Thailand’s government is doing its best to spread propaganda that all the problems in Thailand are the fault of the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD). Unfortunately for Thailand’s government they seemed to have forgotten one thing, remarks like that must first have some degree of believability.
By the government announcing a few days ago that they were going to attack the credibility of the PAD and their rallies, had the effect of placing much doubt in any facts the government may offer to discredit the PAD. Anyone with a reasonable level of education can clearly see past this volley of lies from the government. However with much of rural Thailand below that critical level of education, there are people who will blindly believe what the government has to say. One of the points of the PAD is the government is driving a wedge between the people. By spreading this disinformation that wedge is driven deeper.
The PAD is closer to western style democracy than the government. The democratic party supports the PAD however from time to time the PAD has gotten carried away in the heat of passion so to speak and has lost some credibility. If the PAD can stay to the facts they will eventually win if the government does not change.
The history of the people in the ruling party People Power Party (PPP) has shown is is best not to trust what they say. On the surface they will try to portray they are giving in to the very reasonable demands of the PAD, all the while doing what they want unseen by others. The senate is about to bring the government onto the carpet to inquire why they have not been doing the work of the people and only doing self serving tasks.
At the moment the government is accusing the PAD as being the reason tourist trade is dropping off in particular from Japan. This however has much more to do with other things. The rallies are very localized and not in tourist areas. The rallies are in what can be called the government core area of Bangkok. No doubt the government may want to blame global warming, the food shortage, and the price of oil all on the PAD too.
Looking at cause and effect, the PAD rallies are clearly the effect of a corrupt government. So by looking far enough up the chain of events, you will find it all comes down to one person. That person is Thaksin Shinawatra who is busy behind the scenes trying to change laws so he can get off the hook. If his cronies can get off the hook too, good for them. However Thaksin has no loyalties to anyone but himself. He has even used his family as a form of human shield in the past. Thaksin Shinawatra was the former Prime Minister ousted by the September 19, 2006 coup.
There are some people in Thailand who see this as an endless cycle and will only end when Thaksin is taken out of the picture. Just how and what that means in up to each persons imagination.