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Red Alert: Thai Political Uncertainty Lingers
March 24, 2010NEWS
Red shirt rallies: Justified attempt for democracy or just a public nuisance?
Last month protesters from The National United Front of Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD) left Bangkokians seeing red as they obstructed traffic, closed shops, initiated unsanitary ways of rebellion and generally ruined everybody’s weekends. On February 26, more than half of ex-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s 2.3 billion dollar fortune was seized by the Thai court due to allegations of corruption while he served his term. Prime Minister Thaksin was put out of power in a bloodless coup in September 2006 and received allegations of tax evasion, human rights abuse during the war on drugs and authoritarianism.
Thaksin was elected as Prime Minister after a landslide victory in the 2001 elections. He started projects that benefited the poor, such as the 30-Baht healthcare program and the One Tambon One Product (OTOP) program that supported locally produced Thai products. Thaksin also initiated the infamous “War on Drugs” where police officers were issued quotas to eliminate drug dealers. The Human Rights Watch reported that 2,275 people were killed as a result of the program; critics claimed that most of them were extra-judicially executed. Corruption claims on Thaksin sparked when he sold his telecommunication company, Shin Corps which netted to 73 billion baht tax free to his family. Since the coup in 2006, Thaksin has been in exile, residing in Nicaragua, the Bahamas, Dubai and China and had recently become the economic advisor to Cambodia. Red shirt protests occurred during last year’s Songkran holidays where two people died and countless others were injured.
The seizure of Thaksin’s wealth on February 26 sparked outrage amongst his supporters; one UDD red shirt supporter exclaimed, “This is not fair, everyone knows there’s no justice in Thailand. Double standards are imposed on different people, even so in a fair trial you still don’t get justice”. Beginning on March 12, protests followed with an estimate of up to one million angry red shirts expected to show up in Bangkok. Businesses closed and schools cancelled classes, expecting total chaos but over all protests seemed to be fairly peaceful. Protests raged on as the UDD set a noon deadline for Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to step down from his post on March 15. As president Abhisit refused to succumb to the pressure of the red shirts, UDD leader Natthawut Saikua announced that they would collect one thousand liters of blood from 100,000 volunteers and scatter it around the government house. The blood was poured over the fences of the government house while a UDD member dressed as a Brahmin priest collectively cursed the government.
Two grenades exploded on March 21 at the National Anti-Corruption Commission Office, damaging walls of the building, however no injuries were reported. The red shirts assembled a caravan rally of 65,000 members which paraded through Bangkok, obstructing traffic as well as closing gold shops in Yawaraj and MRT Stations. As the numbers of protestors dwindle from the blazing heat and the futility of their actions, more protestors are being encouraged to come to Bangkok and join in on the action. However, the second mass of replacements will not be as large as expected.
The red shirts’ desperate attempt to fight “dictatorship” for democracy seems pathetically ironic as they’re technically trying to pressure the Prime Minister to resign. As with the People’s Alliance for Democracy’s (PAD) actions to overthrow the democratically elected Thaksin, both groups of protestors should re-learn the definitions of Democracy and Justice. Thailand’s political future remains arcane and unstable. There will be no improvements in political stability if organizations continue pointing fingers and flinging blames at the government.
By Yenning Lee (International School Bangkok)
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