Veep’s Thai Trip - A Waste?

Veep’s Thai economic deals hang in the balance

This follows the bloodless coup that toppled the Thai Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra on Tuesday.

The Vice President returned from the state visit just last week during which he got some Thai state enterprises, which were ready to buy cocoa and raw fruits from Ghana amongst other agreements on roads and rural development.

The Thai Military took over the governance of the country while the Prime Minister was away at the UN General Assembly in New York.

The soldiers have since suspended Thailand’s constitution and imposed martial law, and it is unclear if the deals struck as well as a proposed bilateral agreement to originally scheduled to be signed in October this year will come on.

But a Special Aid to the Vice President has expressed shock at the coup d’tat. Yaw Buabeng Asamoah was part of Alhaji Mahama’s delegation to Thailand.

Asamoah told JOY NEWS on Thursday that it is uncertain whether the agreements will be implemented, adding that there was nothing to suggest that Thailand could have been plunged into military rule within days of the visit.

However, experts on the South East Asia tiger say there were many signs that the coup was hardly far from the surface.

Indeed, early this year, the Thai opposition charged the Prime Minister, his family and some leading members of his government of corruption. The allegations sparked violent public protests across Thailand.

Shinawatra government’s violent suppression of the demonstrations and its backlash forced the Prime Minister to call snap elections in April in which the opposition claimed he lost.