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Det er ikke nemt at følge med i politik, slet ikke i thailand
I'm a staunch Red Shirt, but I'm having some difficulty figuring out what I have to believe in order to find my place in the movement.
What I see is this. First and foremost, to be a Red Shirt I must believe there is a powerful third-hand behind every Thai event, a shadowy elite who pull the strings and, if that doesn’t work, pull the carpet right out from under your feet. And I buy that too, but I’d say this elite is about money, not about noble blood, or education, or hi-so connections. I’d say it’s about business most of all, stocks, real-estate, high-finance.
Secondly, I see that I’m expected to believe that any legal decision that goes against any Red Shirt is proof that the courts are not free, and that any examination of Red Shirt policies by the media, the courts, or parliament is undemocratic meddling. Which, to be honest, I find both simplistic and frightening.
Above all, coups, I must hate coups. I agree with that, but I’m confused at the same time. As a Red Shirt I’m expected to praise the 1932 Coup as the start of democracy in Thailand even though it was a coup, and very much an elitist one at that. Yes, it was most certainly a mile-stone in the development of modern Thailand, but was it democratic? I’d say it was typical 1930s black-shirt fascism combined with the worst sort of social engineering, and brought nationalism and intolerance to the Thai people, not just freedom and justice. At the opposite extreme, as a Red Shirt I must hate the 2006 Coup even though it was supported by just about everybody who cared about freedom in Thailand at the time, and was indeed launched to stop the deliberate trashing of the 1997 ’People’s’ Constitution - a constitution which, as a Red Shirt, I’m expected to love! I’m expected to hate the 2006 coup yet it was met by the Thai people with flowers, not burning tires and bombs like the demonstrations in 2009 and 2010. I’m expected to hate the Army yet it dissolved its government voluntarily after just a year in power. I mean, would the Red Shirts do that, or Thaksin?
And that’s where I’m confused most of all. I’m confused as to why we Red Shirts are so determined to bring back Thaksin Shinawatra, of all people, a leader with not a democratic bone in his body. "Thaksin Shinawatra will advance the cause of democracy and freedom," I must shout as a good Red Shirt, "our dear leader will bring back justice to the Thai people!" Well, from my perspective I’d say Thaksin is a bully, cruel and manipulative. I mean, this is the man who thought it would be a good idea to introduce extra-judicial killings to get rid of anybody who might possibly be dealing in drugs, and felt it was fine when 2500 dead bodies arrived at the morgue, no questions asked. Was that freedom for Thai citizens? Was that justice for those dead young people?
Humanity has been there, done that, dear Red Shirt colleagues, over and over again - Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Mao Tse Tung, Kim Jong Il, and Pol Pot, to mention just a few of the really successful ’democratic’ reformers, all of whom promised to deliver their people from the yoke of tyranny even as they killed and enslaved them, and ruined their countries.
On the other hand, as a Red Shirt I do agree that Thai society is rotten with privilege and corruption, and support any effort to bring in land-reforms that really benefit small farmers, or inheritance taxes that can cut into the feudal fortunes of the elite families like the Shinawatra’s. I also support efforts to get rid of tea money in schools, double the salaries of teachers, policemen and nurses, fire corrupt judges, politicians and bureaucrats forever with no pensions, and hand government over to the local people as soon as possible. I want experts to be made available to town councils free of charge as well, good funding for projects local people know they need and can oversee, and forums all over the country for in-depth discussions, not just for propaganda and campaigning. Yes, I want the people to be involved with everything right from the start.
But I don’t see any of that yet in the Red Shirt movement, just an awful lot of anger at Abhisit. And that confuses me as Abhisit is so willing to listen as well as to talk to us. So why aren’t we Red Shirts willing to do the same? Why do we just shout at the top of our lungs and burn things?
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