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The rally will undoubtedly witness statements that the Thai government will construe as lèse majesté, or insulting to the royal family and possibly dangerous to national security under recent and standing legislation.
Early warnings appeared on an anti-Thaksin website on Wednesday, along with an analysis that Thaksin was reinventing the Red Shirt resistance movement and planning to shake up the country. According to the Thai-language article, Thaksin and the Red Shirts were plotting to throw out the king’s Privy Council, the leadership of the anti-Thaksin People’s Alliance for Democracy, and Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.
Not to be outdone by its affiliate, ASTV gave Thaksin a health-related thumbs-down on its Thursday broadcast. One of its interviewed guests told the audience, “Thaksin has cancer.” When asked for proof, he said, “Let’s just say that there are some documents.”
The Red Shirts have endured an onslaught of government actions since the 2006 coup, but many think they have only themselves to blame after the violent skirmishes they were involved in during anti-government demonstrations this year. They managed to lance through the roof of the prime minister’s car while he was in it, beat up his driver, smash the door of a well-known hotel in Pattaya during an ASEAN summit, and somehow commandeer at least one liquid petroleum gas tanker, hinting they would use it as a weapon.
The Red Shirts, in fact, were the first to introduce violent tactics against their political opponents, tearing down a stage in the northeast Udorn capital when a People’s Alliance for Democracy speaker was due to deliver an address.
If Thaksin had encouraged his supporters to maintain a more peaceful motif, he may have been able to return as prime minister, cancer or sans. But with his own hands bloodied during his tenure in office by no less than 2,500 bodies in Thai streets, alleys, kitchens and rice fields – shot by police but attributed to gangs killing one another to maintain silence – horrible violence against Muslims in the south and flippant disregard for a responsible media and even less for honest politicians – if there is any such animal these days – Thaksin’s calling card has become more of an oddity than an opportunity.
Because of his previous misdeeds and current stirring of unrest at home and abroad, he is indeed an enemy of the Thai state. So what do the Red Shirts, who support him and claim to want him back not just in the country but in power, expect?
Thai police have assured government leaders and the elite that they will be able to handle the Red Shirts at Sanam Luang on Saturday, and that absolutely no storming of the Parliament building will be allowed. While police have a one-sided historical record regarding human rights violations, by Saturday they will find themselves under even more pressure to back off from nasty things like torture. It is very common for police in Thailand to use techniques that would be frowned on in Guantanamo Bay – placing plastic bags over the heads of adolescents to make them confess, slapping on serious charges with a promise of halving them if the suspect confesses, and finding Burmese immigrants hanging in police jail cells killed by their own shoelaces.
Torture in Thailand will be taking a yearlong hit beginning Friday, with the Asian Human Rights Commission spearheading a campaign to press Thailand and other countries in Asia to eliminate the practice.
The program will face extensive reluctance at best, absolute resistance at worst. There is a harsh reality to face – many of the criminals that police deal with either sporadically or continuously are hardened souls who would not lose a second’s sleep over slitting your throat. So “going easy” won’t be an attractive suggestion for the reform of police techniques. And on a national basis, rulers know what hazards are involved in dealing with violent people you can’t trust.
An inbred impression has been created, and feeds upon itself, that bad people have to be dealt with harshly. The downside of this impression is that bad people are often not as bad as they are presumed to be, and they end up facing harsh interrogation, up to and including torture, because of who they are alleged to be and the dangers that they are presumed to pose for national security and public safety. If the AHRC can overcome these wrong impressions on the one hand, and on the other help insure that torture is significantly reduced and impeded, then it will have gone a long way to meeting its admirable objectives.
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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.)
