There has been a bit of media traffic concerning a 3-day holiday trip to a luxury island resort in the Maldives by former Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva. PPT has seen a post by Andrew Spooner that has several updates, a comment by Bangkok Pundit and a post at Thai E-News. Within these stories there are numerous links to Thai newspaper reports of a holiday trip.
The gist of the debate seems to be that people living in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. The Democrat Party and its yellow-shirted supporters have been highly critical of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra for wearing Burberry Wellington boots (admitted, but were they knock-offs?) while sloshing around in floods, that she attended a concert (vehemently denied) and some have even complained that she wears make-up (ho hum) while out in the floods…. The response seems to be that she’s out paddling around in floods, while Abhisit, as head of the Democrat Party, is on holiday.
Related, the Democrat Party has been confused and confusing in its responses on this issue, both denying and admitting. A column in The Nation cited by Bangkok Pundit says this:
A [Democrat] party source says he did spend a couple of nights there with the family and Abhisit didn’t deny it….
The Democrat [Party]… said Abhisit planned this school-break holiday a long time ago, and within hours there were photos on Twitter of him back on the job in Bangkok.
Along the same lines, former Finance Minister and Abhisit school chum Korn Chatikavanij (wealthiest politician in the Thai parliament) has seen his wife’s choice of rain gear in the media, although her choice of expensive wet fashion seems to have been praised by the yellow shirts….
While the last word might be with the Bangkok Post’s Roger Crutchley, it does seem that Abhisit and his party are leaving no stone unturned in their attempts to destabilize the current administration.
Update: Andrew Spooner has been following this story about Abhisit’s Maldives trip very closely and it seems that there is now a general admission by the Democrat Party that their leader was there. As Spooner puts it,
Now they’ve admitted he was in the Maldives. But only after they got their story “straight”.
It is a curious story.
Political Prisoners in Thailand 
[…] Abhisit on holiday? OCTOBER 26, 2011 There has been a bit of media traffic concerning a 3-day holiday trip to a luxury island resort in the Maldives by former Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva. PPT has seen a post by Andrew Spooner that has several updates, a comment by Bangkok Pundit and a post at Thai E-News. Within these stories there are numerous links to Thai newspaper reports of a holiday trip. The gist of the debate seems to be that people living in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. The Democrat Party and its yellow-shirted supporters have been highly critical of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra for wearing Burberry Wellington boots (admitted, but were they knock-offs?) while sloshing around in floods, that she attended a concert (vehemently denied) and some have even complained that she wears make-up (ho hum) while out in the floods…. The response seems to be that she’s out paddling around in floods, while Abhisit, as head of the Democrat Party, is on holiday. Related, the Democrat Party has been confused and confusing in its responses on this issue, both denying and admitting. A column in The Nation cited by Bangkok Pundit says this: A [Democrat] party source says he did spend a couple of nights there with the family and Abhisit didn’t deny it…. The Democrat [Party]… said Abhisit planned this school-break holiday a long time ago, and within hours there were photos on Twitter of him back on the job in Bangkok. Along the same lines, former Finance Minister and Abhisit school chum Korn Chatikavanij (wealthiest politician in the Thai parliament) has seen his wife’s choice of rain gear in the media, although her choice of expensive wet fashion seems to have been praised by the yellow shirts…. While the last word might be with the Bangkok Post’s Roger Crutchley, it does seem that Abhisit and his party are leaving no stone unturned in their attempts to destabilize the current administration. […]