Thai Turmoil Was No

8/8/2019 Thai Turmoil Was No

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Thai turmoil was no class

warBERTIL LINTNER

June 8, 2010 - 6:42AM

Comments 4

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Recent violence in Thailand was not about class at all. Photo: PaulaBronstein/Getty Images

We have seen the recent unrest in Thailand, with soldiers in thestreets and protesters clamoring for democracy, before in South-East Asia. But was this really a clash between the "the haves" and

"have-nots" as depicted by an almost unanimous chorus of foreignmedia?
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As battles between anti-government protesters and the militarykilled 85 people and injured 1402, a Western academic claimed that"the farmers of Thailand have stood up". It was supposed to havebeen a more or less spontaneous uprising by society's poor anddisadvantaged against the urban elite in Bangkok.

Superficially the scenes may have looked similar to the 1988protests for democracy in Burma or perhaps even the 1998 uprisingin Indonesia, which led to the fall of Suharto. But there arefundamental differences between those events and Thailand's "RedShirt" protest movement the popular name for the groupingofficially known as the United Front for Democracy againstDictatorship (UDD). The list of casualties speaks for itself. Of thosekilled, 11 were soldiers and policemen, as were 411 of the wounded.Unlike pro-democracy movements elsewhere, the UDD had itsarmed units and was far from the "non-violent" force it purported tobe. The UDD also became infamous for its attacks on the media.Several journalists, both Thai and foreign, were threatened by UDDmembers and, on May 19, staff at a local television station had toflee for their lives when a mob set fire to their building, apparently"dissatisfied" with the coverage they were getting.

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This should have come as no surprise: anyone who had visitedRed Shirt rallies would have been struck by the language used.

Although "democracy" was a catchphrase, the rest of the messagewas one of intolerance and even hatred of anyone who did notagree with the protesters, often peppered with obscenities. Andthere were always armed men around, dressed in black fatigues.

It should also not be forgotten that the movement was launched onMarch 12 two weeks after Thai courts had seized $1.4 billion ofassets held in Thai banks of the family of Thaksin Shinawatra, theformer prime minister who was ousted in 2006 and is wanted formultiple counts of corruption. But he must have had significantamounts of money saved elsewhere, because a local Red Shirt

leader in Thailand's rural north-east told German press agency DPAon May 23: "Thaksin spent hundreds of millions of baht to sponsorthe protest." Apart from funding from Thaksin, now in exile in Dubai,the Red Shirts are believed to have also received financial backingfrom other extremely wealthy families allied with him.

And although tens of thousands of people from impoverished partsof the north-east were mobilised to take part on the protests, it issignificant that there is not a single representative of disadvantagedsections of society in the UDD leadership. The main leader, JatupornPromphan, served as secretary in the ministry of natural resourcesand environment in the Thaksin government and, in 2003, he andother officials ordered more than 1000 police to retake a large tract


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of land in the south, which had been taken over by poor farmers.They accused the government of leasing the land to big palm oilproducers instead of redistributing it to the farmers. Jatuporn thendefended the police action, saying the protesters were "armed" and"broke the law". During his years in power, Thaksin himself tried to

stifle the media, silence critics of his regime and launched avicious "war on drugs", in which 2000 people were killed inextrajudicial executions.

The clash in Thailand should be described as a clash between twooligarchies. On one side, the traditional elite consisting of the oldSino-Thai plutocracy that for years have enjoyed a symbiotic andmutually beneficial relationship with the military, bureaucracy andmonarchy and the new nouveau-riche elite that began to emergeduring the Vietnam War era, when the economy took off andculminated in the boom of the 1980s. Lacking the politicalconnections of the old elite, Thaksin and his business associatesbuilt up their own power base through a string of populist policies,which won many admirers in certain parts of the country. However,the political confusion among many of the Red Shirt followers isdemonstrated in a UDD Chiang Mai cafe: on the wall hang side byside portraits of Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Che Guevara and Thaksin.

Significantly, however, the Red Shirt movement has remained alargely regional phenomenon, mainly in the northeast. UDD

influence in the central plains is considerably weaker and virtuallynon-existent in the south. In those parts of the country strongholds of Thaksin's sworn enemies, the Yellow Shirts thereare also many poor and disadvantaged people.

Rather than being the "class war" that the UDD likes to talk about,and the Western media seemed to believe it is, it is a conflictbetween old and new money, which is also pitting poor as well asrich in different parts of the country against each other. This divideis a serious problem, which any Thai government and seriouspolitical force would have to address and not take advantage of

for their own respective political agendas.

Whatever the outcome of the present crisis, the future of Thaidemocracy does not look good, nor does the prospect of nationalreconciliation. In fact, a country that only a few years ago was seenas a pillar of economic and political stability risks becoming a failedstate. This frightening scenario can only be thwarted if Thailand getssolid, independent state institutions that can handle a crisis like thisone and bridge the gap between various elites as well as differentparts of the country and society's rich and poor.


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Bertil Linter, a journalist and author based in Thailand, is anassociate fellow at the Asia Society.

Source: theage.com.au

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Comments

4 comments so far

The more complex analyses you've provided is due, however to theextent that this conflict is a battle for relative political powerbetween two main groups (or oligarchs), with serious socio-economic consequences, this is very much a class war. And the

nouveau-riche elite you talk about are the former rural poor, whomanaged to appropriate this wealth via severe social family andsocial dislocation. That is by having to send their sons anddaughters to bangkok to work in manufacturing and service sectorsafter the macroeconomic reforms of the late 40's coincided with thecultural mandates of the 60's ($$ is the highest virtue) to have theeffect of rapidly reducing the price of agricultural commodities (ricemainly) for export. Farmers in the north have, since the 1960s,derived an increasing portion of the income from remittances sentby siblings labouring in bangkok for thailand's attempt at rapidindustrialisation. The social costs this has come at are immense,

particularly for the now fractured communities of the north andnorth-east. Hence Bertil, if you take a more broader approach toyour analysis of this issue, beyond surface economic indicators toinclude the social and cultural costs of Thailand's modernisationproject, you will realise this is very much a "class war" indeed.

Bulkman | Sydney - June 08, 2010, 9:10AM

I am so pleased to finally see a western journalist get it accurately.Most of the coverage I saw saw during the protests was very

ordinary and very lazy and filled with inaccuracies. Thaksin did
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achieve some good things with his populist policies but the bad faroutweighed the good.

Trev| Thailand - June 08, 2010, 10:34AM

I remember hearing as address by one of the Thai aristocracy inMelbourne in about 2000 on the ways they were trying to reducethe birth rate in rural Thailand: the gift of an animal every year (apig usually) to the woman provided she did not become pregnant.For the males, they distributed condoms. However, these weredesigned for much bigger American males and came off. So, as thestory goes, in conjunction with a Bangkok university, one of thosehouses of pleasure common in Bangkok helped to determine thevital statistics of the typical Thai male when he was 'at the salute' -and thus condoms for the Thais came into being.

The humour aside, the stratification of Thia society was obvious,irrespective of whether this last episode was a class struggle or not.

onthewallaby- June 08, 2010, 11:58AM

Bulkman's interpretation is correct.

Yes the poor's aspirations for representation were harnessed by theself interested but the executive governments of "liberal" Europeansand Americans are more interested in maintaining the westernclient state status and are using this narrative to rally support

behind those that would impose themselves upon the Thai peopleagainst all the fundamental principals of western constitutionalvalue systems. The Thais have known of this threat for years andleading businessmen have taken years out to try to redraft theconstitution in various attempts to buttrose elite crony rule.

Those like Trev above, are likely sad to see the visual evidence ofthe the damage to the urban trickle down economy and itsbeneficiaries being hurt, but they don't give sufficient weight to thelost opportunities for the aspirational poor surrendered to a clientstate that seeks to deny them that right through lack of rural

infrastructure, education and the opportunity to rise in statusthrough their own endeavours. Really Trev is saying they don'tdeserve the vote. In Iran an undemocratic minority is supported, in

Thailand an undemocratic minority is supported. This is a story thatcan come home to any of us if we don't defend universal democraticvalues.

The evidence of resurgent repressive crony estates doesn't just playout beyond western borders. Obama's latest speech has announcedthat his intelligence agencies are refocusing to prioritise threats at

home - and the greatest threat for western crony captured estates isthat coming from a constitutionalist or from something akin to a tea


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party movement. Another "patriot" like McVeigh is more on his mindthan an Al Qaeda operative.

ciao - June 08, 2010, 12:26PM

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This should have come as no surprise: anyone who had visited RedShirt rallies would have been struck by the language used. Although"democracy" was a catchphrase, the rest of the message was one ofintolerance and even hatred of anyone who did not agree with theprotesters, often peppered with obscenities. And there were alwaysarmed men around, dressed in black fatigues.

It should also not be forgotten that the movement was launched onMarch 12 two weeks after Thai courts had seized $1.4 billion ofassets held in Thai banks of the family of Thaksin Shinawatra, theformer prime minister who was ousted in 2006 and is wanted formultiple counts of corruption. But he must have had significantamounts of money saved elsewhere, because a local Red Shirtleader in Thailand's rural north-east told German press agency DPAon May 23: "Thaksin spent hundreds of millions of baht to sponsor

the protest." Apart from funding from Thaksin, now in exile in Dubai,the Red Shirts are believed to have also received financial backingfrom other extremely wealthy families allied with him.

And although tens of thousands of people from impoverished partsof the north-east were mobilised to take part on the protests, it issignificant that there is not a single representative of disadvantagedsections of society in the UDD leadership. The main leader, JatupornPromphan, served as secretary in the ministry of natural resourcesand environment in the Thaksin government and, in 2003, he andother officials ordered more than 1000 police to retake a large tract

of land in the south, which had been taken over by poor farmers.They accused the government of leasing the land to big palm oil
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/thai-turmoil-was-no-class-war-20100607-xped.html#commentRegister%23commentRegisterhttp://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/thai-turmoil-was-no-class-war-20100607-xped.html#commentForm%23commentFormhttp://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/thai-turmoil-was-no-class-war-20100607-xped.html#commentRegister%23commentRegisterhttp://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/thai-turmoil-was-no-class-war-20100607-xped.html#commentForm%23commentForm


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producers instead of redistributing it to the farmers. Jatuporn thendefended the police action, saying the protesters were "armed" and"broke the law". During his years in power, Thaksin himself tried tostifle the media, silence critics of his regime and launched avicious "war on drugs", in which 2000 people were killed in

extrajudicial executions.

The clash in Thailand should be described as a clash between twooligarchies. On one side, the traditional elite consisting of the oldSino-Thai plutocracy that for years have enjoyed a symbiotic andmutually beneficial relationship with the military, bureaucracy andmonarchy and the new nouveau-riche elite that began to emergeduring the Vietnam War era, when the economy took off andculminated in the boom of the 1980s. Lacking the politicalconnections of the old elite, Thaksin and his business associatesbuilt up their own power base through a string of populist policies,which won many admirers in certain parts of the country. However,the political confusion among many of the Red Shirt followers isdemonstrated in a UDD Chiang Mai cafe: on the wall hang side byside portraits of Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Che Guevara and Thaksin.

Significantly, however, the Red Shirt movement has remained alargely regional phenomenon, mainly in the northeast. UDDinfluence in the central plains is considerably weaker and virtuallynon-existent in the south. In those parts of the country

strongholds of Thaksin's sworn enemies, the Yellow Shirts thereare also many poor and disadvantaged people.

Rather than being the "class war" that the UDD likes to talk about,and the Western media seemed to believe it is, it is a conflictbetween old and new money, which is also pitting poor as well asrich in different parts of the country against each other. This divideis a serious problem, which any Thai government and seriouspolitical force would have to address and not take advantage offor their own respective political agendas.

Whatever the outcome of the present crisis, the future of Thaidemocracy does not look good, nor does the prospect of nationalreconciliation. In fact, a country that only a few years ago was seenas a pillar of economic and political stability risks becoming a failedstate. This frightening scenario can only be thwarted if Thailand getssolid, independent state institutions that can handle a crisis like thisone and bridge the gap between various elites as well as differentparts of the country and society's rich and poor.

Bertil Linter, a journalist and author based in Thailand, is an

associate fellow at the Asia Society.


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