OPINION

Here’s why you shouldn’t cry for Yingluck 

By Tulsathit Taptim 
The Nation

 

It’s understandable why everyone has become fixated on the Yingluck Shinawatra case, but maybe we’re all barking up the wrong tree.

The rice price-pledging case, how it came about, how it panned out and how its “conclusion” is supposed to determine Thailand’s immediate political future have edged out the story of another legal episode that is actually no less important.

 

That other case concerns the heir to Red Bull, a stimulant-drink company with a massive wealth and worldwide reputation. 

 

You may think the plights – or some may say privileges – of Thaksin Shinawatra and his sister Yingluck reflect a glaring national flaw, but theirs are political, meaning what’s happened to them so far can happen anywhere. 

 

Vorayuth Yoovidhya, on the other hand, represents a wider segment of the population and is more characteristic of what’s wrong in this country.

 

His alleged crime is a lot simpler than Thaksin’s and Yingluck’s. The young man was accused of a hit and run that killed a policeman several years ago. 

 

There were no complexities of the ballot boxes’ “legitimacy” or soul-searching about how much a government leader should be held accountable for a policy that goes wrong. A cop was fatally run over by a Ferrari that Vorayuth allegedly drove, and that was that.

 

Yet Vorayuth remains a “free” man. Having fled the country, he has not been living in jungles or hopping from one secret hideout to another. 

In fact, Thai law-enforcement officers know where he is, and the only thing that prevented them from catching him recently was – don’t laugh – because they didn’t know how to proceed with the extradition in English.

 

It was a shot in the dark, obviously. A senior police official said the extradition process involved translating some 30 pages of legal documents, “which needs to be done carefully”. You can be forgiven if you thought it was a joke. I did. After all, what’s so difficult about telling the authorities in a foreign country that this is a man accused of killing a cop in a car accident?

 

The man may finally be brought to justice, but that’s not the point. Thailand’s problem is someone accused of fatally running over a policeman in 2012 has remained free all this time. 

 

The average guy on the street couldn’t do that. And it’s not just Vorayuth. Rich Thai suspects manage to stay out of legal reaches all the time and some of them even re-emerge after a while to live a comfortable life as if nothing had happened. 

 

This is our country’s worst characteristic, not what has befallen elected officeholders when the political wind changes its course.

 

Business firms don’t consider wrongdoings of their executives something to be ashamed of. 

 

In Thailand, a major TV entrepreneur ran away from the law without causing any business harm to his company. Insider trading charges could do nothing commercially to another big firm. 

 

It takes forever to hunt down popular monks accused of fraud. When children of rich or powerful people were responsible for deadly accidents, they just lay low until the social storm passes.

 

And speaking of social storms, they can lead to exceptions rather than the rule. 

 

A few days ago, an affluent man was sentenced to jail after being convicted of killing two graduates in a car accident last year. 

 

It would be have been interesting to see how the case of Jenphob Viraporn transpired without the accompanying social-media uproar. His lawyer is in the process of appealing the five-year jail sentence, though, meaning the case could drag significantly longer.

 

People take a look at Thaksin and Yingluck’s cases and declare that it is impossible to “reconcile” Thailand. Maybe we should start considering the possibility that we have been misguided all along. 

 

Politics can be highly overrated, so any attempt at reform can be doomed from the very beginning if it’s focused on whether senators should be elected, where the prime minister should come from, or how big a constituency should be.

 

Yingluck’s closing statement in the rice-scheme trial yesterday portrayed her as a political victim and the Thai justice as a farce. 

 

What she had to say and the fervour of hundreds of red-shirt people giving her support at the Supreme Court only confirmed one thing:

“Political reconciliation” is as remote as ever.

 

But while that kind of “reconciliation” may be impossible, it is not that necessary and we shouldn’t beat ourselves up if the pro- and anti-Thaksin camps continue to seriously disagree with each other. “Legal reconciliation”, or giving everyone equal justice, is what we must try, and it must start with the likes of Vorayuth. Who knows? It might go downhill from there.     

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/opinion/30322503

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-08-02

The only tears coming from my old and tired eyes is all the money she lost from her bank account this week. 

I think it all comes down to what colour shirt you wear. 

This would bring the odd tear to a few glass eyes!

Military coups are far more serious and have a rather more lasting effect than rice pledging, but nobody ever ends up in court for those. Cry for the democracy which cannot function here.

1 hour ago, webfact said:

Thai law-enforcement officers know where he is, and the only thing that prevented them from catching him recently was – don’t laugh – because they didn’t know how to proceed with the extradition in English.

When my wife was a young girl she expressed a desire to learn English, her father asked her "learn English for what". I think his attitude is shared by a vast majority of Thais. Fortunately for my wife, she pressed on, worked in Singapore for five years, now speaks English and mandarin as well as thai.

20 minutes ago, Orton Rd said:

Military coups are far more serious and have a rather more lasting effect than rice pledging, but nobody ever ends up in court for those. Cry for the democracy which cannot function here.

Guilty or not, she is dealing with it gracefully.  Not sure if her image is suffering at all.  The junta, on the other hand,  is taking yet another image hit.  No matter what they do, the Shins come out on top. 

1 hour ago, Somtamnication said:

The only tears coming from my old and tired eyes is all the money she lost from her bank account this week. 

16 bank accounts .....   poor thing ,   she was doing it tough

3 minutes ago, steven100 said:

16 bank accounts .....   poor thing ,   she was doing it tough

not worth answering is it

Lots of Thai women have multiple Bank accounts, my Mrs has 6, it's not a crime, and you have to if you don't want to risk money as only one million is secure in each.

Edited August 2, 20178 yr by Orton Rd

I will start praising the Jenphob case when he sees a jail cell, until then it is just PR spin. I wont be holding my breath.

2 hours ago, Orton Rd said:

Lots of Thai women have multiple Bank accounts, my Mrs has 6, it's not a crime, and you have to if you don't want to risk money as only one million is secure in each.

 

Actually it is currently 15 million, so you can breath a sigh.

 

http://www.dpa.or.th/ewt_news.php?nid=320&filename=index___EN

 

A very good and insightful article. Well done.

 

My only suggestion is that in line with overseas practice we stop using the term 'accident' when describing these events. This implies there is some sort of supernatural or divine contribution.

 

A far better term is 'collision' as in 'killing two graduates in a collision last year.'

3 hours ago, Orton Rd said:

Military coups are far more serious and have a rather more lasting effect than rice pledging, but nobody ever ends up in court for those. Cry for the democracy which cannot function here.

A wise old Thai woman upcountry told me:

 

Thailand is not ready for democracy yet...

Good report.

I love Thailand but many things here suck, including apathy.

 

One day there will be a just, fair, impartial & un - corruptible judiciary in Thailand that deals with all members of society from the very bottom to the very top in an equitable fashion. Utopia ? Yes I know I'm dreaming but it is what this country needs and deserves and maybe one day they will get it.

7 hours ago, webfact said:

Yingluck’s closing statement in the rice-scheme trial yesterday portrayed her as a political victim and the Thai justice as a farce.

radically guilty victim; sure it is a farce, why would that be something new here ? intelligent thai people can explain all this in a few sentences; westerns struggle with it

21 minutes ago, Golden Triangle said:

One day there will be a just, fair, impartial & un - corruptible judiciary in Thailand that deals with all members of society from the very bottom to the very top in an equitable fashion. Utopia ? Yes I know I'm dreaming but it is what this country needs and deserves and maybe one day they will get it.

Not in my lifetime...or yours !

Good article.

8 hours ago, webfact said:

Tulsathit Taptim 

well, it's a good description about Thailand's situation in 2017 (or even decades back)

Sometimes I like the Nation's comments.

But the Nation exists since many years already. And they have an obligation to inform the Thai people and telling them what is going on behind curtains of power.

So I wonder why this newspaper did not warn, did not outcry, did not shout, did not protest during all the decades of so called democracy. And did not describe what is wrong with the political system..

Why now?

 

7 hours ago, Orton Rd said:

Military coups are far more serious and have a rather more lasting effect than rice pledging, but nobody ever ends up in court for those. Cry for the democracy which cannot function here.

been tried here, thialand just is not ready for it; they cannot govern themselves under that system

I found the headline of this story to be very deceiving. It gives the illusion that there is going to be a story about yingluck, when in fact the story is about a completely different topic and absolutely nothing to do with why we should not cry for yingluck. ?

4 hours ago, Muggi1968 said:

A wise old Thai woman upcountry told me:

 

Thailand is not ready for democracy yet...

A Thai Doctor in Las Vegas said the same to me ie, Thailand needs Prayut, they could not handle a Western Style democracy, I think he is probably right!

21 minutes ago, maxcorrigan said:

A Thai Doctor in Las Vegas said the same to me ie, Thailand needs Prayut, they could not handle a Western Style democracy, I think he is probably right!

I think the wise old lady should consult with the LV Thai doctor.

5 hours ago, Muggi1968 said:

A wise old Thai woman upcountry told me:

 

Thailand is not ready for democracy yet...

It's the wealthy and powerful (and their hangers-on) who are not yet ready for democracy in Thailand.

 

They were saying the same thing in England - 800 years ago.

6 hours ago, Muggi1968 said:

A wise old Thai woman upcountry told me:

 

Thailand is not ready for democracy yet...

Not so wise. Nor is the superior farang who believed it.

 

1 hour ago, maxcorrigan said:

A Thai Doctor in Las Vegas said the same to me ie, Thailand needs Prayut, they could not handle a Western Style democracy, I think he is probably right!

Codswallop! Spoken like a true Thai hi-so.

2 hours ago, YetAnother said:

been tried here, thialand just is not ready for it; they cannot govern themselves under that system

Correction: They never get the chance to govern themselves, because every time the wrong party gets elected, the military step in.

 

1 hour ago, maxcorrigan said:

A Thai Doctor in Las Vegas said the same to me ie, Thailand needs Prayut, they could not handle a Western Style democracy, I think he is probably right!

Why do you think his cop out is right ?  Taiwan has a home grown democracy.  Why are they capable?  Very simple:  They wanted a representative government that is based on fair competition.  The army, the entitled and the wealthy do not want competition or fairness.  The Thai doctor, in one of the most intellectually barren parts of the US,  may not have the depth to pass judgment on his fellow Thais.    That is a conversation that probably should have stayed in Vegas. 

Edited August 2, 20178 yr by yellowboat

3 hours ago, yellowboat said:

" The Thai doctor, in one of the most intellectually barren parts of the US,  may not have the depth to pass judgment on his fellow Thais.    That is a conversation that probably should have stayed in Vegas. "

Wow!!! This is one of the most ignorant comments on this forum - great achievement Yellowboat! So I guess if you are not from the hotbeds of intelligentsia like NYC, Wash DC or LA, then you are just a rube off the turnip truck. 

And the Thai Doctor is correct, when have the Thais elected an honest, hard working representative government? Some countries need the strong man approach to get things done - I believe it's called the Benevolent Dictator Model. It worked quite well for Singapore.