Shout louder if you want her resignation

The calls to remove PM Yingluck Shinawatra can be expected from most political observers. But for the man on the street, I venture to guess that the majority would not call for her removal – not because of a lack of desire to have accountability from any leader, but because they like to be fair regarding her predicament.

Though she has been miserably misdirected and has flip-flopped, her freshness and errors are forgivable. The late US President Kennedy should have been sacked for the wrong decision in allowing the CIA to advise Cuban exiles to invade Cuba, the so-called Bay of Pigs episode. But if he had been sacked, we would not have seen a strong US president succeed in getting Russian Premier Kruschev to move his missile launch pad aimed at the United States from Cuba. Similarly, the States has been in the economic doldrums since 2008, yet few call for President Obama’s resignation. Why? Because men know when it is intolerable for any leader to linger on. Similarly, so many coups were successful in Thailand because some premiers simply did not know when it was intolerable for them to stay on.

Men by nature are intolerant to any nonsense, and accountability is always called for. The loudness of the call determines the premier’s longevity.

Songdej Praditsmanont

Bangkok