absolutelyBangkok archive · On our own
Originally published Nov. 2, 2008
A friend once told me: “Women, who can live with them. Who can live without them.” Same applies to Thai politics. Only that their character is much more inscrutable and malign. It was for the obvious maliciousness of Thaksin’s arrogance of power that back then I cheered the putsch. Defended Thailand against outsiders. The coup, I said, was the only way out of spiraling injustices and abuses.
The coup leaders promised swift justice — and what a justice was to come. While a wide range of crimes of names and faces we all know remain unpunished, if not forgiven. Thaksin faced a true judicial onslaught — a justice denounced as “selective” by his followers. And now the same man denounced as a republican and wannabe first president of the Republic of Thailand asks for royal forgiveness.
Thaksin, in his taped speech on Saturday, Nov. 1, asked for forgiveness and royal mercy. A reformed leader? From far away in London or Hong Kong he enjoyed a huge feel-good show of strength with tens of thousands of red Thaksinists amassed — more people than any PAD rally could gather this protest season. And no diatribes on stage, no barbed wire and no militias, but a clear message to the PAD and powers behind them:
We’re no mob of ignorant farmers. We’re quite sophisticated. And this is just the beginning.
“Saturday’s rally was a well organized show of strength by the Thaksin camp, reminiscent of the slick campaigns that helped the former prime minister win three successive elections,” reports the BBC. Now take a wild guess how this transformed, previously chaotic and inflammatory movement of anti-coupists would react to a “successful” PAD.
With the aggressor playing the victim: “Good evening fellow citizens who love democracy,” Thaksin told the faithful according to the Bangkok Post. “Can you remember my voice? I miss you (…) The political system is marred with injustice. Law enforcement is futile. The government is helpless. This is all the fruits of a coup” — leading to Thaksin’s key phrase of the evening: “No one can bring me home apart from royal kindness or the power of the people.”
A royal pardon could bring him home. Or a people’s coup.
Playing subject, agitator and Messiah at the same time, Thaksin made clear that there will be no reconciliation in Thailand until he gets a fair share of redemption. A dangerous game. He’s still not willing to accept his — man-made? — fate. No lessons learned? On the contrary, he sees injustice as his strongest ally.
While dozens of hours of public airtime over the past weeks and months has been dedicated to the “yellows” of the PAD and speeches of their core leaders, not a single Thai television or radio channel dared to carry Thaksin’s address. But guess what, as under the former Sovjet Union with strict bans of free expression, Thailand is nerved with a tight network of informal channels of information.
Everybody’s aware of everything going on in the kingdom — even if there’s no “official” news reporting.
Now… what about those Confessions of a Coupist?
There never was black and white in Thai politics.
What’s intolerable yesterday may be a way out tomorrow.
Just don’t expect any reformed leaders.
Image source
Daylife/Reuters
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