Yet more news from the Thai parliament.
Late last month, as I noted, a graphic image of a woman was broadcast on large screens during a parliamentary session.
Now a member of parliament has given the Nazi salute and yelled “Heil Hitler” during an argument.
Thanks to Saksith at Asian Correspondent for pointing out yesterday the remarkable May 2 video, embedded above and on YouTube here.
The salute and “Heil Hitlers” start at around the three minute mark.
Here’s Saksith, translating a Thai news story:
Reports say that before parliament was about to decide [on a proposal], a little bit of chaos ensued when MP Boonyod Sukthinthai of the Democrat Party raised his hand to protest House speaker Somsak’s hasty attempts to end [the session], but the latter refused to listen and proceeded to the voting, leading to Mr Boonyod yelling loudly that he will protest until the speaker will listen to him, as he then shouted “Heil Hitler, Mr Speaker of the dictatorship! Heil Hitler!” – to which Mr Somsak still refuses to listen and requests the parliament to cast in their votes.
As Saksith notes:
This arbitrary and erratic display of Godwin’s law evidently shows the still volatile political climate that is being maintained, if not even increased by the parliamentary infighting over amendments to the constitution, to which the opposition fears potential abuse of power by the government (and most of all a carte blanche for Thaksin). Nevertheless, it also shows an unacceptable behavior by our elected representatives, who think that any rough measures for this political discourse is legitimate.
This is not the first time a Nazi-related story has made the news in Thailand. CNNGo ran a piece in Feb. about the issue.
(All emphasis mine.)