New Speaker is Thaksin's Man

The new speaker of the Thai parliament, Pokin Polakul, has demonstrated that, rather than be the impartial arbiter of parliamentary proceedings, he is prepared to be an entirely partisan enforcer of absolute rule by the TRT and the Great Leader.

In an incident last week, a Democrat MP accused a TRT MP of violating the rules of parliament by voting twice on a particular (rather minor) measure. Rather than investigate the accusation, the new speaker told the accuser to withdraw the allegation or be forcibly ejected from parliament. In response, the Democrat MP walked out of the parliament followed by all her Democrat colleagues.