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siamese
stories
i’m right, you’re wrong
By Roger Norwood
An interesting piece in The Nation
this week, entitled “How to wean
yourself off the drug of partisan
politics” by Pravit Rojanaphruk got
me thinking about both Thailand’s
political woes, as well as how
similar the pattern is in many other
countries.
Most nations on earth have adopted
the same adversarial system of
politics, and it must be presumed
that this happens naturally as it is
seen so widely, with the norm being
two large political parties who battle
to gain power. There are exceptions
to this of course, but even when
there are lots of smaller political
parties they will align themselves
into two larger groups, and this is
mainly because of the parliament
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and congress systems, with both
generally leading to just two main
power blocks.
The parliamentary system in
particular leads to the unedifying
spectacle seen frequently in the UK’s
House Of Commons which becomes
more like a school playground
than an arena for serious political
discussion, and this is also seen in
other countries as well.
My belief is that partisan politics
and the two party system does not
deliver the kind of government that
the people really want, and also
encourages the type of confrontation
that is being seen right now in
Thailand. It also has, unfortunately,
seeped into the mindset of the people
that there can be no middle ground
or compromise - ‘you’re either with
us or against us’ is a commonly held
view, and this surely cannot be the
right way, particularly in Thailand
with their Buddhist beliefs. When it
leads to violent attacks and murders
the political protagonists should be
the first ones to step back from the
brink and try to compromise.
Fighting an opponent rarely results
in anything other than a more
entrenched position, and even
‘victory’ does not usually