Thailand has been in the news. If you haven't been following, go check out nytimes.com (either yesterday's article or today's article)or your other preferred news source. Yahoo has a large slideshow of 178 photos of the crackdown here. And for a more local perspective you could try Thailand's English language newspapers: The Nation and The Bangkok Post.
There have been massive protests, and a military crackdown in response, right in the heart of Bangkok, just a couple blocks a way from where I was staying all of a week ago. Thankfully the protesters are beginning to disperse, and for now there is a calm. But nothing has been ultimately resolved. I'm sure my parents are happy that I am now safely in Beijing, but personally I would love to have been in Bangkok to have had the chance to experience the commotion first hand.
I thought I would take a moment and explain a little about what is going on right now in Thailand, since my impression is most people back at home don't follow Thai politics in the slightest.
The man who stands at the center of this turmoil is named Thaksin Shinawatra. Thaksin made billions as an entrepreneur in the Thai telecom industry, and ascended to the office of Prime Minister in 2001 but was ousted in 2006 by a bloodless coup. Since then he has lived in self-imposed exile outside of Thailand. The people of Thailand are extremely divided in how they view Thaksin. People either revere him a compitent can-do leader who is prepared to challenge the status quo and promote the progress of Thailand's development, or they view him as a crook, a corrupt populist who uses hand outs to buy the support of poor farmers while pocketing much of the rest of the wealth that would otherwise be reinvested into Thailand.
On our trip, after spending a few days in Bangkok we went up to Chiang Mai, one of the largest towns in the north of Thailand. The North is much more rural than Bangkok and the South, and is characterized by a different set of regional priorities than the rest of the country. Thaksin was born in Chiang Mai, and in fact he was the first Prime Minsiter ever to have come from anywhere else than Bangkok. When he ascended power, many of his policies were directed at benefiting the North. In some of the bamboo villages we stayed at there were solar panels there, which Thaksin's regime had provdied. Many of the roads we drove on through the rural areas had been built while Thaksin was in power. Thaksin had a number of other popular programs, including a program called "One Village One Trade," underwhich villages were encouraged to specialize and therefore become competitive--it was essentially a government sponsored microfinance program. He also had a universal healthcare system (though it is unclear how this was funded; I have heard that he was going to pay for the program out of his own pocket).
It is easy to see why so many people, especially from the North, would like him. On a Sunday morning several weeks ago we were driving out of Chiang Mai toward some smaller villages up in the hills, and at one point as we were driving we saw truck after truck after truck of people wearing red t-shirts and carrying red flags. They were Thaksin supporters, and they were going to a rally in Chiang Mai where Thaksin would be speaking via sattelite broadcast.
We had two tour guides with us, one named Hey and one named Wit. For the first part of our drive to the villages, Mr. Hey was in my van. We asked him all sorts of questions, about his family and his job, about the economy of Thailand. Then we asked him about Thaksin. Mr. Hey loves Thaksin. He listed off five reasons on his hand why he loved him, mostly citing the programs I just mentioned, plus the fact that Thaksin drastically lowered the volume of drug trade taking place in Thailand.
We were all very impressed. Then, after a rest stop we got back into the vans and Mr. Hey went into a different van. Mr. Wit was now driving with us. "What do you think of Thaksin?" we asked. He laughed. "I don't like him. He is a criminal." We played surprised. We asked what he thought about all of Thaksin's good programs. "Hmm... Maybe Thaksin take one million from the people, and then he spend 100,000 on some program so people like him, and he keep the rest." Oh, we responded. But what about the drug trade. Hadn't Thaksin done so well against the drug traders? "That's because he kill them," Wit said, "He tell the policemen: you think someone is dealing drugs, you shoot him. Simple. Criminal."
The feelings of our two tour guides were night and day different. The funny thing is, the Thai people know that their opinion could likely be sharply different from that of their neighbor. It gives the country an interesting dynamic when people disagree with each other so deeply yet still want to be friends with each other and do business with each other.
After the red-shirted protesters had their rally in Chiang Mai, many of them continued southward to Bangkok. A week and a half later, when we came back to Bangkok after our trip through Burma, we could here protests going on from our hotel. Some of my friends actually made it out to see it. My current roommate, Ben Blink, was given a red t-shirt and arm band at the rally. The irony is that three years ago when the last Carleton group came through Bangkok there were rallies going on then as well and the students when to check them out, except then the rallies were being held by the yellow-shirts, and the students were given yellow t-shirts and head-bands to wear.
Yellow is the color of the King, who is greatly revered throughout all of Thailand. And while the King himself choses no side in this fray, the anti-Thaksin protesters wear yellow shirts to indicate their support of the government, and of the military. After Thaksin was thrown out in 2006, his party was disassebled and new political coalitions had to form. However, many people felt that the party that eventually came into power was really just a reconfiguration of Thaksin's old party, and though Thaksin was abroad he was nonetheless secretly pulling the strings behind Thai politics. Those who disliked Thaksin and supported the government, the yellow-shirts held massive protests, which you will remember from a year ago: they shut down the airport for weeks, disrupting business and destroying the tourism industry. Eventually they succeeded, that the reportedly pro-Thaksin prime minister was forced to step down. Abhisit Vejjajiva, the current prime minister, took his place.
But if it worked once, maybe it can work again. That's what the red-shirts are thinking, and that's why they have been protesting on such an enormous scale these past couple weeks. The red-shirts are hoping to oust Abhisit Vejjajiva just like the yellow-shirts ousted the prime minsiter before him. And round and round we go. They say Thailand has always been Southeast Asia's greatest hope as the nation with the greatest potential to lead the way towards a free and functioning democracy. I still believe it is possible. But that is not what Thailand is right now. Thailand is ruled by the mobs.
We had two tour guides with us, one named Hey and one named Wit. For the first part of our drive to the villages, Mr. Hey was in my van. We asked him all sorts of questions, about his family and his job, about the economy of Thailand. Then we asked him about Thaksin. Mr. Hey loves Thaksin. He listed off five reasons on his hand why he loved him, mostly citing the programs I just mentioned, plus the fact that Thaksin drastically lowered the volume of drug trade taking place in Thailand.
We were all very impressed. Then, after a rest stop we got back into the vans and Mr. Hey went into a different van. Mr. Wit was now driving with us. "What do you think of Thaksin?" we asked. He laughed. "I don't like him. He is a criminal." We played surprised. We asked what he thought about all of Thaksin's good programs. "Hmm... Maybe Thaksin take one million from the people, and then he spend 100,000 on some program so people like him, and he keep the rest." Oh, we responded. But what about the drug trade. Hadn't Thaksin done so well against the drug traders? "That's because he kill them," Wit said, "He tell the policemen: you think someone is dealing drugs, you shoot him. Simple. Criminal."
The feelings of our two tour guides were night and day different. The funny thing is, the Thai people know that their opinion could likely be sharply different from that of their neighbor. It gives the country an interesting dynamic when people disagree with each other so deeply yet still want to be friends with each other and do business with each other.
After the red-shirted protesters had their rally in Chiang Mai, many of them continued southward to Bangkok. A week and a half later, when we came back to Bangkok after our trip through Burma, we could here protests going on from our hotel. Some of my friends actually made it out to see it. My current roommate, Ben Blink, was given a red t-shirt and arm band at the rally. The irony is that three years ago when the last Carleton group came through Bangkok there were rallies going on then as well and the students when to check them out, except then the rallies were being held by the yellow-shirts, and the students were given yellow t-shirts and head-bands to wear.
Yellow is the color of the King, who is greatly revered throughout all of Thailand. And while the King himself choses no side in this fray, the anti-Thaksin protesters wear yellow shirts to indicate their support of the government, and of the military. After Thaksin was thrown out in 2006, his party was disassebled and new political coalitions had to form. However, many people felt that the party that eventually came into power was really just a reconfiguration of Thaksin's old party, and though Thaksin was abroad he was nonetheless secretly pulling the strings behind Thai politics. Those who disliked Thaksin and supported the government, the yellow-shirts held massive protests, which you will remember from a year ago: they shut down the airport for weeks, disrupting business and destroying the tourism industry. Eventually they succeeded, that the reportedly pro-Thaksin prime minister was forced to step down. Abhisit Vejjajiva, the current prime minister, took his place.
But if it worked once, maybe it can work again. That's what the red-shirts are thinking, and that's why they have been protesting on such an enormous scale these past couple weeks. The red-shirts are hoping to oust Abhisit Vejjajiva just like the yellow-shirts ousted the prime minsiter before him. And round and round we go. They say Thailand has always been Southeast Asia's greatest hope as the nation with the greatest potential to lead the way towards a free and functioning democracy. I still believe it is possible. But that is not what Thailand is right now. Thailand is ruled by the mobs.
1 comment:
Chase... you have, by far, the most educational blog I've ever read :) ~Rachel
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