Thailand's middle classes against democracy

 

Thailand's middle classes lead unlikely protest - against democracy

 

As the crowds of angry demonstrators beseiged the parliament, it looked as if a classic people's revolution was underway.

 

By Thomas Bell in Bangkok 

Last Updated: 7:38AM BST 12 Oct 2008

 

With the scent of police teargas in his nostrils and screams of protest ringing in his ears, Thailand's embattled prime minister Somchai Wongsawat fled the building, vaulted over a fence and clambered into a waiting helicopter to escape the crowds who had besieged all four exits.

 

Yet while it might have evoked memories of the fall of Saigon in 1975, last week's violent protest in Bangkok was not the dawn of a new order, but an attempt to restore an old one. Welcome to the Yellow Revolution - where the chosen hue represents the colours of the Thai king, Bhumibol Adulyadej, and where the clamor is for less democracy, not more.

 

"We cannot accept this robber government, we want to protect this nation and royalty. This government is cheating everything from this land, and they want to destroy the monarchy," said Praek, a computer technician stood among the sea of yellow-clad demonstrators outside the parliament.

 

"We want a new politics, with some leaders appointed, and some from the people, because these politicians buy the vote."

 

King Bhumibol is revered by Thais as a semi-divine figure who, during 62 years on the throne, has transformed his country from a rural backwater to a prosperous land of sky-scrapers, sky-trains and shopping malls. His royal highness's portrait appears all over the country, often covering the side of buildings many storeys high.

 

But while Thais have always revered him as unifying figure who is above everyday politics, successive elected leaders have enjoyed less respect - the country has suffered 18 coups since 1932. Just such a fate, it is feared, may now beckon for Mr Somchai, whose People Power Party has continued to foment a bitter urban-rural divide among the country's 63 million citizens first created by his brother-in-law and ideological predecessor, Thaksin Shinawatra.

 

Mr Thaksin, a billionaire businessman, effectively redraw the Asian nation's political map by aggressively courting the countryside vote, building up an unassailable lead among by offering cheap healthcare and loans for economic development.

 

But while such tactics won landslide votes among poor farmers in the paddy fields, they proved less popular with the educated urban elite of Bangkok, who resented the toll that such largesse takes on their tax contributions.

 

Others among the capital's middle class were appalled by what they saw as Thaksin's corruption and use of government power to promote his business interests, which led to him being deposed in a military coup in 2006.

 

He currently lives in Britain, where he was until last month the owner of Manchester City FC, but is widely held to be using Mr Somchai's government to continue his policies.

 

The demonstrators' problem is that the government's support among the rural poor gives it a virtually unassailable majority - hence its opponents' blunt rebuff of democratic principles. They argue that rural Thais are too uneducated to elect a parliament directly, and that it should be done largely by appointment instead.

 

"Many farmers, they don't know politics and they don't understand," said Tamesak, 53, a factory worker stood among the crowds last week outside parliament, where yellow T- shirts with the slogan "We love the king" are on sale. "We don't want a corrupt government," he added.

 

"Many people hate us, but that's only because the government lies on television," added another demonstrator, a 27-year-old hip hop DJ who had come down with his mother to join the protests. "They've just been given the wrong information."

 

Not everybody in Thailand, though, shares the educated elite's opinion that it alone knows what is best for the future of the country.

 

"They are not opposed just to individuals any more. They are opposed to the entire system of one man, one vote," said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political scientist at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University said. "That's the bottom line. It's a sophisticated, protracted power grab."

 

Critics also say that the movement is little more than a mouthpiece for establishment interests, whose traditional domineering role in Thai politics has done little to nurture an effective party system. They claim that the People’s Alliance for Democracy, or PAD, as the Yellow Revolution is officially known, also has support from the monarchy and its traditional allies in the civil service and military.

 

"Chief among these opponents (to the government) were the bureaucrats, the military and the monarchy – a troika that has called the shots in Thailand for decades," said Mr Thitinan.

While the PAD is now openly trying to persuade the army to stage what would be Thailand's 19th coup against the prime minister, Mr Somchai has vowed to stay on in government, despite being forced to run the country from a makeshift office in the VIP lounge of a disused airport.

 

"He will continue to run the country as he has a mandate from the people because the government is not convinced that either House dissolution or resignation will solve the crisis," his spokesman, Natthawut Saikua, said.

 

"These two scenarios would not stop PAD from protesting as PAD's true objective is to overthrow the democratically elected government and replace it with the government they want."

 

All the same, Thailand's institutions appear ambivalent about the protest. On Friday, a court threw out treason charges against the leaders of last week's disturbances, in which two protesters were killed and more than 400 people injured, including 20 policemen.

 

It said the grounds for the charges were "too vague". The leaders were charged with the less serious offences of illegal assembly and inciting unrest and then, bizarrely, bailed – even as they vowed to continue committing the alleged crimes.

 

The government has asked the army for support, only for army chief General Anupong Paochinda to insist his forces would remain "neutral". When trucks of unarmed soldiers drove through Bangkok's debris strewn streets on Tuesday night the protesters cheered them on.

 

For all the current machinations, however, the longer-term question is what will happen when King Bhumibol is gone. Despite his officially non-political role, he has, in his own words, been "in the middle, and working in every field".

 

In 1973 and in 1992 he intervened when military regimes opened fire on unarmed protesters to stop the slaughter and restore democracy. In 2006 he quickly endorsed the coup that toppled Mr Thaksin.

 

Thailand's laws, however inhibit virtually all public debate on the subject. Thais will not discuss who among his children might be best for the job, or what role they should play, for fear of running foul of wide-ranging statues which can lead to 20 years in jail for "insulting" the monarchy.

 

However, a recent commentary by Dr Thitinan in the lastest edition of American scholarly quarterly Journal of Democracy, hints at the troubles that may lie ahead. "King Bhumibol's unsurpassed moral authority has been Thailand's sheet anchor, the mainstay of national stability and continuity," he observed. "Once he is gone, the country will be in uncharted waters.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/thailand/3178731/Thailands-middle-classes-lead-unlikely-protest---against-democracy.html