How Longer Can We Continue To Care?

[sabaijai]

How longer can we continue to care?

By Tulsathit Taptim

The Nation

Published on November 26, 2008

HOW are we supposed to feel? Relieved that an expected bloodbath didn't materialise, or dismayed because everything is still going in a perfect circle and nobody has any idea when or how it will stop? Should we be alarmed that Thaksin Shinawatra is threatening to go berserk like his opponents, or should we treat his increasingly ludicrous outbursts as some kind of entertainment?

We are fast approaching that point - of not really knowing what to feel. We woke up on Monday preparing for the worst; that the day ended without a drop of blood spilled did not fill us with promise. The bottom line is, civil war or not this week, nothing is likely to change in our country. The nation may have been divided beyond reconciliation.

Taking a snapshot of Monday and yesterday, we got a cat-and-mouse comedy. Zoom in and we see the tragedy of people having been killed or injured for political causes. Looking deeper, we find a sad tendency to sacrifice lives for political stakes. And deeper still lies the major reason for this miserable circus: money and greed.

Things have spiralled out of control, muddying everyone's conscience in the process. How did you feel upon seeing TV footage of People's Alliance for Democracy protesters assaulting a senior police officer and spitting on him until his head was soaking wet? Or when militant cab drivers ambushed a PAD convoy by hurling iron bars at speeding cars?

If you feel sorry for the officer, what about the PAD protesters who were killed by tear gas and the bomb attacks on Government House? Yet who is to blame for the deaths and injuries, the police or provocative protest leaders? Surely seizing Government House or besieging Parliament warrants a drastic state response in any other country, but hasn't the PAD single-handedly blocked constitutional amendments that could have whitewashed many political crimes and put Thailand on another potentially disastrous path?

Shall we dig to the very bottom and pinpoint the real culprits? Or is this the time to look at the foremost layer of Thailand's multi-level political truth? Reports yesterday that Thais wearing yellow and red shirts started firing at each other in separate incidents are probably what we should be most worried about. Our luck ran out on October 7, and we can't assume it will return early.

While there have been no major clashes since Sunday, warning signs are everywhere. A well-known temple has inadvertently joined the fray by accommodating a pro-government rally. The PAD, amid accumulating deaths and injuries of its members, is taking its feeling of injustice out on many others. The anti-government group hijacked four buses on Monday and yesterday some protesters reportedly threatened fee collectors with assault and got a free ride on the expressway.

At this rate, Thailand may no longer be known as a country divided, but one filled with mutual hatred. Those in the middle will be confused watchers maligned by both sides and increasingly at a loss as to what is right and what is wrong.

We don't know what to believe about Army chief Anupong Paochinda. Is he a coward bought out by Thaksin Shinawatra or a repentant former coup-maker who somehow has been convinced that toppling an elected government by force will just create new problems? Yesterday when he unequivocally declared yet again that there would be no coup, one half of the country cheered while the other half cursed and sighed.

We don't know whether to laugh or cry at government leaders and lawmakers playing hide and seek with the mobs, as everything previously on the national agenda piles up on the backburner. The worldwide audience to our political drama is getting bigger, with Thaksin popping up here and there to attack Thailand's justice system and the UK, which has turned from a "democratically mature country" to a "gullible nation duped by Thai judges".

How are we supposed to feel? Don't say you want it to end quickly because that thinking can play into the hands of either side. In fact, are we supposed to feel anything at all, since any kind of feeling can play a big part in prolonging this national pain? Even simply feeling sad can be construed as sitting on the fence.

The worst part is that detachment can be irresponsibility, too. But what else can we do, when we don't know either how it's going to end, or how to end it.

[Changkok]

Edited November 26, 2008 by Changkok

[Crushdepth]

Good article.

[ham]

very good article indeed!

I guess the Thai people has to dig quite deep to get an answer, due to the fact that all living here with a lot of lies, corruption and only money and greed in the mind. I love Thailand but after all this years and the development in the last 35 years, I have to say Thailand is a big joke and it is not a funny one, ask the ones who not have the possibility to get something of his enormous big cake. Believe me there are a lot of them, to many at the end. We westerners here are not members of those of course, we living on the bright side!

Civil war could be one of the answers and I rather not imagine what would happen in this amazing country, when their "barriers" falling apart! The way Thailand has taken is a wrong way since a long time, we just did not see behind the mask, but it can be that the masquerade is falling apart very soon. It is not about PPP or PAD it's all about MONEY and POWER (like everywhere else in this time) and the missing of a free speech to all and about everything in this country (and in this forum). To many possibilities to hide.

I pray that there are some important voices to calm down the tensions in the masses! And "long live the king" and you know also why! You may remember the prophecies I heard so many years ago!

There are wise heads in this beautiful country, hope the have a medium to talk to the people!

Beside that comment it is quite the same as all over the planet, but as far my concern, the west has still the free speech about everything and anything and this is our (peoples) power, to have the possibilities to see behind the mask if we really want. But as we can see and learn day by day, people seems to like to live in lies everywhere. We need more Obama’s (= hopes for a change to a better world ;-) at least he try's, wondering if "they" let him succeed!!

[BEENTHEREDONETHAT]

Do you get the feeling no one is running the country?

Are the inmates running the assylum?

[Artisi]

I think an analogy of Thailand and " One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" would'nt stretch the imagination too far.

[grandpops]

We will always care about and love this country. For many of us we have families here and our children are the future or Thailand and don't have the option to "go home" as this is their/our home.

The Nation appears to be moving away from being Sondhi's mouthpiece to a more neutral position. One which a respectable paper would have taken from the start.

Lets hope its catching.

[Seneque]

I think it is rather the time to really care .... if not this country will get down to its knees and the famous 'dark influence' take over and definitely ruin what was (or still is ?) a wonderful country ...

[quiksilva]

Agreed Seneque, I think the apathy of the majority has got a lot to answer for.

[grandpops]

I think it is rather the time to really care .... if not this country will get down to its knees and the famous 'dark influence' take over and definitely ruin what was (or still is ?) a wonderful country ...

I agree.

Time the Thais realised that this is not a reality show out there and their lives are going to be a lot harder if democracy is done to death again.

Most Thais live in the istant and this is the problem. The massive loss of Tourist revenue is not going to be felt today and is therefore not a problem for them. By the time it hits them in the pockets it could be too late to respond.

Come on Thailand, show us you are better and smarter than many on TV would have us believe.

I'll always care and I think most of us feel the same.