Chips off the old blocks? - If your old man was the master of the art in the whole country, would you find it necessary to cheat in a political science exam at university? Though some would suggest that "Cheating, Lying and Obfuscation 101" should be a compulsory unit in the Thai political science curricula, universities tend to focus on theory rather than pragmatics. Panthongthae Thaksin Shinawatra, son of Thailand Prime Minister Thaksin was allegedly hauled out of a political science exam a couple of weeks ago with a "cheat sheet" in his possession - and it is still the talk of the town.

Administrative pointy heads from Ramkhamhaeng University have been somewhat evasive, vague, contradictory and seemingly suffering from temporary memory loss on details though deputy rector Sommai Surachai stated yesterday that the commmittee had "almost finished it's investigation".

Sons and daughters of Asian pollies tend to get into trouble regularly. Tommy Soeharto is already in the big house. Sons of South Korean president Kim Dae Jong are fighting serious corruption charges. Ex Thai PM Chavalit's sons love the occassional fist fight in various Bangkok pubs, and other sons of the politically connected and privelaged often produce firearms as well to add spice to the proceedings.

Duangchalerm, son of well know Thai pollie Police Captain Chalerm, is presently on trial for the murder of a Thai cop in a bar, subsequently giving other cops a merry months-long keystone chase for him around Cambodia and Malaysia. His poppa was so upset at his treatment by the media that he started up his own newspaper and later stated that the costs were so cheap they didn't even come close to Duangchalerm's monthly bar tab. That of course is no news to Thai wine and imported spirits soaks, who suffer from high luxury taxes akin to Malaysia's - and not being an "Islam State" there is no excuse that they are "moral taxes".

Though most Thais prefer to forget it, Panthongthae's own father only escaped conviction by the Constitutional Court for tax irregularities by 5 judges to 4, and admitted that his accounts were such a mess he forgot which maids, or servants he entrusted to look after each bit. Hopefully he's looking after Thailand's own book-keeping to higher standards of quality...

Now if Panthongthae was half smart he would have know that you don't have to always earn a degree in Thailand. He could always follow the example of ex PM Barnham who bought his...