Finally, on Wednesday night, EU Citizen managed to board a new flight back to Europe, as Gen Jaktip Chaichinda, no less than the next national police chief starting next month, finally confirmed he was not The Guy in the Yellow T-shirt. And yet, for scores of Facebook users in Thailand, and for an untold number of TV viewers, he was.
Inside job?
As Thai investigators may keep channeling multiple variations of televised NYPD methods, broadening the scope of the investigation, with Interpol involved, could potentially generate the perfect geopolitical storm.
Consider three facts.
Fact 1: weeks before the bombing, the media rhetoric of the usual corporate suspects against the Thai military was ratcheted up -- from "slap on the wrist" mode to full demonization.
Fact 2: the Obama administration is absolutely furious because Thailand is not on board with the TPP negotiations. TPP, of course, is the NATO-on-trade arm of the "pivoting to Asia."
Fact 3: multiple Beltway factions are even more furious because of the very close trade/strategic relationship of the NCPO with Beijing.
So, geopolitically, we could enter prime time conspiracy territory -- as in a Terminator version of "pivoting to Asia." But what about internally?
The answer might lie in a shadowy game that is virtually off-limits for foreigners; the promotion lists issued this month for assorted Thai military forces -- army, air force, navy. Who went up, down or was outright excluded offers a clue to who is aching to hugely discredit the NCPO.
Another intriguing factor is how unscathed the Erawan shrine actually is (already re-opened for business, with huge crowds). That spells out an enormously skilled (lucky?) Guy in a Yellow T-shirt. And that's yet another prime instance of Thai wilderness of mirrors. The shrine has been a key spectator/victim of political attacks and counter-attacks for years -- and whatever happens to it carries a wealth of symbolic implications across the whole spectrum of Thai culture.
And that leads to the implausibility of arguments attributing the Erawan and the (failed) pier bombs to Chechens, Uyghurs or Southern Muslim separatists. A Bangkok Dangerous inside job? Not even Tom Selleck can answer that.
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