposite of the man he replaced–Samak Sundaravej–the comparison is especially interesting. Mr Samak was someone who was brash, outspoken and considered by many to be rude–quite contrary to the Thai ideal of “gentleness,” especially when it comes to speech and etiquette.

I wonder how the adjective “gentle” as applied to a leader would go down in other political contests around the world? Positively or negatively? I can imagine some interesting responses…and maybe a “Gentle-gate” scandal!

And for those of you wondering about any legal skeletons in the new PM’s closet–there likely aren’t any as Mr Somchai was formerly a judge and is well versed in the letter of the law. I feel the need to highlight it since Mr Samak was disqualified for hosting a cooking show while in office–which has to be one of the more bizarre reasons for the resignation of a sitting PM in the annals of history.

It also spawned a thousand puns–this kind of world play makes us news people crack a smile.

So we can say that Mr Samak stirred the pot, landed in hot water, found himself in a soup and eventually got burned.