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Published: December 10th 2013
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Awesome placard
You don't have to be able to read Thai to understand this one. That's Prime Minister Ningluck pictured. Upper Sukhumvit Road, Bangkok, Thailand
I was reminded that the protests were back on again at 10am when 55,000 people marched past my street blowing the usual whistles and cheering etc. Naturally, I was out there with my camera within a couple of minutes.
It wasn't much different from last time (there was a short hiatus during the King's birthday) except it was bigger and people looked a bit more serious. That's not to say they've gone from being Thai to being Malay or Singaporean -- they are still smiling and looked happy. But I did sense that they were on a bit more of a mission this time than just on a walk down the street. Maybe because it was Monday morning. Or maybe because almost the entire opposition resigned from parliament in protest.
The Prime Minister is playing it pretty cool, dissolving parliament and announcing a general election before February 22. Smart play, considering she'll win any democratic election.
And that's just the point. These guys don't want a democratic election. This is a protest against democracy because it doesn't work. At least from their point of view. Democracy only works if you get your
Corruption
Supposedly what this protest is about. It's actually a blatant power grab because the opposition hates not being in power. party in power; the party in power (and it's predecessors) has won every democratic election of the past ten years.
This is a protest against democracy more than corruption. After all, the leader of the protests was caught red handed distributing land to rich cronies in 1995 when he was deputy agriculture minister and subsequently got kicked out of office. Even his own party complained privately to US embassy staff that he was "engaged in corrupt an unethical behavior," according to
wikileaks. There's no question that any government he forms will be at least as corrupt as the current one. Probably more so, given that he wants to abandon democracy and replace elected ministers with an appointed committee that rules by decree. Much like the Chinese or USSR politburo. Why on earth people are supporting such a ridiculous idea beats me. Sure, they want PM Ningluck out because of her disastrous economic and social policies, and because she represents Taksin. But establishing an unelected committee would be setting the scene for a police state or military dictatorship, and probably a huge loss of individual freedoms. Heck, just look at what the European Commission (the unelected body that governs the
Dumb foreigner
Seriously, heading by taxi through what is essentially a yellow shirt rally... wearing a RED shirt? Fortunately, many Thais believe that foreigners are dumb, and are willing to forgive blatant stupidity! EU by decree) is doing to Europe. Individual countries have lost their government, individual people have lost their say, individual economic and social rights have been curtailed, and the the entire EU is headed for bankruptcy on an unimaginable scale.
Not that a military dictatorship would be anything new in Thailand. Nor that Thais are going to stop smiling. But it would be a step backwards in my view. And may involve a bit of bloodshed on the way.
I was going to caption the panoramic photo at the top, but I think the sign in the background captures the mood.
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