Banjerd Singkaneti

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Banjerd Singkaneti (Thai: บรรเจิด สิงคะเนติ) is Assistant Professor of Law at Thammasat University and was a noted critic of Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. German-educated Banjerd compared Thaksin to Adolf Hitler and claimed that Hitler did more for Germany than Thaksin did for Thailand.

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[edit] Education and early career

Banjerd completed an LL.B. from Ramkhamhaeng University, an LL.M. in public law from Thammasat University and a Magister Legum (LL.M.) Doktors der Rechte (Dr.jur.) from Ruhr-Universität Bochum in Germany. Banjerd returned to Thailand after completing his studies in Germany to teach administrative law and constitutional law at Thammasat University.[1]

[edit] Criticism of Thaksin Shinawatra

Banjerd was a leader of the People's Alliance for Democracy, a group active in 2006 in attempting to bring down the government of Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.[2] He famously criticized Thaksin as being worse than Adolf Hitler.

“ What makes Mr. Thaksin different from Adolf Hitler was that Hitler did not do things for his own benefit. Hitler killed Jews but he did several things for his country. He was more useful for the country than Mr Thaksin was.[3] ”

The Embassy of Israel protested in a letter to the Bangkok Post, the English-language newspaper which had published Banjerd's statement.

“ Comparing Thaksin to Hitler shows ignorance or lack of knowledge of history. After World War Two, it took years for many countries to recover from the devastation caused by the Nazis. Several others have not yet recovered. It is also to ignore the actual fact that millions of people were murdered and suffered under the hands of the Nazi regime. There is no similarity between Hitler’s dictatorship leading his country to World War Two, and Thaksinomics.[4] ”

[edit] After the coup

After the Thai military overthrew the government of Thaksin in a coup, the junta appointed Banjerd to the Asset Exemination Committee investigating corruption allegations against Thaksin and to the Constitution Drafting Committee drafting a new permanent constitution.

During the drafting process, he rejected western-style democracy in favor of traditional social customs. “I personally believe in social structure and administration through traditions and customs that we once had in small communities. It’s more real than western-style democracy because people rule by themselves. I firmly believe that we really need to look back into our village life,” he noted in an interview.[5]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Short biography from Thammasat University website
  2. ^ The Nation, Fight not over yet: PAD, 10 April 2006
  3. ^ The Bangkok Post, Academics agree on plan to oust PM, 20 March 2006
  4. ^ The Bangkok Post, [1], 23 March 2006
  5. ^ Bangkok Post, [2], 26 February 2007
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