Fatal wounds in Thai politics are frequently self inflicted. Seeing that the convicted fugitive Thaksin Shinawatra is being allowed to speak and is showing his rage, he is slowly turning his supporters away.
Allowing Thaksin to speak nightly as he has been doing, is a bit like taking bad tasting medicine for the people who do not support Thaksin. But if the correct medicine is being taken, then eventually the ailment should disappear. In this case Thaksin’s own words will destroy his support. However if the medicine is given for too long, it could harm the host, so changes may be needed after a while. Thaksin has never one anyone over with his personality, in fact chasing people away is what frequently happens. His arrogant self serving personality just turns people off.
Connecting the Dots needed to take a look at the context of what Thaksin has been saying at the red shirt rally, and much of what is coming from Thaksin is not only un-Thai like, but also challenges the foundation concepts of right and wrong that children are taught by their parents.
Thais by nature are kind and loving people, and that is supported in the fact that Thailand is a wonderful tourist magnet. The culture of greeting people with a smile and showing respect runs deep in both rural and urban Thailand. Respect for other people, respect for the law, and respect for the Royal family of past and present represent what the vast majority of Thais are like. Because of this basic moral foundation, any other message coming from Thaksin simply does not fit the Thai mold.
Thaksin is trying to keep the momentum going but he actually is saying nothing new. The vast majority is negative designed to spawn anger. One by one Thaksin is bringing up yet another person who was once his friend or associate who he now despises. Talking about wanting his impounded money back and negative references to just about everything simply spell greed and anger. All of this negativeness is paining a subconscious feeling about Thaksin that goes against what they were taught by their parents. This clearly is not the same Thaksin who was in office. The Thaksin that was in office never appeared this negative.
Even Thaksin’s physical appearance is working against him. He appears much older and looking like things are not going well for him at all. The level of stress he is under is no doubt taking it’s toll. The contrast is very apparent as many of the Thaksin photos floating around the rally site were taken while he was still Prime Minister. We recently did a series on stress and rapid aging and it looks like Thaksin can qualify as a the poster boy. Click here to see that series.
The constant bombardment must be kept up by the red shirt leaders when Thaksin is not speaking or people will have time to sit back and analyze what Thaksin is saying. The constant bombardment is simply a distraction to keep that eventual analysis from happening. Once that analysis happens, the eventual conclusion that anti Thaksin people came to already will be realized. Also once the connection is made that this Thaksin is not that Thaksin that they remember, his support will drop even more. This new spiteful Thaksin simply does not blend well with simple down to earth Thais.
Each and every day, you seem to show people more and more that you are a relative newbie to Thailand.
“Thais by nature are kind and loving people”, “Respect for other people, respect for the law…represent what the vast majority of Thais are like” are some of your quotes.
If this were the case, how come Thailand has one of the highest murder rates in the world? They rank #1 in Asia for murder, and are behind countries like Russia, Columbia, Belarus, Ukraine, and South Africa.
Thailand is one of the most corrupt countries in the world with corruption running rampant from the highest positions in government to some of the most lowly positions such as teachers and clerks who often have to pay for low level positions.
In reality, Thaksin “fits the Thai mold” very well. He embodies what Thailand is all about. Your continued hatred for everything Thaksin and support for everything yellow does not allow you to open your eyes and recognize that the yellow shirts trashed the constitution in 2006. They rewrote it to benefit themselves and the elitists and the expense of the majority of the Thais.
But even that didn’t work. With a newley rewritten constitution meant to benefit them, they reheld elections and one of Thaksins cronies was still voted in. They yellow shirts couldn’t have a Thaksin cronie voted in, so they rallied against any thing Thaksin and booted Thaksin cronies out until one of their own was installed into the position. So, even the yellow shirts did not respect their own constitution that they rewrote until they were able to appoint one of their own. It is sickening to watch Thai politics but it is also sickening to read your never ending support for the yellow shirts when they do not represent the Thai people as a whole. You still have much to learn about Thailand and Thai politics.
2nd Joe’s comment. The unwavering support of the Yellow shirts is really over the top.
-Mike