Thailand: challenging the "heroic revolution" archetype

:D

:D :D

Thumbs up to this reporter for taking the middle ground.

We should now try to put subtitles in all Thai POlitics related videos on youtube

Excellent article!

This is the single best article on the Thai crisis.

Yes, suggest people send that link to friends in the west. Thaksin planned this spin, to try to sell the idea that the situation in Thailand is the same as Burma, bunch of Asians, what's the diff?

Yes excellent article -

"Abhisit, with his thoroughly western and somewhat liberal background, shares the values of the west and is in fact more likely to bring about the social revolution needed by Thailand's agrarian poor than any previous leader. He is, in fact, pretty red, while Thaksin, in his autocratic style of leadership, is in a way pretty yellow. Simplistic portrayals do not help anyone to understand anything".

Agree, Abhisit needs to be given a chance.

Good article.

simply put into black and white

Some valid points, some questionable ones.

Although I disagree with some points, this is the best article I have seen on the conflict. Very accurate and a real break from the breathless hype style of mainstream reports.

There is clearly enough evidence to disregard at least part of this statement, for instance.

"• the army hasn't been shooting women and children ... or indeed anyone at all, except in self-defence. Otherwise this would all be over, wouldn't it? It's simple for a big army to mow down 5,000 defenceless people."

In the letters, a riposte:

SteveInThailand : 21 May 2010 7:48:36am

A few observations about this very slickly crafted piece.......

"the coup that ousted Thaksin was of course completely illegal, but none of the people who carried it out are in the present government"

Correct - but coup-conspirator Gen Anupong heads the army..... and we all know who calls the shots in Thailand.

"the constitution which was approved by a referendum"

After a massive drive by the junta to get a "yes" vote - including troops at every ballot to "guide" the voters - and on the Hobson's Choice basis that a "no" vote would trigger the junta imposing whichever of Thailand's previous 17 constitutions it chose. A shock for the junta that 42% still voted to reject it.

"the parliamentary process by which the Democrat coalition came to power was the same process by which the Lib Dems and Tories have attained power in Britain"

Did the Tories meet at the home of the top British Army general to "fix" the coalition? Was an equivalent of the notoriously ultra-corrupt Newin faction of PPP bribed to defect through a doling out of the most lucrative ministries to skim - plus, reportedly, 40 million baht to each MP? As the author says - "Thai governments have always been corrupt". Thai people largely accept that fact - but, for many of them, such a military-engineered fix of the parliamentary arithmetic that so blithely ignores their popular will expressed at the ballot box is too much.

"The last two governments changed because key figures were shown to have committed election fraud".

All Thai political parties engage in vote-buying and fraud. What matters is the hand-picked Election Commission's decision on which of the disqualification cases will proceed/succeed.

"the army hasn't been shooting..... anyone at all, except in self-defence".

So, for example, the army weren't firing at protesters building tyre barricades 200+ metres down the road from them or at protesters 500+ metres away on the other side of Lumpini park? That's not self-defence - it's crowd control by sniper.

"Thailand hasn't had an unbreachable gulf between rich and poor for at least 20 years".

Perhaps Khun Somtow would like to peruse the Gini figures - and maybe cite incidences of "rags to riches" he can recall. The centuries-old Sakdina patronage system (effectively feudalism) is still entrenched in much of Thai society.

"Abhisit..... shares the values of the west".

Maybe - and has precious little chance of putting them into practice when he's hobbled by the pact made with those who installed him and who will go on pulling the strings behind the scenes as long as it suits them.

Khun Somtow is more candid about some things than is usually the case with those wheeling out the all-too-familiar.

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/stories/s2...56.htm#comments

Edited May 21, 201016 yr by misterjag

I rather live in Burma now.

At least the media there are a lot freer than in Thailand. hehehe

Brilliant, thanks for posting !

It's a pity though that while it takes centuries of bloody struggles to build a democracy, even in the most advanced ones it takes just some dishonest, corrupt minority to disrupt the process.

Like the ancient Greeks knew very well, democracy has a shadowy twin called demagogy.

simply put into black and white

Toon Army! Newcastle United for ever!

We're all with the prime minister on football, at least!

SC

Actually, although I agreed with it entirely, I thought the piece was pretty one-sided, and completely failed to present the ill-thought-out, misleading and dishonest arguments of the red leaders...

Edit: redundant duplicate photo deleted

Edited May 21, 201016 yr by StreetCowboy

Amerika used to have a representative government then they elected Obama..... Tea party same same Red shirts according to most liberals.

Amerika used to have a representative government then they elected Obama..... Tea party same same Red shirts according to most liberals.

Utterly ridiculous.

Thanks for posting Vinny!

The writer of the OP's article, Somtow Sucharitkul is not, as another poster called him, a reporter; he's one of Thailand's greatest thinkers and intellectuals, next to being a composer and writer. He's educated and (partly) raised in England.

Friday, May 21, 2010

An Open Letter to the Red Shirts

A brilliant piece:

http://www.somtow.org/

LaoPo