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I lived in Thailand when the now deposed Thaksin Shinawatras party Thai Rak Thai won the election in 2001. I remember many Thais saying he was the ideal PM beca
by amag 11y ago
I lived in Thailand when the now deposed Thaksin Shinawatras party Thai Rak Thai won the election in 2001. I remember many Thais saying he was the ideal PM because he was the richest man in Thailand and because he was the richest man, he would never be corrupted. Fast-forward five years and the military deposed him because of his corrupt politics.
As long as you have a salary you can support yourself and your family on, I don't think higher salary == less corruption. Au contraire, I believe that once you have a sufficiently high income/wealth it's very easy to start to disassociate with the "people" with an average (or lower) income/wealth. That disassociation can then easily lead to moral superiority, that you are above the law/morals of the common man.
- jpatokal 11y ago"Corruption" had nothing to do with it, the military deposed Thaksin because his politics threatened the interests of the royalty/army axis that has ruled Thailand since approximately forever.
- crdoconnor 11y ago>Fast-forward five years and the military deposed him because of his corrupt politics. Bullshit. The military deposed him because they were grabbing power and because they were worried about his close relationship with the crown prince. Thaksin's power base lies in the rural poverty-stricken north. He was the first politician to actually help them. That's why he was so popular. They all knew he was corrupt, but their choice was between corrupt who would help them and corrupt who would fuck them. Thailand turned from a democracy into a dictatorship because of power hungry assholes. It had nothing to do with corruption.
- jackhack 11y agoPlease, let's keep HN respectful and not devolve into reddit, even if you disagree strongly.