Good morning,

Two more ‘cabinet ministers’ from junta-appointed ‘prime minister’ General Surayud Chulanont’s ‘cabinet’ have been forced to resign after investigations by the National Counter Corruption Committee (http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2007/10/02/headlines/headlines_30050972.php), which is finally doing something useful. Five ‘ministers’ have now been forced out for holding shares in excess of the amount permitted by the law for a cabinet minister – but, it is not illegal we must remember because the law does not apply to the interim government for some reason. That means we will not be seeing the five ministers doing a perp walk. We know that the interim government is above the law because ‘deputy minister’ Sommai Phasee says so (http://etna.mcot.net/query.php?nid=31945). At least General Surayud can call on his new ‘Deputy Prime Minister’ General Sonthi Boonyaratkalin, who has retired from the army and now apparently resigned from being head of the junta (http://etna.mcot.net/query.php?nid=31967). General Sonthi will be in charge of internal security, and his first morning was marked by a co-ordinated series of bomb explosions in the south. At least nine people were injured by 13 separate bombs (http://www.bangkokpost.com/topstories/topstories.php?id=122213). A soldier was killed as was, in a separate incident, a policeman’s wife while other shootings and arson showed life as abnormal (http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/02Oct2007_news09.php). General Sonthi, meanwhile, was enjoying a birthday party at his house (http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/breakingnews.php?id=122238).

The Irrawaddy (http://www.irrawaddy.org/) has been severely affected by virus and what seem to be denial-of-service attacks, presumably deriving from the junta. The streets appear to be quiet in Rangoon, perhaps because so many have been arrested and detained (http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2007/10/02/headlines/headlines_30050971.php). Junta cronies have been out blaming the usual suspects for stirring up trouble (http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2007/10/02/headlines/headlines_30050997.php) and also blamed ‘neo-colonialism’ (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7023205.stm).

Yesterday I managed to submit articles for Sudostasien and Juryfury, which I will mention again should they be published. I also put up a couple of new articles at Suite 101 and a book review at Bookideas. Details on these will also follow.

Back tomorrow at some stage.