absolutelyBangkok archive · Politics
Originally published Aug. 15, 2009
HTC has a new
Android mobile phone, the Hero, with Teflon coating. Goodbye you oily fingerprints. Same goes for the Hero’s and the iPhone 3GS’ new screens.
Oleophobic coatings. Fingerprint resistant. Same goes for our prime minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva. Kind of Teflon coated, as Reagan back then. Criticism just does not seem to stick.
No trouble seems to trouble
Mr. Nice Guy. As if über-Thai, Abhisit so far manages to smilingly deny and reject and oppose and deal with a wide range of troublesome issues — without being seriously troubled. The man may not be good enough, but is still standing tall. The Asia Sentinel went so far to call it a day for the opposition with the headline “Thailand on the Mend?”
The Teflon coating doesn’t make him more transparent. On the contrary. Abhisit veers between patronizing patriotism and Oxfordian serenity. Without ever taking clear sides, he manages to steer clear of what would quickly dismember others. Clearly the opposition’s weaknesses remain his government’s main strength.
Sometimes Abhisit is alarmingly establishment. Next minute he can come across as your buddy. A political chameleon who, at least in private talk as interviewers say, is seriously interested in land reform and disgusted with the same old abuses from top down to bottom. I must admit I was more down on the poster boy at the outset of his premiership.
And you? Or just part of the grander charade.
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