PACIFIC PERSPECTIVES:
OUT WITH THE NEW,
IN WITH THE OLD
The tragedy in Thailand
proceeds apace
8 May 2014
BY TOM PLATE
Los Angeles - More than almost any
political crisis on the face of the earth today – more than in Russia, Ukraine
and Crimea; even more, in a way, than in dreadfully miserable Syria – it is the
crisis in Thailand that seems so sad.
Because this tragedy need not have happened - not at all.
Very many people live in the shadow of unelected governments that they dislike,
or even under elected governments for which they did not vote and perhaps even
despise. But in this world (and quite possibly even in the next) rarely does
one get everything he or she politically wants, certainly not all the time, and
maybe not even often.
But
in Thailand some people – too many people – do want it all, and to achieve that
aim they are prepared to deny everyone else almost everything.
And so one feels terribly sorry for all those many people in Thailand that
voted for the government of Yingluck Shinawatra (who became the 28th prime minister –
and first woman PM - in Thailand’s history from the 2011 general election) and
who now find this nice and hard-working lady out of the job.
Why? Essentially because a smaller number of people don’t like the political
taste of a larger number of people.
What
is so loathsome is the selection of this fine lady as the punching bag of the
Bangkok elite, which has just pulled off what many are terming a “judicial
coup.” Unable to beat Yingluck’s coalition in an honest us-against-them
election, the elite’s allies on the so-called Constitutional Court (packed with
anti-government elitists) found cause the other day to disqualify the PM and
much of her cabinet. The ruling - that a series of sudden appointment maneuvers
by the government was legally invalid and required dismissal - required of the
court a reasoning style from the legal school of Alice in Wonderland.
The ruling creates a bad precedence for governance; worse yet, it may pave the
way toward a civil war of un-Thai-like violence. It is, after all, the
view of no less than Ramkhamhaeng University
Political Scientist Pandit Chanrojanakij, that the justices exercised
unwarranted political power in order to undermine political parties allied to
Thaksin.
“The
rulings of the Constitutional Court in recent months have decreased the
credibility of the court itself,” said Pandit. “If the law cannot create
principles equally used by everyone, violence in the future may be inevitable.”
Behind the anti-Yingluck coalition, of course, is the deep
hatred of her brother, Thaksin, also expelled from the PM’s office -- not by
court coup in 2006 but by even less subtle military coup.
The hatred that gushes at Thaksin, in self-exile, seems unquenchable and,
because it is so limitless, unreasonable. Perhaps the closest hate-analogue I
can think of in our own politics here was the American Left’s inconsolable
loathing of Richard Nixon, whom now, in fact, history seems to be treating with
a little more respect (reflecting his brilliant opening to China, surprisingly
expansive domestic programs, etc., etc.).
Consider the arguable parallels. Thaksin’s 2001-2006 reign coincided with the
greatest uptick ever in the Thai economy. His government was repeatedly
reelected. There were many policy innovations, in health and income
redistribution. To many voters outside of Bangkok, he offered hope for escape
from the cruel box of poverty. And yet he was brought down, they said, for his “corruption”
- as if he were the first politician in the history of Thailand to (allegedly)
take personal shortcuts while in office. Whatever …
The anti-Thaksin crowd’s dubious bile was then piled on his younger sister
Yingluck, a lady of substantial charm and I-try-hard work habits. The Thai
Constitutional Court that invalidated her as PM thus jumped in with a short
sighted movement that took a country suddenly doing so well and yet managed to
begin to bring it down.
I find it all beyond sad. I suppose some people in Thailand find me biased
because of my work as the author of Conversations With Thaksin. This
was the 2011 book that tried to tell the former PM’s side of the story as much
as possible using his own words.
In 2010, I spent a week and a half with him in Dubai where he has been in
frustrated exile. Frankly, I found him pleasant, smart and patriotic about
Thailand. Did I find him self-serving? May I ask you this: Have you have
ever heard of any politician who was not?
In fact, his enemies have lauded this book for how it presents Thaksin’s views
with plain candor, almost as much as his supporters have embraced it for
letting the controversial man have his say. But that is what true journalism
does: it seeks to embrace unblemished reality.
I wish Thailand itself would do that. Instead, it is – at
least to me – on a course of serious self-destruction that seems totally
unreal. Little in today’s political world makes me sadder. Almost nothing
terrible going on now is less necessary than this nightmare in Thailand. This
is a remarkable tragedy: the utter self-destructiveness of it all. We can only
hope that someone or something inside Thailand can bring it back from the
brink.
U.S. journalist and columnist
Tom Plate is the Distinguished Scholar of Asian and Pacific Studies at Loyola
Marymount University, and the author of the Giants of Asia quartet, which
includes books on Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore, Mahathir of Malaysia, Ban Ki-moon
of South Korea and Thaksin Shinawatra of Thailand.
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