Krönikan av Alan Dawson som du referar till är så kallat "spot on". Han är ofta det. Så även denna gång. Rekommenderad läsning för alla här, men @turisten, du får en särskild läsrekommendation på basis av hur du argumenterar i den här tråden. God läsning:
Ett klipp ur texten nedan:
"In the "predictable" category are political crises. This is not the first time there have been two, parallel rice brouhahas entertaining the nation simultaneously, but it is arguably the most serious, and it could get much testier and angrier before it's settled.
The root cause is worldwide overproduction of rice. This is especially true and especially important in Thailand, the world's leading rice salesman.
But the government for completely understandable political and populist reasons wants to ignore the "worldwide" part. If there is a world glut of rice, there's no way to blame profiteering rice millers and merchants.
And it couldn't be the fault of politicians (English translation: Lord Voldemort na Dubai) because while Voldemort can control Thai dastards, not even he can control rice harvests and markets around the world.
For the second time since the coup that sought to extinguish populism forever, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha had to reach into the government's money bags to address serious poverty among farmers.
Like the problem with rubber growers, the premier really has no choice but a populist programme with two so-familiar aims: bail out the farmers in the short term and try to control the market in the long.
The female ex-premier was confident that paying farmers large amounts for their rice would eventually raise world prices. Wishing doesn't make it so.
Gen Prayut now is equally confident that if he locks up rice stocks -- new rice, at that -- the artificial shortage will raise prices. His contradiction, arguably even bigger than the Pheu Thai dichotomy, is that consumer prices are already high and aren't going lower. Ever. And if he thinks his soldiers can run rice mills and rice marketing, he's going to be disappointed, to say the least.
There is an election due next year. When the emerging pro-military party claims credit for saving the rice farmers, it will just be a factual statement, right? It won't be politics or power greed at all. Bonus: claim credit for saving the rubber farmers, too."
Thailändsk politik oavsett om vem som styr: I stort sett "Same shit different name"