It has not always been this way in that only supporters of one person reaped the rewards of Government handouts. The fact that this is no surprise is because that one person years ago announced that was his policy. Support me and be happy, don’t support me and have a much harder life. Needless to say, that one person is Thaksin Shinawatra.
It does not matter that the rice pledging scheme or more properly put vote buying scheme is emptying Thailand’s coffers as well as having a negative effect on Thailand’s credit rating. It does not matter that the policy has been rejected by anyone that can do math or find their way around an Excel spread sheet. For Thaksin he expects and wants it to last until he can get his slate wiped clean of his crimes and return to power.
The same is true about the Government sponsored reconciliation talks. The Government had no intention of listening to the expert advise of former leaders all being non-Thai. They would only do that if it matched their plans to white wash Thaksin. It was all about show to turn down the building heat from opposition. Seeing that the Democratic party saw this coming and decided not to waist their time going, they instead focus on more effective methods to Get Thaksin to pay his debt to society.
Now when it comes to southern rubber farmers who generally do not support Thaksin, they seem to be getting nothing except shot at and being killed one at a time. Who is doing the shooting is hard to say, but Thaksin’s Red Shirt supporters have a history as well as announcing they would undemocratically attack the people who oppose Thaksin and not launch a democratic counter protest. If you conclude this is the general description of an emerging dictatorship, you would be 100% correct.
Even changing of the Constitution is all geared towards giving unlimited power to one person and that one person is Thaksin Shinawatra. So it goes without saying this is just more of the recipe for another coup. At some point someone will say enough is enough, providing that the balance of military power has not already been shifted from the King to Thaksin. That too is also going on but it is less in the public’s eye. Thaksin’s approach is hoping Thailand will ignore the warning signs of cancer until it has reached terminal stage 4, and by then it is too late and he takes Thailand as his prize.
So there is little surprise to anyone that has been casually watching Thai politics for the past 10 plus years, Thaksin is still power hungry and self centered. His desire to continue and not stop clearly looks to be powered by one of the more devious mental disorders as other people would have long since given up. Also some fatigue in those that oppose him is starting to show and that is often how those sick minds manage to get into positions of power, they wear down their opposition. Every compromise by the opposition is met with no compromise and more power taken.
