absolutelyBangkok archive · On our own
Originally published Dec. 29, 2008
The red shirts, attempting to force Thailand’s new unelected government to dissolve the house for new elections, have a serious image problem. Their tactics look like a virtual carbon-copy of those used by the opposite yellow shirts. And not one of Thailand’s usually very talkative academics and representatives of the social and military elites openly supports a red version of the yellow mayhem.
Even though, put simply, the aims of the yellows and reds are virtually the same. They just they want to put their own people into office. Tit for tat and tat for tit. An Abhisit for a Somchai, a Pee Uan for a Pee Lek, while the elite continues to make history with deliberate inaction favoring the yellows and may up the ante with deliberate action against the reds.
Add the seemingly erratic, brutally calculating loyalties of coalition leaders… Thailand has become ungovernable because laws where not enforced when needed. Now it’s plain too late. Those who unhinged the constitution and due process are beaten at their own game. A Darwinian version of autocracy has taken over where even more pain is needed to destroy the old and make way for a new. Or what should the reds do?
By xeroxing the yellows they do themselves a great disservice. State your points, demonstrate some civilized anger. But insist on peaceful ways and patience. Sabotage only strengthens a doomed government. Rather sooner than later there will be elections and things fall into place.
The reds have victory assured it they play it wisely these weeks. If they ape the yellows and use a paramilitary wing and tactics to overthrow a government, then… well… you’ll seriously have to start thinking the unthinkable: a foreign intervention:
Photo from AP Photo
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