Thailand 2009: Take the quiz

Thai Takes

By PHILIP GOLINGAI

1) WHO is the most adored in Thailand?

a) Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva

b) Ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra

c) Lin Ping, the baby Panda

2) What fever swept Thailand?

a) H1N1 fever

b) Panda fever

c) Liverpool fever

d) All the above

3) Who shot Sondhi Limthongkul, co-leader of the Yellow Shirts, an anti-Thaksin movement?

a) The military

b) The police

c) Gunmen hired by Thaksin Shinawatra

d) Insurgents from Thailand’s Deep South

e) “a” and “b”

4) Who is Suvanant Kongying (according to CNNGo.com)?

a) Thailand’s most searched for celebrity on Google in 2009

b) Her lavish January wedding was aired on a Thai TV channel

c) She and her husband are tabloid fodder, enjoying a lengthy 10-year courtship after meeting on a soap opera set and dealing with some subsequent mother/daughter-in-law drama.

d) She’s the Thai actress who was misquoted by a Cambodian tabloid in 2003 as saying that Angkor Wat belonged to Thailand, leading to riots in Phnom Penh and destruction of the Thai embassy in Cambodia

e) All the above

5) What does Keigo Sato (nine years old), Narumi Hamada (18), Masami Hayashi (eight), Nobuhiro Nakyai (11) and Nujarin Tsuchiya (13) have in common?

a) They are Thai/Japanese

b) They are looking for their Japanese fathers who abandoned them

c) Their plight inspired a Japanese to form a Thai-based support group for them

d) All the above

6) Who did Thaksin finger as the invisible hand that masterminded the September 2006 coup?

a) Saranrat “Lydia” Wisutthithada, a Thai R&B singer

b) Gen Prem Tinsulanonda, the adviser to the Thai King

c) Sondhi Limthongkul, co-leader of the Yellow Shirts

7) Who said, “I am in charge of security affairs and I have heard of nobody planning a coup. If there is a coup, I will walk naked (as I) step down. I believe no groups (in the military) want to stage a coup now.”?

a) Army chief Anupong Paojinda

b) Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban

c) Police chief Gen Patcharawat Wongsuwan

8) What was Thaksin’s “big surprise” announcement on his birthday?

a) The self-exiled politician promised to return to Thailand to face justice

b) He appeared in a hologram for his birthday party in Bangkok

c) He vowed to become a monk

d) He launched a 100-channel TV station to connect Thailand with the world

e) He quit politics

9) Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has ...

a) Accused Thailand of preparing a coup against his government

b) Contended that Abhisit “stole somebody’s chair” to seat himself in the prime minister’s chair

c) Appointed Thaksin as economic adviser to Cambodia

d) Maintained that the soured relationship between Bangkok and Phnom Penh will continue as long as Abhisit is Prime Minister

e) All the above

10) Gen Prem Tinsulanonda appeared publicly in full military uniform at his Bangkok residence on Dec 28. To pro-Thaksin Pheu Thai Party spokesman Prompong Nopparit this means:

a) The former army chief was hosting chiefs of the three armed forces and senior military officers who visited him to wish him Happy New Year

b) The 88-year-old puu yai (Thai for “senior elder”) wanted to feel healthy and strong

c) A sign another military coup is in the making

d) The confirmed bachelor simply loves donning a military uniform

11) What did young Abhisit do – as imagined by French cartoonist Stephff – at Oxford University during a human rights lecture?

a) Furiously take notes

b) Sleep through a lecture on “the oppression of ethnic minorities”

c) Eye a cute farang (Thai for “Westerner”) woman

12) Where in Thailand – as described by International Herald Tribune – does “the well water smell of solvents and when left in a glass overnight turns rust-coloured with algae”?

a) Nana Plaza, a three-storey building, which is home to a dozen go go bars, in Bangkok

b) Babylon, a Bangkok gay spa which TimeOut City Guide to Bangkok lauded as the “most beautiful sauna in the world”

c) Map Ta Phut, an industrial zone along the Gulf of Thailand

Answers:

1) c – since the unexpected birth of Lin Ping in Chiang Mai Zoo on May 27, Thais have been infected with panda fever. The cute baby panda even has a 24-hour “live” TV programme showing its daily activities

2) d

3) e – Since the April morning Bangkok shooting – where gunmen sprayed more than 100 bullets at Sondhi – arrest warrants have been issued against a policeman and two soldiers

4) e

5) d

6) b

7) b

8) d

9) e

10) c – Prompong said: “Gen Prem appeared in a military uniform shortly before the Sept 19, 2006 coup, and history could repeat itself again.”

11) b – on Dec 28, the Abhisit government repatriated thousands of ethnic Hmong asylum-seekers to Laos despite international objections that they could face persecution back home

12) c – 27 villagers from Map Ta Phut won a lawsuit (a landmark for Thailand’s environmental movement) which led to a slew of decisions that stopped US$9bil (RM31.1bil) worth of industrial projects

(Published in The Star on January 2, 2010)