This ABC program was aired when we just had a tragic event which caused 24 dead and 800 injured. The situation was still heated and our country was in difficulty.
Your program just had to be aired right on the 13th., our Songkran New Year celebration when we hoped for a small space to breath in. You could not wait a few days for us to settle that you had to pile such comments on top of what we already had.
If you still consider yourself as one of our friends, then you are WRONG, DEAD WRONG, because you, Aussie, have no sense of decent manners [which represent your historical background].
Your moral standards bear no civilized considerations therefore give you no right to deliver anybody any meaningful comments.
We have lived through good and bad and I don’t think you have, in our history, contributed much positives
ABC you are not welcomed to our beautiful country and you do not deserve to be in our generous kingdom. I can only suggest you close down your office in Bangkok permanently.
#50 This is definitely a line of enquiry that seems worthy of being pursued still further. The institution has always been one in which the poisoners were frequently at work. Another reason why the early life was spent so much in other countries. And then there is that postwar mystery ………
The thing that always stands out for me in these squabbles, is that you really do support either side here at your peril. These factions have never really been in it for anything other than self-interest. Another good reason for distrusting the redshirts, who we know are bankrolled by one of Thailand’s major gameplayers. Indeed, perhaps Thailand’s very own version of the ‘Great Game’ in which the true inhabitants are only ever manipulated like pieces on a chessboard.
To escape the fate of always being cynically manipulated by the gameplayers, we will need to do far more than move every time we are ‘commanded’ to move.
Even from the govt-controlled tv which I watched yesterday, what I found funny was when the two police officers , who were supposed to arrest Arisman, finally sat at the same table with this guy, behind the UDD stage in Rajprasong, not at the police station !
The two poor officers were taken hostage by the reds from the hotel and taken to Rajprasong but they didn’t seem worried at all because they knew the reds always consider the police as allies. The reds know many police and their families are sympathetic to their cause.”
H0 ho ho Khaosan! So utterly amusing. That’s precisely why I will never support Thaksin and his goon squads. It’s not a matter of being their being sympathetic to the redshirt cause so much as their both being a paid-up part of the Thaksin plan to muscle in financially and politically on a weak succession. With scant regard for any of the practicalities of real democracy. Just another power-hungry faction on the make from a docile and easily-manipulated population. And I suppose we could argue that the monarchy has a real (and probably continuing) role to play in maintaining that status quo for the overprivileged – regardless of what faction they adhere to (like shit to a blanket).
‘Democracy’ has been nothing more than a hollow slogan since the early 1930s. And Yes, I DO blame the CP for his own weakness. What has he ever done to deserve his elevated position? In fact, I’m sure the weakness goes back much further. (Not that it really matters, since in the absence of a monarchy, Thailand’s overprivileged would have easily have found other instruments of repression.) There seems to be some evidence that the 1932 promoters were in many cases far more interested in their own personal future wealth and status (than in democracy) anyway. (A lot of it seems to have been ‘princes’ who were resentful of not having enough power because there were far too other ‘princes’ in line first.) it’s also worth remember that Thailand was practically run without a monarch for some years, until Sarit and others decided to use the institution for their own purposes. You might argue the monarchy has been held captive ever since by rogue military and police elements, ever since. A comfortable and profitable captivity, nevertheless. Certainly not nearly as successful as some would like us to believe, though.
If anyone here ever begins to truly address the yawning chasm between the haves and have nots, they are going to have to do a lot better than entrust that task to a goon squad which has been bankrolled by yet another corrupt policeman (with plans to become a ‘monarch’ in his own right).
Is Thaksin using the redshirts, or are they just using him? Both are probably true in some part. I’m not sure that the fine details of their treachery (to the rest of the population) really bother me that much All I know is that they are devious machiavellians who have no real policy to run this country more equitably, other than for the purposes of bringing a new elite into power. Not exactly the glorious revolution that some wannabe posters here would like to come to see to pass. Rather a revolution that is bound to fail because it is too full of contradictions.
Hopefully, Thailand will find more honest promoters of democracy eventually. There are some here who think a (deliberately engineered) civil war could trigger this process. Deluded stuff! Civil war rips a country apart in a way that we haven’t even begun to see here yet. Civil war is I suppose alright if you have the luxury of having several decades to recover afterwards. (Spain comes to mind.)
“We consider this an issue matter of national security… because the royal family, the monarchy, in our constitution is above politics.”
I asked a Thai friend who is an incurable royalist university professor whether their monarchy is above politics; she said it would be naive of her to believe so, on the contrary, she would rather see it intervene, use influence or power when need be as she believes in its virtue. Amazing, isn’t it?
Cause they don’t have LM hanging over their heads? Seriously, how can you even stand by that draconian law? Is it even humane to lock someone up for LIFE for speaking out his mind? It’s just views for Christ sakes!
How would you feel if you offended a person’s dog, and got thrown in jail for it? It COULD HAPPEN in a LM scenario, TOTALLY.
The rapid industrialization has undoubtedly raised the living standard of many rural Thais, but the gap between the rich and poor is getting wider as a result.
The children of the seemingly ignorant farmers from the country are now semi-educated workers in the city and they know how the elite minority is prospering in Bangkok and they want their fair share of the nation’s wealth.
The left-leaning attitude has been there with the Thai farmers for a very long time, but brutally suppressed by the mass slaughter of many progressive intellectuals and the leaders of earlier grass root organizations like Farmers’ Federation of Thailand in the seventies.
Now the socialist Gennie is out of the bottle and Thai elite has to allow the existence of at least a centre-left organization similar to the Australian Labor Party in their main stream politics.
So, rather than as the Thaksin’s stooges, will the red-shirts’ leadership, especially the left-leaning leaders, take the challenge and establish themselves as a mainstream political force like ALP in Australia?
Easy mate. I am an engineer. We talk only the facts not the un-proved business. If you want to talk about history we can discuss for days. Let’s face it. Non of my questions regarding this 10th April crackdown is answered. I am not saying that the Army always make the right move. In fact, the 10th April one if you consider it as military mission, it was a complete failure. How can they started the mission in the afternoon and let it stretched until dark. Believe me if the army want to get rid of the Terrorists or Ronin who shot them with M79, Maj. General Dang won’t have a chance to embarrassed the Chief of the Army and others in public like this. But if they has decided to do so, much more lost of life is inevitable. In the end, they chose to retrieve. That is why the red shirts still there especially their leaders. By the way, have you heard about the Army mission where the God Army took over Ratchaburi Hospital some years back? That was how they finish their job.
Leeyiankun sorry I took you seriously in the last comment. I didn’t realize you were a joker. Do you want to tell us all about last year’s hundreds of deaths? I thought everyone had given up on that lie.
This shows you haven’t done your homework. Before May92, it’s the university students that got massacred.
Again, Your bubble is showing.
Leeyiankun, you are quite right to correct me although I’m not sure what my bubble is. In 1976 it was students, many middle-class or well-to-do, who were massacred. One still finds a lack of radical ajarns in those that suffered though. The teachers never seem to be in the front line. Mind you this isn’t something that happens in just Thailand. I’m sure we could find it even in Australia.
If we are going back to 1976 then maybe we should remember the CPT and especially all the young peasant boys that were recruited from the Northeast. I suspect the ex-students who joined them have done better in later life than those boys. In fact haven’t some been very close to Thaksin over the last dozen years or so?
I am starting to think that the “fundamentally corrupt system set up by the father” (Aladdin, 45) was originally intended primarily as a solution to unify the military and stop it turning on itself, rather than specifically to return Thailand to absolutism. Events of the last week, notably the murder of the Colonel who was the Queen’s former bodyguard and the serious wounding of the General commanding the anti-red operation in Bangkok, suggest that the system is beginning to fail on both fronts. Anupong’s pussy footing is an attempt to keep the guerrilla warfare that has broken out within the military from escalating into a full-scale conflict. He seems to have lost the support of those itching to massacre the Reds, but he knows a massacre is something the other side will surely avenge.
If you don’t have anything good to say while our country is in turmoils, for the better of our society or for the better of our two countries’ relationships, then just mind your own past as convicts or your rough treatments to the Aborigines.
If not for His Majesty The King to stop the plantations of opium in the north, your country might still now be flooded with drugs. Because of his guide, we managed to avoid being another communist countries and many Thai could have been killed just liked in cambodia. Your country might be flooded with many more refugees. Just look at the side he has contributed to the country.
We are in difficult time. Just say somethings nice.
What make you think you are any better than us!
“pretty obvious that rich people and academics are not the ones who usually get killed. It’s the boys from provinces, both in the protesters and the army.”
This shows you haven’t done your homework. Before May92, it’s the university students that got massacred.
WHAT? do you know about this country’s history of destroying bodies? They had water trucks ready even in the failed April 10th crackdown, and they don’t even bring an ambulance! Witness from the 92 May says that thousands went missing, is it even a stretch of imagination for a couple of corpse to went poof?
DO YOUR HOMEWORK. and last year, they went in with live rounds also. It’s the same bloody unit, commanded by the same guy. Think it’s different?
Are you just gullible or is it your wishful thinking coming to the fore?
I have some questions to anyone who keep saying that those poor red-shirts got murdered from fully armed military forces. How can the Army personnel get killed from both riffle bullets and M79 grenade? If the red shirts had bare hands, who kills the armies? At least one of the army officer ranked Colonel was announced that his dead caused by M79. It was also reported that at least a few of M79 grenades were exploded close to the command centre of the Army. A few of high ranked officers including one Lt. General got seriously injured. Just so you know, M79 is a high explosive weapon with 10 m diameter of killing zone. The aiming and firing is so simple even a non-trained person can be quite an expert in a few day. So, once again who shot the M79? There are only three possibilities for this. First possibility is M79 belongs to the army and they are stupid enough to fire themselves. Secondly, it belongs to the red shirts. And third, it belongs to a black shirts or so called “Terrorists” from Deputy Prime Minister Suthep or “Ronin Armed Force” from Maj.General Kattiya (Dang). To me, if the protest was peaceful like what they claimed, the principles of crowd control in accordance with universal standards will be applied just fine. If not, plastic shield and rubber bullets may not be enough. Perhaps only having the protest looks something like this http://www.goldcoast.com.au/article/2010/04/16/208675_gold-coast-news.html (and they won also) make it hard to imagine how violence it can be.
I definitely find that the average Isarn worker these days is a lot angrier and a damn sight more aware of the reality than they were even a decade ago. This is a potential force that even Thaksin and his cronies will have trouble completely subduing.
Stuart, we will see if this comment makes it through moderation. My last didn’t seem to, so maybe you have some academic protection.
The first sentence I agree with and the second I at least hope is true. The reason for this change in attitudes from ten, twenty or thirty years ago is quite interesting. It isn’t that the average Isarn farm worker is poorer or more exploited than before. In fact it’s probably the exact opposite as the standard of living and education in the Northeast has gone up.
Some of the drudgery of agricultural work has been removed by mechanization. Who now sees rice being harvested by hand except on the very smallest fields? Industrial jobs are more plentiful for the younger generation, although usually out of the home district. TV and other media tend to form similar attitudes across a vast spectrum of the younger generation, both nationally and internationally. Ownership of vehicles has gone up by a vast amount. Most villages now have paved roads, electricity and even piped water, a real change in thirty years. OK some of what’s going on maybe financed by debt, but that’s not much different to Bangkok, the US, UK or Australia.
Who’s responsible for this change? Well it started well before Thaksin came to power under various political parties, continued both under Thaksin and after Thaksin. Will anyone be able to turn the clock back? I doubt it. Now can the red shirt movement coalesce into a Northeast regional political party, leaving the South and Bangkok to the Democrats and the central region to their old political families? So far we have seen no signs of the red shirts dumping Thaksin, so I’m not sure.
What I feel has no future with these younger, angrier and better off Northeasterners is Marxist-Leninism which I suspect many of the Bangkok ajarns, foreign academics and rich Thai students both here and overseas seem to be flirting with. Regional experience, seeing what Marxist-Leninism has bought to Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, is the biggest argument against its adoption, and probably why it hasn’t prevailed as an ideology amongst the red shirts.
Going back to my original comment on your call for more bodies, it’s still pretty obvious that rich people and academics are not the ones who usually get killed. It’s the boys from provinces, both in the protesters and the army. Still nothing changes, it’s always been that way where ever you are. Maybe it would be better if you didn’t ask for others to fill the role of martyrs. Strap the suicide jacket on yourself rather than ask them to do it.
[quote]But Thailand shouldn’t really complain : it was only shown in Australia : to ban it would have been an infringement of every Australians’ democratic right to free speech.[/quote]
What about the universal rights of all men to exercise the same right to free speech over the internet ?
I find it ironic, if not hypocritical, that an Australian TV network should run a program so highly critical of lese majeste in Thailand, while making sure that the report can’t be seen anywhere in the world except Australia.
How can you criticize the Thais for censoring the free discussion of the monarchy within Thailand and then effect the same end on a much wider scale by blocking the whole world except Australia from watching the program via the internet ?
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ABC TV on Thai politics
This ABC program was aired when we just had a tragic event which caused 24 dead and 800 injured. The situation was still heated and our country was in difficulty.
Your program just had to be aired right on the 13th., our Songkran New Year celebration when we hoped for a small space to breath in. You could not wait a few days for us to settle that you had to pile such comments on top of what we already had.
If you still consider yourself as one of our friends, then you are WRONG, DEAD WRONG, because you, Aussie, have no sense of decent manners [which represent your historical background].
Your moral standards bear no civilized considerations therefore give you no right to deliver anybody any meaningful comments.
We have lived through good and bad and I don’t think you have, in our history, contributed much positives
ABC you are not welcomed to our beautiful country and you do not deserve to be in our generous kingdom. I can only suggest you close down your office in Bangkok permanently.
ABC TV on Thai politics
#51 There are some points in his favor, undoubtedly.
But now let’s think about the future. Nice words will not deter the wolves.
Kasit – role of the monarchy may be revamped
#50 This is definitely a line of enquiry that seems worthy of being pursued still further. The institution has always been one in which the poisoners were frequently at work. Another reason why the early life was spent so much in other countries. And then there is that postwar mystery ………
The thing that always stands out for me in these squabbles, is that you really do support either side here at your peril. These factions have never really been in it for anything other than self-interest. Another good reason for distrusting the redshirts, who we know are bankrolled by one of Thailand’s major gameplayers. Indeed, perhaps Thailand’s very own version of the ‘Great Game’ in which the true inhabitants are only ever manipulated like pieces on a chessboard.
To escape the fate of always being cynically manipulated by the gameplayers, we will need to do far more than move every time we are ‘commanded’ to move.
What next?
“#27 khaosan
Even from the govt-controlled tv which I watched yesterday, what I found funny was when the two police officers , who were supposed to arrest Arisman, finally sat at the same table with this guy, behind the UDD stage in Rajprasong, not at the police station !
The two poor officers were taken hostage by the reds from the hotel and taken to Rajprasong but they didn’t seem worried at all because they knew the reds always consider the police as allies. The reds know many police and their families are sympathetic to their cause.”
H0 ho ho Khaosan! So utterly amusing. That’s precisely why I will never support Thaksin and his goon squads. It’s not a matter of being their being sympathetic to the redshirt cause so much as their both being a paid-up part of the Thaksin plan to muscle in financially and politically on a weak succession. With scant regard for any of the practicalities of real democracy. Just another power-hungry faction on the make from a docile and easily-manipulated population. And I suppose we could argue that the monarchy has a real (and probably continuing) role to play in maintaining that status quo for the overprivileged – regardless of what faction they adhere to (like shit to a blanket).
‘Democracy’ has been nothing more than a hollow slogan since the early 1930s. And Yes, I DO blame the CP for his own weakness. What has he ever done to deserve his elevated position? In fact, I’m sure the weakness goes back much further. (Not that it really matters, since in the absence of a monarchy, Thailand’s overprivileged would have easily have found other instruments of repression.) There seems to be some evidence that the 1932 promoters were in many cases far more interested in their own personal future wealth and status (than in democracy) anyway. (A lot of it seems to have been ‘princes’ who were resentful of not having enough power because there were far too other ‘princes’ in line first.) it’s also worth remember that Thailand was practically run without a monarch for some years, until Sarit and others decided to use the institution for their own purposes. You might argue the monarchy has been held captive ever since by rogue military and police elements, ever since. A comfortable and profitable captivity, nevertheless. Certainly not nearly as successful as some would like us to believe, though.
If anyone here ever begins to truly address the yawning chasm between the haves and have nots, they are going to have to do a lot better than entrust that task to a goon squad which has been bankrolled by yet another corrupt policeman (with plans to become a ‘monarch’ in his own right).
Is Thaksin using the redshirts, or are they just using him? Both are probably true in some part. I’m not sure that the fine details of their treachery (to the rest of the population) really bother me that much All I know is that they are devious machiavellians who have no real policy to run this country more equitably, other than for the purposes of bringing a new elite into power. Not exactly the glorious revolution that some wannabe posters here would like to come to see to pass. Rather a revolution that is bound to fail because it is too full of contradictions.
Hopefully, Thailand will find more honest promoters of democracy eventually. There are some here who think a (deliberately engineered) civil war could trigger this process. Deluded stuff! Civil war rips a country apart in a way that we haven’t even begun to see here yet. Civil war is I suppose alright if you have the luxury of having several decades to recover afterwards. (Spain comes to mind.)
Statement by students and academics at ANU
Thai newspaper Matichon published article (in Thai only) about censorship – perhaps someone can translate some points.
The Embassy and the ABC
“We consider this an issue matter of national security… because the royal family, the monarchy, in our constitution is above politics.”
I asked a Thai friend who is an incurable royalist university professor whether their monarchy is above politics; she said it would be naive of her to believe so, on the contrary, she would rather see it intervene, use influence or power when need be as she believes in its virtue. Amazing, isn’t it?
The Embassy and the ABC
Lek, BBC doesn’t broadcast it’s shows and radios on the net anymore as well. I think ABC just follows their policy.
ABC TV on Thai politics
“What make you think you are any better than us!”
Cause they don’t have LM hanging over their heads? Seriously, how can you even stand by that draconian law? Is it even humane to lock someone up for LIFE for speaking out his mind? It’s just views for Christ sakes!
How would you feel if you offended a person’s dog, and got thrown in jail for it? It COULD HAPPEN in a LM scenario, TOTALLY.
Statement by students and academics at ANU
The rapid industrialization has undoubtedly raised the living standard of many rural Thais, but the gap between the rich and poor is getting wider as a result.
The children of the seemingly ignorant farmers from the country are now semi-educated workers in the city and they know how the elite minority is prospering in Bangkok and they want their fair share of the nation’s wealth.
The left-leaning attitude has been there with the Thai farmers for a very long time, but brutally suppressed by the mass slaughter of many progressive intellectuals and the leaders of earlier grass root organizations like Farmers’ Federation of Thailand in the seventies.
Now the socialist Gennie is out of the bottle and Thai elite has to allow the existence of at least a centre-left organization similar to the Australian Labor Party in their main stream politics.
So, rather than as the Thaksin’s stooges, will the red-shirts’ leadership, especially the left-leaning leaders, take the challenge and establish themselves as a mainstream political force like ALP in Australia?
Statement by students and academics at ANU
Easy mate. I am an engineer. We talk only the facts not the un-proved business. If you want to talk about history we can discuss for days. Let’s face it. Non of my questions regarding this 10th April crackdown is answered. I am not saying that the Army always make the right move. In fact, the 10th April one if you consider it as military mission, it was a complete failure. How can they started the mission in the afternoon and let it stretched until dark. Believe me if the army want to get rid of the Terrorists or Ronin who shot them with M79, Maj. General Dang won’t have a chance to embarrassed the Chief of the Army and others in public like this. But if they has decided to do so, much more lost of life is inevitable. In the end, they chose to retrieve. That is why the red shirts still there especially their leaders. By the way, have you heard about the Army mission where the God Army took over Ratchaburi Hospital some years back? That was how they finish their job.
Statement by students and academics at ANU
Les, “last year’s imaginary ones.”?
Leeyiankun sorry I took you seriously in the last comment. I didn’t realize you were a joker. Do you want to tell us all about last year’s hundreds of deaths? I thought everyone had given up on that lie.
Statement by students and academics at ANU
This shows you haven’t done your homework. Before May92, it’s the university students that got massacred.
Again, Your bubble is showing.
Leeyiankun, you are quite right to correct me although I’m not sure what my bubble is. In 1976 it was students, many middle-class or well-to-do, who were massacred. One still finds a lack of radical ajarns in those that suffered though. The teachers never seem to be in the front line. Mind you this isn’t something that happens in just Thailand. I’m sure we could find it even in Australia.
If we are going back to 1976 then maybe we should remember the CPT and especially all the young peasant boys that were recruited from the Northeast. I suspect the ex-students who joined them have done better in later life than those boys. In fact haven’t some been very close to Thaksin over the last dozen years or so?
Kasit – role of the monarchy may be revamped
I am starting to think that the “fundamentally corrupt system set up by the father” (Aladdin, 45) was originally intended primarily as a solution to unify the military and stop it turning on itself, rather than specifically to return Thailand to absolutism. Events of the last week, notably the murder of the Colonel who was the Queen’s former bodyguard and the serious wounding of the General commanding the anti-red operation in Bangkok, suggest that the system is beginning to fail on both fronts. Anupong’s pussy footing is an attempt to keep the guerrilla warfare that has broken out within the military from escalating into a full-scale conflict. He seems to have lost the support of those itching to massacre the Reds, but he knows a massacre is something the other side will surely avenge.
ABC TV on Thai politics
If you don’t have anything good to say while our country is in turmoils, for the better of our society or for the better of our two countries’ relationships, then just mind your own past as convicts or your rough treatments to the Aborigines.
If not for His Majesty The King to stop the plantations of opium in the north, your country might still now be flooded with drugs. Because of his guide, we managed to avoid being another communist countries and many Thai could have been killed just liked in cambodia. Your country might be flooded with many more refugees. Just look at the side he has contributed to the country.
We are in difficult time. Just say somethings nice.
What make you think you are any better than us!
The Embassy and the ABC
Lek: Has to do with copyrights I would guess.
But it’s possible to download, seen links to it from Bangkok Pundit’s comments, I think.
Statement by students and academics at ANU
“pretty obvious that rich people and academics are not the ones who usually get killed. It’s the boys from provinces, both in the protesters and the army.”
This shows you haven’t done your homework. Before May92, it’s the university students that got massacred.
Again, Your bubble is showing.
Statement by students and academics at ANU
Les, “last year’s imaginary ones.”?
WHAT? do you know about this country’s history of destroying bodies? They had water trucks ready even in the failed April 10th crackdown, and they don’t even bring an ambulance! Witness from the 92 May says that thousands went missing, is it even a stretch of imagination for a couple of corpse to went poof?
DO YOUR HOMEWORK. and last year, they went in with live rounds also. It’s the same bloody unit, commanded by the same guy. Think it’s different?
Are you just gullible or is it your wishful thinking coming to the fore?
Statement by students and academics at ANU
I have some questions to anyone who keep saying that those poor red-shirts got murdered from fully armed military forces. How can the Army personnel get killed from both riffle bullets and M79 grenade? If the red shirts had bare hands, who kills the armies? At least one of the army officer ranked Colonel was announced that his dead caused by M79. It was also reported that at least a few of M79 grenades were exploded close to the command centre of the Army. A few of high ranked officers including one Lt. General got seriously injured. Just so you know, M79 is a high explosive weapon with 10 m diameter of killing zone. The aiming and firing is so simple even a non-trained person can be quite an expert in a few day. So, once again who shot the M79? There are only three possibilities for this. First possibility is M79 belongs to the army and they are stupid enough to fire themselves. Secondly, it belongs to the red shirts. And third, it belongs to a black shirts or so called “Terrorists” from Deputy Prime Minister Suthep or “Ronin Armed Force” from Maj.General Kattiya (Dang). To me, if the protest was peaceful like what they claimed, the principles of crowd control in accordance with universal standards will be applied just fine. If not, plastic shield and rubber bullets may not be enough. Perhaps only having the protest looks something like this http://www.goldcoast.com.au/article/2010/04/16/208675_gold-coast-news.html (and they won also) make it hard to imagine how violence it can be.
Statement by students and academics at ANU
I definitely find that the average Isarn worker these days is a lot angrier and a damn sight more aware of the reality than they were even a decade ago. This is a potential force that even Thaksin and his cronies will have trouble completely subduing.
Stuart, we will see if this comment makes it through moderation. My last didn’t seem to, so maybe you have some academic protection.
The first sentence I agree with and the second I at least hope is true. The reason for this change in attitudes from ten, twenty or thirty years ago is quite interesting. It isn’t that the average Isarn farm worker is poorer or more exploited than before. In fact it’s probably the exact opposite as the standard of living and education in the Northeast has gone up.
Some of the drudgery of agricultural work has been removed by mechanization. Who now sees rice being harvested by hand except on the very smallest fields? Industrial jobs are more plentiful for the younger generation, although usually out of the home district. TV and other media tend to form similar attitudes across a vast spectrum of the younger generation, both nationally and internationally. Ownership of vehicles has gone up by a vast amount. Most villages now have paved roads, electricity and even piped water, a real change in thirty years. OK some of what’s going on maybe financed by debt, but that’s not much different to Bangkok, the US, UK or Australia.
Who’s responsible for this change? Well it started well before Thaksin came to power under various political parties, continued both under Thaksin and after Thaksin. Will anyone be able to turn the clock back? I doubt it. Now can the red shirt movement coalesce into a Northeast regional political party, leaving the South and Bangkok to the Democrats and the central region to their old political families? So far we have seen no signs of the red shirts dumping Thaksin, so I’m not sure.
What I feel has no future with these younger, angrier and better off Northeasterners is Marxist-Leninism which I suspect many of the Bangkok ajarns, foreign academics and rich Thai students both here and overseas seem to be flirting with. Regional experience, seeing what Marxist-Leninism has bought to Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, is the biggest argument against its adoption, and probably why it hasn’t prevailed as an ideology amongst the red shirts.
Going back to my original comment on your call for more bodies, it’s still pretty obvious that rich people and academics are not the ones who usually get killed. It’s the boys from provinces, both in the protesters and the army. Still nothing changes, it’s always been that way where ever you are. Maybe it would be better if you didn’t ask for others to fill the role of martyrs. Strap the suicide jacket on yourself rather than ask them to do it.
The Embassy and the ABC
[quote]But Thailand shouldn’t really complain : it was only shown in Australia : to ban it would have been an infringement of every Australians’ democratic right to free speech.[/quote]
What about the universal rights of all men to exercise the same right to free speech over the internet ?
I find it ironic, if not hypocritical, that an Australian TV network should run a program so highly critical of lese majeste in Thailand, while making sure that the report can’t be seen anywhere in the world except Australia.
How can you criticize the Thais for censoring the free discussion of the monarchy within Thailand and then effect the same end on a much wider scale by blocking the whole world except Australia from watching the program via the internet ?