John Francis Lee #7 :
“You cannot have it both ways. Either you view the King of Thailand as a constitutional monarch who has no political powers other than as the ceremonial ‘head of state’ or you view him as having more powers that”
In fact both the British and Australian systems of constitutional monarchy do attempt to have it both ways, with what is known as “the reserve powers of The Crown”.
In Australia’s case, these led to the sacking of an elected Prime Minister in 1975, by an unelected Governor-General representing the Crown. Apparently all quite legal.
“The point is that the grassroots credentials of both the PAD and the UDD are extremely dubious. They are both being funded and manipulated by business interests of one kind or another”
Who/what is grassroots?
IMO, the electorate as a whole is as grassroots as it gets, so let the electorate choose who/what they want, and if your team didn’t get chosen, and work harder on your message/policies/candidates for the next time.
There is no ‘right’ choice.
(and that’s the thing that all colours, and no colours, need to understand and accept)
Factions in the family does not preclude them supporting one clique. They can be factionalized on a ton of things, but all come together to oppose the republicans/red shirts they see trying to overthrow them. There are some interests that are more significant than others.
You cannot have it both ways. Either you view the King of Thailand as a constitutional monarch who has no political powers other than as the ceremonial ‘head of state’ or you view him as having more powers that. It seemed to me that Ji Ungpakorn used to fall into the trap of formally regarding the King of Thailand as a constitutional monarch, and then lashing out at the present King of Thailand for not exercising his ‘extra-legal’ powers to put things right. It seems to me that he has seen the inconsistency there and now places full responsibility for the Thai state with the military/”elite” where it belongs.
The part of Wichean’s announcement that has me puzzled is this :
…The police chief warned that those trying to challenge… the monarchy would face the full wrath of the police force…
Ok… lèse majesté is ‘illegal’. But surely it is still the right of the sovereign Thai people to arrange their government as they see fit. If that requires explicitly stating the limitations of the powers of the monarchy under the constitution… well that might be regarded as ‘challenging’ the monarchy, might it not?
So Wichean is now on record as saying, along with Phao Siriyanon and Thaksin Shinawatra, “There is nothing under the sun that the Thai police cannot do”, is he not?
Has he not just granted a license to kill to the Royal Thai Police, once again, this time with red shirts as prey?
To all of you Thai censors and Royalists out there reading this blog, a bit of advice:
The best way to keep your monarchy safe is to open a discussion in your country about what monarchy is and what democracy is or should be in Thailand. This can be done respectfully and responsibly in classrooms and on talk shows and in the newspapers. You wouldn’t have to be concerned about all of the disrespectful comments on the web then because people would be engaged in a dialogue far more interesting and meaningful. All countries have idiots who post idiocy on web boards, and most of it is simply not read.
I know this is a delicate time because Father is not well and he deserves all the respect and peace any father of a family deserves at the twilight of his life, but the other option is to put your heads in the sand and wait for the inevitable explosion from the hinterland.
What Thailand needs most of all right now is leadership, statesmanship, not intimidation. Your concern should be first and foremost the development of democracy, the cultivation of your people’s hearts and minds. If your monarchy is so sacred then surely it would not be so preoccupied with its own survival. After all of these protests why is the first thing out of your mouths “monarchy”?
Arrogant contempt for the voice of the people.
Or perhaps the people around this monarchy are more concerned about their own status and power, not the welfare of the nation. Your precious monarchy will last so long as it is the servant of the people, not an arrogant master surrounded by those who exploit it for their selfish gain. What your country needs more than anything is a People’s monarchy.
The decisions that those of you in power make right now are monumental. Thai history is littered with leaders who have tried to turn back the clock and have misjudged the times. As I have told several royalist acquaintances of mine with trepidation: if none of this is discussed, it will be discussed with more mobs, bombs, and arson.
It’s amazing the conversations I’ve had with red shirt protesters as well as elite students from Chula, Thammasat, and Mahidol universities. Is anyone listening?
The arrogance of the Thai government and the monarchy itself will be the undoing of the monarchy, not the red shirts.
I have wondered how many of the UDD protestors, particularly the Red Shirt Guards and people that took to the streets outside the protest site barricades to attack the Army with grenades, homemade rocket launchers, and petrol bombs have fathers or grandfathers that belong to the Red Gaur or Village Scouts in 1976?
I’m not sure about that but I’m sure that PAD and Red Gaur/ Nawapol have more in similar than UDD. Both are extreme royalist and ultra right. Both were shield from the law (non of the member of Red Gaur and PAD ever been prosecute for their crime).
The other question I have is why there were virtually no UDD protestors from Buriram?
There are many people from Buriram that join the UDD, I actually met some of them, however, since there are a lot of mafia in the province so its a bit dangerous to show oneself as a red from Buriram. Moreover, I even met some people from Puket, Songkla, and some other southern provinces as well, thought very rarely.
one of the poorest and considering it’s elected MP’s were key in voting for the current government have been a hotbed of UDD activity?
Maybe you should check what party is represent Buriram before you ask that question……. yeah its Bhumjaithai, not so surprise right?
it seems like a war between two lots of Thai-Chinese businessmen, CP against the Shinawatra group
Certainly there’s some sort of conflict between the old and the new capitalist in action here, CP is one of the representatives of the old money while Shin represent the new. However, I think this conflict is far more than that.
That’s STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL. Once you know you are in a grave danger. I hope you are not a resident of Singapore or Malaysia, or even Thailand. Just kidding!
As I wrote in the last part of my previous post the masterminds are now permanently basing in Singapore, unlike in the 1990s when I was unfortunately involved in the shady transactions between Burmese and Israels. Singapore has given citizenship to thousands and thousands of Burmese since early 2000.
(You have to read NM’s The Scourge of Burma – Part 6 to understand.)
But only the money goes through Singapore, the wheeling dealing central of SE Asia. Weapons used to come through Singapore but the drugs always come and go through other ports where corruption is widespread and govt officials can easily be bought.
Only Singapore can handle large transactions involving tens or even hundreds of millions of US$ between Burmese Suppliers and their customers in the West.
“Officers found the heroin – the largest seizure of its kind since 2002 when about 380kg of heroin was discovered in Brisbane hidden in packaged noodles – in a shipping container of house doors sent from Malaysia to Sydney.”
That the Malaysian government and its agencies are corrupt is well established.
Translating an article is one thing, but did you guys ever actually *watch* any of these rabid speeches?
It will be interesting to see what kind of content New Mandala publishes when PTP get their next turn at ripping off the system. I’m predicting a sudden switch into apologist mode.
The point is that the grassroots credentials of both the PAD and the UDD are extremely dubious. They are both being funded and manipulated by business interests of one kind or another.
“The police chief [Police General Wichean Potephosree] warned that those trying to challenge and abuse the monarchy would face the full wrath of the police force. He also said he took the issue seriously on a personal level.”
Vichai (#24): I’ve seen a version of that anecdote about Nattawut and the 100 million baht elsewhere, as well.
It’s a bit too neat for my taste. And it isn’t just a matter of whether Bangkok Dan is telling the truth or not, it’s a matter of believing every link in the chain is honest about it.
I think you have to assume the story is apocryphal.
It would not be so hard to check, if one seriously wanted to. Bangkok Dan claims to be able to trace it to its source — surely he can easily find out the name of Nattawut’s ‘former teacher.’ If that is impossible, there is every reason to assume the story is an urban legend. The burden to prove it is on those who believe it.
>“The other day I met Ajahn A., a good friend, strictly in the middle of the mess, who knows a former teacher of Nattawut. So this teacher, himself unsure whom to believe, asked Nattawut why he’s doing all this. Said Nattawut: ‘Have you ever felt the power of ten million baht in your hand?’ “
I have wondered how many of the UDD protestors, particularly the Red Shirt Guards and people that took to the streets outside the protest site barricades to attack the Army with grenades, homemade rocket launchers, and petrol bombs have fathers or grandfathers that belong to the Red Gaur or Village Scouts in 1976?
The other question I have is why there were virtually no UDD protestors from Buriram? If indeed this was a movement demanding democratic representation with a social demand against the “Bangkok Elites” wouldn’t that province, one of the poorest and considering it’s elected MP’s were key in voting for the current government have been a hotbed of UDD activity?
The UDD is not an ideological organization and those that try to make it out to be one, such as the subject article, are sadly mistaken about what this is about. The UDD is the action arm of the political party whose sole existence is to regain a majority in Parliament and allow Thaksin to return to Thailand. Read their platforms and listen to the rally speeches. Little of what the western left wing and socialist try to put into it is actually there
“The fact that the Royal Family are firmly behind one unscrupulous power clique has given members of that clique … license to commit any crime they like with impunity. ”
Observant analysis contradicts the suggestion that the Royal Family is monolithic and united behind one clique. One of the most salient and thus censored sub-plots of the reign’s endgame is the factionalism within the family. Sibling A, Sibling B, Spouse X, Spouse Y. And the cliques themselves are dynamic, divided, and fuzzily-bordered.
“The Royal Family almost certainly had enough political capital to have saved the country…”
The theoretical, constructive application of the family’s political capital presumes the same unity and flexibility which the best-researched sources (Handley, Streckfuss, etc) don’t find evidence for. Not to say they couldn’t have done better, but presumption and reduction aren’t going to lead the way forward to open-mindedness.
less ideological (softer, but no less insidious) form of fascism
Jim seeing that you are making up your own definition and conditions for fascism, (which is OK as making up new language is such childish fun), could you tell me how many of your conditions the Thaksin government did not also fit. You can give it as a percentage if you like.
I have to say these are the strangest fascists I have seen. Have you any links to other groups or political parties that consider Thailand is under a fascist regime? Anyone else on New Mandala think that the Abhisit government is fascist?
In the British left it seems to be considered that the argument is lost by the first person to throw in the word fascist. Seems about right to me.
By the way it should be pointed out that Jim’s take on the Spanish Falange comparing it to the current Thai political landscape doesn’t really work if you look too closely at what they actually stood for and where they came from. It’s as easy to find similarities with Thaksin and his supporters as it is with royalists in the PAD, remembering of course that the Falange was not particularly pro-royalist. It certainly proved useful to Franco as a intellectual cover for his rather anti-intellectual beliefs.
Still I guess throwing in fascist and Falange makes us all sound a bit more clever than we actually are, so that’s good isn’t it?
After the court seized his money in Feb, Thaksin realized he is no longer rich. So he must have read BangkokDan’s website and came to the conclusion that he could get (10) Nathawut with 100 million baht. Why spend more ?
late response to Les #9 (i’ve been away): so “why fascism”? I am not sure what Ji has in mind: I do not speak for him and vice-versa. I refer to the surrent regime and politics in Thailand as falange/or
Thai falangists (Spanish: falangistas). Thais don’t have a word for “fascist”/”fascism” and use it (rarely) as a foreign loan word (р╕ер╕▒р╕Чр╕Шр╕┤р╕Яр╕▓р╕кр╕Лр╕┤р╕кр╕Хр╣М). I take falangism from a right-wing Spanish movement imitating elements of German and Italian fascism that emerged in the early 1930s under the leadership of José Primo de Rivera in Spain. The movement was opposed to the Republican regime and supported Franco’s Nationalist coup of 1936, but only as a minor element. The elements with close affinity to the current Thai experience are: less ideological (softer, but no less insidious) form of fascism, including organic corporatism, ethnic (Thai)-based ultra-nationalism, conservative anti-democratic trade unionism, and conservative modalities of Buddhism, a dislike for separatism of any kind, anti-communism, anti-anarchism and anti-(new) capitalism where seen as outside elite networks, anti-democratic, espousing paternalistic pastoral values (communal Thai’ism), dislike of welfare-based neo-liberal economic (efficient) management (Thaksin), a union of non-competitive, traditional units seeking to maintain monopolies at any cost, maintaining privilege through nationalist syndicated consensus, and of course para-militarism (military and parastatal armed forces). Hope that ansers your concern & that you no longer have any doubts that Thailand is indeed currently controlled by unsavoury fascist forces that must be replaced by a Constitionally [1997 -not the fake 2007 version] elected government of the people…
The fact that the Royal Family are firmly behind one unscrupulous power clique has given members of that clique (notably in the army and the police) license to commit any crime they like with impunity. The rule of law, always weak in Thailand, is giving way again to absolutism, with all its attendant corruption and terror. If they had backed the other unscrupulous power clique, or if they change sides, things would probably be no better. The Royal Family almost certainly had enough political capital to have saved the country by truly staying above their country’s corrupt politics and promoting reconciliation, but they, and their advisors who should have known better, have failed catastrophically.
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Priority number one
John Francis Lee #7 :
“You cannot have it both ways. Either you view the King of Thailand as a constitutional monarch who has no political powers other than as the ceremonial ‘head of state’ or you view him as having more powers that”
In fact both the British and Australian systems of constitutional monarchy do attempt to have it both ways, with what is known as “the reserve powers of The Crown”.
In Australia’s case, these led to the sacking of an elected Prime Minister in 1975, by an unelected Governor-General representing the Crown. Apparently all quite legal.
Come the revolution?
“The point is that the grassroots credentials of both the PAD and the UDD are extremely dubious. They are both being funded and manipulated by business interests of one kind or another”
Who/what is grassroots?
IMO, the electorate as a whole is as grassroots as it gets, so let the electorate choose who/what they want, and if your team didn’t get chosen, and work harder on your message/policies/candidates for the next time.
There is no ‘right’ choice.
(and that’s the thing that all colours, and no colours, need to understand and accept)
Priority number one
Factions in the family does not preclude them supporting one clique. They can be factionalized on a ton of things, but all come together to oppose the republicans/red shirts they see trying to overthrow them. There are some interests that are more significant than others.
Priority number one
You cannot have it both ways. Either you view the King of Thailand as a constitutional monarch who has no political powers other than as the ceremonial ‘head of state’ or you view him as having more powers that. It seemed to me that Ji Ungpakorn used to fall into the trap of formally regarding the King of Thailand as a constitutional monarch, and then lashing out at the present King of Thailand for not exercising his ‘extra-legal’ powers to put things right. It seems to me that he has seen the inconsistency there and now places full responsibility for the Thai state with the military/”elite” where it belongs.
The part of Wichean’s announcement that has me puzzled is this :
Ok… lèse majesté is ‘illegal’. But surely it is still the right of the sovereign Thai people to arrange their government as they see fit. If that requires explicitly stating the limitations of the powers of the monarchy under the constitution… well that might be regarded as ‘challenging’ the monarchy, might it not?
So Wichean is now on record as saying, along with Phao Siriyanon and Thaksin Shinawatra, “There is nothing under the sun that the Thai police cannot do”, is he not?
Has he not just granted a license to kill to the Royal Thai Police, once again, this time with red shirts as prey?
Priority number one
To all of you Thai censors and Royalists out there reading this blog, a bit of advice:
The best way to keep your monarchy safe is to open a discussion in your country about what monarchy is and what democracy is or should be in Thailand. This can be done respectfully and responsibly in classrooms and on talk shows and in the newspapers. You wouldn’t have to be concerned about all of the disrespectful comments on the web then because people would be engaged in a dialogue far more interesting and meaningful. All countries have idiots who post idiocy on web boards, and most of it is simply not read.
I know this is a delicate time because Father is not well and he deserves all the respect and peace any father of a family deserves at the twilight of his life, but the other option is to put your heads in the sand and wait for the inevitable explosion from the hinterland.
What Thailand needs most of all right now is leadership, statesmanship, not intimidation. Your concern should be first and foremost the development of democracy, the cultivation of your people’s hearts and minds. If your monarchy is so sacred then surely it would not be so preoccupied with its own survival. After all of these protests why is the first thing out of your mouths “monarchy”?
Arrogant contempt for the voice of the people.
Or perhaps the people around this monarchy are more concerned about their own status and power, not the welfare of the nation. Your precious monarchy will last so long as it is the servant of the people, not an arrogant master surrounded by those who exploit it for their selfish gain. What your country needs more than anything is a People’s monarchy.
The decisions that those of you in power make right now are monumental. Thai history is littered with leaders who have tried to turn back the clock and have misjudged the times. As I have told several royalist acquaintances of mine with trepidation: if none of this is discussed, it will be discussed with more mobs, bombs, and arson.
It’s amazing the conversations I’ve had with red shirt protesters as well as elite students from Chula, Thammasat, and Mahidol universities. Is anyone listening?
The arrogance of the Thai government and the monarchy itself will be the undoing of the monarchy, not the red shirts.
Priority number one
Very interesting, WLH (3). You may have the evidence to refute my assertion that the Royal Family are firmly on one side. Would you care to elaborate?
Come the revolution?
Thaihome -22
I have wondered how many of the UDD protestors, particularly the Red Shirt Guards and people that took to the streets outside the protest site barricades to attack the Army with grenades, homemade rocket launchers, and petrol bombs have fathers or grandfathers that belong to the Red Gaur or Village Scouts in 1976?
I’m not sure about that but I’m sure that PAD and Red Gaur/ Nawapol have more in similar than UDD. Both are extreme royalist and ultra right. Both were shield from the law (non of the member of Red Gaur and PAD ever been prosecute for their crime).
The other question I have is why there were virtually no UDD protestors from Buriram?
There are many people from Buriram that join the UDD, I actually met some of them, however, since there are a lot of mafia in the province so its a bit dangerous to show oneself as a red from Buriram. Moreover, I even met some people from Puket, Songkla, and some other southern provinces as well, thought very rarely.
one of the poorest and considering it’s elected MP’s were key in voting for the current government have been a hotbed of UDD activity?
Maybe you should check what party is represent Buriram before you ask that question……. yeah its Bhumjaithai, not so surprise right?
Come the revolution?
LesAbbey -21
it seems like a war between two lots of Thai-Chinese businessmen, CP against the Shinawatra group
Certainly there’s some sort of conflict between the old and the new capitalist in action here, CP is one of the representatives of the old money while Shin represent the new. However, I think this conflict is far more than that.
Once a Jolly Hangman: Singapore Justice in the Dock
George Lopez
That’s STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL. Once you know you are in a grave danger. I hope you are not a resident of Singapore or Malaysia, or even Thailand. Just kidding!
As I wrote in the last part of my previous post the masterminds are now permanently basing in Singapore, unlike in the 1990s when I was unfortunately involved in the shady transactions between Burmese and Israels. Singapore has given citizenship to thousands and thousands of Burmese since early 2000.
(You have to read NM’s The Scourge of Burma – Part 6 to understand.)
http://www.newmandala.org/2010/03/24/the-scourge-of-burma-part-6/
But only the money goes through Singapore, the wheeling dealing central of SE Asia. Weapons used to come through Singapore but the drugs always come and go through other ports where corruption is widespread and govt officials can easily be bought.
Only Singapore can handle large transactions involving tens or even hundreds of millions of US$ between Burmese Suppliers and their customers in the West.
Once a Jolly Hangman: Singapore Justice in the Dock
Hi there Hla Oo,
The news link you posted, says:
“Officers found the heroin – the largest seizure of its kind since 2002 when about 380kg of heroin was discovered in Brisbane hidden in packaged noodles – in a shipping container of house doors sent from Malaysia to Sydney.”
That the Malaysian government and its agencies are corrupt is well established.
How is this linked to Singapore?
Review of Nattawut Saikua biography
“…wit and rhetorical flourish…”? Are you serious?
Translating an article is one thing, but did you guys ever actually *watch* any of these rabid speeches?
It will be interesting to see what kind of content New Mandala publishes when PTP get their next turn at ripping off the system. I’m predicting a sudden switch into apologist mode.
Come the revolution?
Nganadeeleg:
The point is that the grassroots credentials of both the PAD and the UDD are extremely dubious. They are both being funded and manipulated by business interests of one kind or another.
Priority number one
“The police chief [Police General Wichean Potephosree] warned that those trying to challenge and abuse the monarchy would face the full wrath of the police force. He also said he took the issue seriously on a personal level.”
*sigh*
Review of Nattawut Saikua biography
Vichai (#24): I’ve seen a version of that anecdote about Nattawut and the 100 million baht elsewhere, as well.
It’s a bit too neat for my taste. And it isn’t just a matter of whether Bangkok Dan is telling the truth or not, it’s a matter of believing every link in the chain is honest about it.
I think you have to assume the story is apocryphal.
It would not be so hard to check, if one seriously wanted to. Bangkok Dan claims to be able to trace it to its source — surely he can easily find out the name of Nattawut’s ‘former teacher.’ If that is impossible, there is every reason to assume the story is an urban legend. The burden to prove it is on those who believe it.
>“The other day I met Ajahn A., a good friend, strictly in the middle of the mess, who knows a former teacher of Nattawut. So this teacher, himself unsure whom to believe, asked Nattawut why he’s doing all this. Said Nattawut: ‘Have you ever felt the power of ten million baht in your hand?’ “
BangkokDan on May 13th, 2010 8:48 am – http://absolutelybangkok.com/a-real-ultimatum-really/
Come the revolution?
I have wondered how many of the UDD protestors, particularly the Red Shirt Guards and people that took to the streets outside the protest site barricades to attack the Army with grenades, homemade rocket launchers, and petrol bombs have fathers or grandfathers that belong to the Red Gaur or Village Scouts in 1976?
The other question I have is why there were virtually no UDD protestors from Buriram? If indeed this was a movement demanding democratic representation with a social demand against the “Bangkok Elites” wouldn’t that province, one of the poorest and considering it’s elected MP’s were key in voting for the current government have been a hotbed of UDD activity?
The UDD is not an ideological organization and those that try to make it out to be one, such as the subject article, are sadly mistaken about what this is about. The UDD is the action arm of the political party whose sole existence is to regain a majority in Parliament and allow Thaksin to return to Thailand. Read their platforms and listen to the rally speeches. Little of what the western left wing and socialist try to put into it is actually there
Priority number one
“The fact that the Royal Family are firmly behind one unscrupulous power clique has given members of that clique … license to commit any crime they like with impunity. ”
Observant analysis contradicts the suggestion that the Royal Family is monolithic and united behind one clique. One of the most salient and thus censored sub-plots of the reign’s endgame is the factionalism within the family. Sibling A, Sibling B, Spouse X, Spouse Y. And the cliques themselves are dynamic, divided, and fuzzily-bordered.
“The Royal Family almost certainly had enough political capital to have saved the country…”
The theoretical, constructive application of the family’s political capital presumes the same unity and flexibility which the best-researched sources (Handley, Streckfuss, etc) don’t find evidence for. Not to say they couldn’t have done better, but presumption and reduction aren’t going to lead the way forward to open-mindedness.
Review of Nattawut Saikua biography
Jim Taylor – 26
less ideological (softer, but no less insidious) form of fascism
Jim seeing that you are making up your own definition and conditions for fascism, (which is OK as making up new language is such childish fun), could you tell me how many of your conditions the Thaksin government did not also fit. You can give it as a percentage if you like.
I have to say these are the strangest fascists I have seen. Have you any links to other groups or political parties that consider Thailand is under a fascist regime? Anyone else on New Mandala think that the Abhisit government is fascist?
In the British left it seems to be considered that the argument is lost by the first person to throw in the word fascist. Seems about right to me.
By the way it should be pointed out that Jim’s take on the Spanish Falange comparing it to the current Thai political landscape doesn’t really work if you look too closely at what they actually stood for and where they came from. It’s as easy to find similarities with Thaksin and his supporters as it is with royalists in the PAD, remembering of course that the Falange was not particularly pro-royalist. It certainly proved useful to Franco as a intellectual cover for his rather anti-intellectual beliefs.
Still I guess throwing in fascist and Falange makes us all sound a bit more clever than we actually are, so that’s good isn’t it?
Review of Nattawut Saikua biography
After the court seized his money in Feb, Thaksin realized he is no longer rich. So he must have read BangkokDan’s website and came to the conclusion that he could get (10) Nathawut with 100 million baht. Why spend more ?
Review of Nattawut Saikua biography
late response to Les #9 (i’ve been away): so “why fascism”? I am not sure what Ji has in mind: I do not speak for him and vice-versa. I refer to the surrent regime and politics in Thailand as falange/or
Thai falangists (Spanish: falangistas). Thais don’t have a word for “fascist”/”fascism” and use it (rarely) as a foreign loan word (р╕ер╕▒р╕Чр╕Шр╕┤р╕Яр╕▓р╕кр╕Лр╕┤р╕кр╕Хр╣М). I take falangism from a right-wing Spanish movement imitating elements of German and Italian fascism that emerged in the early 1930s under the leadership of José Primo de Rivera in Spain. The movement was opposed to the Republican regime and supported Franco’s Nationalist coup of 1936, but only as a minor element. The elements with close affinity to the current Thai experience are: less ideological (softer, but no less insidious) form of fascism, including organic corporatism, ethnic (Thai)-based ultra-nationalism, conservative anti-democratic trade unionism, and conservative modalities of Buddhism, a dislike for separatism of any kind, anti-communism, anti-anarchism and anti-(new) capitalism where seen as outside elite networks, anti-democratic, espousing paternalistic pastoral values (communal Thai’ism), dislike of welfare-based neo-liberal economic (efficient) management (Thaksin), a union of non-competitive, traditional units seeking to maintain monopolies at any cost, maintaining privilege through nationalist syndicated consensus, and of course para-militarism (military and parastatal armed forces). Hope that ansers your concern & that you no longer have any doubts that Thailand is indeed currently controlled by unsavoury fascist forces that must be replaced by a Constitionally [1997 -not the fake 2007 version] elected government of the people…
Priority number one
The fact that the Royal Family are firmly behind one unscrupulous power clique has given members of that clique (notably in the army and the police) license to commit any crime they like with impunity. The rule of law, always weak in Thailand, is giving way again to absolutism, with all its attendant corruption and terror. If they had backed the other unscrupulous power clique, or if they change sides, things would probably be no better. The Royal Family almost certainly had enough political capital to have saved the country by truly staying above their country’s corrupt politics and promoting reconciliation, but they, and their advisors who should have known better, have failed catastrophically.