1 Coup in Thailand ‘to restore order’ (Kate Hodal in
The Guardian) Thailand's army seized control of the country and suspended the
constitution on Thursday after rival factions failed in talks to end six months
of political turmoil, causing the nation's 19th coup in 82 years.
While General Prayuth Chan-ocha, head of the army
and now acting prime minister, did not use the word "coup" in his
televised announcement to the nation, he said the takeover was necessary
"in order for the country to return to normality quickly, and for society to
love and be at peace again".
The surprise announcement followed the unexpected,
late-night, invocation of martial law on Tuesday, which the army said was not a
coup but merely a peacekeeping move to "restore order" in a nation
beleaguered by political in-fighting. US secretary of state, John Kerry, in a
strongly worded statement warning that the takeover would "have negative
implications for the US-Thai relationship", openly condemned Prayuth's
move and said: "There is no justification for this military coup."
Various governments, including those of France and
Germany, as well as human rights groups, have condemned the military's move –
the 19th coup since absolute monarchy was abolished here in 1932. Observers say
Thailand's next move will depend on just how well the various factions, and the
public, respond to the military takeover.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/22/military-coup-thailand-peace-general-prayuth-chan-ocha
2 HP to cut up to 16,000 more jobs (San
Francisco Chronicle) Hewlett-Packard Co. said Thursday that it aims to cut
another 11,000 to 16,000 jobs by October, bringing the total number of planned
layoffs to a maximum of 50,000 and nearly doubling the largest payroll
reduction ever for the 75-year-old technology giant.
HP's move revises upward a previous target of 34,000
job cuts. In May 2012, eight months after former eBay Inc. CEO Meg Whitman took
the reins, HP unveiled the chief executive's initial restructuring plan, which
called for a headcount reduction of 27,000. When the program was first
announced, the company had nearly 350,000 employees. As of October, it had
317,500.
Whitman said the extra cuts are being made because
the company sees further opportunity to cut costs, not because of a forecast
decline in demand. "I would say I'm feeling more confident because we have
seen a stabilization of revenue," she told analysts on a conference call.
"The high single-digit declines are over."
The Palo Alto-based company said the reductions will
save an extra $1 billion annually by the fiscal year through October 2016 and
reap 2-3 cents per share of savings in the year through October 2014. Even so,
analysts worry that the company's recent good fortune, especially in a
recovering market for personal computers, might be short-lived. The company
acknowledged that Microsoft Corp.'s end of support for its nearly 13-year-old
Windows XP operating system in April had boosted corporate demand for PCs,
especially in Japan.
3 Backseat for ideology in India election (N.
Janardhan in Khaleej Times) For good or for bad (hopefully the former), the
Narendra Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance
recorded a resounding victory in India’s 16th parliamentary elections. The
central argument here is that the poll results point to a probable weakening of
‘ideology’ — religious, social and political — among ordinary citizens, even if
it is temporary. Instead, the emphasis appears to have been on pragmatism over
idealism, expression of aspiration over apathy, stress on development over
status quo, and a penchant for the unconventional over the usual, among others.
While this assertion can easily be identified in the
drubbing that the 125-year-old Indian National Congress received, following are
a few other parallels. First, majority of the people who voted for the BJP did
not vote for the party and its ideology or its candidates per se — they voted
for Modi, who campaigned to be the prime minister in a presidential-style
election. By choosing the BJP through ‘decisive leader’ Modi, voters ensured
the triumph of the development mantra over any ideology.
This is evident from the BJP’s vote share in its hitherto
non-popular parts of the country — Kerala (10.3 %), Tamil Nadu (18.6% with
allies), West Bengal (17%), Northeast (8 seats) and Jammu and Kashmir (32.4%),
to name a few. Further evidence lies in the BJP getting 9% of total Muslim
votes. Though the party has no elected Muslim MP, the Centre for Study of
Developing Societies points out that 9% is a jump over the 5% Muslim votes that
the BJP received in 1998, 6% in 1999, 7% in 2004, and a poor 4% in 2009.
Second, the performances of the Samajwadi Party and
the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in Uttar Pradesh and the Janata Dal (United) and
the Rashtriya Janata Party in Bihar point to dilution of caste-based politics. Third,
the performance of Left parties poses a question mark on the relevance of
communist ideology in India’s representative politics.
Fourth, a combination of enfranchisement of more
voters and an actual rise in turnout meant that about 100 million extra people
cast their ballot in 2014 compared to 2009. It appears that millions finally
ditched their preferred ideology of political passivity to political
positivity. Fifth, weakening ideology is also evident in the performance of the
Aam Aadmi Party. Even its disappointing show points to a shift in people
seeking to explore alternatives beyond established political parties.
These and the fact that corruption would continue to
frustrate the ordinary people, irrespective of the government in power, mean
that a ‘by-then-mature’ AAP would find its ‘lean and clean’ political ideology
and practice appealing enough to form a government at the Centre.
Finally, the only letdown is the irony that the BJP
— which won 283 seats with just 171 million or 31% of total votes polled — is
capable of forming a government on its own. Sixty-nine percent voters not
endorsing the BJP tells a story of its own about winners and losers in the
first-past-the-post system of democratic politics that India follows. While we
have seen a change of government with evidence of weakened ideology, will we
ever see a transformation in the practice of what really constitutes political
‘majority’?
http://khaleejtimes.com/kt-article-display-1.asp?xfile=data/opinion/2014/May/opinion_May39.xml§ion=opinion
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