This is the End, the End my friend

In January 1967, the Doors put out this Jim Morrison song.

This is the end
My only friend, the end
Of our elaborate plans, the end
Of everything that stands, the end
No safety or surprise, the end
I'll never look into your eyes...again
Can you picture what will be
So limitless and free
Desperately in need...of some...stranger's hand
In a...desperate land

Absolutely nothing could describe the situation that happened in Bangkok, Chiang Mai and across the country better than those words. 

Tens of thousands poured into the streets to defy the SOE imposed bu the Abhisit Government and the CRES in the exact place that almost a hundred of their compatriots were slaughtered without so much as a tertiary investigation into the incidents..   This was a symbolic gathering but very telling for the future.

I have been thinking how much the Red movement is like my son.  When he was young he used to falter and fall over.  One time when we were kicking a soccer ball I managed to hit him in the stomach. He hit the ground crying but was really not hurt.  When he recovered he ask me, "Dad why did you hurt me?"  This is exactly the same with the reds.  They have faltered and fallen over a few times, sometimes quite hard.   The military, the Police and the Government are supposed to protect the citizens of a country, that is their duty, their responsibility,their only excuse for being at all.  The Thai government, the military and the Police did not only let the people of Thailand down they gut shot them at the same time. 
What you are seeing now is the citizens, at least a lot of them, asking, "Why did you hurt me?"

Through all the dubious court rulings, the lopsided constitution, the back room money politics and the budgetary payouts to the military and coalition parties the Reds, as a blanket group, have not really been deterred.  They still want an election.

I see this latest act in Bangkok and other places as the beginning of the end of the old system and the start of a new one.  The new one may or may not be better only time will tell but change is coming and it's coming at a speed a lot faster than 3G networking in Thailand.  If the elitists don't figure out a way to work alongside the majority soon they will be the ones between a rock and a hard place, because on the anniversary of the coup the CRES and Government drew a line in the sand and the Reds showed the courage to cross it and show  the times they are a-changin'.

Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.


Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'.


For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.

ADD ON

After talking to a number of people who were at the protests in Bangkok or were covering them, it appears that there has also been a major shift.  It appears that more middle class were there and I was informed a lot of the crowd spoke English.  This makes it somewhat different from the previous protest where protesters came in from the provinces.

What the heck is wrong with the Justice System?

The jury, passing on the prisoner's life,  May in the sworn twelve have a thief or two,  Guiltier than him they try. William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure


Other than it's broken! 

There is a higher court than courts of justice and that is the court of conscience. It supersedes all other courts. Mohandas Gandhi

If you burn some tires in protest in front of the Air Force Base Wing 21 or some old politician's house in Ubon Ratchathani. you may find yourself doing some hard time.  If you are wearing a red shirt that is. According to the Nation, "Twelve red-shirt suspects confessed to taking part in the tire burning at the Air Force headquarters and their penalties were halved to 15 months jail and Bt8,000 fine. They were released on probation, but have to report every three months. Meanwhile, five red shirts who burned tires in front of Suthas's house also confessed and their penalties were halved to 14 months' jail and Bt3,500 fine. They were also released on probation and must report every three months".  That's in addition to the seizure of two cars used in the offenses.  This seem,s a bit harsh to me.  Last February March and April there was so much illegal brush burning that often in the North you could hardly breath.  No one, to my knowledge, was arrested, charged, fined or thrown in jail for any of that.  BUT, burn a few old tires in a red shirt and your on the Terrorist Watch list.
 
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Martin Luther King, Jr.


Just to add insult to injury the same day the Criminal Court, such an apt name never there was, decided in their wisdom to  "drop the Crime Suppression Division's request for arrest warrants against 45 members of the People's Alliance for Democracy in the airport seizure case".  The PAD group had "objected to the form of their arrest warrants", so there was no reason for their arrest. Astonishingly, the court came up with, "the suspects' failure to show up did not hinder investigation".  WTF!!!!!!!!

The Reds have come up with a 4 point demand.  In brief here they are:-

1:- Release "political prisoners"
2:- Reform the economic system by setting up the welfare state system
3:- Reform the judicial system by adopting the trial by jury system
4:- Guarantee commodities' prices for farmers

Of these Point 1 and 3 need urgently to be addressed.  While the Reds were not entirely in the right, they are not entirely in the wrong either.  The Red leaders are being treated wrongly in my opinion and should be allowed bail OR the court should rescind bail for the PAD Leaders charged with "Terrorism".  Oh Wait!! They have not been charged yet. see Demand 3.

Justice cannot be for one side alone, but must be for both. Eleanor Roosevelt

The courts appear to be totally controlled from outside the judicial system with verdict after verdict appearing to be not only biased but biased against a single group.  This is not justice it's something else entirely.  If it is being controlled from outside the justice system it's much more sinister, much more oppressive, much more subversive and much more of a threat to national security than anything the Reds could throw at Thailand.  For without a free, fair and impartial judiciary you have no justice at all.

In the Halls of Justice the only justice is in the halls.  Lenny Bruce

Some quotes from the Nation and BKK Post