We visited Thailand in the summer of 2000 and lived there from 2001 through October 2006. Fran, my wife, taught at International schools, starting with Rose Marie’s Academy. I taught at a Thai public school called Preasertislam. When I wasn’t teaching, I was writing articles for the Bangkok Post. Virtually all the friends I made were Thai teachers. We traveled everywhere with them. I got to know Thais and Thailand pretty well.
However, the Thailand I read about in our U. S. newspapers is very foreign to me. I doubt that these writers deserve the title “journalist.” Perhaps it is because they rely too much on our State Department’s press releases, which often wildly miss the mark, due to someone’s over-active imagination. I refrain from making the accusation that it is a deliberate “disinformation campaign,” realizing the NSA will be storing this piece in its document file, until declassified some fifty years from now.
According to the foreign affairs experts writing about the unrest in Thailand, it is the wealthy elite and monarchists who are trying to oust Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and her ruling Pheua Thai Party, which was duly elected to govern and is supported by the poor people of Thailand. A classic struggle: government of and for the poor, against wealthy autocrats. This, of course, is bullshit. (I use the term “bulllshit,” because it is the one English word I taught to one Thai teacher, only to find all of them using it! I guess some English is easier to learn than others.)
First, I would like to point out that the Pheua Thai Party only polled 47.8% of the vote; not a majority.
Secondly, Yingluck is the sister of ousted PM Thaksin Shinawatra, the multi-billionaire ousted by the military in 2006. He lives in Dubai and governs through his sister. He owns the Pheua Thai Party, which is a reincarnation of his old Thai Rak Thai Party, which was disbanded for corruption and voter fraud. While feigning concern for the poor of Thailand, had Thaksin done as much for them as he did for himself and his cronies, there would be no poor in Thailand.
Finally, Thaksin Shinawatra does not believe in democracy. He made the pitch for “Singaporean democracy.” That is essentially a one-party system where they allow three members of the opposition to win a seat. So, why did our government oppose the coup that threw him out? Was it because former President George H. W. Bush invited Thaksin to join the Carlyle investment group? I s it because Thaksin employs former Bush Secretary of State James A. Baker to lobby for him, along with a PR firm owned by Kenneth Adelman? What is the saying about birds of a feather?
Anyone interested in the legacy of Thaksin Shinawatra need only peruse the front pages of the Bangkok Post the years he was in power. I remember these events. Thaksin declared a war on drugs and said dealers should turn themselves in to police or they would be shot on sight. No arrest, no trial. If “suspected” of dealing drugs, they could be shot. So 2800 people were killed in the three months following Thaksin’s announcement. No one was held accountable for the murders, and there is no evidence these were all drug dealers. If that isn’t human rights abuse, I’d like to know, what is?
The Malay-speaking, mostly Muslin, southern provinces of Thailand were largely peaceful when administered by the Thai Army. PM Thaksin changed that. He ordered the Army out and replaced them with police unfamiliar with the language and customs of the area. Their high-handed tactics led to civil unrest, in which over 10,000 people have died. The Tak Bae village massacre and the Krue Mosque killings followed–fueling hatred along Muslin/Buddhist lines. Then, a leading Muslim Human Rights lawyer and Thaksin critic suddenly and mysteriously disappeared. The case was never solved.
PM Thaksin Shinawatra did establish the 30 Bhat health care programs. Any Thai who needed medical care could get it for 30 Bhat ($1 US.) This was great, and I found it an impressive accomplishment, for which he deserves credit. Unfortunately, he was uninterested in fully funding it and left that task to later governments. The Program survived, and is one of the few things to really benefit the poor.
Thaksin’s son, Panthongtae, went into the advertising business. He rented an office in a government-owned building in downtown Bangkok. Daddy Thaksin thought the rent too high and had it reduced to a ridiculously-small amount, especially for what was charged others. Then, there was the building of the subway. Daddy made sure his son had the concession for all the subway advertising. With a daddy like PM Thaksin, how can one not be successful?
Not only did his son receive his help, Thaksin was even more generous helping his already-wealthy wife. He had a prime piece of Bangkok real estate, owned by a government enterprise, assessed at a fraction of what it was worth and sold to his wife, Potjaman, for pennies-on-the-dollar. He was convicted in absentia for this crime. He did have legal counsel.
After purchasing a controlling interest in Air Asia, Thaksin waived or had Air Asia’s airport fees reduced, but did nothing for the competing airlines. That, of course, lined his pockets even more. He owned AIS telecommunications, so he established a telecommunications tax to be paid only by his competitors. Obviously, PM Thaksin knows how Asian capitalism works!
Finally, he really upset the Thai nation when he sold his telecom to a Singapore company, after changing some laws to make it legal and so he could avoid $400 million in capital gains taxes. Then, it was discovered he had a secret, off-shore account in the Bahamas.
The above is only a sample of PM Thaksin’s stunts. I could see the coup coming. People were fed up with the corruption. When the coup came, people were giving flowers to the soldiers and celebrating. They would take pictures of each other sitting on the tanks. It was party time. Yet our government denounced the coup.
So what are all the demonstrations about? It is not poor, democracy-loving Thais against the wealthy, elite, authoritarian monarchist, as portrayed in Western news media. Quite the opposite. It is a battle between Thais fed up with corruption, wealthy or not, against the Red Shirts that were paid 500 Bhat per day to try and bring down the previous government. The paymaster? You guessed it–Thaksin Shinawatra and his allies, perhaps even his Carlyle Group buddies.
The spark that caused the current explosion was PM Yingluck Shinawatra’s bill. She forced it through the lower house to grant amnesty for her brother, the return of his money, and a Get Out of Jail Free card for all the Red shirts who set fire to downtown Bangkok and are guilty of many murders, along with her attempt to change the Thai Constitution, so she could control the Thai Senate. That took place around 4:00 a.m. one morning, when she thought no one was looking.
Talk about a tipping point. She found it.
Below, Dr. Donart leads school children in song during his term in Thailand.
