Asia Sentinel
Tuesday, 02 December 2008
Thailand and the Coup for the Rich
Written by Giles Ji Ungpakorn
The constitutional courts, as expected, disband a democratically
elected party
Thailand’s Constitutional Courts dissolved the country’s
democratically elected governing party for the second time Tuesday,
forcing the government to resign. This follows the refusal of the
Armed Forces and the Police to follow government instructions to clear
the two international airports blocked by armed People’s Alliance for
Democracy fascists.
The royalist alliance against the government is made up of the fascist
PAD, the military, the police, the judiciary, the mainstream media,
the "Democrat Party," most middle class academics and The Queen. They
are all behind this judicial coup. A leading Democrat Party MP is one
of the leaders of the illegal blockade of Bangkok’s two airports.
The Yellow-shirted PAD have armed guards which have repeatedly shot at
opponents. They constantly use violence and now demand "joint patrols"
with the police. The PAD has constantly broken the law, and yet they
are untouchable. On the rare occasion when PAD leaders are forced to
attend court, they are given bail and allowed to go back and commit
the same crimes over and over again.
The majority of the Thai population, who are poor, face a double
whammy. First, the elite royalists are doing everything possible to
take away their basic democratic rights. Secondly, mass job losses are
occurring among workers in the tourist industry as a result of the
airport blockade. Jobs in agriculture and electronics are also
affected and of course we are faced with the serious world economic
crisis. The elites do not care if the Thai economy is trashed and
Thailand returns to a poor third world nation. In such nations the
elites continue to live the same lives as the rich in the developed
world. The PAD protestors are middle-class extremists who do not have
to go to work, hence their prolonged protests.
We are constantly told by the conservatives that the poor are too
stupid to deserve the right to vote. The army staged a coup in 2006
and rewrote the constitution in order to reduce the democratic space
and also to absolve themselves of any wrongdoing. The electorate have
repeatedly voted in overwhelming numbers for the government party,
whether it be Thai Rak Thai, which brought the former Prime Minister,
Thaksin Shinawatra, or its successor, Peoples Power Party. Now
People’s Power politicians are moving to the new Pua Thai Party. Will
a fair election be held? Or will the elites engineer a "fix" to make
sure that their people win?
What is the root cause of this crisis?
The root cause of this crisis is not the corruption of the Thaksin
government in the past. It isn't about vote-buying, good governance,
civil rights or the rule of law. Politicians of all parties, including
the Democrats, are known to buy votes. The elites, whether
politicians, civil servants or the military, have a history of gross
corruption. Even when they don't break the law, they have become rich
on the backs of Thai workers and small farmers. The Democrat Party is
stuffed with such millionaires.
Ironically, the Thai Rak Thai party was helping to reduce the
importance of vote-buying because it was the first party in decades to
have real policies which were beneficial to the poor. They introduced
a universal health care scheme and Keynesian village funds. People
voted on the basis of such policies. The Democrats and the
conservative elites hate the alliance between Thaksin's business party
and the poor. They hate the idea that a government was using public
funds to improve the lives of the poor. This is why the
anti-government alliance is against democracy. The PAD have suggested
reducing the number of elected MPs and a recipe to do away with the
principle of "one person one vote". So the root cause of the problem
is the conservative elite's contempt for the poor and their contempt
for democracy. They are prepared to break the law when it suits them.
What is the solution?
Business leaders and the royalist elites are demanding an un-elected
national government. The Democrat Party leader has "volunteered" to
provide the Prime Minister! Such a national government would complete
the judicial coup for the rich. It would be a victory for the PAD and
a defeat for the electorate.
The Red Shirts, who are organized by government politicians, are the
only hope for Thai democracy. They have now become a genuine
pro-democracy mass movement of the poor. This is what is meant by
"civil society", not the PAD fascists. Thai academia fails to grasp
this basic fact. But the Red Shirts are not a pure force. Many have
illusions about ex-Prime Minister Thaksin. They overlook his gross
abuse of human rights in the south and the war on drugs, in which
hundreds of people were shot as drug dealers without arrest, trial or
proof. But these human rights issues are also totally ignored by the
PAD and their friends.
Throughout this three-year crisis, the majority of the Thai NGO
movement (especially the NGO-Coordinating Committee) has failed to
support democracy. Many welcomed the 2006 military coup. Many
supported the military constitution. Now they are either silent or are
echoing the demands of the army chief, who said last week that the
government should resign.
At no point have they attempted to build a pro-democracy social
movement. Many believe that the poor are "uneducated and lack enough
information to vote". The honorable examples are the Midnight
University in Chiang-Mai, some sections of the labour movement, groups
of new generation NGO activists and Turn Left.
The economic crisis
Millions of jobs are being destroyed by the world economic crisis and
the unrest in Thai society. People are being driven back into poverty.
Yet the Democrat Party, the military, the conservative elites and the
mainstream NGO movement do not have a clue or do not care one jot
about the necessary policies to defend the living standards of the
poor. They chant about the King's Sufficiency Economy and the need for
fiscal discipline. In other words, the poor must trim their spending
and learn to live with their poverty while the rich continue to live
in luxury.
We desperately need massive government spending on infrastructure, job
protection and a serious expansion of welfare. The value-added tax
should be reduced or abolished and higher direct taxes should be
levied on all the rich elites without exception. The bloated military
budget should be cut. Wages should be raised among workers. Poor
farmers should be protected. This will only happen in a climate of
genuine democracy. This is why we must oppose this second "coup for
the rich".
Giles Ji Ungpakorn is an associate professor at the Faculty of
Political Science, Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. He regularly
comments on Thai affairs.
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