Thailand reconciliation on hold

It did not take but 1 hour for observers to see that what the Red Shirt leaders were saying did not match what their banners and other printed material said. In fact for the most part, just by assembling for a rally it has sent a psychological signal across Thailand that Prime Minister Abhisit’s roadmap has hit a big red detour sign.

So looking at this, there is a bright side to this if you stop and think about it. As the Red Shirt renewed rallies seem to signal that reconciliation is on hold, it provides Prime Minister Abhisit with a justified excuse to not have early elections. Short of that, that is the only bit of silver lining we can see in this dark cloud.

One of the most concerning points that Connecting the Dots sees is the general disrespect for the court. Although the Red Shirt leaders say no disrespect for the courts is intended, their signs say otherwise with references to political prisoners. Simply that alone may promptly piss off and insult a few judges. At the very least it shows lack of remorse for all the damage the Red Shirts did in May as Bangkok burned. Also in doing so it ironically supports not granting bail to the people they are supposedly giving moral support to.

Seeing that they announced that they plan to make it a weekly event, it is clear to see that this has nothing to do at all with what the Red Shirts said about giving moral support to their incarcerated leaders. As Thaksin has been pushing reconciliation in what he has been saying, and knowing he almost always says the opposite of what the truth is, the Red Shirt’s actions match that opposite.

So it would seem that as the Red Shirt leaders can not go to a rally site because they are in jail, the rally site has been moved to the jail instead. We could say that also suggests that the next generation of Red Shirt leaders is not up to speed, but we wont as it is way too premature to make that call. But rest assured it is on our watch list.

No matter how you view it the next round of attacks is underway and the government can once again look to spending significant energy and resources correcting all the deliberate distortions started by this group. During the next week or so Thaksin will be taking opinion samples across Thailand to see if the Red Shirts will be on his payroll any longer or not. Knowing the Red Shirts they will simply tell Thaksin what he wants to hear as they know he can not come himself without risk of arrest.


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