Here is the supposedly liberal Bangkok middle class in action:
Bodindecha students turn to Prem for help
Students and parents who are part of a demonstration against the Bodindecha School filed a petition with Privy Council President General Prem Tinsulanonda yesterday, asking him for help to get them back into school.
Protest leader Sombat Sorthanusak led some 50 students and parents to hand a letter over to Prem at Miracle Grand Hotel in Bangkok yesterday, asking for help to get the 220 students back into school and find a way to erase corruption.
As this issue is too important for the nation as well as the humanity, the attitude of Aung San Suu Kyi towards Kachin must be regarded as hostile.
Unfortunately a lot of Burmese would be in that category. Still there are more and more of truly enlightened Burmese coming out more and more everyday to speak out against the war.
People do need time to adjust for Aung San Suu Kyi turning into turncoat so abruptly. and started singing for Thein Sein and the military.
But as the Candle light protest shows Burma is MORE than Aung San Suu Kyi. Such a relief.
In coming days, it is likely that Burmese populace will take up the issue of Kachin more and more. After all most of the deaths are Burmese.
Oslo can though shamelessly continue to promote their champion regardless of the lack of regard for the currently killed and the tortured. After all their man is drilling for gas and oil in Burmese water already and they are pulling back their own support for the refugee and started to initiate their own investment projects in Burma. Another of their attempt in Sri Lanka affairs also showed their true colours.
As for UK and the famous business people taking along Cameron for visit as a tourists, there is no need to say.
A survey, in the run-up to Bersih 3.0, of 1019 registered voters in the Peninsular Malaysia by independent pollster, the Merdeka Centre found that:
– 92% of voters want the electoral roll to be cleaned up before elections are held;
– only 44% of the respondents expressed confidence that the election process in Malaysia was free from irregularity and abuse;
– 48% of the respondents agreed that the electoral list was inaccurate and “embedded with doubtful voters such as foreigners, people who were transferred without their knowledge or people with multiple identities”;
– 52% of the respondents also agreed that election laws should be amended to allow the electoral roll to be challenged in the courts;
– only 37% of the respondents trusted the postal voting system as being transparent and free from political influence and 51% distrusted.
Thursday the huge crass cartoon-size reconciliation checks begun. Friday yesterday, the ‘amnesty bill’ was tabled with beneficiaries fugitive Thaksin S. (Red Shirt Supremo and May2010 red/black violence/arson/mayhem maestro) and 2006 coup leader Gen. Sonthi.
Maybe with some Harvard ‘scholars’ our State Department might actually get something as glaringly appalling as the recent release of the 2011 country report factually corrent: To wit:
“On December 8, a court sentenced dual national Joe Gordon (also known as Lerpong Wichaikhammat) to two-and-a-half years’ imprisonment for lese-majeste offenses. Authorities had arrested Gordon in May for involvement, while living in a foreign country, with a Web site that linked to the digital, translated version of a banned biography of the Thai monarch entitled, The King Never Smiles, and he had pleaded guilty”
and in the same report:
“POLITICAL PRISONERS AND DETAINEES
There were no reports of political prisoners or detainees.”
The government of Thailand arrests and imprisons many people for lese majeste.
In addition it maintains a Political Prison.
Some recent headlines from the Bangkok Post:
Political prisoners added to compensation scheme.
Red shirts demand amnesty.
Yingluck faces pressure to free political offenders
Published: 27/04/2012 at 01:52 AMNewspaper section: News
An article from the Bangkok Post:
Criteria set for political prisoners:
Published: 10/01/2012 at 01:51 AM
Newspaper section: News
The Corrections Department has drawn up criteria for deciding which inmates are to be defined as political prisoners and moved to a new jail.
Kobkiat Kasiwiwat, the department’s director-general, said a panel assigned to categorise political prisoners has concluded their political status.
The panel, chaired by Mr Kobkiat, agreed that political prisoners are those who face criminal charges, are on trial or seeking judicial appeals as a result of political conflicts before and after Sept 19, 2006 coup.
So our State Department gets a fail on
1. Recognizing that Thailand has Political Prisoners.
2. Including Coloradan Joe Gordon.
So perhaps the State Department will get some Harvard Graduates to assist Secretary Clinton et al in getting the facts straight.
I unforgiveably also neglected to mention the nations even larger Theravada Buddhist community.
I guess this might be the real reason why there might be problems making Buddhism the state religion. I think we should be told….
“Nearer my God to Thee”
“Is London a better place from which to gain insight into the motivation and thinking of the ‘grassrooots’ people and if so which borough?”
Oh, miaow.
In response, I’ve no idea. Maybe you could do some kind of research to find out?
What I would say, and this is unscientific, is that I’ve met plenty of expats, journalists, academics etc etc who are based in Thailand full-time who don’t seem to have a single clue about what is going on. In fact they seem to almost rejoice in their own ignorance up to, and including, celebrating the deaths of Thai citizens in the protests in 2010.
In the context of that the liberals complete failure to comment on Jatuporn’s disqualification – as heinous and undemocratic act it is harder to imagine – points directly to their failures and hypocrisies.
Does that mean he is qualified to receive a giant comedy cheque in return for his silence?
Leaving little doubt who calls the shots for the red-shirt movement, Thaksin called UDD leaders on November 24 and urged them to reconsider holding the protest, citing the conflict with the King,s birthday celebration. UDD leaders then met on November 25 to discuss Thaksin,s recommendation and predictably opted to stand down.
Jg45 is totally deluded when he says that it’s a propaganda to say that Reds are democrats. The only way of looking at the Reds not as people struggling for democracy is to see them as puppets for Thaksin, which is totally false as Andrew Spooner and others have pointed out.
To see how this is true, one has to believe firstly that anything a person does is done out of his own self-interest. If the interests of the Reds are not advanced by supporting Thaksin, then no Red would come out and support him. To believe, as some apparently do, that the underlying reason why the Reds come out in droves to support Thaksin is that they are hired by Thaksin or are deceived by his material promises is to have a very wrong view of human nature. These people are fed up with the way Thailand has been governed for decades, a country where the few have all the privileges and the many are shunted aside and treated as if they were not humans. This is the root cause. Thaksin only happened to function as their focal point for a moment. And with Thaksin out of the picture (such as when he got his seized assets back and allowed to return as a free man) the struggle will certainly continue because the structural injustice is still there and has been brutally exposed for all to see.
@CT # 20: “But whether or not [Thaksin] will commit atrocious acts, or acquiesce to the atrocity like the Monarchy is doing currently (if he becomes powerful in the future), this is an interesting question to debate.”
What’s to debate or question? He murdered thousands of innocents (according to Thailand’s Human Rights Commission) in his War on Drugs. Angry about Wat Prathum? How many Muslims did his general, now security adviser, Panlop kill at the Krue Sae Mosque and what did Thaksin do about it? Thaksin’s middle name is atrocity. You’re fooling yourself if you think for a minute he won’t be an authoritarian who will be brutal if he thinks it will suit his purpose, or just to drive his own outsized ego. Just as another poster is fooling himself by characterizing the majority of Red Shirts as “liberal democrats.” What a piece of propaganda.
“It is the lack of a change agent that could force the grand status quo coalition into concessions. In other words, the problem is political, not academic.”
Agree wholeheartedly.
The Red Shirts have emerged as a new form of “agency” but the Bangkok liberals have failed utterly to spot the potential of this and instead of seeking to align itself with the Reds have sought, instead, to attack Thaksin while forgetting the major structural issues at stake and also the source of naked power in all of this – the army.
What I can’t figure out, is that all these Bangkok liberals, academics etc, with their fancy Western educations and privileges seem oblivious to the structures that they inhabit, while the grassroot Reds are aware of this on a daily and lived basis. Hence, for me, their alliance with Thaksin is not about accommodating the existing structures but utilising his power to push for more changes. Of course, one thing always conveniently forgotten is that Thaksin’s main power comes from democratic elections. When people have had enough of him they can stop voting for him and then his power will be almost nothing. The “shadowy elements” you mention will still have their guns, their courts and their apparatus ready to crush, via force, anyone who challenges their hegemony. They remain unelected, unaccountable and outside the reach of civilian and democratic control. So while criticism of Thaksin is appropriate to single him out while forgetting the rest is simply to forego PT’s democratic mandate.
In the context of that the liberals complete failure to comment on Jatuporn’s disqualification – as heinous and undemocratic act it is harder to imagine – points directly to their failures and hypocrisies.
“I disagree. My main point is that the Bangkok liberals have no real connection to the “grassroots” yet often claim to understand them or even attempt to speak for them.”
How about Chiang Mai liberals? Its a very liberal place after all especially up past Nimmanhaemin in the lee of the mountain.
Is London a better place from which to gain insight into the motivation and thinking of the ‘grassrooots’ people and if so which borough?
Amsterdam continues to press the case against Abhisit, Suthep and the army. He asked at his speech for more witnesses to come forward and be recorded, he unambiguously talked about the need for justice before reconciliation can happen. His criticisms of the army, the democrats, and the LM law are direct, searching and uncompromising.
Of course, you can interpret it as a pretense and as part of a grand conspiracy by the puppet master if you like. But why?Out of all the catalog of criticisms of Amsterdam, the only reason ever offered for not taking him seriously is that he’s been paid by Thaksin. His arguments and research are very rarely engaged.
This is a good synopsis and recommendation about the current players in Burma as would be seen not just by the author but by the majority of what Plan B would call the West.
But why?
Is the current dream run of the western companies and the inclusion of Burma to the global slave trade in general in slight bit of danger?
Is Aung San Suu Kyi, like many before (Mandela, Havel, Kazai), patiently and carefully groomed and guided, showing signs of unreliability, the Oath issue, or with her sheer inability to come out with anything earthly/ practical/ useful/ understandable to human at all likely to be picked up by the Burmese public at large?
Burmese are naturally unusually cynical. And now interconnected and international.
Nargis constitution. Is it really legal and solid just because of Aung San Suu Kyi? Otherwise this parliament is void.
Ban Ki-moon felt the economic forces are irresistible. Only if the Burmese public is fed with false information.
Egyptians repealed the Israel Gas Deal. Camp David is being looked at again.
For Burma, the upper hand of the military now with full cooperation and endorsement of Aung San Suu Kyi thus encouraging the “West” to come in while honouring the Chinese rip-offs is but a short interlude.
By the way, the Kachins are human as well last time it was checked.
“In terms of accountability and integrity of purpose I think it is equally important as positing on the background of the ‘liberals’ you criticise in your internet postings”
I disagree. My main point is that the Bangkok liberals have no real connection to the “grassroots” yet often claim to understand them or even attempt to speak for them.
In reality some of the Bangkok liberals are every bit as patronising about the grassroots Reds as the Dems and yep, in my view, that is partly founded in their inability to escape the confines of their own class position.
I think Veerayooth’s analysis is basically sound. The main structural conclusion is that a Grand Elite Coalition has the potential – and unfortunately also the mindset – to uphold the current order and forego any meaningful reform in the mid run. This will significantly reduce the room for maneuver for progressive actors and critiques of the current regime.
In the long run, changing opportunity structures need to be taken into account. More as an unintended consequence of the conflictive strategies of the past decde, a host of new actors have been mobilised that now claims a stake in the polical game. The elites have settled this conflict the traditional way: via a secretive backroom deal between the key patrons. However, the red shirt reaction shows that these techniques are less and less accepted by the public at large.
Unfortunately, I share the scepticism about the Bangkok liberals.Instead of joining a braod social coalition that could mobilise power to push for structural change, they mostly engage in mirror fencing. Veerayooth’s proposal seems to fit in nicely with these toothless approaches.
The problem is NOT a lack of awarenes or understanding on the part of the elites. It is the lack of a change agent that could force the grand status quo coalition into concessions. In other words, the problem is political, not academic.
I sometimes wonder if commentators actually have any understanding of how complex the relationship between Thaksin/Reds actually is.
To reduce it to simply him being the puppet master is to take the same position as the PAD, Dems etc and reduce millions of ordinary Thais/Reds to mere lumpen ciphers in a mad, evil genius’s game.
Anyone would think that Thailand’s present political problems are something from a James Bond script.
Thaksin is not as smart as many think he is and the Reds are not as dumb as many think either.
In terms of accountability and integrity of purpose I think it is equally important as positing on the background of the ‘liberals’ you criticise in your internet postings…. In terms of the reality of what matters in the political debate in Thailand, I think it is of no importance at all.
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Why the compromise game?
Here is the supposedly liberal Bangkok middle class in action:
Bodindecha students turn to Prem for help
Students and parents who are part of a demonstration against the Bodindecha School filed a petition with Privy Council President General Prem Tinsulanonda yesterday, asking him for help to get them back into school.
Protest leader Sombat Sorthanusak led some 50 students and parents to hand a letter over to Prem at Miracle Grand Hotel in Bangkok yesterday, asking for help to get the 220 students back into school and find a way to erase corruption.
http://nationmultimedia.com/national/Bodindecha-students-turn-to-Prem-for-help-30182857.html
Kachin State: Don’t mention the war
As this issue is too important for the nation as well as the humanity, the attitude of Aung San Suu Kyi towards Kachin must be regarded as hostile.
Unfortunately a lot of Burmese would be in that category. Still there are more and more of truly enlightened Burmese coming out more and more everyday to speak out against the war.
People do need time to adjust for Aung San Suu Kyi turning into turncoat so abruptly. and started singing for Thein Sein and the military.
But as the Candle light protest shows Burma is MORE than Aung San Suu Kyi. Such a relief.
In coming days, it is likely that Burmese populace will take up the issue of Kachin more and more. After all most of the deaths are Burmese.
Oslo can though shamelessly continue to promote their champion regardless of the lack of regard for the currently killed and the tortured. After all their man is drilling for gas and oil in Burmese water already and they are pulling back their own support for the refugee and started to initiate their own investment projects in Burma. Another of their attempt in Sri Lanka affairs also showed their true colours.
As for UK and the famous business people taking along Cameron for visit as a tourists, there is no need to say.
Electoral fraud in Malaysia – BERSIH calls for reforms
A survey, in the run-up to Bersih 3.0, of 1019 registered voters in the Peninsular Malaysia by independent pollster, the Merdeka Centre found that:
Why the compromise game?
Thursday the huge crass cartoon-size reconciliation checks begun. Friday yesterday, the ‘amnesty bill’ was tabled with beneficiaries fugitive Thaksin S. (Red Shirt Supremo and May2010 red/black violence/arson/mayhem maestro) and 2006 coup leader Gen. Sonthi.
Do you approve Spooner and company?
Thai Studies at Harvard
Maybe with some Harvard ‘scholars’ our State Department might actually get something as glaringly appalling as the recent release of the 2011 country report factually corrent: To wit:
2011http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2011/eap/186310.htm
From the report:
“On December 8, a court sentenced dual national Joe Gordon (also known as Lerpong Wichaikhammat) to two-and-a-half years’ imprisonment for lese-majeste offenses. Authorities had arrested Gordon in May for involvement, while living in a foreign country, with a Web site that linked to the digital, translated version of a banned biography of the Thai monarch entitled, The King Never Smiles, and he had pleaded guilty”
and in the same report:
“POLITICAL PRISONERS AND DETAINEES
There were no reports of political prisoners or detainees.”
http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2011/eap/186310.htm
My comments:
The government of Thailand arrests and imprisons many people for lese majeste.
In addition it maintains a Political Prison.
Some recent headlines from the Bangkok Post:
Political prisoners added to compensation scheme.
Red shirts demand amnesty.
Yingluck faces pressure to free political offenders
Published: 27/04/2012 at 01:52 AMNewspaper section: News
An article from the Bangkok Post:
Criteria set for political prisoners:
Published: 10/01/2012 at 01:51 AM
Newspaper section: News
The Corrections Department has drawn up criteria for deciding which inmates are to be defined as political prisoners and moved to a new jail.
Kobkiat Kasiwiwat, the department’s director-general, said a panel assigned to categorise political prisoners has concluded their political status.
The panel, chaired by Mr Kobkiat, agreed that political prisoners are those who face criminal charges, are on trial or seeking judicial appeals as a result of political conflicts before and after Sept 19, 2006 coup.
So our State Department gets a fail on
1. Recognizing that Thailand has Political Prisoners.
2. Including Coloradan Joe Gordon.
So perhaps the State Department will get some Harvard Graduates to assist Secretary Clinton et al in getting the facts straight.
Talk on royal cremation ceremony
I unforgiveably also neglected to mention the nations even larger Theravada Buddhist community.
I guess this might be the real reason why there might be problems making Buddhism the state religion. I think we should be told….
“Nearer my God to Thee”
Why the compromise game?
Orinocco
“Is London a better place from which to gain insight into the motivation and thinking of the ‘grassrooots’ people and if so which borough?”
Oh, miaow.
In response, I’ve no idea. Maybe you could do some kind of research to find out?
What I would say, and this is unscientific, is that I’ve met plenty of expats, journalists, academics etc etc who are based in Thailand full-time who don’t seem to have a single clue about what is going on. In fact they seem to almost rejoice in their own ignorance up to, and including, celebrating the deaths of Thai citizens in the protests in 2010.
You’re not in that final group are you “Orinoco”?
Why the compromise game?
@43 AS
In the context of that the liberals complete failure to comment on Jatuporn’s disqualification – as heinous and undemocratic act it is harder to imagine – points directly to their failures and hypocrisies.
Does that mean he is qualified to receive a giant comedy cheque in return for his silence?
Rising Anti-China resentment in Singapore
Why should Singaporeans care about the PRC? Many of the younger generation barely know to speak Chinese, but most know how to speak English.
Why the compromise game?
@41 Tom Hoy
Of course, you can interpret it as a pretense and as part of a grand conspiracy by the puppet master if you like. But why?
http://www.cablegatesearch.net/cable.php?id=09BANGKOK3009
Leaving little doubt who calls the shots for the red-shirt movement, Thaksin called UDD leaders on November 24 and urged them to reconsider holding the protest, citing the conflict with the King,s birthday celebration. UDD leaders then met on November 25 to discuss Thaksin,s recommendation and predictably opted to stand down.
US Embassy cable 25/11/2009
Why the compromise game?
Jg45 is totally deluded when he says that it’s a propaganda to say that Reds are democrats. The only way of looking at the Reds not as people struggling for democracy is to see them as puppets for Thaksin, which is totally false as Andrew Spooner and others have pointed out.
To see how this is true, one has to believe firstly that anything a person does is done out of his own self-interest. If the interests of the Reds are not advanced by supporting Thaksin, then no Red would come out and support him. To believe, as some apparently do, that the underlying reason why the Reds come out in droves to support Thaksin is that they are hired by Thaksin or are deceived by his material promises is to have a very wrong view of human nature. These people are fed up with the way Thailand has been governed for decades, a country where the few have all the privileges and the many are shunted aside and treated as if they were not humans. This is the root cause. Thaksin only happened to function as their focal point for a moment. And with Thaksin out of the picture (such as when he got his seized assets back and allowed to return as a free man) the struggle will certainly continue because the structural injustice is still there and has been brutally exposed for all to see.
Why the compromise game?
@CT # 20: “But whether or not [Thaksin] will commit atrocious acts, or acquiesce to the atrocity like the Monarchy is doing currently (if he becomes powerful in the future), this is an interesting question to debate.”
What’s to debate or question? He murdered thousands of innocents (according to Thailand’s Human Rights Commission) in his War on Drugs. Angry about Wat Prathum? How many Muslims did his general, now security adviser, Panlop kill at the Krue Sae Mosque and what did Thaksin do about it? Thaksin’s middle name is atrocity. You’re fooling yourself if you think for a minute he won’t be an authoritarian who will be brutal if he thinks it will suit his purpose, or just to drive his own outsized ego. Just as another poster is fooling himself by characterizing the majority of Red Shirts as “liberal democrats.” What a piece of propaganda.
Why the compromise game?
Marek
“It is the lack of a change agent that could force the grand status quo coalition into concessions. In other words, the problem is political, not academic.”
Agree wholeheartedly.
The Red Shirts have emerged as a new form of “agency” but the Bangkok liberals have failed utterly to spot the potential of this and instead of seeking to align itself with the Reds have sought, instead, to attack Thaksin while forgetting the major structural issues at stake and also the source of naked power in all of this – the army.
What I can’t figure out, is that all these Bangkok liberals, academics etc, with their fancy Western educations and privileges seem oblivious to the structures that they inhabit, while the grassroot Reds are aware of this on a daily and lived basis. Hence, for me, their alliance with Thaksin is not about accommodating the existing structures but utilising his power to push for more changes. Of course, one thing always conveniently forgotten is that Thaksin’s main power comes from democratic elections. When people have had enough of him they can stop voting for him and then his power will be almost nothing. The “shadowy elements” you mention will still have their guns, their courts and their apparatus ready to crush, via force, anyone who challenges their hegemony. They remain unelected, unaccountable and outside the reach of civilian and democratic control. So while criticism of Thaksin is appropriate to single him out while forgetting the rest is simply to forego PT’s democratic mandate.
In the context of that the liberals complete failure to comment on Jatuporn’s disqualification – as heinous and undemocratic act it is harder to imagine – points directly to their failures and hypocrisies.
Why the compromise game?
#40 Andrew Spooner
“I disagree. My main point is that the Bangkok liberals have no real connection to the “grassroots” yet often claim to understand them or even attempt to speak for them.”
How about Chiang Mai liberals? Its a very liberal place after all especially up past Nimmanhaemin in the lee of the mountain.
Is London a better place from which to gain insight into the motivation and thinking of the ‘grassrooots’ people and if so which borough?
Why the compromise game?
Longway,
Amsterdam continues to press the case against Abhisit, Suthep and the army. He asked at his speech for more witnesses to come forward and be recorded, he unambiguously talked about the need for justice before reconciliation can happen. His criticisms of the army, the democrats, and the LM law are direct, searching and uncompromising.
Of course, you can interpret it as a pretense and as part of a grand conspiracy by the puppet master if you like. But why?Out of all the catalog of criticisms of Amsterdam, the only reason ever offered for not taking him seriously is that he’s been paid by Thaksin. His arguments and research are very rarely engaged.
Counting on the National League for Democracy
This is a good synopsis and recommendation about the current players in Burma as would be seen not just by the author but by the majority of what Plan B would call the West.
But why?
Is the current dream run of the western companies and the inclusion of Burma to the global slave trade in general in slight bit of danger?
Is Aung San Suu Kyi, like many before (Mandela, Havel, Kazai), patiently and carefully groomed and guided, showing signs of unreliability, the Oath issue, or with her sheer inability to come out with anything earthly/ practical/ useful/ understandable to human at all likely to be picked up by the Burmese public at large?
Burmese are naturally unusually cynical. And now interconnected and international.
Nargis constitution. Is it really legal and solid just because of Aung San Suu Kyi? Otherwise this parliament is void.
Ban Ki-moon felt the economic forces are irresistible. Only if the Burmese public is fed with false information.
Egyptians repealed the Israel Gas Deal. Camp David is being looked at again.
For Burma, the upper hand of the military now with full cooperation and endorsement of Aung San Suu Kyi thus encouraging the “West” to come in while honouring the Chinese rip-offs is but a short interlude.
By the way, the Kachins are human as well last time it was checked.
Why the compromise game?
Orinoco Woof Woof Blanco
“In terms of accountability and integrity of purpose I think it is equally important as positing on the background of the ‘liberals’ you criticise in your internet postings”
I disagree. My main point is that the Bangkok liberals have no real connection to the “grassroots” yet often claim to understand them or even attempt to speak for them.
In reality some of the Bangkok liberals are every bit as patronising about the grassroots Reds as the Dems and yep, in my view, that is partly founded in their inability to escape the confines of their own class position.
Why the compromise game?
I think Veerayooth’s analysis is basically sound. The main structural conclusion is that a Grand Elite Coalition has the potential – and unfortunately also the mindset – to uphold the current order and forego any meaningful reform in the mid run. This will significantly reduce the room for maneuver for progressive actors and critiques of the current regime.
In the long run, changing opportunity structures need to be taken into account. More as an unintended consequence of the conflictive strategies of the past decde, a host of new actors have been mobilised that now claims a stake in the polical game. The elites have settled this conflict the traditional way: via a secretive backroom deal between the key patrons. However, the red shirt reaction shows that these techniques are less and less accepted by the public at large.
Unfortunately, I share the scepticism about the Bangkok liberals.Instead of joining a braod social coalition that could mobilise power to push for structural change, they mostly engage in mirror fencing. Veerayooth’s proposal seems to fit in nicely with these toothless approaches.
The problem is NOT a lack of awarenes or understanding on the part of the elites. It is the lack of a change agent that could force the grand status quo coalition into concessions. In other words, the problem is political, not academic.
Why the compromise game?
I sometimes wonder if commentators actually have any understanding of how complex the relationship between Thaksin/Reds actually is.
To reduce it to simply him being the puppet master is to take the same position as the PAD, Dems etc and reduce millions of ordinary Thais/Reds to mere lumpen ciphers in a mad, evil genius’s game.
Anyone would think that Thailand’s present political problems are something from a James Bond script.
Thaksin is not as smart as many think he is and the Reds are not as dumb as many think either.
Why the compromise game?
#35 Andrew Spooner
“If it’s so important to you, you will find it.”
In terms of accountability and integrity of purpose I think it is equally important as positing on the background of the ‘liberals’ you criticise in your internet postings…. In terms of the reality of what matters in the political debate in Thailand, I think it is of no importance at all.