Thailand could be Burma

This weekend has seen the first elections held in Burma for  20 years. Burma is ruled by a very hard ruling military dictatorship which is near the bottom of the list for human rights.

The election was a total farce, because most of the seats were already allotted to the governing Generals and the seats that were contested were so difficult to stand in that only parties sanctioned by the Generals could afford to stand. So basically the result was known months in advance.

On Monday near the border with Thailand at Mai Sot a regional guerrilla force made up of the local Karen tribe tried to take over a Burmese town. Heavy fire between the Karen's and Burmese government forces spilled over into Thailand. At least a dozen Thais were injured by gun fire and shrapnel. 20000 Burmese fled to Thailand to avoid the shooting. They have since gone back to Burma after the Government regained the town.

Link to story

Sadly Thailand recently changed their constitution so that about a third of seats in Parliament will be decided by an elite panel, the rest being made up of elected representatives. This is starting to sound very similar to what is happening in Burma. Don't get me wrong, Thailand is no way like Burma in the technology, welfare and openness stakes, but the fact that the current defacto Thai government is only really a mouth piece for the Army and the electoral system is going down a very dodgy road, comparison's will be made. Tag this with fact that Thailand [or its neighbours] hasn't really commented on the election, were as the rest of the free world has condemned the election as nothing more than lip service to democracy, then the embarrassment the Thai government must feel is obvious.