Thai blood effect – cause still Thaksin

It seems everyone is calling for the end to political violence in Thailand. With the violence being the effect, the only way to stop it is to eliminate the cause or it will just be another temporary bandage to slow the hemorrhaging of Thai society.  

A person is rushed to the hospital bleeding from the shoulder. Upon arrival the doctors work on stopping the bleeding and stabilize the patient thus treating the effect. Once the patient is stabilized and regains some strength, the doctors address and remove the bullet that was the cause.

With everyone looking at an internal fix to Thailand’s woes such as giving in to the Red Shirts demands, this is just opening the door for a much worse future for Thailand by giving the devil the chance to come back. So in the long run this is absolutely the wrong thing to do. A quick fix is not the answer nor is a fix from inside Thailand.

The calls of diplomats, scholars and other influential people for dialog still only address the effect and ultimately will fail because of Thaksin’s mental state. He has never in memorable history had anything less then his way with no compromise. There is no negotiation with a bullet that has been fired about not hitting its target, only physical intervention will work.

The end to Thailand’s problem clearly lies in the hands of the countries that host Thaksin. Any calls for dialog from those countries is simply disrespectful and ignoring the cause to put it politely where several other more colorful word choices could better apply.

Quoting The Bangkok Post April 13, 2010;

Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya lashed out at the international community Monday for failing to take action against fugitive ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra, whom he blamed for the country’s political unrest.

“Everyone is washing their hands but he is a bloody terrorist,” said Kasit, citing countries such as Russia and Germany for turning a blind eye over Thaksin’s corruption conviction and allowing him in.

He also cited Dubai, which the billionaire Thaksin had reportedly used as a longtime base after being overthrown in a military coup in 2006, as well as Nicaragua and Montenegro, both of which he recently visited.

“There is this act of interference by third countries — how can the Russians allow him there for two days or the Germans before that?”

“Everyone is playing naive, closing their eyes and so on, simply because he was once an elected leader,” Kasit said.

He likened Thaksin to an Al-Qaeda terrorist and past “elected” leaders such as Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin and Benito Mussolini.

“Hitler was elected, Mussolini was elected, even Stalin could say that he was elected also but what did they do to their very society? This is the question,” the top Thai diplomat said at a meeting with a small group of reporters and think tank heads.

Kasit, in Washington attending a landmark nuclear summit called by President Barack Obama, accused Thaksin of orchestrating demonstrations by his so-called Red Shirt supporters last week that led to 21 deaths in the bloodiest political unrest in 18 years.

The 60-year-old Thaksin exiled himself to avoid imprisonment on a 2008 corruption conviction and occasionally addresses the Red Shirts through Internet video links.

Kasit lamented that Thailand was “not getting any international cooperation at all” over Thaksin’s case, saying even Interpol “just simply refused to work with us.”

He blamed the ousted premier for using extralegal means to topple Thailand’s current democratically elected administration.

While the world demanded for more democracy in Thailand, it “allows Thaksin to run loose as if nothing happens,” he said.

Kasit called on the Obama administration to prod the Red Shirts to come to the negotiating table. The United States and Thailand are treaty allies.

The Red Shirts charge that Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva’s current government is illegitimate because it came to power in 2008 after a court ousted allies of former prime minister and telecoms tycoon Thaksin Shinawatra from power.

Thailand deputy premier Trirong Suwannakiri, who was also at the forum, warned that if the current crisis raged out of control, the military could stage a coup to restore order.

The military has a duty to “take care of the country and restore order,” he said, pointing out that such an action could be a “worst case scenario.”

Kasit, speaking earlier Monday at a forum of the Johns Hopkins University, said he still believed in a negotiated resolution to his country’s crisis.

He said any resolution to the turmoil might see the role of the revered monarchy revamped with greater involvement in the political process of the impoverished rural poor, who are up in arms against the nation’s military-backed government.

The monarchy’s role in Thailand’s recent political upheaval remains one of the most sensitive subjects in the kingdom.

The Thai crisis took a new twist Monday as Thailand’s election body called for the dissolution of the ruling party, piling pressure on embattled Prime Minister Abhisit.

The move, which centers on allegations of an illegal multimillion-dollar donation to the Democrat Party during 2005 elections, raised the stakes in the crisis.


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