Thailand’s undoable amnesty bomb

If there is any one topic that will quickly bring the masses of angry people back into the streets, it is the proposed amnesty for people caught up in Thailand’s political turmoil. It clearly is a topic as controversial as Thaksin Shinawatra simply because the root cause of Thailand’s political turmoil is Thaksin Shinawatra himself.

To place this into perspective there are two feuding sides in Thailand. One side is group ‘Y’ that is anti Thaksin, and the other side is group ‘R’ that is pro Thaksin. Each side has it’s own ideology and thus there is a conflict that fairly frequently elevates to violence and thus retaliation from the other side. In this case neither side wants to see the other side get off the hook and wants them to get their day in court. But the proposed amnesty covers both sides and that is the fuse of the bomb.

Looking at the history of both sides, it is fairly obvious that group ‘R’ frequently employs violence on group ‘Y’. Group ‘Y’ does it’s best to stay within the law and frequently seeks the support of the court to defend itself from group ‘R’ that seems to have little interest in the law as does Thaksin.

In general getting a day in court is the only answer to melt this problem away, and those politicians from group ‘R’ that know they are guilty are really pushing for the amnesty. Behind them there are several layers of support from the most radical and violent layer, right on down to those that got paid to attend the political rallies and only did so for the added income.

The politicians from group ‘Y’ that truly look to follow the letter of the law and sought and received the blessing of the court. Yet however when the group ‘R’ politicians came to power, they managed to get charges filed on the group ‘Y’ politicians. This was seen as political leverage to encourage amnesty for group ‘R’. However that strategy backfired when group ‘Y’ said in so many words to bring it on and they had no problem at all getting their day in court.

So from the sidelines, group ‘Y’ is confident they will be exonerated in court, and if you were following along in real time as the events of those days unfolded, you can clearly see where they are getting their confidence from. Meanwhile group ‘R’ is in a panic because they know if the courts are fair and not under the influence of bribes or corruption, they are looking at significant jail time and perhaps the death penalty for some.

So if there is any mention of amnesty, it is like a warning siren and a call to arms for both groups. So because of that it becomes a hot topic, and even the passage of time has little if any effect on the reaction to the thought of amnesty. Because of that Connecting the Dots feels Thailand will have no choice but to let the process of law and justice do it’s thing and hopefully discourage future bad behavior that is presently fueled by the thought of impunity.


Comments are closed.