Friday, May 1, 2009

Fair Play



Well, well, well. It appears that in the interests of "fair play", the mysterious Purakhanda, whose "Maew Rap" has garnered well over a quarter of a million hits, has responded to those who have impugned his political impartiality by creating a "Mark Rap" deconstructing some Abhisit videos as well. But it seems that the "Mark Rap" is quite critical of the Thaksinites. Perhaps this shows Purakhanda's true colors, or perhaps it merely shows the realities that he has to work with.

In many ways this is a far more interesting artistic construct because Purakhanda uses the rearranged words to send quite a profound message about the nature of politics. Whereas the "Maew Rap" points up an underlying buffoonery in Thailand's political discourse, the "Mark Rap" uses the refined lancet of satire to open up and expose the very bowels of politics.

Using the serendipitous fact that the word "key" in English means "shit" in Thai, Purakhanda shows us that the key to politics is, indeed, shit. In order to be successful, one must get one's hands dirty. I'm afraid, though, that this video isn't as ha-ha funny as the other. The problem is in the raw material. Abhisit is too articulate and too in control of his utterances to be funny per se, so I see that Purakhanda has found other techniques to drive home his point.

It's a pity that the subtleties of this video will be wasted on those who don't speak both Thai and English. But there it is.

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