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ASIA'S PICKLE WITH PEOPLE POWER

Chietigj Bajpaee

Asia Times, September 17, 2008

Most of Asia's democracies emerged after waves of "people's-power" struggles - which often led authoritarian regimes to yield power anyway - but it appears that these countries have now developed an over-reliance on protest as an engine for change, rather than trust being placed in the democratic process.

In Thailand, former prime minister Samak Sundaravej was last week forced to resign for accepting a trivial honorarium for appearing on a weekly cooking show. He had faced weeks of street protests by the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) against his pledge to amend the military-drafted constitution, charges of electoral misconduct during the polls in December 2007 and claims that he and his People's Power Party (PPP) are puppets for former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

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