Tourism and Sports Minister Chumpol Silapa-archa, leader of the Chart Thai Pattana Party created after the Chart Thai Party was dissolved in December 2008, has made some observations reported in The Nation (27 March 2009: “Charter to blame for seemingly unending conflict: Chumpol”).
Chumpol, reflecting on the red shirt/UDD protest and presumably the allegations regarding who was behind the 2006 coup has “said many provisions in the charter had made it difficult for the government to run the country.” He is reported as saying, “The 2007 Constitution sucks. This charter was written by the yellow-shirt people; it is pro-aristocracy. Many provisions were added [to the previous charter] and government has become entangled…”.
Chumpol adds that “protests, this time by the pro-Thaksin red-shirt people, would continue as long as the Constitution is viewed as being unable to ensure justice for all.”
While such comments are not unexpected from a member of a party that was heavily damaged by the dissolution of its predecessor, it is interesting to see just how much the Thai political debate is shaped by ideas about the monarchy and royalism.
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