The Voter's Uprising Thai_Eng Version

8/9/2019 The Voter's Uprising Thai_Eng Version

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Time-up Thailand

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

The Voters Uprising that is changing perceptions in THAILAND

April 2009Junya Yimprasert

This article was first distributed at a Consultation onGender, Development and Decent Work:Building a Common Agenda,OECD Headquarters, Paris, 27th April 2009.

Some errors in the initial draft have been corrected. A fully accurate account of the chaosand turmoil of the recent weeks, months and years in Thailand is not possible.

FOREWORD

After the September 2006 military coup that deposed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatrawe pointed-out that whatever the justifications used to legitimise the Coup, the action ofthe military was as disloyal as always to the legitimate demands of the people, and we

made a simple observation: . . if there is going to be anything resembling sustainabledevelopment in Thailand, the emphasis in Thai politics must be on making sure that thepolitical demands of the new, urban classes are satisfied without further undermining thelivelihoods and life-styles of the agrarian community upon which the future of Thailanddepends..

Part One

80 years of struggle for democracyEnd of absolute monarchy 1932

At dawn on 24 June 1932, the tiny People's Party Khana Ratsadon carried-out a lightningand bloodess coup dtat that abruptly ended 150 years of absolute monarchy under theChakri Dynasty, and opened the way to democracy for Siam (Thailand), but the road hasbeen painful.

Khana Ratsadon consisted of an elite group of civilians, government officials, aristocrats

and military officers. The coup was led by Pridi Phanomyong with Lieutenant ColonelPibulsongkhram in charge of the military wing. Completely unknown to the people of Siam,within the space of a few hours Siam was changed from an absolute to a constitutional
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monarchy. The new but military-dominated Government introduced a Charter which did atleast aim at some kind of democracy.

Khana Ratsadon came into power with the announcement of six primary tasks:v To maintain absolute national independence in all aspects, including political, judicial andeconomic...

v To maintain national cohesion and security...v To promote economic well-being by creating full employment and by launching a nationaleconomic plan...v To guarantee equality for all...v To grant complete liberty and freedom to the people, provided that this does notcontradict the afore-mentioned principles and...v To provide education for the people.

Royalist opposition to the coup was strong and the Permanent Constitution that wasadopted in December 1932 returned some authority to the Monarchy, but in 1935 KingPrajadhipok, tired of the power-play, decided to abdicate.

Thailands first democratic elections were held in 1933 - for half of the 156-seat so-calledPeoples Assembly, the other half being appointed. This was the first time that womenwere given the right to vote and stand for election. (It took until 1949 for Thailand toactually elect a woman MP.)

The 1932 Constitution stated that sovereign power was held by the people of Siam(Thailand), but in practice, after 77 years, such times have still not yet arrived.

Pridi v. Pibun

Pridi Phanomyong is none-the-less regarded as the founder of Thailands still nascentdemocracy. Pridi was born in Ayutthaya in 1900 to a family of well-off rice farmers. He wasan exceptionally bright student and completed law school studies in Thailand at the age of19 and, with the help of a Thai government scholarship, completed doctoral studies in law,economics and politics at the Sorbonne in 1926. In Paris he founded the Khana Ratsadonwith a group of Thai that included a young officer called Plaek Pibulsongkhram. In 1927Pridi returned to Thailand and began a fast rise through the hierarchy.

Plaek Pibulsongkhram, known commonly as Pibun, was a graduate of the Royal MilitaryAcademy in Thailand and in France for advanced military tuition. After the 1932 coup dtat

he fashioned himself into the first of a long string of Thai generalissimos, functioning asThailands war-time Prime Minister from 1938 to 1944 and as an acting-Prime Minister orDictator between 1948 and 1957.

Pridi worked assiduously for the six objectives of the Khana Ratsadon, and in 1934 he andothers founded the University of Moral and Political Science, known today as ThammasatUniversity.

Between 1933 and 1946 Pridi served as Minister of Interior, Minister of Foreign Affairs,Minister of Finance, as Regent and as Prime Minister. As Minister of Foreign Affairs (1935

- 38) he oversaw the signing of the treaties that revoked the extra-territorial rights of 12countries, thus returning Thailand to (almost) complete independence for the first timesince the Bowring Treaty with Great Britain in 1855.


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In 1938, as Prime Minister, the strongly anti-Chinese Pibun, opposed by Pridi, changed thename of Siam to Thailand.

When the Japanese invaded Thailand in December 1941 and pro-Japan Pibun saw howeasily they pushed the British out of Malaysia, Pibun declared war on the Western Allies -

in January 1942.

Pridi refused to sign the declaration of war and was removed from Government. WithThailands still un-crowned King Ananda Mahidol being schooled abroad, Pridi was giventhe symbolic rank of Regent, and it was as Regent that the thoroughly anti-Japan Priditurned to building the underground Free Thai Movement (Seri Thai).

With the war coming to a close the out-of-favour Pibun was ousted by the Seri ThaiMovement, and Pridi became Thailands 7th Prime Minister in March 1946 - for a fewmonths.

In September 1945 an exhausted Thailand was glad of a visit from their young King-to-be,who was studying law in Switzerland, and in May 1946 they also welcomed-in Pridis newConstitution, this time with a fully-elected 176-member House of Representatives.

On 9 June 1946 young Mahidol, still only 21, was found in bed in the Grand Palace inBangkok with a bullet through his head. Pibun the Dictator accused Pridi the idealist ofbeing involved in the regicide, and Thailand descended into chaos. (The truth behind thedeath of the King has remained shrouded in mystery. The execution, on grounds ofcomplicity in suspected murder, of two of the Kings servants and a Senator in 1955satisfied nobody.)

In November 1947 a powerful group of officers (including Sarit Thanarat and ThanomKittikachorn, both dictators-to-be) staged a coup. Armoured vehicles were dispatched tostorm Pridis residence, but Pridi was already on his way to Singapore. Pibun, now a self-appointed Field Marshal, tore-up the 1946 Constitution and took-on the role of PrimeMinister.

To neutralise the House of Representatives, Pibun replaced Pridis 1946 Constitution witha Charter that gave the Monarch a Supreme State Council, a 100-member Senate andmany other powers, including the right to declare martial law.

After a failed attempt at a come-back in February 1949, Pridi fled alone to China, leavingbehind his wife, Phoonsuk, and six children. This so-called Palace Rebellion, duringwhich Pridi occupied the Grand Palace, was easily crushed by Pibun, but not without somehours of heavy, street-fighting between Pibuns military and Pridis supporters - whoincluded the Royal Thai Navy. Immediately after the Rebellion four socialist MPs (ex-Cabinet ministers) and many other leaders were caught and executed without trial.

In China, Pridi was well-received by Zhou Enlai. In November 1952 Phoonsuk and hereldest son Pal were charged with offences against the internal and external security of theKingdom. During 84 days in detention, Phoonsuk slept on the floor of a small cell with twoother women, but never requested bail. When freed in February 1953 she went in searchof her husband, who she knew was somewhere in China. In December 1953 she joinedhim with 2 of their six children. Pal joined them in 1957, after his release from prison. InChina the family was more than well-provided for, but, to be able to better connect with the


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world and with Thailand, in 1969 the family moved to a small house in the Paris suburbs,where Pridi died peacefully in May 1983. His passing was totally ignored by the Thai State.After years of work to clear accusations, eventually, in 1999, the UNESCO GeneralConference added the name of Professor Dr. Pridi Phanomyong to the list of the worldsGreat Personalities. In 2005, on International Womens Day, Than Phuying PhoonsukPhanomyong, President of the Pridi Phanomyong Foundation in Bangkok, received the

Outstanding Women in Buddhism Award for her peaceful courage in the face of gravepersonal hardship and political crises.

Pibuns 1949 Constitution turned the Supreme State Council into the Kings own PrivyCouncil, gave the King the sole right to appoint all members of the Senate and ruled thatthe House of Representatives required a 2/3 majority to over-rule a royal veto.

In short the model of royalist-military control over the political life of the people of Thailandwas cast for the next 60 years.

At the age of 23, Bhumibol Adulyadej, younger brother of the deceased Ananda Mahidol,was crowned King on 5 May 1950.

Coups, rebellions and popular revolts (incomplete):1912 Palace Revolt (First movement for democracy)1932 Coup dtat (end of absolute monarchy)1933 Royalist coup (June)1933 Royalist coup (Boworadet Rebellion, October)1935 Rebellion of the Sergeants1939 Songsuradet Rebellion (royalists)1947 Military coup

1948 Army General Staff Plot (anti-Pridi)1949 Palace Rebellion (Pridis attempted come-back)1951 Manhattan Rebellion (Navy rebellion, June)1951 Military coup (Silent Coup, November)1953-55 Peace Rebellion (Uprising and crack-down)1957 Military coup1958 Military coup1964 Air force Rebellion1971 Military coup1973 Uprising (October)1976 Uprising and crack-down (October)

1976 Military coup (October)1977 Military Rebellion (March)1977 Military coup (October)1981 Military rebellion (Young Turks)1985 Military rebellion (Young Turks)1991 Military coup1992 Uprising (Bloody May)2006 Military coup2009 Uprising (Voters Uprising, April)

During the years of Pibuns dictatorship, King Bhumibol remained a ceremonial figure, butas Pibuns power waned and social unrest grew, Pibun was challenged by the man whohad defeated Pridis coup - General Sarit Thanarat. In 1957 Pibun went to the King forsupport. The King refused him and asked Pibun to resign. When Pibun refused, Sarit


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seized power in a US-backed, pro-royalist military coup. The King imposed martial law anddeclared Sarit Military Defender of the Capital. Pibun fled to Japan, where he died in1964.

Cold War and the Peoples War

Since 1932 the people of Thailand have had to face more than 20 attempted or successfulmilitary coups. The people have had to deal with 18 constitutions and 27 Prime Ministers,most of them military generals. In the 77 years since 1932 only one elected Prime Ministerhas managed to complete the full 4-year term (the now self-exiled, convicted, embattledThaksin Shinawatra).

In 1954 the Vietminh pushed the French out of Vietnam and fear of communist insurgencytook hold in Thailand.

The dictatorship of Field Marshal Sarit, and of those that followed him, concentrated onbuilding-up and promoting the role of the monarchy - mainly to legitimise their oppressionof the poor (and their personal corruption). The military re-introduced palace ceremonies tothe Affairs of State and used billions of public money to build palaces and royal projects allover the country, especially in the north, north-east and south where they faced strongopposition from local populations e.g. in the Phupan Mountains (1975) and in SongklaProvince (1975) and in the Khaokao Mountains (1985).

In this civil war, sometimes called the Peoples War, which raged on into the 1980ies,hundreds of thousands of poor people were mindlessly classified as communists and athreat to monarchy. Thousands went missing, were imprisoned without trial and/or

murdered.

Sarit the monarchy-builder died in 1963 and received a royal cremation. His deathrevealed the full depth of his personal corruption. Besides the 50 or so mistresses heretained, the squabbles over his fortune exposed the existence of wealth in terms ofthousands of hectares of land, dozens of houses and hundreds of millions in cash. He wasreplaced immediately by General Thanom Kittikachorn, his long-time stand-in-dictator. In apublic show against corruption Thanom confiscated 600 million Baht from Sarits estateand returned it to Government use. Thanom then appointed himself Commander-in-Chiefof the Army, Field Marshal, Admiral of the Fleet and Marshal of the Royal Thai Air Forceetc., and continued Sarits pro-American, anti-Communist politics, thus ensuring himself

massive US economic and financial aid during the Vietnam War.

Between 1950 and 1987 the US provided Thailand with more than 2 billion USD in militaryassistance.

From the early 1960ies Thai society was exposed, for the first time, to the full onslaught ofmainstream western culture, especially American culture. The growing communistinsurgencies in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia coupled with demands to modernise Thaisociety placed the people of Thailand under enormous new pressures. Huge amounts offoreign capital flowed into the country to support not only the military build-up but the

development of new infra-structure - the roads, dams, irrigation schemes andadministrative centres required to tame and control the provinces and promote the so-called Green Revolution. As well, to sustain itself as an independent nation-state, Thailand


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needed hospitals, schools and universities. Forest cover was reduced from 53% to a mere28% between 1961 and 1989. During the same period the population doubled, from justover 26 million in 1960 to 54.5 million in 1990.

Millions of small farmers found themselves unable to cope with the Green Revolutionscash crop imperatives and the rising cost of living. Millions left the land in search of money

in the increasingly export-oriented industrial sprawl of Bangkok. The Cold War years inThailand, dominated by Thai militarism, American military bases, Green Revolution andexport-oriented industrialisation, introduced Thai society to the idea that - theres nothingmoney cant buy (50 000 GIs = 50 000 GI-women).

Extreme exploitation of cheap labour led to increasing industrial unrest and, as the level ofeducation rose, increasing numbers of young people became increasingly critical of theVietnam War, Thailands deep involvement with US imperialism and the immenselycorrupt, autocratic character of the Thai state.

Uprising and crack-down - October 73 & 76

By October 1973, general public unrest reached a climax. Hundreds of thousands ofstudents, workers, farmers and new middle-class intellectuals gathered in demonstrationson the streets of Bangkok - demanding an end to 10-years of despotic rule under Thanom.

On 14 October 1973, when tens of thousands of people demonstrating the arrest of 13student leaders at Democracy Monument began moving to the Palace to appeal to theKing, they were assaulted by the army with hand-grenades and by machine-gun fire, bothfrom the ground and from a helicopter - in which the son of Field Marshal Thanom (Lt-

Colonel Narong Kittikachorn) is reported to have been manning the machine-gun. Aboutone hundred students were murdered and several hundred wounded.

The King, faced by the largest public demonstration ever seen in Bangkok, was forced tostep into the open. Thanom was requested to leave the country and the King appointed anew Prime Minister. However, the pride of the Thai military, well-stuffed by the US andothers, remained irked by the constantly increasing public unrest.

By 1976 the military-controlled mass-media was letting it be known that killingcommunists was OK - like making merit, and political assassinations had becomecommonplace.

On 6 October 1976, in the name of Nation, Religion and King, a large force of militaryand para-military thugs (New Force, Village Scouts, Red Gaurs etc.) moved againststudents at Thammasat University who were protesting the return of Thanom. (Thanom, inthe robes of a monk, had been welcomed back to Thailand by the royal family.)

According to official figures, on campus and in the adjacent Royal Grounds of the GrandPalace, 41 students were shot, burnt alive or beaten to death in an orgy of violence, withover 700 wounded. Unofficial figures say many more.

Many of the students not imprisoned on that day fled to the ranks of the Communist Party

of Thailand (CPT) in the jungle and villages, and hundreds of student leaders fromuniversities all over Thailand followed them. They became known as the October People.


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Three decades of fearfully destructive civil war led eventually to the issuing of an Amnestyby Prime Minister Prem in 1980. The CPT disappeared from the stage and many of theOctober People returned to political life - as university lecturers, human-rights activists,NGO leaders and entrepreneurs, to the Democrat Party and some eventually to Thaksinsparty. Thanom himself lived-out his life in luxury and was given a royal cremation.

Prems era

General Prem Tinsulanonda, Thailands current Master-of-military-coups, Prime Ministerfrom 1980 - 1988, member of the Privy Council since 1988 and Chairman since 1998,loves to play middle-man between the Monarchy and the Government and the generalpublic. He himself survived two attempted military coups - by the Young Turks - during histime as PM. (Note: All of the 18-member Privy Council are appointed by the King. Abouthalf are Army Chiefs of Staff and the remainder former Chief Justices, Prime Ministersetc.)

Prem managed the military coup of 1991 and the crushing of the May 1992 uprising, andenjoyed architecting the military coup that ousted Thaksin in 2006, for which purpose hewent around preaching (effectively it seems) that military and civil service personnel areServants of the King.

In fact Prem stands accused of kicking-out four elected Prime Ministers - ChatchaiChoonhawan in 1991, Thaksin in 2006, Samak in 2008 and Somchai in 2008. Immediatelyafter he had Abhisit, the current Prime Minister, in place in April 2009 he made a publicaddress to explain what a good PM he will be.

After 40 years in politics Pappa Prem continues to wield much power in Thailand.

For the tens of millions of people beaten-down by decades of military dictatorship, itrequired yet another bloody uprising in May 1992 to crack the walls so carefully built toexclude them from participation in governance.

The Bloody May massacre of 1992 saw 48 citizens shot dead in the streets of Bangkok.

In a by-that-time standard procedure, the King stepped-out (after the massacre) to mediatethe uproar and appoint a new Prime Minister.

It took another 5 years of struggle after the Bloody May massacre to establish a so-called

Peoples Constitution in 1997, and another 8 years before an elected Prime Minister wasable to complete a full 4-year term (in 2004).

Rise and fall of Thaksin (1994 - 2006)

Thaksin Shinawatra (59), of Chinese descent, was born into a wealthy merchant family inNorthern Thailand, from Chiang Mai. He graduated from the Thai Police Cadet Academy in1973, studied criminal justice in the US, and reached the rank of lieutenant colonel in themetropolitan police (in Thailand) before moving openly into business in 1987 and politics in1994. Thaksin seemed to enjoy being on the front-line and, enormously ambitious,succeeded in becoming Thailands first-ever elected PM to complete a 4-year term in office(2001 - 2004).


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Thaksin did not appear strongly anti-Royalist. He did his best to buy the acceptance andsupport of the monarchy. His style and approach to governance was that of the corporateCEO, welcomed by some but alien and somewhat abhorrent to much of the hierarchy thatperceived him as a threat to the established order. He ran fast over, around and under theEstablishment when partnership did not suite his purpose.

On the domestic front he managed a rural-poor populist strategy which gave him his solidmajority in the electorate. In 2001 he kick-started Thailands first ever universal health-carescheme - the 30 Baht Scheme. He oversaw the implementation of a 0ne Million BahtVillage Fund, a scheme that provided every village in Thailand with a one million cashbonus to be administered at will. He attempted to promote village productivity and assistedfarmers in managing their debt burden. He introduced cheap loan programmes for low-income people to buy houses and even taxis. How much of all this was politicalopportunism and how much genuine concern is largely irrelevant. The rural poor, in thevillages of Thailand, yearned to be respectfully acknowledged. They were grateful andgave him their support. He also promoted a vision of Thailand as the Kitchen of theWorld, not an especially flattering title, but one that did underscore the importance of the

agricultural sector in Thailands future.

His War on Drugs he did pursue with the most reactionary elements of the Establishment.The countryside was cleaned-up - for a while, but some 2 500 people, innocent andotherwise, lost their lives, often mercilessly. This brought him many enemies, especiallyamongst the NGOs and, needless-to-say, the drug trade is flourishing again.

With regard to foreign policy, his over-enthusiasm for neo-liberal globalisation and the righthe bestowed upon himself to negotiate as well as sign Free Trade Agreements with lessthan minimal or zero consultation with those affected, was much less than welcome. Theimmediate and long-term damage caused by Thaksins megalomanic manoeuvring on theglobal stage will take years to repair.

Also, without reserve, Thaksin channelled money to his own family. He was perhaps nomore crooked than the others, he just out-manipulated them at their own game - inbusiness and politics. In other words, in the mind of the Establishment, Thaksin had to begot rid of. He has only his own super-ego to blame for his downfall.

In February 2005 Thaksin won a landslide victory with 67% of the vote (19 million votes),but in Thailand that still means next to nothing. His best enemies had already decided thathe had to go. A military coup was staged for September 2006 - when Thaksin was in NewYork attending a meeting of the UN General Assembly. Despite the usual tanks-in-the-streets phenomenon, the coup that deposed Thaksins government turned out to bebloodless. Convicted in-absentia for violating political ethics Thaksin has yet to return toThailand.

The King approved the military junta that replaced Thaksins government, and thus alsothe restoration of Thailands customary feudal order - for a few more months.

The 2006 junta began as the Council for Democratic Reform under ConstitutionalMonarchy but, a little too obvious, the name was soon changed to the Council for NationalSecurity.


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Part Two

3 years of PAD chaos

The Peoples Alliance for Democracy, the PAD, was founded by the Bangkok media tycoonSonthi Limthongkul in February 2006, for the purpose of bringing-down Thaksin.

Sonthi had been an ally of Thaksin - declaring at one time that Thaksin was the best PMthat Thailand had experienced, but they parted company and, in mid-2005, withaccusations of corruption and disloyalty to the Crown, Sonthi turned against Thaksin.When Thaksin shut-down Sonthis TV programme, Sonthi launched his own 24-hour AsiaSatellite TV.

With ASTV increasingly effective as a tool for spreading negative gossip about Thaksin,Sonthi was able to ally the State Enterprise Labour Relation Confederation with members

of the Democrat Party and with a wide assortment of NGOs, celebrities, intellectuals andcivil servants. Decked-out in yellow, this assortment of mainly middle-class Bangkokianscalled itself the Peoples Alliance for Democracy.

Claiming that Thaksin was the sole cause of Thailands innumerable problems, andcompletely ignoring the fact that, whatever Thaksin was not, he was a legally elected PMwith a huge electoral majority, the PAD conjured-up some new politics which includedreplacing most elected politicians with appointed good people. Appointed by who was leftto imagination.

The Democrat Party boycotted the 2006 election and refused to acknowledge that 16

million Thai had voted for Thaksin. The PAD slandered Thaksins voters, mainly smallfarmers, as illiterate morons too ignorant to participate in democracy. The Democrat Partyand PAD let it be known that they wanted the King to intervene and appoint a new PM, butthe King considered that proposal out-of-order.

The PAD placed itself in a win-or-lose situation and, with slogans like Thaksin out nomatter what, began to court the assistance of like-minded military.

The September 2006 military coup was sprung, as said, when Thaksin was in New York -a bloodless Coup with press pictures of pretty Bangkokians posing with flowers as chumsof soldiers and tanks.

Immediately after the Coup many of the intellectual elite, whose feathers Thaksin hadruffled for one reason or other, came forward with the usual platitudes . . although theCoup was wrong we could do nothing about it. . . For the sake of the nation it is best forall to allow the Junta to arrange a new election. Etc.

The Juntas first step was to annul the hard-won Peoples Constitution of 1997. Thesecond step was to give General Surayud Chulanont, a member of the Privy Council, a listof tasks that included forming a new Government, writing a new Constitution, dissolvingThaksins Thai Rak Thai Party (TRT), arranging a General Election, and increasing themilitary budget by 33%.

General Surayud became Thailands 24th Prime Minister in October 2006 and scheduled aGeneral Election for December 2007.


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Thaksin, wrongly or rightly accused of rigging the 2006 General Election, saw his TRTParty dissolved by the Constitutional Court on 13 May 2007.

Of the 377 elected Members of Parliament in the TRT Party, 111 of the leading MPs werebanned from politics for 5 years. Those not banned had just enough time for a re-mouldbefore the December election and stood for re-election as the People Power Party (PPP).

The Thai Parliament has 480 seats.The election of December 2007 was the third electoral contest between Thaksins peopleand the Democrat Party.

With Thaksin in self-imposed exile and 111 of his leading MPs banned from politics, theway seemed clear for the Democrat Party and, with the eager support of the PAD, theDemocrat Party campaigned vigorously with high hopes of victory.

But, alas alack, Thaksins people won the day, with the PPP taking 233 seats (with 14million votes), leaving the Democrat Party with 164 seats.

Again the PAD leadership, which included a Democrat Party MP, refused to accept theresult, and resumed their agitation: all traces of Thaksin cronyism and his familybusiness must be wiped from the pure face of Thai politics.

Short on leaders, the PPP set up government under the large frame of Samak Suntornvej,best known for his interest in cooking.

By this time the PAD leaders were on their way to losing their cool altogether, clarifyingtheir new democracy model with a proposal that 70% of MPs should be good peopleappointed by good people and only 30% elected.

The PADs actions became increasingly wild and lawless.

In May 2008 yellow-clad PAD demonstrators laid siege to Government House. The RoyalThai Army and Royal Thai Police informed PM Samak that they were unable to clearGovernment House. Reason, law and order began to disintegrate. After 3 months of siege,on August 26 the PAD mob (yellow-shirts) occupied Government House. It seems that theState Enterprise Labour Relations Confederation had promised a General Strike, but in theevent only some sectors of the Confederation responded.

For three months Thailands Cabinet was chased around Bangkok by the PAD until the

Chiefs of the Army and Police suggested to Samak that he dissolve the Parliament, butthis didnt suit the Democrat Party - who had no chance of winning an election. The PADstrategy worked better with Samak out, but Samak was in no mind to give in easily, sohe gave the Premiership to Thaksins brother-in-law, Somchai Wongsawat, which didnothing to please the PAD. Somchai achieved the distinction of becoming the first PM inThailand to have never seen the inside of Government House.

The PAD became increasingly provocative. At the start of October demonstrators attackedNational Broadcasting TV, the Ministry of Finance and several other government buildings,cutting their water and electricity supplies.

On 7 October the PAD mob attacked the Parliament House - and what a fiasco. UnderGovernment orders the Royal Thai Police attempted to defend the Parliament but (withoutmilitary backing) found themselves in a sticky situation. The PAD mob fought magnificently


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with ping-pong bombs, catapults, bricks and metal pipes, stabbing at police with flagpolesand staves and attempting to run them over with pickup trucks. Democrat Party leaderswere cheered out of the main entrance of the Parliament House while PM Somchai &Company had to escape by climbing over a fence. In clouds of tear gas the police werebeaten back and ended-up defending their own Bangkok Police Headquarters. Five policereceived gunshot wounds, one front-line PAD woman died and one of the PADs own para-

military leaders (an ex-police lieutenant) died when the bombs he was carrying in his owncar exploded outside Parliament House. In total, according to the Public Health Ministry,443 people were wounded.

The PAD leadership had frequently indicated that they had support in the Palace. Thisclaim seemed validated when the Queen, a princess, members of the Privy Council andthe military high command and leaders of the Democrat Party, including Abhisit, showed-up for the cremation of the dead PAD woman. For the Thai public this was their Eye-opening Day.

Never-the-less, Somchai, with his Cabinet in retreat in the north of Thailand, was proving a

tougher-than-expected cookie and showed no signs of capitulation. Increasingly desperatethe PADs actions became increasingly desperate.

On 25 November the PAD mob descended in free-style on Bangkoks ultra-moderninternational airport (a successful Thaksin project). With strong indications that the Palacewas supporting the PAD, the Police and Army did no more than shuffle their feet, and thePAD mob had no problem in taking-over and completely shutting-down both of Bangkoksinternational airports and four other important airports including Phuket. Their actionstranded more than 80 aircraft and 300 000 tourists and stopped all international anddomestic flights for over a week.

On 26 November the Commander in Chief of the Royal Thai Army proposed that Somchaidissolve his cabinet and that the PAD stop demonstrating, but nobody agreed. And so, on2 December, the Constitutional Court stepped-in once again and ordered the dissolution ofthe PPP and also the two other main parties of Somchais governing coalition. On 3December the PAD left the airports and ended their demonstrations.

At long last Abhisit Vejjajiva, the Eton and Oxford educated leader of the Democrat Partyand active PAD supporter, was able to proffer himself to the exhausted and depletedParliament. On 15 December Abhisit finally acquired his much awaited Premiership, andproceeded immediately to reward PAD leaders for their efforts, most notably with theportfolio of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In the street fighting between May and December 2008 about 800 people were woundedand 8 people died. More than 160 legal cases have been filed against the PAD, but as yetno disciplinary action has been taken by any authority against any PAD leaders orsupporters. (The Police are said to be investigating!)

All this has, naturally, contributed to a growing sense of disgust amongst the majority ofthe population, and also to a growing anger.

Already on 2 September 2008 there had been a street battle between PAD yellow-shirtsand the red-shirts of the new United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) thatwas gathering strength to oppose them. In that battle 40 people were wounded and onered-shirt beaten to death.


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Frustration boils over

After watching in sober amazement as the great and powerful Thai forces of law-and-ordersat back and allowed the yellow-shirts and royalists to take their legally-electedGovernment hostage, wreck Government House, attack Parliament House, occupy both of

Bangkoks main airports and four other international airports, and after watching theblatant manipulations that brought Abhisit and his Democrat Party to power, the level ofdisgust felt by many sectors of the voting public in Thailand reached boiling-point.

When the UDD called for mass-mobilization a red wave of protest began rising over thelandscape.

On 26 March 2009 people began to assemble outside Government House - this time in redshirts. By 8 April half a million protestors representing a wide spectrum of grass-root civilorganizations were making their presence felt through peaceful assemblies, not only inBangkok but also in about 40 of Thailands 77 provincial capitals.

After nearly 80 years of non-stop political corruption, uprisings, coups and violentoppression, it is obvious to most outsiders that the root cause of the failure of democraticprocedure in Thailand stems from fear of the monarchist establishments carefullyaccumulated instruments of power, which, as each crisis of governance emerges, are usedto execute whatever is required to ensure that the majority of Thai people cannotparticipate effectively in the political life of the country.

In Bangkok in April, the number of people protesting their frustration with the Stateadministrators, in particular with the Privy Council, reached around 300 000, the largestnumber of protesters on the streets of Bangkok since 1973.

As usual, during times of direct confrontation between the people and their patrons, in April2009 Thailands mainstream media failed to provide the public with accurate reportage onthe scale or ferocity of either the uprising or crack-down, and, as usual, in the peopleshour of crisis, studiously side-stepped the real reasons why hundreds of thousands ofpeople representing tens of millions of rural, urban and industrial workers, weredemonstrating.

In this manner Thailands hamstrung mainstream media usually contributes to theconfusion and, by default, to the deepening of social divisions.

ASEAN Summit violence

The eager-beaver Abhisit Government had planned an ASEAN Summit for 10 - 13 April inthe east coast resort of Pattaya. Anti-Abhisit demonstrators went to Pattaya to deliver astatement to the ASEAN Secretary General - to underline the fact that Abhisit had nomandate from the people to represent Thailand.

The Statement was delivered to the ASEAN Secretary General in the Pattaya Hotel on 10April, by about 2 000 people. However, some Abhisit aides had, foolishly, already given the

green light to para-military royalist forces to disrupt the demonstration. As the protesterswithdrew from the hotel they were attacked by about 500 thugs with Protect the Monarchyacross their shirts.


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Thousands of people from Bangkok and Pattaya moved rapidly to support the anti-Abhisitprotest in Pattaya. On the morning of 11 April several thousand descended on the PattayaHotel. The Summit was cancelled. Abhisit, his authority badly stung, fled the scene in aBlackhawk helicopter, vowing to restore law-and-order and declaring the red-shirts the"enemies of the nation".

To this point in time the somewhat divided Police and Army had kept themselves out of theplay, but some units did respond to Abhisits call for help in Pattaya. The leader of theprotesters in Pattaya was arrested by police in the early hours of 12 April and then handedto the Army.

After the arrest of the Pattaya leader, a former TRT MP, the confrontation between theGovernment and the protesters passed out of all control.

The battle for D-Station

On 12 April Abhisit declared a state-of-emergency in and around Bangkok, and issuedorders for demonstrators to be cleared from outside Government House within 4 days, andfor all UDD communication channels to be cut, especially their on-line satellite TV, the so-called Democracy Station, D-station or DTV, that had been set-up in January (2009) tocounter the PADs ASTV.

For UDD leaders responsible for the demonstration at Government House it was essentialto be able to maintain communication with the vast number of demonstrators in differentparts of Bangkok, with their tens of millions of supporters across Thailand e.g. in theprovincial capitals of Chiang Mai, Udon Thani and Khon Kaen, with the Thai public ingeneral, as well as with the international community. In other words D-station, their onlycommunication channel, had to be defended.

In the afternoon of 12 April army units with tanks and armoured vehicles started to appearon the streets in different parts of Bangkok, moving in on Government House where red-shirts had set-up road-blocks. Exactly who gave the orders remains unclear. Themovement of the troops appears to have been somewhat un-coordinated, some unitsdisplaying more resolve than others, with some covering the name of their units to avoidbeing identified.

Violent confrontation broke-out at Din Daeng, an important inter-section just north ofGovernment House, with the military resorting to tear gas and live ammunition.

A 500-strong column of regular soldiers, commandos with automatic weapons and ahumvee mounting a 50mm machine gun advanced to take control of a ThaiCom building innorth Bangkok, where several hundred demonstrators had gathered to guard D-stationtransmission.

In the still dark hours of the morning of 13 April a wide area around Government Housewas turned into a war zone, with chaotic fighting between red-shirts, army units, para-military gangs and also local residents that formed gangs mainly to defend local peopleand property. The battles raged out-of-control for several hours. From Din Daeng violencespread to other parts of the city. And there are reports of non-red people being paid tocommit arson and so on. Many innocent people were caught-up in the ruckus.


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Withdrawal

Din Daeng fell to the army at around 07.30, Victory Monument at around 12.30. Army unitswith tanks and heavy machine guns closed-in on Government House. With red-shirtnumbers dwindling UDD leaders, with arrest warrants on their heads, surrendered on the

morning of 14 April - to avoid further bloodshed. They were taken to different army camps,charged for a variety of crimes and later released on bail for sums in the region of 10 000euro.

Amidst the lies, cover-ups and exaggerations, accurate casualty figures take time toemerge - in Thailand often months or years. Two people were shot dead. At least 100people were wounded, some by gunfire. About 20 soldiers were wounded. Some reportssay more than 50 people are missing. In military crack-downs in Thailand, the militaryusually take care to remove the dead or near-dead from the battlefield e.g. as in the May1992 uprising, when about 20 of the 46 bodies known to have been removed by themilitary were never seen again.

Exactly who was responsible for what will never be acknowledged, but the people ask -and the ASEAN and the International Community must ask - what in the name of hell is thereason why tanks and heavy infantry keep appearing on the streets of Bangkok?

Summation

It is not famine, poverty or money that is bringing the poor onto the streets in their hundredof thousands, nor a great love of Thaksin the business tycoon - although he did play a

significant role with his phone-ins urging revolution.As poor people will do everywhere, the tens of millions of poor people in Thailand arerising in protest because they can no longer abide the autocratic double-standards of theirpatrons and administrators, a perfect example of which is provided by Abhisit, twicedefeated in elections, active supporter of the long list of yellow-shirt major crimes, andnow, as Prime Minister, himself throwing opposition leaders in jail.

The people came onto the streets demanding . .- reinstatement of their hard-won Peoples Constitution (1997);- a General Election to bring back electoral justice;- a stop to the non-stop interference of the Kings Privy Council under General Prem

Tinsulanonda in the struggle of the Thai people for their democratic rights.

The military crack-down in April was all too familiar. Abhisit may have received somepraise from above, but it will be the brave, grass-root women and men who stand firm forthe democratic rights of the people who will be honoured in Thai history, not Oxfordgraduates who order tanks and commando units to confront the legitimate protests of thepoorest citizens with live ammunition.

2009 is no longer 2006, no longer 1992 and no longer 1976. After 80 years of struggle andquasi-democracy, Thailands new generation pro-democracy activists have decided tostand their ground. As the new wave of democracy activists grows, the autocrats will find it

harder and harder to paint their strategies with yellow and gold.


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The UDD leaders were arrested and charged. The PAD leaders that vandalisedGovernment House, attacked Parliament House and attacked and occupied internationalairports now sit smug in a royalist government.

How come the International Community finds playing-along with the sick games of the Thaipower-elite so easy? How come it is still talking and wheeling and dealing with Thailand?

Is the body-count too low? It would not be difficult for the International Community tocondemn the forms of suppression and oppression practiced in Thailand. It would be sorefreshing for all if they would.

Beneath the marketed image of Thailand, tens of millions of poor people are beingactively, cruelly, and also artfully, prevented from realising their potential as citizens of the21st century.

The surrender of the peoples leaders in April 2009 marks not the end but the beginningof a new phase in the struggle of the poor to remove the corrupt hierarchies that block theirroad to equal rights, democracy, sustainable development and peace.

Part Three

The specter of civil war?

Besides the loss of just a dozen or so lives and a few hundred injured here and there,what has three years of PAD-inspired, Palace-supported, political chaos produced?

The September 2006 military coup had several objectives: to destroy the 1997 PeoplesConstitution, to weaken the power of elected Government and to strengthen the power ofbureaucracy in the name of the Monarchy.

The recent years of political chaos have brought a raft of ugly, new legislation, for instance:Section 17 of the Emergency Decree of 2005 (introduced by Thaksin) exempts, in veryloosely defined emergency situations, high-ranking persons, state officials and policefrom civil, criminal or disciplinary liability provided that their actions are performed in goodfaith, non-discriminatory and not unreasonable in the circumstances. In other words thedecree openly breeches Thailands international obligations under the InternationalCovenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Thailands archaic Ls Majest laws (from the Latin laesa maiestas injury to majesty) arebeing increasingly abused, and the Democrat Party is attempting to raise the penalty foralleged disrespect for Monarchy from 3 - 15 years to 5 - 20 years imprisonment.

In Thailand today there is growing a miserable kind of sickness around Ls Majest, aspeople have started to sneak information to the authorities about whom they think is beingdisrespectful, or not respectful enough. It is a sickness than can wipe the last real shinefrom the smile of the Thai - a very debilitating sickness.

With regard to international trade, after ousting Thaksin the military Junta just jumped

straight into his shoes, adopting exactly the same non-democratic approach to negotiatingFree Trade Agreements. (In April 2007 General Surayad signed a wide-ranging, far-reaching FTA with Japan that was already in force by November.)


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When Abhisit finally reached power he distributed 2000 Baht (40 euro) to 8 millionemployed people as some kind of stimulus package, but somehow forgot the 23 millioninformal sector workers (small farmers, self-employed and un-employed).

The 2006 military coup and last 3-years of chaos have been thoroughly successful inincreasing distrust of the state machinery and Monarchy, and in deepening the divide

between rich and poor.On the positive side the chaos has served to shake-up the grass-root sectors and themore enlightened sectors of the middle-class. Thailand is experiencing a new wave offarmers, factory workers, students, academics and grass-root movements that aredetermined to resist being bottled-up as pawns, fodder and bell-boys for the benefit ofThailands image, own greedy elite and multi-national corporations.

New wave fighters for democracy

During the 19 September Coup in 2006, Nuamtong Praiwan, a 60 year-old taxi-driver and

life-long human rights activist, rammed his taxi into a military tank. He survived the impactbut decided to complete his protest by hanging himself on 31 October 2006. His decisionsent a shock-wave through Thailands grass-root communities, and a warning toThailands increasingly self-indulgent middle-class that the un-educated know and careabout the meaning of democracy.

The name of Nuamtong has been raised again and again in the pro-democracymovement. Bangkok has over 100 000 taxi-drivers. On 8 April 2009 taxi-drivers came inlarge numbers to assist the red-shirt protest outside Government House. On 9 April manytook action to jam the streets of Bangkok. On 10 April several hundred taxis were engagedin transporting people from Bangkok to the protest against Abhisits ASEAN Summit inPattaya. When the Army brought tanks onto the streets of Bangkok on 12 April, taxi-driversrisked their taxis and their lives to block the tanks and protect the people.

New wave cyber army

When all media channels were cut or tightly censored in the May 1992 Uprising, it wastelephones and fax machines that mobilised people and kept them informed. In April 2009it was the peoples cyber army that kept information flowing.

Calling for the Government to crush the red-shirts, the chat boards of conservativereactionaries showed their concern for the image of Thailand in relation to economicstability, foreign investment and tourism.

With Abhisit doing all possible to control the media, the cyber chat boards supporting thepeoples protest played an important role in countering the absurd accusation that the red-shirts were wreaking havoc with Thailands fragile stability.

With little or no space in Thailands mainstream media for airing their thoughts andfeelings, the new wave of peoples representatives in cyber space are working hard to by-pass censorship, and inform and warn their sisters and brothers of the dangers they face

and why.Through cyber space the irony of the military crack-down in April is identified as a clone ofthe 1976 crack-down - 33 years ago. Through cyber space the absurdity of needing mass


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demonstrations in the 21st century to oppose institutions of monarchy is discussed andanalysed. Through cyber space people across the nation are being brought closer todiscussion about why, when it comes to welfare and services, civil servants, academicsand white collar workers receive preferential treatment.

How come the poor are accused of being a threat to stability?

The regular citizenry needs little help to understand that it is not they who have sentThailand into recession, and it is not they who are the reason why Abhisit is now beggingfor 23 billion USD.

The poor know that it will be they who suffer in the struggle to pay-back Abhisits loans -the debts of the elite. The Thai know only too well that the wealth, privileges and splendourof the high echelons of Thai society are entirely dependent on the schemes the ruling elitemaintain to limit the participation of the tens of millions of poor people in genuine,democratic procedure.

After the surrender of the red-shirt leaders in April, the chat boards became a source ofcomfort, a space where poor people could share events as they had experienced them,and their frustration at being confronted with yet another military crack-down.

The cyber army plays an important role in helping to track and inform on the health andwhereabouts of arrested leaders, and in the search for the dead and missing. Incountering government-controlled misinformation the chat-boards throw up importantquestions. What kind of government blocks discussion on real issues and permitsstatements like red-shirts are not Thai, not human and should be shot on sight? Howcome the Monarchy, Army, Police and the whole academic community do not activelycondemn such incitement?

The poor are becoming increasingly conversant with understanding that the stability theyare being accused of disrupting is, in term of sustainable development, a false construct.

In speaking to the crowd, a co-ordinator of the Farmers Network said . . Farmers havebeen classified as illiterate fools when it comes to democracy, but we have alwaysparticipated in the peoples demonstrations against dictatorship - in 1973, 1976, 1992 and2006. We were never strong enough, but if the military crack-down on demonstrations thistime, the farmers will block every road to Bangkok..

The anger of poor working women was in evidence throughout the April uprising. Women

took a leading role in the action at the ASEAN Summit in Pattaya. After Abhisit declared astate-of-emergency in Bangkok it was women who found and chased him. It was womenwho commandeered public buses to block the roads against military tanks. In our strugglefor democracy the stories of these bold working-women will be cherished.

Love or fear of monarchy?

Thai people are educated to love their monarchy unconditionally and unquestionably. Theproblem is that people face the 21st Century, not the 19th Century. The Thai have no otheroption than to question the repetitiveness of military crack-downs on the legitimateinterests of the majority of the population.


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As citizens of a world that has now identified and agreed to stand-up for universal humanrights, modern-day Thai are duty-bound to question the use of Ls Majest laws which,with origins in Ancient Rome, have always been related to the bolstering of political power.All phenomena can be connected but most people agree that the connection between LsMajest laws and love is tenuous and, in todays world, nothing less than highly suspect.

It would be extremely foolish for the Palace and the Army to ignore the extent to whichpeople all across Thailand (and across the world) are questioning the relation betweentheir Monarchy and their Parliament.

Largely silenced by fear of Ls Majest laws, Bangkok-based media is no longer able torepresent the majority of the people of Thailand and, consciously or not, tends toaggravate rather than mediate the growing divide between the interests of the ruralcommunity and those of the new urban middle-class.

Some observers avoid confrontation with the, at present, increasingly odorous applicationof Ls Majest laws, by saying they will fade with time. Thats for sure, but in the

meantime, in both passive and active form, they continue to protect the vast, capital wealthand business interests of the Monarchy (by far the richest Monarchy in the world).Thailands Ls Majest laws are an effective tool for constructing the image of the land ofsmiles, a cruel instrument that diplomatic missions love to compliment and multi-nationalsharks love to exploit. For them Thailand is Paradise.

If in the 21st century the specter of civil war rises over the horizon of a country that isendowed with all the natural resources that any society could ever hope for, there must besome substantial reasons.

All analysis of Thailands current domestic crisis places the Monarchy at the epicentre of

debate, that is to say - the Palace and Privy Council face real problems - surely notbecause of the poor people but because of what they do.

Thailand needs a Royal House and the Thai want to love their King and Queen, and socan it be, when the Royal House recognises that it must make way for democracy. It wouldmake life much easier for the Royal Household if it did.

In the modern world, military Juntas are an anathema, a truly ugly phenomenonsymbolising retarded governance.

Are the ASEAN peoples going to allow their future prospects to be over-ruled by a

resurgent militarism?

Together for democracy

The growth of the Port of Bangkok was no accident, and nobody has benefited more thanthe Crown Property Bureau - the wealthiest landlord in the world.

Nobody wants a yellow-red confrontation in Bangkok to drag Thailand any further into themud, let alone to civil war.


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Thailands rural communities and urban poor are just saying that Weve had enough . . ofseeing our lives degraded. We are no longer prepared to vote for the interests and well-being of the urban middle-class. Why should we?.

Too many Bangkokian academics and journalists have become accustomed to imaginingthat their own voices are the only voices that matter.

Why should the rural people tolerate double-standards cooked in Bangkok - by Abhisit andhis so-called Democrat Party? Because this party knows it cannot win at the ballot box?

Why should the small farmers, the rural blood of Thailand, and their children who slave inexport-oriented Free Trade Zones, allow themselves to be manipulated out of existence inthe name of economic stability? Whos economic stability? The rural blood of Thailand isThailand. Without healthy, productive, joyous rural communities Thailand is nothing - anempty soap-box tied-up with a yellow band.

We all need to protect ourselves from the excesses of the neo-liberal capitalist agenda,

which by definition places economic stability above social welfare and is, beneath allpropaganda about democracy and freedom, too frequently just waiting to party with privycouncils and wink at military juntas.

The current, predicted, expected and necessary melt-down of the trans-national globalfinance institutions provides a moment for people across the planet to re-assess thepolitics of liberation - bottom-up. This is now happening in Thailand, but the peoples pro-democracy movement in Thailand needs to be recognised by people on the outside. Thisis important because the success of the pro-democracy movement in Thailand has greatsignificance for the whole Indo-China Peninsula, for not just tens but for hundreds ofmillions of poor and displaced persons.

In the current economic depression nobody can know what the future will be, but in thename of peace, justice and human rights, in the name of sustainable development,challenging unjust comparative advantage and the pyramids of capitalism is thesanctioned order of the day.

In fact Thaksin Shinawatra did his bit. He was responsible for his own downfall, but he canbe thanked too, and will be well-remembered by the rural poor - for letting them know thatthey exist and are important in their own right, and for kick-starting a new wave ofresistance against autocratic governance.

The current phase of struggle of the rural peoples of Thailand is extremely important, notjust because they form the majority of the population, but because the future of theeconomy of the planet is all about food security and investment in organic productivity.What happens in Thailand with respect to rural cultures and traditions and to the hugelyvaluable knowledge of Thailands small farmers and fisher-folk has significant impact onwhat happens to cultural and biological diversity across the whole Indo-China Peninsula,and thus also, as one of the most productive and simultaneously bio-diverse areas of theplanet, on the future of all humankind.

For Thailands sake (and the Monarchy), it is absolutely necessary for the ruralcommunities - the workers, the women and men of the land that are the true guardians of

this great garden of the world - to stand their ground and not stoop to the low practices ofthe PAD and Abhisits mis-named Democrat Party.


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The red-shirts in Thailand, who have fought so many battles over the past 70-80 years,need the recognition, support and solidarity of worker and small farmer movements aroundthe world.

The villages of Thailand still have honest women and men. New leaders will rise to throw-off the cobwebs of intrigue and the dross of Americanisation - to re-establish the dignity of

the people of Thailand in the light of common struggle to rebuild the global economy on asound, organic, sustainable, egalitarian foundation.

The days of compromising the fundamental principles of human rights in order to servefabricated concepts of economic stability designed to feed false concepts of progress areat an end.

The privileged civil servants and urban middle classes need to understand that they face achoice: share the profits of progress with the farmers and workers (upon the strength ofwhose backs our life-style depends) or face a civil war which cannot be won.

The common aim of all self-respecting Thai has to be the strengthening of parliamentarydemocracy. The half-baked, half-wit schemes the mess of Thai politics produces, like thePADs 70:30 (or was it 74:26?) proposal for appointed and elect MPs, must be placedwhere they belong - in the garbage can with the ice-cream wrappers.

One can note here that the Peoples Constitution of 1997 was also far from perfect. Forinstance the workers movement is campaigning to remove an article - that appeared forthe first time in 1997 - stipulating that only bachelor degree people can stand for electionto Parliament - and so on.

Democracy is not a western invention. In some form or other democracy has existed and

been practiced throughout human history, to some degree or other, whenever andwherever people can experience life without dictatorship - from the Kalahari to the Amazonto Greenland to the Tibetan Plateau to the villages of Northern Thailand.

Democracy belongs to the natural process of the evolution of human consciousness. It isnot a product of greed or capitalism. As a viable alternative to dictatorship, it evolves andemerges, through - and as result of people having to face the management of - populationgrowth, increased literacy, diminishing non-renewable resources, increasing economicrisk, and our common-sense demand for peace and establishment of social, egalitariancivilization.

There is no escape from democracy in the 21st century - and no need to avoid it.

In a world where all are literate, in contact with each other and looking at the future withhope, interest and honest, common concern, a Parliament of the People cannot beevaded or avoided.

The symbolic Head of State, the Faith of the Land, and the Military, have nothing to fearfrom a Parliament of the People, if they have the moral courage, honesty and wisdom torespect the decisions of the majority.


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Closing words

For more than 70 years parliamentary democracy in Thailand has been hopping aroundwith its feet tied - one step forward one step back and down again, in some kind of apathetic dance with the generals.

Today the people of Thailand are in the process of cutting the thongs that prevent themfrom growing-up into the 21st Century. Contemporary photos of civilian red-necks takingcontrol of tanks in the streets (whatever the colour of their shirts) are symbolic of the factthat, in the world today, educated, regular, rank and file soldiers are loathe to act againstcivilians.

The people of Thailand are tired of divisive authority, of seeing and hearing oppressedfractions of the population beaten-down and crushed whenever and wherever they attemptto make themselves heard. Thailand as a society is tired of seeing legitimate humaninterests, whether those of the small farmers or the Muslims, or the hill tribes or the

millions of Thai sweat-shop workers, or millions of Burmese migrant workers, seconded topreservation of the image of a glittering, hegemonic hierarchy.

There will be no peace or stability or maturity of mind and spirit in Thailand until theinstitutions of the Monarchy stop abusing power and wealth. The military generals thatcreated Thailands post-war Monarchy - with billions in US AID, have totally failed tobalance the two main, perfectly compatible requests of the Thai people - to have aMonarch they can love and a just, healthy, democratic order.

The extremes of behaviour seen in Thailand today are tearing the country into pieces. Thethreat of a protracted, messy, underground civil war, which could destabilise the whole

region, is once again fouling the horizon.

By constantly appealing to the monarchy to settle their differences, Thailands intelligentsiais forever delaying the need to grow-up - to be responsible, to take responsibility for theon-going poverty of tens of millions of our own people, not to mention responsibility forscenes of tragic carnage in our streets.

Who is responsible for the on-going oppression of the hopes of the poor - for recognitionand justice? Is it colonialism, the big-bad-outside-world, some secret inside mystical force?Or could it be the Thai people themselves who are responsible for their own suffering?

What kind of Thai-ness is this that we practice now: this occasional, almost ritualisticgranting of permission to occasionally kill a few dozen people on the pretext that thisavoids a greater body-count?

Is this what Thailand calls democracy? Is this the Thai-ness with which we want to identify,with which we want to be identified?

The traditional state policy of allowing the state bureaucracy, at every level, to exploit theMonarchy for the purpose of legitimising suppression and oppression of poor people mustbe radically reversed - through the establishment of real parliamentary democracy. This isthe only way Thai people can prevent themselves from becoming a joke on the global

stage, if not a failed state.

The current Thai government has no democratic legitimacy.


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Thailand needs a General Election now, but acting-Prime Minister Abhisit knows he cannotwin. He will delay a General Election for as long as possible, in order to be able to takemaximum advantage of state-controlled media and all the other subversive weapons thatcorrupt State administration has managed to accumulate during decades of corrupt power-building. In other words, Abhisit and the neo-liberal elitists are banking on their ownwishful thinking that time is on their side - that resistance to their collective hypocracy will

fade!

Once again the Thai electorate, especially the poor and working classes, is, yet again,having to face the spectacle and phenomenon of gross, governmental corruption.

It is Thailands increasingly alienated masses, not their rotten government, that needs thesupport of the international community, of the movement of Global Unions and civil rightsactivists around the world - who probably also need to discard at least some of thedazzling image they may have of Thailand, and take more notice of ground-level realitiesin Thailand, and the relation between ground-level realities in Thailand and the politicalstability and welfare of the whole region.

The ASEAN has failed the people of Burma and cannot afford to repeat suchincompetence.

With the Thai Monarchy at the centre of a potentially massive, violent furore, it is to behoped that Thailands Royal Household will see the light of day and use their influence toinstruct their Privy Council to revise itself, support the return of the Peoples Constitutionand permit a free and fair General Election before the yellow-red civil war, which the PrivyCouncil has fostered, makes the situation impossible for all.

In the 21st century stability resides on the other side of a door called universal human

rights, and Abhisits cabinet cannot, as we say, cover the sky with their hands.

The people will not retreat, the red-shirts will not turn yellow and the world will not stopwatching Thailands super-rich Monarchy and its bevy of generals in the Privy Council.

The Thai want to love their Monarchy, and may continue to do so if the generals would bethe gracious gentlemen they would like to be, and let the people get on with the work ofbuilding democratic institutions, and let the Royal Household get on with the RoyalHouseholds work of setting a true example - in honesty, humility, tolerance, compassionand self-sufficiency, for which military assistance is not required.

I wish to say that this was a difficult article to start writing, because it talks about thingswhich people in Thailand dont dare talk about. Having written what I have written I feel astrong sense of release, and I know that I want to share this feeling with 60 million otherpeople in Thailand, especially with women and with all our young, new wave democracyfighters.

Note of acknowledgement.

I could not write this article without assistance from a native English speaker who has a

compassionate understanding of Thai history and the struggle of rural people to maintaintheir livelihoods, dignity and respect. I thank my friend Riku for his assistance with thisarticle. JY.

The Voter's Uprising Thai_Eng Version

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