Reds vs Yellows

The whole situation in Thailand is infuriating! I can't believe that the royalist PAD (anti-government - yellow t-shirts) blockaded all access routes and stormed the airports. Insolence! and pure stupidity! Of course, people should be allowed to protest and voice their opinions (though in this case most of the active supporters are urban poor and being paid by the rich elite and businessmen - without really knowing why, except to say that the 'government is corrupt'). Hello!! The PPP government (red t-shirts) was elected democratically and has only been in power for less than a year! Besides, corruption will always be present in Thai culture.. well, it will take time to eradicate this. The only concern that is genuine is its ties to Thaksin (the PM is Thaksin's brother-in-law), who though a very smart businessman and certainly has done a lot of good for the poor in rural areas with his populist policies (shaking the power of the Thai elite - hence, their hatred of him), is unfortunately blemished with his human rights violations, abuse of power and nepotism corruption as well as his arrogance (not a positive trait among the more demure Thais). My frustration lies in the fact that the government has tolerated this to happen... That in my mind shows cowardness and uncertainty. Not once has the PM confidently spoken to the local and international community, putting people at ease with what they plan to do to bring the situation under control. They should have reacted immediately by removing the protesters by force if necessary, and getting the police involved from the beginning. They have finally woken up and ordered the air force and navy to clear the protestors and return things to normal. We'll see.Why not the army? Well, that is complicated.. the army answers to the King, not the government - one of the underlying reasons why it is difficult to establish a democracy here I think. They have too much power. Somchai PM has done well not to submit to the army's demands for him to step down in order to restore peace. I have no idea and it is too early to tell whether or not he makes a good leader, but dismantling governments because of the protests of a group of financially well backed (paid thugs and poor urban families) who unlawfully try to economically detroy the country, will and should never result in a democracy. There are always people on different sides with different opinions - bloody hell, that is the definition of democracy. The irony being that this group calls themselves the PAD (People's Alliance for Democracy).. what they have shown so far is that their definition of democracy is only if they are in power. However, it is very difficult to judge the situation and both sides are clearly at fault. The lack of assertion from the PM is certainly instigating a lot of this unrest in my opinion. There is also so much more behind this than meets the eye (grey areas - both historically and culturally, possibly the ease of swaying the uneducated poor (on both sides) - and even conflict within the Royal family). Only time will tell, but one thing is for sure.. what the PAD did was irresponsible and will negatively effect the tourism industry and this of course has obvious implications on the economy. In a way, I am almost glad for Thailand that it only made the top headlines for two days, with the terrible events in Mumbai taking precedence. Being a bit out of the exaggerated claws of the western media may calm things down in terms of tarnishing Thailand's image abroad. Naturally, life is the same as ever, we are not effected by these events as all violence and disruptions are very localised in areas near the Government House and unfortunately, now the airports. Despite the Coup rumours yesterday and workers being sent home early, nothing happened. So no need to worry :-)



This is a great article which voices a lot of my views on this: http://www.bangkokpost.com/topstories/topstories.php?id=132344 Inept under Siege

To have some clear answers check:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7584005.stm