About Thailand
Attracting more than 12 million visitors a year, Thailand is one of Asia’s most popular destinations and is known the world over for its beautiful scenery, friendly people, spicy food and periodic coups!
Thailand depends heavily on tourism, which accounts for a large chunk of its foreign exchange earnings, and has developed a very good infrastructure in major tourist centres, catering equally to backpackers and the five star luxury crowd. English is taught in all schools, but only those working in the tourist industry or sophisticated parts of country have grasped it.
It is a safe, middle-income country that sits proudly among the leaders in Southeast Asia’s ‘tiger economy’ phenomenon. With its enormous natural and human resources Thailand has vastly reduced poverty in the past three decades to become a prosperous Asian country that enjoys a fairly high profile around the world.
People
Sixty five million people live in Thailand, including large Burmese refugee and migrant worker groups. Of those, 70 per cent are of working age, and all but 1.5 per cent are gainfully employed. Infant mortality rates are relatively low for a developing country and the HIV population is estimated to be 2 per cent.
There is a sizeable (10 per cent) ethic Chinese minority who are well integrated into mainstream society but noted for dominating business and wealth. There is also a significant Malay Moslem minority in the South, but more than 90 per cent of the population are Buddhist. Literacy rate was identified as 90 per cent in a 2000 census. The Thai people have been part of a mostly unified Kingdom that stretches back to the Sukhothai era of the 14th century but have inhabited the area for more than a millennium.
The monarchy of Thailand is held in very high esteem by all Thais largely due to a culture of respect and praise for its royalty, but also as a result of the achievements and popularity of the present King Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX), who has reigned for sixty years. During that time he has tirelessly served and helped uplift his people with genuine policies and actions.
Government
Thailand is a constitutional monarchy with the King as ceremonial Head of State, although he exercises great moral authority. Thailand’s seventy five year road of democracy has been fraught with coups, counter-coups, military regimes and weak coalition governments that collapse, on average, every 18 months. Although the era of economic-inspired governments is now at least a decade old, Thailand surprised the world in September 2006 with yet another coup (its 17th) to peacefully unseat the deeply divisive Thaksin Shinawatra who was accused of megalomania and poor ethics. Ironically he had been the first elected prime minister to see out a full term and boast a landslide re-election victory.
The military appointed government that acted as a year-long caretaker proved even less popular for their inaction, and the 2007 election returned a proxy party of Thaksin’s to power while he remains in exile avoiding multiple corruption charges – a hallmark of most Thailand governments. It was a strong sign from the people that the military certainly has no place in the politics of a modern Thailand. None-the-less, power cliques involving the elite, blue-blooded circle, military figures and the same old ‘deep pocketed’ families dominate power against a backdrop of entrenched vote buying habits.
Geography and agriculture
Thailand is a richly endowed country that boast both a vast fertile rice growing basin and stunning scenery that generates such tourism interest. Abundant fishing in the Gulf of Thailand and Andaman waters, along with rubber and fruit harvesting and plentiful rains across most the country ensure everyone is well fed, with enough to export. It extends more than 2000kms from North to South and 500kms across, with a long coastline and fairly important strategic location.
Central Thailand is largely flat and well irrigated, while the North is dominated by the tail end of the Himalaya range, with sub-tropical mountainous forests up to 2,500m. Only just inside the tropics this region gets dry and somewhat cold in the highlands during the cool season but receives sufficient rain, presenting an interesting tourist destination.
By contrast the Northeast, known as Isaan, is a large drought-prone plateau that accounts for the largest concentration of the population and poorest region. Soil fertility is unreliable and it is the least visited by tourists, yet considered the heartland of the Kingdom.
The South is perhaps the most popular area for tourists, centred around the remarkable karst seascapes of Krabi and Phuket. It’s some of the world’s most unique topography and is responsible for stunning natural designs such as the Phi Phi islands and Railay Beach, while Phuket, Koh Lanta and many more island, such as Samui, Koh Pha Ngan and Koh Tao on the Gulf side are blessed with gorgeous tropical beaches and waters. The further south you go, the more equatorial and tropical it becomes, though the southern most reaches are presently caught up in a violent insurgency conflict.
East and west of Bangkok - itself a canal criss-crossed lowland area - are the popular destinations of Kanchanburi in the Western border mountains, and the east coast attractions of Pattaya, Koh Samet, the lush Chantaburi hills and rugged Koh Chang island.
Economy
For two heady decades at the end of the last century Thailand enjoyed its status as one of the world’s fastest growing economies, and per capita incomes increased 19 fold in thirty years. That was until the Asian financial crash of 1997, which started in Thailand, caused a traumatic fall from grace that took the country five years to recover from. Even today you can see the abandoned shells of ambitious tower buildings across the capital.
With a new constitution approved in Thailand’s first ever referendum, elections took place in December 2007 and a hitherto unknown party; the Peoples Power Party (PPP), commandeered as proxy representation for Thaksin and his banned party stormed to an overwhelming victory, sweeping almost half the seats with a promise to bring back his populist policies. Suspicions of widespread vote buying and patronage persisted, resulting in multiple complaints and constituency re-runs.
A seven party coalition was formed, with all but the second placed Democrats (who grabbed 35% of the vote, mainly in Bangkok and the South), installing Samak Sundaravej as a del-facto puppet prime minister. This undiplomatic former Bangkok governor, with a pending corruption charge against him, got off to a controversial start by insisting in a CNN interview that only 1 person died in the October 14th 1976 student protest bloodbath, eliciting derision from many observers.
Under pressure to restore investor confidence and present swift economic growth to the electorate, while at the same time meddling with the press and judiciary to try and whitewash Thaksin’s corruptions charges have placed this so-called ‘ugly cabinet’ (so called because it’s made up largely of Thaksin loyalists rather than qualified people) under a lot of pressure. Political commentators suggest the political woes are far from over, while old hands suggest it’s just the same familiar cycle of gutter politics that seems to dominate Thailand’s democratic process.
