Seeing Red: Confessions Of A Coupist
A friend once told me: “Women, who can live with them. Who can live without them.” Same applies to Thai politics. Only that their character is much more inscrutable and malign. It was for the obvious maliciousness of Thaksin’s arrogance of power that back then I cheered the putsch. Defended Thailand against outsiders. The coup, I said, was the only way out of spiraling injustices and abuses.
The coup leaders promised swift justice – and what a justice was to come. While a wide range of crimes of names and faces we all know remain unpunished, if not forgiven. Thaksin faced a true judicial onslaught – a justice denounced as “selective” by his followers. And now the same man denounced as a republican and wannabe first president of the Republic of Thailand asks for royal forgiveness.
Thaksin, in his taped speech on Saturday, November 1st, asked for forgiveness and royal mercy. A reformed leader? From far away in London or Hong Kong he enjoyed a huge feel-good show of strength with tens of thousands of red Thaksinists amassed – more people than any PAD rally could gather this protest season. And no diatribes on stage, no barbed wire and no militias, but a clear message to the PAD and powers behind them:
We’re no mob of ignorant farmers. We’re quite sophisticated. And this is just the beginning.
“Saturday’s rally was a well organized show of strength by the Thaksin camp, reminiscent of the slick campaigns that helped the former prime minister win three successive elections,” reports the BBC. Now take a wild guess how this transformed, previously chaotic and inflammatory movement of anti-coupists would react to a “successful” PAD.
With the aggressor playing the victim: “Good evening fellow citizens who love democracy,” Thaksin told the faithful according to the Bangkok Post. “Can you remember my voice? I miss you (…) The political system is marred with injustice. Law enforcement is futile. The government is helpless. This is all the fruits of a coup” – leading to Thaksin’s key phrase of the evening: “No one can bring me home apart from royal kindness or the power of the people.”
A royal pardon could bring him home. Or a people’s coup.
Playing subject, agitator and Messiah at the same time, Thaksin made clear that there will be no reconciliation in Thailand until he gets a fair share of redemption. A dangerous game. He’s still not willing to accept his – man-made? – fate. No lessons learned? On the contrary, he sees injustice as his strongest ally.
While dozens of hours of public airtime over the past weeks and months has been dedicated to the “yellows” of the PAD and speeches of their core leaders, not a single Thai television or radio channel dared to carry Thaksin’s address. But guess what, as under the former Sovjet Union with strict bans of free expression, Thailand is nerved with a tight network of informal channels of information.
Everybody’s aware of everything going on in the kingdom – even if there’s no “official” news reporting.
Now … what about those Confessions of a Coupist?
There never was black and white in Thai politics.
What’s intolerable yesterday may be a way out tomorrow.
Just don’t expect any reformed leaders.
Image source Daylife/Reuters
Regarding Thaksin: spot on!
He’s a crook and remains one. He had is big chance yesterday, but certainly continued with his dishonest way (even worse).
The people are so blind. Why do they support this man?
I hope Thaksin can come back.
There was so much happening under his watch. The new airport, construction of the airport link, Thailand Design Centre, OTOP, recognition of the importance of ideas, creativity, brands, intellectual property, aims to surpass Singapore, column inches, publicity, energy, programs to force Thailand up the ‘value per tourist’ league, and so much more.
There was a paradigm shift in the way Thailand was seen. For a few short months before he was removed by the dull military drones, Thailand was being talked about in the same breaths as Singapore, Dubai and China. The future. A country on the up. He understood what was necessary – he had vision – and had the strength and ability to get things going. Not perfect, of course, but way more good than bad. Way more.
Since he left? Nothing.
Thailand has slid back. Nothing is happening here. Ideas have been extinguished. Fledgling sectors have died a death. Entire industries have moved out, to Singapore, China, Vietnam. The Singapore government is laughing its socks off at the gifts that are falling into its lap as a result of Thai government incompetence. Nobody talks about Thailand as the future any more. In fact if anything, the only time Thailand is mentioned is as a model to be avoided.
Let’s face it. The PAD’s vision is one of disenfranchisement. If you’re poor, bad luck. The PAD has no intention of lifting you out of your poverty, no intention of giving you a say, and no intention of making things different for your children. If you’re poor, there’s no hope – and what’s worse, there’s no hope for your children either. Your poverty is desirable.
Imagine Britain and most of Europe, pre-World War Two. Great swathes of the population were living below the poverty line. And compare that to now, where the whole continent is more or less educated, secure, working in decent jobs, affluent. With Thaksin, Thailand would have been on the road to where Europe is now. It wouldn’t have been automatic. But it would have been in the right direction.
Thaksin’s programs were designed to lift the poor up. Give them hope. Give them a chance of giving their kids an existence different to their own. Thaksin would have changed the country. Lifted people to different classes. Spread opportunity.
But obviously the fearful, unimaginative PAD don’t want that. Because they need the poor to stay poor. They want Thailand to remain 70 years behind. Because they and their chums, numbering in the hundreds or the low thousands, profit from the millions and tens of millions of Thais labouring on their behalf. People engaged in back-breaking work. People dying early. People being superstitious, uneducated, unable to change their lots. People enduring insecurity all through their artificially short lives – all because it suits the PAD, whose ranks are made up of people who have been lucky enough to inherit wealth without having to work, and want things to remain just as they are.
If the PAD had been in power in Britain and Europe in the immediate post-war years, I and most other Europeans would have been in the same situation as our grandparents. I, and most other Europeans, would have been poor. Dirt poor. Slaving for the rich elite, accepting our lot, doing what we had to do for no reward. While a couple of thousand aristocrats would have been absurdly wealthy – just how the PAD wants it to remain here.
Thank God the PAD weren’t in power in Europe then. And pray to God that they won’t get in power in Thailand now. If they do make it, the Thai future is medieval.
Thorough and well said Purr.
The PAD have unproven themselves by trying to prove themselves – with their main pillar being ultra-nationalism bordering on fascism, as an expression of a totalitarian approach, usually strong in times of social decline or decadence by promoting a cult of unity, strength and purity.
As long as they had to talk the talk they enjoyed enormous support. Having to walk the walk though, people started rubbing their eyes in astonishment.
Who would have thought after Thaksin’s ouster that liberals would one day quietly side with the reds. That’s exactly what’s happening now.
There is no other way to say it, but anybody with a basic sense of justice has no other option.
The PAD could still leave with their heads held high. But their fight is lost. The silent red majority would no second time tolerate further disenfranchisement.
The key question remaining is when the backers and donors of the PAD cut the supply line. So far they don’t seem to be ready to accept a loss.
I don’t want to name names, but a prominent bank seems to be a main donor of the PAD.
BangkokDan