Good afternoon,

The Sakon Nakhon by-election has ended with an enormous win for the Puea Thai party – the media, ever alert to the challenge of reducing all events to the clash between personalities, have followed the story that this is a victory for former PM Thaksin (ousted by the 2006 military coup) and who is said to have been active in telephoning village heads prior to the election. It could just as easily be characterised as a victory for democracy over the turncoat Newin and the Abhisit money politics factions. The people have rejected Newin’s promises as unlikely and have demonstrated their understanding of his disgraceful role during the violent dispersal of the pro-democracy demonstrators at Songkran this year.

The thousands of Karen people who have crossed the border into Thailand to escape persecution by the Burmese military are begging not to be forced back across the border by the Thai military. Gaining international publicity is their best hope for safety – we have seen recently how the Thai military behaves when it can work in secret with the shameful treatment of the Rohingya refugees. The Burmese military is a notorious institution.

The Kasikorn Research Centre has published a report that claims that Thai exports will rebound from their downward trajectory from about this month and may experience positive growth by November-December of this year. Let’s hope this optimism is justified – the Commerce Ministry has just released figures for May of this year which show the worst results for exports ever.

Back tomorrow.

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