Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Parliamentary matters here in Thailand. I have been trying to keep people at least somewhat up to date with regard to ongoing news on this topic. We are in the middle of - outsiders kind of view this stuff as a little more serious than it is in both is as serious as it seems if not more so, and is not. And when I say that, I'm not trying to be intentionally paradoxically obtuse but Thai politics again, I've said it many times, Thailand to my mind and analogises, if you're trying to make an analogy between Thailand and one US state, that state to my mind that most aligns with how best to think about Thailand is Louisiana, in many ways. One, it's a civil law country; two it sits on the delta of a major river that is kind of the focal point of a lot of the economic activity occurring in that state; it sits on a gulf that it tends to kind of dominate in many ways for lack of a better term, sort of geopolitically, and it's makeup is similar. I read a biography years ago on Huey Long who is actually one of my favourite politicians. People have often asked me where my politics are in America and I've said before, I'm a Constitutionalist. I don't really like Party politics but if you are pressing me on who I like in sort of the American narrative of the American political experience if you will, I'm a Reagan Republican and a Huey Long Democrat. Now how those two reconcile, if you know your American political history, it's an odd reconciliation but as a kid from Kansas growing up who liked watching American politics that's just sort of where it came out. And it's probably one of the reasons I can deal with sort of the vicissitudes of politics because again I liken it to systems that I can understand back from the US, and in my mind it's sort of like when you go down to Louisiana and everybody's like “oh there's always political turmoil, and the system doesn't seem to work”,  yet it works”, and that's sort of how it is here in Thailand in many ways.

So while all this is going on in the background, how much of an effect does it really have on expat land? I would argue not a ton on a day-to-day level. Now Parliament makes policy and as we have seen the last two years from this government, a lot of these policies have had in my opinion very detrimental impacts on the Expat Community as I've discussed another videos. I think the national brand has been impacted by a ton of this banking stuff that has largely been brought in by in my opinion undue foreign influence like the OECD and the World Economic Forum and all of that stuff that we have been dealing with the last two years under this government and now we have a chance for things to sort of change. I go into some deep dive analysis on this in our paid news service, Integrity News Service. If you're interested in that please feel free to email us: [email protected], I'll get you on the email list for that. Also while I'm talking my book, my better half and I did set up a restaurant here in downtown Bangkok, Pancake Palace, breakfast anytime as well as American Diner style food, links in the description below to come see us. If you want to come on down, we'd be happy to see you. 

The point I am trying to make though with this video is for expats I think watching the Thai political scene and kind of keeping something of an eye on it is a good idea but to concentrate too much on it I think is counterproductive. So things just kind of move along here in Thailand and we will get through this as a great professor of mine back in law school Jim Kincannon was want to say, "this too shall pass, we will get through this." That said, let's dive in here. I initially thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, and by the way the reason for the thumbnail I'll get to at the end because there is all this talk about dissolving Parliament and stuff and I think it's a lot of hot air because the Council of State has explicitly come out and said look, an acting PM can't just do whatever they want when it comes to dissolution. That said, quoting directly, bangkokpost.com from the article titled: Pheu Thai keeps dissolution as an option. Quoting directly, and first off, this "keeps it as an option". I'm really getting tired of the Press on this just kind of spinning this stuff as if it's legitimate, okay. The Council of State as I'll get to here in a moment, in this publication itself, has explicitly stated an acting PM can't dissolve Parliament. I have discussed this at length now for weeks and yet this meme keeps coming to the foreground that "oh yeah, we can just do this" Well I find it really interesting that the acting Prime Minister is a Communist or at least was an avowed Communist in the Communist Party in Thailand as we discussed at length in other videos - that's documented - and we've got all this kind of Bolshevik kind of talk which is we can just do whatever we want, damn the law kind of thing, kind of attitude. It's very disconcerting, especially when everybody is talking about rule of law and representation of the people and all. Well we've got a Parliament; it's got rules. To paraphrase the movie the Big Lebowski, from Walter Sobchak, “Smokey, this is not ‘Nam, this is bowling; there are rules.’ Well, this is not ‘Nam, this is Parliament in Thailand, there are rules. Fact of the matter is there are rules. You need an actual PM who has an actual mandate of the people i.e. somebody who is on the slate that was initially elected going back some two years ago, in order to basically claim the mantle of the mandate of the people to dissolve the Parliament not some acting guy, who by the way as we discussed in other videos, was intentionally slid in there basically to backup Paetongtarn, as we discussed in another video who they said basically didn't have what it took to be the PM, and as we found out from the Constitutional Court’s ruling turned out yeah, did not have what it took to be a PM. They slid that guy in there and it's totally anathema to have a Communist as the acting PM, it's just crazy. I mean the Thailand I came to in 2008, if you would have told me that year, that one day the acting Prime Minister of Thailand would have had a history in the Communist Party of Thailand I would have called you crazy; it's really ridiculous, it's like absurd levels. And then now this person is in and they are talking about that they are retaining the option to dissolve Parliament when the Council of State has explicitly said you can’t do that. So quoting directly here, again, bangkokpost.com, “The Phue Thai Party is still seeking to form the next government but is prepared to dissolve Parliament a senior party official said on Tuesday, a move that could trigger a general election. In a sign of deepening political turmoil as two rival camps vie to form the next Government, Pheu Thai Secretary General Sorawong Thienthong said the party was weighing its options between nominating Chaikasem Nitisiri for the premiership or calling a new election." Well first of all, it's not yours to dictate that. You don't have a full majority in the Parliament. You're one of many parties that has some level of a plurality and as we will get to here in a moment, cited in this same publication from the Council of State itself, an acting PM, or caretaker PM does not have the authority to dissolve the Parliament on their own merit or in their own right. Quoting further Mr. Sorawong's remarks came as the opposition People's Party, the largest in Parliament, met for a second day to discuss whether to back Pheu Thai or the Bhumjaithai Party to form the next Government.”

I find it really interesting that it seems People's Party, they come out and said we don't trust either of them, but it looks to me like from time to time the momentum seems to swing towards Bhumjaithai and then Pheu Thai comes out and says, “oh, we can just dissolve, even though, and quoting directly from the same publication, bangkokpost.com, quoting from the article: Council of State reaffirms opinion caretaker PM cannot dissolve House. "Council of State Secretary General Pakorn Nilprapunt has reiterated the Council's opinion that the authority to dissolve the House of Representatives rests solely with the Prime Minister not a caretaker Premier.” Quoting further: "He said widespread public discourse on the issue had led to confusion. The Council’s previously stated position remained unchanged”. What are we talking about here Pheu Thai? And what are you trying to pull? This is really disconcerting stuff and we are watching; the people of Thailand are watching what you are doing here, and we didn't ask for any of this stuff. We certainly didn't ask to have all this weird banking rules foisted upon us and the OECD to be brought in and all of this great nonsense. Who voted for an envoy of the World Economic Forum to meet with the former Prime Minister in the Purple Room? I certainly didn’t. I have serious questions about the influence of the World Economic Forum here in Thailand right now, or at least in the immediate past. 

That said, getting to the reason for the thumb. I was actually reading this article a day ago or within 12 hours of this video and I was actually listening to Superfly by Curtis Mayfield while I was reading the news and the line, ‘The man of the hour has an air of great power’ came up and I was reading this article. Let's jump into it. It is again from Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com House ‘could hold PM vote this week’. And what we are talking about here, when I say, “The man of the hour has an air of great power”, I think unknown to most sort of lay observers, however you want to put it, people that don't follow Thai politics to this level Wan Noor Matha is the House Speaker and anyone who knows the history of Thailand's Parliamentary politics the speakership is exceptionally important especially at times like this and let's quote directly: “House Speaker Wan Muhamad Noor Matha confirmed that the House of Representatives is prepared to hold a vote for a new Prime Minister this week, as Pheu Thai and Bhumjaithai compete to form a government”, which is what the purpose of the Parliament is, for our representatives to get in there and hash it out so we people can get on with working for our living. Quoting further: "He said on Monday the House is scheduled to meet from September 3rd to 5th with Wednesday and Friday scheduled for the consideration of draft legislation and Thursday for Cabinet members to answer questions. However, as the entire Cabinet has vacated office, the agenda originally set for Cabinet Ministers to respond to questions will be cancelled. The House, he said, will still hear and acknowledge reports from relevant agencies." So look, this is the purpose of the Parliament, and the Speaker is there to basically act as a kind of referee if you will in many ways, in getting this through Parliamentary procedure. All this talk that is happening outside the Parliament of “oh, we can do this” even though it has explicitly been stated by the relevant agencies tasked with determining the legal limits of the Prime Ministership have said "no you can't do that." At the end of the day, it's the institution of the Parliament that is important, and the Speaker is effectively the one who is going to be guiding that institution moving forward. And understand how important the Speakership is. For example, going back to when I first got here back in 2008, ‘9, ’10, Chai Chidchob was the Speaker of the House at the time - by the way that's the father of Newin Chidchob for anybody who is aware of sort of the Bhumjaithai history and all of that - he was extremely instrumental in many of the changes that occurred in Thailand at that time in his role as Speaker. So that's the reason for the thumbnail is I think folks should be aware that procedurally, The man of the hour has an air of great power is the Speaker of the House as he will be calling in to session the House, to convene it to come up with a Prime Minister, notwithstanding the machinations of a bunch of caretaker actors who don’t have any legal authority in my mind to do what they say they are capable of doing as evidenced by statements from the Council of State themselves. So how this plays out remains to be seen. We will certainly be keeping you updated on this channel as the situation evolves.