Firsthand Account of Thai ‘Red Shirt’ Violence: Yes, MSM Got It Wrong
I had intended to switch to the other line and take an eastbound train home, but the trains were no longer running that way, and beneath the station were frenzied Red Shirts. Locals scrambled to the lower platform to head in the other direction, and eventually a BTS supervisor explained in English that the tourists should do the same.
Tourist had no clue regarding the severity of the situation. A kind couple from the UK, on vacation with their child, latched on to me and rode the Skytrain north of the troubled area. I explained as best I could what was going on: they could attempt to take the “khlong,” or the canal boats that run east and west just north of the line we’d just been kicked off of, or they could take a taxi. I advised against the khlong as the canal would run under a bridge that I expected the Red Shirts would be occupying, so we agreed to take a taxi together and I would escort them to their hotel.
It took some time to find a willing taxi. We paid double the normal fare, but gladly. We drove along New Petchburi Road heading east towards Nana Road, and we crossed the elevated fly near the Central World Mall and we saw the Red Shirts gathered. I have seen many protests and mobs before, but never like this. There were thousands upon thousands of Red Shirts and a thin line of riot police.
Sukhumvit Road between Nana Road and Asok is lined with little vendors and kiosks, many run by deaf mutes. They were scrambling to clear their goods and take down their stalls. The Red Shirts had arrived and were setting up roadblocks on the westbound lane of Sukhumvit.
Throughout the trip I received text messages from friends, reminding me of Gangs of New York when the telegraph reports are read as narration:
BTS Closed. Avoid
Avoid World Tard (Slang for Central World Chitlom Mall, formerly World Trade Mall)
S*** Storm!
I met other expats at a local American-owned eatery. Canucks, Brits, and other “Farang” with their Thai spouses, while four BTS stops away was raging hell. I walked to my apartment watching ambulance after ambulance. I walked past a young Thai couple on a moped, still in their red outfits, not bleeding or visibly hurt, but just staring blankly, perhaps in shock from what they had escaped.
I didn’t really know until I saw the local news coverage from home. Protesters beating cops and soldiers to the ground; terrified and outnumbered soldiers unloading their M16s as their armored car was swarmed. Frightened media, some bleeding, fleeing the Red Shirts, who viewed whichever news outlet they represented to be hostile to the cause. Red shirts carrying injured comrades out, women, people who looked like your local shop owner or hairdresser. Shot, beaten, bleeding, crying from clubs, bullets, tear gas, and the crush.
The soldiers are young, 18 and 19, conscripts unlucky enough to be drafted and probably fighting people from villages or towns no different than their own. I watched the heartbreak until 1:00 a.m.
Next morning, the papers told the tale of “events.” I had breakfast at a British pub and was advised by a delivery man who saw me with the Bangkok Post to not read it; it says the Red Shirts are bad.
The official death toll is around 15, including one AP photographer. Injured are reported near one thousand. I would suspect the actual death toll is much, much higher, as both sides had guns and both sides used “spray and pray.”
The Red Shirts came looking for violence, got what they wanted, and now use it as a rallying cry to overthrow the current government. The conflict is far from over, and we don’t know how bad it will it get and how quickly.
And, as of moments ago (Monday afternoon, EST):
The Election Commission decided on Monday evening with majority vote to dissolve the ruling Democrat Party in connection with donation cases.
Commissioners voted 4-1 to dissolve the ruling party.
Don’t expect this news to halt anything.
There’s a reason their shirts are red…commie red.
No. They are NOT Communist. The choice of red was partly to represent ‘Thai Blood’, partly due to the other guys having Yellow shirts, and partly due to the color of the Football (sorry, soccer) Team Thaskin bought. The communists never did well here as the King is too loved for that thinking to fly. Also Thailand has Laos, Burma, and Cambodia as neighbors. Perfect examples of what “Peoples Republic” means.
why pick red, get a life their communists
Who or what is MSM?
“MSM” == “Main Stream Media”.
How this made it on Pajamas Media is very strange indeed. As a US resident of Bangkok who is fluent in Thai and works among the urban poor I can tell you that the account above is way off base. Many of my Thai friends are sacrificing and putting them in harms way for justice and freedom. They aren’t doing it for Thaksin, for a miserable 500 baht, or because they are stupid or ingnorant.
No doubt some communists are trying to leverage the discontent of the masses of common people, but the truth is most of the common people are simply fighting for freedom. Are they getting used by others? Of course, it always happens, but they are protesting and, if necessary, fighting and dying for freedom. Why is that so hard for to understand? I think it would be very interesting to trace the origins of the above article. Either Mr LD Thompson is a typical ill-informed expat – and I don’t care how long he’s lived in Thailand – or he has got an agenda which is leading him to distort the truth.
My Thai friends do not understand why America, the land of freedom in their eyes, has done nothing to help them. It is a sad day when something like this gets published on PJM.
Hope your friends are ok and no harm comes to them. The people of Thailand deserve a democracy, a true democracy, and it is long, long overdue. They are very brave indeed to pull a red shirt on these days.
What have the Thai people done to deserve democracy? They seem like such nice people — deserving a constitutional republic rather than mob rule.
An american idiot attempting to pass pedantism as intellect. FAIL.
The US has a distinct definition of a republic. In the rest of the world this is known as *representative democracy*.
Ummm….a democracy is where the people make the laws and where the majority rule also known as mob rule. There are no reps and there are no protections for minority rights or fundamental natural rights. Madison was critical of democracy. That America is a democracy one of the biggest falsehoods promoted by American schools and MSM. Pick up a copy of the book Lies You Were Told in School.
Sir with all due respect attacking innocent people:
1) Makes the attacker NOT innocent.
2) Removes their ability to complain when they come wanting violence, instigate it, then get it.
3)Goes against THEIR freedom to be able to walk down a street without getting beat up.
Now maybe they are for freedom but attacking innocent people will not win over my personal support.
I don’t care about the cause. Freedom or no. You attack innocent people you deserve every bit of flack that gets tossed your way.
“My Thai friends do not understand why America, the land of freedom in their eyes, has done nothing to help them. It is a sad day when something like this gets published on PJM.”
Because it’s been a long time since American’s themselves were actually free.
Shocking news from America: Instapundit got the Thailand/Military Dictatorship story wrong.
Shocking news from the internets: Instapundit and PJM got the Thailand/Military installed government/Redshirt story wrong!
Not sure it’s that simple @1.concerned citizen. As an American with a Thai spouse (living in the US), I’ve been trying to figure this out for a few yrs. Thaksin (The PM supported by the Red Shirts) is a capitalist/businessman who brought a fair amount of economic development to a country in financial straits. The ‘Oranges’ wanted him out because they thought he was ‘too’ capitalist and corrupt (they are more like communists in my eyes), the Reds are pissed that he was usurped. Poor color choices perhaps…
MSM = Main Stream Media.
Thanks L.D.T. for giving us an un-filtered point of view.
MSM = main stream media
I have some observations.
1. The current “Democratic” government of Thailand is corrupt and attained power by corrupt deals.
2. Northeastern Thailanders got a taste of economic expansion and the resultant freedom under Thaksin.
3. The current government is trying to put the genie back in the bottle (see 2 above.)
4. By your own words, the casualties include women and shopkeepers… need I say more?
“The current ‘Democratic’ government of Thailand is corrupt and attained power by corrupt deals.”
That pretty much describes democracy in general. As opposed to authoritarian forms of government, which are corrupt and attain power by brute force.
MSM = MainStream Media
@TJ Indehar – Respectfully, I think either you or I have read a different article entirely. This appeared to me to be a factual account of one person’s experience, without prejudice to either side (although he does lament the violence and human toll on both the Army and the protesters). What aspects in particular do you feel are off base? I sincerely want to know, as I’m trying to understand what’s going on there.
to Sackett: I appreciate your desire to get the truth. Unfortunately to parse Mr Thompson’s article would take all night, but trust me, the bias is so bad that for me to wade through it all would take more barf bags than I have on hand. Please see the links I have provided above and you should get the picture.
To start with, the article is heavily biased to give an impression that Red Shirts came to Bangkok looking for nothing but violence.
In fact they are there to get a free election, something that has been denied from them for several years now since the coup of 2006.
The demonstrations had been peaceful until the day the elite in power decided to put demonstrators face-to-face with an overwhelming armed power of the military.
As one would expect, in such a situation tensions rise and when weapons are being shown around, even if only intended as a threat, a single accident on either side can trigger a disaster. And that is exactly what happened.
The powers who put the military in close quarters with the demonstrators are responsible for the deaths as they clearly had a choice to not deploy. Military with live ammunition against protesters never makes any sense. So the deployment is gross incompetence on the side of the current government.
Or if you want to look at it with a more cynical eye, a calculated move where young inexperienced conscripts are equipped with lethal weapons and put into a threatening situation against demonstrators — someone knew exactly what would happen, it’s no rocket science. The same tragedy would occur anywhere in the world if the deck was stacked the same way.
It is sad this had to happen. People are there demanding free election and true democracy. The high ideal of people’s power has cost yet more lives in yet another location of the world. Respect those who had to give their lives for it.
PS. if you want exact details of how this article is biased and contains untruths, the whole story about M-76 grenade launchers has been discredited, there’s no evidence to support this and is mostly the yellow (current government) media propaganda. Fact checking is not what this writer does, obviously.
Re-reading, I do get a sense of the writer’s preconceived perspective (i.e.- Red shirts just there to cause trouble, etc). Guess I’m not close enough to this to have the same gut-level reaction. Your links are appreciated TJ; I hope free elections are the eventual outcome of all this. A great American quote about the tree of liberty and the blood of tyrants comes to mind. The problem is that we can’t trust most of our media here to give us the whole story, and that makes it hard to tell who’s who.
While I have no love for the Red Shirts, I must say I am surprised by your description and impression of the yellow shirts:
“…these were huge, largely peaceful, and non-disruptive.”
Really? Storming and taking over both major airports in 2008, which massively disrupted tourist and air cargo business, arguably putting a permanent, if not long-term dent in Thailand’s tourist business was “peaceful and non-disruptive”?? How about the armed guards the yellow shirts placed at the entrances to the airports? Or the fact that the yellow shirts, supported by the long-standing elite power brokers of Bangkok, managed to depose 2 prime ministers and bring down the former government, which allowed their favored party, the Democratic Party, to come into power. They took over government house and also threatened to close seaports as well. The PAD even went so far as to say they would use human shields against the police if they tried to disperse them.
Both the yellow-shirts and red-shirts use intimidation and violence to achieve their goals. Both of them are well organized and backed by opposing rich and powerful parties. And the Thai media, largely, particularly The Nation, has been mostly pro-Yellow Shirt and anti-Thaksin/red-shirts. So I’m confused as to particularly which MSM outfits you are referring to – foreign-owned and operated media outfits?
Corruption has long been a mainstay of Thai politics – to paint Thaksin as some kind of aberration of corruption and human rights violator while ignoring instances of corruption and human rights abuses with current and former governments is simply ignorant. And I say this as no fan of Thaksin, either.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the PAD (yellow shirts) flag is based on the swastika. Nor do I think it is a coincidence that the UDD (red shirts) chose the color red. In my personal opinion, both sides suck and are mob politics at its worst.
I was in BKK last week. I speak Thai, and spent time with both protesters and non-supporters for work from Tuesday through Friday. This comment is by far the most accurate (brief) assessment of current Thai politics I’ve read.
To post such a crappy article with such a bias really makes me wonder what else you’re linking into but know nothing about–sad, I was hoping I could trust PJM.
With all due respect, I believe it was the Red Shirts who shut down the Bangkok airport in 2008.
With all due respect you are completely wrong. It was the PAD/yellow shirts who stormed and took over the airports in 2008 for the same reasons the red shirts are protesting now: to get rid of the elected government at the time.
Do a simple internet or news search.
From prior news reports about the Red Shirt protestors, they are Pro-Thaksin. They are not communists like the Bolsheviks. That’s like saying Tea Partiers are racist because many of them are white.
The red shirts protested the military coup by a Muslim general who didn’t appreciate Muslim criminals and terrorists being killed in South Thailand. He sought to appease the terrorists or even worse, grant them succor and leave the Thai people defenseless.
The current government is the result of a military coup that opposes Thaksin who should still be the legitimate PM. The violence was caused the the military because they changed the government through violence when a peaceful transition mechanism called voting was in place and brought Thaksin to office.
Would Americans appreciate it if the US Army threatened to kill Pres. Obama, forcing him to flee and then pretending our Constitution was protected and is being obeyed? Wouldn’t our Tea Partiers protest an abuse by the military if such a thing happened?
Bad analogy: Thailand and the US do not have the same Constitutions. We saw a similar, bad, analogy made when Zeleya was (quite properly and legally) removed from office by the Honduras military.
The US military has in the past chosen to follow the President’s orders even though they were contrary to the Constitution. I would be (pleasently) surprised were they to decide to tell the Pres to stuff it next time.
For anyone interested in a more informed view of what’s going on try:
http://us.asiancorrespondent.com/bangkok-pundit-blog (English language)
http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/newmandala/ (English language)
http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking+News/SE%2BAsia/SE%2BAsia.html (English language)
http://www.prachatai.net/ (Thai language online newspaper – banned last week in Thailand by the “democratic” government)
How many Instapundit/PJM readers think the Wall Street Journal is just another MSM outlet?
Read these to get a much more accurate assessment of the situation than Mr. LD Thompson’s:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304168004575177172506231604.html
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303720604575170903541998056.html?mod=loomia&loomia_si=t0:a16:g2:r3:c0.0123905:b32652632
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304198004575171724075109414.html?mod=WSJ_latestheadlines
Wow… this was by far the crappiest coverage of what has happened that I’ve read so far.
It saddens me that people have to give up their lives for democracy but then it has always been so. The ruling elite, the ones holding all the power and money, will not give up what they have away for free. Because, you know, their privileged life in the capital with their fancy apartments, comfortable lives and Porsches could become a little less privileged if the majority of Thai people have their fair share of say how the country is being run.
Respect those who are willing to give up all they have for a chance of free elections and true democracy.
I lived in Bangkok for the last four years and can tell you that it is constantly a pressure cooker about to explode. The RED shirts are the mainly the Rural Poor who were given bribes by the very corrupt Thaksin in order for him to win elections and who are still being manipulated by him and his backers. They just want more handouts from Thaksin. They LOVE the King.
The Yellow Shirts are mainly the very corrupt but economically and Politically savvy Urban Elite who resented the ignorant Rural Poor peasants having any Political say so. They LOVE the King too.
Unfortunately all that stops these two factions from extreme violence and bloodshed is their mutual respect for the King but he is now very very old and sickly and his designated successor his son is not respected by many Thais at all.
So watch out because when the King dies that is when Thailand really erupts as the Kings moderating influence will be gone.
“The Yellow Shirts are mainly the very corrupt but economically and Politically savvy Urban Elite who resented the ignorant Rural Poor peasants having any Political say so.”
Oh, so they’re like American Democrats?
Rob Crawford
“The Yellow Shirts are mainly the very corrupt but economically and Politically savvy Urban Elite who resented the ignorant Rural Poor peasants having any Political say so.”
Oh, so they’re like American Democrats?
Precisely!
This is all very reminiscent of the People Power revolution that overthrew Marcos in the Philippines back in 1986, except they all wore yellow shirts back then. Sure, Marcos was a bad guy who deserved to be kicked out but every far left party, student organization and liberation theology oriented clergy glommed onto the movement which succeeded in driving the US military out of the country, thus making them more vulnerable to outside or more importantly, internal threats (i.e. Muslim separatism). That’s what liberal idealism does to a nation.
So this is what an immature democracy looks like – the tyranny of the majority vs the tyranny of the minority. Winner takes all – the loser, of course, will fight back for what he believes to be his.
No matter how many elections are held, the losing faction will go straight back to the mob playbook to try to overthrow the winners. The reds win, the yellows protest. The yellows win, the reds protest. Does anybody here honestly believe elections, even if fair, will solve anything?
I see a civil war in the offing. And to be honest, I can’t think of it as a bad thing. The bloodshed to come will only serve as a catharsis of sorts to all parties, hopefully waking them up and realise it’s their own countrymen they’re hurting, and ultimately, themselves.
LD,
What of the British Club and Silom neighborhood? I’m concerned about some friends in the vicinity of the Bangkok Bank on Silonm (and am also a absent member of the BC)
Cheers, mate, keep your head down
It is important to note that the Red Shirts arrived in the City shortly after the Courts ruled against Thaskin and decided to seize his assets.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/170320/prosecutors-set-to-issue-assets-seizing-order
Also the original pre-Coup Yellow Shirt protests were peaceful, went on for a long time and received little mention in the international press. The one pro-Thaskin protest that occured at that time was violent. The later protests were violent especially when they faced off against the pro-Thaskin Red Shirts.
As for the Red Shirts not seeking violence, certain elements did their best to provoke it and they were very prepared for it. The theft of the grenades and making of the launchers as well as the use of them should be proof enough of that.
I do have a Bias against Thaskin as did most “Farang” who were here during his time. He was a crook of the highest order, but unlike the usual crooked politians here, he has an ego that was frightening. His projects to improve things like the new Airport sound good but the graft involved resulted many problems. I learned of this first had from a Brit who worked in refueling systems. Thaskin also made doing business here very difficult for Farang. While the rank and file Reds might have some real complaints it is my opinion they are being used.
With the ruling party now dissovled the situation seems defused. Song Kran began yesterday and while it was quiet at first by mid afternoon it was in full swing. Some Reds were celebrating their “victory” but the non-Reds and the Farang were celebrating things being “back to normal”, at least for the time being.
Mr. Thompson,
You seem intent on on bending the truth towards your personal bias. At least you openly mention that you’re biased against the Red Shirt movement.
It is important to note that *not a single act of violence* occured in the current month-long Red Shirt protest until the government send in the heavily armed (lethally armed) military with the purpose of breaking down the protest.
It is important to note that previously when the Yellow Shirt protesters were causing considerably higher damage to the country by seizing the international airports, army refused to do anything about them.
It is important to note that the Yellow Shirt leaders who were responsible for the huge damage done to the country were never arrested or sentenced despite the arrest orders that were given at the time. The current government keeps postponing the judicial process (for the 8th time on the last count). The fact that the Yellow Shirt protest leader is a serving foreign minister currently may have something to do with this.
To claim that the international press did not notice the Yellow Shirt protests couple of years back is ridiculous. The Yellow Shirts closed both international airports in Bangkok which is a massive transit center in South East Asia. This had a massive impact on people traveling for tourism and cost the country in several billions of USD in lost revenues.
It does nobody any good that you keep distorting the facts, or reporting with your admitted bias.
For those reading this wondering how they can help the situation, Amnesty International has set up a click-through letter submission form that you can send to the currently serving Thai prime minister and foreign minister urging them to stop the gross violation of human rights and free speech in the country:
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/index.aspx?c=jhKPIXPCIoE&b=2590179&template=x.ascx&action=14117
Please consider taking the time to put pressure on a government who does not grant the same rights to their own people that many of us reading here have.
Whether or not the author’s inferences turn out to be correct, he/she is describing actual experience.
Real reporting. More like this, please.
I have lived in Thailand for 15 years, long enough to have seen a few governments come and go. I first heard of Thaksin in relation to his successful currying the favor of coup-maker generals to gain a monopoly concession for mobile phone services, the source of his vast wealth. Much suspicion of bribery surrounded these dealings, which were reinforced by the later discovery of the inexplicably enormous assets of one general upon his death.
My first impression of Thaksin as a politician came when he was Transportation Minister in a previous government. He created a small publicity boom for himself by ostentatiously riding on the back of a motorcycle taxi to inspect the perennially jammed Bangkok traffic. Perhaps his 50-odd years of life to that point had not yet exposed him to Bangkok traffic problems. Miraculously, the well-photographed motorcycle taxi ride did the trick. Thereupon he pronounced he would fix Bangkok traffic problems in six months. I was impressed: Not only can he woo state monopoly concessions from military strongmen, he is also a shameless politician with real flair for self promotion and blue sky promises. Six months later, Bangkok traffic, predictably, was unchanged.
The government of Thaksin was unique in many ways. He was a fount of grand promises and schemes. Many of them were designed to feed tax money into businesses of his family and cronies; the rest were designed to buy votes with tax money. Buy the Liverpool football team with tax money! Raise the mobile phone budgets for bureaucrats! Loan villages big money to be distributed as patronage, much of which went to consumer items such as, well, mobile phones! All the while, his family and cronies were discovering some mighty fine deals, such as concessions in the new airport and bargain prices for prime real estate auctioned by the state.
The policy most often cited as evidence of his help for the poor is a universal healthcare program, where treatment of any condition costs about one dollar. This scheme has had the predictable effect of overwhelming hospitals, doctors, and budgets, causing providers to opt out if possible. During video talks from exile, Thaksin now promises his supporters more goodies when he returns as Prime Minister. Everyone will have a steady income guaranteed by the government. There will be only two classes, the rich and the very rich. Perhaps the boastful cronyist really can repeal economic laws of scarcity, like his Communist supporters claimed they could back in the old days. But some of us doubt it.
These days Thaksin talks a lot about Democracy. As Prime Minister, he was authoritarian. I guess it was to be expected of Thaksin, a colonel in the notoriously corrupt police force before he became a telecom tycoon. He initiated a war on drugs and encouraged police to take matters into their own hands, allowing them to share a percentage of assets seized. A few months later, about 2,500 people were dead, killed without judicial niceties. Independent follow-up on some cases revealed that the victims had no connections at all to the drug trade. Thaksin claimed drug dealers had all killed each other to prevent being ratted out. I am not making this up.
To keep this comment brief, I will not delve into how his iron fist renewed unrest in Southern Thailand, suppressed dissent in the media, prevented investigations of corruption, and so on.
For those who know little of Thailand, this brief background sketch might provide a sense of why many would not welcome a Thaksin restoration, no matter how many people turn out to protest for his return, no matter how many militia thugs he hires to intimidate, no matter how many votes his promises can conjure in a democratic election.
22. Amexpat – Well said. You’ve accurately painted the Taksin picture and your post provides a breath of fresh air.
I’m also an old Thailand hand, (first visit 1961, lived there an aggregate twenty-plus years, this time (Chiang Mai Province-based) since 1997) am more Thai-oriented than “foreign — and reckon there’s quite a bit of Goebbelsesque BS in this thread.
Starting at TJ Indehar’s post #3 — and on down.
I’ve been living in Thailand for the past five years and have been traveling here for more than 20 and I can safely say that this crisis is one that is not going to go away soon. While I think Thaksin was corrupt (probably very much so), I sympathize with the red shirts. Thaksin was popularly elected and deposed by a military coup, not for being corrupt but for stepping on the wrong toes. In most western-style policitical systems, he probably would have been found guilty of some sort of corruption and removed from office. That was not the case here. However, even after he was removed, a new election brought a representative of his following to power. Protests and legal action (brought on by and judged by a judiciary that was ‘selected’ by the coup leaders and their hand-picked government) brought down that prime minister and another was selected (again from the Thaksin group). Remember that a free and fair election brought them to power. That government was also brought down via legal action from the same group of opponents and judiciary members. Finally, a member of the opposition party was selected as PM and thus we have the red shirt crisis.
Many will say that Thaksin bought votes. That is common for all parties and at an equal level. While Thaksin was very rich and very much an elitist, the party in power now represents the rich of Bangkok.
Do I think Thaksin cared much for the poor people of Thailand’s Northeast or Northern provinces? Probably not. But his policies and action brought real economic growth to those areas while his opponents had only given the area lip service.
It may seem odd but Thailand is in the midst of a class struggle which has the representative of the poor and underpriviledged being one of the richest and most elitist in its society. But the public spoke in several elections and, after being disaffected, are now rising up.
The red shirts are a real annoyance for me as I live right in the middle of the protest. In fact, as I write these words, I’m listing to the speaches being blaired from the Sarasin intersection of Ratchdamri. I had to wade throught the mob to get my groceries home. And yet, I still feel sorry for them because they elected someone, saw him deposed, elected another and saw HIM deposed and finally saw a third person deposed before having to deal with a person who shares neither their life experiences, nor their interests. Abhisit, while seemingly a good guy, is an intellectual, career politician. He has no understanding of how to speak with the rural poor or quell the current problem.
As for the original author’s underlying theme that they red shirts came to make problems, the answer is probably ‘yes.’ But not for everyone, just the government. If Abhisit was a true democrat, he would just call for new elections. The problem is that he konws that he will lose, and some people do not want that to happen… including the PM himself.
TPC,
That’s a balanced and in my view accurate description of the current situation and I mostly agree with it.
Corruption has always been an issue in Thailand and the country has always had corrupt leaders. Thaksin is likely the same but we may never know the real truth about the extent of his corruption since the democratic process has been halted in Thailand since 2006 and any court decisions in the current climate are unlikely to be apolitical.
I’ve watched a similar situation unfold in Taiwan in the past few years where a democratically elected leader was eventually tried for corruption (and is currently facing a life imprisonment should the appeal courts not change the decision). The stark difference between the countries is that in one of them a corrupt leader was removed by democratic means (and his party was voted out of office by the people) where as in other a faux-democracy must be interrupted by a non-democratic military coup every few years. One country continued its development in a somewhat normal fashion where the other is in a constant state of chaos.
Unfortunately Thailand has never had a true representative democracy of the people. It is the constant meddling with the democratic process that grinds the development of the country to a halt.
The power elite (Yellow Shirts and military) do not want representative democracy. As you said, when every vote is equal and everyone gets one vote they are in the minority and they’ve so far not learned how to talk and build bridges and find common causes with the rural majority of the country.
Instead Yellow Shirts have openly been against representative democracy in their public statements. They are afraid. They are afraid that their privileged lives in their fancy Bangkok apartments with their fancy brand shopping and fancy cars should become a little less privileged.
But the writing’s on the wall. Democracy is coming to Thailand. The only question now is how soon and at what price?
It is just horrible what happens in Thailand I was there two years ago and it was great. So I think this demonstrations have a really bad influence on the economie and especially the tourism.
However the current violence turns, the situation is destined to remain volatile for years to come because the two sides are about equally split. If no compromise acceptable to both sides is reached, it could lead to widespread conflict, perhaps even civil war.
The movement of Red Shirts was founded shortly after the 2006 coup that removed Thaksin from office following his second landslide election victory. The first campaign of the Red Shirts was focused on defending the 1997 people’s constitution – the first in Thailand’s history that was drafted in a popular, democratic manner with participation of elected officials from all the regions – against the imposition of the new 2007 constitution, drafted by handpicked people appointed by the military junta.
The grassroots growth of the Red Shirts rapidly increased the size and influence of the group following a series of repressive actions by the government. The country’s most popular political party, Thai Rak Thai, was banned by a court ruling in 2007. The elected prime minister Samak Sundaravej was ousted from office for appearing on a cooking show. The People’s Power Party, successor to Thai Rak Thai, was then also banned in 2008, and more than 100 democratically elected members of parliament were disqualified from politics for five years.
The understandable anger felt by many Thai citizens after seeing their popular will suppressed was underscored by systemic double standards exercised by the country’s judicial system. One constitutional court judge who banned Samak also regularly did paid appearances on radio and taught at a private university.
When the pro-government elite movement, People’s Alliance for Democracy, held disruptive rallies, invaded government buildings, and illegally occupied Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport in 2008, there was not one single arrest, trial or conviction. Instead, these same people are on television every day. In comparison, scores of Red Shirts have already been imprisoned, and those arrested in the most recent protests were processed and convicted in improbably swift trials.
It was all the more impressive that tens of thousands of these activists volunteered to sleep outside at the rally site in obvious discomfort, while risking their lives before the coming violence to make their point. They came to Bangkok to remind the ruling elites and the world that they also have constitutional rights as Thai citizens, that their votes should count too, no matter their level of wealth, class, and education.
But the distractions from these basic facts are numerous. The ruling military elite argues that the killing of almost 70 civilians (only one confirmed death of a military officer) over the past month is justified because they are armed – although most often with slingshots, homemade fireworks and bamboo sticks. The ruling military elite talks about the funding of the Red Shirts, as though these people are risking their lives for some reason other than the anger over having their votes stolen.
The unlawful deployment of force used by the Thai authorities against the protesters, their flip-flopping on the issues of elections and their unwillingness to meet the protesters’ pleadings for negotiations to avoid violence speaks volumes about their legitimacy to govern.
But the facts speak for themselves, and the demands by the Red Shirts for new elections and real representative government must be dealt with in a sincere and orderly reconciliation effort.
Above all, the Red Shirts simply want the right to vote, have a say in who runs the country and how.
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