Parks Not Slums

Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe pioneered a new trend in urban renewal by razing the slums around Harare and exiling the poor to the hinterlands and now Thai PM Samak has proposed to replace Bangkok's sums with parks. As for poor of Klong Toey and other huddles of hovels they can move back to the country.

Ploenpote Atthakor of the Bangkok Post writes in Outlook, "Mr Samak's dreadful plan brings to mind his long-time battle with the Mahakarn Fort community in Bangkok's Phra Nakhon district which began nearly a decade ago. As Bangkok governor, Mr Samak wanted to turn the four-rai site which has been home to generations of residents, into a public park as per instructions from the Committee for the Conservation and Development of Rattanakosin and Old Towns.

Perhaps the sight of the poor may be an eyesore for the old man who, during the Apec summit in 2003, made news headlines by ordering city officials to sweep the homeless - as well as stray dogs - from the streets so that foreign dignitaries and guests would not have to see them."

So parks versus slums.

We know which way the middle-class will vote.

Zimbabwe Park.

"It's so beautiful."