Being passionate about one political position or the other in Thailand seems to be the new norm. However it seems all sides are wandering far from the truth to push their own agenda, and this is a recipe that will ultimately lead to disaster. Just ask any company that cooked their books and now is a former company. The truth will sooner or later catch up and the outcome will not be good.
This is one of the things that Connecting the Dots looks to filter out and get to the truth before we make an entry on it. But in this case, politicians as well as groups like the Yellow shirts and Red shirts are looking to stir support with unjustified raw emotions.
Imagine that someone told you something that simply pushed your buttons. It got you so fired up you changed your plans to go and deal with it, only to find out it was all a deliberate lie and not some accidental misunderstanding. That would probably end up pushing a different set of your buttons likely resulting in loss of credibility in the person that told you.
However in the world of Thai politics, there is always another day and another accusation about some horrific act committed by someone that requires immediate attention via rally or some other gathering. Seeing that accurate information in Thailand is in scarce supply, pulling off these lies tends to get lost in the blur of all the other inaccurate bits of information. Simply put, it seems that at least 60% of the political energy spent by people at rallies and other gatherings is about some phantom event that never happened.
Should this type of behavior happen in the US, there most certainly would be some investigations as the percentage of accurate information is in the 97% range and not in the 40% range. Then the credibility of the accusing person would be put on public display and for the most part they will simply become a form of amusement without credibility. For that much damage to a persons face to happen in Thailand, several dozen examples must happen to offset the short term mai pen rai (Don’t worry about it) memory.
However in the situation of trying to calm the storm of division Thaksin made, this behavior is quickly being met with evidence that debunks the accusation before political momentum can take hold. Waiting for some defamation case to be filed with the courts is not an effective plan of action. It is a bit like closing the door after the horse has run out. So emphases is being put on the ounce of prevention and not the pound of cure.
This change is significant in that the passive Thai approach is not being applied and the more active western approach has taken hold. For the most part, this can only be seen as a good thing.
