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Congress appears to be limp by insisting that pay raises to the executives who brought the American people this financial mess be limited rather than totally stopped. This latest fiasco, let alone the Iraq War, Bush’s failure to spend productive time in office leading up to 9/11, and the economic edge-of-depression state of the U.S. economy, has brought to the fore major political problems undermining the United States’ infrastructure.
In response to some of the goings-on, Americans Veterans for Peace (http://www.veteransforpeace.org/) pulled a Thai People’s Alliance for Democracy act by occupying a federal building in protest against the Iraq War. While the group was small with only nine involved in the protest, their message was clear – Bush and Cheney are war criminals and deserve punishment. The sentiment is reflected in the Impeach Bush organization at www.votetoimpeach.org.
American political institutions on the civic side are not necessarily unique since they are reflected in other countries where protests against government are allowed. But they are unique in the extent of freedom that protesters have to put their messages across and in the protection that both police and the courts provide before, during and after protests.
Thai protesters are not so lucky, although the PAD has seized Government House and is not ready to leave soon. In Thailand groups and individuals like the PAD do not have ready resource in an impartial police force and a court system that should have changed with times in terms of human rights legislation and litigation, but most importantly, in terms of law enforcement on the local level.
While courts and police are affected by political considerations, the courts are far less so. It is the police once again who act as the main culprit in silencing dissent and ensuring that the government retains its top – and only – billing as the voice people hear in printed media, television, radio, and other public information systems.
Sondhi Limthongkul, the pontificating leader of the PAD appears on his group’s televised broadcasts from the stage set up at Government House to lambast others, often unfairly and by begging the question with heavy references to loyalty to the monarchy. But Sondhi has also been making valid points recently with skewed references to the lack of ability of the foreign media to understand what is really happening in Thailand, or what the PAD is really about. Sondhi went on to cite ever-present government control of the media, an area the U.S. Embassy, in its 175th year of friendly Thai relations celebrated this year, has not mentioned in a meaningful fashion.
Some time ago a foreign member of the international press corps, working for a major U.S. weekly magazine, confided that she had never seen her magazine’s management pussy-foot as much as they did to avoid criticizing then Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. According to the press corps member, the magazine was afraid to lose highly lucrative advertising put up by the Tourism Authority of Thailand, something that would surely occur if any unflattering news about Thaksin got on the magazine’s pages. The even managed to put Thaksin on their front cover as a dynamic leader and not as a dangerous precedent.
The far-reaching impact of this kind of censorship, whether in foreign or local media, is disturbing. But it is reassuring for the minds of those who have a mission to change Thai politics, as Sondhi wants to do – albeit for his own interests. A major shift in Thai politics is necessary.
While going through almost Communist-like machinations in party block voting, control and partitioning of the electorate, Thai political parties are created, organized and run not by those who really have the interests of the nation at heart as they are prone to spout, but by those who see a clear opportunity to make themselves wealthy, divvy up national coffers among friends and family members, and continue to exercise that special type of administration that uses raw power to silence dissent, thwart meaningful democratic institutions from growing, and physically eliminate, if needed, those who “doth protest too much.” For example, the case of Somchai Neelaphaijit, a lawyer representing Muslim protesters in the southern region of Thailand comes to mind.
This activist was abducted by Thai police on Mar.12, 2004 and subsequently killed, although no one can locate his body or identify the people “upstairs” who ordered the hit. Despite being referred to such international agencies as the European Union, little progress has been made in the case. Why? Because those involved have close affiliations with the government and leading politicians, or are in fact themselves members of government and politicians.
The removal of individuals by fatal violence is a time-dishonored technique in the Land of Smiles, and the practice is not about to come to a screeching halt because of protests by human rights groups. Indeed, the last time the United States expressed concern over Thailand’s human rights abuses, it was told to shut up and called a useless friend.
Against this backdrop efforts by the PAD, as faulted as they are, face seeming defeat unless information in the Thai media becomes unhinged from state controls. And nations such as the United States, while needing to protect commercial interests, also have to better emphasize with Thailand a dire need to reform human rights protection in the kingdom.
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(Frank G. Anderson is the Thailand representative of American Citizens Abroad. He was a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer to Thailand from 1965-67, working in community development. A freelance writer and founder of northeast Thailand's first local English language newspaper, the Korat Post – www.thekoratpost.com -- he has spent over eight years in Thailand "embedded" with the local media. He has an MBA in information management and an associate degree in construction technology. ©Copyright Frank G. Anderson.)
