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

Swift “justice”

"Swift justice demands more than just swiftness." ~Potter Stewart

This is a copy of a post from Political Prisoners In Thailand. It is important to look at all sides but it is paramount that all sides are looked at equally and fairly.   I've added memorable quotes that are not part of the original.

Swift “justice”


Just look how fast the judiciary can work when it puts away red shirts!

The Bangkok Post (3 June 2010) reports that two “radio show hosts of a community radio in the northeastern province of Udon Thani were on Thursday sentenced to one year and six months jail term without suspension in connection with the arson attacks on the city hall and the municipality office building on May 19.”

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

Prasit Wichairat and Jakrapong Saenkham from 97.5 FM community radio “surrendered to police on June 2.” 

 What? That’s yesterday!

In less than 24 hours, the Udon Thani District Court has “found the two guilty of violating the emergency decree by urging the people through their radio programmes to stage an uprisin[g], leading to the torching of the city hall and municipality office building on May 19 in violation of the emergency decree.”

"I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice".~Abraham Lincoln

It would be hard to imagine how justice is served by such swift decision-making; another example of double standards.

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

I'll leave you with this final quote which shows we as humans have learned little over time.
 
"Extreme law is often extreme injustice". ~Terence 170–160 BC

From Political Prisoners in Thailand

Enemy of the State #13 - The Military

“He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice.” ~Albert Einstein


Does Thailand need a huge standing Military in this day and age and if so why?


That’s a good question and in my view it does not. Although the military comprises units like the Navy and the Air Force it’s the Army that has headed the charge in dispersing the recent protests. So for argument sake let’s just call the entire Military the Army for now. There is a self centered reason for this, later on I’ll give some figures and I’m too lazy to break them all down, if that’s even possible to do.


"They talk about conscription as a democratic institution. Yes; so is a cemetary". ~Meyer London


For those that don’t know the system. Thailand has military conscription on a sliding scale depending on your education level. High school or under you have to serve 2 years, Bachelors degree – 1 year and if you have a masters or a doctorate you get to do 6 months or less of pretty easy service. As an example Abhisit with a Masters got to lecture at the Military collage on economics. It also involves drawing a ball and if you get the right color you are off to the Army, Navy or Air Force. Compulsory service is also in the area you are registered in your house book. If you are in the North or Northeast, that means the Army in almost every case. As the North and Northeast also have the worst education in the country chances are the majority are serving 2 years. This also puts a huge burden on the farming community of the North and Northeast through the loss of part of their traditional workforce for 2 years on a continuous basis.


“The military caste did not originate as a party of patriots, but as a party of bandits” ~Henry Louis Mencken


Thailand’s military spending is 1.53% of GDP. That is lower than Malaysia (1.78%) and Myanmar (25.75%) but higher than Laos (0.28%) and Cambodia (1.23%). Where you really see the difference is in the Total Forces of each nation. Laos (129,000), Cambodia (191,000), Malaysia (160,000) and then there is Thailand (506,600) and Myanmar (513,250). It appears that Thailand is closer to the Burma model than any other nation in the area.

The difference is that Thailand and Myanmar have large armies where the others do not. In fact Thailand with a Military force of 506,600 outnumbers the combined military of Laos and Cambodia by 186,600. We know from our history the last time Thailand and Laos came to blows,Thailand lost decisively. But, do we have to outnumber the Cambodians by 2.65 times or Laotians by almost 4 times?

"Never base your budget requests on realistic assumptions, as this could lead to a decrease in your funding." ~ Scott Adams


Other things come to light as well from the numbers alone. Malaysia with a similar overall military budget ( 3,940 MillionUSD) has far outstripped Thailand ( 4,180 Million USD) by investing in high tech weaponry which needs less but higher trained forces to operate.  Thailand is stuck in the trench with foot soldiers which are very vulnerable to high tech things. On April 10th this year we witnessed first hand that a group of flip flop toting farmers from Issan were more than enough match for the arms and APC’s of the Thai army. Leaving a fleeing military and the hulks of 6 APS’c in the wake.
 Another question we have to ask, has the huge forces of the army outlived it’s usefulness on the modern battlefield in this day and age. The only answer is yes to this question unless the main aim of the Army is and has always been to suppress its own people and then the answer is still, yes.

Thailand needs to drastically readjust the military and upgrade it to more modern and streamlined units.


We need to drastically cut the huge amount of general and officer staff and to cut the numbers of foot soldiers down to acceptable limits for the risk in the area. Make the forces 100% volunteer and end conscription. Make them directly accountable to the Government and have an independent committee audit their spending, every baht of it.


“If there is one basic element in our Constitution, it is civilian control of the military” ~Harry S Truman


Cutting military numbers by half would be a good start while maintaining the budget at a rate just slightly under what we are spending now. That way we can invest in the long term training of long term highly trained military personnel and the purchase of more modern higher tech hardware rather than golf courses, swimming pools and flashy housing for Generals who have nothing better to do. Thailand would then be in a position to protect herself in the event that it was ever necessary.

“Military glory - that attractive rainbow that rises in showers of blood” ~Abraham Lincoln


At the moment the Army may be hard pressed to fend off the battle hardened Cambodians with their Vietnam vintage weaponry and ho chi min sandals.


“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.” ~Martin Luther King, Jr.



Figures derived from:- World Armed Forces and Defence Budgets.

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=tTyizSfPzkl8SDeFoAQt6EQ&hl=en

Enemy of the state #11 - The Terrorists

“There is only one thing which gathers people into seditious commotion, and that is oppression” ~ John Locke

The Thai government was quick to brand the UDD and their leaders Terrorists. Are they or are they not? Or is it someone else?

First lets look at who is a terrorist which is not always easy to define. Sometimes it is easy like with the PAD occupation of the airports and control tower. It’s covered in documents like the Montréal protocols and the UN’s Supplementary to the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Civil Aviation even if the Thai government does nothing.

The position taken by the Thai government against the UDD and it’s leaders is much more murky. Until the night of April 10th when the Government sent the Police and Army, with war weapons, to disperse the protesters there had been no instance of the UDD with weapons. Unless you class water bottles and flagpoles as weapons. From many videos I have viewed the Military opened fire with live ammunition on unarmed protesters. From videos it is also apparent that there were snipers stationed on tall buildings overlooking the protesters and that at least one sniper was firing. No one can say with any certainty who the sniper was firing at. That night there also appeared the black clad men who appeared to be well trained and they inflicted casualties on the Army.  To date, no one has been able to say who these black clad fighters were.

The Government was quick to brand them as terrorists and to brand then as part of the UDD which they also branded as terrorists. There are many theories about who they are/were. The government and CRES says UDD terrorists, some say they were disgruntled regular military, some say they are mercenaries and some say they were trained by General Khattiya Sawatdiphol (Seh Daeng).

So what is a terrorist? Definitions are few and far between but here goes.

~ a radical who employs terror as a political weapon; usually organizes with other terrorists in small cells

~ An individual who uses violence, terror, and intimidation to achieve a result.

None of these seem to fit the UDD prior to the final dispersal by the military when factions rioted in Bangkok.  Between April 10 and the final crackdown the protesters at best could be called disruptive, unruly and unorganized at least outside the stockade.

In order to respond to terrorism, a clear definition is necessary. Terrorism is defined by Title 22 of the U.S. Code as politically motivated violence perpetrated in a clandestine manner against non-combatants. Experts on terrorism also include another aspect in the definition: the act is committed in order to create a fearful state of mind in an audience different from the victims.

“Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

Wait, just wait a gall darn minute.

That more describes the actions of the Government, CRES and the Military than the actions of the UDD. The UDD prior to the final crackdown by the Army did not work in a clandestine manner with violence against non-combatants. Although there were small incidents it was not widespread. The government on the other hand, either through their orders or the actions of those they control DID USE politically motivated violence in a clandestine manner against non-combatants. Things like the use of live fire, live fire zones, Snipers and the Assassination of Seh Daeng can only be seen as acts to cause terror and panic inside the Reds encampment. The arbitrary shooting and killing of unarmed citizens, who may or may not have been aligned with the Reds is also a terrorist act.  Furthermore the turning off of water and the stoppage of food supplies, although unsuccessful, is also a crime against humanity.

“A suffocating siege and ongoing oppression.”  ~ Yasser Arafat

The terms "terrorism" and "terrorist" (someone who engages in terrorism) carry strong negative connotations. These terms are often used as political labels, to condemn violence or the threat of violence by certain actors as immoral, indiscriminate, unjustified or to condemn an entire segment of a population.

This is exactly what the Government and CRES have done, labeled the UDD and it’s leaders Terrorists without any provocation other than political motive.  The numbers tell another story,  88 dead, 1,885 injured, 17 still in ICU almost exclusively from the so called "Terrorist UDD Side" a body count that would even make Dick Cheney shake his head. It was a planned massacre, not a dispersal.

Those labeled "terrorists" by their opponents rarely identify themselves as such, and typically use other terms or terms specific to their situation, such as separatist, freedom fighter, liberator, revolutionary, vigilante, militant, paramilitary, guerrilla, rebel, patriot, or any similar-meaning word.

The UDD labels itself a peaceful Pro-democracy group but there are defiantly units that are aligned with the UDD who would not hesitate to break away and form armed militias or subversive cells as seen on the evening of the overrunning of the UDD site by an armed military.

It very well might be worth noting at the end of this blog that some groups involved in a struggle, have been labeled "terrorists" by governments or media. Two examples of this are the Nobel Peace Prize laureates Menachem Begin and Nelson Mandela.

"The risk of a terrorist victory is greater when in fighting terror, democracy betrays its own essence". ~ Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero


Thaksin and Terrorist charges , a blog add on.


“He who lives by fighting with an enemy has an interest in the preservation of the enemy's life.” ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Thaksin may be many things but a terrorist he is not. If he ever had the intention of causing havoc in that way he has the capital to raise a small army. After seeing some of the actions of the Thai Military over the last month, only a small army would be needed. Thailand does not have, at this point, an armed insurgency in the North and Northeast so he’s not supporting that sort of action.

The Thai Government’s latest action just raises a huge Red Flag to all foreign governments. Thailand’s current government has to ask themselves why they can’t get anyone to extradite Thaksin now.   Just in case they don’t already know it’s because they found him guilty of a crime the Junta had to write a law for and then use retroactively. Almost every legal rights group on earth came out against the use of this retroactive law.  Foreign governments also see the way the Abhisit Government threw away the extradition agreement with Canada in the Sexana case.
"To vilify a great man is the readiest way in which a little man can himself attain greatness". ~Edgar Allan Poe

So what will this latest arrest warrant do? Absolutely nothing. It’s an attempt by a failing government to criminalize and vilify an opponent they know they cannot defeat at the ballot box and the governments of the western world know that . They should know this from recent statements from agencies outside Thailand
What we are witnessing is the final panic of the death roll of the Democrat led coalition. Their way is not the way to reconciliation but to further and likely much bloodier confrontation. If the only way to stay in power is to kill or imprison your opponents is there actually any victory at all?  And they have a name for that too.

“He who seeks vengeance must dig two graves: one for his enemy and one for himself”

Enemy of the State #10 - The Witch Hunt and Denial

Few tragedies can be more extensive than the stunting of life, few injustices deeper than the denial of an opportunity to strive or even to hope, by a limit imposed from without, but falsely identified as lying within. ~ Stephen Jay Gould


I was reading Tony Hedges's Blog http://tonyhedges.wordpress.com/ and this idea came to me from something he had said about reconciliation.

The Abhisit government keeps trying to reassure the people that they are all for reconciliation but in reality they are conducting a Which Hunt on the UDD, the Reds, banned politicians, the PTP and still on Thaksin.

Someone on Twitter, I think @tri26, mentioned the Wiki page “Denial”. I opened it and read “Types of Denial”. Lo and behold there it was in black and white, jumping off the page - Denial of fact & Denial of responsibility - and I quote:-

In Denial of fact, someone avoids a fact by lying. This lying can take the form of an outright falsehood (commission), leaving out certain details to tailor a story (omission), or by falsely agreeing to something (assent, also referred to as "yessing" behaviour). Someone who is in denial of fact is typically using lies to avoid facts they think may be painful to themselves or others.

The reasemblance to what the Government, CRES, the Government PR people have been doing and saying is remarkable.  They have all been using Denial of Fact and the UDD is not off the hook with this one either but to a much lesser degree IMHO.

Denial of responsibility involves avoiding personal responsibility by:


blaming - a direct statement shifting culpability and may overlap with denial of fact


minimizing - an attempt to make the effects or results of an action appear to be less harmful than they may actually be, or


justifying - when someone takes a choice and attempts to make that choice look okay due to their perception of what is "right" in a situation.


Someone using denial of responsibility is usually attempting to avoid potential harm or pain by shifting attention away from themselves.

There it was wrapped up with a big Red bow. That is what the government and CRES has been doing all along. We all knew it but this made it too simple, too easy to see and explain the Witch Hunt that’s going on.

"This is a vicious witch-hunt aimed at crushing the voice of dissent". ~ Aidan White

Carl Forti had an interesting quote some years ago, “I'm going to call Roswell (N.M.) and warn them that Ronnie Earle is on the witch hunt for the Martians they have there“. The quote can be rearranged to reflect the current situation. “I'm going to call (Add any North or Northeatern town) and warn them that (CRES, Abhisit, Suthep, etc) is on the witch hunt for the Reds they have there".

What Thailand needs is some outside independent inquiry into what happened in April and May in Bangkok.

Abhisit has resisted any attempt by outside governments, Amnesty International or the UN to intervene. It's time he swallowed his pride and allowed an independent outside review. If the blame is all on the Reds, as he and Suthep keep stating, what has he to fear. Thailand deserves this let someone independent, who will not sway with the pressure exerted on them, from all the influences inside Thailand come up with a finding. Lay blame at the feet of the UDD if that is their finding; lay it at the feet of the army or CRES or government or media or all of them. We need to know the facts, not the facts as seen through a prism reflecting highly divided and transfixed views of the occurrences in Bangkok.

"You don't want a witch hunt and you don't want a whitewash". ~ William Doherty

BUT: - You do want the truth to come out, whatever it is. and you want those truly responsible for the bloodshed punished. Something that is not happening in Thailand at the moment.

"Better a thousand fold abuse of free speech than denial of free speech". ~ Charles Bradlaugh

Enemy of the state 9 - Guerrillas, Abhisit and CRES

“The conventional army loses if it does not win. The guerrilla wins if he does not lose.” Henry Kissinger


Some time ago an international correspondent friend and I were warning of a major problem in the North and Northeast. It was shortly after the coup we both thought may be a prelude to a civil war or popular uprising. Both of us received a lot of flack for our stand and comments. In retrospect it probably sounded absurd but may well be close to inevitable at this point. After all these years I’ve adjusted my thinking a bit. Now I do not feel there will be a full blown civil war, in the strict sense of the word, but rather a protracted Guerrilla war fought more like the southern insurgency which has proved almost impossible for the Thai Military to control.

After April 10th, 2010 Abhisit Vejjajiva should have done the right thing, manned up and taken his own advice.

On 8 October 2008 he was pressing for an inquiry into the violence in the actions taken by the police to clear PAD protesters leaving many injuries and a couple of deaths, none from bullet wounds. He loudly called on the government to admit responsibility for its handling of the People's Alliance Democracy (PAD) demonstration. In a statement, party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva said he would no longer help the four-party discussion to find political solutions for the country unless the government investigated the order for police to suppress the rally earlier in the day.

Fast Forward to April. All calls by the PTP for Abhisit to hold an inquiry into the brutal April 10th crackdown or for him and Deputy PM Suthep to take responsibility for the actions taken against the UDD protesters have so far fallen on deaf ears.

“Whoever stands by a just cause cannot possibly be called a terrorist” Yasser Arafat

With the Prime Minister’s reluctance to take responsibility, he again ordered yet another evens more brutal and oppressive crackdown on the protesters. This time resorting to using snipers who, from many reports, fired on unarmed civilians. This was rationalized by the Abhisit administration and CRES by labelling the Reds as Terrorists. Along with this campaign to vilify the protesters the government embarked on a campaign to spread the word that the Reds were not loyal to the Palace and to censor all media that was opposed to the government. This amounted to closing more radio stations, the Reds TV station and blocking countless websites. The government and the CRES almost stole the script from previous times when bloody crackdowns were preceded by attacks against the protesters as not loyal to the Palace and they were all communists. This is despicable and shows a total disregard for the rights and freedoms of the people of Thailand.

Once the latest crackdown was in operation you didn’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out what would happen next. We had a preview a year ago, but this time the radicals in the UDD were more organized. These elements in the UDD not having any leadership, as they were all arrested, ran amuck, burning and pillaging. If this is a shock to anyone then you must have your head in the sand. Losses were exacerbated by the CRES having turned off the water in the area, to make the protesters suffer, rendering the building’s fire protection systems inoperable.

OOPS!

I’ve always said and had this reinforced in March when I personally surveyed five provinces in the North asking people what they thought about the Reds. The government has underestimated badly the support and conviction of the Reds in the North and Northeast. So badly in fact, that some of the radical elements in the Reds, who were reigned in by the leadership of the UDD, have now begun to move underground. I’ve also warned about this happening but no one listened, sometimes it‘s not all that rewarding to be right.

So where does that bring us. If things stay as they are now you can expect a Southern insurgency type operation from the radical elements. You will likely see roving bombings and shootings possibly aimed at Bangkok, PAD elements or non aligned politicians.

Abhisit can no longer reconcile with the North and Northeast. It’s no longer safe for him and some of his government to travel in over half the country, without a huge security operation. If the Reds do happen to get their hands on him, as almost happened last year, he would likely not escape unscathed.

It looks very much like a protracted armed Guerrilla war will be in Thailand’s future. Arms are cheap and easy to acquire. With most of the diehard Guerrilla’s already having received 2 years Military training from the Army, as conscripts, you can also expect things to be a lot bloodier than in the South with targeting of individuals deemed to be enemies of the Guerrillas. They will probably act as individual cells, like is used by Al-Qaeda.

“I know you are here to kill me. Shoot, coward, you are only going to kill a man.” 'Che' Guevara

The Abhisit government, or their proxy, set this ball rolling down the steep slippery slope when they assassinated Seh Daeng, the Reds Military strategist, setting the ground rules for future confrontations. If the underground Reds feel that double standards are being used to single out or persecute Reds you could see swift movement by them.

I don’t think that it’s too late to defuse the situation but for any real reconciliation to happen Abhisit would have to step down and Suthep would probably have to retire from politics. It will be interesting to see what happens with the non confidence debate put forward by the PTP. The smaller coalition members may well side with the PTP otherwise they may have little chance of winning re-election as they will be lumped with the Democrats who cracked down so brutally on the UDD and have won no friends for it in the North and Northeast.

“One Man's Terrorist Is Another Man's Freedom Fighter”

Enemy of the State - The State #8

"Hypocrisy, arrogance, pride, anger, harshness, and ignorance; these are the marks of those who are born with demonic qualities."


When I was just a couple of years out of high school the book the Peter Principle came out. It was insanely popular. I have thought numerous times that Laurence and Raymond must have had a crystal ball dialed into Thailand 2010. For the government, police and military have indeed reached that pinnacle of success. Their "top level of incompetence". It wouldn’t be so bad if one or two reached this great zenith in their career but the entire Government, Military and Police managed to do it in unison. It they were a World Cup Team they would be unbeatable . BUT…. They are politicians, career Generals and an appointed acting Police Chief all brought together under the Center for the Resolution of Emergency Situations, AKA CRES.


The CRES appears to have the combined computing power of an old 8088, that’s less than an old digital watch for you young folk, and in this day and age it’s the Multi Core that gets things done. One has to ask, what is going on with the government. Daily they reinforce the belief that they are inept and incompetent. Every day they threaten, set demands and issue ultimatums. Every day they back down, rescind the orders and appear in total disarray while pointing the finger at anyone that happens by.  Like they could never make a bad decision, never.

The latest boner was the PM, now there’s a grown man with an arrogant schoolboy mentality, who said the Reds had to disperse yesterday.  No ifs, ands or buts they had to go.  He summoned the help of the more than incompetent CRES to help with the Task. With great fanfare the CRES PR mouthpiece told all and sundry they would cut power and water and transportation links in the protest area at midnight. No one had bothered to tell this PR Colonel he was a waste of a chair at the table or the well known fact that the UDD had generators, fuel and water tanks. That intelligence also forgot to mention that they would be turning off power to two of the biggest hospitals in Bangkok, not to mention a bunch of foreign Embassies that were pissed. Then a bolt out of the blue, turning off the water could also be construed as a crime against humanity under the UN Charter.  Hmmmm...  Guess what?  Another misconceived brain fart and another loss of credibility. Yesterday came and went in a whimper, the Reds are still there, talking it up, singing and dancing, bathing in the water of life and breathing the sweet air of another minor victory or more factually another government blunder and loss of face because of another hasty misconceived plan that went awry.
Now our egotistical and overconfident PM has decided to call off the November 14 elections. Does anyone but hard core Democrats and a few old PAD supporters really think he was sincere in that claim in the first place. His road map had more hole and escape routes than a drug trail from Burma. If this doesn’t happen no election, if that doesn’t happen no election, if this happens no election. Come on, no wonder the Reds don’t trust him. The PM has the credibility of a used car salesman who tells you it has a 100% warranty and in the fine print it stated 100% warranted, until it leaves the car lot.
It’s time for Abhisit to swallow the poison pill. He’s caused no end of problems in the country. He’s fixed none. His government is oppressive and censorship is the worst in Thai history. 

We have this to say to him.  Step down, let someone else steer the car, because you have it careening down a steep mountain road, have burned out the brakes and you are totally out of your league. You have long past your "level of incompetence" according to the Peter Principle. Finally do something right, something ethical and let all of us in the country step back from the brink of the abyss. None of us, whatever color, are lemmings, we don’t want to follow you over the cliff into the unthinkable because of your pompous prejudice against those not born with a silver spoon up their butt.

Enemy of the State - the Great Uninformed Mass #7

"More than anything else, we need in this society the opportunity for people to tell us what they think without being told that they're either dumb, or stupid, or uninformed."


Often we have heard via ASTV, the PAD stage and other outlets that the “Kwai” are ignorant. stupid, uneducated and uninformed. I’ll have to give them that a vast majority of the country is indeed under educated. Being undereducated doesn’t mean you are stupid, ignorant or uninformed. Being under educated means that you have not had the opportunity that others have had.. Often situations cause students to leave school early, family need is a major culprit.

We need decent consistent free education nationwide where every school is equal and not the selection process that we have now where often that selection also includes a “gift” to the school. You can read that as “bribe” because that is exactly what it is. The poor fall through the cracks and end up in schools that are the dredges overcrowded, in poor repair, understaffed and with little or no resources. No wonder these people are under educated. I’ve often argued that I know more stupid people with PHD’s, if you are reading this I’ll excuse you, than farmers with a grade 4-5 education. At least the farmer has the smarts to grow enough food. The educated could eat their diplomas but wouldn’t gain a lot of sustenance from it. It’s real world knowledge against book learning and theoretical knowledge. It’s a toss up but I like to eat.

As for uninformed. That’s pure PR and spin to make the rural poor appear to fit into the “ignorant. stupid, uneducated and uninformed” mold. All you have to do is drive around the North and, if you are observant, you will notice Satellite dishes sprouting up like oyster mushrooms attached to some very strange structures. Some you may even wonder if they even have power. Even if you can’t afford Sat Cable you can get all the government stations plus ASTV and PTV (when it was on the air). There is a huge abundance of Community radio stations now, some Red, some Yellow, some specialty and some neutral. When you walk around anywhere in the North, just listen. You will hear all types of radio and TV coming from the strangest places. The rural poor listen when they are working, eating or playing. They now have information in abundance and they can pick and choose which stations or information they wish to digest. It may even be fair to say they have an information overload now with the internet as well

Therefore, if you are one of those that think the Kwai are ignorant, stupid, uneducated and uninformed remember they are watching the same TV, listening to the same radio and reading the same papers as you are. Provided you can read and understand Thai, otherwise, they have a huge advantage over you and you may be the one that is in effect ignorant. stupid, uneducated and uninformed.

“Nothing in the world is more dangerous than a sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”

Enemy of the State - Who Me!!!!! #5

"Every father should remember that one day his son will follow his example instead of his advice"


If you think I’m a subversive, you have to understand from where I come.

I am a product of the political system.

I may be in ways as far from a farmer as you can get and at the same time as close as one can get without getting dirty. It’s never confused me. I know where I stand and what I stand for. It does confuse others that don‘t understand.

My father was a relatively affluent businessman and as such I was raised in a very wealthy area, went to the best schools (although I didn’t apply myself) and wanted for little. Looking back I had it all and I was still greedy. I was privileged and I knew it and so did my father.

Every vacation when my friends were going to the beach or the mountains, I was sent to my aunt and uncles. They had 6 children lived in a 4 room house with no power, no bathroom or running water. We not only had power and TV at home we had hot and cold running water and a bath tub. I was not only living in the sticks. I was living with farmers. At the time it seemed a great hardship but looking back over time my father was a very wise man. The extent of his understanding, I didn’t realize until I was well into my thirties.

Life on the farm was hard. More so 50 years ago than now, but it's still back breaking work.  Up at dawn and out from exhaustion in the early evening. The food was short at times. My father gave them a stipend to help offset the added cost of the City Kid. One thing they did was talk and share their experiences every day; there wasn’t much else to do. They were close, very close, and I was welcomed into their family unit. My aunt and uncle are long gone but I still see and talk to all my cousins on a regular basis. They all managed to drag themselves out of the clutches of poverty and all have good educations, jobs and a wonderful outlook on life.

This part of my life chiseled the person I am now. When I wasn’t at the farm I was often sitting on the floor of our house listening to my father and his friends who were all very politically active. My father even served a term in the House, some of his friends doing the same. Politics was life in our house and my father was involved until the day he died at 88. But alas, as most young people I was idealistic wanted change now and didn’t embrace my father’s politics. I also didn’t understand them for a long time. His national politics were short lived by his choosing. My father was much more comfortable with provincial and local issues, he could see the fruit of his efforts. He never again went into the spotlight but spent his time in the shadows. One thing I learned was that everything happened in the shadows, everything. The guy in the spotlight is just there to mouth the words of the shadow people. Always.

While my father was very comfortable talking to large groups, I am not. If I was I most likely would have entered politics via the front door. I’m much more comfortable just talking to people, one on one, getting my point across. It’s surprising how much can be accomplished if you just put your ideas forward and let the other party chew on it for a bit. Often they eventually come up with something similar to what you had in mind in the first place. I’m proud to be one of the shadow people and if that makes me a subversive, so be it.

“Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth -- more than ruin -- more even than death.... Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit.” Bertrand Russell

Enemy of the State - Thomas the Train and the UDD #4

“The odds are six to five that the light at the end of the tunnel is the headlight of an oncoming train“.


We had been passing by the Train station in Chiang Mai for days and every time my son asked if we could go see the train. I have to admit that it looked like Thomas in that incredibly stupid kids show from England that seems to have brainwashed the young set, before they turn into Power Rangers.
I’ve driven by the train station a thousand times but I’ve never bothered to drive in to it as the train is about the last mode of transport I’d ever use in Thailand. The Reds have had a stage set up there for ages and they pipe out the Protest in Bangkok at a high decibel level. Sometimes they go to the traffic light and give out leaflets or little pieces of red cloth. I thought lets kill two birds with one stone and off we went to see Thomas and the Reds.

It didn’t take long to look at Thomas so we headed over to the red encampment. There were only about 30 people sitting under an open sided tent watching the rally from Bangkok. I’m not sure what I was expecting but I wasn’t expecting what we found. There wasn’t a single person there except a lady in her early fifties that was wearing anything red. The people were all very subdued and just watched the protest in silence. I was expecting the hardcore radical reds would be here CM51 or something, but these people were just normal folks. The kind you would find in BigC or Makro any day of the week. Wasn’t a single one that would bring about even a pang of caution if you passed them in the street in the middle of the night. None of the radical drunk element that was constantly put forward on ASTV, I was mildly disappointed. I was hoping to talk to someone that had real fire in their heart. Nothing.

I talked to the older lady for some time. She told me that most of the Reds from Chiang Mai had gone to Bangkok. That they all had to stay behind because of commitments. They came to the Railway station to lend support when they could. There were always different people that came but they got to know one another and that they all agreed and supported the Reds in Bangkok. That they wanted new elections and for Abhisit to dissolve the house.

This eloquent, vastly intelligent and pursuasive lady even got me to buy one of their Red shirts for 200Bt.  Picture of Thaksin on the front - DOUBLE STANDARDS on the back.  So away we went distancing ourselves from both the Reds and Thomas with new red shirt in hand. 

I have to wonder if this exchange with this older lady and the purchase of one of their shirts has skewed my judgment and pushed me over the line of neutrality. Probably not. I can always argue with my alter ego that it was purchased to give the shirt to my son, later in life, and explain what went on in the Red Era of Thai Politics. BUT that argument with myself went out the window when we passed a TukTuk driver sitting in the shade and he just smiled and nodded his head in approval.

Enemy of the State - You Gotta Make a Living. #2

Nothing too spectacular about the little restaurant we are sitting in in the Bandu area of Chiang Rai.   A very nice couple and their son run it.   It is cleaner than most places, the woman is an incredible cook and they have a huge wide screen TV.

We ate there a lot in our few days in the Rai.   Convenience, being treated like family and the food kept bringing us in.   A short block away was the Chiang Rai PAD office and across the Street was the EC office, not that I felt the need to go to either.

It was a convenient place to watch the Red rally that was on most of the time. Occasionally the owner would all of a sudden change the channel to National Geographic and we would sit there for 20 minutes watching grey whales or similar frolic in the ocean. Then as fast as they arrived, the whales were replaced with the UDD rally again and it was back to the normal programming.

This happened a number of times and I was bewildered at why, but didn't want to ask.

Then one afternoon I was leaning against a car waiting for my family to come along. All of a sudden, the owner looked up the street in the direction of the PAD office 2 guys were about 30 yards away. With lightning reflexes, he changed the channel back to Lions on the Kalahari. Then I realized. Sometimes you just have to do things in business to keep your clientèle happy and survive. I did not have the heart to tell him that when I walked past the PAD office earlier they were watching Red TV.

A force to reckon with

In this excellent article from the Bangkok Post,  Dr. Thitinan Pongsudhirak - Director of the Institute of Security and International Studies, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University has boiled it all down into a concise form that anyone can digest.   We reprint the article here in it's entirety.

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Reds Are A Force to

Reckon With

By the admission of the acting government spokesman, the anti-government red shirts under the banner of United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) are now prevalent in no fewer than 38 of Thailand's 76 provinces, predominantly in the populous Northeast and North.


But the government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, its backers in the army and elsewhere, and the yellow-shirted People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) still do not acknowledge the claims and grievances of the red shirts.
On the one hand, they are portrayed by the current officialdom as mere financial lackeys of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. On the other, they are sometimes depicted as ignorant and gullible peasants, who cannot see beyond Thaksin's manipulative populism.

The catalyst for the latest round of Thailand 's brinkmanship between the reds and their opponents centers on the upcoming verdict on Thaksin's assets trial involving 76 billion baht.

Thaksin is mobilizing all resources within his power to whip up red-shirted sentiment. The ringleaders of the reds have visited him time and again near and far, in Dubai and Cambodia, to receive instructions. His media offensive through Twitter and phone-ins are on full throttle.

His opponents, who hold the levers of power in Bangkok, are equally in full swing. Hardly a day goes by without official demonisation and intimidation of Thaksin and the red shirts. That the rhetoric and ominous posturing have been ratcheted up by both sides is not surprising. The reds see the verdict as the culmination of a long offensive of injustice since the Sept 19, 2006 coup. Thaksin merely symbolizes their quest for social justice and their struggle for democratic rights. The opposing yellows and their allied army, government and swathes of intelligentsia see it as the final act of political decapitation short of physical demise for a usurper and a crook. But the many who believe the reds will simply sputter out and disappear when Thaksin's money supply runs dry, are gravely mistaken at the expense of all. The reds have become much more organic and spontaneous than Thaksin himself could ever have imagined when he was ousted from power.

Even a short visit to the reds' Northeast heartland, such as Ubon Ratchathani province, can provide glimpses of a full-blooded social movement with attendant small-scale fund-raising, symbols, assorted paraphernalia like caps and T-shirts, and pent-up anger and frustration. The reds of Ubon are split into seven groups, all with different approaches and methods but with the same arguments and objectives. Their verbiage entwines Thaksin, democracy and justice.

For some reds in that province, it is all about Thaksin, his populist policies, attention to the poor and downtrodden, and leadership that took Thailand competitively into the 21st century. For others, the top priority is not Thaksin but "democracy," which was subverted when post-election winning parties that should have governed were dissolved repeatedly while losing parties and turncoat factions were given the green light to rule by the men in green. For all the reds in Ubon, injustice and "double standards" are ubiquitous in officialdom. When all parties have bought votes, dissolving fewer than all for vote fraud reeks of unfairness. To them, Thaksin was corrupt just like those who came before him and who will come hereafter. They see his pro-poor policy legacy and Thailand 's modernization for the 21st century as the difference.

Alarmingly, the reds in Ubon have set up UDD schools for education about justice. Some are militant and intransigent. But most still want a just and fair Thailand to be able to move forward in the world. As long as the reds are dismissed and denied, the fear-mongering of a "people's army" will find resonance and germination that are dangerous for Thailand's medium-term horizon. Similar stories can be recounted from Udon Thani, Si Sa Ket and a host of other rural provinces in the Northeast and North. They do not include the silent fence-sitters in the other 38 provinces who know that something does not add up about justice in Thailand but are not prepared to act.

The pro-Abhisit coalition has been effective at dissembling and marginalising opposing views. The PAD, in particular, are expert assassins of character, cowing and intimidating those who want to activate and broaden the middle ground for a way forward, into silence. If they cannot see the reds beyond Thaksin and his assets, Thailand will see much more pain and grief in store. What the government spokesman should be telling his bosses and backers is not how to suppress the reds in a three-pronged strategy from local authorities to the draconian Internal Security Act and military-run Emergency Decree, but how to listen to these reds and wean them off Thaksin.

The challenge for the government now, as it has been for Thailand's powers-that-be since coup days, is to eliminate Thaksin for his corruption and abuses of power while accommodating his red columns for their grievances, demands and expectations.

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Pictures reprinted courtesy of Nick Nostitz, Photojournalist and Author, Bangkok, Thailand