Thailand’s Government Blinks

Thailand’s People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) is starting to show it’s strength as the Thaksin Regime otherwise known as the People power Party (PPP) steps back from it’s threat to forcibly remove the PAD protesters Saturday. With the law and court rulings on the side of the PAD, removing them by force would just open up another can of worms for the government.

The PAD is already showing it’s muscle by collecting 150% of the needed signatures to start impeachment proceedings for members of the government who support changing the constitution for self serving reasons. As a result several senators and members of parliament have removed their names from supporting the changes to the constitution. As a result the number of names was lowered to below the minimum requirement to start the motion effectively killing it. The simple message the PAD gave with all those signatures was ‘If you want any kind of political future, don’t go there.’

However in Thaksin type arrogance the PPP filed to put in for the changes anyway. The legal weight of that is still to be established. As a result the PAD rally will continue.

Meanwhile back on the front lines, the government has been doing it’s best to spread disinformation about the PAD now packing weapons. This however is the furthest thing from the truth. A the moment the PAD only has defensive weapons like shields of plywood given to about 200 PAD volunteers to fill the gap when the Thaksin controlled police decide to let some anti PAD protestors at them who are packing some sort of weapons. Prior to the 2006 coup, the PAD rallies were a place for family outings with top stars performing at the rallies. Young children and babies were frequently seen at the rallies and certainly any parent in their right mind would never place their children in harms way. The biggest gathering of the PAD was between 80,000 and 100,000 people in 2006.

As a result the government at that time started a series of attacks with hired thugs on the smaller rallies beating old men, women and young children that eventually triggered the coup. The straw that broke the camels back was the report the government had hired several thousand armed thugs to infiltrate the big rally with the intent of sparking a riot and giving a reason to declare martial law effectively ending future rallies. Bottom line here The PAD has always played by the rules and frequently warned and guided the people at the rallies away from government set traps that would have given cause for official force to be used.

To have attacked the PAD rally Saturday would have set up a scenario that would have been very similar. To date the government has only been able to use force and violence with hired thugs as it tends to lack credibility.

At the moment the properly annoyed government is still trying another tactic to remove the PAD rally. That is unfolding as this is being posted. The positions of the government lack weight and are floating the phrase ‘inconvenience to The Royal Family’ trying to imply leverage that way. In Thailand making mention of the royal family that way is a very risky thing to do by placing words in the royal families mouth. They also have said the PAD had broken several laws but have yet to name any of them as this is just more disinformation on the part of the government. As before mentioned the courts have already ruled in favor of the PAD on this.

The PPP wants to stay in dark places to do it’s dirty work and like a cockroach, stays away from the light. Controls on the media have already been started so you can use your imagination as to why based on their past history.

As the PPP continues to push for self serving changes to the constitution, the stage remains set for another coup. The PPP from the time they entered office have only done things that were self serving, and anything that was done for the people most certainly had some sort of cut in it for the pockets of the people in government.

This story is ongoing.


One Response to Thailand’s Government Blinks

  1. Excellent Blog. I’ve been reading along and just wanted to say hi. I will be reading more of your posts in the future.

    – Jason.