An Analysis of Rhetorical Expressions and Political Discourse in Naowarat Pongpaiboon's Poetry entitled "Kang Klong Kanna Yao"(2006-September 2008)

Abstract

The purpose of this descriptive study was to examine Pongpaiboon's portrayal of three major topics as found in his series of poetry entitled "Kang Klong Kanna Yao": Thai government's performances, Thai politicians and political leaders, and social issues emanating from contemporary Thai politics. The three major findings are summarized as follows: As for Thai government's perfonnances, it was found that the government had invested much of its effort in maintaining its status quo, thus revealing nothing but strong self-interest; therefore, its other main mission of solving people's problems still remains secondary in importance. From 2005 to 2008, Thailand was faced with political instability emanating from the coup de grace brought fought by General Sondhi Bunyaratklin. This led to the successive incapable caretaker governments because those who were more capable had been denied the political platfonn. Concerning Thai politicians and political leaders, it turned out that Pongpaiboon had represented them in a negative light, pointing out that most, if not all, of them were non-sympathizers, engaging in politics for personal gains at the expense of good governance. Many of them abused their authority, resulting in rampant corruption both at the policy and practical levels. The poetry also made it clear that fonner Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra must stop his wayward behavior that will only demoralize the political atmosphere. As far as social issues emanating from contemporary Thai politics, it was found that the press has been harassed so blatantly that it becomes lopsided in its coverage. This culminated in the political unrest by the citizens to force Thaksin Shinawatra to step down. Further, there was a more intense political tunnoil as exemplified by the April 2nd general election. This was exacerbated by another incident taking place on January 1st 2007, in which the author vehemently encouraged Thai constituents to vote NO in justifying the Constitution of 2007. All these were the dire consequences of the lingering political instability of the country.