Some burning questions and opinions

OK, this is wearing me out. Fortunately this phase of things seems to be winding down, though we’re still under curfew. Last night it was 8PM – 6AM. Tonight it’s 9 to 5, swing shift working hours. Goes through Saturday night, so there goes my weekend jazzing, since Brown Sugar (Friday nights) has only just now been liberated from Reddie’s territory, 6 weeks of occupation.

Since it’s wearing me out, and I’m probably wearing you out, I’m just going to make a few observations, try to bring in anything I might have previously promised to deal with, and give you a few links you might want to follow, if you’re that into it. I don’t expect most of you to be, after all, this isn’t your country, and you aren’t experiencing any of the direct effects of this. But what a fascinating history lesson!

I’m sure you’ve seen at least a picture or two of the City On Fire. That is very real, and the scars will last a long time. And I think arson will be part of the protest landscape of the future for some time to come, just not on such a grand scale. I’m not putting any pictures in here because I think they’ve been done just about to death.

I think these events of the last 2+ months are all part of a larger design. This is as close as I’ve come to being a “conspiracy theorist,” but as each part unfolds I see a little more of a grand scheme, and I’m sure it’s getting boring hearing who I think is behind this. But just think back to those 3-foot-tall words, English only, above the protest stage:

PEACEFUL PROTESTERS
NOT TERRORISTS!

This could only be designed to be read and distributed by the world press. I’m going to give you a link, now, but first I’m going to quote from the linked material:

When you watch a red shirt rally, notice how many English signs and placards there are, and note that they are designed to show that these are events conforming to the archetype. The placards say "Democracy", "No Violence," "Stop killing innocent women and children" and so on. Speakers are passionately orating, crowds are moved. But there are no subtitles. What does it look like?

The answer is obvious. It looks like oppressed masses demanding freedom from an evil dictator.

this is from S.P. Somtow’s blog post (quoted by permission of the author) on the situation. (There’s the link). Somtow is actually a Thai, but also an American. His English is probably better than mine. His Thai might be better, might be worse, not sure, but he is an award-winning science fiction author, and also a musician and composer. This post says a lot of things better than I had figured out how to say them.

What he’s saying here is that someone is playing to the world stage, but it is just a show. He goes on to reinforce the idea. Here’s another excerpt:

Example: Arisman (one of the redshirt leaders) threatened to destroy mosques, government buildings, and "all institutions you hold sacred" . . . a clip widely seen on YouTube, without subtitles. Without subtitles, it looks like "liberty, equality, fraternity".

Here’s another link, to a webcast of Democracy Now, a debate on the crisis between Ji Ungpakorn, a redshirt supporter, avowed communist, and Philip Cunningham, a journalist. They both had taught at Chulalongkorn University, where I’ve been studying. I agree with everything Cunningham says except regarding the army. I disagree with everything Ji says, even though I respect his intelligence and have read at least one article of his in Thai which I think is extremely well-reasoned. in this debate he makes me think he’s a lying, scheming bastard, though, most unfortunate, wouldn’t you say? My cousin Roger turned me on to this, and these are from notes I took before making my response to him:

• Ji said Rajaprasong, which the protesters have taken over, is “only a shopping center with luxury hotels.” This is ridiculous. 60,000 people work in the square mile they’ve taken over, and have been put out of work for 2 months. Thousands of people live in that area. There are all sorts of businesses there. One of the things I hate about the protesters is that they’ve never made any note of this, never admitted that those affected are part of “the people” they claim to be representing, never asked for these people to please bear with them.

• Ji made reference to an “assassination corps” that the government has. I defy him to show an example of that. Even the hit on Seh Daeng is almost universally believed to be an act of revenge for Seh Daeng’s own assassination of a commander of the Army on Apr. 10, not sanctioned by the government (though I’m sure they, as I, breathed a sigh of relief when it happened, FSM forgive me [flying spaghetti monster, not free speech movement]). On the other hand, it has seemed pretty clear to me that the redshits have had death squads out hitting innocents and soldiers for a while, then attempting to throw blame on the government.

• Ji’s reference to the redshirts looking for genuine negotiations, while the government rejected them, was nonsense. See the part of my blog dealing with moving goalposts.

• He said “the government wants to shoot its way out of this crisis.” That could not be further from the truth. They have been showing so much restraint that huge factions have been calling for the PM’s head, repeatedly. They wanted to avoid force at all costs. This is just what Ji wants people to think.

• Saying this government had the “worst censorship ever” in Thai history is a gross misrepresentation of Thai history by a historian who has himself lived through worse. While it’s true that there’s been censorship forever here, lately centered around criticism of the royals on the internet, the generals of previous coups were much more draconian in their suppression of public opinion than today’s civilian government, where a more or less free press reigns. This was the case when I was here in the Peace Corps, and the country was under Gens. Thanom Kittikachorn and Prapas Charusthien. Then, public assemblies of more than 3 persons(!!!) were outlawed. Hard to imagine. The government did shut down the redshits (Thaksin’s) radio/TV station, and I’m glad: it was inciting people to armed rebellion. No government in the world would tolerate that.

• He said the redshirts couldn’t have committed violence, because they were so disciplined. To this, I have to say, sure, my ass they were. I have seen videos of their discipline. (note, this is BEFORE the redshirt surrender, not the post-protest violence) Yesterday I saw a gang of them pull an unarmed soldier off a truck and beat the shit out of him, leaving him for dead.

OK, Thaksin and people like Ji have been planning for a year how to stage a protest, funded with Thaksin’s billions, that walks like a revolution and quacks like a revolution, but isn’t a revolution, and they have created a masterwork. They ambushed everyone, got their protesters in place to paralyze the heart of the city, then made demands they didn’t think the government could possibly accept, put out lots of propaganda, with the face of nonviolence, to get the world press on their side, and when the government started bargaining in good faith, did their goalpost-moving thing so that the government would have to use force and look bad. All the while they were 24-7 brainwashing the paid audience they’d lured there with money and false hopes, and expecting to use them as cannon-fodder-martyrs. And their follow-up plan was to create as much chaos as possible afterwards with this city-burning thing.

Great organization, but I think it will backfire. I predict that Thaksin’s proxy party will lose badly in the next elections because the Thai people will hate what they did FAR more than they hated the 2008 yellowshirt closing of the airport. And they hated that one, in fact so did I.

I have three primary male role-models: Albert Schweitzer, Mohandas Ghandi, and Louis Armstrong. Those spirits inspire me. I wouldn’t be writing this if they didn’t. So it made me sick to see redshirt leader Natthawut , who can be seen on video exhorting the masses to burn the house down, wearing a Ghandi T-shirt as the police hauled him off. As noted, the former pop star and redshirt leader Arisman called for the people to get petrol bottles and turn Bangkok into a “sea of fire.” And you've all seen the videos of punks and thugs starting fires and shooting rockets. Oh, and don't forget the slingshots! To add the "David and Goliath" image, I suppose. (Aside: I keep wondering why news reports refer to the people sitting peacefully as "the protesters" and these other guys as "militant groups allied with the protesters." Would we call the The Royal Thai Navy "a seafaring military group associated with the Thai government?")

Thaksin and/or his supporters have referred to himself as “Thailand's Mahatma Gandhi, the Kingdom's Nelson Mandela.” Hmm, Thaksin, come on back and sweat on the streets for months like your true believers, take your jail term like a man, then—that’s what those guys did!

PEACEFUL PROTESTERS
NOT TERRORISTS!

Think about that. Then look at this: Unknown Snipers. And listen to this: Australian Woman Leaves Apartment .

Simply put: they want to destablilize the country to the point where there will be civil war, a war they think they can win.

This is so unlike the morality of the Thailand I know and love that I cannot imagine how these people can call themselves Thai. I know there are great problems that need to be solved. But this is not the way. No, this is not the way.

I couldn’t get everything I wanted to, or everything I promised you, in today. So:
Tomorrow: who are the real heroes here?