Indonesia Vs Thailand (again)
→ April 16, 2009 4In Southeast Asia last week, we saw this same duality we find in all cultures played out regionally in good events (Indonesia) and bad ones (Thailand). In Indonesia, the first professional president the country has ever enjoyed, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, found his new party, the Democrats, triumphing in parliamentary elections. In Thailand, the opposite seemed to be happening. There, a leader has to show "the hand", more than just the "strong fist" of Western dictatorships. It conveys the sense of strength from which even legitimacy, in the Thai mind, proceeds.
