Transcript of the above video: 

So let me just dive into this. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com. Now for those who are unaware, Thai Parliament currently has a very thin Coalition, governing coalition. As we have discussed in other videos, I call this sort of the Rump Coalition because Bhumjaithai pulled out in the aftermath of the current now suspended Prime Minister's phone call with Hun Sen, and the aftermath of that, and that Party which was the second largest Party in the coalition said, "look, we are going into the opposition; we don't like the way things are going here." So now we have Phue Thai, the so-called Core Coalition Party has a very thin majority in Coalition with other parties. As I have argued in other videos, or maybe I shouldn't say argued, I am not really trying to argue a point, I'm just trying to clarify things, but they have said that they have a coalition. Well the Executive Board of two parties, the Democrats and the UTN, the United Thai Nation Party and said they are in the Coalition but there are very serious, looks to me like rifts at least in the UTN and some serious doubts or reticence it looks like from certain membership of the Democrats. When the rubber hits the road, I'm not so sure all those votes are there in terms of a majority for this current Government. And it's a very precarious moment in terms of the Thai Parliament right now. Again, the Prime Minister has been suspended on a 9-0 decision by the Thai Constitutional Court to take up an adjudication as to her conduct in the leaked phone call with Mr. Hun Sen in which she referred to the Field Commander of the Military along the border as an "opponent" and a lot of other things we have gone into another videos. Meanwhile, the acting Prime Minister seems to not particularly be interested in rulings from folks like the Council of State regarding his ability to dissolve the House; that seems to be its own issue, I have done videos on that. Again we are in a precarious position, and I think it is important to clarify that this "majority" is thin as we will get into in this article. And also to point out that, hey, what I would call checks and balances, they are there for a reason. This isn't merely a tactic when the Opposition makes what we are going to get into, a quorum call within the Parliament, because again the whole point of this is, do you really have a majority, and I think there is some legitimate question as to whether or not this Government does. Now that being said, at any given moment that may or may not be the case but let me just dive in here. 

Before I do, I get into deeper analysis. I just did a really long video for our paid news service regarding some issues pertaining to Thai politics, how this may or may not shake out moving forward, what the possible ramifications could be for the Expat Community here. If you are interested in that, please feel free to email us to get on the email list for the long-form videos. I think that that video was well over an hour or right about at an hour, and you can get on there and get some deeper insights into all of this, especially if you are an expat out here in Thailand. I do talk about regional stuff as well as international relations and economics, again, [email protected]. You can email us there to find out information about getting on the mailing list. While I am talking my book here for a moment, also, it is worth pointing out, my better half and I have set up a restaurant here in downtown Bangkok. For those who are interested in American Diner style food including American breakfast anytime, as well as English breakfast; we do have a good English breakfast at Pancake Palace, Pancake Palace here in downtown Bangkok. As the name implies, we have pancakes, breakfast anytime, and American Diner style food as well as glass bottled Coke. We have got buffalo wings, cheeseburgers, hamburgers, pork chops, chilli bowls and world famous, in my opinion the best buffalo wings in Bangkok. That's Pancake Palace, link in the description below. 

Now back to this article, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Thin majority pressures Thailand's governing Coalition. Quoting directly: "Wisut Chainarun, the Government Chief Whip, admitted the Coalition's razor-thin Parliamentary margin makes life awkward, and called for greater turnout from Coalition MPs during House sessions." Now that is my point. Maybe Phue Thai is showing up lock-step but some of these Coalition MPs, I don't know how excited they are about this coalition at the moment. Quoting further: "The Government holds a slim majority of about 10 seats." As they get into it, and I urge folks who are watching this video, go check out that article, bangkokpost.com, again it's titled: Thin majority pressures Thailand's governing coalition. Just this past week on the 17th, quorum call was made and they had to abruptly close the Chamber because the Chamber could have collapsed due to quorum issues. Again it's not indicative of a super stable Parliament when you are dealing with that. And I think it is worth pointing out that amidst all of this rather flippant talk from the acting Prime Minister as to the powers and prerogatives he is legally constrained by in his role, again as an acting Prime Minister, not a Prime Minister that was put forth in the prior polls in the prior hustings if you will, and then is on the current slate of people that can be the real Prime Minister. He's just standing in lieu of the technically current Prime Minister who is under suspension, again on a 9 to 0 decision by the Court to take up the case, and on a 7 to 2 decision to suspend her. And it should be noted that the prior Prime Minister who was removed, they did not suspend him during the adjudication that ultimately resulted in his removal. So it seems to auger toward the notion that the Prime Minister who is currently suspended will probably be removed. It is not a foregone conclusion, but based on everything we are seeing right now it seems more likely than not - let's put it that way when you look at it on balance. So when you are looking all this and we have got this acting PM and this slim majority, you have got to understand that the opposition here has some genuine concerns, as do I. That said, quoting further: "Mr. Wisut also criticised the opposition’s repeated calls for quorum counts, saying it was merely a tactic to disrupt proceedings." This is coming from the folks that constantly go on and on about democracy, and all of that good stuff. This is part of it. You don't have the majority in the House, then you are not the Government; that's the way it works. That's one of the checks and balances associated with a Constitutional set up like this. That said, quoting further: "He acknowledged some technical and logistical issues such as MPs moving between rooms or attending meetings with committees or civil servants should be taking into account." Well seems like it is not a problem. It wasn't a problem before Bhumjaithai seemed to be kind of bullied out of the Coalition over the issue of the Interior Ministry position, but there didn't seem to be issues with quorum calls back then. It was a perfectly good working Coalition at that time, but it seemed like that wasn't good enough for whoever it is that is in the current "Rump" Coalition if you will. Quoting further: Quote: "The opposition has the right to call for a quorum count, but doing so with the intention of collapsing the session every week incurs unnecessary cost. What if this continues for one to three months?" Well what if it does? I mean at the end of the day, if you don't have the votes in the House, are you really the representative of the will of the people? I think they have a good point in bringing up quorum counts, if it's warranted. That said, quoting further: Quote: “We have asked both MPs and Ministers to remain in Parliament. However, some Ministers do have important duties elsewhere." Well okay, they have got important duties elsewhere, but I don't think it's fair to try to sort of belittle what is a legitimate Parliamentary procedure on the basis that it is somehow illegitimate or something. That is kind of nonsense, and it operates against everything these folks say they are all about. 

So I have my concerns in all of this. It is not exactly clear exactly how this is all going to play out, but we will certainly keep you updated on this channel as the situation evolves.