Thailand's New, Improved Future

[webfact]

BURNING ISSUE

Thailand's 'new, improved' future

By Pravit Rojanaphruk

The Nation

The trouble with the explosions rocking Bangkok and its vicinity - one of which took a deadly turn on Tuesday, killing four people and injuring 10 in Nonthaburi - is that your take on the situation will most likely be influenced by your political stance.

If you are a yellow-shirt royalist, then you will likely believe that the explosions are part of a vicious grand plan to turn the Kingdom of Thailand into a republic by first turning it into a failed state.

This idea makes sense to royalists because of their concerns over the succession to the throne and the perceived threat against the Palace - be it real or imagined. Former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra's ambition and the red shirts' renewed show of force on September 19 don't help lessen the concerns, which have now grown into a paranoia-filled obsession among royalists.

The front page of the Daily News, the country's second-most-read newspaper, screamed yesterday that "The New Thai State masterminded the bomb-making …" This was based on a report that police found a "New Thai State" compact disc at the explosion site.

A photograph published in another newspaper yesterday showed a red foot-clapper sitting on a table at the explosion site. How convenient and naive of these bomb-makers to have left such blatant evidence behind!

These views come at a time when veteran conservative legal expert Meechai Ruchuphan answered with a resounding "yes" when he was asked whether owners of a petrol station could be tried for lese majeste if the user of a toilet on their premises left an anti-monarchist message on its walls.

Perhaps a new law is needed to remove anti-monarchist messages left in toilets, living rooms and bedrooms, and maybe prison wardens should also face lese majeste charges if such messages are found scribbled on the walls of jail cells.

On the other hand, if you're a red-shirt supporter or follower of Thaksin, then the explosions are part of a grand plan - one that facilitates and justifies iron-fisted rule over the country, with the military and the old elite using the threat against the monarchy as a pretext.

No amount of evidence can convince the red shirts that their brothers and sisters might be behind the explosions. They have completely lost trust in the police and the judiciary system anyway.

New Army chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha's inaugural remark last week was telling. In a front-page report carried in the Bangkok Post's October 1 edition, Prayuth was quoted as saying: "If the nation has not returned to order, the military as a mechanism of the government must help build order first."

Now, doesn't that look like a very slightly veiled threat that another military coup might be staged if things don't go the way the general and his bosses like?

Prayuth, by the way, took part in the September 19, 2006, coup that ousted Thaksin, and he is being rewarded. Obviously, there is no reason to doubt his "commitment" and "democratic credentials".

As the explosions continue, the Army will start playing a greater role in Thai politics and society. The "insecurity industry" will grow and become fatter and fatter. The Bt50-million budget that was recently approved by the Cabinet to provide additional security to leaders or the thousands more surveillance cameras to be installed across the capital will become peanuts as time passes and more mysterious bombs explode.

People will start feeling so insecure and paranoid that they will beg the Centre for the Resolution of the Emergency Situation to be made permanent and the country put under the emergency decree.

This is the "New Improved Thailand" we all have to look forward to.

-- The Nation 2010-10-07

[SomTumTiger]

What about those of us who think that anyone who builds a bomb, at any time, deserves to have his sinew scrapped off the walls?

[asiawatcher]

I wish I could disseminate the information within this article as reflected by the topic? Drifting in an out of the topic and conclusive that the journalist whilst trying to be satyrical probably has a point - somewhere within the article.