absolutelyBangkok archive · Being farang
Originally published March 14, 2010
Dear Dan, I hope you don’t take this the wrong way but I have to say that I have been a little disconcerted by aB.com’s rather strident alarmism over the past few days. Of course, you are entitled to your own opinion, which I respect, but I would ask you to consider this possibility. Their public statements notwithstanding, the reds have no real interest in engaging in large-scale violence and property destruction. What they are trying to do is to: 1) Show that Abhisit cannot govern; and 2) Perhaps bait the government into cracking down violently. At the very worst, that is, they are trying to find a way to portray themselves as the victims of violence, as opposed to engaging in violence themselves. You might argue that this is a very cynical strategy and I would definitely agree with that. Alas, that’s how the game is played in Thailand.
However, I hope you would entertain the possibility that the only party that is actually interested in the reds turning violent is the government — in large part because that will delegitimize the red shirts and provide the excuse to repress them. As such, I think it’s at best naive and at worst disingenuous to blame the red shirts alone for the climate of fear that envelops Bangkok. We have The Nation for that, anyway. A particularly good example of this is the fact that the government now appears to be ready to impose a state of emergency, which in essence suspends all civil liberties, in the face of what so far has been an entirely peaceful demonstration (with the exception of a one-on-one scuffle in Pathum Thani).
Do they have any reasons for doing so, other than to scare the public to death? After all, the behavior of the red shirts so far has not really squared with the government’s propaganda, so that’s apparently all they have left aside from instigating some violence themselves (that itself is, in my view, forthcoming). Given the track record of military governments and military-backed governments in Thailand, are you sure you want to give them this much benefit of the doubt? Much like the reds, these people are also playing a very cynical game.
As you know, much like you I have deep misgivings about the reds and, especially, Thaksin. But I am also wondering whether you may have been a little too quick to blame them for creating a situation that the government is at the very least co-responsible for. I am only saying this because I respect your work and, perhaps more importantly, because blogs like yours have been, over the past few years, the place where one can find honest coverage of the events considering the sad state of the Thai media. And, unless you are trying to prove to someone that you pose no danger “to the security of the kingdom,” there is hardly any benefit in parroting The Nation’s intellectually dishonest coverage. That, by the way, includes that propagandist and rumor-monger that is Tulsie, to whom you have apparently turned over a portion of your site.
Again, I hope you don’t take this the wrong way, in the sense that I didn’t write this to attack you or criticize you, but only to invite you to consider alternatives to the viewpoint you have put forth. All the best, Federico Ferrara, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Singapore.
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