A Good Start for the Future of LOS

[TotallyOz]

A good start to the Elite vs Poor issues that were the cause of the past months would be for the current government that has been appointed by those in power to actually take advantage of the time they have before a new government is actually elected by the people. They have a rare opportunity to step up to the plate and show the country that they do care for those that don't have the massive amounts of money. My suggestions are below. Any others?

 

1. I think the elderly get 500 baht per month. I would suggest raising this number. How about raising it to an actual amount that one could live on realistically?

 

2. Give the rice farmers an increase in the subsidies they are paid.

 

3. Take some of the land the government has seized or taken control of in the north and give it to the people by lottery.

 

4. Ensure that every student can afford to go to school as long as they have the grades and the desire.

 

5. Raise the minimum wage.

[Guest lvdkeyes]

Reimburse the small independent business owners for their losses during this mess.

[PattayaMale]

What GT posted seems like a good idea. But what if there was another reason for the protest? The idea is still good, but I'd like to share this LONG post that came from Thaivisa. It may provoke some good debate.

 

The following are two excerpts form an article in the AsiaTimesonlone.com

 

Quote

 

Fog of war

The government has said it aims to separate ''terrorists'' from the ordinary protesters, while some red shirts have thanked the anonymous black-clad assailants for coming to their defense against state security forces. Therdpoum, a former member of parliament under Thaksin's original Thai Rak Thai party, says there has been obfuscation and propaganda on both sides of the conflict.

 

"The people who are the real planners, not the people up on stage making protest speeches, these people probably keep a very low profile, but they must calculate that aggression is vital," he said. "Aggression paralyzes and divides opponents. This is what we were taught, this is how a smaller force can defeat overwhelming power. The message was: divide and conquer."

 

Whether the UDD's shadowy armed wing consists of mafia thugs, unemployed irregulars or disaffected regular soldiers, they must be capable of ruthless and focused violence, he said.

 

Therdpoum, born in humble circumstances in northeastern Thailand, was a hotel union organizer who fled to the communist underground in 1975 to oppose a brutal right wing government. Many hundreds of the country's most energetic students and intellectuals did the same. Most, like Therdpoum, later renounced the ideology.

 

His five-year odyssey with the Communist Party of Thailand (CPT) included a three-month period in Hanoi in the heady period following the unification of Vietnam under communist rule. There, Therdpoum and a handful of hand-picked Thai activists, like prominent student leader Seksan Prasertkun, as well as current UDD leaders Weng Tochirakan and Jaran Dittapichai, were drilled in Maoist revolutionary theory.

 

The five tactics they learned for unseating a government included: divide your enemies; form a united front; use provocative violence; secure the loyalty of people inside the ruling regime; and, finally, win over the army.

 

"That is what we have seen. The government people have been quarrelling about what to do. Some senior figures have a divided loyalty. The army and the police cannot move. Provocative violence has been very successful," said Therdpoum, referring to the UDD's campaign to topple Abhisit's government.

 

"The tactic is to keep saying that you are a peace-loving people. The many factions folded into the united front [uDD] organization are not told what the real strategy is because they might not agree and they might not act their part convincingly," he added.

 

A generation ago, the eager young communists in Thailand's underground movement, many of whom now play major roles on Thailand's political stage, were told that propaganda should be blunt, simple and repeated incessantly to be effective. The UDD has similarly shunned hard policy debates in favor of simple credos of justice denied and the hypocrisy of elites.

 

"The red shirt people have been told over and over that greedy people in authority have denied them justice and their fair share. They have been pumped full of toy-town leftism and told to hate every institution that has held this country together. I worry that the bitterness and hatred produced by this propaganda now runs so deep it will cause tension and problems for a long time," Therdpoum said.

 

"Many of them are now absolutely convinced that Thaksin was the best leader in Thai history, that he was a kind and generous man who holds the solution to all their problems. They don't need a program - they just need a new Thai state with Thaksin in charge. It has become very emotional - as it was designed to be," he added.

 

Unquote

 

Quote

 

Ignorance over knowledge

Other observers believe that the anti-Thaksin, yellow-garbed People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) protest group that occupied Government House for several weeks and closed down Bangkok's airports for 10 days in 2008 helped to show the UDD how effective determined and prolonged protests could be. To be sure, there were violent moments during the PAD's many protests, launched first to remove Thaksin and later his proxy governments, but not to the extent of the current shadowy campaign of bombings and shootings.

 

The red shirts consist of many passive supporters, many active ones and, now, a hand-picked core of "professional revolutionaries" chosen for their loyalty and street smarts, according to Therdpoum. Behind them are many "deep secrets and hidden messages" that are revealed to only a privileged few in the movement, while an even smaller number know the entire strategy, he claimed.

 

"Old communists know that when it comes to revolution, ignorance is much more powerful than knowledge," Therdpoum said.

 

It is thus ironic that more former communists are currently on side with the royalist PAD than the supposedly pro-poor UDD, which is simultaneously striving to restore the billionaire Thaksin's wealth and power. So, too, is the fact that while the UDD has called with revolutionary zeal for a new political order, the Thaksin-aligned Puea Thai party that will contest the next elections is packed with old-style and corruption-tainted patronage politicians.

 

Therdpoum believes that the UDD's sincere left-wing members are using Thaksin and anticipate the opportunity to eventually dump his personal agenda in favor of the establishment of a more socialist society. Some of the former communists who took up arms and fled into the jungle in the 1970s and 1980s and were once in Thaksin's inner circle include Prommin Lertsuridej, Phumtham Wechayachai, Sutham Saengprathum, Phinit Jarusombat, Adisorn Piangket and Kriangkamon Laohapairot.

 

Its unclear how many of those former communists are now active from behind-the-scenes in the UDD's planning and strategy. Some media have recently published photographs of the UDD's three main stage leaders, Veera Musigapong, Natthawut Saikua and Jatuporn Prompan, with the exiled Thaksin in what appear to be planning sessions leading up to the current protests. It is debatable, however, how much real power they wield over broad strategy and tactics; Therdpoum, for one, discounts them as "showmen".

 

UDD organizer Jaran Dittapichai told this correspondent that the protest group had adopted "Mao Zedong's method of thinking" and some of his techniques, including the establishment of a united front. "I was a communist and several leaders were former communists ... but the red shirt people don't like communism or socialism. We use his principles to build up our front and to work with people who are not red shirts, but who are fighting for democracy like us."

 

He, like other UDD leaders, has consistently denied that the group is behind the mysterious bombing campaign that has coincided with its protest activities. "There is no third hand. There is only the first hand and the second hand ... the government side and our people," Jaran said.

 

"Before we started we discussed the [potential] problem of the third hand and who they might be. We were worried that someone might throw a bomb at us or shoot at us. We still have good luck - no one comes to throw a bomb [at us]."

Unquote

 

 

This says it all really. Thaksin was basically financing a communist-led revolution. Now we know why the red shirts chose red as their colour.

 

I think the news coming out now provides overwhelming evidence of a very serious communist plot to overthrow the monarchy and the state as it is today and to turn Thailand into a communist state. Thaksin and his baggage would probably have been dumped.

 

Given the mounting evidence, Thaksin and the red shirt leaders should deserve the death sentence for their actions. The probable outcome is very likely to be life sentences, given the current government's ideas on capital punishment.

 

Let the flames from pro-red contributors begin!!! Your responses will be seen for what they are. Given all the evidence to the contrary, they will seem to be defending the indefensible."

[Guest]

Reimburse the small independent business owners for their losses during this mess.

 

I agree. The Government should help out these business owners.

 

 

PattayaMale, thanks for the articles. A little way down the article I put my waders on as I didn't want to step into a pile of horseshit.

[Guest]

Reimburse the small independent business owners for their losses during this mess.

 

Here's an idea. Maybe they could take the money they seized from the former PM and disperse it to the people? Better that than to line the pockets of those who seized it in the first place.

[Guest fountainhall]

Maybe they could take the money they seized from the former PM and disperse it to the people?

Good idea - but wouldn't help much, as I reckon it would give each man, woman and child in the country only about Bt. 750. Yet, you first have the problem of distribution channels. With corruption rampant throughout society, civil servants, village committees, village heads etc, would all need their cuts. How much might be left for the poor? Precious little, alas!

 

Another way to look at it is that much of the confiscated loot should have gone to the 'people' in taxes - but then Thaksin changed that law so he paid nothing!

[KhorTose]

 

PattayaMale, thanks for the articles. A little way down the article I put my waders on as I didn't want to step into a pile of horseshit.

 

I could not agree more.

Why present evidence when all you need in innuendo. Joseph McCarthy would be proud of this Thai Visa article.

[Guest cdnmatt]

Here's something I posted on another forum:

 

I don't know... after living up here for a good while, I don't have as much sympathy for the red-shirt movement as I once did. I think the image they try to portray to the outside world is a little exaggerated, to say the least. Sure, there's quite a few poor people around, but it's hardly some desolute area filled with starving babies.

 

I live in KK city though, and have only spent time in two villages, so maybe I just have to get out more. From what I've seen though, everyone seems just fine to me. I see FAR more nice, new $35,000 trucks than I do old, beat-up clunkers. Even in the villages, there's some pretty nice houses and vehicles around. Sure, some of them are poor, but everyone seems happy, and definitely nobody is going hungry. Everyone seems to have a motorbike, and they don't see too worried about the price of petrol, because they'd all prefer to drive 50 feet instead of walk. They also seem to have quite a bit of money for their sound systems, that's for sure.

 

I remember before moving to KK, I was expected this run down, poverty stricken place, and it's nothing like that at all. I'd almost say people in Budapest and Bucharest have it harder than most folk up here. Well, maybe that's a bit of a stretch, but nonetheless...