Bangkok cleans up for APEC, but fears the traffic screw-up

BANGKOK, Thailand – "The Oriental", Bangkok’s most famous hotel, founded in 1890, inaugurated its renovated "old wing" last Friday – and the freshly-refurbished "Somerset Maugham Suite" in the author’s wing is now ready for the arrival of our President Macapagal-Arroyo for the APEC summit on October 19.

It’s customary to say I paid for my own room here, so this isn’t a freebie, but I confess that even during the R & R days when we were covering the Vietnam War every journalist paid only hail price then, the Oriental, which is affiliated to the Mandarin group, has always been my favorite.

My wife, when she comes here, prefers another less pretentious but also comfortable hostelry because it’s just a stones’ throw away from the "Chatuchak" (Jatujak) Weekend Market which has been described as the Disneyland of Thai markets, with almost 9,000 vendor stalls selling anything from live cobras to military uniforms, including the patches of every outfit from the US Marines to the British SAS, and even the "California Correctional Institute", plus antiques, Marijuanas t-shirts with the "STARBUCKS Cafe" logo, replicas of everything under the sun (dirt-cheap), religious amulets, portraits of royalty, Buddha images, Siva Dancing, Humvec toy cars, Viet Cong helmets, lizards and frogs, potions, pots and pans, you name it.

They’ve even got images of The Beatles, in many shops brimming over with nostalgia – and when I went there on my usual pilgrimage yesterday, they had portraits and statuettes of Rama V, King Chulalongkorn (after whom the famous university is named).

Chulalongkorn is the present King Bhumibhol Adulyadej’s renowned Great Grandfather, and all over the market, which is thronged with more than 200,000 visitors every weekend, there was King Chulalongkorn sitting, standing tall with his sword held in his left hand, adorned with flowers, venerated in spirit houses. Indeed he was handsomely ubiquitous, moustache and all. On October 4 to 12, just before APEC, the World Philatelic Exhibition will be held in Bangkok, to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of King Chulalongkorn (Rama V), who founded the Thai Postal System.

This gives you an idea of why Thailand works. It has working monarchs.

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The most hardworking person in Thailand today, however, is a commoner: Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who visited Manila last Sunday (September 7) on a 20-hour turnaround visit to gift GMA with four OV-10 second-hand aircraft for our Air Force and deliver a lecture on "Thaksinomics" (as GMA herself coined his formula for success).

There’s no secret in this: Thaksin simply goes for what he wants to accomplish, ignores media criticism (kicks out at the media several times a week, in fact), and packs the powerful Royal Thai Police Force with his friends, supporters, classmates and, well, cronies.

Thaksin, after all, is a former cop himself. (He was a police lieutenant before he ventured into business and built his empire into a multibillion Baht enterprise.) Since he vaulted into the Prime Ministership (the nation’s 23rd) on February 9 more than two and a half years ago – with his self-invented Thai Rak Thai ("Thais Love Thais") party grabbing an outright majority – he has ruled with an iron hand.

The police reshuffle which is being implemented next month, the Bangkok Post complained a few days ago, demonstrates anew that Thaksin controls the appointment of commissioners and unit commanders, "something unprecedented among prime ministers". Officers close to Thaksin have been named to head the Crime Suppression, Economic Crime Investigation, and Highways Police Division.

The former unit, Crime Suppression, is currently under the command of his classmate (Police Cadet Academy class 26) Pol Maj. Gen. Surasit Sangapong. I must explain that, unlike our Philippine Military Academy, class numbers don’t go by calendar year but by the class number since the founding of the Academy. Thaksin is pretty young, having been born on July 26, 1949, in Chiang Mai up north.

It’s also important to note that he’s no ordinary cop. After he joined the force in 1973, he received a government scholarship to study for a Master’s in Criminal Justice in Eastern Kentucky University, then went on to earn a Doctorate in the same subject from the Sam Houston State University in Texas in 1978. So, being a graduate from the Lone Star State, Thaksin is in a position to deal "cowboy style" with US President George W. Bush when the latter arrives here for the APEC – i.e. the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation "Summit" next month.

Half a dozen police generals, based on their relations with Mr. Thaksin, have just been promoted, among them Pol Maj. Gen. Suchart Muankaeo, a former classmate. Another old school chum, Pol Col. Suchart Kanchanawises, will become head of the Economic Crime Investigation Division.

Conscious of the fact that decades ago, Thailand used to be known as the Land of Coups, Thaksin is beefing up the military budget to keep the armed forces happy. The last real coup, on the other hand, took place in September 1985 – an unsuccessful one launched to unseat then Prime Minister (General) Prem Tinsulanonda.

I had just landed at Bangkok’s Don Muang Airport, as a matter of fact (about 25 km from the city) when we heard the rattle of gunfire and the boom of cannon – the unmistakable sound of coup "attempt" in progress.

It was a bloody one by Thai standards, three persons – including two foreign journalists – were killed. They were killed, however, by accident. A tank fired off a round, and the shell ricocheted off a building and shrapnel killed the newspaperman and a photographer.

In short, Thailand has had 19 coups or aborted coups. It is stable now, in contrast to us, with no further coups or mutinies in prospect.

Nonetheless, Thaksin has pledged the Defense Ministry (as of yesterday) to devote 200 billion baht (it’s 39 baht to the US dollar, when it used to be one on one to the peso) for the modernization of military information and communications technology alone – over a period of nine years.

Moreover, Thaksin is boosting the defense budget by six billion additionally per year to procure and upgrade weapons between Fiscal Years 2005-2013. (The Defense Permanent Secretary’s office, Supreme Command Headquarters, and the three branches of the armed forces get 17 billion baht on the average for procurement each year.) Thaksin promises to upgrade this budget of 24 billion baht per year. What about us? Remember the gripes of the Oakwood Magdalo mutineers: Holes in the combat boots of our soldiers, holes in their ponchos, holes in the roofs of theirs barracks. Sanamagan.

"Our country may not be rich," Thaksins declared in a statement last Friday, "but I will not allow our armed forces to lag behind in combat readiness because of a budget shortfall!"

The P.M., though, is not mollycoddling the generals. He also asserted last Friday that the military was "bloated with too many generals, and numbers need to be cut through voluntary early retirement." During a visit to the Supreme Command, Thaksin proposed that the military retain generals who showed promise while offering early retirement to "less productive" generals.

"The military’s workforce," Thaksin pointed out, "is of serious concern because there is a shortage of captains but the number of generals exceeds the quota by 100 percent. We have to make it (the military) slim by adjusting it in line with the military’s vision and modern development strategies."

The P.M. admitted that it was hard for any pre-cadet school and the Chulachomklao Royal Military Academy graduate to believe they had no military future. "All cadets dream of becoming generals. Their dreams are fulfilled when they become generals. But they later have to do supportive works somewhere else with not enough general’s jobs available."

Defense sources say the three "armed forces" (as they call their branches) have about 1,273 generals, of which 700 are considered redundant with no active military posts. Of the above total, 963 are two-star generals, half of them holding inactive posts, while 230 officers are three-star generals and 80 are full generals.

What about our AFP? Thai Gen. Boonsang Niempradit, who becomes their Armed Forces chief of staff next month, said Mr. Thaksin’s suggestions could make the armed forces more "efficient", but they will have to be "carefully studied".

Oh, oh. Sounds like the status quo being defended.

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As someone who’s been battling Bangkok’s traffic since I arrived here last Thursday afternoon, I can predict that the coming APEC summit will be a traffic and security problem – possibly even a nightmare.

The APEC, between October 20 and 21, will bring the head of state from 25 countries in two continents, with their large delegations in tow, into a crowded metropolis of 10 million. On ordinary days, traffic is a mess – no, Virginia, they have not solved their traffic gridlock. The APEC leaders will be meeting in the Queen Sirikit Convention Center on busy Ratchadaphisek Road, plus that magnificent Italian-style Ananda Samakom Palace (completed in 1915). On October 21, it’s announced, Prime Minister Thaksin will greet the leaders of the 20 others APEC countries. The timetable calls for Thaksin to stand on the stairway of the western wing of the Palace and spent one minute each welcoming, with a handshake and a few words of greeting, each leader who’ll arrive according to a rigid schedule.

But how will the traffic cops and military handle the criss-crossing of delegations from 16 hotels across the capital during the two-day summit?

There will be 10,000 security officers on duty during those important two days. We’ve seen Thaksin the economist, the businessman, the policeman in action. Now let’s see how he’ll perform as Traffic Manager.

At least, as Dictator Apparent, he may be able to command everybody to Stay Home, and decongest the streets. Easier said than done in a Thailand which adores sanuk or "having fun" and enjoying life.

But somehow, perhaps, that miracle will happen.